Web Resources for Reporting

WEB RESOURCES (www.towson.edu/~bhalle/web-rep.html) Baltimore County sites

Baltimore County general site
http://www.baltimorecounty.com/baltimore/

Baltimore County Bar Association
http://www.bcba.org/

Baltimore County Conference and Visitors Bureau
http://www.visitbacomd.com/

Baltimore County Council
http://www.baltimorecountycouncil.org/

Baltimore County Dept. of Health
http://www.co.ba.md.us/p.cfm/agencies/health/index.cfm

Baltimore County Dept. of Economic Development
http://www.bcinfobank.com/

Baltimore County Environmental Protection & Resource Management
www.co.ba.md.us/p.cfm/agencies/deprm/index.cfm

Baltimore County Fire Department
http://www.co.ba.md.us/bacoweb/services/fire/html/firedept.htm

Baltimore County Government
http://www.co.ba.md.us/

Baltimore County Historical Society
http://www.bcplonline.org/branchpgs/bchs/bchshome.html

Baltimore County Permits & Development Management Dept.:
www.co.ba.md.us/p.cfm/agencies/permits/index.cfm

Baltimore County Planning Office:
www.co.ba.md.us/p.cfm/agenices/planning/index.cfm

Baltimore County Police Department
http://www.co.ba.md.us/bacoweb/services/police/html/police.htm

Baltimore County Public Library
http://www.bcpl.lib.md.us/

Baltimore County Public Schools
http://www.bcps.org

Baltimore County Public Works Dept.
www.co.ba.md.us/p.cfm/agencies/pubwks/index.cfm

Baltimore County Recreation and Parks
http://www.co.ba.md.us/bacoweb/services/recpark/html/rechome.htm

Baltimore County Social Services Dept.:
www.co.ba.md.us/p.cfm/agencies/socserv/index.cfm
www.dhr.state.md.us/baltocounty.htm

Baltimore County Technology Council
http://www.bctech.org/

Marine Trades Association of Baltimore County
http://www.mtabc.org/

Towson University
www.towson.edu

WebGuideBaltimore.com Baltimore Search
http://www.WebGuideBaltimore.com/
-- Rated the fastest search engine. The starting point to Baltimore's best sites and jump anywhere on the Web. Newspapers, sports, weather, airport, map, hotels, restaurants and jobs.

Maryland Sites

Maryland County Governments
http://www.mec.state.md.us/mec/meccount.html -- MD county governments.

Maryland Electronic Capital
http://www.mec.state.md.us/

Maryland General Assembly
http://mlis.state.md.us/
-- Assembly site has full text of bills, legislative status, hearing schedules, legislator info, etc.

Maryland’s Governor
http://www.gov.state.md.us/

Maryland Department of Health & Mental Hygiene
http://www.mdpublichealth.org/
http://www.dhmh.state.md.us/

Maryland Judiciary
http://www.courts.state.md.us/

Maryland Lobbyists
http://www.op.state.md.us/ethics/listing.htm -- All lobbyists registered in Maryland.

Maryland’s Most Wanted.com – state criminals
http://www.inform.umd.edu/UMS+State/MD_Resources/MDSP/mmw.html

Some Maryland counties have their own most wanted list.
For example, Carroll County: http://www.hellowestminster.com/wanted.html

Maryland Public Records
http://www.pac-info.com/
-- Searchable site of state public records available on the Internet, including Maryland.

Maryland Property Records
http://www.dat.state.md.us/sdat/CICS/
-- The Maryland Department of Assessments and Taxation database of property records, which is searchable by address.

Maryland State Government
http://www.mdarchives.state.md.us/msa/mdmanual/html/mmtoc.html -- The Maryland Manual Online.

Maryland State Government Phone Directory
http://archive2.mdarchives.state.md.us/scripts/qpweb20fe/qntwfe20.dll/frame – of state government agencies and employees.

Education Sites

Dept. of Education
http://www.ed.gov

Argus on Education
http://www.clearinghouse.net/cgi-bin/chadmin/viewcat/Education?kywd++
Online research library links to resources on topics ranging from education to science & mathematics.

