Colorado Springs Gazette Video

The Gazette, in Colorado Springs is doing some great work with video. Take a look at some of their interactive features.

Watch video>>>

Pep alumn suffers fire, emerges with good spirits

Here is an email about Kimiko Martinez's situation. Please keep her and her son in your prayers.

-Chris

Hi everyone,

We are writing on behalf of our good friend Kimiko Martinez, a fellow Pepperdine alum ('04). Monday night, she came home to see her block sectioned off with police tape and her house up in flames. It appears to be a random arson situation, but the police were unable to catch the suspect. Kimiko has found a place to stay, but she and her young son lost everything, including their beloved dog and cat.

I'm sure most of you knew her, but if not, here's a bit about her: Kimiko, 29, is an amazing person. After high school, she had a child, her beautiful son Ricky. She enrolled in community college, excelled, and entered Pepperdine shortly after. She was a natural journalist--people felt so comfortable with her. She was editor in chief of our school's newspaper and graduated at the top of her class while waitressing full time. She was offered a job at the Indianapolis Star and literally jumped out of an airplane for a story. She and her young son, now 11, have acclimated to the cold winters and big city and had made a great home together.

Nothing was salvaged from the flames. Kimiko is a strong woman of whom it takes a lot to ask for help, but clearly, she needs it. She has no family in the area, just a small group of good friends. Kimiko and Ricky don't have clothes, toiletries, furniture or beds, but she's staying positive.

"Now, 14 hours later, I still haven't slept and am stuck in a bit of a state of shock. But I am absolutely counting my blessings. Luckily, I wasn't home at the time, my son was in California, and everyone in the house next door got out safely. Nobody was hurt, although my dog and cat were both killed (and that's the one thing I'm rather emotional about). Still, it could have been worse and what it all boils down to is that stuff – furniture, clothes, etc. – can be replaced. My animals, of course, cannot. Things like yearbooks, photos, momentos and memorabilia can't either. But it's all still just stuff."

Instead of shipping large items, we're hoping to collect some money from friends and mentors at Pepperdine and elsewhere. We are hoping to send a gift card, as well as a note from everyone who contributed to let her know that people are thinking of her at her alma mater.

Below is a news story about the fire, which started in her house and spread to two others. Also, a cell phone-camera photo of what's left of Kimiko's home. And, a list of things she needs, although with shipping costs, we are hoping to just send a gift card.

Thanks so much everyone for considering helping our friend. We appreciate it so much.

Joann Groff, '05
Kyle Jorrey, '04
Karma Salvato, '03

Donations can be sent to any of us at:
The Acorn Newspapers
Attn: Joann Groff (for example)
30423 Canwood St. #108
Agoura Hills, CA 91303
If you'd like to contribute to the gift card, just make the check out to one of us. If you'd like to write her a check directly, feel free to make it out to Kimiko Martinez and we'll send it along.

Multimedia for the Ventura County Star

Pine Mountin Inn

Click here to watch the videos>>>

By Anthony Plascencia and Chris Segal
Miles above Ojai on Highway 33, Tom Wolf offers water and help to those who might need it. Someday he hopes to also offer a meal.

Ventura County Star Videos

Here are some of the videos I have produced for the Star:

Tortoise in Recovery

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Video by Chris Segal
Bob, a 42 pound tortoise, who was kidnapped and mutilated recovers at a Santa Barbara animal rescue center.

Crowds gather for antique appraisals

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Video By: Chris Segal
Information seekers traveled from as far as two counties away to have experts appraise their household antiques at the Museum of Ventura County. At the fundraiser many hopefuls stood in line holding their art, jewelry, prints and furniture waiting to have their valuables appraised. Some valuables were purely sentimental while others were worth hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Teen cooking camp

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Video By: Star staff
Teens learn the science of baking at The Magical Kitchen in Simi Valley. Video by Chris Segal, Whitney Diaz and Jennifer Muhmel

Appeal-Democrat wins D.R. Segal Award of Excellence

Appeal wins award for journalism excellence

The Appeal-Democrat has won three awards, including one for journalism excellence.

Freedom Communications Inc., parent company of the Appeal-Democrat, presented the newspaper with one of the two 2006 D.R. Segal Awards, named after the former Appeal-Democrat editor and Freedom CEO.

The award, recognizing overall journalism excellence, was based on the results of independent grading by the American Press Institute.

The Appeal-Democrat was awarded in the papers-under-25,000-circulation category. Freedom Communications, headquartered in Irvine, publishes more than 70 newspapers.

The D.R. Segal award was presented last month at a Freedom conference in Tempe, Ariz.

“This prestigious award is a tribute to the great work being done by our newsroom and throughout our organization to provide our audience with top-quality news and information relevant to their lives,” Appeal-Democrat Publisher Don T. Bricker said in a statement.

Read More>>>

Malibu Beach Access

The Ventura County Star did a great story about Malibu beach access.

