Wednesday, December 9, 2009

Starting with her college years, Patricia Anna Collier was the first woman accepted to Georgetown University School of law. She attended in the summer of 1951 and after she got accepted, seven more women were accepted for the fall. A History of the Women at Georgetown University was a magazine article written with a mention of Pat. Once I found out this information I was able to do some more research.

I found another article "She's no one's patsy, but serves as one man's right arm" that said that Pat had met her husband, Richard Frank, of more than 50 years at Georgetown. Richard had married Patsy, that’s what he calls her, and they had three daughters. One is Attorney Stacy Frank, a former Hillsborough County phosphate mining zoning hearing master.

Pat Frank has received two degree’s a “B.S./B.A. degree, finance and taxation

Georgetown University School of Law and a B.S./B.A. degree, finance and taxation from the University of Florida”, according to a Web-site which has 466 online sources, which is called http://www.zoominfo.com.

Being a wife and a mother, and…a woman of politics, sometimes you wish some things were not public. But in 1993, her husband had a confrontation with the media and his job. Richard Frank became a Judge and tried not to apply his knowledge of a Judge to his daughter’s life. But that was really hard for Judge Richard as he was not well.

Pat’s husband Judge Richard Frank was brought to trial because of his daughter Stacey Frank. This hearing is interesting because Judge Frank had given an interview with the St. Pete Times and because of that interview he got into some deep trouble. This document is a copy of that hearing. http://www.law.fsu.edu/library/flsupct/sc92630/92630d.pdf

Here is just a little bit of this document:

Judge Frank is presently 72 years of age and will formally leave judicial office at the beginning of 1999. In 1992, he had heart by-pass surgery and resulting cerebral anoxia. (T.158). He states that he believes he has lost significant memory as a result. (T.158). Due to his retirement, he is no longer receiving new case assignments from the Clerk of the Second District Court of Appeal.”

“Shortly before September 6, 1993, you were interviewed by a reporter for the St. Petersburg Times concerning a marital dissolution proceeding which had been pending in the Circuit Court of Hillsborough County, between your daughter Stacy Frank and Mark Straley. In the course of that interview, you were questioned regarding the retention in that matter by Stacy Frank of George Vaka, Esq., a former partner of Judge Chris Altenbernd, a member of your court, to represent her in appellate proceedings in her case before the Supreme Court of Florida.”

Almost tens years later, Pat became Clerk of Court of Hillsborough County in 2004. On the Web-site it says this about Pat Frank:

Pat Collier Frank has had a distinguished career in public service and elective office, commencing with her election to the Hillsborough County School Board in 1972. In 1976, she was elected to the Florida House of Representatives; in 1978, she was elected to the Florida Senate, where she served to 1988. During her legislative career, Mrs. Frank accomplished a number of firsts; she was the first woman elected "Most Effective First-Term Member" by the House and also the first woman nominated "Most Respected Senator" by her Senate colleagues.

Mrs. Frank has also been a member of the Tampa Hospital Authority and numerous other boards and agencies, where she was in a fiduciary position.

Elected to the Hillsborough County Board of County Commissioners (BOCC) in 1998, she was elected Chairman by the BOCC for three consecutive years by her colleagues. She was re-elected to the BOCC in 2002. In 2004, Mrs. Frank was elected Clerk of the Circuit Court/Comptroller for Hillsborough County.

She has received over 50 awards for her public service and volunteer activities. In her present position, she was the recipient of the Chief Judge’s Award for the 13th Judicial Circuit in 2006; in 2007, she was chosen Executive Woman of the Year by the Network of Executive Women.

Pat Frank has been married over 50 years to Richard Harlan Frank, retired Judge of the 2nd District Court of Appeal. They have three daughters and two grandchildren.”

However, not every job is perfect and she had an employee who was not happy with her. The outcome was that the Clerk’s office had to pay this employee $2,500 of which $1,250 had to be attributed to pay back. Here is that document:

http://www.justice.gov/crt/emp/documents/marshallsettle.pdf

This is just some of that document:

October 12, 2007, Marshall, filed; Marshal v. Pat Frank, Clerk of the Circuit Court for Hillsborough County (in her oflcial capacilyl, Case No.8:07 cv 01862

Alleging that the Clerk's Office violated the Uniformed Survices Employment and Reemployment Rights Act of 1994 failing to reemploy Marshall in her prior position as supervisor of the Clerk's County Clerk Il Section of the Felony Department upon ha return from active duty in October 2005; and (b) transferring Marshall from the Clerk's Felony Department to the Clerk's Traffic Department at a lower rate of pay because Marshall took action to enforce a protection afforded her under USERRA or to exercise a right provided for USERRA.”

Overall, Pat Frank cares about the people she works for. Recently she just wrote this letter.

