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Eight newsrooms awarded grants for data projects
IRE is pleased to announce that eight newsrooms will be awarded grants thanks to the $50,000 donation from Google Ideas. The grants will support data-driven investigations by providing journalists with access to data, new tools and necessary training. The fund’s two broad priorities were to support specific investigative projects and to better equip news organizations…
Read MoreIowa hospital sends $180,000 in food waste to landfill
University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics threw away 355,000 servings of food worth $181,600 last year, according to The Gazette in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. The hospital prepared roughly 3 million total servings of food in 2012, not counting patient meals. The Gazette found that the hospital’s dining room serving doctors and nurses from operating rooms threw away…
Read MoreBehind the Story: Questionable border patrol shootings
In December, Tim Steller, a reporter and now columnist for the Arizona Daily Star, reported on the increasing number of shootings occurring between Border Patrol and illegal immigrants along the U.S.-Mexico border. The victims in some cases appear to have been unarmed. This fact and the lack of transparency in the investigations has cast doubt…
Read MoreATF storefront sting led to thousands of dollars stolen and a machine gun on the streets
In an attempt to bust criminal operations in Milwaukee by purchasing drugs and guns from felons the ATF set up a storefront sting. However, “the effort to date has not snared any major dealers or taken down a gang. Instead, it resulted in a string of mistakes and failures, including an ATF military-style machine gun…
Read MoreOne-on-One Mentoring available at CAR Conference
IRE’s Computer-Assisted Reporting Conference offers an opportunity for in-depth, one-on-one coaching on data-driven investigative reporting techniques, news applications and tools. These private sessions allow attendees to seek advice on challenging projects or followup ideas and professional development. These sessions are not for job seekers; they are designed for teaching and sharing information. You must have…
Read MoreMoney trail for Sandy begins as Congress approves $51 billion in disaster aid
On Monday Congress approved $51 billion in disaster aid for victims of Hurricane Sandy, three months after the storm that killed more than 130 people and caused billions in damage to the Atlantic coast. Follow the money with IRE’s coverage page, Hurricane Sandy: Covering the Aftermath The spending was heavily debated and at a time sparked bipartisan…
Read MoreAnother free pass for Ivan the Incorrigible
“This long-running spree of crime has led US immigration officials to try, at least three times in the past 12 years, to detain and deport Vaclavik. But each time he has challenged the effort with a lawsuit — and each time immigration has backed off and set him free,” according to The Boston Globe’s story.
Read MoreBehind the Story: Post-Dispatch mapping finds ‘hot spots’ of pedestrian railroad deaths
Photo courtesy of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Photo courtesy of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. In December, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch released Death on the Rails, a special report on the surprising number of pedestrian deaths that have occurred on railways. Reporter Todd Frankel explains how he cross-referenced databases and resources to build his own map…
Read More“Star” El Diario reporter’s murder case remains unsolved
“Choco was the first journalist to fall victim to the turf war between the Juarez and Sinaloa cartels that engulfed the state of Chihuahua from 2007 to 2011. He was not the last. In July, the special prosecutor for crimes against journalists in Mexico testified that 67 journalists had been killed in that country since 2006.…
Read MoreDeadspin reporting of Manti Te’o girlfriend hoax highlights need for backgrounding story subjects
The ability to background a person is an essential tool for journalists regardless of beat, as shown by news of Lennay Kekua, the deceased girlfriend of Notre Dame linebacker Manti Te’o who never existed but became one of the prominent storylines in sports this year. The fact that Kekua was a complete fabrication is a…
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