IS IT TRUE that it has been over a month since the Evansville City Council approved the purchase of Extractors to clean fire fighters equipment after they fight fires? …that the Evansville Fire Chief promised to have his fire fighters equipment clean by an outside contractor until the Extractors (washers and dryers) are installed if City Council would approve his budget requests? ….that the City Council approved around $35,000 to outsource the cleaning of fire fighters gear until cleaning equipment is installed? …that we have received many e-mails from Evansville Fire Fighters that as of this date not one piece of fire fighter gear have been by cleaned or repaired by any outside vendor as promised by Fire Chief and his EFD Health and Safety Committee? …we wonder what City Council members Dr. Dan Adams and Dan McGinn think about this situation?
IS IT TRUE that a very dangerous word was used in the CP editorial written by its former sports editor on Sunday?…that dangerous and disturbing word was “DESERVEâ€?…the context of the use of the word DESERVE was with respect to the City of Evansville’s ENTITLEMENT to have a classy hotel downtown right next to the Ford Center?…after mulling this over for a few days we really can’t grasp the sort of thought process that would ever think any city would DESERVE or be ENTITLED to anything at all that is on the list of things to be built predominately for the use of tourists?…we do admit that the City County Observer is not a publication that embraces terms like DESERVE or ENTITLEMENT on any level and especially not on fun and games?…for anyone to say that the City of Evansville DESERVES a classy hotel makes about as much sense as saying that a teenager DESERVES a new car for their 16th birthday?…good things in this life are earned and the City of Evansville has not earned the hotel complex that some City leaders are lusting after?…every last dime that the City of Evansville has to spend is a dime EARNED by some human being who lives here, works here, or owns property here?…the only fair way to make a decision on a hotel is to seek the permission of the people who have EARNED the money that has been taken or will be taken through taxation to pay for it?…what the people of Evansville DESERVE is a voice in how their earnings are spent?
IS IT TRUE former Mayor Weinzapfel started this whole use of the law to avoid the will of the people for fun and games projects like the Ford Center?…Mayor Winnecke being a loyal servant of the king has continued to pursue things that are not needed, deserved, or even necessary to run a functional city?…most citizens agree that this city needs to serve the people with police and fire protection, road maintenance, planning and zoning, code enforcement of some level, and of course SEWERS THAT WORK?…to pursue temples to sport, dog parks, skateboard ramps, and other non essential items that benefit only a few people when the roads are a mess, the sidewalks are impassible, and the SEWERS are under and EPA mandate is ignorant and irresponsible?…this collection of neglect of course cannot be laid at the feet of Mayor Winnecke as this reflects a policy of neglect over a half century?…what has really amped up under the last two administrations has been the zealous pursuit of giant public works projects that do not meet the NEEDS OF THE PEOPLE but very much reflects the WANTS of the last two Mayors and the oligarchy that supported their campaigns?
IS IT TRUE there are some that are beginning to push for the County to contribute to the hotel project based on the fact that the Centre is owned by the County?…in reality it is the City of Evansville that should be writing a check to the County for the losses incurred for the premature demolition of the Executive Inn and the failure to attract a new developer?…the County in a civil case would be justified in asking for relief of all of the revenue losses by the Centre for at least a 6 year period?…some say that number is as high as $8 Million per year while others say it is only a half million per year?…at any rate if there is money to change hands it should be a check from the City to the County for damages due to blatant mismanagement?
IS IT TRUE Mole #3 tells us that there is talk behind close doors that Evansville Convention and Visitors Bureau may be a tenant in the proposed new hotel complex? …if this is really true (and Mole #3 is seldom wrong) we wonder what will become of the Pagoda that was rescued from the scrap heap to house the CVB?…abandoning the Pagoda after spending millions of dollars of Innkeepers Tax money just a few years ago would be yet another case of local government surrogates behaving like locusts?…it is the same story of Roberts Stadium, countless parks, and ball fields played out once more?…we guess they will tear it down or let it rot to the ground? …we hope this is information is just a bad rumor and not fact? …we hope that the ECVB Director, Bob Warren would come forward and make a public statement that this is only a rumor and not true?
