Looking forward to the future of journalism

Print ain’t dead: How an itty bitty news brief sparked dozens of phone calls from readers

The historic Wesley Peacock House near Woodlawn Lake in San Antonio, Texas

With all the talk about print being dead, you’d think no one actually picks up newspapers anymore to read the archaic things. Tell that to Elaine Austin Palmer. Palmer curates the Wesley Peacock House, a historic home built in 1890 near Woodlawn Lake that served as the headquarters of a military academy. Related: Yard sale …

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A sliver of hope for the New Orleans Times-Picayune? Only if spin is true

As corporate honchos try to paint a rosy picture about the New Orleans Times-Picayune downsizing and no longer publishing a daily print edition, I hope this nugget from the newspaper’s editor, Jim Amoss, is more than corporate spin: Plans call for the Wednesday, Friday and Sunday editions of The Times-Picayune to be in many ways …

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How two small-town reporters in Kentucky took down a corrupt sheriff

Journalists Adam Sulfridge and Samantha Swindler were both in their 20s and working for a small newspaper, the Times-Tribune in Whitley County, Kentucky, when they began investigating rumors about Sheriff Lawrence Hodge and his ties to drug dealers. Federal agents had investigated Hodge in the past but their inquiry fizzled. The sheriff was too insulated …

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How Mexican cartels launder drug money in San Antonio (Hint: Check the North Side)

Express-News reporter Guillermo Contreras wrote a story detailing a federal investigation of two Mexican brothers: Mauricio and Alejandro Sánchez Garza. Federal officials allege the brothers laundered drug money in San Antonio for Mexican cartels.

Facing lawsuit, board of Texas Highway Patrol Museum gives up $1.2 million in assets

Sued by the Texas Attorney General and accused of squandering donations, the Texas Highway Patrol Museum in King William is a step closer to its demise. Check out our past news coverage of the museum, which is actually a telemarketing operation that spends only a fraction of its revenue on charitable causes.

Check out every insurance claim filed against the city of San Antonio

Advanced Google search results for the city of San Antonio

What happens when you’re hit by a city vehicle and file an insurance claim against San Antonio? Now you can find out by searching a database that tracks every claim filed against the city in the past decade. I stumbled across this story by using Google’s advanced search options. Google lets you search specific websites …

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Long-form journalism project asks for money, raises $100,000 on Kickstarter

This is pretty great. First, a new, in-depth journalism project called Matter set a fundraising goal of $50,000 on Kickstarter. They reached it in 38 hours. They set a new goal of $75,000. They reached it in four days. Related: What’s Evernote for? How about making a vast, searchable archive of all your files They …

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Attorney General Greg Abbott sues the Texas Highway Patrol Museum in San Antonio

The Texas attorney general’s office announced yesterday that it has sued the Texas Highway Patrol Museum, a nonprofit telemarketing organization based in San Antonio that raises millions of dollars in the name of helping state troopers. I had always been curious about the museum, which is housed in a brick building at St. Mary’s and …

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