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Coming 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 MoreNavy base killer given security access despite crimes
The Virginian-Pilot reports that investigators are trying to figure out how Jeffrey Tyrone Savage, a 35-year-old truck driver with a violent criminal record, accessed the Navy’s largest base. Savage Monday night climbed aboard the guided missile destroyer Mahan, disarmed a guard and used the weapon to kill a sailor who tried to intervene. According to…
Read MoreDetroit landlords cash in on rent aid, ignore tax bills
A Detroit News investigation found about 1 in 4 Detroit landlords paid to rent to poor families through the state’s Housing Choice Voucher program collectively owe the city at least $5 million in back taxes and probably much more. Federal and state guidelines for the rental assistance — known as Section 8 — don’t require…
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 MoreGovernment computer glitch left thousands in N.C. without food stamps
Thousands of people went without food stamps in North Carolina last year after government computers across the state crashed, according to the Huffington Post. According to the report: “The food stamp delays can be traced to troubles with a computer system designed by Accenture, one of the world’s largest consulting firms. The company is among…
Read MoreStep inside the NICAR14 photo booth
Video by Travis Hartman. Learn more about his work at pleaseshootyourself.com.
Read MoreOfficials were warned about dangers of Wash. mudslide area
Snohomish County officials in a 2010 report were warned that neighborhoods along the Stillaguamish River were ranked “as one of the highest risk areas for deadly and destructive landslides,” according to The Seattle Times. The document contradicts claims from an emergency-management official that the area “was considered very safe” and that the slide “came out of nowhere.”…
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 MoreMore Marines from Calif. base have died back home than in the war-torn Middle East
Since 2007, 28 Marines from the base in Twentynine Palms in southern San Bernardino County, Calif. have died in off-duty vehicle accidents, a rate higher than at other Marine Corps bases. The Desert Sun examined each of these deaths during a yearlong investigation of non-hostile military fatalities in the desert. The paper analyzed thousands of pages of…
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