Posts Tagged ‘federal government’
CAR through the ages
There’s been talk of a couple books IRE put out back in the early 90’s titled 101 (and later 100) Computer-assisted reporting stories. Sadly, there’s only one copy of each here at the home office, both of which we’d like to keep for our archives. However, all of the story questionnaires that are featured in…
Read MoreTransparency Watch: What journalists need to know about FOIAonline
Federal agencies have launched FOIAonline, a tool that journalists can use to file, track and appeal requests for documents and data under the U.S. Freedom of Information Act. Here’s what you need to know about the service, which was announced just last week. Not all federal agencies are participating. Here’s who’s on board: Department of Commerce,…
Read MoreTransparency Watch: FOIA requests getting outsourced
In a follow-up to its story on the failure’s of Obama administration agencies to respond to Freedom of Information Act requests, Bloomberg News reports that at least 25 percent of FOIA requests are outsourced to contractors. “Since fiscal 2009, the year President Barack Obama took office, spending on FOIA-related contracts has jumped about 40 percent, leaving transparency advocates wondering…
Read MoreBloomberg reporters find FOIA failures in Obama administration
Transparency Watch is an occasional series from IRE tracking the fight for open records. If you have a story about a quest for public records you’d like to share, email us at web@ire.org. By Danielle Ivory, Bloomberg President Barack Obama on his first full day in office ordered federal officials to “usher in a new era of open…
Read MoreHealth care reporting: AHCJ announces yearlong fellowship, and IRE resources to help coverage
Working on a project about health care systems? About to start one? Here are some resources to help: The Association of Health Care Journalists is offering Reporting Fellowships on Health Care Performance, a yearlong program that funds reporting on health care systems in the United States. The program is designed for mid-career journalists, who continue their…
Read MoreSeveral IRE Members win Pulitzers for investigative work
Congratulations to several IRE members who won Pulitzer Prizes today. Members Michael J. Berens and Ken Armstrong of The Seattle Times were awarded the Pulitzer for Investigative Reporting for their project, “Methadone and the Politics of Pain.”-an investigation that exposed Washington State’s push of the cheaper painkiller methadone. Berens and Armstrong were also awarded the…
Read MoreNational: Home in on top donors, bundlers, super PACs
By Viveca Novak Center for Responsive Politics The 2012 election promises to be the most expensive on record. One important way in which it differs from the 2008 contest: the presence of more outside groups, spending much more money, thanks to the Supreme Court’s opinion in Citizens United v. FEC in 2010 and subsequent legal…
Read MoreLearning to liberate data
By Anna Boiko-Weyrauch@AnnaBoikoW Syntax error. What does this bit of code do? Syntax error. Let’s go back to the source. Syntax error. Maybe try this? After two hours of educated guesses, trial, error and some friendly help, Pam Dempsey, of cu-citizenaccess.org, and I had finally scraped our first bit of text: the word “2011” from a page of…
Read MoreExcel on steroids: NodeXL and PowerPivot
By Hilary Niles@nilesmedia Excel has two free, plug-ins for Windows users that can dramatically help reporters: NodeXL and PowerPivot. (Sorry Mac devotees, nothing for us.) Tom Torok, CAR editor of The New York Times, and Peter Aldhous, New Scientist’s San Francisco Bureau Chief demoed the two plugins at the 2012 CAR Conference. NodeXL is a network analysis tool compatible…
Read MoreDay one addendum
Changes to the printed program can be downloaded here. Printed copies are available at registration. The conference web pages will be updated to note any schedule changes, as well as the confernece blog.
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