1. Investigating a person, place or entity
JRN275
Quinnipiac University
Fall 2017
Dr. Molly Yanity

2. Overview Private individuals leave a trail of public records
Elected officials leave many searchable documents that could reveal waste, corruption
Government reports, annual reports offer linkage and opportunity for stories
Reporters have written and unwritten ethics

3. Investigating A Private Person
Tracing names: database searches
Facebook, Instagram
Newspaper archive
LexisNexis Accurint
Date-of-Birth Records
County Recorder’s of Clerk of Courts office
Property ownership, transfers, purchases

4. Private Person (cont.) Licensure Yearbooks
State licenses (medicine, real estate broker, barber, exterminator, surveyor, appraiser, insurance agent, pharmacist, etc.)
National accrediting bodies/agencies
Yearbooks
Political Activity - voting records
Published Works

5. Private Person (cont.) Court Records Civil court records - lawsuits
Divorce records - clerk of courts
Sometimes sealed, but you can request access
Probate court records - estate settlements, relatives, inherited property
Federal courts - taxes, bankruptcies

6. Private Person (cont.) Death records
Social Security Administration Death Master File
(search fee)
Obituaries
Business holdings - board members in annual reports

7. Public Officials All private resources before he/she went “public”
Petitions
Campaign documents
Financial disclosure
Tax returns do not have to be disclosed (but candidates often do)
Financial disclosure for federal election rules

8. Public Officials (cont.)
If elected, official documents escalate
Payroll, expenses & budgets, public meeting activities, internal communications

9. Businesses Not-for-profit Organizations
IRS 990 forms – includes key officers, salaries, contact information as well as the organization’s financial statements. It also includes essential information on finances, assets, investments and expenditures, staffing changes over time and sub-organizations. The footnotes can help generate story ideas. 
Charitable purpose annual reports
ProPublica’s NonProfit Finder
Foundation Center’s 990 Finder

10. Businesses For-profit Businesses
Personal corporations - watch for the name
Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC) has a database called EDGAR
Moody’s Investor Services
Partnerships, limited partnerships, limited liability corporations
Private - private shareholders, but look for court cases, licenses, public contracts, published reports
Publicly traded - SEC filings

11. Places Property ownership Inspection reports, EPA Google Maps/Old maps
Aerial photography
History

12. Ethics Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ) rules
Typical “house rules” in a newsroom:
Certification - no plagiarism
Identification - as a reporter
Truth - no staging or altering
Honesty - no payola
Responsibility - no threats
Independence - don’t get used
Confirmation - attribution
Balance - show both sides