Globe Trotters

I can't resist recognizing the work of some of our own Medill News Service graduate students who worked with the Center For Public Integrity and American Public Media to produce "Power Trips: Congress Hits the Road." The main story, "Congress Travels the World, Private Sponsors Foot the Bill," by Chris Kirkham and Freeman Klopott details how corporate and nonprofit groups have spent nearly $50 million between Jan. 1, 2000, and June 30 of last year to send congressmen and their staffs on 23,000 trips throughout the world. To create the package of more than two dozen stories, reporters from Medill, the Center for Public Integrity and American Public Media created a database using Senate and House records. Most of the major U.S. media have since followed up on the story, but the Medill students and their colleagues had it first. www.medillnewsdc.com/power_trips/