And as Clerk of Court she is trying to secure her position for the people and has written to the Citizens of the State of Florida. This document that she has written includes a cover letter, other Clerk’s pleading for their jobs, and some statistics.

http://199.241.8.125/articles/PatFrank.pdf Here is just some of what that document says:

“There is no rational basis to take away this elective office from the people. For 170 years, the Clerks of the Courts in Florida have been answerable to the people of Florida. This accountability is vital because it is the people’s records and money that the Clerks maintain and administer. It is the Clerk’s office that you go to:

* For your public records, both court and official;

*To maintain the integrity of the court files and evidence;

*To pay your traffic tickets;

*To select judges for assignment (through a blind selection system);

*To call jurors to duty;

*To process domestic violence complaints and child support delinquency compliances;

* To handle the multitude of papers for foreclosures cases and evictions;

In short, it is the Clerk’s Office that keeps our court system running in a transparent, fair, and orderly fashion"


I have learned a lot this semester and from Pat Frank. That as a woman and as I citizen I have rights, and that I could doing anything if I put my heart and mind into it. Thank you, Pat Frank.

Women Who Have Made A Difference At Georgetown by Judith C. Areen

Check out this SlideShare Presentation: Pat Frank, or back then Pat Anna Collier was the first woman accepted to Georgetown University Law school. She is Tampa's Clerk of COurt. Slide 18 has a picture of her!

Public Meeting: Luxury Motel


When Amanda I scheduled ourselves to go to a public meeting, we were not eager to really go. But… when we got there and it began, we were truly surprised at what we were sitting in on. It was a public Nuisance hearing Case NO PNAB2009-2. The hearing was about the Luxury Motel located on 4608 Hillsborough Avenue and the activity that went on at the motel. The lawyer had brought forth evidence of prostitution and drug activity and was trying to get the judge and committee to shut down the property all together.

The property owner Charles Grubbs was arrested on 05/07/08 with charge being that of “Renting space for the purpose of prostitution.” The lawyer had a witness to help his case. On May 7th, 2008 Officer Amy Jones was an undercover cop that posed as a prostitute and Jones’ statement was that she asked Grubbs if she could rent a room for 30 minutes because she had a friend coming through. Grubbs then told Jones that the room was going to be $35 but the Jones said she only had $20. Grubbs agreed and took the money. Then…he got arrested.

The lawyer, the judge, and committee argued for a bit about statue 796.06 and 796.07. The judge, Susan Long, questioned Jones and asked if Grubbs really knew what you wanted the room for. Jones replied, “Yeah, he knew. I was undercover, so if I just came out and said, ‘I am a prostitute and I need a room to go… he would have knew something was up. That’s not how is done out there, he knew.”

The lawyer then said that Grubbs had pleaded guilty to the charges on 05/07. The trial/meeting then moved into the narcotics part and witness Officer Vincent Layto approached the stand. July 27th, 2008 Layto had sold cocaine to Joe Fason Anderson, who was temporarily living at the motel with his girlfriend for an extended period. The lawyer, judge, and committee began to argue again about statues so we had left.

But overall the meeting/trial was very disorganized. The judge and committee seemed to have no idea about this case. They had their own attorney on the panel looking up statues in a large book. And the questions that they were asking to establish Grubbs was just crazy. Grubbs did not show up or anybody to represent him, but yet they were trying to establish character for Grubbs.

I did my own research when I got home and I found:

· Charles Grubbs arrest report

· Article about trial and the Luxury Motel : http://www2.tbo.com/content/2009/nov/24/tampa-goes-after-owners-run-down-drug-infested-mot/

· Public Records on Grubbs: http://publicrecord.hillsclerk.com/oridev/criminal_pack.sbn?pcRadio=actual&pcLastName=GRUBBS&pcFirstname=&pcMiddle=&pcBirthYear=1955&pnStart=1&pcCourtType=ALL&submit=Search

Purchasing Televisions


Tom Dea answered my phone called when I called The City of Tampa Television. I gave him the run down of what I needed for my blog and he answered a few questions. Dea does the purchasing for anything under $1000. He has a credit card that and is given a budget that he can use. However, there are only so many things you can buy under $1000 for a television station.

Therefore, the person in charge of purchasing items over $1000 is Dan Foglia. He does not have a credit card. Foglia is the buyer engineer for the station. He has to file bids and get them approved. Foglia told me that they are under the City of Tampa’s Budget but and that the City has there own Purchasing Department. The City of Tampa Television is given a budget from the City of Tampa and then the purchasing department at the television station, also known at CTTV, has to work within that budget. It is really quit complicated.

Finally, once the bid has been placed, it can only be accepted if Mayor Pam Iorio AND the Council signs off on it. The Web-site had a lot of good information including the Sensible Solutions in Tough Economic Times- Recommended Operating and Capital Budget. The PDF document has information for the 2010 year.