Ask ERIC
http://ericir.syr.edu/
-- A wealth of resources on education. Funded by the U.S. government.

ChildStats
http://childstats.gov/
-- Federal and state statistics and reports on children and their families from several U.S. government agencies.

ERIC (Educational Resources Information Center)
http://www.accesseric.org/
-- The Educational Resources Information Center is a national information system providing access to an extensive body of education-related literature. It is supported by the U.S. Department of Education, Office of Educational Research and Improvement, and the National Library of Education.

American Council on Education
http://www.acenet.edu/
-- From the membership organization of colleges and universities.

Chronicle of Higher Education
http://www.chronicle.merit.edu/
-- Weekly news publication about colleges and universities and their issues.

Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System
http://nces.ed.gov/ipeds/
-- Data on college enrollment by race, ethnicity and sex; salaries; tuition; revenue and expenditures, etc. From the National Center for Education Statistics.

School District Data Book
http://govinfo.kerr.orst.edu/sddb-stateis.html -- Info on enrollment, graduation rates, etc., for each U.S. school district.

American Universities list
http://www.clas.ufl.edu/CLAS/american-universities.html -- Links to home pages of U.S. universities.

College and University Home Pages
http://www.mit.edu:8001/people/cdemello/univ.html -- Alphabetical list of more than 3,000 college sites.

Digest of Education Statistics
http://nces.ed.gov/pubs99/digest98/
-- An annual compilation that serves as a snapshot of education in the U.S.

Federal Resources for Education Excellence
http://www.ed.gov/free/
-- Information on educational excellence, from several U.S. government agencies.

Federal Government Sources

Edgar
http://www.sec.gov/edaux/searches.htm
Beginning in 1997, all public companies were required to file their documents to the Securities and Exchange Commission electronically. They're stored at the Edgar archives at the SEC's site. You can't search the full text, but you can search the headers for filings.

FedStats
http://www.fedstats.gov
This is the mega-stats site for the federal government, with index listings and links to the 70-odd federal agencies with statistical programs.

GPO Gateways
http://www.gpo.ucop.edu/search/default.html

This one is at the Univ. of California's gateway. Others like to go directly to the Government Printing Office at http://www.gpo.gov/su_docs/aces/aaces001.html
or to the Purdue University's version at http://thorplus.lib.purdue.edu/gpo/. They're basically the same, with full-text searching of documents ranging from GAO reports and the Congressional Record to the Joint Economic Committee's latest compendium of economic indicators and the Federal Register.

Thomas: Congress Online
http://thomas.loc.gov/
-- Thomas is the online gateway to Capitol Hill and Congress. Named for Thomas Jefferson, it includes the status of bills in Congress by topic, bill number and short title. It also has an updated calendar of events.

White House
http://www.whitehouse.gov
The administration has put each public statement on its Web site, and has a good set of links to important government agencies. Its "briefing rooms" are a good way to keep tabs on basic economic and social indicators.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
http://www.cdc.gov/

U.S. Census
http://www.census.gov
The Census compiles gigabytes of demographic and economic information and generally makes it easy to use and to search.

Dept. of Justice
http://www.usdoj.gov

The Villanova Center for Information Law and Policy
http://www.law.vill.edu/fed-agency for a complete list of federal agencies.

People Searches

www.ancestry.com
– find dead heirs or see if someone has died. It’s updated every 6 months.

Virginia dept. of social services
http://www.dss.state.va.us/program/childfam/childsupp/wanted.shtml
-- lists people who haven’t paid child support.

www.vindico.com
Free investigative web site – creates the license number if you put in the correct DOB and full name.

WhoWhere? PeopleSearch
(http://www.whowhere.com/) Yet another people locating service, including e-mail addresses.

Yahoo! People Search
(http://www.yahoo.com/search/people/) Another phone and e-mail search engine, this one from Yahoo!

Telephone Directories

Four11 Directory Services
(http://www.Four11.com) -- This white pages also has e-mail addresses and reverse directories, to trace the name of someone when you only have an address.

