Executive Director, Investigative Reporters and Editors Description: Compensation: Investigative Reporters and Editors seeks a dynamic individual to oversee a non- Salary to be negotiated, commensurate with experience and in the profit journalism organization of 4,500 members and 12 full-time staff members, context of a medium-sized Midwestern college town. Compensa- tion also includes a generous benefits package. and to serve as a faculty member at the Missouri School of Journalism. IRE is considered the top organization in providing practical, hands-on training to journalists throughout the world – particularly in the use of new technological Application Deadline: tools and techniques. IRE conducts more than 50 seminars a year and provides To ensure full consideration, applications must be received by Aug. research and government databases to hundreds of news organizations. 15, 2007. Screening of applicants will continue until the position is filled. Qualifications: Minorities, women and other designated class members are en- • Experience as a journalist of respected professional reputation and demon- couraged to apply. IRE and the University of Missouri are committed strated achievement, with solid credentials in investigative reporting in print, to cultural diversity, and it is expected that the successful candidate broadcast, magazines, books, documentaries or multimedia. will share this commitment. MU is an Equal Employment Opportu- nity Employer. • Managerial and supervisory experience. • Experience in the nonprofit sector and in fund-raising will be considered sig- Appointment begins: nificant pluses. Jan. 1, 2008. To apply, see details at www.ire.org/execdir. • An entrepreneurial and enterprising spirit, creativity to help the organization grow internationally and on the Web, and flexibility to work with a rapidly Search committee: changing media industry. Experience in computer-assisted reporting will be considered a plus. David Boardman, executive editor of The Seattle Times, was an IRE board member from 1997-2007. • Experience in teaching investigative journalism will be considered a plus. Evi- dence of potential teaching excellence is necessary. The executive director will Jan Colbert, who has served as IRE executive director, is an associate be expected to teach an investigative reporting class each semester at the uni- professor and chair of Magazine Journalism at the Missouri School versity. of Journalism. Renee Ferguson, an IRE board member, recently returned to WMAQ- Responsibilities: Chicago after completing a Nieman fellowship at Harvard. • Oversee the maintenance and growth of IRE’s renowned professional programs, James Grimaldi, investigative reporter at The Washington Post and publications and Web site. Also oversee the National Institute for Computer-As- Ferris professor at Princeton University, has served on the IRE board sisted Reporting, a joint program of IRE and the Missouri School of Journalism. since 2001 and is currently its president. • Manage 12 full-time staffers and more than a dozen part-time workers and Chuck Lewis, an IRE member for 25 years and a former CBS 60 Min- students. utes producer, has founded three nonprofit corporations, including • Plan and supervise financial matters, including IRE’s $1.4 million budget, the the Center for Public Integrity, and is a professor at American Uni- organization’s annual and long-term fund-raising campaigns, and its $3 mil- versity. lion-plus endowment fund. Shawn McIntosh, a former IRE board member, is director of culture • Report to a 13-member elected board. and change at The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, focusing on train- ing, analysis and implementation of new standards at the news- • Serve as a spokesperson for the organization. paper. • Hold a faculty appointment in the Missouri School of Journalism, pending ap- Neal Shapiro is president and CEO of Education Broadcasting Corp., proval by the dean and faculty. The post can range from a professional-track as- owner of Channel Thirteen/WNET-New York. Co-chair of IRE’s en- sistant professor to full professor, depending on qualifications and experience. dowment drive, Shapiro is a former president of NBC News and ex- ecutive producer for Dateline NBC. CONTENTSFEATURES 14 - 26 HOUSING WOES 15 URBAN BLIGHT Investors buy, abandon properties THE IRE JOURNAL as part of profit plan, data shows By Meghan Hoyer and Matthew Jones TABLE OF Contents The (Norfolk) Virginian-Pilot JULY/AUGUST 2007 18 LANDFILL GAMBLE 4 Many thanks – Complex financial deal unravels but only leaving IRE job, to reveal public subsidy questions not IRE By John Brennan and Jeff Pillets By Brant Houston, IRE The (Hackensack, N.J.) Record 7 2007 CONFERENCE 21 PUBLIC SLUMLORD IRE membership meets in Phoenix Property seized under eminent to commemorate 30th anniversary domain never used for roads, By Kate Rainey abandoned by state The IRE Journal By Natalya Shulyakovskaya The Orange County Register 10 AID FOR FAITH Funding boosts Christian 24 HOUSING BUST groups’ influence abroad