With the just-upgraded version of the National Bridge Inventory available through NICAR, journalists have a resource for quick-hit bridge status stories or more long-term projects. The NICAR version of the database includes story ideas, warnings and suggestions, and archival data back to 1994. (12.12.07)
More on InfrastructureCity liability settlements worth a look
Every day, on average, a city vehicle or two hits something in this corner of Virginia. Sometimes it’s a mailbox. Sometimes it’s another car. Sometimes it’s a person. A database listing all these fender benders, not to mention sewer backups and school mishaps, led to the story, "An Accident a Day." (10.19.07)
Incorporating a handful of alternative search tools into your daily reporting routine should help you work faster, more efficiently and toward finding those esoteric bits of information that separate a good story from a spectacular achievement. (10.30.07)
Basic queries show nationwide trends in HMDA data
The goal was to answer authoritatively a series of straightforward questions that we figured more and more Americans were asking as the mortgage meltdown worsened. (12.23.07)
Felons issued gun
hunting licenses
Convicted felons in Wisconsin purchased gun deer-hunting licenses in 2006 despite a state law that bans them for life from possessing firearms. (12.21.07)
Developments collide with fire risks in West
Wildfires in the West are getting bigger, more frequent and more expensive to put out. But that hasn’t stopped enough people to fill a city the size of Atlanta from moving to the forests and scrubby hillsides that are in the most peril. (08.27.07)