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 "government records" ...
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Skytales: Military Dispatches
This very extensive tipsheet goes into great detail about covering the military. Fabey discusses how to approach military investigations, how to work around common Defense Department excuses, how to find military records and how to build your own database of military intelligence. The tipsheet also includes many examples of Fabey's own military reporting.
Tags: military; defense; FOIA; federal government; army; data negotiation; story ideas; beat reporting
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Open Records: Turned Down. Now What?
LaFleur offers advice to reporters facing public records challenges. Her tips include requesting records ahead of time and knowing which federal agencies are covered by FOIA. The tipsheet also discusses FOIA exemptions and HIPPA. Finally, LaFleur lists resources to help reporters negotiate for public records.
Tags: FOIA; open records; public records; federal government
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Watchdog/ Internet 101: Getting the Most from the Internet
Reisner's tipsheet reviews some useful sites for internet research. He discusses government sites, WHOIS, demographic sites, public records sites, international sites, people finders, and Google.
Tags: backgrounding; internet research; web; people finders; sources
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Full Court Press: Fighting For Information
Zarek\'s tipsheet offers an overview of the services provided by the Reporters\' Committee for Freedom of the Press.
Tags: open records; nonprofits; federal government; courts
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Open Records: Dealing with the Newest Threat to Open Government
This PowerPoint presentation discusses the recent FOIA Reform, the Open Government Act. Smallman offers an overview of the reform and discusses how it will affect open records laws. The tipsheet offers an overview of each section of the new bill.
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You have the right to remain silent: FOIA in the Bush Administration
This powerpoint presentation discusses how policy regarding the Freedom of Information Act has changed in recent years. Cochran uses graphs and charts to illustrate trends in the amount of data requests filed and number actually filled by the government. He also discusses the appeals process, and speculates about how the issue may change in the future.
Tags: FOIA; open records; federal government; Bush administration
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Unsung Documents
The authors begin their tipsheet with five pieces of advice for looking at documents, such as "always view documents over time" and "make copies before you start marking them up." The authors then list a variety of useful, but little-known, documents for investigative reporting. Some examples they list are flight logs for nonprofit aircraft and lists of documents filed with the state archives.
Tags: documents; sources; open records; federal government; state government
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How to use campaign finance data to track fundraising, and other lobbyist largesse
The author discusses how to use FEC records to track fundraising done by lobbyists. He gives examples of data analysis and explains how to interpret the results. The author also discusses how to report on in-kind contributions from lobbyists.
Tags: campaign finance; FEC; fundraising; lobbyists; politics; state government; federal government
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Special Texas Records Areas: Children, low-income individuals, driver's histories, commerical vehicles
Langford offers advice for finding special sorts of records in Texas. The records include: Child Protective Services records, driving histories, public assistance records and commercial vehicle registrations. Langford describes where to find each type of data, and how it's useful.
Tags: data; story ideas; state government; local government; Texas
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Internet indexes, search engines and searching tips
Edds lists online resources to help reporters research stories. She breaks the list of resources into sections: newspaper archives; libraries; public records; federal government; Texas; IRE indexes; search engines; and search methods.
Tags: internet; resources; sources; public records; news research