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Investigative reporter Bill Dedman: looking for story ideas and documents

Investigative reporter Bill Dedman of NBC News is always looking for good story ideas and documents. Dedman received the 1989 Pulitzer Prize for investigative reporting. He is the co-author of the No. 1 bestselling book "Empty Mansions: The Mysterious Life of Huguette Clark and the Spending of a Great American Fortune."
Investigative reporter Bill Dedman of msnbc.com
Investigative reporter Bill Dedman of NBCNews.com.David Beyda Studio

Bill Dedman is an investigative reporter for NBC News, a recipient of the Pulitzer Prize in investigative reporting, and a bestselling author of "Empty Mansions: The Mysterious Life of Huguette Clark and the Spending of a Great American Fortune."

Bill is always looking for good investigative story ideas of national interest. .

Bill stumbled onto the , who was featured in a series of reports on NBCNews.com and the Today show. The Clark series has been the most popular feature ever on NBCNews.com, with more than 110 million page views. Bill has co-written a nonfiction book about the Clark family, " ." The biography hit No. 1 on The New York Times bestseller list and was chosen among the best books of 2013 by Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble, Goodreads, and others.

Bill received the 1989 Pulitzer Prize in investigative reporting for "The Color of Money," a series of articles in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution on racial discrimination by mortgage lenders in middle-income neighborhoods. Among other awards, in 2008 he received a national award for investigative reporting from the Society of Professional Journalists for his articles and video on firefighter deaths. In 2011 he received a Best in Business award for investigative reporting from the Society of American Business Editors and Writers for his narrative on Huguette Clark and her family.

He joined NBCNews.com (then known as msnbc.com) in 2006, reporting and writing investigative stories for the website and NBC television. He reports to Michael Brunker, investigations editor for NBCNews.com.

For NBC News he has uncovered stories on the Pentagon's efforts to identify servicemen and women lost in past wars, fatal problems with firefighter safety equipment, uninspected highway bridges, the Obama administration's visitor logs, coercive interrogations of detainees at Guantanamo, and strategies for discouraging school shootings.

Bill got his start in journalism at 16 as a copy boy at The Chattanooga Times. He has written for The Washington Post, The New York Times, and The Boston Globe, and was the first director of computer-assisted reporting for The Associated Press. He taught advanced reporting part time at the University of Maryland, Northwestern University, and Boston University, and created the Power Reporting site of research tools for journalists. He served for six years as a member of the board of directors of Investigative Reporters and Editors.

An archive of his work is below, and check out his recent work at .

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Articles and videos by investigative reporter Bill Dedman:

Hurricane Sandy:

An odd pattern in FEMA flood insurance maps:

The effort to identify missing and dead American service men and women:

Image: The White House
WASHINGTON - NOVEMBER 05: Overcast skies blanket the White House early on Nov. 5, 2008 in Washington, DC. The nation's capitol awoke this morning along with the rest of the country to news that Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) had been elected president of the United States. (Photo by Brendan Hoffman/Getty Images)Brendan Hoffman / Getty Images North America

The Obama administration

The nuclear power emergency in Japan

Firefighter memorial
SLP2002051106- ST. LOUIS, May 11 (UPI) -- St. Louis Fire Commissioner and Chief Sherman George presents an American Flag to Laura Morrison, widow of St. Louis firefighter Robert Morrison, during a memorial service at the Savvis Center in St. Louis on May 11, 2002. Morrison and firefighter Derek Martin were killed in a building fire on May 3. The American Flags presented to the families were flown over the U.S. Capitol Building in Washington. mk/bg/Bill Greenblatt UPIBill Greenblatt

'Cause for Alarm,' a special report on firefighter safety

Image: Sarah Palin and her husband Todd
Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin and her husband Todd react to the crowd at a campaign rally with Palin's running mate John McCain at Green Memorial Stadium in Green, Ohio on October 22, 2008. AFP PHOTO Robyn BECK (Photo credit should read ROBYN BECK/AFP/Getty Images)Robyn Beck / AFP

Sarah Palin's emergence on the national stage

The killing of Osama bin Laden

  • (with JoNel Aleccia)
converted to digital March 2006
A gilded room in the Clark mansion on Fifth Avenue, the Salon Doré, was brought over from France. Originally part of the hôtel de Clermont, a private residence in Paris, the salon is paneled from floor to ceiling with Corinthian pilasters, trophy panels, garlands and framed mirrors from the 18th century. The panels and ceiling have been recreated again in Washington's Corcoran Gallery of Art, which rents out the room for partiesPeter Harholdt

Huguette Clark and her empty mansions

  • Special report, part one:
  • Special report, part two:



A firing in the federal government: a case of religious discrimination?

A shooting in Tucson

Jimmy Hall for msnbc.com

The Pentagon's new truth device

The downside of boutique medicine

Image: Rescue Children orphanage in Haiti
Jeff-Alande, Stevenson and Roberde listen with the other children as they're introduced to the rules at Love A child orphanage. The children and staff of Rescue Children orphanage evacuate their compound in Port-au-Prince and head for temporary refuge at the Love A Child orphanage in Fond Parisien, Haiti, on Monday, January 18, 2010. (David Friedman / msnbc.com)David Friedman / msnbc.com

A church group protects an orphanage in Haiti after the quake

(by David Britt-Friedman, Bill Dedman, Kevin Flynn and Eric Zuckerman)

(by David Britt-Friedman)




Blog posts:



Ted Kennedy's FBI file

Image: Detroit
A pedestrian walks by a graffiti marked wall in west Detroit on Thursday, Dec. 11, 2008. The roots of Detroit's current plight go back decades. Court-ordered school busing and the 12th Street riots of 1967 accelerated an exodus of whites to the suburbs, and many middle-class blacks followed, shrinking the city's population from a peak of 1.8 million in the 1950s to half that now.(AP Photo/Carlos Osorio)Carlos Osorio / AP

The Adversity Index

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Image: School bus approaching bridge
I shot these photos on Tuesday of a school bus going over a bridge that was late for its inspection, near Circleville, Ohio. I believe you may have them already. bridge_bus%202[1].jpg

Bridge inspections



The 2008 campaign and transition



Banks in crisis



Privacy vs. protecting children



The ditching of Flight 1549 in the Hudson River



In addition to giving $2,000 to Democratic congressional candidate Jim Esch, Omaha TV reporter Calvert Collins posted a photo of herself with the candidate on her Facebook page, with the note, \"Vote for him Tuesday, Nov. 7!\" After the photo was posted on a political blog, she said her father actually gave the donation, and she was just trying to build rapport with candidates.
In addition to giving $2,000 to Democratic congressional candidate Jim Esch, Omaha TV reporter Calvert Collins posted a photo of herself with the candidate on her Facebook page, with the note, \"Vote for him Tuesday, Nov. 7!\" After the photo was posted on a political blog, she said her father actually gave the donation, and she was just trying to build rapport with candidates.Leavenworth Street Blog

Journalists and independence



Students and others gather on Drill Field on the Virginia Tech campus for a prayer service Wednesday, April 18, 2007 in Blacksburg, Va.  (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)
Students and others gather on Drill Field on the Virginia Tech campus for a prayer service Wednesday, April 18, 2007 in Blacksburg, Va. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)Mary Altaffer / AP

School security and school shootings



Benefits for cops, firefighters and EMTs


Health insurance reform


On the lighter side