Something interesting that is said, “The Government Finance Officers Association of the United States and Canada (GFOA) presented a Distinguished Budget Presentation Award to the City of Tampa for its annual budget for the fiscal year beginning October 1, 2008. In order to receive this award, a government unit must publish a budget document that meets program criteria as a policy document, as an operations guide, as a financial plan, and as a communications device. The award is valid for a period of one year only. We believe our current budget continues to conform to program requirements, and we are submitting it to GFOA to determine its eligibility for another award.”

Check it out of you want to learn more about the City of Tampa’s budget for 2010.

Friday, November 13, 2009

Public School Board Meeting: Urban Teaching Academy







Susan King, the Supervisor of magnet schools and programs, talked about the Urban Teaching Academy interdisciplinary project. There are three urban teaching schools, one at Blake High School, one at Hillsborough High School, and one at Middleton High School.

King introduced Theresa Windston, the lead arts teacher at Blake High School. She received a grant for $3,000 from J.P. Morgan Grace to incorporate the arts into the curriculum to particularly improve writing skills.

“I chose 9th grade students at the Blake Urban Academy, under the direction of UTA teacher Ms. Gwen Williams. Can you believe that this photography was done by 9th grade students? It’s just amazing,” said Windston.

She talked about the grant and its purpose to promote learning.

“The project is called Tampa Bay Treasures. Students connected to the history of Tampa by taking fieldtrips to historical places,” Continues Windston. “Each student was assigned a camera and a location to take pictures. They then picked their favorite picture and wrote about it in their journal.”

Teresa Windston wanted the board to consider continuing funding the arts departments of Hillsborough magnet schools. Three students from the program came to talk at the meeting. They were intelligent and persistent. They did not know a lot about what the meeting was about, they just knew they wanted to keep their program and that they had a voice.

Their presence there made it hard for the chair members to say no to the grants. The students showed us examples of their photographs that they took at The University of Tampa, The Columbian Restaurant, and The Tampa Theatre. The work of these 10th graders was amazing. The photographic capabilities of the students took me by surprise. The project brought the students together, and it brought them closer with the community and history.

One student said, “People walk around The University of Tampa like it’s a regular school. For me, it was a place where I could take pictures.” The students were able to expand their knowledge and creativity, which proves that the program is effective. The students combine their visual creativity with their writing creativity.

An article was written by Courtney Cairns Pastor on TBO.com about the program.

The Hillsborough County School District is training future teachers through a new magnet program that introduces students to the education field in ninth grade. If the students do well, they can get college paid for and, maybe best of all, possibly jobs in Hillsborough schools when they complete their degrees,” according to Pastor.

APPLICATION FOR ADMISSION must be filled out by the students and gives them an opportunity to improve on their writing skills.

In the application is states, “Students will complete three levels of exploratory field experience electives in grades nine, ten and eleven (respectively); then, as seniors, students will participate in a culminating experience called a Clinical Internship. Students will be paired throughout the program with practicing master educators recognized as highly qualified by the No Child Left Behind guidelines. These master educators, in most cases, will be qualified to serve as adjunct professors at partner institutions which enables students to connect theory with practice.”

And finally The St. Pete Times also covered this story back in January of 2008. Just click on the link and the article gives you some insight on the wonderful program.

http://www.sptimes.com/2008/01/13/Hillsborough/Reaching_deep_for_tea.shtml

So out of the entire meeting, why did I JUST talk about this program? First, the students that were there had greatly impacted me. To come to a meeting and plea with the board members to continue to fund their program, is pretty impressive to me. Education is so important and for these kids to learn that at such a young age, it gives me some assurance that our future leaders will have a strong head on their shoulders.

Thursday, November 5, 2009

Bailey doesn't Bail

On Friday October 30th, Amanda and I went to the Clerk of Court to obtain public records. We went to Charlotte County to visit our parents that weekend so decided to obtain records from there. A big news story was aired early October about a 26-year-old mother who was having sex with her 18 month old daughter. I chose to get the arrest records for the mother, Melissa Bailey.

However, if this story wasn’t bad enough, the mother’s boyfriend, Glenn Nelson, was also having sex with the baby (Amanda pulled his arrest record, so check out her blog!)


Amanda and I pulled into the Charlotte County Clerk of Court and we were really eager and interested to get the public records of these two criminals. Upon reaching the front desk, we were greeted by a nice lady named Donna. We had told her that we were there to obtain public records. She directed us to some computers that were lined up in the reception area. She asked how old the case was because if it was over a year old we would have to go to the file room. Since it wasn’t, I was able to looked up Melissa Bailey and found her case number (0910-001006).





