I found a new one!

So I thought about what should I get for my public record? Who did I immediately think of? Believe it or not my father. He is a court security officer down at the federal courthouse. So when it came time to do a trial..well..that was easy...but I was still confused about the public record. Did I want to drive down to the county clerks office? No..not really... I had already heard a bunch of people were doing the M.E's office...so did I do that? No....So I simply asked my father.."Dad, is there any place in this building I can obtain a public record?" He quickly responded.."Sure let's go to the 2ND floor to the clerk's office."
To my surprise I had no clue that the federal court had their own clerks office. There I was able to obtain the indictment for the court trial that I had just sat in on, and lucky for me with my own connections...I did not have to pay a dime! Luckily my father has a lot of friends. Immediately I thought, is it okay that I did this? Will I get in trouble for having my father help me? But I thought to myself...If I were a reporter...I would still use my father as a reference, and as a tool, so I do not think there was a problem with that. And It was needless to say...it was all a very pleasant experience!

M.E Office visit....

Tuesday’s visit to the medical examiner’s office was a bit of an eye opener for me. Literally … I never thought I would see someone’s eye lain out on a counter. I really learned a lot of different things that I did not know before visiting the M.E, and I certainly won’t forget it for a long time.

Dr. Adams is an extremely smart individual, and it was an honor for him to show us around his new facility. Without people like Dr. Adams in the world, people who can deal with death in such a professional way, I would really be afraid of death.

Dr. Adams started our tour by showing us the documents room. Here thousands of files line the wall with brightly colored labels to differentiate between the different types of death. Homicides and traffic accidents are just a few of the types of death that are in this archive.

I was very impressed by the measures taken by Mr. Adams to ensure a happy healthy working environment for everyone that works at the M.E. He made sure to have plenty of windows in the office area for all the employees working at cubicles. He also installed a super ventilation system for the chemical area to make sure no odors or fumes stick around for the doctors to breath in.

The morgue was by are the most interesting part of the tour. This is where I saw my first dead body, besides family members who died of old age. Since I work in the food industry, the entire morgue reminded me of a industrial kitchen, with all the stainless steel and the pots and pans and sinks everywhere.

Dr. Adams was a very professional man, and to be honest, half of the medical terms he talked about when right over my head, but from what I could understand; the M.E’s office is defiantly there to help the family members of the dead to figure out what happened. With them, they are able to further their knowledge and information for medical purposes to hopefully one day help us all live a little bit longer.

Steve...what can I say? You are the man!

Since the first day of class and Prfoessor Thelen passed out our syllabus, I had been waiting for this field trip. Not to be a suck up or anything, but I have been watching Steve on News Channel 8 for as long as I can remember. I do believe when you think of investigative reporting in Tampa Bay, Steve is the face you think of. His credability and overall understanding of how to report and uncover things is something every person can learn from.

Steve is such a down to earth person. He has done a lot to uncover things in Tampa bay, and he does not boast about it. He stated "you need to know how to work with people, and that does mean you need to be a jerk about it." He stressed that we need to remain respectful no matter what case or people we may deal with.

He went on to tell how how to go about investigating a story. He used the theory of everything is a "puzzle" and all we need to do are find the missing pieces. He told us that we should always have 3 strong questions to fire off at the beginning of any interview, and we have a bad memory as he does, to write them down!

He encouraged us to listen what the people have to say, because that way we can open people up to us and what we are doing, and possibly get them to say things they wouldnt necessary say if they feel as if we were attacking them.

Overall, I was extremely happy with the field trip and I really learned a lot. For me, being a broadcast news major, this field trip really helpped me to really see what I could be doing one day. Thanks a lot Steve!

A new look on nasty tax collectors...

So when I first heard that we were having someone from the tax collectors office come and speak to us, I have to admit...I was a little well....bored about it. But to my surprise Mr. Trigg was one of my favorite guest! I learned so much from him!

Mr. Trigg's enthusiasm and awesome public speaking ability made him very easy to understand and listen to. He was able to keep my attention the entire time, and he opened my eyes to the tax collectors business.

Mr. Trigg started off his presentation by telling us what he does, and what we as citizens can have done if we go to the tax collector's office. I was very surprised to learn how much he had to do with the improvement of customer service at the office, just by adding in chairs, cross-training people for different departments, and adding a numeric system just as you would find at any Publix deli. I never actually believed that a tax collector's office would care about customer service. I always thought all they wanted was my money and they didn't care how they had to get it.

Mr. Trigg then walked us through all the records that are public file that we can reach at the tax collector's office.

I loved loved loved loved loved...loved.....how he told us how every reporter should go about finding the information that we needed. What we need to ask for, and what we should do in order to make it cheap for us.

