Tuesday, October 11, 2011

Investigative team launches anthrax series

McClatchy, the Bradenton Herald/Bradenton.com's parent company, has partnered with ProPublica and PBS's Frontline on a sweeping project that examines newly available documents and testimony in the case against Bruce Ivins, the accused "anthrax killer" who committed suicide.

We launched the series today, both in print and online. Almost a decade to the date of the anthrax mailings that terrorized the nation in 2001,some scientists wonder whether the real killer is still at large even as prosecutors continue to vehemently defend their case. In this wide-reaching investigative partnership, the McClatchy-ProPublica-Frontline series also examines the scientific aspects of the most expensive federal investigation in history.

One story in the series explores one of their findings: New, more powerful technologies already had overtaken the methods used to pinpoint the flask as the murder weapon when prosecutors revealed their case in August 2008.

The Herald will continue this series in print Tuesday and Wednesday, and will post updates online. The series coincides with Frontline's documentary on PBS tonight.

All of this was coordinated through McClatchy's Washington bureau with powerful results.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I await the day when the editor announces the Bradenton Herald is initiating and publishing an investigation of the financial shenanigans in the Manatee County School District. The impending (and unnecessary) salary cuts and increases in benefits costs will remove at least $9.6 million from the local economy and wreak financial havoc to thousands of Manatee County residents. The School District administration building is across the street from the Herald, so the reporter does not have far to go to get to work. Florida Statute 119 will help in the information-gathering process.