Minority home owners unable By Kevin Baron to meet subprime loan demands for The Boston Globe By Ron Nixon and Vikas Bajaj The New York Times 13 CRIME FOCUS HOUSIN G Story reveals major drop in FBI pursuit 26 HOUSING RESOURCES of white collar crimes after terrorist attacks By The IRE Journal WOE S By Daniel Lathrop and Paul Shukovsky Seattle Post-Intelligencer 27 GUNSHINE STATE Florida loophole allows criminals to obtain legal gun permits By Megan O’Matz and John Maines South Florida Sun-Sentinel 29 AT THE WHEEL Undercover camera reveals lapses in drug screenings for DOT workers By Jeff Baillon KMSP-Minneapolis 30 FATAL OUTBREAK CDC reports on food-borne illnesses provide state-by-state data By Thomas Hargrove Scripps Howard News Service Cover Story 32 CASH FLOW ABOUT THE COVER Explore consultants’ influence CM Development’s investors Pages 14-26 in campaign finance reports used refinancing deals By John Perry The Center for Public Integrity to generate cash, while Cover photo: neglecting repairs and letting Delores Johnson, 34 Valuable journalistic advice arises from properties sit vacant. The Virginian-Pilot annual gathering of eminent writers By Steve Weinberg The IRE Journal JULY/AUGUST 2007 3 FEATURES THE IRE JOURNAL FROM THE IRE OFFICES VOLUME 30 NUMBER 4 MANAGING EDITOR Many thanks – Anita Bruzzese but only leaving IRE job, PUBLICATIONS COORDINATOR Megan Means not IRE ART DIRECTOR BRANT HOUSTON Wendy Gray SENIOR CONTRIBUTING EDITOR Steve Weinberg uring the past 13 years, many journalists have come and gone at the IRE offices. With the skills they pick up here, staffers and students leave for new, challenging CONTRIBUTING LEGAL EDITOR D David Smallman opportunities in newsrooms in which they thrive. But they never leave IRE behind. They continue to teach for IRE at training events, enlist members, raise money and pas- EDITORIAL ASSOCIATES sionately support investigative journalism. Kate Rainey, Shannon Burke It’s now time for me to follow their lead. As many of you know, I will take a post this fall at the University of Illinois, where I will be the Knight Chair in Investigative & Enterprise Reporting. I will continue as acting director at IRE in a consulting role through December while the IRE searches for my successor. IRE After December, I look forward to collaborating closely with IRE on developing curricula IRE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR for workshops and training – not only for small-to-medium size newsrooms but also for Brant Houston international journalists and for those working in ethnic media newsrooms in the U.S. I look forward to supporting IRE in whatever other ways I can. BOARD OF DIRECTORS IRE is my professional home. I have been a member for 28 years and, like many other PRESIDENT members, can’t imagine it not being part of my professional life. I first heard of IRE when I read the Arizona Project in 1977, and I joined in 1979 when it held an annual conference James V. Grimaldi, The Washington Post in Boston. VICE PRESIDENT I had been working for a small daily outside Boston for almost three years. The first speaker Cheryl Phillips, The Seattle Times I heard was Seymour Hersh, and, as always, he was inspiring. Panels on tips and techniques followed. At lunch, a recent Pultizer Prize-winning reporter took half an hour to give me TREASURER guidance on how to do investigations at a small paper. Like many reporters after their first Dianna Hunt, Fort Worth Star-Telegram IRE conference, I left hooked forever. In 1994 I came to the IRE offices as the managing director for the National Institute for SECRETARY Computer-Assisted Reporting, a joint program of IRE and the Missouri School of Journalism. Stephen C. Miller, The New York Times I thought it would be a good two-year break from the newsroom, and that I would teach and learn, and then go back to a daily paper refreshed. Wendell Cochran, American University It turned out to be a two-year plan that turned into another two-year plan and then another Renee Ferguson, WMAQ-Chicago and so on. In 1997, I became executive director instead of returning to a newsroom. Sev- Manny Garcia, The Miami Herald eral long-time mentors questioned my judgment, wondering why I would stay with a small Mark Katches, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel organization that had just had a tumultuous period deciding whether to move to Maryland Lise Olsen, Houston Chronicle from Missouri. But I believed in IRE and the great and beneficial impact that it could have on journalism Lea Thompson, ThomThom Media, LLC if it settled down and concentrated on the things it does best – teaching, providing resources, Marilyn Thompson, Los Angeles Times helping investigative journalists network, and, most of all, inspiring us to do better journal- Duff Wilson, The New York Times ism. Alison Young, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution Ten years later, I look back in awe at all the seminars, conferences and workshops we have done and how we have helped each other and helped younger journalists develop.