We then took our case number back to Donna and she said it was going to be $1 per page. My total came out to $4. And in 30 minutes, Amanda and I were in the car reading our public records and we were amazed at was in the report.



In the report, it discussed some details of the sexual abuse. The report was written on October 7th, 2009 by Detective Keith DePersia. There was a search warrant executed for several child pornography images. The Detective found photographs that were taken with the baby and Nelson during the sexual crime. These photos were also uploaded to two computers and saved on flash drives. However, in the end the detectives seized six computers total.



“Melissa Bailey made statements that she and her boyfriend Glenn Nelson had been performing sex acts on her child since she was born until about one month ago. Melissa would put her mouth on the babies vagina and Glenn would put his penis into the baby’s vagina,” according to the report.



The report continues to talk about Glenn Nelson and an interview that he had given.



“During the interview Glenn Nelson advised that he had received the video, photograph and e-mails from Melissa Bailey which depicted Melissa Bailey giving oral sex to the baby and inserting the pacifier into her vagina and rubbing her vagina with her fingers. Glenn also admitted that he saw Melissa Bailey rub the baby’s vagina and stomach after he ejaculated on her,” according to the report.



My overall feeling about this is “OH MY GOD!” And “OH MY GOD!” After reading the arrest report there are more very explicit details but I just can not post them. There were twenty pornographic pictures and six computers that were seized. And the investigation is still on going. And also, I am hoping that the baby has been placed into a good home with family or in a good foster home. My overall opinion on these two sexual offenders can also NOT be posted!

Thursday, October 29, 2009

Dr. Adams

Dr. Vernard Adams is the Medical Examiner for Hillsborough County. He explains the behind the scenes of what the examiners really do and its nothing like what you see on television.


Dr. Adams has been the examiner for 18 years and has been in the news multiple times. A Web-site called Zoominfo has the news stories that Dr. Adams has been involved in. However, an interesting story that I found out about Dr. Adams, was that he was involved in the Billy Mays tragic death case.



“Adams said authorities had ruled out prescription drug abuse. Mays was taking prescription painkillers Tramadol and hydrocodone for hip pain, but the pill counts showed that Mays had taken the correct amount, according to the medical examiner,” according to The Times.
The examiner has two investigative tools which are inquiry and examination.

Inquiry consists of looking at records and talking to people. They have to get hospital records and doctor’s records. And they have to talk with the doctors and with the families. The examiner relies upon the police for a lot of the scene investigation; however they do a lot of them ourselves but work closely with them.

Examination is the close inspection of a dead body at the scene or at the office; and an examination can include an autopsy report and an internal examination, which is done at the office; also included are insulin tests done on specimens from an autopsy such as bacterial cultures, chemical tests, and most frequently test for drugs.

So what does all of this have to do with public records? Well, like any other government based organization, everything must be opened to the public and in order to do that a public record must be produced.

“We generate records such as autopsy reports, toxicology reports notes from telephone conversations, notes from hospital records. All are public accept when if the investigation is considered an active criminal investigation. The custodian of records, me, gets to determine if it is a public records,” said Dr. Adams.

Something that I found interesting was that all the files are all color coded.
· Red files are homicide
· Black files are traffic accidents
· Yellow files are suicides
· White files are non-traffic accidents
· Orange files are undetermined

“Records that we shown go back about 4 years, but they have room for 10 year old records; once they reach the stage where they need to move out they go to the County’s Record Center. Basically by then they become archives and have to be accessed by appointment,” said Dr. Adams.

Everything in the records can be accessed except the photos unless it’s under active investigation.

I researched the County’s Record Center and found a very usable Web-site called The Records Project. The site has great information and it really sums up everything that we have learned all semester in Public Affairs Reporting class. It has Hillsborough Adoption Details, Hillsborough Background Checks, Hillsborough Births, Hillsborough Cemetery Records, Hillsborough Court Records, Hillsborough Death Records, Hillsborough Genealogy Resources, Hillsborough Marriage Records, Hillsborough Obituaries, and last but certainly not least, the Hillsborough Police Records.

I feel that Gil was right on the money to leave Dr. Adams for the last tour. I found myself understanding Dr. Adams when he was taking about the traffic accident reports and the Clerk’s office. Overall, I enjoyed this video and Dr. Adams, he was funny (in a dry-sense of humor way).

Thursday, October 22, 2009

Mr. Integrity: Steve Andrews

Mr. Integrity

Hard working and integrity is the key to good reporting says Steve Andrews.

Andrews is the Senior Investigative Reporter and Executive Producer of Investigations WFLA News Channel 8. He gave a lecture to the Public Affairs Reporting class and I must say he showcased some powerful thoughts about integrity. One thing that he said that hit home for me was to be tough but be polite.