In conclusion, I believe that Mr. Trigg was able to offer us the most information of how to, and what we can and cannot obtain from public records. I also felt that after Mr. Trigg's left that if I were to ever need anything figured out, that he would be happy to help, and I am thankful for that!

William March Visit

Last Thursday our class was lucky to have William March, who is the Tampa Tribune's chief political reporter, pay us a visit. And if I ever thought that I wanted to every MIGHT report in politics, I am not certain, I will NEVER DO SO!

It takes a certain type of person to be able to reporter and interview and deal with politicians, and I have come to the conclusion that I am not that type of person; and Mr. March was able to open my eyes to that.

Mr. March took the class period to walk us through how he goes about finding out information on candidate spending, and fundraising. He offered us great resources that included opensecrets.org and leg.state.fl.us. With these sites, we learned how to track politcal spending and how much each candidate profits from big time companies who donate to them. He told us how often policical laundering happened, and how stupid political canidates can get to think that they will never get caught. I was very impressed by how much Mr. March has a passion for what he does, and the fact that he took the time to answer and comment to all of our comments were very nice.

No offense to Mr. March, but I personaly can't stand the way of politcs and the deap down evilness that comes with it. Yes these people are all out for the same thing "we hope anyway"..to help the public and serve the people...but these people are willing to do ANYTHING to get there, which is why I just do not pay attention to it. I vote because that it my public duty; to vote for who I think lied the least, and will do his or her best job.

I grew up in Washington D.C., my father was a police officer and worked directly with the presidental staff for President George Bush Sr. So needless to say, poltics have always surrounded me, and I just have never caught onto it. and I really apprecitate everything Mr. March was able to teach us, but politics is not for me now..and will never be.

Scared Straight...That is for sure!!

So Tuesday, we all took a trip down to the Orient Rd Jail, and boy o boy was it "interesting" to say the least.

We learned a lot of really neat facts that day. Why the jails use wooden doors now, how many inmates does the jail house, what facilities the inmates can use and not use, and how the jail is broken up into different sectors called "pods."

Throughout the entire tour, I found myself with just wondering eyes. Everything just amazed me; from the security precautions taken to keep everyone in line and safe, to the organization kept throughout every part of the jail.

I was surprised to notice that no officer in the jail carries a gun with him or her. The officer told us that the main weapon used throughout the jail was that person's brain. Being able to make the right choices at the right times to keep everyone safe.

My favorite part of the tour was the booking room. Although at the time I felt very uncomfortable standing there being watched by all of the soon to be inmates, afterwards I was very happy to be put in that situation. It opened my eyes FULLY to what can happen if you make the wrong decisions in life, and where you will end up. That, my friend, is something I do not every want to have to experience, and will avoid it all costs.

After the trip, I went home and looked up on the internet some of the people we had been standing in the booking room with that day to see what they had been charged with. I was surprised to find that me and my classmates had been standing in the room with drug addicts, homeless drunks, child porn addicts, and domestic abusers.

I chose the topic "Scared Straight" because of the fact that this tour of the jail really opened my eyes to something that I think everyone out there should see. To see how miserable those people were and how I would take all measures to make sure I did not end up as one of them. I want to end on a somewhat humorous quote that the officer of the tour had told us "We do not discriminate, everyone gets arrested."

Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office Visit

Tuesday our class took a field trip to the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office to talk with public information officer J. D. Calloway. This visit was not only informational, it was very interesting as well.

I know Mr. Calloway had to kill a lot of trees in order to pass out his handouts to us, but I am glad he did! Every single packet he gave us was very helpful and provided us with a lot of information. My favorite packet he gave us was the "Standard Operating Procedure" packet. I know for sure that I will hold on to this packet for future reference. I love how it shows which information the police is allowed to give the reporters during certain situations and how they can obtain the information.

Besides all of the information gathered from the packets, Mr. Calloway was able to share some wealthy information. I was very surprised to find out that police departments are allowed to put a hold on traffic accident records for 6 months after the accident has occured. The reason why they do this is to keep "ambulance chasers" from pursuing clients who need representation. This surprised me very much because it shows me that police really are protecting the public not just from harmful sitations, but afterwards from nasty situations that can occur afterward.

I was also surpised to find out that police officers and fireman are exempt from having personal information on public records.

I was also very happy that we got to see where we need to go to pick up public records from the sheriffs office. Of course we can just go online and search for ourselves, but in order to obtain the in depth information we may need as journalists, we needed to know exactly where to go.

Overall I really enjoyed the information we were able to gather from this field trip. Mr. Calloway and his assistant did a great job preparing for us, and I really learned a lot. I did some researching on the Hillsborough County Sheriff's website and found this link that may help some students and others if they have forgotten anything they need to know to obtain a public record.

http://www.hcso.tampa.fl.us/hrd/records_section.htm