Group's 'safaris' take public on little-known routes to access Malibu's beaches

From the road, Malibu sometimes looks not so much like an ocean coast as it does one long row of multimillion-dollar homes. Some may wonder if there really is an ocean there.

The Los Angeles Urban Rangers plan to change that notion.

The group, which was formed to highlight all the wonders of Los Angeles — both concrete and natural — is leading "safaris" through Malibu in coming weeks. The idea is to let people know how to get beyond the mansions and to the public beaches that sit behind them.

Read More>>>

Real life sea monsters

Here is a link to some pictures of real life sea monsters.

An email from Jane Lee

Here is an email I recieved from the amazing Jane Lee:

Well my internship's over, but I realized I haven't updated one of my biggest fans (a.k.a. you) in quite awhile. Here's some of the other stories that got into the paper...the last one is actually running in tomorrow's paper, so if you have the chance you should pick one up because it takes up all of page 3, which is pretty cool :o)

http://www.usatoday.com/sports/tennis/2007-07-04-world-team-tennis_N.htm

http://www.usatoday.com/sports/baseball/nl/astros/2007-07-24-biggio-baseball_N.htm

http://www.usatoday.com/sports/2007-07-25-history-sportsites_N.htm

Now I'm back home writing for the Stockton paper and another magazine....can't quite compare to the DC life though. But I actually walked away from USAT as the first intern in their history with a freelance contract, so I'm technically still working for them.

See you in a few weeks!

Jane

Ventura County Star Interns

All the interns here got a little press the other day. I don't know why I'm on the bottom of the list. I hope they are saving the best for last and that I'm not the least favorite. I'm inclined to believe the latter.

Pods of Death

Miss Airan Scruby recently brought to my attention an accident involving the St. Louis Arch. This reminds me of a very special trip that many members of the Graphic staff took back in October to St. Louis for a media conference.

For those like me who had very little urge to visit that moument other than it being one of the major attractions in the city our group went up the Arch. To get to the top four people have to share these little white pods. There is about an quarter of an inch of space between the window inside the pod and the interior of structure of the Arch.

Being myself I had to make comments about what would happen if these things broke down. Poor Jaimie Franklin who was not a big fan of small spaces was sharing my pod on the way up. Luckily for all of us the pods took us up and down with no problem. Here are some pictures that even prove that.






There were some other students that were not quite so lucky. But I imagine they made some of these faces.

Malibu Event

Anyone still around Malibu might want to check out this event at the Adamson House. It looks like a fun event. http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/news_press_release,126488.shtml

Pepperdine Junior makes waves at USAToday

Rising junior Jane Lee is interning for USAToday this summer in Washington, D.C. Hopefully here two going on three years of service to the Graphic have helped her at one of the largest newspapers in the world.

Here is Jane's most recent article about Heather O'Reilly. http://www.usatoday.com/sports/college/2007-06-20-brod-cup_N.htm.

Multimedia message

I saw this truck driving around of PCH, I really want a sign like this for my car for when I am delivering the Graphic.

School on Wheels and Meals on Wheels West - Blog #15 (The Final One)

School on Wheels is a service for homeless children in Los Angeles, Santa Barbara and Ventura Counties as well as chapters in Indiana and Massachusetts. The agency strives to enhance the educational opportunities for homeless children from kindergarten through twelfth grade. Some of the services offered are one-on-one tutoring, backpacks, supplies and information on where to find schools.

The program offers a lot of flexibility for the children where tutors will meet the children where they are living, at shelters and follow their progress even if they move around. The organization was founded by Agnes Stevens, a retired school teacher.

The agency has created 9 learning rooms in shelters that serve as a quiet and controlled environment for the educational process. Each room was created at no expense due to donations and each room has furniture, computers, educational software, books and supplies. There are two more rooms in development.

There are two types of volunteers. Volunteer tutors provide academic assistance to the children, communicate with the parents and shelter as well as working with the child's teachers. The other type of volunteer is the location coordination that is a liaison between the shelter and tutors. Location coordinators do all the behind the scenes work to make sure there are volunteer tutors and that they have all the resources that they need.

The story ideas that came out of the presentation are a profile on the deceased founder, following the volunteer process and to follow the progress of a homeless child. Newspapers do long series that follow a child or a family and the series are usually extremely successful.

The agency plans to create a scholarship fund and expand into Long Beach and Orange County. This is a great organization that should be supported by anyone that believes education is fundamental to success.

The second agency report was on Meals on Wheels West, which serves Santa Monica, Malibu, Pacific Palisades and Topanaga. The program offers home-delivered hot meals to elderly people in need. I have volunteered with Meals on Wheel with my mother and it was an interesting and great experience.

All the Meals on Wheels are different organizations and the idea started during World War II, which the delivery of food. Anyone that is home-bound and cannot provide for themselves or anyone experiencing a short term or permanent illness, regardless of age.

