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Posts Tagged ‘FOIA’
Behind the Story: The benefits of sticking with a story
Photo credit:WUSA 9 It’s hard to keep saying everything is fine when documents prove otherwise. Although the General Services Administration continually denied knowledge of a “death list,” investigative reporter Russ Ptacek discovered the list while working for Kansas City’s KSHB-TV. He continued the investigation at WUSA 9, in Washington, D.C. A GSA employee created the “death list” to…
Read MoreHow to get data from government agencies for any beat
By Chelsea Sheasley@csheasley You want to submit a public records request. Where do you start? How do you ask? What if you’re denied? Mike Donoghue, forty-year veteran of The Burlington Free Press, and Ellen Gabler of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel shared their tips and experiences during “The Ask: Requesting and Negotiating for Data.” Donoghue’s top…
Read MoreBehind the Story: Disproportionate lending by race discovered with data
Photo credit:Joanne Lawton/Washington Business Journal It’s one thing to say African American entrepreneurs are recovering from the economic downturn slower than white entrepreneurs, it’s another to explain why. That’s what Washington Business Journal reporter Bryant Switzky did using a database from the Small Business Administration and other datasets related to the Community Reinvestment Act. “The…
Read MoreBehind the Story: Multiple government websites help journalists get around FOIA requests
Not having access to the list of firms disqualified from the Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business program didn’t stop Dayton Daily News reporters from determining which companies were debarred from government contracts or from identifying some of the companies under investigation or disqualified from the program. The article, “’Rent-a-vet’ scam proves costly to taxpayers, businesses,” gives…
Read MoreBehind the Story: Investigating questionable police work when documents are redacted
One of the redacted documents California Watch received. In California Watch’s series Broken Shield, Ryan Gabrielson uncovered abuse and unknown injury cases at developmental centers that weren’t reported to the local police or district attorneys’ offices. Despite a number of condemning reports and a decreasing patient population, the number of abuse and unknown injury cases…
Read MoreGetting around PIOs with Web Inspector
By Mayra Cruz @MayraC27 One way to get around bureaucratic hassles is to get the to the data directly by scraping it off the Web. The fight for public records can sometimes be avoided by taking the data directly from websites, Dan Nguyen of ProPublica said. On Saturday, Nguyen led a hands-on class of “Web…
Read MoreFighting for open records in Spain
By Hilary Niles @nilesmedia Spain is an “information black hole,” journalist Mar Cabra said during the Against All -Spanish- Odds. She and software developer David Cabo are taking suggestions on how to fix that. Among the European countries with a population more than 1 million, Cabra said, Spain is the only one not to have…
Read MoreBehind the Story: Doctors caught cheating on the way to the top
Memorizing test questions and passing them on to future test takers is considered cheating by most people. However, for many radiologists, attempting to become board certified, it is simply a technique used to study. CNN’s “Exclusive: Doctors cheated on exams” takes a close look: “From my understanding, I would say nationwide from my friends…
Read MoreBehind the Story: 10 years in, safety concerns still plague nuclear waste site
In “Problems plague cleanup at Hanford nuclear waste site,” USA Today’s Peter Eisler takes on 56 million gallons of radioactive waste and finds he isn’t the only one who has a few things to learn. After 10 years of developing the “first-of-its-kind” nuclear waste treatment plant, the Department of Energy and its contractors still don’t…
Read MoreBehind the Story: Tracking problem police officers in Florida
It was an unbelievable record for anyone, let alone a public employee. The Sarasota Herald-Tribune reported that one Opa-Locka, Fla., officer had been: “Fired five times and arrested three, he was charged with stealing a car, trying to board an airplane with a loaded gun and driving with a suspended license.…(He) split a man’s lip…
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