“As you go through your career and as you begin your career you need to know how to be polite… you don’t have to be in your face. You can be tough and hold people accountable but you don’t have to be a jerk,” said Andrews.


For myself being a waitress for 11 years and completely understand what he means. I have been doing it for so long; I had forgotten that my skills can apply to other careers. In terms as reporting career, I think that Andrews’s advice is important because reporters can become de-sensitized and forget that people have feelings.


An example of Andrews not becoming one of those de-sensitized reporters was shown back in June 2007. He was the reporter that demanded the public records from a DCF Investigation to be open. The story was about the neglect of a 85 year old man in a nursing home. Andrews demanded that DCF take a closer look at this problem and sure enough the case was re-opened. In the end, the director of the nursing home told Andrews thank you and that this will lead to more aggressive investigations on the nurses that are hired.

All of this happened because Andrews followed what he preached. That you can get the job done by being tough and being polite and that the people you come across will respect you for that.
During the lecture, Andrews showed a news story about a judge that was corrupt. Not in his court room but in his personal affairs.

Former Judge Thomas Stringer was the first black man to graduate from Stetson Law School. Andrews said this statement several times in his story. For me, the focus statement for the story was not so much that the former Judge had hide money for a stripper but that his reputation has become tarnished. That the young black men going to school for law once looked to Stringer as a public figure, now is looked at as just another black criminal.



Andrews care was for those that who did look up to him. And when Andrews had that microphone in Stringers face, Andrews wanted an answer for all those young law students.


His reporting style should be noted to all young journalists coming up. Be honest to the people in the story you are reporting and have integrity. If anybody wants to email Andrews to ask him any questions go to http://www.wfla.com/personalities/andrews.htm


If you think there is something out there to be investigated in the Tampa Bay area, call News Channel 8 (813)-221-5779, they are waiting to here from you.

Thursday, October 15, 2009


Preston Trigg, Director of Administration and Special Projects for the Hillsborough County Tax Collector, gave the public affairs reporting class a lecture on what exactly the tax collector does. However, I want to talk about something that really interested me. The tax collector office works with the Department of Motor vehicles.


The tax collectors office can issue driver licenses, license tag renewal, titles for boat and cars, hunting & fishing licenses, and handicapped/disabled parking permits. When Trigg started about 10 years ago, people were waiting in line at the DMV for an hour to be seen. Trigg along with others began to change the way of thinking at the DMV and the Tax Collectors Office. They wanted to train their employee’s to other fields of service. So now, employees could issue driver’s license and also hunting licenses. This cut down the time at the counter.

“Now we can pin point the problem and they try to make wait times less than 15 minutes,” Trigg said.

The new system is an electronic system with numbers. You when you walk up to the front counter, you tell the clerk what you are there for, and then they can place you at the right counter. Because of this, wait times have cut down to 15 minutes.

So why is the DMV such a concern with the tax collectors office? Well, all the money collected has to be given to the tax collector’s office. And if they can make the wait times faster, then they can get their money faster. Makes sense, right!

So what records can I get from the tax collector’s office pertaining to motor vehicle records? Well, years ago, as a reporter you were able to get the records. They were wide open. However, that all changed with the Driver Privacy Protection Act of 1994.

A "motor vehicle record" means any record that pertains to a motor vehicle operator's permit, motor vehicle title, motor vehicle registration, or identification card issued by a department of motor vehicles. According to the a website called consumerprivacyguide.org, “Congress passed the Driver's Privacy Protection Act as an amendment to the Omnibus Crime Act of 1994; it restricts the public disclosure of personal information contained in state department of motor vehicle ("DMV") records.

While Driver's Privacy Protection Act generally prohibits DMV officials from knowingly disclosing personally identifiable information contained in department records, it delineates several broad exceptions.

In January of 2000, the Supreme Court unanimously upheld the Act in the case of Reno vs. Condon. The Court held that personal, identifying information from drivers' licenses and motor vehicle registrations is a "thing in interstate commerce" that can be regulated by Congress like any other commodity.”

Also, Trigg had mentioned that a show called “My Sister Sam” dealt with the same issues. I did some research and found that Rebecca Schaeffer was an actress on that show. An obsessed fan, Robert John Bardo, stalked Schaeffer for years. Until, finally Bardo saw Schaeffer in a movie doing a sex scene and became outraged. Living in Oregon, Bardo approached a Tucson detective agency and paid them $250 to get her home address through California Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) records.


Following Schaeffer's, California laws regarding the release of personal information through the DMV were drastically changed. The Driver's Privacy Protection Act was enacted in 1994, which prevents the DMV from releasing private addresses. The law's effect has subsequently been diminished by online address search services. Schaeffer's life and death became the topic of the first E! True Hollywood Story, which originally aired on March 29, 1996.

