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 9^th 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 9^th 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 10^th 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.

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!

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).

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.

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.

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!