According to the Hunden report, the booked activities of the Centre in 2005,2006,2007, & 2008 compared to booking in 2009, 2010, & 2011 were less and this was after the demolition of the Executive Inn. And, according to the reported design of this proposed facility, the meeting rooms, ball room, etc. will actually compete?
Please translate that cryptic message into real numbers. How much did the Centre take in on average during the three years before and after the demolition of the Big E? It is hard to argue with real numbers Liquired Up. Either the Centre was hurt or not. If you have the Hunden Report please share the numbers not the mumbo jumbo.
From: The News Manual Network
Chapter 39: Introduction to investigative reporting
In this, the first of the three chapters on investigative journalism, we discuss why there is a need for investigative reporting and we state some basic principles. In the following chapters we give practical advice on how to set about the task and on how to write your stories or present your reports. We conclude with advice on some ethical and legal problems you may meet along the way.
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What is investigative journalism?
Investigative journalism is finding, reporting and presenting news which other people try to hide. It is very similar to standard news reporting, except that the people at the centre of the story will usually not help you and may even try to stop you doing your job.
The job of journalists is to let people know what is going on in the community, the society and the world around them. Journalists do this by finding facts and telling them to their readers or listeners.
In much of their work, the facts are easy to find in such places as the courts and parliaments, disasters, public meetings, churches and sporting events. People are usually happy to provide journalists with news. Indeed, in many countries, thousands of people work full time in public relations, giving statements, comments, press releases and other forms of information to journalists.
Throughout the world, though, there are still a lot of things happening which people want to keep secret. In most cases these are private things which have no impact on other people – such as relations within a family or a bad report from school. These personal things can remain secret.
In many other cases, governments, companies, organisations and individuals try to hide decisions or events which affect other people. When a journalist tries to report on matters which somebody wants to keep secret, this is investigative journalism.
The great British newspaper publisher Lord Northcliffe once said: “News is what somebody, somewhere wants to suppress; all the rest is advertising.â€
There are several reasons why societies need investigative journalism. They include:
People have a right to know about the society in which they live. They have a right to know about decisions which may affect them, even if people in power want to keep them secret.
People in power – whether in government, the world of commerce, or any other group in society – can abuse that power. They can be corrupt, steal money, break laws and do all sorts of things which harm other people. They might just be incompetent and unable to do their job properly. They will usually try to keep this knowledge secret. Journalists try to expose such abuse.
Journalists also have a duty to watch how well people in power perform their jobs, especially those who have been elected to public office. Journalists should constantly ask whether such people are keeping their election promises. Politicians and others who are not keeping their promises may try to hide the fact; journalists should try to expose it.
Of course, journalists are not the only people in society who should expose incompetence, corruption, lies and broken promises. We also have parliaments, councils, courts, commissions, the police and other authorities. The police often take people to court for breaking laws. But sometimes they do not have the time, staff or skills to catch and correct every case of abuse. Also, they cannot do anything against people who behave badly without actually breaking any laws.
So journalists have a role as well. The difference is that when journalists expose wrongdoing, they cannot punish people. Journalists can only bring wrongdoing into the light of public attention and hope that society will do the rest, to punish wrongdoers or to change a system which is at fault.
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Who should we investigate?
Journalists should be able to expose abuse, corruption and criminal activities in all fields of public life, but the main areas include the following:
Governments
These range from local councils to national parliaments and foreign governments. Sometimes politicians and public servants are actually corrupt and should be exposed and removed from office. But often they hide a decision because they know the public may not like it. They might keep a deal they have made with a foreign timber company secret because it will harm the environment or destroy people’s homes. Often politicians and public servants spend so long in office that they forget that the public has the right to know what is happening. If the public elects people to office and gives them taxes and other forms of wealth to administer, the public has the right to know what they are doing. The electors should also know so that they can decide how to vote at the next election.