There are not only old people in the program, the age ranges from 32- to 102-years-old. They serve the rich, middle class and poor, according to Coleen Conway.

The program can cater to the needs of the recipients but most importantly the program lets people connect with others. When spending a long day at home alone the volunteers bring joy to the recipients and they form a bond. It is not uncommon to develop friendships with people in the program.

Meals on Wheels was active in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Families that were displaced were still able to get meals and provide for many of those in need. Some of the new clients that are entering the program are veterans from Iraq that need extra help.

The possible story ideas that came from the presentation would be a look at the Iraqi soldiers that are now in the program, a feature on a family and a ride along that features a volunteer and a client.

This is the last blog for the class but it is not the end of the class. We have done 15 blogs about a variety of topics as well as agency reports. I still have to present on my agency next week. This class has solidified things I have learned in other Journalism class as well as provided helpful insight to working in a newsroom.

As a class we covered the anatomy of a city council, created this JourBlog, covered ethical and legal issues, lead writing and elections. To read more about each of these things read below.

My favorite topics to cover where the elections and the police sections. Those are two of the most common types of stories for new journalists starting out and can be easy great stories or can be nightmares. Traveling through the labyrinth of sources and quotes can be daunting but also exhilarating.

Public Affairs reporting is a capstone course for the journalism program because it takes a mature journalist to dig deeper and find these in-depth stories. Whenever I am asked why I want to be a journalist I think back to a story related to public affairs reporting, because at some point I covered something and wrote something that made a difference. I am not a journalist for money or for the byline.

The biggest value I got out of this class was the experience of being basically forced to blog. I want to learn about innovation story telling ideas for print journalists and this was a good first step. I might maintain a blog after this class is over but probably like this blog no one will really read it.

Future journalism majors in this class should spend some time out in the field covering their agency and people in the community. So many of the stories that come from the Graphic are conducted over the phone and over email. There is nothing like observing people during an interview and walking through a sources office. Do not be a desk jockey, journalists should be out in the world and always be learning.

This class complemented everything I have learned in the past few years working and studying as a journalist. I really enjoyed spending the time with my peers and everyday we laughed together in class. Luckily, there was not the typical Graphic staff members vs. other journalism majors segregation in the class. Everyone worked well together and hopefully learned something that will help to improve their craft, I know I did.

The things left to do are a portfolio that will serve as a reference guide and an in-depth article on our agency. My agency is the Santa Monica Mountain Conservancy, which is a gigantic organization and I think my article will be about the camping issue going on in Malibu. This issue has already been receiving some press but has not been tied in to the Pepperdine community yet. There are many students that go camping and would benefit from the new regulations and then there are also students living in those hills who will not want to open their backyards to anyone with a tent and a flashlight.

Thanks you for you time and energy in reading this and other blogs, and thank you to Dr. Jordan for making all of us write these things.

L.A. Commission on Assaults Against Women (Rape Crisis Center) and the Los Angeles Suicide Prevention Center (Suicide Crisis Center) - Blog #14

Cara Van Meter presented on domestic and sexual violence in class today. The opening was very dramatic with overwhelming statistics that show how huge of a problem violence is in our society. The organization was renamed in October to Peace over Violence.

The organization was started when a woman was raped on Sunset Boulevard. in the mid-seventies. All violence starts at home with domestic violence and spreads out into other violence, said founder Peggy Reyna. The group is a non-profit that operates a 24-hour toll free number. In 1994 the organization was named the United Way Agency of the Year.

The name was changed to make them sound more independent since they are not part of the county. They also wanted to recognize that there are men that are victims and that their foot print extends further than just Los Angeles. The organization operates three offices that runs numerous programs to help end violence.

The majority of the funding for the organization comes from grants, which are a great way to operate a non-profit without using solely tax payer money. There are about 33 staff members and 250 volunteers. The turnover is about five-years for the organization, but they do have many loyal employees and volunteers. The staff goes through 64 hours of intense training. There are two main types of volunteers: hotline volunteers and violence prevention volunteers.

The atmosphere of the office was very upbeat and encouraging. There was not a sense that everything in the world is wrong. The agency is also run by consensus, not a huge bureaucracy.

The agency provides five services: hotlines and emergency services, conseling and advocacy, community education and violence prevention, latina services and deaf and disabled and elder services. The number one priority are the hotlines, where volunteers can answer calls from the comfort of their own home. Volunteers have to be on call for at least 4 hours a week. How are the calls monitored by the agency?

The most amazing services provided are the deaf and disabled services, which typically require twice as many hours of counseling coming out at an average of 20 hours. There are also the violence prevention volunteers that go out into the community and speak to the public and education others about the agency.

Story ideas that came out of this agency are denim day, the deaf, disabled and elderly services and media consultation. Denim day is a huge fundraiser that started when a woman was raped and a judge did not convict the alleged criminal because he said her jeans were so tight she would have had to pull them off herself, so there was no rape.

