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NASA spends millions to fly first and business class with little oversight
NASA officials say they’re working to resolve “widespread” errors in travel disclosures dating back to at least 2009, according to a report from Scripps News. Problems range from lax oversight – some NASA travelers booked upgrades costing thousands of dollars – to missing or error-riddled reports. The federal agency is required each year to disclose all upgraded…
Read MoreBehind the Story: How the Los Angeles Times turned an anonymous tip into a front-page story
Paige St. John No such records exist. That’s the message Paige St. John received when she requested audit records on the Los Angeles County Probation Department’s GPS monitoring program. Despite the rocky start, the Los Angeles Times reporter went on to break the story about trivial alerts from GPS monitors overwhelming probation officers in LA…
Read More2014 NICAR conference highlights data journalism’s past, present and future
“When I first attended the annual conference of the National Institute for Computer-Assisted Reporting (NICAR) in 2012, it was as a speaker,” writes Alexander Howard, a Tow Fellow at Columbia Journalism School’s center for digital journalism innovation. “I was there to give a short talk about new data coming from the open governent movement. While it went well,…
Read MoreFugitives Next Door: Police won’t chase 186,000 felony suspects
Across the United States, police and prosecutors are allowing tens of thousands of wanted felons — including more than 3,300 people accused of sexual assaults, robberies and homicides — to escape justice merely by crossing a state border, a USA TODAY investigation found. Those decisions, almost always made in secret, permit fugitives to go free…
Read MoreIRE members win awards for health care reporting
Several IRE members were among the winners of the 2013 Awards for Excellence in Health Care Journalism. The Association of Health Care Journalists received more than 475 entries across 12 categories. Read more about the awards. The following IRE members received recognition: Alison Young and John Hillkirk, USA TODAY, took second place in the Investigative…
Read MorePoorer families bearing brunt of college price hikes
America’s colleges and universities are quietly shifting the burden of tuition increases onto low-income students, according to The Dallas Morning News and The Hechinger Report. Yet many wealthy families are seeing their costs rise more slowly, or even fall, an analysis of federal data shows. The trend could further widen the gap between the nation’s…
Read MoreIRE to offer Watchdog Workshops in 4 states next month
Get the tools and the tricks of the trade you need to be a better, faster watchdog journalist. Each Watchdog Workshop will include several core sessions designed to improve your ability to quickly find information on the Web, work with key documents and data that will help you add depth to your daily work, and…
Read MoreGovernor Chris Christie cuts private deals and government contracts to his inner circle
The governor has allowed political cronyism to continue and even flourish, rather than stamp it out, with some of his closest confidants enriching themselves through millions of dollars in state contracts, and legal and lobbying fees, an Asbury Park Press review of thousands of pages of campaign, lobbying and contracting documents found.
Read MoreChris Christie cuts private deals and government contracts to his inner circle
The governor has allowed political cronyism to continue and even flourish, rather than stamp it out, with some of his closest confidants enriching themselves through millions of dollars in state contracts, and legal and lobbying fees, an Asbury Park Press review of thousands of pages of campaign, lobbying and contracting documents found.
Read MoreExtra Extra Monday: Hospital ‘trauma’ charges, police and fire overtime, toxic chemical danger zones
Image from Newseum Insult to injury | Tampa Bay Times Trauma patients, who have no choice in where the ambulance takes them, are being charged as much as $33,000 the moment they enter a Florida trauma center. That money doesn’t account for X-rays or treatment; it’s just a cover charge, and thousands of patients have…
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