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Journalist's Creed

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Mo. Digital News

Missouri Digital News

MDN.ORG: Mo. Digital News

MDN.ORG: Missouri Digital News

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Posted 05/05/2012: Being in the journalistic field is very tough, and it'll only get more challenging.

Working at Missouri Digital News for a whole semester was very tough, and taught me a very

big lesson. The legislative hearings and session are just not for me. As much as I love reporting,

I guess the statehouse issues are just not in my interest and would rather prefer covering outside

stories and enjoy doing it more. My professor, Phil, and I talked about this for about an hour or so.

Phil's been working in this field for about over 40 years, and he even said not a lot of people enjoy

covering this sort of news. And he's happy for me that I learned such a great lesson in the beginning

of the semester and not at the end. Some of the editors have been very helpful and taught me a lot of

things, but Phil really taught me a big lesson and he was always there to be encouraging and supportive.

Sad that I won't get to see Phil and some of the legislators that have been very nice to me after 3 more shifts!

Missouri GOP Representative Blaine Luetkemeyer sponsored the Mark Twain Commemorative Coin Act.
This bill finally passed the U.S. House earlier this month after 10 years of attempt. The bill is now in the
U.S. Senate after passing the U.S. House with a vote of 408 to 4.

What this bill does is it would direct the U.S. Secretary of Treasury to mint and issue a coin to honor Mark Twain's legacy and history.
What do you think about this bill?

This coin bill is a budget neutral bill, which will technically not cause taxpayers any money.
Coin collectors will cover all the cost to manufature & distribute these coins, and the surcharges from the coins
will go to the four non-profit Mark Twain sites: The Mark Twain House & Museum, The Mark twain Boyhood Home and Museum, Center for Mark Twain Studies at Elmira College and The Mark Twain Papers & Project at the Bancroft Library of the University of California, Berkeley.

There are two sides to this issue. Supporters think this is a brilliant idea because Mark Twain is an iconic American figure, but at the same time, is a coin really necessary when there are a lot of other issues going around the states?

www.marktwaincoin.org provides further information regarding the details of the coin act.

The General Laws committee held a hearing Tuesday afternoon to discuss a bill that really grabbed my attention.
HB 2048, sponsored by Rep. Rodney Schad, R-Versailles, would ban animals inside the State Capitol building.
Two witnesses strongly testified against the bill. One of the committee members, Rep. Mark Parkinson, R-St. Charles,
even brought a puppy in to show Schad how much the public loves puppies.

Some Senators bring in their dogs to the Capitol everyday, such as Sen. Maria Chappelle-Nadal, D-St. Louis, and Sen. Luann Ridgeway, R-Clay.
Nadal said "the bill is ridiculous", and Ridgeway said "there are bigger fish to fry."

Schad said he doesn't animals. In fact, he has three pets at home. However, the damage that animals have been
doing to the building lately caused him to sponsor this bill. The urine on the Capitol floors, furnitures ruined by pets,
children afraid of getting attacked by animals, are all causes of the "damage" Schad is talking about.
He mentioned that animals are okay, as long as they're home.

Ridgeway also said that animals create a friendly environment for those who are intimidated or are stressed to be
working at the Capitol. She was holding her puppy the whole time during the interview.

Can't believe I'm finally getting a hang of all these phoen interviews and producing wraps, and this semester is only 3 weeks away.
Also starting to notice some patterns in the newsroom.

On Tuesday, my grape feature was edited by Andrew and Phil. Andrew made grammatical corrections and rearranged some
sentences. Phil asked me to include a historical aspect so the grape feature isn't all about promoting how great the Norton grape is.
Also, got to attend a House hearing about trap shooting. It was my first time producing wraps about anything related to the state house
in a long time, so that was nice in a way and stressful in a way. The House hearing consisted of testimonies to pass the House Concurrent Resolution No. 43.
This measure asks Missouri school districts to make trap shooting a recognized high school sport statewide. This trap shooting hearing was the most interesting
hearing I've ever attended. Got to produce three wraps, and left the capitol around 7:30 p.m.

On Thursday, barely made it to Jefferson City after almost getting in two different car accidents. Because it's a Thursday, there
wasn't much legislation going on, so I got to mostly work on my grape feature, about adding the historical aspect Phil asked me to include.
I didn't have to conduct any more phone interviews because I had plenty of audio left from the previous interviewees talking about the historical
background of the Norton grape.

Already the tenth week at the Capitol! There really isn't much time left until school's over, wow.

Tuesday was a fairly easy day. All the interviews that were scheduled from the Thursday before spring break
were conducted and I finished inserting all the soundbites in the outline that's been done. Scheduled another
interview for Thursday with a grape expert because I thought he can give me some valuable information.
Phil commented on the grape feature that it's really interesting. This grape feature is about the Norton,
which was officially adopted as Missouri's state fruit in 2003. The Norton is also known as Cynthiana and it
plays an important role in Missouri because Missouri is famous for wine, and the Norton is one of the main
grapes used for many wineries to produce red wine. Also, this Norton is suit to grow in Missouri with its
extreme temperature differences.