In conclusion, Trigg discussed many things in his lecture, but these particular things I had found interesting. It just goes to show you that as a person you do have control with your government. Whether that be a customer complaining on wait times or an actress who needs justice, things can be changed.

Tuesday, October 13, 2009

http://en.sevenload.com/videos/zsFF9fq-Russert-tosses-softballs-at-HRC-re-Norman-Hsu

http://en.sevenload.com/videos/zsFF9fq-Russert-tosses-softballs-at-HRC-re-Norman-Hsu

Web-Browsing as fast as the Wind

Dirt digging, money laundering, open secrets…Oh my! William “Windy” March gave a lecture and a tutorial about some Web-sites that he uses as a political reporter. And boy, did he show you where you can find the dirt, fast!


To begin with he explained what money laundering was and how it can easily be abused by political candidates. Money laundering is where one person gives money to another person and tells them what to spend it on. Well, you say, how can I get arrested for that? You can’t but…if you do it 500 times with large quantities of money such as $1000, then you’re looking at some time sitting on a hard wooden bench in court, explaining yourself.

An example of this was in 1996 during Bill Clinton’s re-election campaign. March explained that a man by the name of Mark Jimenez, donated $1000 to the Clinton campaign. But he didn’t just donate $1000. He used his business Future Tech International and his employees to launder money into the campaign.


Norman Hsu, who was also apart of the fraud, had donated $850,000 of his own money. According to a Tampa Tribune article Hsu helped raise $1 million for the Democratic candidates through about 75 people he knew. He got these people to make contributions to the party. Also, Hsu gave another $3.5 million to charitable causes.



So following March’s advice, I searched for Norman Hsu through the Web-sites that he discussed. First, I went to http://www.sunbiz.org/ and search his name. No results were found there. Next, I went to http://www.opensecrets.org/ another Web-site had mentioned. And again nothing turned up. A man by the name of Paul Hsu came up who had donated several years a row, but nothing on Mr. Norman.


So, even though I came up empty handed, doesn’t mean you will. If you are looking to write about politics, these two Web-sites have some great information.

March continued his lecture and began to take about two companies.
“Accurint and Auto Track are companies that what they do is collect data, nationwide, and they sell what they have found back to you,” March said.

I used Google and researched these companies to learn more about them. Accurint according to their Web-site “is a locate-and-research tool available to government, law enforcement and commercial customers. Its proprietary data linking and analysis technology, LexisNexis® Link ID, securely and intelligently analyzes billions of partial and complete records, and then filters and links that information based on relevance to provide a complete picture of an individual—all in a matter of seconds.”

Wow, I thought to myself pretty cool. So how much would this cost someone? I don’t know. I researched the Web-site and it gave me no clues. I called the 1-866 number provided on the site to see if I could speak with a representative but in order to get through you must have a “LexisNexis” user ID number or else they will not call you back. So…again I turned up empty handed, but if anybody has the answer as to how much this service would cost, I would be interested in knowing.

William “Windy” March has opened and unlocked doors or Web-sites I should say that I never would have thought about. His intelligence on digging for dirt on political candidates is vast and creditable to his character as a reporter. Overall, Windy blew my mind away!

Thursday, October 8, 2009

Superwomen

The Clerk of Court video tour, I would have to say, was by far the most boring video. Perhaps it was because the Clerk of Court has many offices within it. The panels of speakers included Pat Frank, the Clerk; Joann M Constantini, Director of Official Records; Dana Caranante, Director of Juvenile Court Operations; and Douglas Bakke, Director of Family Law, Domestic Violence, Collections, and Expungement. The entire panel covered many of the duties each office had to accomplish.


However, I am only going to talk about what really interested me. Pat Frank is an incredible interesting speaker and her work shows that she is an extremely driven person. In her life time she as accomplished so much such as being on the Hillsborough County School Board (1972), being elected to the Florida House of Representatives (1976), being elected to the Florida Senate (1978-88), being elected to the Hillsborough County Board of County Commissioners (1998 and 2002), and finally in 2004, Mrs. Frank was elected Clerk of the Circuit Court/Comptroller for Hillsborough County. Some could say that she is a Superwomen!

Also, she was the first woman elected "Most Effective First-Term Member" by the House and also the first woman nominated "Most Respected Senator" by her Senate colleagues. All if this information can be found on the Clerk of Circuit Court Web-site. Also, Frank has a blog called Frank Talk Blog.


During the lecture from Pat Frank, she spoke about the power struggles between the Courts and the Clerks office, which got really confusing, but as a woman who has been around the block, I suppose she was allowed to vent.


“We technically are not a part of the courts system. I don’t work under the judge, I’m not a lawyer, and we have about a 1,000 duties under the statue and even more after this last legislative session that we must take care of. But the Principle purpose of the Clerk’s office is to work for the people”, Frank said.


