Al's Morning Meeting

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?

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.

Take 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.

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:

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.

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 ...

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.