Investigative Reporters and Editors, Inc. The IRE Journal: Member news

Ken Armstrong is now on the investigative team at The Seattle Times. Armstrong was with the Chicago Tribune until September 2002, covering legal affairs and criminal justice issues. Between the Tribune and The Times, he was a visiting professor at Princeton for one semester, during which he taught a criminal justice writing class. [black square] Vince Beiser has left Mother Jones to work on a book about the history of prisons. Beiser was a senior editor at Mother Jones and often worked in the areas of criminal justice and prisons. His book should be released in the fall of 2003. [black square] Ian Demsky, after completing an internship with The Miami Herald, has moved to the state desk at The (Nashville,) Tennessean. Demsky worked for IRE and NICAR while pursuing his master's degree from the Missouri School of Journalism. [black square] Francis Donnelly has moved from the business desk of The Detroit News to the metro desk. Originally a statewide correspondent, Donnelly is now an enterprise and projects reporter. [black square] Matt Goldberg is now the senior investigative producer at KNBC-Los Angeles, which is in the process of building a larger investigative unit. Goldberg was formerly with KCBS-Los Angeles. [black square] Adam Goldman, previously a reporter for The Birmingham News, has moved to Las Vegas to cover Nevada's gambling industry for The Associated Press. [black square] Jonathan Groves has moved from online editor to assistant managing editor of the Springfield (Mo.) News-Leader. [black square] Kerry Hall has joined The Charlotte Observer as an investigative reporter. Hall was previously with the Greensboro News & Record, where she was a business reporter. [black square] Dianna Hunt, an IRE board member, is now the assistant government affairs editor for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram and oversees government and political coverage. Hunt was previously on the Star-Telegram's investigative team. [black square] S. Mitra Kalita has been elected president of the South Asian Journalists Association (SAJA) for 2003.The group serves 800 journalists in the U.S. and Canada. Kalita also has moved from Newsday, where she was a business reporter, to The Washington Post, where she covers Fairfax County education. [black square] Joe Kolman, previously with the Omaha World-Herald, now works at The Idaho Statesman in Boise, where he covers issues related to population growth. [black square] Dave Levinthal has joined The Dallas Morning News, where he works as the Arlington government reporter. [black square] Mitch Lipka has left the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, where he worked on the consumer beat, to take a position at The Philadelphia Inquirer. He now writes enterprise stories and general assignment from the New Jersey statehouse in Trenton. [black square] Lee McGuire, formerly an investigative reporter at KTVB-Boise, is now a political reporter at KVUE-Austin. [black square] Tony Ortega is now associate editor of Phoenix New Times. He has returned to the publication after spending three years at NewTlmes Los Angeles. [black square] Terri Somers has left the legal affairs beat at the South Florida Sun-Sentinel to cover biotechnology at The San Diego Union-Tribune. [black square] Brent Walth of The Oregonian received the 2002 Debby Lowman Award for Consumer Affairs Reporting for his assisted-living series," Assisted Living at Any Cost."The award is given as part of the 2002 C.B. Blethen Memorial Awards for Distinguished Newspaper Reporting. Walth's story, which he wrote with Erin Hoover Barnett, was featured in the November-December issue of The IRE Journal.[black square] Derek Willis has left Congressional Quarterly for a job at the Center for Public Integrity, where he is working on a project tracking the finances of state political parties. Willis also compiles IRE's new Web log "Extra! Extra!" (See page 5).[black square] AlisonYoung, formerly deputy metro editor at the Detroit Free Press, is now a member of Knight Ridder's new investigative team. The Washington-based team will focus on national and international investigations.