This is a great organization that provides services to thousands of people every year. Growing up in an environment of absolutely no violence, and then getting into a living situation in college where there has been violence it is easy to see how even the strongest of people need help and can become victims.

The second presentation was from Patricia Martinez about the suicide prevention center. The warning signs of suicide include: expressing suicidal feelings directly or bringing up the topic of suicide, giving away prized possessions, settling affairs, making out a will, signs of depression, change of behavior, risk-taking behaviors, increased use of alcohol or drugs, social isolation and developing a specific plan for suicide.

The organization was famous for starting the first 24-hour prevention hotline. Started by doctors, the agency aims to if calls would make an impact on the suicide problem. The ways to help a suicidal person is to first of all listen and to accept the person's feelings as they are and not simply try to cheer them up.

The organization operates four different crisis lines. The SPC local crisis line serves Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside and San Bernadino Counties. The Hope National Hopeline Network is a national network of crisis lines. The Suicide Prevention Life Line is also a national network but is funded by SAMHSA. The Teen Line specializes in teen suicide calls.

The agency also offers a survivors after suicide groups, where individuals and family members gather to support one another. There is a licenses therapist and councilor at the meeting to help direct the discussion and support the attendees.

The agency has about 135 volunteers and applications are on the Web site. The interesting part is that there is a required $50 donation to cover the cost of the materials sent with the application. I think that's a hard sell to make to volunteers. It would be better for the agency to write a grant to cover any costs associated with acquiring volunteers instead of requiring a donation. There are administrative, office and outreach volunteers.

The main story idea that came out of this agency was the confidentially of the victims and the families. Martinez was not even allowed to speak to the volunteers or see where the hotline is run from. Another idea was to feature some of the more unique programs and groups or cover some of their fund raising events.

The suicide hotline is a great organization but it is sad that they have to be so secretive to reporters that are trying to do positive stories on the agency.

California Coastal Commission and the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreational Area - Blog #13

Today in class Airan Scruby presented on the California Coastal Commission, which is one of the largest bureaucracies in the state. The commission has 12 voting members that are appointed by the Governor, the Sentate Rules Committee and the Speaker of the Assembly. There are also non-voters from a variety of sources.

The commissioners are not elected and can be effected by political influence. The voting members tend to be environmentally conscience while the non-voting members are competing for various interest, according to Scruby. The Commission is one of two agencies to administer the federal coastal zone. The meeting can last days and are broadcasted over the Internet.

The Commission's responsibilities are responsible for partnerships between local and state governments, regulate coast and coastal buildings, create a response plans for oil spills off the coast of California. The Commission has a great deal of power to stop project and impose regulations for cities without providing any funding.

Members of the public can reserve time to speak at the meeting or can submit something in writing. The zone extends inland and can engulf entire cities. Regulations can be imposed on any building in the zone and any future construction within the zone. Any new building or improvements to existing buildings need to meeting the standards set by the Commission and get it approved.

The Commission is suing the Navy because allegedly the sonar technology used by the Navy is causing Whales to become beached. The Commission does not have the resources to pay for the clean up so they are trying to hold the Navy responsible for the beachings. If the Commission wins this case against the Navy the Commission should then take over patrolling the oceans of the world.

There are a lot of news stories occurring now with the Commission including their exercise of power over the Santa Monica Mountains to allow camping. There are many stories that can come out of the Commission including a look at their power and the effects their decisions have on cities like Malibu, and a look into the case of the Commission versus the Navy.

The second presentation was from Shuhei Matsuo on the Santa Monica Mountains Recreation Area. The agency controls numerous camping sites and trials throughout and near Malibu. The national park was incorporated in 1978 and comprises of 153,000 acres. Because of the parks location it is frequently used for the filming of motion pictures and television shows. The park is the world's largest national park.

There are a large variety of native plants and fish located in the mountains and steams that run through the mountains. The current issues in the park are preserving plants and animals in these dry conditions as well as wildfires. The possible story ideas that Matsuo presented to the class were a story on the mediterranean ecosystem and Dr. Davis, fire issues and mountain biking.

Calabasas and Agoura Hills City Councils - Blog #12

The joys of covering a city council meeting is something that every young journalist will learn about working at their first newspaper. I attended many city council meetings while working in Florida as an IHS Intern for the News Herald.

I wrote two or three stories about the Cedar Grove City Council while in town. The most recent one I wrote was about the name of the city. The charter for the city calls Cedar Grove a town while all the signs, stationary and everything else refer to Cedar Grove as a city. When a new city clerk took over and noticed the error he had the item but on the city council agenda. Before the meeting I called the Florida League of Cities and they told me that there was no difference and any local government can choose to name themselves a town or a city.

Another story I covered for about the Lynn Haven City Council was when one member, who was a local principal, took a job in Georgia but was remaining on the Council. One citizen who ran for a seat and lost demanded that this councilmember step down since he was going to be living in Georgia during the week.