Companies
Some companies break the law and should be exposed. But companies usually like to keep activities secret for other reasons. Perhaps they have made a mistake or lost money. Perhaps they do not want competitors to steal their secrets or they do not want people to oppose a development they are planning. However, even private companies have some responsibility towards the public. Companies are part of each society. They usually make some use of natural resources, take money from customers and shareholders, provide jobs for people and use services provided by all taxpayers. Where their activities affect the rest of the community, the community has a right to know what they are doing.
Criminals
Although governments and companies can be corrupt, criminals make their living at it. They act like leeches on the community, so your readers and listeners have the right to know about them. Fighting crime is, of course, mainly the job of the police and legal system. But sometimes they do not have enough resources to do their jobs properly. Sometimes the law itself limits their powers. Also, the police and judiciary can sometimes be corrupt themselves. So journalists – like every law-abiding citizen – have the duty to expose wrongdoing.
There are, of course, all sorts of other individuals and organisations who like to hide things which affect the public. A charity may try to hide the fact that it is not doing a good job with money it has been given. A football club might be secretly negotiating to move its ground against the wishes of its fans. A man might be selling coloured water as a cure for every illness. All these things need to be exposed so that the public can make up its mind whether to support them or not.
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Some basic principles
Let us discuss some basic rules about investigative reporting before we move on to the practical techniques.
News value
Most newspapers, radio and television stations get a lot of requests from people to “investigate” some alleged wrongdoing. In many cases these are silly matters, lies or hoaxes. But you should spend some time on each tip-off, to decide whether or not it will make a story.
You should judge all topics for investigative reporting on the criteria for what makes news. Is it new, unusual, interesting, significant and about people? Sometimes, the story might only affect one person and be so trivial that it is not worth following up. Remember you have limited time and resources, so you cannot follow every story idea. Use your news judgment.
Keep your eyes and ears open
Always be on the lookout for possible stories. Sometimes people will come to you with tip-offs, but often you must discover the stories yourself. Story ideas can come from what you read or overhear or even a sudden thought while you are brushing your teeth. Good investigative reporters do not let any possible story clues escape. They write them down because they might come in useful later.
Listen to casual conversations and rumour, on the bus, in the street or in a club. Careless words give the first clues to something wrong, but never write a story based only on talk you have overheard or on rumour.
Get the facts
Because investigative reporting means digging up hidden facts, your job will not be as easy as reporting court or a public meeting. People will try to hide things from you. You must gather as many relevant facts as you can, from as many people as possible. Your facts must be accurate, so always check them.
And do not expect dramatic results. Real life journalism is seldom like the stories you see in films. Most investigations need many hours of work gathering lots and lots of small details. You and your editor must realise this. If you are not given enough time, you may not be able to do any successful investigative reporting.
Fit the facts together
As you gather the facts, fit them together to make sure that they make sense. Investigative reporting is often like doing a jigsaw. At the beginning you have a jumble of pieces. Only slowly will they emerge as a picture. Unlike a jigsaw puzzle, you will not have all the pieces at the beginning. You have to recognise which pieces are missing then go and find them.
Check the facts
Remember you are trying to find information which some people want to keep secret. They will not help you in your investigation, so you cannot check your facts with them. They will probably oppose you and look for mistakes in everything you write or broadcast. If you make a mistake, they will probably take you to court. You must always check your facts. Take a tip from the most famous example of investigative reporting, the so-called Watergate Affair. The Washington Post reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein investigated a crime which eventually led to the downfall of US President Richard Nixon. They knew their enemies would be waiting for them to make a mistake, so they made it a rule that they would never use any fact unless it was confirmed by two sources. This is a good rule to try to follow.
However, remember that many people you might interview about corruption could be corrupt themselves. Criminals lie, so be suspicious of what you are told – and check their words with someone else, preferably someone you trust.
Evidence
In addition to gathering facts, you should also gather evidence to support those facts. This is especially important in case you are taken to court for defamation as a result of your investigation. Courts will only accept facts which can be proved. If someone tells you something on the record, you can show the court your notes, but it would also be useful to get a signed statutory declaration from them. This is a kind of legal statement given under oath. Original documents will usually be accepted as evidence, but photocopies may not, unless they are supported by evidence from the owner of the original, who may not choose to help you.
