Fall 2011 Volume 34 Number 4 PROTECTING CONSUMERS PHANTOM JOBS PUBLIC ASSISTANCE DRUGGING KIDS How many people really Panamanian website Tracking the use get work thanks to collects tips on of antipsychotics business incentives? crime, corruption on juveniles in jail foodsafety.news21.com HOW SAFE IS YOUR FOOD? Thousands of Americans are sickened or die each year as a result of food-borne illnesses. A flawed and fragmented regulatory system plagued by politics and confusion is at least partly to blame. This report examines what’s being done - and what’s not being done - to prevent, detect and respond to food-borne illness outbreaks. News21 is headquartered at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University. CONTENTS 16 PROTECTING CONSUMERS 17 TOOLS, TACTICS THE IRE JOURNAL Help reporters expose fraud FALL 2011 By Jackie Callaway WFTS-TV, Tampa 19 CHILD PRODUCTS Rolling investigation finds crib bumper pads 4 AWARDS, WEBSITE CHANGE WITH THE TIMES can endanger babies By Mark Horvit By Ellen Gabler IRE Executive Director Chicago Tribune 6 PHANTOM JOBS 22 DEADLY WIPES Promises, tax breaks Company with safety violations fail to boost economy linked to contaminated product By Bob Segall By Raquel Rutledge and Rick Barrett WTHR-TV, Indianapolis Milwaukee Journal Sentinel 8 DANGER AT WORK 24 IRE RESOURCES Workplace safety laws fail to protect workers 25 SCOURING MAUDE DATA By John Ryan TO FIND FAULTY METAL HIPS KUOW Puget Sound Public Radio By Janet Roberts The New York Times 10 PILL PUSHERS Doctors prescribe heavy 26 CROWDSOURCING CRIME NEWS antipsychotics to jailed kids Interactive website in Panama in poorly monitored system connects citizens and journalists By Michael LaForgia By Jorge Luis Sierra The Palm Beach Post 29 BORDER CROSSINGS 12 SUSPICIOUS VISAS Student news project High foreign enrollment explores the ‘Mexodus’ triggers investigation to the El Paso region of unaccredited schools By Lourdes Cardenas By Lisa M. Krieger Somos Frontera / El Paso Times San Jose Mercury News 31 FOI FILES 14 ROGUE TEACHERS Reaction to ‘fracking’ investigation Survey finds cheating typifies journalists’ challenges in Michigan classrooms By Charles N. Davis By Chastity Pratt Dawsey and Kristi Tanner Missouri School of Journalism Detroit Free Press 32 SNAPSHOTS FROM OUR BLOGS The government claims it's PROTECTING CONSUMERS: looking out for consumers, but often it takes a journalist to expose problems and spur action. Pages 16-24 FALL 2011 3 THE IRE JOURNAL FROM THE IRE OFFICE VOLUMEOLUME 3344 | | NUMBERUMBER 42 Opening up open government MANAGIAGING EDITORDITOR DougMark HaddixHorvit Awards, website change BY MARK HORVIT AARRTT DDIRECTORIRECTOR IRE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR WendyWendy GGrayray with the times CONTRIBUTITRIBUTING LEGALEGAL EDITORDITOR DavidDavid SmallmanSmallman BY MhaveARK some HORVI reservationsT about open government. EDITORIALDITORIAL ASSOCIATESSOCIATE AND STORYTORY EDITORDITOR IRE IE realizeXecUT thatIVE DsoundsIRecto nutsR coming from the guy running IRE. But hear me out. Aaron Cooper I Alecia Swasy Last month I participated in the Media Access to Government Information Conference, hosted by the National Archives and sponsored by the DeWitt Wallace Center for Media and Democracy at Duke University. his is a season of evolution at IRE. IREIRE It was a chance for journalists and government officials to get together and talk about issues surrounding open Trecords.We have rebuilt our IRE Awards categories to better reflect the ways in which news is gathered and pre- sented.I learned And we a greathave launcheddeal during a newthe daylongwebsite meetingthat is easier and tomet navigate, some government makes it easier officials for you who to takeare workingadvantage to IREIRE EXECUTIXECUTIVE DIRECTORIRECTOR ofmake our resourcesdata and documentsand gives you more more available control to over the public.your membership. MarkMark HHorvitorvit WhyBut didI also we heard revamp a dishearteningthe IRE Awards? theme Simple: emerge our industryfrom some is changing speakers andand we audience needed members, to change whowith talkedit. Peri - odicallyabout a overshift inthe emphasis past three from decades, handling the openawards records categories requests have to been the open altered government and the entry initiative. guidelines revised, BOARDBOARD OFOF DIRECTORSDIRECTORS as circulationNo doubt, and that viewership effort is vitally trends important. changed Ifand agencies as the workat the of federal our members or state levelsevolved. voluntarily I can make make a pretty data andgood argumentdocuments that publicly never beforeavailable, has thatthe newsbenefits business everyone. changed so much in such a short period of time, as technol- PPRESIDERESIDENTNT ogy Buthas