Small city council meeting can be extremely boring when everyone agrees on everything and the council goes through the motions of accepting gifts and giving out awards. The councilmembers are humans and unually there are more intersting things going on behind the scenes.

I live in the city of Calabasas so it is interesting to hear about the people that make decisions that have an effect on my life and home. The big recent news is the recent election of Mayor Pro Tem Mary Sue Maurer who was at the Santa Monica Mountain Conservancy meeting last night. The history of Calabasas dates back to the Chumash Indians and continues through the citys incorporation in 1991. The city is 12.9 square miles with a population of 23,123. The median age is 38.5 years with an median household income of $93,860 and a average home price of $1,624,522, which is higher than the average for Orange County.

The Agoura Hills City Council seems pretty subdue. The city itself incorporated in 1982 with a population of 23,200. The median home value in Agoura Hills is $647,000 about half of that of Calabasas'.

The Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza and the Santa Monica Arts Commission - Blog #11

There were two presentations today in class, the first from Carissa Marsh was on the Santa Monica Arts Commission. Following, was Shannon Kelly presenting on the Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza.

The Santa Monica Arts Commission has 13 members and is under the Cultural Affairs division of Santa Monica. The city council appoints citizens that live or work in the city and have a background in art to the commission. The city of Santa Monica considers public art to be a basic city service. The city believes that by supporting all forms of art within the city limits there will be educational, social and economic benefits.

Santa Monica has some amazing public art that comes close to competing with my favorite Orange County artistic community of Laguna Beach. The promenade on 3rd Street has great sculptures and the traveling museum that is placed in the parking lot by the pier every Fall is amazing. The biggest problem with the art commission is that they are using public money to attempt to give housing to struggling artists and extort businesses.

The commission funded through the city council is working on finding affordable housing for struggling artists. In a free market when someone is unable to meet their basic needs they have to adapt and find something else they are good at. I am sorry but if a great artist can not provide for himself he need to become a good craftsman and do some art projects during his weekends. It is not the publics responsibility to fund art, not matter how great it makes the city look.

Another troubling matter is the "percent law," which requires any new development has to have some artistic elements or otherwise donate funds to the commission. How is requiring public art good for the economy? I understand that these artistic elements might be easy and even cheap to incorporate but the idea of making it mandatory leaves a bad taste in my mouth.

The commission is doing some positive things with the taxpayer money they should not have. The commission hosts a festival, May 20, and Jazz on the lawn. There are two programs under way that I actually would not mind attending/supporting (with my private donations). The first is the GLOW festival, which is a 12 hour art festival from dusk till dawn. The second program is the Arts Alley project that aims at sprucing up some of the allies in Santa Monica with some art.

Moving to another and potentially better run art organization is the Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza. The Plaza located off the 101 Freeway is huge, it is so large that it is actually the largest performing arts center between San Francisco and Los Angeles. More than 250,000 patrons visit the venue every year.

The organization is interesting because it is a public/private partnership between the city and the Alliance for the Arts. The Alliance for the arts has been recognized by the National Endowment for the Arts and the League of Cities as a successful model for these partnerships. The Alliance formed in 1994 has kept the center from going over budget due to private donations and support. The Alliance provides the center with marketing, advertising and public relations.

Both organization presentations were well done and the two organizations are vastly different.

Santa Monica-Malibu Unifed School District Presentation - Blog #10

A fellow classmate, Lisa Yamada, did a great job presenting on the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District. In the school district there are 11,900 students, 1,400 staff members and 18 schools ranging from elementary to high schools. The student makeup of the district is almost 50 percent Caucasian and 50 percent ethnic.

Yamada spent a day at two different schools to get a flavor of student life. The two schools she visited were Santa Monica High School and Olympic Continuation High School, for student that are behind in academic credits, need a smaller learning environment or have other continuation education needs.

The district has four schools in Malibu, a high school, two elementary schools (Webster, Juan Cabrillo) and the Point Dume Marine Science School.

The day Yamada spent at Santa Monica High School provided her with some valuable insight she was able to then pass on to the rest of the class. The school has nearly as many students as Seaver Undergraduate College at Pepperdine, with 3,200 students. The district has counteracted the feeling of a giant school by creating "houses," which act as smaller high schools for the students. There are six house at SMHS, and each house has a house principal, a teacher leader, counselor, two ad visors, a student outreach specialist, house assistant and approximately 550 student ranging from grades 9 to 12.

The school is inhabited by students from the surrounding Santa Monica homes and the homes in Pico that tend to have more ethnic students and a much smaller median family income. Despite the integration of the house there is still a lot of racial tension at SMHS. One of the counselors said that SMHS has a two-school phenomenon because students only associate with their own race during lunch.