Confidential sources
When investigating corruption or abuse, you will meet people who will only give you information if you promise never to reveal their identity. This is very common in criminal matters, where people are scared of pay-back.
You can agree to these conditions but remember, sometime in the future a judge examining the same matter in court may order you to reveal the name of such a confidential source of information. You will be breaking the law if you refuse to name your source, and could go to jail for contempt.
If you promise to protect a confidential source, you must do so until the source himself or herself releases you from that promise. So if you are not prepared to go to jail to protect a source, do not promise in the first place. (For a full discussion of this issue, see Chapter 60: Sources and confidentiality.)
Threats
People may threaten you to try to stop your work. This could be a threat of physical harm or a threat by a company to stop advertising with your newspaper or station. It could even by a vague threat to “do something” to you. Most threats are never carried out. The people making them realise that harming you will only make their situation worse.
But all threats should be reported immediately to your editor or your organisation’s lawyer. This will share the burden of worry with someone objective. It will also act as extra protection if the person making the threat knows that it is public knowledge. If you have a witness to the threat, you might be able to include it in your eventual story, after getting legal advice.
Investigative journalism always leads to some unpleasant conflict. If you cannot cope with conflict, stay out of investigative journalism (see Chapter 58: Pressures on journalists).
Work within the law
Journalists have no special rights in law, even when investigating corruption. Unlike the police, journalists cannot listen in to other people’s telephone calls or open their letters. Journalists cannot enter premises against a person’s wish.
You must work within the law, but more than that, you should not use any unethical methods of getting information. For example, you should not pretend to be someone to whom people feel obliged to give information, such as a police officer or a government official.
However, there are situations where you do not have to tell people that you are a journalist when gathering information. We will discuss those in the next chapter.
If you have any doubts about legal matters, consult your editor or your organisation’s lawyer.
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And who believed the promise made by the Fire Chief??????
It is a pissing match between Connelly, Anslinger and Lindsey.
Today’s “deserve/entitled” commentary and opinion by the CCO may be its best and most poignant paragraph written in its history. As simple and “common sense” as it seems, it is directly on target with respect to how communities and elected officials should view public projects and prioritize on what best affects its citizens.
Couldn’t agree more that “deserve” is a VERY dangerous term to toss around when it comes to spending $37m to build a project that mostly benefits (and eliminates risk for) an out of town business person looking for an opportunity to make some cash on someone else’s dollar.
Agreed. The “deserve” line is an appeal to a lower form of intellect, clearly produced by a thoughtless and boorish individual. This appeal is designed to resonate with those classes for whom “entitlement” has become a way of life and is not just a political buzzword. This was an appeal to the mob in the absence of intelligible arguments for a $37 million subsidized hotel to compete with existing private businesses.
Thank you hootowl. As we often disrupt the plans of self serving elected officials, true compliments are few and far between. We appreciate your readership and comments.
You guys at the CCO are like Sheriff Bart in Blazing Saddles. You get trashed by the elites for messing with their plans but then like the little old lady in this video they bring you a pie when no one is looking. Of course they ask you to have the decency to never tell anyone they support what you are doing.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mjU03P_6nbQ
If the people who support us privately would ever get up the nerve to do so publicly the old boy network and machine politics would disappear forever.
As Clint Eastwood said to Gene Hackman in “Unforgiven”, deserve has got nothing to do with it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dpDkYZWeeVg
Probably in my top 3 favorite movies of all time. Eastwood and Morgan are forces of nature. That movie is Eastwood’s masterpiece.
Another reason to oppose smart meters?
“Your pineal gland that detects darkness can’t tell the difference between light frequency and the frequencies from these devices.†So you never get a good night’s sleep.
It’s not just Evansville where these thigns are being thrust upon consumers. It’s happening all over the country.
http://www.infowars.com/texas-woman-says-we-are-the-people-and-we-dont-want-your-smart-meters/
New slogan for Evansville, post-smart meter deal?
“Now, even MORE miserable than before!”
