{
  "id": "2002-mayjune-car-projects-garner-top-honors",
  "slug": "2002-mayjune-car-projects-garner-top-honors",
  "url": "https://dwillis.github.io/uplink/article/2002-mayjune-car-projects-garner-top-honors.html",
  "year": 2002,
  "month": "May/June",
  "monthNum": 5,
  "headline": "CAR projects garner top honors",
  "kicker": "",
  "author_name": "",
  "author_title": "",
  "affiliation": "",
  "summary": "The Washington Post and a University of Missouri student received top investigative reporting honors for data-driven projects on child protection failures and storm water permitting.",
  "keywords": [
    "awards",
    "investigative",
    "journalism"
  ],
  "topics": [
    "Investigative Methods",
    "Crime & Justice",
    "Data & Databases"
  ],
  "technologies": [],
  "full_text": "Sari Horwitz, Scott Higham and Sarah Cohen of The Washington Post won a prestigious Investigative Reporters and Editors medal for exploring the deaths of children in the District of Columbia. For the same series, the Post team won the 2002 Pulitzer Prize for investigative reporting. A student IRE Award went to University of Missouri School of Journalism graduate Mary Jo Sylvester, now at the Center for Public Integrity. Both Sylvester and Post database editor Cohen have worked with IRE and NICAR. Cohen is a former training director for IRE and NICAR. Sylvester, as a graduate student, served as IRE and NICAR data library administrator. She's now the database editor for the Center for Public Integrity. The Post team discovered that 229 children died during a seven-year period after their dangerous family situations came to the attention of the district's child protection system. Despite strict confidentiality laws, the team pieced together records for 180 of those deaths, compiled them into a database and found that one in five – mostly infants and toddlers – lost their lives after government workers failed to take key preventive action or placed the children in unsafe homes or institutions. \"The project, which has resulted in wide-ranging reforms, answers the highest call of investigative journalism,\" the IRE Award judges said in granting the medal. Sylvester won the student award for \"A Flood of Problems.\" Her package for the Columbia Missourian exposed problems with a local storm water permitting system, the consequences for residents and why readers should care. The May-June 2002 edition of The IRE Journal includes a complete listing of winners. The annual awards of IRE – a 4,200 member professional organization – recognize outstanding investigative work in print, broadcast, online media and for work furthering freedom of information. The awards will be presented during a June 1 luncheon at the IRE Annual Conference in San Francisco.",
  "provenance": {
    "extracted_by": "pre-v2",
    "extracted_at": "",
    "verified": true
  },
  "similar": [
    {
      "slug": "1996-may-on-the-internet-awards-honors-and-prizes",
      "score": 0.174
    },
    {
      "slug": "2006-september-october-time-for-meyer-awards",
      "score": 0.171
    },
    {
      "slug": "2004-september-october-readmetxt",
      "score": 0.158
    },
    {
      "slug": "1999-december-the-1999-ire-awards",
      "score": 0.155
    },
    {
      "slug": "1998-october-jobs-and-online-car-projects-notices",
      "score": 0.145
    }
  ],
  "html_url": "https://dwillis.github.io/uplink/article/2002-mayjune-car-projects-garner-top-honors.html",
  "json_url": "https://dwillis.github.io/uplink/article/2002-mayjune-car-projects-garner-top-honors.json"
}