CONTENTS 18 SPORTS INVESTIGATIONS: THE IRE JOURNAL STEPPING INTO THE RING Proving NCAA violations in Minnesota basketball TABLE OF CONTENTS By Emilio Garcia-Ruiz MARCH/APRIL 2000 Checking backgrounds can put boxing on ropes By Ken Rodriguez Georgia prep football is big business, big bucks 4 FROM THE IRE OFFICES IRE Contest shines with important work By Mike Fish By Brant Houston 5 NEWS BRIEFS AND MEMBER NEWS 6 Conference plans under way – IRE’s 25th anniversary to be celebrated in N.Y. By Kate Miller 8 Probing military dangers – Use of super ammo raises health concerns 28 “All we need is access…” By Kathleen Sullivan Wiener book, ordeal teach FOIA lessons By Steve Weinberg 29 GUEST COLUMN Rapid Response Unit to investigate murders By Tony Pederson 30 Woodward warns against ego – Remember, it’s the work that’s important not the person doing the work, he says By Kate Miller 32 Dirty secret – Government as likely to pollute as to enforce environmental laws By David Armstrong 10 Familiar tools – new media Making investigative reporting work online By Rose Ciotta Cover story page 18 Sports Investigations: Stepping 11 LEGAL COLUMN into the ring First Amendment projects the openness of civil trials By Mary Ellen Roy Cover photo illustration by 14 “Last Gasp” – EPA threatens to crack Wendy Gray, The IRE Journal down while problem denied locally By Rusty Cawley 16 IRE 1999 Contest Winners MARCH/APRIL 2000 3 FROM THE IRE OFFICES THE IRE JOURNAL VOLUME 23 NUMBER 2 IRE Contest shines IRE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR Brant Houston with important work DIRECTOR OF PUBLICATIONS & EDITOR Len Bruzzese ART DIRECTOR ive hundred entries and countless hours of judging have resulted in the selection of this year’s winners of the IRE Wendy Gray BRANT HOUSTON F Awards. SENIOR CONTRIBUTING EDITOR It is a stellar group that emerged from a particularly competitive Steve Weinberg field in newspapers and broadcast. “I thought this year’s entries were very solid,” said IRE board member and contest CONTRIBUTING LEGAL EDITOR David Smallman judge Joel Kaplan. “There was some exceptional stuff.” The five judges all commented on the depth and breadth of the stories they saw and the EDITORIAL INTERN commitment of time and energy that was required of the news organizations. Kate Miller WTHR in Indianapolis gave a reporter the time to develop his database of six years of DUI (driving under the influence) arrests. The Toledo Blade spent almost two years on its beryllium project. TV stations in smaller markets managed to find the time to do IRE BOARD OF DIRECTORS investigative pieces while meeting the daily demand. IRE board members and contest judges Mike McGraw and Roberta Baskin said PRESIDENT Judy Miller, The Miami Herald they were especially impressed by the entries in the broadcast category of TV stations below the top 20 markets. VICE PRESIDENT McGraw added that “the decisions in large and medium newspapers were very difficult. David Dietz, TheStreet.com They were exhaustive and well-written. I thought all the finalists were well-written this year.” TREASURER Kaplan also noted that this year’s winners “had huge impacts:” Shawn McIntosh, The Clarion-Ledger • The Washington Post winner “Invisible Deaths” led to major changes in the care of SECRETARY retarded citizens in Washington, D.C. Ed Delaney, Barnes and Thornburg • The Times Herald-Record of Middletown, N.Y., work on sheriff deputies’ time cards led to dismissals. Rosemary Armao, Sarasota Herald-Tribune • The Dayton Daily News’ work on unsafe military aircraft spurred revisions in the Roberta Baskin, ABC News repair system. David Boardman, The Seattle Times The judges also were impressed by the entries in the Freedom of Information Mark Lagerkvist, News 12 Long Island category. Rose Ciotta, The Philadelphia Inquirer “FOI is important to IRE’s agenda,” Kaplan said. “There were great stories and Lisa Getter, Los Angeles Times books in this category.” Stephen Miller, The New York Times Kaplan pointed out that the San Francisco Bay Guardian not only pushed to get access Joel Kaplan, Syracuse University to records, but showed how the records could be used for stories in the public interest. Mike McGraw, The Kansas City Star APBnews.com led the charge to place federal judges’ disclosure forms on the Web and this Drew Sullivan, The Tennessean month the judges announced they would do so after initially refusing to do so. The intrepid Willy Stern of The Nashville Scene won a second straight award in the Local Circulation Weeklies category. Russ Carollo of Dayton continued winning for his work on the U.S. military. WFAA in Dallas won two IRE certificates in one year. The IRE Journal (ISSN0164-7016) is pub- lished six times a year by Investigative The judges also were excited about the future of the online category in which they Reporters and Editors, Inc. 138 Neff gave a special citation to APBnews.com Annex, Missouri School of Journalism, “It’s clear that more and more will be entering the contest,” Kaplan said. Columbia, MO 65211, 573-882-2042. E-mail: [email protected]. Subscriptions are However, the judges were disappointed in the small number of entries in magazines, $40 in the U.S., $60 for institutions and those books, radio and student categories. outside the U.S. Periodical postage paid CONTINUED ON PAGE 31 × at Columbia, MO. Postmaster: Please send address changes to IRE. USPS #4516708 Brant Houston is executive director of IRE and the National Institute for Computer-Assisted Reporting. He can be reached through e-mail at [email protected] or by calling 573-882-2042. 4 THE IRE JOURNAL I R E N E W S New Census workshops Advanced CAR seminar will offer a head start planned for Chapel Hill MEMBER NEWS Census 2000 is about to kick off, but IRE and NICAR will hold an advanced you still have time to get ready to use this boot camp at the University of North Carolina nvestigative reporter Paul Adrian has once-a-decade flood of information. Become at Chapel Hill. The May 14-18 seminar is I moved from WTNH-TV in Connecticut to one of the smart reporters already getting aimed at strengthening the skills of reporters The News of Texas-TXN, headquartered in San ready by attending one of IRE and NICAR’s who want to move beyond basic computer- Census 2000 seminars. These intensive two- assisted reporting. Reporters should know Antonio. Adrian will be reporting out of Austin. day sessions will be a fast-track lesson on what spreadsheet and database manager applications Vince Beiser is now senior editor at Mother reporters need to know to start producing stories and have experience in computer-assisted Jones’ online sister publication, The MoJo Wire when the data begins to emerge. reporting. at motherjones.com. Richard J. Dalton Jr. Instructors will be Paul Overberg, a database Reporters participating in the seminar will now writes computer-assisted reporting stories editor at USA Today, and Steve Doig, the former be able to take statistics and craft them into Miami Herald staffer who now teaches computer- stories that count. for Newsday’s enterprise team. He previously assisted reporting at Arizona State University. Information is available at www.ire.org/ covered technology for the paper’s business The topics they’ll cover will include census story training/chapelhill.html on the IRE Web site. desk. Paul D’Ambrosio has been named ideas, the data rollout schedule, census definition investigations editor at the Asbury Park (NJ) Press, and geography, mapping, reapportionment, April Uplink addresses where he has been for 19 years. He will head a getting the data, making comparisons to 1990, gun-related databases three-member I-team. Prior to his appointment, the new race categories and the controversy over Gun laws and gun-related crimes are big he was the paper’s database editor. Norman using adjusted census counts. issues in newsrooms around the nation. The The first three workshops set are: April issue of Uplink offers some helpful Green was honored at the NAACP’s 31st Image • Tempe, Ariz. – April 8-9 computer-assisted reporting tips for reporters Awards for his MTV True Life investigative • Columbia, Mo. – Aug. 5-6 covering these issues. documentary, “Driving While Black,” which won • College Park, Md. – Dec. 9-10 David Olinger explains how he and fellow in the category of Outstanding News, Talk or More details are available at www.ire.org. reporters at The Denver Post used ATF data- Information Special. Phoebe Wall Howard bases to put together two three-day series on the New home mortgage data firearms trade. The first used the databases to is now political editor of The Fresno Bee where available in data library trace guns with high-capacity magazines back she has been since 1995. She is also a political The Home Mortgage Disclosure Act to the police. The Post’s second series followed columnist at the newspaper. Susan Kelleher (HMDA) of 1975 requires all banks, savings the same guns through several transactions has left The Orange County Register and is now and loans, savings banks and credit unions and crime scenes. a reporter on the investigations team at The with assets over $10 million and offices in Sarah Cohen of The Washington Post metropolitan areas to report mortgage applica- describes a battle with the ATF over data on Seattle Times. AP correspondent John Kelly tions. Mortgage companies owned by deposi- crime guns and how this data can be useful has moved to the Champaign, Ill., bureau from tory institutions or their holding companies in tracing guns recovered by the police. Janet the Indianapolis bureau. He will cover east- also fall under the law.