True Enough by Farhad Manjoo

Our latest assignment was to read “True Enough” by Farhad Manjoo. This book was a real eye opener. It broke down various aspects of the media and made the reader re-think it's inter workings. Farhad Manjoo does a great job at trying to change a point of view by using plenty of evidence to back it up.

The problem with the book is it makes you re-think everything with regards to the media. Farhad Manjoo had me trusting nothing in the media. By the end of this book I’m not sure I even trusted what he was saying. It will make you more skeptical than you thought you ever could be.

The section about Video News Releases, or VNR’s ,made me disappointed in news programs at first but with further thought, my opinion changed. VNR’s started in the 1980’s and look like a legit news story but is really just an advertisement. Examples used by the book are National Pancake Day, which is a corporately produced holiday by a pancake batter company Bisquick. This seems like a legit news story but the host is using Bisquick while cooking the pancakes.

A columnist, Robin Raskin started a campaign against porn on Ipads. She was worried about children having easier access to pornographic material. At first I thought this sounded fairly ridiculous. There’s no way to stop children from eventually seeing porn. Even before computers were around, a neighborhood kid got his hands on his father’s stash of Playboy and Penthouse magazines. Curiosity is part of growing-up. We applaud children when they are curious about other things, but frown upon them when exploring sexuality.

Robin Raskin was getting momentum on the porn/Ipad subject and started to gain momentum. She was getting invited to have interviews on various talk and information television shows. Upon interviewing for these shows she started to show items that were “kid friendly.”The interviews became a clever way to push other electronics while frowning upon opponents product.

It turned out that Robin was being paid to push those products and the porn/Ipad subject was just to get her on talk-shows. This happens often with newscasts. It's disappointing and hurts the credibility and prestige of the news. I think news-director’s hands are forced here though. The news budgets are getting cut all across America. This is adding pressure for directors to balance budgets more-so than have all news. The VNR’s are cheaper and easier to put on any given newscast. Most of the public doesn’t even realize what is going on.

A story that really interested me was the Princeton vs. Dartmouth game. It was about a 1951 game that had Princeton winning 13-0 but both sides had felt the other team was playing dirty. I liked this because plenty of times I’ve watched a game of my favorite team and thought the opponent was playing dirty, (Google Buffalo Bills/Miami Dolphins Rivalry). After hearing about this, some researchers sat students from each school down and showed them some clips of the game tape. They found that the students at Princeton claimed to witness an average of ten infractions committed where Dartmouth students saw half as much and most were minor infractions.

As previously found, the fans of each team could not fathom or imagine their team playing dirty. The team they are fans of couldn’t possibly do such a thing. They’re the good team, the good guys. The other guys had to be the ones who were dirty.

People interpret everything this way. If it appeals to you, you’re going to agree with it. A study in this book has students being shown arguments for or against the death penalty. The study found that students found flaws in research that was against there previous believes.

There are countless points made by Farhad Manjoo in this book. I was reluctant to read it and waited until the last possible minute to even buy the book. Once I started reading it, I had no problem continuing on. I do warn you that you’ll start not trusting anyone. You’ll start to lock yourself in your room with no lights and curtains over your windows. The smallest noises will make you think the Government is coming after you. A dog barking outside is an agent coming to kill you. Your parents will call and you will ignore the calls hoping to avoid contact from the outside world. Well maybe it wont be this bad,but it will have you thinking differently. Read the book and enjoy, you'll thank me later

Until next time.....

Public Meeting Number 2

The latest assignment was to attend a second public meeting. If you're a consistent reader of this blog, you know meeting one went pretty poorly.

This meeting was on an issue I can actually relate to. I'm not saying building pools on random businesses lots weren't, I very well may use one in the future, but they weren't something to relate to.

This meeting was about expanding Bruce B. Downs from Bearrs Ave. to Pasco County Road. The length of this comes to about 3.4 miles. It's said that about 60,000 cars go through this stretch of road every day. If you have ever attempted to drive through it during morning or evening rush hours, it can be a frustrating or borderline homicidal. In fact some people like it so much they like to express there gratitude towards each other with the middle finger.

The meeting took place at Tampa Palms Elementary School. My first thoughts were this didn't look anything like the cafeteria at my old Elementary School. It was much nicer and newer than any past experience of mine. There were way more people than I'd imagined coming to a public meeting at an Elementary School. There had to have been at least 150 in attendance.

When we walked into the meeting, the people at the door handed us a pamphlet of exactly what was going to be discussed during this meeting. The pamphlet had four different scenarios of expansion for Bruce B. Downs. There wasn't any question of the needed for expansion. The meeting focused on how to go about expanding it.

