Posted Feb. 29, 2008

Earmarks loaded into congressional spending bills have increased more than 60 percent since George Bush has been president. Bush complained about the unchecked spending during his State of the Union speech but Congress has failed to act.

Reporters often have difficulty uncovering and evaluating the hundreds of requests made by their local representatives and reporting the story to tax-paying readers. But the Associated Press Managing Editors is working to change that with training and a national reporting project.

■ Who should attend ■ Training agenda ■ Resources ■ Can't attend in person? Join a Webinar: April 7 | April 9

Partnering with open government groups, APME is offering on-site and Web-based education this spring to help you determine whether the bacon brought home to your community amounts to good public policy ... or political pork. APME will provide free coaching in 10 cities to help reporters and editors use the latest Web-based research tools to dig deeper into databases. Federal data provided by Taxpayers for Common Sense and Opensecrets.org will illustrate the local connections between earmark appropriations placed in federal spending bills by members of Congress and the campaign contributions made to representatives from individuals, companies and the lobbying firms they employ.

Those who can't attend one of the in-person sessions can participate through Webinars on April 7 and April 9 from noon to 5 p.m. ET. Details on the Webinars will be announced soon.

In addition to the training, AP's Washington bureau will produce a national overview of earmarks to accompany your local reports. AP will be looking for the best work by local reporters to include in the national overview. APME's goal is for newspapers nationwide to publish stories on earmarks en masse the first weekend of June.

Senior Fellows Bill Allison and Larry Makinson of the Sunlight Foundation will conduct the training at the sessions below. Allison worked with Donald Bartlett and James Steele to produce groundbreaking investigative reporting, while Makinson pioneered computer-assisted money-in-politics reporting as a journalist in Alaska and at the Center for Responsive Politics. Journalists leaving the one-day sessions will understand how to use just-released technological tools to find earmarks relevant to their regions, and to connect the dots on campaign finance spending and lobbyist disclosure statements to members of Congress who secured the earmarks.

Flying under the banner of "Sunlight NewsTrain", this effort provides newsrooms large and small with the practical tools to produce journalism that hits with pinpoint accuracy. An ambassador from each of the newsrooms listed below will help coordinate the sessions. There is no charge; lunch is on APME. To register for a session near you or to get more information, please use the links below.

► March 17: The News Journal, Wilmington, Del.
More Information  |  Register Now

► March 19: Richmond (Va.) Times-Dispatch
More Information  |  Register Now

► March 21: Atlanta Journal Constitution
More Information  |  Register Now

► March 24: The Arkansas Democrat Gazette, Little Rock
More Information  |  Register Now

► March 26: The Oakland (Calif.) Tribune
More Information  |  Register Now

► March 28: Tacoma (Wash.) News Tribune
More Information  |  Register Now

► March 31: St. Louis Post-Dispatch
More Information  |  Register Now

► April 2: Rocky Mountain News (Denver)
More Information  |  Register Now

► April 4: Cincinnati Enquirer
More Information  |  Register Now

► April 22: The Arizona Republic, Phoenix
More Information  |  Register Now