August 21

This is how this will work. I will highlight stories covering southwest Riverside County through sections including the PE and the Californian. When the LA Times and/or the UT have something interesting pertaining to our area or something so good or ridiculously bad I will highlight that too.

The Press-Enterprise
The A1 -- Surprisingly a nice strong front page. A great story on a shoe repair business in Riverside. There is one in Temecula and these are the types of stories that need to be done on a more regular basis. Gregor McGavin writes this beauty... McGavin typically can find these slice of life stories. They make great reads and are what is lacking in this paper. Here is the link
http://www.pe.com/localnews/riverside/stories/PE_News_Local_S_shoerepair21.4033fe1.html

Julia Glick also does a great piece on companies trying to take advantage of the tax reassessment business. This is a good example of spinning a story forward. The Cal's Nelsy Rodriguez recently wrote a story about tax reassessment and how people were getting theirs and discovering errors. She quoted one person and didn't mention that people got their tax reassessments at the beginning of July. An example of not how to spin the story.. See Glick's piece here:
http://www.pe.com/localnews/inland/stories/PE_News_Local_S_assess21.415835b.html

The PE Local:
Lake Elsinore Panhandling Example of what new age journalism has done to the craft. A good editor would sit down with Reporter Aaron Burgin and say this lacks the most important voice -- the panhandlers. How can you write a story about a panhandler ordinance without talking to those affected? Instead it's obvious that Mr. Burgin heard about this in a meeting or from a source and made several calls and wrote it up. There was no color. No real human in it. This is NOT a good example of local journalism. The lede is boring. The writing is boring. All because it lacks that emotional pop.
LINK: http://www.pe.com/localnews/rivcounty/stories/PE_News_Local_S_shandler21.475bcb6.html

Dog is killed in Car Whenever I see a Sarah Burge story in print I perk up. She has a great understanding of how to take official and sometimes complex issues and making them hit home. She knows how to tell a story that makes you want to read more. In this case, she writes about a woman who had her car stolen, with her doggy inside. When she asked to have Verizon ping her cell phone location she was brushed off. The doggy died. She uses the story to get into the process of authorities using cell companies to locate cell phones. Educational and emotional. The only issue...the story was downplayed at the bottom of the page. Should have been A1 bright or at the top where Burgin's story was.
Link: www.pe.com/localnews/riverside/stories/PE_News_Local_S_dog21.3109719.html


The CAL
The cops/courts reporter John Hall gets a great story about a 15-year-old who died from a fight. The sheriff's haven't made an arrest and they don't sound like the don't care much. It's a heartbreaking story that is a great Get by Hall....too bad the lede is terrible. The lede is too long and was done solely to show a newspeg. Nope the story is this girl and her family. And the lede needs to reflect that. Brush up on the lede writing but otherwise good story:
Link: http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2008/08/20/news/californian/temecula/z6430f7595a56e2b3882574ac0004078b.txt

The Cal beat the PE again...this time with a story about an investigation or an audit and missing money and a mystery cheer adviser getting fired. Ugh. What happened here? The story is a great Get for the Cal by Cathy Redfern but there are so many unanswered questions and the story is confusing and has too much code talk. The worst part is not listing the cheer adviser who was sent packing or really spelling out what happened. It sounds like political infighting to me. Obviously the former adviser wanted the Paloma cheer team to enter competitions similar to the ones in Bring It On. Which means more money for more competition. Some parents got mad. Didn't want to pay. So if the audit shows missing money or misused funds why isn't the DA's office involved. All questions that should have been answered.
Link: www.nctimes.com/articles/2008/08/20/news/californian/menifee/z2b442845d8c348ae882574a4007ed303.txt