It started with a small ten minute introduction to the facts and ideas of the meeting. This was really strange. It was taped and the women on tape seemed very robotic and emotionless. It reminded me of the introductions to Universal Studies rides when in line. Disregard this paragraph if anyone hasn't been to Universal Studies.

When the introduction was finished and the ride, I mean meeeting was ready to take off the officials were introduced, along with different options for plans of expansion.

Various people were then aloud to take the podium and say how they felt about the different expansion plans.

One guy who stood out was someone from Charlotte, North Carolina who's previous experience included helping shape the master transportation plan there, talked about Eight lanes having "failed everywhere it's been used."

He seemed like he knew the most out of public who attended the meeting. Then again, he just seemed the most confident with what he was saying. However, as Farhad Manjoo explains, that doesn't always mean someones knows what they are speaking about, ( pathetic use of class topics for brownie points? Never!).

Some of the arguments for the expansion to eight lanes were that it would save us from having to go through construction twice. One individual illustrated an example of expanding to six lanes, and as the community grows more, doing it all over again years down the road.

I agree with this point, because the community of North Tampa will keep expanding, more-and-more people will be living there. The traffic is bad enough now, something does need to be done. The plan of expansion will cost about 104 million dollars. The community will be forced to pay 52-55 million through a sales tax of an extra penny on every dollar, ( will be later voted on this upcoming November).

If it's decided to just expand to six lanes, then it would cost 52 millions. If we decide to expand to eight lanes, it will cost 55 million.

The main reason I'm in support of the eight lane expansion is because if it's expanded to six lanes and needs to expanded again down the road, it will be a big waste of money. It's been estimated to cost the tax-payers 21 million more dollars, than if we just do it all at once.

Why not for once plan ahead?

The plan is supposed to start the summer of 2011 and end by 2014. This seems a little ridiculous. As we all know construction is rarely finished in its estimated time. My parents pool took longer than three years for god sakes, (yes I'm exaggerating). They can't tell me it's going to be done in less than three years.

One more wrinkle to this whole plan is mass transit. Bills Edwards explained that mass transit by rail is the "only way." He talked about how trolley buses and regular buses don't work with the public. The plan is to ultimately have a train rail connect to the bullet trains to grant access across Florida.

This plan will at the earliest be approved in 2018. I like the idea of the train transit, and it could potentially reduce an immense amount of traffic. The problem is though that is could be potentially one of the most expensive debacles in recent memory.

We don't yet know what will happen to Bruce B. Downs. It will play out in the upcoming months to years. I'll say this public meeting was way more interesting to attend. It sparked my interest in the debate and got me thinking.

Until next time, understand, next time you find yourself in traffic on Bruce B. Downs, just realize that there's something we can do to help.

PUBLIC MEETING

I went to the Board of County Commissioners meeting on March 23rd. I will say it was quite a disappointment. The meeting was about land use, which sounded extremely boring. It was on the second floor of a huge building downtown. Now that I'm learning about where to park, the downtown visits are becoming less stressful.

The first thing I noticed upon entering the room was how small it was. It looks a lot bigger on television than in person. It's a tall room but very narrow and awkward looking. There were a lot of cameras around blocking the view on the sides.

It starts with someone going up to the podium before the commissioners and asking for a permit to do something to their land. The audience is then asked if they have anything to say or any objections. Then the Commissioners vote.

The Board of County Commissioners from district 1-7 are: Jim Norman , Ken Hagan, Kevin White, Al Higginbotham, Kevin Beckner, Rose Ferlita (I wonder if there's any relation to the Ferlita bakery in downtown Ybor), and Mark Sharpe. The board is in charge of the county’s capital and operating budgets.

The meeting started at 1:30. They then took a break about 15 minutes after. This really drove me crazy. We had to wait there an extra hour in order to see the second part of the meeting. What was the point of having a second part of the meeting? I would love a job or class that I could take a break every 15 minutes.

Oh wait! It's like most of us college students taking breaks after every paragraph to see if anyone has commented on our Facebook status, or if Brett Favre has decided whether or not to retire or come back to play one more year.

The first part of the meeting might have lasted a little longer if they didn't unanimously vote in favor of the first 12 decisions( B1-B12). I was tempted to go up there and just ask to have some property. I thought maybe they would just not pay attention and unanimously agree.

It really seemed like they just didn't care what happened during the first part of the meeting.

The second part of the meeting rolls around. I'm thinking surely they saved the hard decisions for last and tried to get the easy stuff out of the way first.

I was wrong. They worked just as fast as before. If our government employees worked this way we would have plenty of stuff done by now. I'm kidding, refer back to my post while visiting the Courthouse and you'll know.