“In California, the Marin County Board of Supervisors unanimously passed an ordinance that calls smart meters a public nuisance in some areas. In addition to health risks, the board cited concerns about using meters to invade peoples’ privacy by collecting information about their activities.
The board asked the California Public Utilities Commission to declare a moratorium on meters, following the lead of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. The towns of Fairfax, Watsonville, and Santa Cruz County have also passed laws banning meters. ”
http://www.sustainablebusiness.com/index.cfm/go/news.display/id/21686
I have often wondered how much use is made of the skate park facility on the north side of Swonder Ice Rink. Does any one know?
Without the voter/taxpayers of Evansville knowing that, there is no one who can make a proper suggestion because that would have to be the starting place for the decision. Is it used for two hours per user week or 500 times that amount.
The same goes for a dog restroom? How much would it be used?
But that apparently does not matter to the “powers that be” in Evansville.
Let’s get some facts & figures – i.e. statistics and go from there.
That park was closed and I believe the private skate park on the north side closed as well. This begs the question- Why did Winnecke investigate only that idea in his task force before going back to what he had planned all along? And who footed the bill for these trips to research a project that was DOA?
If you’re going to make the argument that the city owes the county in damages due to the destruction of the Big E, you would have to agree with the argument that I have long made- That the city owes the inner cities in damages for constructing I-69 and the University Parkway around the city.
If it weren’t for those two roads, as well as many millions more wasted on Kansas, Millersburg, and N. Green River Rds, the market demand from the private sector would be sufficient to keep the inner cities maintained for the most part. Now, growth (which we now know is just a shift) is building along these sprawling roads which they would not have if not for their construction.
But for the actions of the city and county gov’ts, the private sector has now been encouraged to development around the city, not in the city causing irreparable harm to Old Evansville.
The center city was a desolation zone long before any of those roads were put in. If you want to affix blame for the flight of businesses away from downtown you should blame Washington Square and Lawndale that were eventually killed by Eastland. Evansville is a one mall town. All attempts to change that have failed and will continue to fail. The size of the town needs to double to support a second mall anywhere including downtown.
You are right that the new roads encourage development near them but they are not responsible for the death of downtown. Cutting Main St. off and charging to park are responsible as well.
How may half witted firefighters does it take to dupe 3 attorneys and a retired heart surgeon? The answer is 3 (Zuber, Connelly, Anslinger). Can we officially call this extractor gate?
I am very appreciative of all of our fire fighters. They do a good job helping others in a time of need.
Wayne Parke
There is a toxic relationship between the City of Evansville and the residents of Vanderburgh County. The city is a corporate entity in the form of a second layer of government that is wholly unnecessary, given the slow-motion implosion of commerce in Evansville and the slow decline in the population of that portion of Vanderbugh County known to us as the City of Evansville. Evansville has no business throwing away hard-earned residents’ income to subsidize a hotel via property and/or real estate taxes.
The time has come to quit the fun and games at the City-County Building and hold a refererndum to tear up the city charter so that the interests of all of the citizens of Vanderburgh County can be treated equally, whether they live in a rural area with a low population density, or a high-density area of Vanderburgh County. But we no longer have a need for a corporate entity known as the City of Evansville.
I’ve said for years that the existence of a separately incorporated city effectively gives people in high density areas a “double vote” as compared with county residents.
The city of Evansville is a Detroit-like black hole–it could siphon off a virtually infinite level of “investment” from the surrounding areas and still be nothing but a dark spot on the national map.
Well said, BRAVO!
NFPA Guidelines
The NFPA puts out a set of guidelines for properly washing and drying protective apparel… and not all methods and are created equal. A careful approach to cleaning gear is critical to proper decontamination and to maintaining the integrity of the protective fabric. For a summary of how Continental laundry equipment is compliant with NFPA 1851 and FEMSA Guidelines, please see our gear laundering recommendations sheet.
For a complete listing of guidelines, visit http://www.nfpa.org.
NFPA 1851: Standard on Selection, Care, and Maintenance of Protective Ensembles for Structural Fire Fighting and Proximity Fire Fighting. http://www.nfpa.org/aboutthecodes/AboutTheCodes.asp?DocNum=1851
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