My high school was much less diverse than SMHS and more expensive to attend. My catholic high school did recruit students from lower economic backgrounds by offering large scholarships. Two of my best friends came from a much lower economic status than the majority of the students and they outperformed the students that came from higher economic status. There was less diversity at my high school but there was no segregation between the students. Every student at my high school could have chosen to go to a public school, but by choosing to go to Catholic school they were their to learn and did not have the racial front that is appearing at SMHS.

This raises an interesting question of privatization of schools. If parents and students from every economic background have the option to choose what school to send their child too, would black parents only send their children to the school that were majority black, etc., etc. SMHS is outperforming many of the other public school in the nation in every aspect but they face many different racial issues.

I read an article from the SF Gate about the privatization of school. The article was poorly organized so it was confusing to understand when the article was covering politics versus the school privatization issue. The best quote from this story comes from a member of the school board.

"The biggest misfortune of focusing on (Edison) is that it's dividing us and costing us the
political goodwill we need to do big reforms, like eliminating the achievement gap
between ethnic groups," said Dan Kelly, school board vice president and the only
incumbent endorsed by the union and parents' lobby.

When school board members want to prevent privatization of schools because they eliminate the achievement gap between ethnic groups this issue has become more political than a social good standpoint.

Santa Monica Mountain Conservancy - Blog #9

To get better acquainted with my organization I attended a Santa Monica Mountain Conservancy board meeting. The meetings are open to the public and are held monthly at various locations around the Los Angeles County.

The meeting I went to was held in Pacific Palisades at a campsite. It was because visitors and board members alike had to park at the park entrance and walk about a mile to the meeting location. The meeting started at 7:30 p.m. and last more than 2 hours. Leaving the meeting and trekking back through the forest to the cars was an interesting experience.

The board of directors consists of nine voting members, three ex efficio members and six legislative members. The board also has a twenty-six member Advisory Committee that meets jointly with the conservancy and contains a wide array of representatives.

The most interesting voting member of are Chairperson Elizabeth Cheadle, appointed by the Senate Rules Committee, William Burke, appointed by the California Coastal Commission, Edward J. Begley, Jr., appointed by the mayor of Los Angeles and James Berkus, appointed by the governor.

There are two empty legislative seats on the board but there are three senators Kuehl, Romero and Scott. One assemblywoman Brownly represents the majority of Malibu, Calabasas and surrounding coastal cities. Although there are legislative representatives those members are rarely at the meeting and aids are sent to the meeting.

I expected to see a bunch of tree huggers at the meeting all driving Prius’ and eating granola. The truth is that the board is political, different people and organizations appoint people to the board and many different interests are at work. Everyone in the room cares about the environment but these are not tree huggers.

The meeting was very long packed full of information. Take a look at the agenda. The first hour of the meeting was going over staff reporters from the numerous organizations and state agencies that work with the conservancy. There is an hour reserved for public comments. The interesting formatting had the comments section before any agenda items were talked about.

This meant that many of the members of the public that came to speak had 3 minutes and could not respond to any of the boards concerns, they could only deliver a speech and hope they covered the concerns of the council.

After the hour for public comments the board spoke about agenda items. Most of the items were about sending letter of compliance to others that were not upholding their part of agreements.

Courts and Police - Blog #8

Today’s discussion was about courts and the police. These two areas are really interesting and they separate the good from the bad reporters earlier in every journalist’s career. I have covered many stories during my internship in Florida.

The best advice I ever received about covering the cop beat was from an editor that introduced me to the police scanner. My desk has five pages single-spaced with the call letters and call signs for all types of reports. My mentor told me that what the cop or firemen are saying over the radio is not really important, our job as reporters is to listen to the tone of the voice of the person speaking and that is the best indication of a story.

Even over the spotty, crackling radio that gave me headaches every day I was able to a most time hear when something big was going on and what was routine without even looking at the call sheets.

One thing I regret never finding out more about was that the police in Panama City are constantly saying “meet me at Dairy Queen” over the radio. At first I did not really pay attention until I heard how frequent they were saying it. As time went on and I became more familiar with Panama City I never saw a single Dairy Queen. I asked everyone at the newspaper if they knew of any Dairy Queens in the area or if they knew the pseudonym for the Dairy Queen. No one was able to tell me anything more than it being slang used by the police.

Accuracy and fairness are extremely important to the majority of police officers. Even when I was covering sensitive stories of a police chief drinking on the job all the cops under him were very open as long as I was fair. There were a series of stories so the more the cops were able to see that there was no hidden agenda to drive out the police chief they became very receptive and giving with their information.

One way, other than writing great and accurate stories, to gain some support within a department that is difficult to crack is to write essentially a buff piece on something that they are doing. Find out about any softball games they have, any mentoring they are doing, what charities they are supporting or any competitions they are in. This helps get reporters in a different environment to meet sources without having to ask them tough questions or questions they might not know the answer too. The story will build some trust and help the reporter get noticed by the right people.

