Conferences

INN Members Speak at Global Conference

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A strong contingent of INN members participated in the recent Global Investigative Journalism Conference in Kiev, Ukraine, speaking on panels, marketing training opportunities, and meeting one on one and in groups with other participants. The global conference, the seventh of its kind, drew more than 500 journalists from 80 countries despite extensive visa problems for journalists from Africa and Latin America. The conference spanned five days, with the first day devoted to a trip to Chernobyl, the site of one the world's worst nuclear plant disasters. Among the INN members attending and speaking were Chuck Lewis of the Investigative Reporting Workshop; Mark Horvit of Investigative Reporters and Editors and the National Institute of Computer-Assisted Reporting; Joe Bergantino of the New England Center for Investigative Reporting; Bill Buzenberg of the Center for Public Integrity and many of his staff; Chase Davis of the Center for Investigative Reporting; Jennifer LaFleur of ProPublica; Sheila Coronel of the Stabile Center for Investigative Reporting; and Brant Houston of the Investigative News Network. Handouts and tip sheets from the conference will be posted the Global Investigative Journalism Network Web site, gijn.org, as they become available.

Investigations

Stabile Center Reports on the Overmedication of Foster Children

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Orphan earmarks, drugged cops and overmedicated children in foster care: These were the subjects of investigations published by students of Columbia University’s Stabile Center for Investigative Journalism this past month. USA Today led its Jan. 5 edition with a Stabile Center investigation into how congressional earmarks have cost states $7.5 billion dollars in lost highway funding over the last 20 years. Stabile Center student Cezary Podkul began researching  “orphan earmarks” last summer and found over 7,000 congressionally directed highway projects in which the money, or a good portion of it, remains unspent for various reasons. At least 3,600 of these haven’t been spent at all because of typographical or other errors.  But states cannot reallocate these unspent earmarks, which are counted against their share of federal highway funds.