I noticed three key personal appearance petitions. The first one was the relocation of commercial square footage to the office parcel for property located on the west side of North Florida Ave, and 200 ft. south of Siobhan Ave. The second was to allow affordable homes on the Southwest corner of 14th ave SE and 12th St. SE. Finally, to modify parking property located on the south side of Progress Blvd. Riviting stuff huh?

All-in-all I do understand that politicians have a lot more to do than just these decisions, this was just not a great show-case. The visit did give me an opportunity to talk to a reporter about an internship, which is always a good thing. I also got to see Mark Sharpe in person. He is my assigned public official, so you will be seeing some more of him later in the month.

Until next time....

The Sequel

Math can be a terrifying subject for most Mass Communication students. I happen to be one of them. I avoid math like it's the plague, so when first about learning budgets my first thought was how wonderful it will be to catch-up on some sleep.

In for his second visit came Preston Trigg. He's the director of administration and special projects. His goal this time, to teach us Mass Communication students the art of reading a budget.


Preston had a lot of good information to tell us. He first explained to us about government agents having budgets and how they are all public record in the state of Florida. This makes sense that every government agency has a budget considering they spend and receive money. I just never really thought about it. When you hear about 9 dollar cheesecakes, as of late, it sort of slips your mind that the government actually follows a budget.


The budgets, as Mr. Trigg explained, can help uncover corrupt behavior amongst the government officials. It's human nature to be corrupted by power and money. Well what do most government officials tend to have access to? Both power and money. Keeping the budgets public record keeps them in place (to an extent), and creates a nice check and balance to the system.


As with most budgets, you can't spend more than you're bringing in. This goes the same for the government (at least the local government). Revenue comes in through sales taxes, property taxes, fines, parking tickets, utility payments, grants, business tax, and any other way they can possibly try to get their hands on our money. In my opinion we don't give enough money to the government, but I digress. Budgets are in most cases done every fiscal year which starts October 1st and ends September 30th.


Going into class I was completely unaware about bond referendums. They contribute to revenue, that are loans to government from citizens that eventually are paid back with interest.


Mr. Trigg spoke to us about being aware of spikes in revenue through water bills and property taxes. If these go up, there's usually something fishy needing to be checked. When taxes are raised, people will want an explanation. When utilities go up without any explanation, a job of a reporter is to find out why.


The most complicated part of the presentation is coming so Mass Communication students who get queasy whenever math or formulas are brought up, it may be time to cut this read early. Don't worry, i wont be offended.


Mr. Trigg taught us about the mileage property tax system. All homes are taxed through whatever they are appraised at. One mil is the same thing as one tax dollar for every one thousand dollars the home is worth. Most counties set the mil for property tax, but the homestead exemption changes this. It lowers value by 50,000 dollars for tax purposes. This has caused property taxes to plummet. According to Trigg, this is killing the counties' budgets.


Just a quick review:

If the tax rate is 5 mils and the property value is $1,000, the owner would pay $5 dollars on $1,000. If the tax rate is 10 mils and the property value is $100,000 the owner would pay $1,000.


Budgets can be a useful tool for any good reporter. It can be at time very complicated if you don't know how to use it. However,with the proper knowledge, and getting over the initial fear off all those intimidating number, it will guide people in the direction of corruption. With times as tough as it's been financially,wouldn't you like to know where your money is going? Budgets give the public the tools to check on politicians and make sure they're using our hard earned money for the betterment of the city, state, or country.


Until next time, work a budget, save your money.....

The Hillsborough County Medical Examiner

Our latest trip learning about Public Records was to the Hillsborough County Medical Examiner.

http://www.hillsboroughcounty.org/medexam/about/unidentified.cfm

After someone dies, they are sent to the Examiner. This was such a depressing and plain building. Obviously the depressing part was that you know there's dead bodies in the building and many have been there before. People get very awkward and queasy when learning about death. It's something that most of us fear the most.

The tour of the Examiner was lead by Dr. Adams, who seemed very comfortable with death. He erased the uneasiness from my mind and helped focus on the workings and public records of his office (until I saw the dead body, more on that later). I think he's just been desensitized of emotion or shock of dead bodies because he's dealt with them for over 20 years.

He started to give us some interesting information on his office. His office doesn't examine every bodies that rolls in. There would be way too many to keep up with.

Dr. Adams talked about his job duties through statue 406.11, that gives him total jurisdiction in determining causes of death for anyone involved in criminal violence, suicide, poison, sudden death while in good health, in prison or under the full care of a doctor.

The Examiner must determine the cause of death and go to the site of the dead body to gather some evidence that may help them with gathering information on the body. However, A common theme throughout these Government funded establishments, there have been budget cuts. Some of the bodies found at night don't get the same attention they would during the day.

Something really needs to be done about all the budget cuts going on. I feel like a lot of money is being spent on insignificant things but others of more importance are being cut.

