Investigation

Help readers make sense of food recalls

By Melissa Preddy on Mar 09, 2010 in Beats, Economy, Featured, Health care, Investigation, Personal finance, Private companies, Retail, Story ideas

You think Toyotas with rogue throttles are scary?
Try Pringles with salmonella.
Over the past few days news of another possibly widespread food recall has broken, and your readers will be wondering how it affects them. While you’re at it, you might want to develop a broader piece on food inspection, retail and restaurant inspection and other [...]

LA Times uses public records to question models in Toyota recall

By Rosland Gammon on Mar 02, 2010 in Best Practices, Featured, Investigation

The Los Angeles Times did a masterful job of digging through court filings and police reports to document 56 deaths related to uncontrolled acceleration in Toyotas. That’s 22 more deaths than the 34 listed in National Highway Traffic Safety Administration complaints.
Some of those deaths occurred in models not subject to recall. A Toyota spokesman declined to comment for [...]

ProPublica redefines terms to show broader impact and wins Selden Ring Award

By Rosland Gammon on Feb 24, 2010 in Best Practices, Featured, Investigation

T. Christian Miller, a senior reporter for the nonprofit news organization, ProPublica, won the Selden Ring Award for Investigative Reporting this week for a business story: “Injured War Zone Contractors Fight to Get Care From AIG and Other Insurers.” His work, in collaboration with the Los Angeles Times, where he previously worked, documented the delays that civilian contractors [...]

OC Register looks into tax loophole that benefits lawmakers

By Rosland Gammon on Feb 23, 2010 in Best Practices, Featured, Investigation, Story ideas

Brian Joseph

Brian Joseph, Sacramento bureau chief for the Orange County Register, looks into California laws that allow legislators to “sometimes pocket hundreds of thousands of dollars in profit” on the sale of their homes.
The story looks closely at the tax-free allowance of $141.86 a day paid to lawmakers to compensate them for being away from home during [...]

A detour for WSJ reporter leads to ‘Making Death Pay’

By Rosland Gammon on Feb 19, 2010 in Best Practices, Featured, Investigation

Mark Maremont and Leslie Scism of the Wall Street Journal had a terrific story this week with this lede: ”Terminal Illness? $2,000 in CASH, Immediately Available.”
That pitch comes from an ad in the Rhode Island Catholic, the official newspaper of the local diocese. Behind the ad was “a plan hatched by a prominent Rhode Island estate-planning lawyer, [...]

Frontline’s ‘Flying Cheap’ works around unavailable paper trail with interviews

By Rosland Gammon on Feb 15, 2010 in Basics, Best Practices, Featured, Investigation

PBS Frontline contributor Miles O’Brien explores airline safety at regional airlines a year after a Continental Airlines-partner flight crashed into a home in Buffalo, N.Y., killing 50. “Flying Cheap” focuses on the increased need for safety regulations as more major airlines outsource flights to smaller regional players.
The broadcast traces regional carrier Colgan Air’s growth, plus the [...]

Seattle Times reporter on ‘Seniors for Sale’ says shoot video on first interview

By Rosland Gammon on Feb 11, 2010 in Best Practices, Featured, Health care, Investigation

In the “Seniors for Sale,” series, Michael J. Berens of The Seattle Times writes about neglect in Washington’s adult family homes, which are private residences with caregivers. He says Washington state has moved hundreds of elderly into these for-profit enterprises from more expensive nursing homes.
His series includes video interviews with the distraught family members quoted in his articles. In [...]

Search beyond Toyota for recall stories

By Melissa Preddy on Feb 10, 2010 in Beats, Economy, Featured, Investigation, Personal finance, Retail, Story ideas, Technology

Much to the woe of its executives, workers and shareholders, Toyota’s gargantuan throttle recall is hogging most of the product-safety press these days. And given the scope of the saga, which concerns 5.6 million vehicles, it will for some time to come. And that’s not even counting the fallout of a potential Prius brake fix [...]

Seattle Times’ ‘Seniors for Sale’ finds elder abuse by requesting manuals first

By Rosland Gammon on Feb 10, 2010 in Best Practices, Health care, Investigation, Story ideas

Michael J. Berens of The Seattle Times went inside the world of adult family homes to expose mistreatment and lax regulation. His “Seniors for Sale” series found that when people take seniors into their homes to earn money, “thousands of vulnerable adults have been exploited by profiteers or harmed by amateur caregivers.”
The online presentation has an effective, rotating selection of wrenching quotes, [...]