Bob Mahlburg, who worked at newspapers in Texas and Florida, is now a financial investigator for the Florida Attorney General, Economic Crimes Division.

Andrew McIntosh has been named Investigations Desk Editor for the Montreal-based QMI Agency, a newly launched multimedia news service of Quebecor Media, a Canadian-based media company. Previously, McIntosh was a senior writer and investigative reporter with The Sacramento Bee.

By Chris Ison University of Minnesota

By G.W. Schulz Center for Investigative Reporting

Nearly $70,000 worth of surveillance gear left unused in its original packaging by a county north of San Francisco. A $2,300 plasma TV for university cops. More than $1.3 million spent without maintaining proper documentation to show where it went. Millions more in bomb-disposal robots and new communications systems bought from suppliers who weren’t forced to compete.

For the first time, IRE has turned its annual list of investigative books into an online database. More than 250 books published in 2009 made the list, which can be sorted by title, author and publisher. The annual list is compiled by Steve Weinberg, senior contributing editor of The IRE Journal.  A PDF suitable for printing also is available.

Several IRE members were honored with the Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University awards for excellence in broadcast journalism. They are:

Kristin Carlson and WCAX-TV, Burlington, for “Foreigners on the Farm.”

Mark Greenblatt and KHOU-TV, Houston, for “Under Fire: Discrimination and Corruption in the Texas National Guard.”

Tony Kovaleski and KMGH-TV, Denver, for “33 Minutes to 34 Right.”

By Mike McGraw
The Kansas City Star

This is a "Collected Wisdom" centerpiece story from The IRE Journal, Fall 2009

Debbie Cenziper and Robert O’Harrow Jr, both reporters at the Washington Post, have been named to the paper’s investigative staff.

California Watch, a project of the Center for Investigative Reporting, announced its investigative team. They are: Mark Katches, editorial director, Robert Salladay, contributing editor, Lance Williams, senior investigative reporter, and investigative reporters Christina Jewett, Chase Davis, Erica Perez, Agustin Armendariz and Corey Johnson. Multimedia producers are Lisa Pickoff-White and Mark Luckie.

Jim Parsons, Kendall Cross and Michael Lazorko, WTAE-TV, Pittsburgh, received first place, outstanding story, for small-market television, from the Society of Environmental Journalists, for their report on natural gas drilling’s impact on water supplies.