Daniel J. McCue, editor of The Westbury Times, the Three Village Times, and the Floral Park Dispatch, has received a small news organization fellowship from the IRE, a non-profit organization of Investigative Reporters and Editors, aligned with the University of Missouri.

As a result of receiving the fellowship , Mr. McCue and co-editor Beth Vallianos, are attending the IRE's national conference in New Orleans, Louisiana this week. The conference is being hosted by the New Orleans Times-Picayune newspaper.

Panels at the four-day conference include: investigating campaign finance; using the Internet and Intranet to support and research beat reporting; how editors can help reporters keep their stories vibrant; the basics of good interviewing; undertaking and managing investigations; investigating the military; how to research court warrants, affidavits and dockets; backgrounding individuals on deadline; and the new legal perils in investigative reporting.

Former New York Daily News Editor Pete Hamill will offer the keynote address. Other speakers and teachers at the conference come from a wide array of media outlets including The Miami Herald, The Philadelphia Inquirer, the aforementioned New Orleans Times-Picayune, U.S. News and World Report, The Washington Post, Dateline NBC, Primetime Live, and CNN, among others.

Formed in 1975 with the intent of creating a networking tool for investigative reporters, the IRE first came to the fore after a car bomb killed founding member Don Bolles, a hard-nosed reporter for the Arizona Republic.

Back in the early '70s, Bolles made his reputation by exposing widespread land fraud and organized crime activities in Phoenix, Arizona.

Though not then on the investigative beat, in June, 1976, Bolles received a phone call from a source who promised to give him proof of ties between prominent Arizona politicians and the land fraud schemes.

The men met briefly once, but at a second arranged meeting time, the source didn't show. After waiting 10 minutes, Bolles went back to his Datsun, turned the key in the ignition, and was blown out of the driver's side door.

As a result of that murder, 38 journalists from 28 newspapers and television stations across the country assembled in Phoenix to continue his work.

The resulting 23 part series, known as the Arizona Project, not only brought Don Bolles work to fruition, but put the IRE on the map.