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Upcoming Statistics Boot Camp – November 12-14, 2010
Return to your newsroom ready to craft statistics into stories that count! This workshop is aimed at strengthening the skills of reporters who already are familiar with basic computer-assisted reporting and want to add statistical analysis to their toolkits. Stats camp introduces attendees to SPSS, one of the most commonly used statistical analysis programs. Taught…
Read MoreCollateralized debt obligations fueled financial crisis
A report by ProPublica’s Jake Bernstein and Jesse Eisinger “shows for the first time the extent to which banks — primarily Merrill Lynch, but also Citigroup, UBS and others — bought their own products and cranked up an assembly line that otherwise should have flagged.” These banks dealt in collateralized debt obligations, or CDOs. A…
Read MoreNightclubs linked to sex trafficking continue to flourish
An investigation by The Palm Beach Post found that operators of nightclubs linked to sex trafficking by the FBI not only still are in business in Palm Beach County — they are expanding. The Post also found one of the clubs was issued a Florida liquor license only because regulators failed to identify its operator…
Read MoreAudio from 2010 IRE Conference now available to members
Audio from the 2010 IRE Conference (Las Vegas, Nev.) is now available for members to stream online. A DVD of the audio is available to order from the Resource Center. Conference attendees can obtain a copy for $5 (to cover shipping/handling). Additional copies can be ordered for $20 each. Members who did not attend the…
Read MoreCorrosion could threaten structure of Gateway Arch
A report in The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reveals that the iconic stainless steel Gateway Arch is corroding. Reporter Nick Pistor reviewed engineering documents, which indicated corrosion, some of it feared aggressive, and severe discoloration of the stainless steel skin have long been present. The National Park Service allowed the newspaper to inspect a corrosion investigative…
Read MoreBe active with records requests
By Doug Haddix, IRE training director Getting public records often takes far more effort than filing a written request and simply waiting for the juicy documents to arrive. “It’s reporting, not requesting,” says Shawn McIntosh, public editor of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. The best reporters realize that a written public-records request usually is just one step…
Read MoreSmall Business Administration failed hurricane victims in Gulf
The Associated Press investigated how the Small Business Administration responded to the hurricanes of 2005, and the impact on the Gulf Coast five year later. The yearlong investigation by Mitch Weiss, Michael Kunzelman, Holbrook Mohr and Cain Burdeau found that loan officers rejected loans they should have approved, deleted loan applications for no valid reason,…
Read MorePatients in Peril series
From a violent patient allowed to roam free to a pregnancy case that violated policy at every turn and nurses who falsified documents to cover their mistakes, a Milwaukee Journal Sentinel investigation exposed a raft of problems at the Milwaukee County Mental Health Complex, home to the county’s most vulnerable residents. Reporters Meg Kissinger and…
Read MoreThai Workers Victims of Human Trafficking In Utah
Lee Davidson reported how Thai workers recruited to work on Utah pig and chicken farms were victims of human trafficking. Read “A Story of Modern Slavery in Utah.”
Read MoreInvestigateWest:Cruise Ships Dump Waste To Dodge Laws
An InvestigateWest report on the billion dollar cruise ship industry in the Washington-Alaska cruise market found that most ships avoid tougher state regulations and dump their waste in Canadian waters between the two states, despite state efforts to adopt stricter standards for sewage and wastewater discharge.
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