Investigative Reporters and Editors, Inc. The IRE Journal

A growing political scandal in Ohio that ties an unknown coin dealer to the state's top elected officials has thrust the all too common - but often ignored - "pay-to-play" politics to front pages of the state's newspapers. The overdue attention is reshaping the state's 2006 governor's race and could influence the politics of the 2008 presidential race in Ohio, still considered the bellwether state that determines who occupies the White House. Here, Naymik and Wagner detail how they investigat...

Procurement Database Available

Porter highlights the IRE and NICAR Database Library, which offers one critical tool for journalists to account for the public money - the Federal Procurement Data System databases. Maintained by the US General Services Administration through its own private contractor, the data includes transactions worth more than $2,500.

No Consent

King County had been harvesting the brains of mentally ill people who came through the morgue. In return for sending at least 180 brains to a private, out-of-state research lab, the medical examiner's office collected $1.5 million. Here, Halsne details how King County profits from selling dead people's brain without consent for private research use.

No Justice

During along and decorated police career, John Connor covered up the crimes of pedophile priests, named Robert Thomas. In his role as a diocesan investigator, Connors turned up more than half-dozen cases of priests who crossed the sacred line, abusing children; but he never once took a police report, as required by law, or turned the incidents over the prosecutors, he confessed to the reporters. Instead, he briefed church leaders, who in turn, moved the priests to unsuspecting congregations.

Overcharge

Oklahoma in 2000 followed the lead taken by several other states and began to pursue implementation of a purchase card program that was hailed as a way to cut costs and make purchases easier. However, investigators discovered that the cards are routinely being used for expenses ringing from stays at expensive resorts and hotels to unexplained $183 meals charged by state troopers. Here, Lackmeyer details how they examined the flaws of the state purchase card program.

Military Boon

Federal contract data shows economic boost to locals from private defense contractors. Here, Lorek details how the defense contracting industry in San Antonio evolved locally since the last Gulf War and became one of the US' largest military contractors.

Repeat Problems

The work order for Mar 23 at BP's gigantic refinery complex in Texas City was challenging yet routine: restart a huge hunk of refining equipment known as an isomerization unit after maintenance, known as a "turnaround" in industry lingo. Here, Olsen stresses that what actually happened at the nation's third largest refinery that day seemed straight out of a doomsday fiction novel. In the end, the research showed that even before the March accident, BP had more separate fatal accident than any...

Cover Story

Numbers Game

The School Accountability Reports (SARS) or report cards have been released by the Colorado Department of Education each fall since 2001, and the schools delivered it to parents along with their child's performance on the state assessment tests. However, the pamphlets are also supposed to reveal how many times schoolchildren have been caught with drugs, alcohol and dangerous weapons, as well as many "assaults/fights" happened on campus the previous school year. Moreover, since reporting of vi...

Learning Curve

For years, there had been rumbling that kids with special needs were being "dumped" into New York City's worst high schools. Reporter Beth Fertig decided to see if enrollment numbers might reveal what the parents of these children had long suspected. While their analysis could not detect evidence of international "dumping", it did show that special education students and English learners were disproportionately overrepresented in the city's failing and most violent public high schools. Moreov...

Looking Ahead

Trump presents several critical points about school crime and violence that reporters and editors must understand before they tackle school safety issues. Among other things, federal school crime statistics grossly underestimate school crime and violence because there is no federal mandatory uniform reporting and tracking for crimes that occur at K-12 schools. Moreover, he presents a great tip for investigative reporters to get the bottom of questionable school crime data.

False Data

North Carolina's annual school crime report showed Charlotte had one of the lowest crime rates, however, complaints about ineffective discipline are common. Charlotte Observer reporters find out what crimes and threatening incidents were happening at schools, and they found out similar discrepancies in the number of assaults, weapons and other crimes. Because Observer ran a full-page guide listing each Charlotte school and its number of crimes, arrest and suspensions in the 2003-04 school yea...

Stories From the Ire Resource Center

Investigative stories about schools that are available from the IRE Resource Center, ranging from health issues to construction to crimes, are presented. Among other things, Story No. 17671: New Jersey Monthly's Sheryl Weinstein sheds light on the rise of school violence. The story uncovers a Department of Education report on school crime showing that "violence is more prevalent in urban areas."

From The Ire Offices

Hurricanes Revive Investigative Reporting; Need for Digging Deeper

Books

Immersion Reporting Unmasks Young Offenders

Weinberg reviews Last Chance in Texas: The Redemption of criminal Youth by John Hubner.

Special Report

Story Tools

In preparation for the aftermath of natural disasters like hurricanes, several US governmental databases, regularly updated by the IRE and NICAR Database Library, can add update and perspective to stories. Here, Porter presents several databases that deliver punch and details to natural disaster reporting. Among other things, www.nicar.org/data/sba/sbadis.html Small Business Administration disaster loan database is a big player in assisting the owners and homes and businesses after a declared...

Deluge of Dollars

The wide swath of damage and mistakes involved in Hurricane Katrina and Rita make prime ground for interesting business stories, from used car fraud to nursing home malfeasance. Here, a check of a few business stories, along with some investigative sources from the IRE and NICAR Database Library, that reveal some story ideas for journalists are presented.

Fema Funds

When a disaster strikes close to home, the natural response is to look at how much relief is getting to victims and how fast. Florida is cursed by hurricanes, but many tips listed here can apply to any region of the country that is declared a federal disaster area because of flooding, storms, earthquakes, tornadoes, etc. Among other things, on valuable records, obtain copies from FEMA of the preliminary damage assessments, this will state how much damage local, state and federal officials est...

Coastal Areas

Throughout the year, investigative journalists can serve as watchdogs by looking into a host of factors that contribute to or amplify natural disasters. Investigations into the effects of pollution on coastal areas, rebuilding efforts, and the disappearance of wetlands and barrier islands are just a few possibilities. Here, Chatterjee and Buck provide resources intended as points of entry for those interested in investigating the science of coastlines.

Mapping

Steve Doig, then at the Herald, used a Geographic information systems (GIS) program to map home destruction patterns and then overlaid a wind contour showing wind speeds. Now, in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, journalists are reporting on similar stories using the GIS program. Among others, John Kelly of Florida Today mapped Brevard County census data for Sep 14 report that told readers how tens of thousands of elderly, young and improvished people who lived in flood-proned areas would have d...

On Target

The Times-Picayune's five-part series "Washing Away" that ran in 2002 eerily foretold the events that unfolded in New Orleans in the hours and days following landfall of one of the most catastrophic storms to hit the US. As part of their entry in the 2002 IRE Awards, John McQuaid and Mark Schleifstein detailed how they put together this stunning series. Moreover, to determine the impact of a direct hit to New Orleans, McQuaid and Schleifstein had to persuade scientists to re-conceive how they...