Phonebook Gateway
(http://www.uiuc.edu/cgi-bin/ph/lookup?Query=) More than 300 university telephone books. A great way to find phone, address and E-mail, especially for college professors.

Search.Com
(http://www.search.com) Click on Person Search for a list of some of the biggest directories. Clicking on Yellow Pages gives you access to a series of business listings, including an 800- directory.

Switchboard
(http://www.switchboard.com) Find phone numbers, nationwide.

E-mail and Web address tracers

Big Foot
(http://bigfoot.com/). Another e-mail address finder (in both directions).

Internet Address Finder
(http://www.iaf.net/) An e-mail address finder.

WhoIs
(http://rs.internic.net/cgi-bin/whois) The official address-givers' records on who owns a site, including the city and phone number of the person who signed up for a site's Web address. This is the famed InterNIC, where you go to get your site on the Internet. It's much harder to fake a web address than an e-mail address.

Backgrounding businesses

D&B Credit reports
http://www.dnb.com
For a price, you can get a credit rating and other summary information on a business.

Hoovers
For profiles of big companies, try http://www.hoovers.com.

PR Newswire
(http://www.prnewswire.com/)The Web presence of the PR Newswire, with a searchable database of press releases.

Non-Profits from Guidestar
(http://www2.guidestar.org/) lists basic information from non-profits' 990 reports in a searchable database. It includes about 500,000 of them. If all you need is one company at a time, this is a good starting place.

Non Profits Org
(http://www.nonprofits.org/library/gov/irs/search_irs.shtml) Another way to check on the non-profit status of a company.

Public records on the Internet

Military City Online Web Outpost
http://www.militarycity.com
Catch up on the latest military news. If you subscribe to the sponsors (Defense News, Army Times and affiliates), you can search for military personnel in a 4-million record database, get details on military installations. Sponsored by the publisher of Space News, Federal Times, Defense News and Army Times.

All Military sites together:
www.maingate.com

Prospect research center (property tax records online)
http://www.people.virginia.edu/~dev-pros/Realestate.html
This regularly updated site from the University of Virginia provides links to searchable property tax records throughout the country. Some are searchable
by name, others just by address. It's a first stop if your county is listed.

Social Security Death Index
http://www.ancestry.com/SSDI/main.htm
A genealogy company that keeps publicly accessible information on people who have died while collecting Social Security. It's not always complete or up to date, but if you find someone there, you'll find their Social Security number.

Surname trace
http://www.wdia.com/forms/sur_nm-s.html
A pay service (usually $15-$25 a shot) to list people in cities using only a last name, based on records more up-to-date and complete than telephone books. This is a pay service that newsrooms use to get dossiers on people, but the Web version is much more limited.

Vital Records
http://www.medaccess.com/address/vital_toc.htm
You won't find actual birth and death certificates here, but you will find information on how to find them from every state.

Experts

Kitty Bennett's Experts List
http://sunsite.unc.edu/slanews/internet/experts.html
The St. Petersburg Times' news researcher has shared her list of expert sites with us.

FACSNet
http://www.facsnet.org
Run by and for journalists, FACSNet is compiling a list of sources in its database.You have to sign up for this free service to get access to the database.

Hot News from the Poynter Institute
http://www.poynter.org

National Press Club's News Sources
http://npc.press.org/library/reporter.htm
Click on "News sources" to access the National Press Club's searchable database of sources from the non-profit and corporate worlds.

Policy.com
http://www.policy.com
A compendium of policy statements and research papers compiled for Microsoft Network, and Intellectual Capital.

ProfNet
http://www.profnet.com
Find experts by submitting your query to ProfNet, a relay to public information specialists at more than 1,000 universities, think tanks, and corporations. Not for deadline – takes a few days.

West's Legal Directory (WLD)
(http://www.wld.com/)
Westlaw's searchable directory of more than 675,000 lawyers and law firms.

World Wide Web Virtual Library
http://www.cais.com/makulow/vlj.html
John Makulowitch's list of online journalism resources.

