IRE News
Catch up with some of IRE’s international members
While many of our members work in the United States, hundreds of international journalists contribute to the IRE community. IRE membership stretches from Australia to Argentina. It includes journalists in more than 50 countries, including Pakistan, Kenya, India, Finland and Switzerland. We asked a few of our international members to tell us what they’ve been…
Read MoreLearn how to use genealogy records with IRE’s new webinar
Paul Parker of the Providence Journal walks through how to use online genealogy records and ancestry databases to profile subjects and verify stories in this 20-minute webinar. Learn how to use popular genealogy websites like Ancestry.com as well as lesser-known sites such as cyndislist.com. So how do you use this stuff? Parker explains how he…
Read MoreAnnouncing the 2013 IRE Awards
The winners of the 2013 IRE Awards provided unprecedented insight into the ways in which the government deploys technology in surveillance programs with a shockingly wide net. They used deep sourcing to overcome government roadblocks and uncover atrocities and corruption. They fought and won precedent-setting victories in open records battles to shine light on increasingly…
Read MoreIRE members honored with Peabody Awards
Several members of Investigative Reporters and Editors were named 2013 Peabody Award winners. To learn more about the awards, click here. Sebastian Walker of Al Jazeera America won for his participation in the “courageous investigation into an international health scandal,” which resulted in “Fault Lines: Haiti in a time of Cholera.” Anjali Kamat of…
Read MoreBehind the Story: How USA TODAY pieced together a confidential FBI database to count fugitives who go free
Brad Heath Lamont Pride was a wanted man the day he fatally shot a New York City police officer during a 2011 robbery. Officials had already passed up opportunities to lock up Pride, who was wanted in connection with a North Carolina shooting. And when the fugitive appeared in a Brooklyn court on a drug…
Read MoreComing soon: Learn how to use online genealogy records in your reporting
Photo from “A letter from England,” courtesy of the Providence Journal If you’ve ever struggled to find relatives of a person you’re profiling or verify a source’s story, we’re putting together a webinar that’s sure to help. Paul Parker of the Providence Journal will explain how to use genealogy records as a reporting tool. Using popular…
Read MoreIRE welcomes new Google Journalism Fellow
This summer IRE will welcome Aram Chung, a student at Columbia University in New York, as its Google Journalism Fellow. Chung is working on a dual graduate degree in journalism and computer science. She is focusing on computational journalism, data visualization, news design and social media. Chung has participated in the ProPublica Pair Programming Project,…
Read MoreIRE nomination call for most secretive government agency or individual
The Golden Padlock Award. Photo: Travis Hartman Investigative Reporters and Editors is now welcoming nominations for its second annual Golden Padlock award recognizing the most secretive government agency in the United States. “This award acknowledges government officials across the country who excel in the art of suppressing public information,” said David Cay Johnston, president of…
Read MoreBehind the Story: How the Chicago Sun-Times helped bring a nephew of Mayor Richard M. Daley to justice in a 10-year-old homicide
By Paul Saltzman, Chicago Sun-Times On Jan. 31, 2014, a nephew of former Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter in a death a decade earlier. Richard J. “R.J.” Vanecko admitted doing exactly what an investigation by the Chicago Sun-Times had revealed in early 2011 he did — and what police and…
Read MoreUpdated HAZMAT database available from NICAR
Now current through March 2014, the Hazardous Materials Incident Reports data contains information on unintentional releases of hazardous materials during transportation in air, over water, on highways and on railroads. Available fields include the route, city and state in which the incident occurred, as well as detailed information about where the materials were headed and how they…
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