The Latest

More than 800 attend IRE Conference: More than 800 journalists from 15 countries attended IRE's 30th Annual Conference with more than 100 panels and workshops to choose from over four days. Among the conference highlights was a keynote address at the IRE Awards Luncheon by Bill Marimow, vice president of news for National Public Radio and a longtime IRE member, and a showcase panel on legal assaults on the investigative press that featured top lawyers and journalists.

Probe into meth epidemic wins top Meyer award: Major investigative reports on the nation's methamphetamine epidemic, systemic failures in the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and the loss of Florida's wetlands are winners of the first Philip Meyer Awards.

2006 CAR Conference: More than 300 journalists attended this year's CAR Conference, featuring the presentation of the first Philip Meyer Awards. Journalists from around the world took advantage of a full slate of hands-on CAR classes and panels on using CAR on nearly every beat. We have started posting tipsheets from this conference and more will be available in the next few weeks.

Mapping Beat Book: "Mapping for Stories: A Computer-Assisted Reporting Guide"
Learn step by step how to map data for daily news stories and larger projects.

Census data: With the closing of the AP Web site on Census data — and as a service for journalists who are working with the 2000 Census data — IRE and NICAR will soon provide easy access to data Census releases. In addition, help will be available from our database library in using, interpreting and mapping this data.

Extra! Extra!: Get inspired by IRE's online guide to investigative and computer-assisted reporting stories. Extra! Extra! is updated regularly with the latest work from newspapers, broadcast outlets, magazines and online newsrooms.

Campaign Finance: The fifth volume in the IRE Beat Book Series is here. Order now to get "Unstacking the Deck: A Reporter's Guide To Campaign Finance." Journalists will find it invaluable for pursuing stories about the impact of money on elections, political parties and candidates at the federal, state and local levels.

Training
CAR Boot Camps: Attend a computer-assisted reporting Boot Camp and learn to acquire electronic information, use spreadsheets and databases to analyze it and translate it into high-impact stories.

Census Tipsheets
The IRE Resource Center offers plenty of tipsheets on what information will emerge from the Census, how to analyze it and story ideas. Topics include: The Importance of a Fair and Accurate Census, Deciphering Government Statistics, Which Numbers Do We Use? and Building a Census Toolbox.

Click here to see a collection of census tipsheets.