Finding Cities, Counties, States

City Net
http://www.city.net
Links to hundreds of cities with presences on the web.

http://www.ci.chi.il.us
This link to the Chicago Web site uses the standard (but not universally used) way to find a city:
www.ci.xxxxx.ss.us. Replace the xxxxx with an abbreviated city name, like "chi" for Chicago, or "nyc" for New York City. Try it for counties by using www.co.xxxx.ss.us instead (replacing the ci in the city pattern with co for county).

Standard State Home Pages
http://www.globalcomputing.com/states.html
Links to every state with its own home page. Or guess, using this structure:
http://www.state.xx.us, replacing "xx" with the 2-digit postal code. Every state in the nation has adopted this url format to get you to their home page.

Searchable Databases of Documents

Central Intelligence Agency
http://www.odci.gov/
-- Home of the CIA World Fact Book, containing basic information on every country in the world.

Defense Link
http://www.dtic.mil/defenselink/locator/
A searchable database of documents on the Web throughout the Defense Department. This is the government's main map to defense documents, including recent FOIA requests.

Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.
http://www.fdic.gov/
A searchable database of financial facts about banks, or locations of bank branches. One of the government's most user-friendly sites.

FECInfo
http://www.tray.com/fecinfo/
Maintained by a former FEC official, and designed to give you up-to-date information on electronically available federal campaign contributions. Or try its sister organization, the Center for Responsive Politics at http://www.crp.org.

Internet Law Library
http://www.pls.com:8001/
Includes US Code and Code of Federal Regulations, plus links to state, federal and international laws, treaties, regulations, and other stuff.

"Landings" Aviation Site
http://www.landings.com
Searchable database on aviation and aircraft.Note: Aircraft Service Difficulty reports can be misleading, and Landings has been known to miss some reports. Other options for similar information include the FAA's own site of service difficulty reports, or NICAR's CD-ROMs.

National Library of Medicine - MEDLINE
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/PubMed/
The publicly-available resource to millions of medical journals, with links to participating journal sites.

Patent and Trademark Office
http://www.uspto.gov
Search the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office database. An alternative with more history is the IBM's Patent Server at http://patent.womplex.ibm.com/

Regional Economic Information System
http://www.lib.virginia.edu/socsci/reis
A searchable database of income and other data that are produced by state or city. Useful for regional economic reporters.

Securities Clearinghouse
http://securities.stanford.edu
Stanford University's Law School is beginning to put the full text of securities class action lawsuits on the Web in this new site. It's not immediate -- they scan and check for at least a few days after a filing -- but it's a good list of examples.

Social Security Statistics
http://www.ssa.gov/statistics/ores_home.html
A wealth of information (searchable) on this monster of government programs.

Vietnam MIAs/POW's
lcweb2.loc.gov/pow/powhome.html
The Library of Congress' database includes synopses of all of the 131,000 publicly-available documents concerning military personnel listed as missing in action and prisoners of war from the Vietnam War. The site also includes instructions on how to order the full documents.

Vote-Smart
http://www.vote-smart.org
This site has useful congressional background, including voting records and ratings of lawmakers by special interest groups.

Search engines

Altavista
http://www.altavista.com

Dogpile
http://www.dogpile.com
This search engine tries 10 or so of the biggest ones.

Excite Netsearch
http://www.excite.com

Google
www.google.com

Inference
http://www.inference.com/ifind
A search engine that searches lots of the biggest others. It returns results organized by the kinds of sites its found, like government, foreign, etc.

Yahoo!
http://www.yahoo.com
Start here instead of a search engine to find proven sources on broad topics.

Maps & Geography

General maps and directions
www.mapquest.com

CrimeMap: sponsored by the National Institute of Justice’s Crime Mapping Research
www.ojp.usdoj.gov/cmrc/faq/welcome.html

U.S. Geological Survey
Mapping.usgs.gov

Association of American Geographers
www.aag.org/

Consortium for International Earth Science Information Network (CIESIN)
Wwgateway.ciesin.org

The Geographer’s Craft
www.utexas.edu/depts/grg/gcraft/contents.html

Journalism sites – general

American Press Institute
http://www.newspaper.org/

American Society of Newspaper Editors
www.asne.org

AJR NewsLink, American Journalism Review.
http://ajr.newslink.org/menu.html