NewsTrain instructor Jill Riepenhoff offers up a plethora of public databases that beat reporters can mine for enterprise stories, whether they cover sports, business, health, education, government or cops and courts. She also offers four ways to find additional databases. Riepenhoff, projects reporter for The Columbus Dispatch, gave this presentation called Data-Driven Enterprise off Your Beat as part of the NewsTrain workshop in Columbus, Ohio, on Sept. 20, 2014. Please see associated handouts: Data-Driven Enterprise off Your Beat and More Help with Obtaining Public Records+Learn More about Data Journalism. For more information about NewsTrain, a traveling workshop for journalists sponsored by Associated Press Media Editors, please visit http://www.apme.com/?AboutNewsTrain.

1. Data-driven
enterprise
on any beat
Jill Riepenhoff
Columbus NewsTrain
Sept. 20, 2014

2. Why data?
To appease this guy And this guy

4. From meeting
minutes to Excel

5. Type to type From Div To Div New School StudentYR Sex Sport Action Parents Atty
pub to pub 2 3 bigger 10 f approved Carl/Nichole Myers
Frank
Bartell
pub to pvt 2 1 bigger 12 f approved Charles/Melody Corns
Richard
Cline
pub to pub 2 1 bigger 12 f approved Bob/Jill Purk
pub to pub 2 2 same 11 f approved
Michele
Cantril Brian Garvine
pub to pub 1 1 same 12 f approved
Brian/Darla
Mocilnikar Sarah Gordon
pub to pub 1 1 same 10 f approved
Richard/Lisa
Walden Stephanie Wykes
pub to pub 1 1 same 12 f approved Craig Moore/Melissa Haswell
pub to pub 3 2 smaller 10 f approved Karrie Coit
pub to pub 3 2 smaller 11 f approved
David/Kimbe
rly Orr David Poston
pub to pub 3 2 smaller 11 f approved
David/Kimbe
rly Orr David Poston
pub to pub 3 1 smaller 11 f approved Eric/Dana Hill
pub to pvt 3 1 smaller 10 f approved Jesse/Kimberly Parkinson
non to pvt 2 unknown 12 f approved Melvin Evans
pvt to pvt 1 3 bigger 12 f denied Juanita P. LeFlora-Bogard
pvt to pub 1 3 bigger 11 f denied Mike/Liz Concheck
pub to pub 1 3 bigger 11 f denied Desmond Redding/Natalie Fields
pub to pub 2 3 bigger 11 f denied Jennifer Willis
pub to pvt 2 3 bigger 10 f denied Adele Iwanusa
pub to pub 2 3 bigger 10 f denied Mary/Scott West

6. What stories have you
done with data?
By Flickr user Gareth Simpson

7. Become an expert
 Know what’s out there.
 Hoard retention schedules.
 Become best buds with the data
guy/gal.
 Spend a week sleuthing.

8. Be a data collector
In our data library now:
 Income-tax
aggregate data for
Ohio
 Watercraft-accident
data
 Aircraft-registry and
-accident data
 Pipeline accidents
 Real estate
licenses

9. Be a data collector
 State crime
database
 Sex-offender set
 Juvenile-crime data
 Day-care licenses
 Birth, death records
 Inmate data
 School-directory
info

10. Be a data troll
during down time

11. Be a data troll
during down time

12. Got data?
Great.
• Find trends.
• Spot
anomalies.
• Add context.
• Be the expert.

13. Where we’re going today
• Trolling for data:
sports, health,
business, local
government, cops
and courts, fun!
• Four great places
to find data
Photo by Flickr user CaptPiper

14. Trolling sports
 Minor league baseball
 Athletic department salaries
 Team rosters
 Major NCAA infractions
 Academic progress rates
 High school participation rates:
http://www.nfhs.org/ParticipationStatics/Part
icipationStatics.aspx/

15. Some kids say football
not worth the effort

16. Trolling health sources
 Vaccinations
 Nursing licensure
 Nursing Home Compare:
http://www.medicare.gov/nursingho
mecompare/?AspxAutoDetectCookie
Support=1
 Ohio Department of Health data
center

17. Kids with no vaccines
clustered in some schools

18. Story by Misti Crane and
Jennifer Smith Richards
In some schools, as many
as 1 in 3 incoming
kindergartners and newly
enrolled older students
have parents who oppose
vaccines, according to a
Dispatch analysis of
schools' immunization
counts.

19. Trolling for business sources
 Attorney General consumer complaints
 Sheriff’s sales
 Wildlife-bird strikes
 Data breaches
http://www.privacyrights.org/data-breach

20. Breaches of personal data
a daily occurrence

21. Trolling local government
 Housing-code violations
 Parking tickets
 Time sheets
 Key-card access
 Taxi/livery licenses
 Take-home cars

23. Story by Lucas Sullivan
Franklin County deputy sheriffs use
hundreds of hours of compensatory time
and take home thousands of dollars in
overtime pay, inflating base annual pay
that is already $20,000 higher than their
counterparts' in the state's other large
counties.
The extra pay is costing taxpayers
millions.

24. Over-the-top overtime

25. Story by Laura Arenschield
and Jennifer Smith Richards
From ODNR inspection/violation data:
 Inspectors cited nearly 3,800 wells -- 6
percent of the total in Ohio -- for
violating state law.
 Many of the wells where inspectors
found issues are allowed to remain
active without ever showing that their
violations were resolved.

26. Violations
often
don’t
shut
wells

27. Trolling cops and courts
 Jail-booking data. Stories – domestic
violence, immigration, drunk drivers
 Sex offenders
 Supreme Court
http://www.supremecourt.ohio.gov/P
ublications/default.asp

29. Stories by
Dispatch
interns
Justin
Conley
and Rebecca
McKinsey

30. Have some fun
#PartyLikeAJournalist

31. Phil vs. Chuck

34. Great place to find data
Part I
NICAR Data Library
 Small-business loans
 Boat accidents
 Consumer Product
Safety data
 Truck accidents
 FDA Adverse
Reporting System
 National Bridge
Inventory

35. Great places to find data
Part II

36. Advanced Google search
Search for Excel spreadsheets:
http://www.google.com/advanced_search
Search:
filetype:xls site:______.gov

37. Great places to find data
Part III

38. Make your own

39. Great places to find data
Part IV

40. Ready for action

41. Comments, questions,
complaints
 Jill Riepenhoff
 jriepenhoff@dispatch.com
 614-461-5292
 @JRiep