Looking forward to the future of journalism

Six useful tips for shooting better video of anything

Cow poo pens on Vimeo

Cow poo pens from Angela Grant on Vimeo. Angela Grant, the first full-time video guru at the San Antonio Express-News, gave me some fantastic tips for anyone who wants to improve their skills in shooting and editing video. If you’re tired of uploading shaky cell phone clips to YouTube, these pointers are for you. Angela … Read more

A tragic death, a stolen urn, and how the media helped

View more news videos at: http://www.nbcdfw.com/video. It had been a long time since I last heard from John Putnam. I met him in person once when we attended a court hearing at an old, eerily quiet courthouse in Llano, Texas, but we’ve had countless conversations by phone. And when the phone rang at my desk … Read more

Fay Sinkin’s papers track Edwards Aquifer struggle

Fay Sinkin helped establish Government Canyon, a state park located on the Edwards Aquifer Recharge Zone

Environmentalist Fay Sinkin died last week at the age of 90. There’s a rich archival resource available to the public for anyone who wants to learn about her life and the decades-long battle she fought to protect the Edwards Aquifer, San Antonio’s main drinking supply. The University of Texas at San Antonio established an archive … Read more

La Villita for sale: Can Texas officials talk about closed-door meetings?

La Villita for sale in San Antonio

Express-News Reporter Guillermo Garcia broke a story last week about a confidential city plan to sell La Villita and Market Square. The plan disturbed some city councilmembers, who told Guillermo about a closed-door meeting in which the deal was discussed: Inner-city Councilwoman Mary Alice Cisneros was put on the defensive this week after revelations that … Read more

Is your apartment building safe? How to check Code Enforcement Records

A fire that engulfed the San Pedro Apartments on Tuesday was probably caused by an overloaded electrical outlet. But tenants complained the old building wasn’t well maintained, which raised questions about any past Code Compliance violations issued by city inspectors. San Antonio’s Code Compliance Department has a Web site where you can plug in the … Read more

How to look up incident reports about plane crashes

Photo courtesy of eyewitness Janis Krums from TwitPic If you want to find official reports about plane crashes and other accidents, the National Transportation Safety Board has a searchable database of incident reports on its Web site. Related: Adrift: Hot-air balloon pilots face little scrutiny from FAA despite higher crash rates The nice thing about … Read more

How to track a bill in the Texas Legislature

The Legislative session in Texas officially starts today, which means lawmakers will be filing thousands of bills dealing with topics ranging from the trivial to the profound. This year, bills have been filed that prohibit human cloning; expand the definition of college hazing; and encourage more “green” jobs in Texas, just to name a few … Read more