IRE News
Investigative Reporters & Editors salutes Linsdey Hobbs of Otterbein University in Ohio, recipient of the eighth annual Betty Gage Holland Award recognizing excellence in college journalism. Hobbs and the student newspaper at Otterbein, The Tan & Cardinal, were honored for their continued coverage of increased secrecy surrounding campus crime in 2012. After Otterbein’s campus security…
Melody Petersen of The Orange County Register has two pieces of advice to offer reporters: stay patient and follow the money trail. Petersen investigated school bonds in Orange County after realizing schools were opting for expensive agreements that would push costs onto taxpayers decades after the initial bond was distributed. She found that school districts…
In 2012 IRE added a new fellowship in remembrance of longtime IRE member and supporter David Dietz. The fellowship honors his memory and legacy by helping a journalist who has demonstrated an interest in financial investigative journalism and who has fewer than 10 years professional experience. This fellowship covers IRE conference registration fees, provides $750 in…
In the wake of the budget reforms proposed by Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker in 2011, known as Wisconsin Act 10, Eric Litke of the Gannett Wisconsin Media Investigative Team felt the public debate over salary was all rhetoric with little factual backing. In February, Litke tried to change the public dialog by publishing the salary data…
Now that it’s just warm enough to get in a boat, the NICAR database library has updated the Coast Guard’s U.S. Recreational Boat Accident Database. WHAT’S IN IT?The updated data has accident reports from 1995 through 2011. Accidents involving vessel damage of more than $2,000 or disappearance of a person under circumstances that indicate death…
InsideClimate News became the third, and smallest, web-based organization to win a Pulitzer Prize, placing first on Monday in National Reporting for “The Dilbit Disaster: Inside the Biggest Oil Spill You’ve Never Heard Of.” Months ago, reporter Lisa Song brought a database of pipeline spills to and IRE/NICAR boot camp and began learning to work…
The Sun Sentinel won the 2013 Pulitzer Prize for Public Service on Monday for its “well documented investigation of off-duty police officers who recklessly speed and endanger the lives of citizens, leading to disciplinary action and other steps to curtail a deadly hazard.” Investigative Reporter Sally Kestin and Database Editor John Maines wrote a piece…