FRIDAY, AUGUST 10, 2007
Friday Edition: Educators Give Millions to Politicians
The Center for Responsive
Politics found something surprising:
[...] College professors and others in
the education field have contributed more money to federal politics than the
oil industry and drugmakers, with a nearly unanimous goal of putting a Democrat
in the White House.
The Center for Responsive Politics continues:
So far in the '08 election cycle, people who work
for institutions of higher education have given more than $7 million to federal
candidates, parties and committees, according to the nonpartisan Center for
Responsive Politics. Nearly 60 percent of that money has gone to presidential
candidates. The industry's favorite, Barack Obama, has raked in nearly $1.5
million in the campaign's first six months, followed by Hillary Clinton with
almost $940,000.
About
two third of the money from higher education workers has gone to Democrats. For
2008, "the education industry" has given more to politicians than oil and gas,
general contractors, the computer and Internet industry, electric utilities and
the pharmaceutical industry.
Click here to see who is getting
the money.
Click here to see school-by-school where educators spent lobbying money.
Restraining Orders Available Online
San
Diego County now has a searchable Web site that allows you to see if a
person has a restraining order filed against them. When I saw this, I wondered why every county doesn't offer a similar feature. I found this Web site while reading PIbuzz.com, the blog of Private Investigator, an online magazine. How difficult is it to find
out if a person has a restraining order on them in your county?
Why isn't this information as easy to find as information about sex offenders?
The Dark Side of Sports Memorabilia
Barry Bonds' homerun this week has renewed attention to the value of sports memorabilia. Where there
is that much money, there is also fraud. The
Boston Globe provides a glimpse inside the fights that occur when high-priced treasures turn out to be trash.
Since so many are focused on record-setting baseballs and such, it would be fun to go to a sports memorabilia shop to see how
the real pros determine whether something is a fake.
Als
Morning Multimedia: Mapping a Homerun RecordTake a look
at this fun interactive
graphic from The New York Times
that maps almost two dozen homerun hitters, comparing their age and number of
runs.
Two Essays Worth Reading
I imagine you
are so busy (especially with colleagues on vacation right now), that you might have missed a couple really good pieces on
Poynter.org.
My colleague Dr. Roy Peter Clark, senior scholar and vice president of Poynter, wrote an excellent piece about reporters who had to write the Barry
Bonds story under tight deadline Tuesday night. Roy
has a nice collection of first-rate story leads.
And my colleague
Kelly McBride, Poynter's Ethics Group Leader, wrote a telling column about the new Esquire story that
investigates the NBC ratings sweeps stunt, "To Catch a Predator."
Esquire also has a transcript of an
interview with Dateline NBC's Chris Hansen, which is not pretty. The Esquire piece and
Kelly's analysis help clarify why this diatribe has raised ethical issues
time after time.
Possible Shifts in Presidential Balloting
The first votes
in the 2008 election may in fact be cast in December 2007.
The Associated Press explains:
South Carolina Republicans on Thursday moved their 2008 presidential primary to Jan. 19, triggering a chain reaction among Iowa, New Hampshire and other early voting states that could push the first presidential balloting into December 2007.
The National Association of Secretaries of State has called for a "Regional Rotating Presidential Primaries
Plan":
The proposal
divides the country into four geographic areas Eastern, Southern, Midwestern
and Western and rotates each
region to vote, first beginning in March. The other regions would hold their
primary elections in April, May
and June. A different part of the country would vote first every sixteen years.
New Hampshire and Iowa would retain their
early status.
Click here to read the association's constantly updated calendar of
elections and caucuses.
Why Dogfighting is so Hard to Prosecute
The
Atlanta Journal-Constitution says dogfighting is difficult to prosecute because of a combination of weak laws, too
few investigators and usually circumstantial evidence. Still, it is worthwhile
to see what kind of penalties your courts hand out when someone is
arrested. We often cover arrests, but newsrooms sometimes fail to follow up after the fact.
Join
Al in a Live Poynter/NewsU Webinar
A few hundred of
you joined me for my last live "Webinar," and you told us you wanted more. So
Thursday, August 16, from 2 to 3 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time, we will bring you "25 Places to
Get Story Ideas." You will learn about some of my
very favorite, off-the-beaten-path resources that I turn to while writing this
column.
You must register for this Webinar by 6 p.m. on Wednesday, August 15.
If the $24.95
will break your bank and believe me I understand what is happening to
journalists' bank accounts these days my friend and former journalist Ruth Ann
Harnish from the Harnish Family Foundation has generously agreed to help with
some scholarships. Just
go to the sign-up page, and we will make the application hassle free.
Look forward to seeing you live
online next week ...
We are always looking for your great ideas. Send Al a few sentences and hot links.
Editor's
Note: Al's Morning Meeting is a compendium of ideas, edited story
excerpts and other materials from a variety of Web sites, as well as
original concepts and analysis. When the information comes directly
from another source, it will be attributed and a link will be provided
whenever possible. The column is fact-checked, but depends on the
accuracy and integrity of the original sources cited. Errors and
inaccuracies found will be corrected.
Posted at 4:18:08 PM
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