The first required public meeting I attended was at the Northdale Recreation Center. The matter they were discussing was about the two intersections on Dale Mabry Highway at North Lakeview Drive and Northdale Boulevard. The two intersections were acknowledged by the County’s Department of Public Works as being two locations that have had severe traffic delay due to multiple accidents and the overcrowded roads. I was surprised to see how many people were at this meeting considering this didn’t seem to be something that would strike interest to the public. They even had to pull out extra chairs at one point to lend a hand to those who didn’t have a seat. A Preliminary Design and Engineering Study was conducted to establish enhancements to the intersections to diminish the traffic and improve the safety on these roads. The study found that the two intersections flow of traffic is horrible due to the lack of turning lanes. The study concluded that traffic safety and operation could be enhanced by: “Modifying and / or closing off the two nearest median openings that are located on North Lakeview within close proximity to the intersection on North Dale Mabry Highway” and by “Modifying and closing off the nearest median opening located on Northdale Boulevard within close proximity to the intersection on North Dale Mabry Highway.” They showed a video to everyone to demonstrate how they were going to improve these intersections. The video was very informative and provided specific details how the county would improve this. We were also given a pamphlet that listed all of these details. Most of the details were similar for the two intersections. For example, the county plans to widen both roads to make room for extra turning lanes. Also, they would replace streetlights and create traffic separators.
I found this meeting to be a little dull for me because I do not drive on either of these roads regularly. I know that most of the people attending must either drive on the roads frequently or was involved in many of the accidents on these roads. At one point one of the city officials or speakers said there was a possible option that was not mentioned on our pamphlet, which would prohibit any construction and leave it the way it is. As a frequent driver on Bruce B Downs by the construction by i75, I could definitely understand why many people applauded at this point. Construction traffic stinks! I think everyone can agree on that; however, I do understand that the county’s first concern is our own safety.
Wednesday, October 27, 2010
Field Trip: Hillsborough Medical Examiner Office
-----"I saw dead people”
I loved the fact that the Hillsborough Medical Examiner office was within two miles of the university. My friend Lou Lou and I were the last two to arrive to the presentation. Vernard Adams, the chief medical examiner, gave a great presentation, but spoke in a very low voice that made it difficult to hear the recording that I took that day. He stressed something that I thought would be obvious, but never thought about: Photographs of autopsies are not available to the public (even though I happened to see a photograph later on the tour). This came in effect after Dale Earnhart, the NASCAR race-car driver, was killed in an accident during the 2001 Daytona 500 race. Newspapers wanted photographs of the autopsy, but obviously the family objected to this. This introduced the Earnhart protection act, which prevented photograph autopsies to become public records. Written records of the autopsy are public records unless the case is under examination, like rape investigations or criminal investigations. Someone from the medical examiners office has to call the state attorneys office and get approval from the state attorney to determine if these are open to the public or not. Now you may get a different response if you ask the detectives handling the case. The police may not allow it to be a public record because it may interfere with investigations.
After the presentation Mr. Adams took us on a tour of the building. Our first stop was to see the clerical files room. This is where I accidentally managed to view a photo of an autopsy. With respect to the individual, I wont go into details about what I saw, but it reminded me of a prison photo only the subject was not alive. Each folder was organized with different color tabs to identify which ones were suicides, homicide’s natural death, drug related deaths etc. I was surprised to see that they had more suicide cases then homicides. As we continued the tour we saw a science lab that reminded me of the ones I saw in high-school and learned that the electric bill of this place was approximately $25,000 to keep fresh air circulating. Then we came to everyone’s favorite part: The Autopsy Room. We were originally told that were not allowed in the room because they were in progress of clearing the organs of one of the bodies; however, once we saw other classmates in the room we demanded to go in as well. The body we saw reminded me of a prop that didn’t even look real. Once I remembered that they clean the bodies and collect the organs, this made it easier to remember that this person was indeed real. Next we saw the fridge where multiple bodies were kept. The smell in this was unbearable. I literally had to hold my breath while in the room and could still smell it even after the door was closed. The tour ended with Mr. Adams explaining how much he loved his job because it’s always interesting.
