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.
Journalism
What is the function of journalism? How hard is it to become a journalist? Why is it so important? Find answers from a real journalist.
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, …
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 …
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 …
Reporter’s notebook: Tips for putting together the pieces of a puzzling, complex story
On March 26, City Hall reporter Josh Baugh got an adrenaline-pumping tip: FBI agents had seized files at the office of Fernando De León, a city official who reviewed permits for real estate development in San Antonio. The tip sparked a frantic series of phone calls that afternoon as Josh and I tried to figure …
Using LucidChart to connect the dots between people and organizations
When City Hall reporter Josh Baugh and I worked on this story about fired city official Fernando De León, Josh found a nice online tool to help us connect the dots. LucidChart lets you create flow charts and organizational trees that you can share with your colleagues and publish when you’re done. Here’s the chart …
Daily Show rips Apple over Gizmodo raid
The Daily Show With Jon Stewart Mon – Thurs 11p / 10c
The power of in-depth journalism: KSAT story about the homeless wowed viewers
With all the mind-numbing stories about shootings and car accidents that usually glut local TV news broadcasts, it was refreshing to watch this gripping, commercial-free, documentary-style story by KSAT about the homeless. Broadcast in December 2005, the story was an effort by anchor Steve Spriester to chronicle the face of homelessness in San Antonio. Express-News …