COOL TOOL: Poligraft Helps Journos Sniff out Slanted Sources

June 13, 2012–The system was developed by the Sunlight Foundation, the National Institute on Money in State Politics, and the Center for Responsive Politics. Just paste in some text or the Web address of an online article, and within seconds Poligraft supplies much of the missing context.

TOOLBOX: Data Journalism Handbook Released

May 16, 2012–Environmental reporters with ambitions to do investigative projects using databases will find an enormously rich collection of ideas, tips, examples, and tools in the new book released by the Open Knowledge Foundation and the European Journalism Centre.

Cool Data Tools: EPA Releases NEPAssist Mapper

May 2, 2012–For reporters wanting to pry open the worm-cans of local environmental stories, EPA's new GIS tool lets you map Environmental Impact Statements project information against a rich backdrop: layer after layer of geographic, demographic, environmental, and economic context. And, it can be used in conjunction with EJView, EPA's environmental justice online mapping tool.

Web Tool Brings Documents to Life

April 15, 2012–Read this Reporter's Toolbox excerpt from the Spring issue of SEJournal: Amanda Hickman explains how the web-based tool DocumentCloud, founded in 2009 with a Knight News Challenge grant, lets journalists engage with the public and knowledgeable sources. Use it to analyze, annotate, and publish the documents behind your reporting.

RTK Net Reporting Tools Still Sharp After Many Years

April 4, 2012–The Right-To-Know Network has been around since 1989. Today, with a modern and searchable Web interface, it offers access to some data that reporters would be hard put to find anywhere else. Most important is its collection of Risk Management Plans — which chemical plants are required to maintain to prevent, prepare for, and respond to toxic disasters.

Data Tools: Journalists' One-Stop Shopping for Ethics Investigations?

March 21, 2012–At Ethics.gov, search several databases with a single search-term entry, potentially speeding discovery of information. It includes data on lobbying registrations, political action committees, contributions to candidates, travel reports, foreign agents registrations, and more. But some open-government advocates consider it merely a down payment on a more comprehensive system.

Consortium Launches Web Site on Feedlot Air Pollution

February 15, 2012–The confidential National Air Quality Site Assessment Tool helps the livestock owner/operator figure out how changing on-site practices can reduce emissions of ammonia, methane, volatile organic compounds, hydrogen sulfide, fine particulates, and odors. This may be useful for journalists; whether an owner/operator will discuss the details of their operation or not, there's a story.

Maplight Provides More Ways To Link Money and Politics

February 15, 2012–The organization Maplight now offers three additional ways of looking at its data. Over 14 million records cover ties between lobbying money, legislators, and either all legislation or that relating to several environmental topics. This information can help you better cover Congressional election races of interest to your audience.

EPA Greenhouse Data Site Offers Bounty of Local Stories

January 12, 2012–The searchable database is finally being published online for the first time after Congress mandated it in a rider to the 2008 omnibus appropriations bill. EPA compromised after protests from industry, limiting it to only the largest emitters. Pick only emitters in certain states. Focus on emissions of each of the six greenhouse gases it includes — or to customize views according to size of emission or emitting industry.

Toolbox: New CPR Database Helps You Track Secret Industry-OMB Meetings

November 30, 2011–Although details of what is said between lobbyists and the White House officials who rewrite agency rules remain largely secret, the Center for Progressive Reform's searchable database allows you to track whether OMB is meeting its deadlines, whether a meeting is linked to an OIRA regulatory review, and whether OIRA changed the rule.