I loved the fact that the Hillsborough Medical Examiner office was within two miles of the university. My friend Lou Lou and I were the last two to arrive to the presentation. Vernard Adams, the chief medical examiner, gave a great presentation, but spoke in a very low voice that made it difficult to hear the recording that I took that day. He stressed something that I thought would be obvious, but never thought about: Photographs of autopsies are not available to the public (even though I happened to see a photograph later on the tour). This came in effect after Dale Earnhart, the NASCAR race-car driver, was killed in an accident during the 2001 Daytona 500 race. Newspapers wanted photographs of the autopsy, but obviously the family objected to this. This introduced the Earnhart protection act, which prevented photograph autopsies to become public records. Written records of the autopsy are public records unless the case is under examination, like rape investigations or criminal investigations. Someone from the medical examiners office has to call the state attorneys office and get approval from the state attorney to determine if these are open to the public or not. Now you may get a different response if you ask the detectives handling the case. The police may not allow it to be a public record because it may interfere with investigations.
After the presentation Mr. Adams took us on a tour of the building. Our first stop was to see the clerical files room. This is where I accidentally managed to view a photo of an autopsy. With respect to the individual, I wont go into details about what I saw, but it reminded me of a prison photo only the subject was not alive. Each folder was organized with different color tabs to identify which ones were suicides, homicide’s natural death, drug related deaths etc. I was surprised to see that they had more suicide cases then homicides. As we continued the tour we saw a science lab that reminded me of the ones I saw in high-school and learned that the electric bill of this place was approximately $25,000 to keep fresh air circulating. Then we came to everyone’s favorite part: The Autopsy Room. We were originally told that were not allowed in the room because they were in progress of clearing the organs of one of the bodies; however, once we saw other classmates in the room we demanded to go in as well. The body we saw reminded me of a prop that didn’t even look real. Once I remembered that they clean the bodies and collect the organs, this made it easier to remember that this person was indeed real. Next we saw the fridge where multiple bodies were kept. The smell in this was unbearable. I literally had to hold my breath while in the room and could still smell it even after the door was closed. The tour ended with Mr. Adams explaining how much he loved his job because it’s always interesting.
Thursday, October 21, 2010
Poynter: Associated Press Managing Editors Seminar
The ride to St. Pete had me hoping this seminar would be worth the gas and the time to travel. The moment I walked into the room I heard the three speakers talking about Lebron James, the NBA basketball player for the Miami Heat. Immediately these speakers had my attention before I had discovered a seat. Unfortunately, I caught this seminar towards the end and had to piece together everything on my own. It wasn’t too hard. During the time when I had arrived they were in the middle of a Q and A session passing around microphones to answer general questions about the presentation. The summary’s main focus was on local and recreation sports because it is believed by Debra Simmons, one of the speakers, that the public can get information on professional teams elsewhere. I agree with her statement because local high school and college sports are what folks are interested, especially in their local community.
The seminar was tilted: The evolution of sports coverage: Do they need us anymore? Ronnie Ramos, another speaker, brought up a point that I strongly agree with: Fans bring opinions to sports. It’s okay to hear something from an analysts point of view, but as a sports guy myself, I really don’t care what they discuss half the time on ESPN. Sometimes they keep a story going for too long that no one seems to care about. Hello Bret Farve!? Another example of this was when they were all discussing Lebron James and his decision to leave Cleveland. One of the speakers spoke on why he got the attention that he did that I had never really thought of. If James chose to stay in Cleveland, you can tell a story about the city being happy that their all-star had returned, not too long or much of a story. However; there was a strong belief for sometime that James would play for the New York Knicks. Once he chose to go to Miami, New York fans were angry. It was the amount of anger nationwide that drove the story and as we all know, anger and drama sells.
I hate Twitter. I think it’s a worthless social networking site. Even though my dislike towards this site is high, I have come to learn and was reminded during the seminar that Twitter is a great social network to gather information,. The speakers provided details that sources like Adam Schefter, a well-known ESPN analyst, tweets about certain topics on sports that we as journalists can take and use as quotes or information. I also learned a fun fact: Only 10 percent of people on twitter are under the age of 35. Never would have saw that one coming!