Unless it's under investigation, the autopsy reports are open to the public. The hospital and nursing records are not. The pictures on file of the body used to be public record until 2001 when Dale Earnhardt's wife got it passed that made them private. The bill was based off the fact that Earnhardt was a celebrity. I remember how much attention and how crazy the media got after he died on National Television.

There are two death certificates. If you're like me, you assumed there was only one. The medical death certificate is private but the memorial death certificate is the one that's public record.

None of the public records for the Examiner are online. Any record requests must be done upon at the actual office. I thought that was strange because it seems like you can do everything online.

And finally the lasting memory of the trip would have to be seeing the dead body during an autopsy. We are not allowed to see it but I think Dr. Adams made a mistake and let us in too early. We didn't get a great look at it, but enough that I know I never would like to see that again.

One last tidbit of information. I found out Billy Mays was examined at the Hillsborough County Medical Examiner. He had a substant in his system that in a bag may look like Oxyclean, but wasn't, I'll let you fill in the blanks.

I went to a public officials meeting today and was very disappointed. Check back later in the week for my take on the meeting.

Until next time, stay safe so you stay out of the Examiner's office.

My Court Trip

Hello everybody. Our latest assignment was to attend court cases for a few hours. I was reluctant and annoyed with this idea at first. I thought it was going to be boring and busy work. As you will soon find out, that was far from the truth.

I got there fairly early and had no idea where to go. All the employees at the courthouse were very helpful and nice. This came as a surprise because it's such a negative place. I always feel so weird being there. I can only imagine being there having to face prison or jail time.

I eventually was lead to a court case that involved a man facing 5 different felonies. Before the case started I overheard the family discussing the some of the details.

There were eight people in the family discussing the decision that needed to be made on a man named Forrest James Rashad. He was a 24 year-old, who was being charged with; possession or a fire-arm, possession of narcotics., armed burglary, grand theft auto. He had another felony charge that got dropped by the state.

Forrest was facing life in prison but was offered a deal to take 20 years, plus time already served and another 5 years probation after that. The stipulation to the deal was his rights of appeal were relinquished. Some of the family thought the investigation wasn't properly handled. They thought he could get off because of it.

At one point one of the bailiffs had to break two member of the family up as they started to push and shove each other while screaming at the top of there lungs. It was such an emotional time for the family that they started attacking each other. It was starting to get out of hand.

As the family was arguing back and forth about what Forrest should do, my mind started to wander. I just imagined being in his shoes and my family arguing, yelling, and screaming at each other. On top of all that facing life in prison.

Shortly after, the case started and everyone filed into the court-room. Some members of the family were denied entry because they were wearing flip flops and shorts.

When Forrest was brought out he and his mother immediately started crying. It seemed like as soon as they made eye-contact they had a look as if they couldn't believe what was happening.

The judge, Anthony K. Black, stated the facts of the offer given by the state to Forrest and asked him if he understood the deal. Forrest's weeping made it hard to understand his answer. Judge Black asked again. It was again hard to understand. So Judge Black, starting to seem annoyed, asked again louder and more stern. Forrest nodded his head and softly said yes.

The father of Forrest then stood up and yelled that his son did not understand the deal. Judge Black seemed surprised that Forrest's father just did this and asked him to sit down and be quiet. The man would not sit down and asked for a couple of minutes to address the court. The bailiffs then came and escorted him out of the court-room. (Judge Black)

Forrests mother then started to lose it, and started crying. The crying was so hysterical, I couldn't hear what the judge was saying. He then politely asked her to please be quiet. Judge Black waited until Forrest's mother was in better control.

Forrest took the deal from the state. I was thinking about how amazing it would be to have a decision that could change his and his families life come down to something like that. He did make the decision to commit all those felonies. It's sad seeing someone around my age in that situation.

Forrest will be out in the year 2028. He will be 42 when he finally gets out of prison and 47 when will no longer be on probation.

A lot can happen in a time span of 20 years, but not much will change with Forrest's life. He will look older, probably have grey hair, maybe even bald. While in prison his family and the rest of the world will be moving through there lives. Forrest's life will be at a stand still. Some of the family who attended the hearing will be dead. He will miss his baby son's youth. This all because he made bad decisions one night.

I'm sorry for such a long post, but so much happened. I wanted you to be able to understand how emotional this case was. This was better than a Law and Order episode. Until next time everyone stay out of trouble!!!!

Pat Frank

This trip started off terrible. There was construction in front of the court-house blocking the parking garage we were supposed to park in. Nobodies fault just becomes a pain to get back when you have no idea where you're going and every street you want to take is a one-way going the opposite direction you'd like. At one point I almost turned around and went home. It was that frustrating.

That being said, it was well worth the frustration. The tour started off with an older, very soft spoken, sweet lady. Little did I know this women was Pat Frank, the Chief Financial Officer of Hillsborough County and the Clerk of the County Courts.

She seemed to have by far the most knowledge of any speaker thus far. It was quite obvious that she also was very passionate about her job and cared deeply for her employees.

There was pain in her face when explaining the closing of the other government office on Florida Ave, causing a cut in jobs and an 8% decrease in pay for the ones who kept their job.

A common misconception is that government employees don't work hard nor earn their pay. Seeing the lines the workers were dealing with, I promise at the courthouse, that isn't true.

I was amazed at how much access the public had at public records at the court house. There were computers throughout the building that gave access to things like arrest records, court documents, and divorce or domestic abuse cases. Mrs. Frank informed us that arrest records are the most often requested documents.

If a case is deemed "high-profile" by the Chief Judge, it will be posted online at there web site. The Internet has made things much easier for people searching for public records. Anything current is scanned into computers, but the older stuff is still in warehouses across Tampa. This all depends on what record your searching for. The fact that we haven't scanned everything into a computer was amazing. Pat Frank talked about how if a hurricane with winds higher than 110 mph came through, all of those records would be lost. I don't know if anyone realizes this, but we are in Florida. This seems almost inevitable.

She really put things in perspective with hiring new judges. I didn't realize for every judge hired there needed to be three clerks also hired. I'm sure this knowledge would change a lot of the public perspective also.

Overall, I really enjoyed this visit. Besides the parking, it was very informative. Pat Frank had a lot to say and our tour guide so to speak, Dana Caranante, did a great job at showing us around the very bland but important building. Of all presentations thus far, I would say try to keep this one. Next semester I'd imagine their not being the same traffic or construction. Then again, this is Florida, maybe I should say three semester from now.

Until next time.

WFLA's Steve Andrews

One of the most respected in his field, we visited News Channel 8's Steve Andrews recently. Steve is the Chief Investigative Reporter with 25 years of experience. He has uncovered much scam and political wrong-doing over the course of his career and had a great deal to say and teach us.

He taught us about public records being gold to a reporter. This seems to be a common theme for the speakers to express to us. Steve talked about how time consuming searching through public records can be. He explained how the time spent is worth it and can uncover plenty useful information. This is especially true for an investigative reporter.

He definitely wanted to drive home the point about being polite to people, instead of being a bully, which will make you look unprofessional to the audience. In my opinion, reporters that seem disrespectful or rude look emotionally involved and look like the have a personal vendetta towards the subject of investigation.

Adding to the advice given by Mr. Andrews was to have questions or ideas prepared before you ever approach someone. He said three is a good rule of thumb. Sometimes the approach can get away from what you planned and you must adjust to the situation. Being prepared only helps because people may say things to keep you away from the truth, and this will help you stay on topic. He also explained that knowing the rules of the place your going is vital.

A recent example of his work that stood out to me was the story about the Workforce Alliance spending about $20,000 dollars on food. This all highlighted by $9 dollar cheesecake, was interesting because I had heard about the story but didn't realize that it was his and WFLA's work that brought it to the public attention.

This led to the head of the Workforce Alliance stepping down and many more changes to it's structure and inter workings. It seems like every guest reporter has some sort of story about taking down politicians or corruption amongst government spending. Not a great reputation for them as it is.

In conclusion, it was obvious that Steve knew what he was talking about and had many great tips for our class in future investigations. The main thing I'll take from this is the three question rule and the always being polite to people.

Watch out for next blog post about Clerk of the County Court systems and ways to get public records at the court-house.

Mr. William March

Our latest guest speaker was political reporter, Wendy March. He is the longest tenured political reporter in the Tampa Bay area. He had a great deal of knowledge and experience to lend is.

Mr. March did a good job at keeping the class included on how he would obtain records, all while giving us real-life examples. He talked about it taking almost 2 months to obtain some public records back before the Internet. This put some things in prospective. I can no longer complain about our project we have to do.

He told us a story about the only time he ever got somebody indicted through a story. That was an interesting story and really caught my attention because he got his information of public records.

The article is about political contributions to Bill Clinton's campaign for his second term as President. There was a guy named Mark Jiminez who was Florida's largest Democratic National Committee contributor.

Something strange about him though is that people amongst his company, Future Tech, had donated the largest amount they could for a nominee. Mr. March then explained to us the difference between hard and soft money. There's a cap on how much an individual can give to a nominee, hard money, but no cap when it comes to a political party, soft money. Also a corporation can't make campaign contributions at the Federal Level.

Mr. March found a suspicious trend amongst Future Tech employees. They were all donating the highest possible donation to Bill Clinton's campaign. Looking through public records, Mr. March started to find some interesting things about some of the donors.

Most of them had very modest homes and cars. He had multiple examples of them not only not voting, but not even registered to vote. Some were registered Republicans, others were unable to pay their own mortgage. If I'm going to give someone 1,000 dollars of my money, you better believe I'm going to do something as simple as voting.

Mr. March's article was interesting and showed what power public records can have. I until now had no idea campaign donations were public record, nor did I know anything about hard or soft money.

Mr. March was a rare blend of interesting and informative. He gave us a bunch of websites that will help a great deal for our project. They will be posted at the bottom. It was just another reason why politics can't be trusted and needs public records to keep it in check. Florida needs to do it's very best to keep it an open government. Until next time everyone.


Here's the sites:
http://maplight.org/
http://www.opensecrets.org/
http://www.votehillsborough.org/items.aspx?id=331&s=331
http://lobbyingdisclosure.house.gov/

There are many others, let me know if anyone would like me to send the rest to them.

Preston Trigg

The other day we had received a visit from Preston Trigg. He's the Director of Administration and Special Projects for the Hillsborough County Tax Collector. It was nice to have someone with a lot of experience in different fields. He used to be an editor and writer with newspapers in both North Carolina and Florida.



Preston Trigg gave us a lot of new information and restated a lot of information previously given by other presenters. He like many others talked about the wealth of public records out there. He spoke about the Official Records Index, which is also known as the OR index. He said that this would soon become our best friend for both our projects and our careers as reporters.



http://pubrec3.hillsclerk.com/oncore/Search.aspx



You can get plenty of information through the website posted like marriages, divorces, mortgages, and even law suits. Trigg had some interesting quotes for us, even one as far back as this one from Thomas Jefferson.



“The Biggest tread to people is government secrecy.”



I totally agree with Mr. Trigg when he talks about government openness and transparency. If we don't have an open government, the politicians don't have any accountability, or nobody to answer to. This will only lead to further corruption and shady business deals in order to receive more campaign dollars. Try to imagine the Politicians not having to answer to anyone. The average person doesn't trust a politician as it is, and that's with an open government.



Preston Trigg gave us an interesting website called:

http://hillstax.org/



The website above is ran by Trigg's office, and allows a person to search for information on individuals like paid taxes, property worth, and simply where their property is located. Knowing this can help when trying to investigate some stories. I like this website because it's easier to navigate through than most of the other state websites that seem to give you the run-around.



Trigg emphasized the importance of checking properties for our project. He even gave us some quick pointers on what politicians do in order to hide from these public record files. For instance, how some put property under other relatives names or theirs spouses name to hide.



He also spoke about Google-Earthing the property found. He said that it might not give us a great deal of information but at least we'll know what we're dealing with. You never know, it could lead to something.



Mr. Trigg did a great job presenting us with some facts that will without a doubt help us in the long run. Until next class visit, I will talk to you all later.

Orient County Jail

I'd like to first thank everyone for the comments on my previous posts. The opinions are much appreciated.

The latest field trip was last Thursday at the Orient County Jail. We got a tour that took us a lot deeper in than I thought we would get. I initially thought we were going to be brought in a room somewhere and informed at how to obtain certain public records for an individual if they were to be arrested and sent to the jail.

The trip started with not being able to bring anything but a notebook. Being dis aloud to bring a cellphone made me realize how strange I feel without one. That's a sad but also separate issue in its own sense.

We were taken into the area that people who are arrested for DUI's are brought. It was a very plain looking room with some benches parallel to each other. The officer told us that they have to watch the suspects that are brought for at least twenty minutes to make sure they don't swallow their own tongue or anything.

I'm not really sure I've ever been so drunk that I could swallow my tongue, or at least I don't remember if I have, so that worries me about somebody like that driving. After the hazards test, they are brought in a room called the DRE, or drug rec. room, where they are given something called the Instigmus Test. The Instigmus test checks for drugs or anything by a series of motor test done on the prisoner.

This is all eventually sent to the state attorney's office and if public record but can be obtained at the Jail.

After the DUI area we went on to booking where there were actual prisoners being booked. That was quit a shock. I didn't think they would bring us through with prisoners their. The prisoners are aloud more than just one phone call while being booked. There're aloud as many as they need until booked and then must call collect from there.

While at booking they go through a series of things before being taken into a pod. First all of their personal items are taken and air sealed in plastic and not returned to them until they are set free. Then their picture is taken and finger prints sent to the FDLE, which means the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.

I'd be lieing if I told you I knew what that meant when the officers were explaining the process to us. After that they're given an orange jumpsuit to wear with a number on it. And now a quick moment for some jail facts.

1. The whole jail has a maximum prisoner capacity of 2,011

2. There are 72 pods with a capacity of 72 in each

3. There were 74,000 people booked in 2008

4. There were 72,000 booked in 2009.

Walking around the jail was an uncomfortable experience for me and I heard the same echoed throughout the class. When we went into one of pods, there were prisoners in there just staring at us. This was very strange. I felt a little more relief when we were taken into an empty pod where we could walk around and look in the actual cells.

The isolation cells seemed like the most depressing. It wasn't as bad as they make it seem in the movies. Of course Hollywood over-exaggerates everything. The cells were small and they are only aloud out of their cells for one hour a day. Just try to imagine being anywhere for 23 hours a day. That would make anyone go crazy. This was evident by the crack on one the cell doors where it looked like one of the inmate smashed their head against it.

Overall it was a good learning experience. We learned a little about public records that should help with my public official and anyone else I need to look up.

So that is the lesson I will leave you with. If you end up in jail an go to isolation, bang your head against the glass so they think you're crazy. Either that or you will end up crazy. Most of all DON'T GET ARRESTED!

Trip To Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office

Today we got to build off of what we've already learned previously about public records. We went to the Hilsborough County Sheriff's office and got to see the public relations aspect of there branch. The whole trip was informative and of much help. We learned about press releases and information given to reporters.

Deputy Larry McKinnon, Public Information Officer, did a good job at telling us how he and the system work in regards to the press releases. He was a former sheriff which helped that he had experience from both sides of the situation. His analogies about fighting off the hungry dogs was funny and explained in great detail the relationship with reporters. It was encouraging to hear because I always assumed there was friction amongst reporters and the police department.

The information we received about being able to go on the Hillsborough County website to look up arrests was cool. I found myself searching for friends and co-workers on the site and found out some interesting information about one of my managers. I highly recommend searching for people. It's funny what you can come up with.

http://www.hcso.tampa.fl.us/PublicInquiry/ArrestInquiry

This will definitely help looking up or given public officials. I guess I've never hoped for someone to get in a little trouble in my life. That would make the project a tad bit easier.

The second part of the tour was much more exciting than the first stage. We took a trip to the 911 control room where Brad Herron, who is the and his team Communication Commander of 911's Operations, and his team gave a tour and explained the inter workings of the 911 call center.

I was not aware until the trip that all 911 calls are public records. The stipulation is that the names and addresses are edited out.



I was blown away by the 911 control room. The people who gave us the tours were very polite and eager to teach us about what they do. The amount of composure it takes to be a 911 operator is incredible. I couldn't imagine having the pressure on me knowing that if I make the wrong call, someone may die.



It was reassuring to hear that the operators go through extensive training before they're even aloud on the operating floor. Then there is a supervisor monitoring all their calls they receive.

Did you know that there are different police agencies for different zone you are in at the time of the call to 911? Apparently the TPD, (Tampa Police Department) are less responsive than most other departments. I think something needs to be changed about all the zoning restrictions.

A student in our class made an example of someone suspicious being in her neighborhood, and no policeman came to check on the person actually making the call. This seems wrong, regardless of whether or not an officer came by the area to check it out.

With as organized as the actual operators in the 911 system seem, I feel like making the zones and police departments a little more organized just seems logical. What if that suspicious guy came and did harm to a neighbor? Somebody called to help, but the police didn't take it serious enough.

The other side of that coin is that they can't check every call, can they? What about the people who call for every little thing, or as they call it 911 abuse? There creates a sense of the "boy crying wolf" syndrome. I'm not sure there's a proper system that would be better than the one currently in place. Does anyone have any ideas on how to improve it?


The phone call at the end of the tour was bone-chilling. The quick thinking that must be done during times of emergency is scary. I could definitely tell that the cops in the call were in a state of panic. The fact they kept asking where the pursuit was after being repeatedly told meant right there the operator had to help them keep their composure.

Next trip is the Orient county jail. I'll keep you posted on how that trip is. I'm sure we will see plenty of interesting characters.

Chris Davis

I was completely blown away by Chris Davis's presentation. The level of commitment him and his staff have to their jobs is inspiring. As soon as he started speaking, it was obvious he loved what he did. Which is exactly what all of us in class, one way or another, are trying to do. The amount of time and money the paper is willing to put into investigations shows what they are all about. It doesn't seem to be about money, but more about the actual facts or news of every day life.



The investigation by his staff at the Herald Tribune on house flipping and how it crippled the banks was interesting to learn about. I had heard about house flipping in the past, but never the extent he presented. Even though, as he said, the maps were not completely accurate, it still said a great deal about where the flipping was happening.



It taught me much about the proper way to obtain records for an investigation. They searched through almost 18 million home purchases over the span of 10 years to look through some of the more suspicious purchases. Their criteria for a "suspicious purchase" was within 90 days or a 30% increase in value.



That being said, with all the time spent searching through the records, it was how they presented the information that caught my attention. The Internet database that showed the web of connections to the flippers was presented perfectly. They way you could move the mouse over a picture/name, and see exactly who they were connected to really drive home the point. This showed just how shady the business of flipping homes was.



When Chris showed us the links about these house flippers, I immediately thought about pending lawsuits. I assumed most of them would sue for libel and force the paper to take their investigation off their website. He explained however that they are protected because they didn't show reckless disregard for the truth.



Overall this was an interesting presentation by Chris. The teacher investigation called "Broken Trust," was scary. He found teachers exposing themselves to students and not being fired. The teachers would just go to another school. This doesn't make parents feel at ease about sending their children to public schools. Something needs to be done about this situation. All the Herald Tribune can do is present the cases to the public and hope out-cry comes about. I think if a teacher gets consistent complaints, they should have their teaching certificates revoked indefinitely. There should be some investigating done into all complaints filed.

Finally on a seperate issue, he taught us about Barbara Peterson, who is apart of the first rights foundation. She got something passed that gave reporters access to social security numbers. It would have helped Chris if it were passed earlier. He tried to find out the teacher's test scores before recieving teaching certificates. They had a list of teacher's scores but it didn't have the names next to them, rather the social security numbers. Chris may want to go back and look into this.

Knowing how well the teachers did on their tests I feel is the public and parent's rights.
How does everyone else feel about this issue? How about the house flipping, should they be in jail?

Cheryl McCoy

The presentation by Cheryl McCoy was much more effective in person than recorded. When someone isn't there I tend to dose off and not may attention as much as I would if the person was physically there. You don't want to disrespect the person giving the presentation because if you were up there, you would want the students attention.

Unfortunately I couldn't follow along with her because the computer I was at wasn't working nor was the one next to me. Upon taking a few notes here and there, and trying to pay attention, I was able to retain a good amount of helpful information.

She taught a lot about public records that will be helpful in our project of researching a public official. The marriage, birth, and property certifications will be helpful in guiding me to other information about Mark Sharpe. A problem I seem to run into is that a lot of the sites try to charge for everything.

Cheryl seems to be a very genuine and caring person. I feel like she would love to help us anytime she can. I get that sense that a lot of teachers say they want to help, but when it comes down to it they take a week and a half to return an email. Don't even get me started on them giving out their office phone number.

I felt a sense of relief when she showed us exactly how to find out information about the public meetings. Last Thursday Tim told us about the rule of meetings between two public officials, but as far as I can remember never gave us the information on where they show it. Cheryl saved much of the class stress near the end of the semester when we all realize that we have to go to some of these meetings.

I'm glad the information is out there for us. Now we just have to figure out how navigate through all the records and information we've been given. I'm sure it will take some getting used to, but once we become accustom, it will be a piece of cake.

Tim Nickens presentation

It's amazing what I've been able to learn in such short period of time. The amount of knowledge that can be obtained by any individual about someone through public records is mind boggling. Many things Tim Nickens went over will be very helpful in future classes and assignments. Him being with the St. Petersburg Times gives him a great deal of integrity.
When I found out that you could search the value of properties on zylo.com, I immediately started searching for anywhere I 've ever lived. I soon found out many apartment complexes I've lived in are making a ton of money off it's residents.
The best part of Tim's presentation was the explanation of politifact.com. I favored this part because it calls politicians out for making outlandish statements while on the campaign trail. The candidate now has to say what they feel, rather than promising what he or she actually plans on doing. It creates a sense of accountability to politicians who have to stand behind what they promise while on their platform.
The story about Ray Sampson was interesting. I hadn't heard about it until Tim told us. It was a prime example of using public records to expose someone abusing their power. The fact that Mr. Sampson got a building built with people's tax dollars for his own personal airport hanger make me disappointed in the system we live in. Nobody should be aloud to manipulate tax dollars for personal use. This happening during the Recession, when there's not a lot of expendable many out there. Many people are struggling just to pay their mortgages.
Speaking of sneaky politicians. It was funny knowing how both politicians and reporters play a cat and mouse game with public meetings and records. Like texting or emailing each other things instead of meeting in person. I didn't know council members had to inform the public about any meetings of two or more in person.
This presentation is definitely beneficial to the students. If the opportunity arises to have him come back next semester, I would jump at the chance of having him speak to the class. With such an awkward and uncomfortable feeling right now, never using or being familiar with public records, it's nice to have someone teach so much about it. The eleven question hand-out was helpful as well. It gave me a sense of where I'm at knowing what you can and can't do when obtaining public records.