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IRE would like to thank the hosts and sponsors of the 2008 IRE Conference and the programs related to the conference. Each year IRE depends deeply on the generosity and support of media organizations to be able to conduct these important conferences that allow and encourage journalists to develop the skills necessary to survive and thrive in this changing industry. Hosts •The Miami Herald, el Nuevo Herald and the McClatchy Company Primary Sponsors … • Bloomberg • John S. and James L. Knight Foundation • Scripps Howard Foundation Sponsors • American University School of Communication • Angones McClure & Garcia PA • CasePage LLC • Chicago Tribune Foundation • Criminal Justice Journalists • Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma • Philip L. Graham Fund • HBO • Holland & Knight LLP • Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas at the University of Texas at Austin • Lumina Foundation for Education • McCormick Foundation • Donald W. Reynolds National Center for Business Journalism at Arizona State University’s Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication • Sarasota Herald-Tribune • South Florida Sun-Sentinel • St. Petersburg Times • James Richard Bennett Scholarship Fund • Robert W. Greene Fund for Young Journalists • Brant Houston International Journalism Fund • Jennifer Leonard Scholarship Fund • Godfrey Wells Stancill Fellowship Fund • Missouri School of Journalism Thank you • UCG CONTENTSFEATURES THE IRE JOU R NAL TABLE OF Contents 24- 31 INSPECTED BY ? MAY /JUNE 2008 24 YEAR OF THE RECALL y ”‘Hidden Hazards” found deadly 4 Greene’s passion and dedication helped b shape today’s IRE children’s products d Mark Horvit overlooked by regulators te IRE Executive Director By Patricia Callahan ec Chicago Tribune Insp 7 2007 IRE Awards honor ? top investigative work 28 BANNED AT HOME, SOLD ABROAD by The IRE Journal Staff Databases help track imports, exports By Russell Carollo 18-23 BOB GREENE TRIBUTE The (Sacramento, Calif.) Bee 19 AN EXTRAORDINARY LEGACY 29 RESOURCES Commitment to people and journalistic By Tori Moss, The IRE Journal ideals, not accolades, defined Greene’s life By Richard Galant 30 AIRBAG ALERT National data raise concerns about bags that don’t inflate 20 AN UNSURPASSED MENTOR By Mike Casey and Rick Montgomery By Penny Loeb The Kansas City Star 21 WE MADE IT By Brant Houston 21 LARGER THAN LIFE By James Polk Newsday 32 SCANDALOUS TEXT Reporters kept digging for documents 22 MASTER OF THE CRAFT as rumors flew By John Ullmann By Jim Schaefer and M.L. Elrick 22 HIS LEADERSHIP BUILT IRE Detroit Free Press By Myrta Pulliam 36 TRANSPLANT TRAGEDY Patients may risk their lives by 23 FOLLOWING HIS ROAD MAP undergoing surgery before their illness By Walt Bogdanich demands it SPIRIT OF ARIZONA PROJECT By Andrew Conte and Luis Fabregas 23 Pittsburgh Tribune-Review By Ed DeLaney 39 Journalists can tap the IRS 990-T to review business earnings of nonprofits By Peter Panepento and Grant Williams ABOUT THE COVER The Chronicle of Philanthropy Photo illustration by 40 ON THE HOUSE Wendy Gray, The IRE Journal Lobbyists provide prime D.C. fundraising venues IRE thanks Newsday for By Ken Dilanian providing the original USA Today photographs for our tribute to Bob Greene. 42 Don’t miss valuable tips in IRE Awards book entries By Steve Weinberg Cover stories: The IRE Journal Pages 18-23 MAY /JUNE 2008 3 FEATURES THE IRE JOU R NAL FROM THE IRE OFFICES VOLUME 31 NUMBER 3 MA N AGI N G EDITOR & Greene’s passion and dedication PUBLICATIONS COORDI N ATOR Megan Means helped shape today’s IRE ART DIRECTOR Wendy Gray MARK HORVIT SE N IOR CO N TRIBUTI N G EDITOR IRE EX E CUTIV E DIR E CTOR Steve Weinberg CO N TRIBUTI N G LEGAL EDITOR RE lost part of its soul this spring. David Smallman I I didn’t know Bob Greene, other than by reputation. But you didn’t have to know the man to have been inspired by his career and humbled by his legacy. STORY EDITOR Joanna Imm Bob’s involvement with the organization he helped create remained strong, even in the final months of his life. I had only been in this job a few weeks when the first e-mail arrived, EDITORIAL ASSOCIATE and he was as supportive—and feisty—as I’d been told to expect. Tori Moss When Bob died on April 10, we knew that we shouldn’t—couldn’t—have the upcoming issue of the Journal hit the streets without acknowledging the loss felt by IRE and by our IRE profession. That’s why this edition of the Journal is coming to you a little later than usual. On a very tight deadline, I contacted eight writers whose lives and careers had been IRE EXECUTI V E DIRECTOR touched by Bob Greene in various ways. Each one of them agreed without hesitation to put Mark Horvit on hold whatever else they might have been doing and to write about Bob for this issue. The assembled team has some pretty strong bona fides in its own right—IRE founders, Arizona BOARD OF DIRECTORS Project