CONTENTS THE IRE JOURNAL 16 District attorney’s office often slips between cracks TABLE OF CONTENTS By Steve Weinberg NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2003 The IRE Journal Pledging for future Please make your 4 18 GOVERNMENT ETHICS By Brant Houston Georgia’s leaders spend year annual contribution The IRE Journal under newsroom’s microscope By Tom Bennett to IRE! NEWS BRIEFS AND MEMBER NEWS 5 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution ��������������������������������� 6 INTERVIEWS WITH THE INTERVIEWERS ���������������������������������� ��������������������������� Finding and cultivating sources 20 - 33 DIGGING DEEPER AT CITY HALL ����������������������������������� Your annual support is vital to the organization’s training programs, By Lori Luechtefeld ��������������������������������� The IRE Journal �������������������������������� future of IRE. Please join IRE’s services, resources and the ability COUNTY CORRUPTION ������������������������������� leadership by making a gift to IRE’s to create new initiatives for Bribes, deals, secret meetings 8 TEACHING signal end for commissioners ��������������������������������� endowment fund. investigative journalism. Newsroom uses state school data to create index By Amie Streater ����������������������������� By Joshua Benton for The IRE Journal ������������������������������� The Dallas Morning News ��������������������������������� Begun in 2000 to provide a stable, Members’ annual donations show ��������������� long-term source of funding for strong internal support for IRE to CITY COUNCIL PERKS 10 TESTING Nepotism, free parking spots ������������������������������� IRE’s mission, the Endowment potential corporate and foundation Indexing performance of California schools lead to review of ethics rules ������������������� found to be unreliable Fund has grown to nearly $2 donors. Under a matching program, By Doug Donovan By Ronald Campbell The (Baltimore) Sun ������������������������������� million. With a goal of $5 million, the John S. and James L. Knight The Orange County Register ����������������������������������� “Breakthroughs,” IRE’s endowment Foundation will give $1 for every $2 COSTLY SUBSIDIES ���������������������������������� drive, will ensure the future of the you give. 11 FOI REPORT ���������������������������������� Citizens pay developers With so much data now, in land deals with city ����������������������������� story potential abounds Star City Kansas The Ledford Joe by Illustration Photo ���������������������������������� on school testing front By John Tedesco This year, current and former IRE board members have pledged an additional San Antonio Express-News ���������������������������������� $95,000 to the endowment. With the Knight Foundation match, gifts from IRE’s Charles Davis ��������������������������� leadership will result in an even more significant increase: Freedom of Information Center Thinking investigatively �������������������������������� on local government beat ������������������������������������������� $95,000 (new board pledges) + $47,500 (50% Knight Foundation match) = Schools Web site provides an education �������������������� 12 By Michael Mansur $142,500 endowment increase By Carolyn Edds The Kansas City Star The IRE Journal To make a contribution, please use the form below, visit www.ire.org/endowment or phone IRE Development Officer 14 GUNS Jennifer Erickson at 573-884-2222. All contributions are tax deductible to the fullest extent allowed by law. Recycled police weapons find their way to criminals 34 DANGEROUS DOCTORS By Michael Diamond and John Froonjian Depicting review system ���� I would like to support IRE’s Endowment Fund The Press of Atlantic City I would like my gift to benefit IRE in exposes secretive process Name ______________________________________________________________ this way: By Liz Szabo Endowment - general operations The (Norfolk) Virginian-Pilot Address ____________________________________________________________ Endowment - specific program, ABOUT THE COVER City _________________________________ State ______ Zip ________________ services or resource area Rob Thiemann, the Kansas City Water 36 Military weapons land Name area ______________________ Company ___________________________________________________________ Department’s project manager for in hands of local cops water recovery, checks the water meter with little oversight Company Address ___________________________________________________ Amount of gift $_________________ By Chuck Murphy and Sydney P. Freedberg on the J.C. Nichols Fountain. Wasted or Wk Phone ________________________ Hm Phone _________________________ My company will match my St. Petersburg Times contribution lost city water is just one of the angles My check is enclosed and made payable to IRE. covered