The other topic of covering courts is important for young-reporters are to cultivate good sources inside and outside the newsroom. Get a seasoned reporter to take you down to the courthouse and introduce you to all the secretaries, court reporters, judges and lawyers. This is an instant in for most reporters.

Court documents are great sources of information since every time a crime is committed a new file is started or a footnote is added onto an existing file. Looking at the arraignments for the day can tell the reporter information like who was arrest for what, are arrests increasing or decreasing and what the most common arrest are.

We also read an investigative story from the Chicago Tribune about how reporters can effect change in the world. This moving series is about how the justice system is full of unsavory people that were getting away with heinous treatment without being noticed. Most people believe that the courts are noble and the reporters were able to shine light on the situation and enact change, which is something every reporters wishes to accomplish with their career.

Anatomy of a City Council Meeting - Blog #7

Anatomy of a City Council Meeting was a large component of our class for the past two weeks. The anatomy had five units; background on the council and its members, an agenda analysis, attending a city council meeting, post-meeting analysis and a guest speaker.

The background section was divided into different issues the council is covering and the members themselves. Each person in the class was assigned a topic and had to research, write a paper to be handed out to the class and give a short oral presentation. Some of the really interesting reports were on the history of Malibu, the history of the city council and the Malibu families.

I researched the controversy of overnight camping in Malibu. It is a story that is ongoing between the council and the Santa Monica Mountain Conservancy, which controls the campgrounds in Malibu. (Please see the report below) This will end up being a part of my in-depth story about the Santa Monica Mountain Conservancy due in a few weeks.

The agenda analysis (please see the report below) was interesting because the minutes for the city council were accessible and really thorough. I have had editors that were able to read minutes and highlight a single sentence that ended up being a good story. One example were minutes that I got for the Cedar Grove city council that had one light highlighted that said, Council member moves.

A council member took a new job in Georgia as a principal and some of the citizens wanted him to resign because he was moving. The council member would still have his family in Cedar Grove and still have a home there but every city has a few citizens that cause a ruckus. These same citizens a few weeks later came to me with a story about the mayor’s finances claiming he was not filing the right tax forms and should be removed from city council. The gentleman was a former mayoral candidate that was not elected and he tried every week to find a way onto that council.

The meeting itself was really long for a city council meeting. Other meetings I have attended over the years in other cities seem to have less discussion and fewer agenda items. The Malibu City Council is also really high-tech compared to other cities; their long three-hour meetings are broadcasted on local channel 3 and also streamed online.

Malibu has the same citizens that go to every meeting and use their rights to offer their opinions on the issues of the day. My landlord is one of those citizens that went up to the podium a few times and gave his opinion.

The meeting was interesting with a lively debate on septic tanks in Malibu and their effect on the environment. The council attempted to do its part to meet regulations established by other governmental agencies even though many citizens will oppose the financial strain this may put on them.

My favorite parts of the council meeting though were the comments early in the night. Sharon Barovsky raised some good points about the fire department and she had a great tone in her voice that made it abundantly clear to everyone that she did not appreciate the way she came off in a recent Malibu Times article. This means that the coverage newspapers have on city council members and their decisions can effect change.

The post-meeting analysis (please see the report below) was a class discussion on what happened at the meeting. The class also used this time to brainstorm questions for Malibu mayor Ken Kearsley who was our guest speaker. The class was able to delve deeply into the history of Malibu and narrow in on some in-depth questions.

The guest speaker was the best part of the Anatomy of a City Council Meeting (please see the report below). Kearsley really opened up to the class and shared some great information. I have never had a local politician/leader open up that much to me, let alone a class. I learned more about Malibu politics from Kearsley than from any of the other exercises in this unit.

Guest speaker - Blog #6

We had a great special treat today in class; Judge Ralph Erickson the president of the Malibu Democrats enlightened the class on politics from the grassroots perspective. Erickson is a retired federal judge, a former SEC investigator and Democratic Party activist. The hour and ten minute talk covered many issues from his history, dealing with reporters, how community/state politics function and a wide array of historical context.

Erickson's first memories of journalism began early in his life, hearing radio accounts of the Hindenburg disaster and live broadcasts of Hitler speaking. This 75-year-old veteran is a voracious reader of newspapers and has developed many relationships with journalists. Erickson is the type of reader that newspapers adore - he receives three daily and two weeklies, and he reads them all.

The reader has also become active in journalism education; he has spoken at conferences held specifically for investigative reporters and editors. While working for the SEC in Los Angeles, Erickson worked extensively with reporters from the Wall Street Journal, The New York Times and the Los Angeles Times. I really appreciated the stories he shared with the class about the crazy antics of the reporters he worked with, especially the Wall Street Journal reporters.

After hearing about Erickson's history and background we had some class discussion on political slants of newspapers. Bias in newspapers is extremely hard to judge because most news stories and just news stories and most op-ed or staff ed's are clearly opinions.

