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NY Times executive editor stresses importance of investigative reporting

By Pamela Cyran @CyranStar See video of Abramson’s entire speech From The Boston Globe: New York Times editor chides White House New York Times executive editor Jill Abramson’s keynote address during the IRE Awards Luncheon stressed the importance of investigative reporting and warned of a crack down against sources who leak information.  Abramson reminded us that…

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Tracking influence through campaign contributions, other data

By Chelsea Sheasley@csheasley  What’s the best way to follow the money, especially in an election year? Joe Stephens, The Washington Post, Duff Wilson, Reuters, and Angie Moreschi, a former investigative reporter and now director of communications at James Hoyer Law Firm, shared the databases and documents that helped them in their latest investigations during their panel, Paying…

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Ghost Factories: Behind the Story and Interactive

By Anthony DeBarros USA TODAY In April, after USA TODAY published its Ghost Factories investigation into forgotten lead smelters, we heard from several people who wanted to know more about how the project came together — particularly the online package that included details on more than 230 of the former factories. The following is an…

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Behind the Story: Firefighters disabling the city’s budget

Photo credit:Elie Gardner/Post-Dispatch Social media can be an individual’s nightmare and a reporter’s goldmine. In “Disability pensions allow some firefighters to collect while working elsewhere,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch’s reporters used an array of investigative tools to publicize a mismanaged disability pension system that is eating away the city’s funds. But even when firefighters are capable…

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Finding out what public figures don’t want you to know

By Jon McClure@JonRMcClure Sex sells. But it sometimes buys, too. Online.  As described in the panel “Hidden databases: Mining the private parts of public officials,” the trick is learning how to uncover the online footprint of public figures and track the nefarious deeds they might do under the cover of online alter-egos. Russ Ptacek of…

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The story behind failing government monopolies

By Jon McClure @JonRMcClure Paul Overberg of USA Today and Brad Guilmino of HNTB Corporation discussed the potential stories coming from the decline of two long-monopolized government services: road maintenance and mail delivery. Though they may seem like monolithic enterprises, in actuality there are lots of competing stakeholders. In many cases, these systems represent microcosms of dysfunction…

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