The IRE Resource Center is a major research library containing more than 23,250 investigative stories — both print and broadcast. Add to that more than 3,000 tipsheets from our national conferences on how to cover specific beats or do specific stories and you have a resource that no reporter or editor should be without. These stories and tipsheets are searchable online or by contacting the Resource Center directly (573-882-3364 or rescntr@ire.org) where a researcher can help you pinpoint what you need. Browse or search the tipsheet section of our library below. Logged-in members can view the tipsheets free online:
Search results for "DOE" ...
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Investigating Sports
Wilson lists popular sources and significant documents for reporters on the sports beat. He also suggests visiting www.reporter.org to use the "who is John Doe?" feature. The tipsheet includes reprints of some of Wilson's own sports investigations.
Tags: sports; beat reporting; sources; story-telling; backgrounding
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About the Center for Responsive Politics
A brief summary of what the Center for Responsive Politics does and offers for journalists.
Tags: politics; nonprofit; opensecret; internet; databases;
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Arizona Department of Corrections
A brief outline of what the Arizona Department of Corrections does and what goals they have.
Tags: prison; criminal justice; state; Arizona; criminal justice track
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Military Data: Contracts Casualties
This tipsheet is a good guide to investigating the military. Fabey discusses how to take advantage of the military's love of records and find the good investigative stories buried in the databases. He discusses which data analysis programs to use, as well as how to spot the discrepancies that could lead to a story. One very helpful think Fabey does is explain why some things, like sudden increases in the cost of ships, may seems indicative of a good story but are really quite routine for the military.
Tags: war reporting; military; federal government; contracts; federal spending; army
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Panel Discussion on Contract Fraud
Barnes discusses how the Department of Transportation can serve as a valuable source for journalists investigating transportation fraud. He begins by discussing some of the basic information about the Office of the Inspector General, including what it does and how media representatives should contact it. He also discusses the top ten fraud offenses, and how his office is useful in investigating them. Finally, Barnes discusses fraud that can occur in the DOT's Disadvantaged Business Enterprise Program. The tipsheet ends with a list of helpful websites, and recaps of some of the DOT's ongoing fraud investigations.
Tags: fraud; transportation; highway; corruption; corporation; minority; congressional testimony; internal audit
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Basics of the Pennsylvania and New Jersey Public Records Laws
Baughman explains the breadth and process of getting information through the public records laws in Pennsylvania and New Jersey. He answers question like, "To whom does the act apply?," and "How do I submit a request?" for each state. Baughman also includes a list of online resources for journalists.
Tags: public records; FOIA; Pennsylvania; New Jersey; law; act; open; the right to know
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How You, Too, Can Dig Up The Past
Nobody is going to tell you the whole story on a crime, especially if it's been a while since authorities brushed off the dust on it. Mitchell tells you how to do it yourself, how to dig into records, scour past coverage, and follow the paper trail to humanized testimonies. By the time you are finished reading Mitchell's tipsheet, you will be one step closer to thinking like a detective, like a prosecutor, and like a historian... and yes, that means "think outside the box." Mitchell tells you all from excavating the evidence to avoiding to dash your foot against a stone: what to do if someone says you cannot have the evidence, if people are shutting up, or if someone does not want to talk. He puts forth the rules of thumb and how to talk to targets.
Tags: investigation; investigating; investigative; criminal record; digging into past; sources; records; paper trail; interviews; ambush; detective; prosecutor; historian; courthouse; crime; court; docket.
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Keeping Government Accountable: Following the money
On your beat, you probably tend to focus on FUNCTIONAL performance -- Does the community get whatever service is intended (ambulance service, education, police protection, unrutted roads)? The spending is in the less obvious OPERATIONAL side of the organization. Whatever else it is -- a county, a school board, a city, a university -- it's also essentially a business that's spending a lot of money to buy things. In many places, the school board is the single largest employer and one of the biggest buyers of building supplies, office supplies and cleaning supplies. It's a great investigative reporting opportunity
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International Data
The FOIA rule does not apply internationally, and Mulvad, the executive director of the Danish Institute for Computer Assisted Reporting, made this tipsheet to help reporters have an easier time of acquiring international data. Also included is a list of websites that are goldmines of international data.
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American FactFinder: A beginner’s guide to getting just a little local census data
How does a beginner with just a browser and a spreadsheet keep from drowning in oceans of census data? One way is American FactFinder, the Census Bureau’s data dissemination site. After a long, clumsy development stage, it has steadily improved. It offers so much -- and several ways of finding it -- that it takes a little work to learn the navigation. But it’s now pretty simple to drill down to a small area, extract just a little data and download or print it. Here’s a step-by-step guide to getting just one county worth of neighborhood-level data on one subject, a typical task for many newsrooms. The example uses Census 2000 public and private school enrollment for Bucks County, Pa., but you can adapt as needed:
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