veterans, former executive directors, decorated investigative reporters. They also have PRESIDE N T an affection and esteem for Bob Greene that shine through. Cheryl Phillips, The Seattle Times One of the vignettes (p. 21) talks about how unsure Bob was of the chances of survival for the organization he helped put on the map. It turns out that it took a good two decades for VICE PRESIDE N T Bob to accept the idea that, just maybe, IRE had a future. Alison Young, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution Well, 33 years after a group of investigative journalists gathered to create their own orga- nization, their legacy lives on. TREASURER You’ll find evidence in the growing membership roster, the stellar array of entries we received Lea Thompson for this year’s IRE Awards and the consistently excellent journalism that’s submitted every week to Extra!Extra!, our online showcase for investigative reporting (www.ire.org/extraextra). SECRETARY You’ll see the proof in the $3.75 million endowment that members continue to build, and Duff Wilson, The New York Times in the lineup of speakers from news organizations big and small that volunteered their time to inform, inspire and encourage each other at the 2008 IRE Conference in Miami. Manny Garcia, The Miami Herald And you’ll find it in our plans for the coming year. James V. Grimaldi, The Washington Post Our members and the foundations and organizations that support IRE’s work have made it Jason Grotto, Chicago Tribune possible for us to assemble a $1.4 million spending plan for 2008-09 that will help us continue Stephen C. Miller to fulfill our mission. (The final version of the budget will be printed in the next edition of Lise Olsen, Houston Chronicle the Journal). A full slate of workshops is planned that will bring important training to journalists around Marilyn Thompson, The Washington Post the country. The Database Library has the financial resources required to continue gathering Mc Nelly Torres, South Florida Sun-Sentinel electronic government records, whipping them into shape and getting them to reporters who Lawan Williams, KSHB-Kansas City, Mo. need them at very little cost. Ongoing improvements are under way for our Web site, with Phil Williams, WTVF-Nashville plans to add a variety of training materials and ways that members can interact. Everything isn’t rosy. These are tough eco- nomic times, and raising the funds necessary to keep IRE going is not easy. We face challenges The IRE Journal (ISSN0164-7016) is published Newsday six times a year by Investigative Reporters and in the coming year as we hope to expand some Editors, Inc. 138 Neff Annex, Missouri School of of our core programs and add new ones that Journalism, Columbia, MO 65211, 573-882-2042. help us better meet the needs of our more than E-mail: [email protected]. U.S. subscriptions are $70 for individuals, $85 for libraries and $125 4,400 members and fill some of the gaps that for institutions/businesses. International sub- shrinking newsroom budgets create. scriptions are $90 for individuals and $150 for That IRE is here to meet those challenges is, all others. Periodical postage paid at Jeffer- in no small part, a testament to Bob Greene. son City, Mo. Postmaster: Please send address changes to IRE. USPS #451-670 Mark Horvit is executive director of IRE and the National Institute for Computer-Assisted Report- © 2008 Investigative Reporters and Editors, Inc. ing. He can be reached through e-mail at [email protected] or by calling 573-882-2042. 4 THE IRE JOU R NAL IFEATURES R E N E W S Sigma Delta Chi Awards IRE members win Pulitzers The Society of Professional Journalists announced The 2008 Pulitzer prizes honored six IRE MEMBER NEWS the recipients of the 2007 Sigma Delta Chi Awards for members for a wide range of work, including Charlotte Observer team, including Bin- excellence in journalism April 14. investigative, international and local reporting: yamin Appelbaum, Ted Mellnik, Gary Walt Bogdanich and A Newspaper/Wire Services Jake Hooker of The New Schwab and Patrick Scott, received the George Bob Dyer of the Akron Beacon Journal in Akron, York Times received Polk Award for Economic Reporting for “Sold a Ohio, took first place in general column writing. the investigative Nightmare,” a year-long series that examined the A team from The New York Times, including Mark reporting award for causes of the community’s high rate of housing Mazzetti, took first place in Washington correspon- their coverage of dence for “Interrogation Secrets.” toxic ingredients in foreclosures. Todd Bensman, an investigative A team from The Post and Courier of Charleston, medicine and other projects reporter for The San Antonio Express- S.C., which included Ron Menchaca and Doug products imported from News, won the Texas Institute of Letters Stanley Pardue, took first place in non-deadline reporting China.

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