Windcrest had poor oversight of Rackspace deal; financial controls were a ‘gooey mess’
Windcrest officials put too much faith in the Cains and failed to closely watch the deal with Rackspace.
Reporting tool: Bookmarking and searching your personal archive of web pages with Diigo
If you bookmark lots of websites, then at some point you’ve fruitlessly searched for a specific page that you bookmarked years ago with your browser. Not fun. Diigo is a bookmarking tool that lets you build a searchable archive of websites that interest you. There’s a social-media component to Diigo. You set up a profile, …
Watchdog blog roundup for 5-24-10
What others are saying about watchdog journalism: JimmyCsays: How the Kansas City Star is relying on in-depth stories: “The plan hinges on developing a lineup of reporters who can consistently deliver front-page, “enterprise” stories — articles that spring primarily from recent news developments. Where breaking news is the engine of a paper, enterprise stories — …
Constitution of the Mexican Mafia: Democracy, respect and no bets worth more than ice cream
Constitution of the Mexican Mafia in Texas by John Tedesco Express-News Reporter Guillermo Contreras is covering a federal trial involving the Mexican Mafia, and he wrote about a fascinating court exhibit: The constitution of the Mexican Mafia in Texas. This document was posted on mySA.com today, and it’s all about setting a strong social structure …
Reporting tool: Taking notes with Evernote
Shawn Miller wrote an amazingly detailed review of Evernote, a free service that lets you take notes, pictures and recordings; sync them with Evernote; and read and search all your material on Web browsers, desktop software, and mobile apps: Why install the same application in so many different places? Evernote stores your collected items in …
Government official shocked — shocked! — when public data is posted online
Texas state officials surprised when public data is posted online by John Tedesco Karisa King and I were cleaning our corner of the newsroom last week, and I rediscovered this gem of an e-mail written by an official for the Texas Department of Insurance. The state agency oversees the amusement-ride industry. When a patron is …
Watchdog blog roundup for 5-13-10
What others are saying about watchdog journalism: Nieman Journalism Lab: Profile of OpenFile, a collaborative news site in Toronto that gets its story ideas from readers. Hitsville: Bill Wyman argues that nonprofit news sites won’t work because they don’t give readers what they want: fluff. Texas Tribune: After its first six months, the nonprofit Texas …
Does risk of police chases outweigh benefits of capturing suspects?
I had always wanted to write a story about police chases after I watched a crazy high-speed pursuit unfold on local TV. I wondered how often these chases go bad, and how the San Antonio Police Department keeps track of that information. Law enforcement agencies usually churn out paperwork for every situation known to man. …
‘A need to investigate the bastards’
Columbia Journalism review posted an interesting feature story about nonprofit investigative news organizations, and how they take different approaches to funding and sharing their content. The CJR story opens with a telling anecdote about a meeting at California Watch. At the meeting, the editors agree that one of their reporters, after months of digging, has …
Why you can’t read my news story online, and why that could be a good thing
I wrote a story about the dangers of police chases that was published in Sunday’s paper. If you’re a subsciber to the San Antonio Express-News or bought Sunday’s edition, you could read my story. But you can’t read it online — it’s been embargoed for a few days. I like the Internet. But I like …