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Jaimi Dowdell
IRE/NICAR
Investigative Reporters and Editors, Inc. is a grassroots nonprofit organization dedicated to improving the quality of investigative reporting.
IRE was formed in 1975 to create a forum in which journalists throughout the world could help each other by sharing story ideas, newsgathering techniques and news sources.
Training
Resources
Networking
Conferences
Data services
•Assume it’s public.•Assume it’s free.•Documents = databases.
Why data?
More and more, records are kept electronically.
We can use them to…
Uncover basic information. (Simple lookups)
Test government procedures, regulations and
officials’ promises.
Enterprise reporting – do stories that no one
else is doing.
In addition: Journalism that has data elements translates incredibly well online.
Examples
The basics of spreadsheets
Searchable databases available online
Finding and downloading data online
Other databases that aren’t so readily available
Quick online data visualization tools
Star Tribune (Minneapolis)
Pioneer Press (St. Paul, MN)
Data: National Inventory of Bridges
Findings: Following the collapse of an I-35 bridge spanning the Mississippi River in Minneapolis, journalists, including Dan Browning and MaryJo Webster, turned to the National Bridge Inventory database, available from IRE and NICAR, to check the bridge's inspection history. The Start Tribune and The Pioneer Press reported that inspection data from 2005 showed that the Minnesota Department of Transportation deemed the bridge “structurally deficient.” The Pioneer Press also noted a federal reporting finding that Minnesota had 3 percent of its bridges rated deficient in 2006.
FINDINGS: Highlighted the insufficient rules for credit-reporting agencies to correct errors, Americans are left virtually powerless to erase the mistakes.
Documented the plight of thousands who, through no fault of their own, have been denied the chance to buy a home or a car, take out a loan for college, rent an apartment, land a job, join the Armed Forces, receive medical care or even open a checking account.
DATA: tax-lien sales, foreclosures from foreclosure-
radar.com tax-lien data.
FINDINGS: Bailed-out
banks bought
$16 million in tax liens
in the same
neighborhood where
they were foreclosing
homes.
DATA: workplace safety inspections
FINDINGS: Workers in many dangerous industries get a small
fraction of the attention from inspectors that construction
workers do.
Two of Washington's
most injury–prone
industries get
Almost no attention
from workplace
safety
inspectors:
Nursing homes and
Hospitals
“ESPN's "Outside the Lines" reviewed health department inspection reports for food and beverage outlets at all 107 North American arenas and stadiums that were home to Major League Baseball, National Football League, National Hockey League and National Basketball Association teams in 2009. At 30 of the venues (28 percent), more than half of the concession stands or restaurants had been cited for at least one "critical" or "major" health violation. Such violations pose a risk for foodborne illnesses that can make someone sick, or, in extreme cases, become fatal.”
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Data: State hunting and corrections data
Findings: Analyzing state data on hunting licenses, Ben Poston of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel found that dozens of convicted felons in Wisconsin were issued gun-deer hunting licenses last year despite a state law that bans them for life from possessing firearms. Felons with armed robbery, rape and weapons convictions all bought gun-deer licenses in Wisconsin in 2006. A state legislator proposed law to close the license loophole.
Online
Herald Tribune (Sarasota, FL)
Data: The newspaper reviewed more than
19 million Florida real estate transactions
to determine how much of the real-estate
bust had its root in housing fraud.
Findings: The year-long investigation
found that more than 50,000 Florida
properties flipped under suspicious
circumstances from 2000 through 2008.
Those flips artificially drove up housing
prices and tax bills and contributed to the
crush of foreclosures that has gutted the
real estate market. All over the state,
professional property flippers made
billions in profits on the back of concocted
land deals.
The difference between a spreadsheet and a database.
Why use other software?
Options?
Remember – any time a biz interacts with the government, information becomes public.
Ask for the document and/or data retention schedule.
Missouri, Montana
Get a tour.
Grab every blank form – both internal and external – in all agencies you cover.
Meet the document and data clerks and the IT folks.
FOIA – Open records logs
State and federal statutes
Appendix and footnotes to audits and reports
Inspectors General
State auditors
GAO reports (Government Accountability Office)
Canada – Auditor general
Major Information Systems – request a list from government agency: example US Marshall’s list here.
Something in a “chart” format may mean that a database exists: example California West Nile Virus here.
Online forms to submit information: example Wisconsin Insurance Complaint form here.
