The Center for Public Integrity

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Center Wins Its Fifth First Place Capitolbeat Award For Hired Guns Investigation

WASHINGTON, D.C. August 7, 2007 — The Center for Public Integrity's Hired Guns investigative project, featuring its lead story, "Statehouse Revolvers," has been awarded first place for excellence in the in-depth online reporting category by Capitolbeat, the Association of Capitol Reporters and Editors. This marks the fifth time the Center has won the annual Capitolbeat Excellence Award for its state-related investigative projects.

Influence buying is at least a $1 billion-a-year industry across the 50 states. The Center has been tracking state-level lobbying since 2002. The Hired Guns project includes an analysis of all 50 states’ lobbying disclosure laws and features investigative stories and online databases of state lobby expenditures, rankings and comparisons for all 50 states.

Capitolbeat judges said that the Center’s investigation “scrupulously documented a troubling feature of U.S. political culture. The series provided a tremendous amount of general and particular information. Insightful illustrations of individuals who have passed through the revolving door between the legislature and the lobby firm added context to the coverage.”

“This award for excellence is a testament to the comprehensive investigative work of the Center for Public Integrity,” said Center Executive Director Bill Buzenberg. “The Center has been repeatedly recognized for its investigative projects on the state level, as well as the national and international level. I am particularly proud of how many state reporters across the country are able to use the online resources we provide to report on the lobbying revolving door in their own states.”

Capitolbeat advances the understanding of state government issues through the application of best practices, tools and techniques by reporting, educating and sharing information among its members and the public.

The Center’s Hired Guns investigation was made possible through the generous support of the Ford Foundation. All of the Center’s award-winning investigative work can be found at www.publicintegrity.org.

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The Center for Public Integrity is a nonprofit, nonpartisan independent Washington, D.C.-based organization that does investigative reporting and research on significant public issues. Since 1990, the Center has released more than 400 investigative reports and 17 books. It has received the prestigious George Polk Award and more than 22 other national journalism awards and 16 finalist nominations from national organizations, including PEN USA and Investigative Reporters and Editors. In April 2006, the Society of Professional Journalists recognized the Center with a national award for excellence in online public service journalism for the fifth consecutive year. In October 2006, the Center was honored with the Online News Association’s coveted General Excellence Award. In March 2007, the Center was given a special citation for the body of its investigative work from the Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government.

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The Center for Public Integrity is dedicated to producing original, responsible investigative journalism on issues of public concern in the USA and around the world.

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International Consortium of Investigative Journalists

The Center’s International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) is a collaboration of some of the world’s leading investigative reporters. ICIJ extends globally the Center’s style of watchdog journalism, working with 100 reporters in 50 countries to produce long-term, transnational projects.

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