severaloffered timesnew ways during to thegather day, and speakers present or investigative audience members work while came economic back to cutbacksthe idea thathave the squeezed open Manny Garcia,Alison El Nuevo Young, Herald/The USA Today Miami Herald resourcesgovernment and initiative helped encouragesomehow lessensreporting the partnerships importance thatof open crossed records platforms laws. FOIA and media has problems? types. Contest No need judges to and IRE members were finding it increasingly difficult to put many contest entries into our existing categories. VVICEICE PPRESIDENTRESIDENT worry about that, because data is being made available for you without the need to ask for it. Repeatedly, the For example, online organizations were restricted to one category, regardless of the type of work they did or the MannyAndrew Garcia, Donohue, El Nuevo voiceofsandiego.org Herald/The Miami Herald wonders of such “proactive release” were proclaimed. size Maybeof the organization. that would be OK if open government initiatives really opened government. But as we’ve seen during TTREASURERREASURER theMore past thancouple a year of years, ago, thein too IRE many Board cases charged that’s the not contest what happens. committee with the task of examining whether our DavidDavid CayCay Johnston,Johnston, Reuters author contestThe shouldObama change administration to reflect launched the times. with As a promisepart of that of makingeffort, governmentwe surveyed datamembership. more available. You told That us haswhat elementsoccurred of in the some contest important were importantways. But to too you often – including agencies entry make categories select databases that acknowledge – or only thatportions different of those orga - SSECRETARYECRETARY nizationsdatabases have – publicly different available. resources. And Many oftentimes, of you alsothe datalet us can know be thatinteracted you found with itonly frustrating by using to interfacesforce your built work SarahPhil Cohen, Williams, Duke WTVF-TV University intoby the our government existing categories, that don’t which include weren’t back keydesigned elements. to encompass projects in which newspapers shot video, broadcastersThat’s not built open multimedia government. websites, It’s selective radio access, stations and partnered the greatest with problem print organizations is that the access and onlineis being news selected orga - Sarah Cohen, Duke University nizationsby those teamedwho control up with the existinginformation. media. Robert Cribb, Toronto Star After much debate, we’ve come up with a model that we believe not only addresses the way media operate Robert Cribb, Toronto Star Gary Bass, executive director of OMB Watch, noted that while there have been many positive signs since Leonard Downie Jr., The Washington Post today, but which is flexible enough to handle further evolution. Andrew Donohue, voiceofsandiego.org Obama promised greater transparency, “something isn’t quite right ….It’s not the transformative government we’dThe hoped” basic concept we were is getting.simple: Instead of basing categories on media type – newspaper, TV broadcaster, etc. – LeonardJosh Meyer, Downie Northwestern Jr., The Washington University Post we areEven grouping if the initiative entries by were the workingnature of spectacularly, the work itself: policies like this are too dependent on the will and the LiseAron Olsen,Pilhofer, The The Houston New York Chronicle Times whims• Print/Online of those in text power. (written Many word) of the efforts Obama launched two years ago are now being cut back severely Lea Thompson,Cheryl Phillips, broadcast journalist/producer The Seattle Times by• a Broadcast/Video Congress with little interest in spending public dollars to make information about how it’s spending those AronMc Pilhofer,Nelly Torres, The NewFlorida York Center Times dollars• Radio/Audio public. It’s a disheartening development, and it shows the true colors of too many of those in power. Lea Thompson,for Investigative broadcast Reportingjournalist/producer • TheMultiplatform bottom line is that any policy that relies too much on government to open itself is flawed, because it Matt Waite,Mc Nelly University Torres, ofFlorida Nebrask Centera-Lincoln putsAnd the there balance are three of power size categories:in the wrong small, half mediumof the equation. and large. FOIA (For and a definition state open of records each category, laws let seethe publicour web - forPhil Investigative Williams, WTVF-TV Reporting sitedecide at www.ire.org). what it wants A and large then newspaper, demand it.national online-only organization or network broadcaster can enter the large “Print/Online text” category if the focus of the project is a written story; a Top 20 market broadcaster