The best example of political bias that I see in most newspaper is reading the difference in AP or big stories in the Wall Street Journal and in the Los Angeles Times. My dad handed me two front pages one day and said read these two stories. Both stories were an AP story about the economy, one was published in USA Today and the other was in I believe the LA Times or the Washington Post. The AP story was about an economic study that was released. The overall findings of the study showed that the economy was stronger than it has ever been. The USA Today story leads with the positive outlook on the economy. The other newspaper rewrote the lead to focus on one of the negative things that study found and changed the tone of the story to be about inflation rate rising at a dramatic pace. These were both true and both news but one editor picked to ignore a part of the story while the other covered the entire story. One was biased.

One of my favorite books on bias is just that, Bias, by Bernard Goldberg. This CBS insider wrote a great book that detailed the daily bias he saw in his own newsroom. Goldberg is a democrat but he saw that the most common and subversive form of bias in the news is in the identification of people. Any comment, statement or fact coming from a conservative group was clearly identified as coming from a conservative group. Comments, statements and fact that came from the left were usually not identified as coming from the left. This was usually done on accident by the reporter because they share the same opinions with the left side and view those as facts and hence do not need to be identified in the same way.

The other interesting topic of discussion in class was the power of politics. Erickson said that to be a politician a person has to be able to change power structures. He led with an example of his grandson being a great politician because he is able to get his mom to do anything he wants.

The scary aspect of this part of the discussion was that money controls almost every aspect of politics, which is something everyone knows but few are willing to admit. Erickson said that in politics "you buy committee chairmanships or for the less funded you buy seats on important committees."

Public Access - Blog #5

I was unable to attend class on Thursday due to illness but through the reading and the notes provided by Carissa Marsh I was able to catch-up on some of the things I missed.

The class involved an access workshop, when Dr. J advised us on how to get access to public records. There is nothing inherently written in the Constitution that gives reporter access to government or private documents. The 1st Amendment does give reporters the right to access all materials pertaining to the criminal process.

While I worked the cop beat in Panama City, Fla. I was responsible for going through the police logs, editing them and then making any follow-up calls for more information. Panama City, Fla. has an illustrious legal history with the creator of Girls Gone Wild having his plane seized at the airport and the prosecutors of Bay County charging the founder with criminal charges. The majority of the stories I covered were breaking news and did not require too much harassing for documents.

When there was a fire I would get the official reporter from the fire departments investigator or go to the courthouse to see the arraignments for the day. A lot of the stories I was covering were routine and the departments I worked with were fair with their information sharing.

The Brown Act is an interesting law that hopefully keeps city and county commissions humble and efficient. The act requires that public agencies conduct their meetings and therefore business in an open setting. I have sat through many city council meetings as an intern and young journalist. The meeting are pretty boring but like my editors before me the exposure allows a reporter to get good and figuring out what items on an agenda would make good stories and how to interpret the proceeds of the meeting.

reply on a politician for all their information. The city council members have a vest interested in the information they My experience with city council meetings is that the commissioners tend to get along really well and work together to form a barrier to keep themselves from asking tough questions of each other and to keep the press away from stories. The other, and more common type of council is that members do not get along and they try to manipulate the press to get what they want. I would get calls from city council members before the meetings to give their side of a particular story and to try to mold the story before the meeting even starts. With experience a journalist walks the line to cultivate these sources to get good information but does not solelydivulge so it is important to talk to everyone to make sure you get the whole story.

Note: In the state of California, crime reports and police reports are not public documents. But reporters, by law, are allowed to enter crime scenes, which many police officers do not know. The way I was able to get into crime scenes was to find the officers I have worked with in the past to be as gracious as possible. I had police officers and firemen that knew me and helped me in search of the truth. The worst I have ever been treated in my journalism career was not covering a murder case, or trying to get a story about a man who fell into a well. The worst I was treated while trying to get a story was at Pepperdine's Malibu campus by a lieutenant that we did a nice feature on the week before in the news section.

The story was that a man worked out on campus and while driving home he had a heart attack on campus and passed away. When we heard there was a dead body on campus I went down to the gym parking lot near the scene of the accident with two other reporter. Public Safety meet us with extreme resistance and told us we were not allowed to be on campus, and I the officer in charge of the scene took down my information and threatened to bring me up on disciplinary action through the university for disturbing the peace and talking back to the officer when I asked him where we were allowed to be.

In the end I was never called to the disciplinary review board and we got the story.

OC Register - Interview

Yesterday I was interviewed by a reporter from the OC Register about a high school teacher I had that lead trips to Europe during the summer. It was very interesting to be on the other end of the phone for once and answering the sensitive questions about sexual impropriety instead of asking them. I think the story came out well I will be curious to see what comes of this story.

My favorite part of the story was reading the comments that SMCHS and Mater Dei parents made at the bottom of the story. Take a look.