by The Kansas City Star’s Mike 38 AUTO INDUSTRY Please write “Endowment” in the memo line of your check. Politics puts brakes Please charge my credit card with the amount indicated VISA MasterCard Mansur as he digs beneath the surface on plans for Supercar I will pledge $_______________ over ______ years. Mail or fax this form to: of city government coverage. By Sam Roe Investigative Reporters and Editors, Inc. Chicago Tribune Account Number ___________________________________ Exp. Date _________ 138 Neff Annex, Columbia, MO 65211 Cover photo by PH 573-882-2042 • www.ire.org Signature ___________________________________________________________ FAX 573-882-5431 David Pulliam, The Kansas City Star NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2003 3 THE IRE JOURNAL FROM THE IRE OFFICES VOLUME 26 NUMBER 6 Join IRE’s leadership EDITOR & IRE DEPUTY DIRECTOR Len Bruzzese in pledging for future MANAGING EDITOR Anita Bruzzese he IRE Endowment campaign is moving into overdrive. ART DIRECTOR T With the help of many advisers and friends, we have put together the BRANT HOUSTON Wendy Gray materials and the plans for raising $1 million by Oct. 1, 2004. By accomplish- SENIOR CONTRIBUTING EDITOR ing that feat, we will be assured of receiving another half-million dollars in matching money Steve Weinberg under a generous grant made by the Knight Foundation. Current and former board members have contributed and pledged more than $95,000 by the CONTRIBUTING LEGAL EDITOR time you read this. Donations of $10,000 to $25,000 have come in from the Philip L. Graham David Smallman Fund, the Newhouse Foundation, NBC News and other donors. Many media companies have matching programs that have bolstered both the small and large donations. EDITORIAL INTERN Equally important, our members have donated more than $13,000 over the past year in Rick Kennedy smaller contributions, showing larger potential donors the strength and passion of this orga- nization. After we reach the October 2004 goal, the endowment will be at $3.5 million and we will IRE be closing in on our final goal of $5 million. IRE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR Brant Houston Everyone can help There is no doubt this drive has entered its most challenging time. The economy does not BOARD OF DIRECTORS appear to be rebounding quickly. Newsroom budgets remain tight or have been cut further. As we work on the drive, we still need to raise money for our conferences and workshops and CHAIRMAN other services to keep our fees affordable for our members and other journalists. (We haven’t David Dietz, Bloomberg News raised conference fees in eight years.) PRESIDENT There is no doubt we need everyone’s help. We need your donation and we need a firm Shawn McIntosh, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution pledge if you can make it. Many members and supporters are making five-year pledges to allow them to make larger donations than they would be able to at one time. VICE PRESIDENT Whether it’s $5 or $500 or $5,000, every dollar counts and every dollar will draw 50 cents David Boardman, The Seattle Times from the Knight pool of matching money. If your dollar is matched by your own news organi- TREASURER zation, that too will draw a Knight match. Duane Pohlman, WEWS-Cleveland Why are we doing all this work? It has become ever more clear since 9/11 that this country and the world need strong, inde- Paul Adrian, KDFW-Dallas/Fort Worth pendent associations and institutes for investigative journalism that are financially secure and Stephen K. Doig, Arizona State University depend on the commitment of their working members. IRE has not only supplied a template for James V. Grimaldi, The Washington Post this kind of organization, but has worked to help journalists in other countries form their own organizations and helped create a new global network in which we can all share. (The Global Andy Hall, Wisconsin State Journal Investigative Journalism Network can be found at www.globalinvestigativejournalism.org.) Dianna Hunt, Fort Worth Star-Telegram Stephen C. Miller, The New York Times Careful investment Cheryl Phillips, The Seattle Times To continue this kind of service to members and journalism at large, IRE needs a secure Deborah Sherman, Freelance financial base. With an endowment that can produce investment income for IRE’s core activi- ties, the staff and board will have more time to concentrate on programs and be able to spend Nancy Stancill, The Charlotte Observer less time on raising money to cover the costs of each year’s operations. Stuart Watson, WCNC-Charlotte Be assured that your contribution will be invested and used carefully. In the past two years, when other funds were losing huge percentages of their value, IRE’s increased by 8 percent. This prudence included paying for almost all endowment efforts until recently