Category: Research

Latest stories Two-part deep-dive into a toxic cloud in Texas A 10-month investigation by Public Health Watch and The Texas Tribune found that many state and federal scientists documented problems at an ITC chemical-storage facility long before catastrophe struck in 2019. The story, published April 26, details how this accident unfolded in Deer Park, a tight-knit city of 30,000. It is based …

Continue reading “New stories, podcast range from health to AI”

When Ward Walker moved to the seaside village of Stebbins, Alaska, in 1995, he was told there would be running water within the next five years. The 63-year-old, who recently retired as vice mayor of the village of roughly 650, now says he’ll be happy if it happens before he dies. Stebbins became Walker’s home …

Continue reading “Waiting for water”

The Data Liberation Project recently launched, making government data more available and useful for the general public. Jeremy Singer-Vine, a data journalist who formerly worked as a data editor for eight years at Buzzfeed News, rolled out the new website earlier this fall as a result of his own frustrations as a data journalist. After …

Continue reading “More data, more access, more transparency”

Nearly two decades after the NFL enacted the Rooney Rule, teams’ hiring and firing practices still disadvantage Black coaches at every turn — and it’s getting worse, a Washington Post investigation found.

In an industry in which coverage of labor concerns often overlaps with personal worries about wages and benefits, journalists are increasingly turning to unions at news outlets nationwide.  About one-in-six U.S. journalists at news outlets are part of a union, according to a recent Pew Research Center survey. The survey suggests, too, that unions are …

Continue reading “Pew: Young journalists, journalists of color most likely to join unions”

Nearly 70% of journalists say Twitter is the platform that tops their list for work-related tasks, according to a recent Pew Research Center study. But most Americans prefer Facebook for their news fix.

Martin Vargas Arellano contracted COVID-19 while in the Adelanto Immigration and Customs Enforcement processing center. Vargas Arellano had been in immigration detention since 2019. Though a judge had ordered Vargas Arellano’s release at the beginning of the pandemic, citing his pre-existing health conditions, U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement refused to release him after his housing …

Continue reading “ICE will investigate deaths, but advocates question impact of new policy”

Records from IRW’s Accountability Project led reporters from the Jewish Telegraphic Agency down an investigative rabbit-hole, enabling them to elucidate the finances of Jan Koum. Koum, the famously reclusive WhatsApp founder, has “quietly become one of the largest donors to Jewish causes in the world,” JTA reporter Asaf Shalev found in a data-driven investigation. Koum, a Ukrainian-born Jew who …

Continue reading “TAP data helped reveal WhatsApp story”

The National Institute for Computer Assisted Reporting held its annual conference in Atlanta last weekend, the first in-person conference since the March 2020 conference in New Orleans. Staff from the Investigative Reporting Workshop ran a demo of the Accountability Project and its search tool.  If you didn’t make it to the presentation, slides are available …

Continue reading “TAP data can help”