Archives for February, 2011

Federal judge says unsearchable PDFs 'not sufficient disclosure'

Posted: Feb. 8, 2011 | Tags: Shira A. Sheindlin

We will see how long it lasts in higher courts, but a federal district judge in New York seems to have struck a huge blow for common sense when it comes to how federal agencies respond to Freedom of Information Act requests for electronic records.

U.S. District Judge Shira A. Scheindlin ruled last week that the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency and other federal agencies had wrongly turned over information in unsearchable PDF files.

Yes, that is the sound of thousands of journalists rejoicing and many public officials weeping. But the death of PDFs — especially ones that can’t ...

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Insiders reveal more airline maintenance problems

Posted: Feb. 3, 2011 | Tags: Investigative Reporting Workshop

The Jan. 18 broadcast of Flying Cheaper, which showed how major airlines’ outsourcing of maintenance has led to safety concerns, ignited a lively debate on FRONTLINE's discussion board. And once again, we have received tips from insiders who have furthered our reporting. The following recent post alerted us to potentially more problems with US Airways planes serviced at ST Aerospace Mobile, which was the focus of Flying Cheaper:

“k Lets start a little list here! These are just the things I have seen in our station the past three weeks. The one thing these aircraft have in common is ...

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Recent Posts

New rules still don't cover immigrants

A zero-tolerance policy and a set of new rules to protect against sexual assault and rape in prisons nationwide were announced Thursday by the Justice Department. The new rules come nearly a decade after Congress mandated new rape protections for those behind bars under the Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA) of 2003. But the new regulations won't immediately impact the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees immigration detention centers, as it still has 120 days to write its own rules to comply with PREA and another 240 days to finalize them.

Knight moves to support donor transparency

The Knight Foundation has taken a major step in promoting transparency by requiring journalism and nonprofit grant seekers to disclose more information about their donors.

'Honor and privilege' to work with Mike Wallace

Charles Lewis, executive editor of the Investigative Reporting Workshop, remembers Mike Wallace. Lewis worked alongside Wallace at "60 Minutes."


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