The seminar was tilted: The evolution of sports coverage: Do they need us anymore? Ronnie Ramos, another speaker, brought up a point that I strongly agree with: Fans bring opinions to sports. It’s okay to hear something from an analysts point of view, but as a sports guy myself, I really don’t care what they discuss half the time on ESPN. Sometimes they keep a story going for too long that no one seems to care about. Hello Bret Farve!? Another example of this was when they were all discussing Lebron James and his decision to leave Cleveland. One of the speakers spoke on why he got the attention that he did that I had never really thought of. If James chose to stay in Cleveland, you can tell a story about the city being happy that their all-star had returned, not too long or much of a story. However; there was a strong belief for sometime that James would play for the New York Knicks. Once he chose to go to Miami, New York fans were angry. It was the amount of anger nationwide that drove the story and as we all know, anger and drama sells.
I hate Twitter. I think it’s a worthless social networking site. Even though my dislike towards this site is high, I have come to learn and was reminded during the seminar that Twitter is a great social network to gather information,. The speakers provided details that sources like Adam Schefter, a well-known ESPN analyst, tweets about certain topics on sports that we as journalists can take and use as quotes or information. I also learned a fun fact: Only 10 percent of people on twitter are under the age of 35. Never would have saw that one coming!
Thursday, October 14, 2010
Library Day
Today my class gathered in the library to learn how to gain access to public records using the USF library databases. Cheryl McCoy led the presentation and gave everyone who attended a detailed walk-through on the USF library website. One thing I loved about the walk-through is that we were all seated in front of a computer and could follow Cheryl so we could access the information on our own. Another thing I enjoyed was the fact that if I ever get lost on the website Cheryl’s contact information is literally on the right side of the screen. The databases for our Public Affairs Reporting class are broken up into three tabs on the top of the screen: Information on Florida public records & open government, locating public records, and newspapers. I really feel that this will help me when I am searching for information about the person I have been assigned. It amazes me that all this information has been on our USF website this whole time. I wish I had known about these databases when I first arrived to the university. It would have made doing research papers a whole lot easier. I didn’t understand the difficulty in finding the resources needed to gain the information we need on our individual. I feel that all of these field trips and even the library website are helping all of us gain real life knowledge on how to find public information on anyone. The fact that we have an unknown individual is the perfect test. This way when we are faced with a news story featuring another unknown individual we can take all the practice experience we have gained in this class and apply it to our careers. Even if some of us don’t continue on the path of broadcasting or journalism, I feel everyone will walk away from this class learning multiple new things.
Field Trip: Court House
On Tuesday my class took a trip to the courthouse in downtown Tampa. Entering the building reminded me of a security check at an airport. We had to empty our pockets, remove our belts, and pass through a metal detector. We first got a presentation from Pat. Her position in the courthouse is the Clerk of the Court. Pat is also the Controller of Hillsborough County, which is also known as the chief financial officer. As the chief financial officer she is responsible of investing and keeping eight billion dollars in county money. Pat explained how a corporation titled Justice Served looked over 3,000 websites around the world and nominated the Hillsborough Courthouse website to be in the top 10. After Pats presentation she handed over the reins to Doug, who walked us through the website. We learned how you could search online for public records on anyone in Hillsboruough County and their court files. These court files include everything from misdemeanors, marriages, and birth and death certificates. I became intrigued by this and began surfing the website for friends and family info. As both Pat and Doug explained the website is real easy to find things and very easy to use. After Doug’s presentation Dana led us on a tour of the multiple adjacent buildings. The courthouse is literally connected to multiple different buildings nearby. We didn’t have much time because most of my class was parked next to parking meters. Dana showed us where we would have to go in the courthouse to find information and hardcopy documents that can only be accessed at the courthouse. This will help everyone in my class because we were all assigned to an individual and we must to collect public records and documents about this person. When Dana was finished we raced over to our car to find that the parking meter had just hit 0 minutes and began flashing.
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