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Firefighters battle for their lives

State laws favor benefits for firefighters with cancer. Cities and counties keep denying them.

Top News and Investigations

Waiting for water

Waiting for water

Accountability project

Data project moves to Center for Public Integrity

Sexual harassment widespread

Sexual harassment widespread in schools

Lung disease

Lung disease strikes countertop cutters

More News | More Investigations

Our Mission

The Investigative Reporting Workshop, an independent, nonprofit newsroom, based at the School of Communication at American University, was founded in 2008 by longtime investigative journalist Chuck Lewis and began publishing stories in 2009. Lewis retires on Dec. 31, 2022.

IRW’s goal is to hold the powerful accountable through original, data-driven investigative reporting produced by experienced journalists working with the next generation of reporters. IRW has partnerships with other newsrooms, including The Washington Post, and has developed free journalistic tools, including The Accountability Project, a groundbreaking resource for public data, and BankTracker, which chronicles the financial health of the nation’s banks and credit unions.

Director Area

Charles Lewis, IRW’s founder and executive editor, is the co-author of more than six books, including, most recently, “935 Lies: The Future of Truth and the Decline of America’s Moral Integrity.”

Recent Projects by Charles
  • The American nonprofit news milieu
  • Laying the foundation
  • Trumping truth as people die
  • “Why I left 60 Minutes”
  • Investigating Power

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Our Partners

    The Washington Post

  • The Washington Post

    When Cops Are Fired: How one attorney forces police chiefs to rehire dismissed officers.

    • Frontline

  • Frontline

    Where does plastic go? Plastics industry insiders reveal the truth about recycling.

    • NPR

  • NPR

    Blackout in Puerto Rico: Examining the federal response to the humanitarian and economic crises in Puerto Rico.

    • inewsource

  • inewsource

    The New Americans: How San Diego grapples with educating refugees.

Special Projects

     

    The Accountability Project: 1 billion records

  • 1 billion records and counting: The Accountability Project reaches new milestone

    Two years after going live, TAP hits a major milestone.

    •   

    Site showcases powerful stories

  • Site showcases powerful stories and the reporters behind them

    Investigating Power is a history of breakthrough investigations that revealed news and changed the national narrative on many major topics since the 1950s, from war to health to civil rights.

    •   

    Immigration Under Trump

  • How Trump is shaping immigration policy

    An interactive timeline examines President Trump’s use of executive orders to restrict access to the U.S.

    •   

    Opiod Epidemic

  • The Opioid Epidemic

    In April 2016, at the height of the deadliest drug epidemic in U.S. history, Congress effectively stripped the Drug Enforcement Administration of its most potent weapon against large drug companies suspected of spilling prescription narcotics onto the nation’s streets.

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