Actually read a web site – don’t let it force you into predefined roles: example North Carolina Department of Revenue here. (site map, search)
Search for keywords related to data: download, database, information system, submit, searchable, inspection, enforcement, Excel, etc.
OSHA workplace safety inspections
Federal contracts (FPDS) (ex. Border protection)
Recalls (look at tabs for topics)
Economy at a Glance from the Bureau of Labor Statistics
Local Area Unemployment Statistics from the BLS
EPA environmental data searches
Fatality Analysis Reporting System data (FARS)
National sex offender registry (Department of Justice)
Transportation data from BTS
Aircraft data (service difficulty reports, on-time data, aircraft registry, etc.)
NTSB Aviation Accidents (and more)
FAA accidents/incidents and service difficulty reports (SDRs)
Flight tracker from flightaware
On-time statistics
Nursing home, hospital and home health data from Medicare
Firearms data from the ATF
Migration data from the IRS
Tax data from IRS (tax exempt orgs)
Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA)
National Agricultural Statistics Service
Consumer Reports
(pdf report)
•On-time by airport (pg 7)
•Departure by time (pg 13)
•Chronically delayed flights (pg 15)
•Tarmac delays (pg 25)
•Mishandled baggage (pg 29)
•Injuries and deaths involving pets
(49)
From Bureau of Transportation statistics
(Downloadable to Excel)
•Flight delays
•Bag fees by airline
•Chronically delayed flights
•Cancelled flights
American FactFinder for quick data profiles.
Datasets from IRE– download profiles, comparisons and more.
Get information on the Census from ASU’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and IRE.
Fedstats – A to Z list of statistical data from the government.
Data.gov – Searchable catalogs of government data. (search for business, contracts, inspections, etc.)
USAspending.gov or FedSpending.org –Federal spending data including grants, loans, contracts, etc. (Ex. Coca Cola)
State Government Databases wiki from the American Library Association
BRB Publications links to public records sites
Search by domain: .gov – government sites (other types: .edu, .org,
.com, .net, etc.)
Example – search for “Oil spill” “2010” and limit to site:.gov
Search by file type: .xls for spreadsheets; .txt, .csv for text files; .mdb,
.dbf for databas files
Example – Same search as above but limit to filetype:xls
Search for words within a URL: Examples: ftp, download, data, inspection,
enforcement, 2010, etc.
In Excel format – example IRS Exempt Organizations here.
From the web – example California West Nile Virus here.
In text format – example from data.gov search on “inspection” here.
PDF to Excel – try cometdocs.com
Our datasets are “cleaned.”
All have national data. Some are sliceable by state.
They are typically large – meant to be handled in a database manager and not a spreadsheet. (We can work with you on that, though.)
Some examples…
HMDA, enacted in 1975, requires all
banks, savings and loans, savings
banks and credit unions with assets
of more than $33 million and offices
in metropolitan areas to report
mortgage applications.
Track subprime loans
Look for discrimination
Find changes in your area since the housing crash
Look for trends
Data contain loans made to
businesses and individuals
as disaster assistance. The
data identifies the
borrower, the disaster, the
amount and, for business
borrowers, whether the
loan was paid in full or
deemed uncollectible.
Which disasters have hit your community hardest
Are there any people/businesses who’ve received multiple loans?
What’s the biggest loan?
How much hasn’t been collected?
How much won’t be collected?
How frequently are bridges being inspected?
How old are they?
What is their government-assigned status: 1=Structurally Deficient;
2=Functionally Obsolete; 0=Not Deficient; N=Not Applicable
What are the sufficiency ratings of bridges in your area?
Doesn’t seem like a business story? Think again. Look at areas that have
grown quickly and have lots of development. Are dams/bridges that were
previously thought harmless now in an area of dense development? How
does that change things?
IRS Tax Exempt Orgs database
•Get a list of all of the nonprofits in your community
•Find the biggest ones
•Find the ones the generate the most revenue
•Find the ones that generate the least revenue
•Use this information to investigate individual
nonprofits
•Example – Atlanta spreadsheet
•Get individual 990s from Guidestar or Foundation
Center
Federal Contracts
IRS Migration
NAFTA Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA)
Local contracts
Toxics Release Inventory
Campaign contributions
Dozens of national data sets for local enterprise stories
Links to stories based on each data set
Links to tip sheets on using the data
Find more information at data.nicar.org/data
Some simple online tools
Example: Michigan CAFOs
Jaimi Dowdell
@JaimiDowdell
