The Dallas Morning News ran a probing article that examines how the Dallas Police Department classifies what most people would think of as burglaries. The newspaper found that the police department often called it vandalism if someone broke into a home but didn’t take anything.

It sounds like Vivek Kundra, the federal government’s first chief information officer gets the importance of releasing unadulterated data.

In an in-depth interview with Wired, Kundra says, “The core principles are using open standards, presenting raw data, and distributing it in as many formats as possible. Public policy decisions are made using the data anyway, but the raw data is important because if it is massaged too much, you can lose the big issues.”

The federal government launched Data.gov a little less than a month ago with raw databases, data extraction tools and widgets and pledged to bring "unprecedented access to government information." The White House said the site would allow "unfiltered access to government data streams in machine-readable formats."

Many journalists who use the Freedom of Information Act to get data have suffered long under the Bush administration.

Last month, I provided some tips for making the switch to Microsoft Excel 2007 spreadsheet. Here are some things you need to know about Access 2007, the updated version of Microsoft’s desktop database manager.
Just like Excel 2007, Access uses Microsoft’s new Tab, Ribbon and Button setup to organize functions that had been stored under menus. (Click images to enlarge for a better detail view.)

Microsoft gave Excel, its spreadsheet program, an extreme interface makeover as part of the overhaul of its Office 2007 software suite. Excel users accustomed to the menus and wizards of old will no doubt find the Ribbon\Tab\Button interface daunting at first. But, after spending time with the program, most journalists doing CAR will find that the interface provides a quicker way to find key functions.

Now that it’s high political season, it’s a perfect time to prepare for reporting on the election. If you take a few steps to get ready, you’ll be able to cut through the spin on election night and the days after and show how the candidates fared in your area. So, here are some tips for laying the foundation now: