The Whistleblower blog was launched in April 2008, and it’s been a wild ride ever since. Hundreds of you have called or emailed me about your gripes and frustrations with the institutions that rule our lives. I try to respond to all your queries. I know I don’t reach that goal, and I apologize to those of you who never hear back from me.

But in 168 blog posts and more than 30 columns and stories, Whistleblower has shined a light on injustices and rip-offs large and small. Sometimes it’s a matter of holding institutions and individuals accountable by publicizing the availability of important public records, or pointing out when government tries to operate in secrecy. Sometimes the reporting actually solves problems. Even when it doesn’t, it’s a cautionary tale, and I try to direct consumers, taxpayers, or plain old citizens to organizations and information that can help.

As our executive editor Nancy Barnes wrote in her Sunday column, the Star Tribune plans to ramp up its investigative reporting this year,. In the coming months, you’re going to see more appeals on this blog to use the knowledge and experience of our readers to inform our journalism. So if you have suggestions about what we should be digging into this year, I invite you to post a comment, send me an email or both. I can’t blow the whistle without you.

This entry was posted on Monday, January 5th, 2009 at 9:28 am and is filed under How to blow the whistle. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.