Another thing that Frank brought up was how important their office is to the public. Early this year, a breaking story hit the Tampa Bay about four former Walker Middle School flag football players having been charged with the crime. The crime was a sexual assault, but that’s not why the story is important in regards to the Clerk’s office. The state attorney’s office did omit a declaration from the boys and therefore it was processed and made public. That declaration was later used as a confession by the prosecutor.





“The story was taken down from the Web site after a judge signed an emergency order stopping TBO.com, The Tampa Tribune and News Channel 8 from running stories with the teen defendants' statements. That order was reversed Friday after the media outlets' attorneys appealed the injunction at a hearing,” according to KATE CALDWELL, News Channel 8 and JOSH POLTILOVE, The Tampa Tribune.





Overall, I feel that the lecture contained some very interesting information, and all of the speakers knew much about their particular office. Pat Frank just happened to be the most interesting speaker to me and therefore I felt she deserved to be the topic of my blog. However, if you want to know more about the other offices or people that were on the panel, start by going to http://www.hillsclerk.com/.

Thursday, October 1, 2009

Jailhouse Blues



On the tour through the Hillsborough County Jail, I found myself very interested when the tour guide, Officer Scott Smith, reached the confinement area. Although, Smith covered the entire jail including the booking area and the psychiatric ward, just to mention a few, I still found myself strangely draw to this small area of living space.



Misbehavior can cause an inmate to receive confinement. How does their behavior get determined into whether they receive confinement? The jail system at Hillsborough has what is called Administrative Hearings. These particular hearings not only decide whether they receive confinement, but also how many days an inmate will spend in their new home. And some inmates can get up to 30 days.



Because this area of living is filled with misbehaved adults, the officers on duty increase. In population, or the common area of inmates, there is one officer per 72 inmates. But in confinement, there are three officers per 64 inmates.



Smith states that inmates could spend up to 22 hours in solitaire confinement. I would defiantly have the jailhouse blues if I had to be by myself for that long. Also, if inmates wanted magazines they would have to get them from the publisher. You and a magazine seem pretty lonely.




Smith continues to explain that the officers on duty have to know what restrictions each inmate has in order for the officer to be safe. An example of this would the magazine that is issued. If an inmate is under suicide watch, the officers have to be aware of this because the inmate may take out the staples and poke out their eyes.




“There is a book with why they are in confinement,” said Smith.





So I went to the Internet to do some research to get some more details about these four white walls and this intimate book of the inmates. I found a Web-site about the Florida Department of Corrections that had some exceptionally interesting data under the “FAQs” tab.



Confinement is also called “Closed Management”. The definition of closed management according to the Web-site is “designed to house inmates who commit acts that threaten the safety of others, threaten the security of the institution, or demonstrate an inability to live in the general population without abusing the rights and privileges of others.”



I also learned that there are three different levels of closed confinement, CM I, CM II, CM III. One is having the most extreme security and three being the least.



In conclusion, my research turned up some more very interesting questions such as what is the difference between jail and prison, and what are the gangs like in prison. The Web-site has some great information and I’m lucky that I can find this knowledge through Web-sites like these; otherwise I would have jailhouse blues.

Thursday, September 24, 2009

Documents for Life

J.D Callaway, the Director of Communications at the Hillsborough Sheriffs office, spoke about several documents to the public affairs reporting students. He discussed several documents including: News Releases, Standard Operating Procedure documents, Florida Traffic Crash Reports, Individuals Charge Reports, Criminal Report Affidavits, Face Sheets, and DUI Reports.


I found that the most interesting document out of all of them is the Criminal Report Affidavit. Once a criminal has a report written in detail about an incident that had their involvement, that detailed account can be exposed for the public to see and read. I feel as a reporter, all of these public record forms can be useful to ones story. However, this particular document really caught my eye.

Callaway explains the Criminal Report Affidavit, or also known as the CRA, as being "a very substantial document, if a police officer is laying down the foundation for a probable cause [case], that will be detailed in this document."



He continues to explain that on the back of the CRA there is a section that allows the officer to give a detailed report of the facts. Also, many reporters use that information as a base for their story and can obtain there lead from the information provided.



Since I was interested in this particular document, I wanted to know more about it. I did some research on the Internet and found several web-sites that answered some of my questions.

One web-site that I found gave me several choices to obtain public records including the background information of any person. This particular search engine allowed me to find criminal reports.

This website is "The Unofficial Public Resource of the American Safety Council for Florida Residents and Visitors."


Also, if you would like to check out another affidavit, go to http://news.findlaw.com/cnn/docs/chldmrdr/flaonstott41705arrst.html


In April of 2005, David Onstott had murder charges brought against him. He was the the former boyfriend of the mother of slain 13-year-old Florida girl Sarah Michelle Lunde. It is interesting to see a real affidavit!
Onstott did receive life in prison.

