Monthly Archives: June 2014

Jun 30

Top Tips From #IRE14

One of the best conferences each year is at the 2014 IRE Annual Conference. Here are five great tips I picked up last week: 1. If you need to search Instagram, try iconosquare.com 2. Trying to check family relationships from … Read More

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Jun 24

It’s No Longer Hard to Email A Congressmember

I didn’t know that it wasn’t easy to email members of Congress directly or that most members don’t publish an email address. You have to go to their websites and fill out a form. Apparently one of the reasons is … Read More

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Jun 20

Writing a FOIA Letter is Easy

I’m about to head to Investigative Reporters and Editors Conference next week and remembered that last year I vowed I would write several FOIA letters, both to see what databases I could get, plus to model good practice for students. … Read More

Posted in Backgrounding for News Stories | Leave a comment
Jun 11

Needs Stats on Occupations or Job Salaries?

I did a double-take at the info from Kate Martin, government reporter at the  Tacoma News Tribune.  There’s almost five public relations specialists for every reporter, she noted in a posting on the website for Investigative Reporters and Editors. It’s actually … Read More

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Jun 03

Killer App for Searching the Web is MindMeld

So how great would it be if you would just talk about what you need to know and immediately your hand-held device would interpret what you say and send you relevant information about places, subjects and facts that you’re talking … Read More

Posted in Finding Sources, Finding Stories, Searching | Leave a comment