Wednesday, May 06, 2009
The Web's Got the Power!
The third and final installment of tips, tricks and sites to check out from the New England First Amendment Coalition's Freedom of Information/Investigative Journalism Seminar. Check out the first and second installments as well.Government Contracts: http://www.usaspending.gov/
- search by company, state, agency, product, or congressional district and export the data to a spreadsheet
- know these Web sites can be incomplete; cross check with press releases, news stories, agency Web sites and SEC filings
- Check out the S-1 reports from companies selling stock; the 10-Q quarterly filings; the 10-K annual report; the Def-14 proxy that is filed before a shareholder meeting and the 8K used for special reports and announcements
- Other sites to check out:
- www.10kwizard.com (subscription)
- www.secfilings.com (subscription)
- Finance.yahoo.com (Free and has other features for following companies)
- www.guidestar.com
- Foundationcenter.org
- Nccs.urban.org/database/index.cfm
- Philanthropy.com (Chronicle of Philanthropy –– offers a free subscription to journalists)
- File an annual report with the Labor Department called an LM-2
- Find them here: http://erds.dol-esa.gov/query/getOrgQry.do
For searching multiple sites at once:
- Zoominfo: http://www.zoominfo.com
- Pipl: http://www.pipl.com
- Icerocket: http://www.icerocket.com
- Domain Tools http://www.domaintools.com
- Allwhois http://www.allwhois.com
- The Wayback Machine: www.archive.org/index.php
- Cybercemetery: http://govinfo.library.unt.edu/default.htm
- GPO Access GAO reports: http://www.gpoaccess.gov/gaoreports/index.html
- FedStats: http://www.fedstats.gov/
- NationMaster http://www.nationmaster.com
- Excluded Parties List System (GAO) http://www.epls.gov/
- Federal contracts http://www.usaspending.gov
- National Sex Offender Public Registry: http://www.nsopr.gov
- Center for Responsive Politics: http://www.opensecrets.org/
- State financial disclosure at Center for Public Integrity: http://www.publicintegrity.org/StateDisclosure/
- Lobbying Disclosure Act Database http://soprweb.senate.gov/
- Congressional staff salaries/Congressional travel http://www.legistorm.com
- Congressional travel reports from the original source: http://soprweb.senate.gov/giftrule/
- Maplight (combines contributions and voting records): http://www.maplight.org
- Official government site for campaign finance data: www.fec.gov/disclosure.shmtl
Labels: FOIA, investigative journalism, seminars/workshops, Web sites
continue...Friday, April 10, 2009
Master Teachers
A quick shout out to Ten95er Darren who has been live blogging the Master's Tournament for his paper since the tourney kicked off yesterday.For those who are golf inept, a primer (via Wiki): The Masters Tournament, also known as The Masters, or The U.S. Masters outside of the United States, is one of four major championships in men's professional golf. Scheduled for the first full week of April, it is the first of the majors to be played each year. It is held each year at the same location, Augusta national Golf Club in Georgia. The winner of each tournament is awarded a green jacket, which must be returned to the clubhouse after a year.
Darren is showcasing his vast golf knowledge while peppering his coverage with nostalgia, cool facts and a little humor. Check out a few of the posts that stood out to me from Day 1 coverage:
11:41 -- Anyone but me still get the chills when you hear Verne Lundquist's 1986 call of Jack Nicklaus's birdie putt on No. 17? "Yessss, sir!" Crazy.
11:54 -- One of the things that I love about this tournament is its reverence for its past champions. You can see their competitive drive; no one is content to just show up, play for two days. Case in point: 1976 champion Raymond Floyd just missed a birdie try that would have moved him to 3-over par. His knees buckled, he grimaced, he hated settling for par. That's awesome.
12:50 -- Don't underestimate the solid par the ever-eclectic Shingo Katayama just made on No. 11. He's keeping pace nicely with the field's fast start, at 2-under. (update: He just stuck a pin-high iron on the par-3 12th to about three feet. Should be an easy birdie.)
I don't really know what that last post means, but it sounds authoritative, doesn't it?
In addition to blogging the tournament by the hole (pause), Darren is Twittering (follow him here) and word on the street is that he's done some live chats as well. He's like a little bald multimedia machine.
He's back at it again today covering Day 2. Fore!
Labels: breaking news, fun, inspiration, online journalism, sports, technology, Web sites, youtube
continue...Monday, January 19, 2009
Inauguration Day for the rest of us
I'm not in the Capitol, but that doesn't mean there's a void of inauguration coverage out there for those who will have to miss out on the historic event.The New York Times put together an interactive time line of presidential inauguration speeches using the word bubble feature seen often in blogs. As you click on each president, you see which words he used most, and which words he used more in that speech than he did normally. Pretty sweet.
They also had this story -- which I heard about on NPR -- about how the president can choose whether to affirm his oath, or swear to it.
I'll admit, though, the Washington Post has been my go-to guide for all things Obama. I figure, who else better to cover Washington than the Washington paper? Their blog, 44: A Transition to Power, is bookmarked on my toolbar. Lots of cool, short stories with breaking news and fascinating little tidbits about PEOTUS.
Here's a by the numbers breakdown of the resources and support needed to pull off the inauguration compiled by the Washington Times.
In case you miss the entire thing all together, I'm sure this guy will be doing a recap of the highlights. Here's some of his earlier work. Not bad, huh?
And just for the hood's sake, a little something in case you need a soundtrack to the nonstop TV coverage on the inauguration weekend. And if you're looking for something a little more soulful? Try this. Or this.
Labels: DC, fun, inauguration, multimedia, NPR, Obama, president, Washington, Web sites, youtube
continue...Wednesday, December 17, 2008
MediaNews execs speak out, stating the obvious
"MediaNews Sees Bad Timing on Newspapers, Not Bad Bet..." reads a NY Times headline.Really? Bad timing? Hmmm ... That's an interesting way to put it.
MediaNews has not had a good year. But then again, neither has Tribune, McClatchy, Gannett ... the list goes on ...
And like this country's president, newspaper execs seem to be allowing sobered introspective reflections to slip from their usually mum lips.
Exhibit A:
Many current and former Mercury News executives say that a lack of investment by Knight Ridder and MediaNews have given the paper a fairly ordinary Web site that has been slow to adopt practices that keep readers coming back many times a day, like publishing articles online well before they appear in print, updating them frequently, blogging and posting videos.For real? Really? Hmmm ... so how long have executives held that opinion? Is this a recent epiphany?
... I'll go out on a limb and assume that said executives are preparing to invest in these "ordinary Web sites that have been slow to adopt practices that keeps readers coming back" ... right? Right.
(Sighs.)
Labels: frustration, layoffs, the industry, Web sites
continue...