In conclusion, the Criminal Report Affidavit was just one of the many documents that Callaway spoke of but all of the documents that he mentioned can be used to help a good reporter write a great story.

Thursday, September 17, 2009



Chris Davis, investigative editor for the Sarasota Herald Tribune, discussed the importance of public records in investigative reporting. Chris opened my eyes to a new way of using public records. Before, I always thought of public records as being used to create news stories and digging for dirt on people. After hearing him speak about the many different ways to use public records, I came to realize that my access to them is very important as a future journalist.





He talked about a number of different investigations that involved
the use of public records. One story was about the Walker family who
was murdered in Sarasota during the 50’s. Chris talked about investigative reporters who used the interviews after the murder happened in order to put together a 3-D display of the house on the internet.

“What my reporter and graphic artist did was the took a stack of public records, interviews from a number of people who were interviewed right after the crime occurred, investigative notes from the 50’s, and all kinds of information the police had collected about this murder. And then they pieced it together to come up with what the house looked like, what the crime scene looked like, where the different key elements of the clues and evidence that they were collecting and where it was situated in the house,” explained Davis.

The Herald Tribune used other public records that included information that the police gathered such as what the house looked like and how the crime scene was left. The investigators took information from these public records and then placed the elements of evidence in the house. The animated display of the house takes the viewer through a virtual show of how the house looked after the crime. You can even click on items throughout the house and it gives you a description of the object and how it relates to the crime.



“What this graphic does is virtually takes you through the house and it essentially pops up where the bodies were found. There was (also) a shoe that was a key piece of evidence, and there were finger prints that were found on the tub,” said Davis.

To understand better, take a tour through the virtual house: http://www.heraldtribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/section?CATEGORY=SPECIAL12


Feel free to click on it and experience the work put together by investigators throughout the use of public records and technology. You can also look at past newspaper articles about the case, as well as sound bites and pictures.

"Just days before Christmas in 1959, a Sarasota County family of four walked ino a trap that became one of Sarasota's notorious unsolved crimes. The Herald-Tribune gained unprecedented access to investigators' files, which span four decades. The files tell the story of a murder mystery that changed a community and continues today."
Just registered my phone for blog updates!!

Thursday, September 10, 2009

Tim Nickens

Tim Nickens is a reporter, editorial writer, political editor, and an assistant managing editor, who came to talk to the Public Affairs Reporting class about the Sunshine laws.


Nickens talked about two main areas: the public meeting requirements and Chapter 119: Public Record laws. He did an exceptional job explaining how both are important to journalists and if you don't know about either of these subjects, then you better start!! (Go to a seminar!)


His lecture caught my attention when he spoke about the First Amendment Foundation. This particular foundation has set standards and is still fighting for journalists. One issue that the foundation is fighting for is the right for telephone calls and e-mails to be considered public. Many public officals find loop holes and make their meeting via phone or e-mail, which to journalists is difficult to report to the public what actual is going on.


Okay, so personally on one hand I feel, hey if your a public person dicussing issues about the community, then yeah, journalists should have those records. However, I do understand the devil side to this issue. Personal information may surface that the public doesn't need to know about.


It is that old dinner table question: how far can the government stick their nose into our lives. Well, the same is vice versa. How far should we stick our nose in their business?





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Tuesday, September 8, 2009

Library Resources

So if you are a student at USF and you need to access some information or if you are doing a research paper and you need some information...guess what, you got it!!!

I have been a student at USF for two years now and I didn't realize that I had access to a butt load of good resources! Cheryl McCoy took us on a tour of the online access that is at our fingertips. :)

Log into the library main page: www.lib.usf.edu

There you will see a tab labled "Research Help" (Its is red/pink). On the bottom of that main page, you will see bullets, that last bullet is labeled "Course Guides". There is a list of courses that are posted, such as JOU 4181: Public Affairs Reporting (This just happens to be the class that I am currently taking that is allowing me obtain these wonderful resources)

And wall-la!! You now have access to information:

"Covering city council meetings, courthouse, city hall, courts, society, and other special assignments. Emphasis is on coverage of major governmental units of all levels of government, including examination and interpretation of public documents and records."

Now, if your not in this particular class, you still can have access to many of the resources at the library. Take my advice, your time at USF will be much easier if you know the librarians!

If you are wanting more information, Cheryl McCoy is willing to answer ANY questions that ANY student may have. Her e-mail address is cmccoy@lib.usf.edu

Thursday, September 3, 2009

New to Blogger

New to Blogger!

So many people have told me to blog, that it is the wave of the future, but I never got around to actually setting one up. Well, now my professor has made it a requirement. So now you guys are gonna have to listen to what I say, lol. :)

Talk to you all again....