The IRE office will be closed from December 25th to January 5th.
Posts Tagged ‘Behind the Story’
Behind 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 MoreBehind the Story: Colorado’s untested rape kits
Keli Rabon and KMGH Denver purchased their own rape kit over the internet to help understand the different elements of the process. Credit: KMGH Denver In November, a KMGH Denver investigation revealed that Colorado police departments had failed to test hundreds of rape kits — 44 percent of the 1,064 kits that Denver Police have…
Read MoreBehind the Story: A source comes forward in the backlog of veterans’ disability
In April, Jamie Fox contacted reporter Aaron Glantz after losing her job at the Department of Veterans Affairs’ Oakland office in 2008. Credit: Michael Short/Center for Investigative Reporting. Aaron Glantz of the Center for Investigative Reporting was reporting on delays in veterans’ disability claims in Oakland, Calif. when a reader reached out to him. Jamie…
Read MoreBehind the Story: The reality of Oklahoma’s Quality Jobs Program
Last month, the Oklahoma Impact Team for KWTV News 9 in Oklahoma City and KOTV News on 6 in Tulsa, Okla., examined the much-touted Oklahoma Quality Jobs Program to see if it works as intended or amounts to a corporate giveaway. They found that three-quarters of a billion dollars in tax rebates have been awarded…
Read MoreBehind the Story: The big business of ‘green’ buildings and LEED certification
Can a 50-story Las Vegas hotel be environmentally-friendly? This is the question USA Today reporter Tom Frank sought to answer when he began reporting on the increase in construction of so-called environmentally friendly buildings. Through his investigation, Frank found that green commercial construction has increased. Non-profits are behind the movement, but few have assessed the…
Read MoreBehind the Story: Investigating lost war records
In 2011, reporter Peter Sleeth was working on a historical account of a battle he had witnessed during his time as an embedded reporter in Iraq. His work on the piece stalled while researching Sgt. Jacob Butler, a soldier who had died in battle at As Samawah, Iraq in 2003. No one in the Army…
Read MoreBehind the Story: An information gap in child abuse cases
There were signs of problems before 15-year-old Jeanette Maples died of starvation and abuse in Oregon in December 2009. Although child services had been involved in the case, residents were shocked to find that Maples death had not been prevented. Oregonian reporter Michelle Cole wanted to know what, if anything, could have been done to…
Read MoreBehind The Story: Comparing databases on bullying
Students head to lunch at Woodrow Wilson Middle School in Council Bluffs. The school district reported 58 alleged incidents to the state in five years, arguably a low rate for an urban district of 9,000 students. David Purdy/The Register In reporting, timing is everything. For Des Moines Register reporter Kyle Munson, the topic of bullying in…
Read MoreBehind The Story: Investigating credit report errors
Courtesy of The Columbus Dispatch When Jill Riepenhoff and Mike Wagner began researching credit report errors in 2010, virtually everyone they spoke with knew someone who had been affected. Although the industry lacks an official outlet for consumers to dispute credit claims, the reporters’ nationwide FOIA requests returned nearly 28,000 files from the Federal Trade…
Read MoreBehind The Story: Analyzing and mapping salary data for small-town mayors
In August, reporter Kate Martin of the Skagit Valley Herald analyzed salary data for mayors across Washington state and ended up with a story about mayors from small towns in her coverage area — Mount Vernon and Anacortes — who had salaries on par with mayors from cities several times larger. In reporting the story,…
Read More