Thursday was a little tough because I had a massive headache to begin the day with. The expert said he
will call some time between 1PM and 6PM and he called around 3PM. I was able to get my last soundbite and insert it into my feature

Tuesday was Missouri's Fine Arts Education Day. In order to advocate arts and music, student choir group from different regions
came together around the Capitol Rotunda to perform what they've been preparing for since the beginning of this year. The story was
interesting because there was a lot of natural sound that can be used in the story, and the middle school students, high school students,
and directors were very willing to be interviewed for the story.

Thursday is another slow day at the capitol. The state grape is my new feature, so the rest of the day will be dedicated to researching
and trying to get contact information for any sources I need.

Never made it to the capitol due to an ankle injury, so this blog won't consist of much information.

Sherman brought me some good news that the butterfly feature from last Thursday made it to KMOX.

That's pretty exciting :) And he assigned another feature regarding another one of Missouri's official state emblems.

After researching, the state tree nut and the state grape seemed interesting. Missouri's state tree nut is very useful

in many ways, such as food and tools. The grape is popular among wineries, so those two caught my sight more

Tuesday consisted of a two-hour Senate session regarding Republican Senator Rob Mayer inquiring other senators that supported his bill, SB 439.
This bill includes a modification of several areas relating to prevailing wage. One component of the bill exempts public works projects necessitated by
a natural disaster in any county that receives federal disaster assistance. Also, his bill attempts using federal survey results to create a local prevailing
wage in each county that is indicative of the actual construction wages being paid for that construction occupation. At this particular session, at least,
there was no opposition. However, the Senate did adjourn the session until after the legislative spring break, so the next session should include any
oppositions or concerns regarding this bill.

Thursday consisted of producing the butterfly feature. Phil addressed some changes to the beginning part of the feature. He wanted the feature
to include the current state symbols. Those changes were made, and he finally approved them.

On Tuesday, I had a 5 p.m. hearing for the Senate Social Services committee. It wasn't news, because the committee literally
just heard an overall assessment of what kind of programs the Social Services Department is working on right now, and summarized
each and everyone of them regarding budgets, whether they are block grants or not, whether they can be eliminated or reduced, and so on.
While waiting for the hearing, I continued to work on my butterfly feature. Sherman made some corrections, so I've been working on creating
a new anchor intro, which I have the hardest time on!

Today, I wasn't assigned a hearing, so I'm dedicating this day to focusing on finishing my feature. The story is finished, but I just have to
get some better soundbites of Representative Pat Conway, and a new butterfly expert as well as a new quote from Nancy Hopkins, the
president of Friends of the Garden, Inc in Springfield. I talked to her last week, so she got back to me fast. So far, I've accomplished
rearranging my paragraphs, working on better transitions, finished an anchor intro (but I still can't think of anything "cute" or exciting) and changed
3 of my soundbites. That leaves me one more soundbite from Rep. Conway, but he's not in the office today, so I scheduled an appointment
to speak with him on Tuesday at 2 p.m.

It's already the sixth week, meaning I'm halfway through the semester. Next week is midterms, and spring break is only 3 weeks away!
And I'm sad that I didn't make it to lunch at Phil's last Sunday because of work. Hopefully the next time we ever have one, I will be able to make it!

I love Thursdays at the capitol because it's not as chaotic as Tuesdays, which allows me to focus better and take time to patiently write out my story.

On Tuesday, I attended a two-hour House committee meeting consisting of lawmakers urging to use government money for private purposes. Representative Scott Dieckhaus
sponsored a bill presenting a $40 million passport scholarship program to allow kids from unaccredited school districts to attend private and parochial schools.
There was a bit of debate between the opponents and proponents; opponents obviously rejecting the fact that public money is used for private purposes, and proponents
that monetary limitation is unnecessary for students to receive high quality education.

Today, I was given an article regarding Missouri being approved by the State board of Education to submit a waiver application regarding No Child Left Behind Act.
I did not have previous knowledge of the No Child Left Behind Act or any sort of waivers, so it was a good educational experience. Missouri passed the first round of
the application process, so Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education will apply for the second round of application, which will take place next Tuesday.
Much of this is old news, and the real news would be when the federal education officials APPROVE the application.

Biggest lesson learned this week is that every single one of us still have a lot of work to do.
Now that it's the fourth week at the capitol already, the editors leave a lot earlier. Tuesday was my first day staying here with Paige, and I was
absolutely terrified about the fact that no one was in the room except us. But I made it through, so I'm pretty proud of myself.
However, I did get a 0 on my evaluation last week which put me down a little bit, but that was a wake-up call for me that I definitely have
to check everything on the checklist and get my work done.
Today went by fast because there was definitely not much going on. There was a quick interruption while pursuing my butterfly feature story
because apparently Mo.Gov was hacked with war images and the site was shut down for 30 minutes, but these people can't seem to call
back immediately or lie that they will, so that story became a bye-bye.
Today's Phil's birthday, and he doesn't seem that excited about it but I'm happy for him. Not only because it's HIS day, but it also means that
my birthday is only two days away!
The more I work at this capitol, I'm learning so much and can't help thinking that this is really a priceless experience.
All thanks to the editors and Phil.