Category Archives: Uncategorized

Mar 11

Let the Sunshine in — FOIA and Open Meetings

This week is a  good time to recommit to letting your readers, listeners, viewers know more about how government works. It’s Sunshine Week — time for the sunshine to be that disinfectant so needed when government workers try to keep … Read More

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Feb 11

Covering the Pope Resignation

I was surprised to hear the news in the last hour that Pope Benedict  is resigning in a few weeks.  Here are some resources to help as you cover this story today: List of  Jesuit colleges  and Roman Catholic seminaries in the U.S., … Read More

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Feb 07

Help for Covering the Blizzard

The Northeast is on watch for the blizzard-of-the-century so check out these resources that might provide tips or factoids for all those doing  coverage: state emergency preparedness offices your local utility company website for power outages or how-tos, for example, National … Read More

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Jan 07

Top Five Search Tips for 2013

Here are five of my best tips for more effective searching online with search engines: 1. Put adjacent words or phrases in quotes. Put phrases in quotes.  The search engines all put an “and” in between words so if you type: … Read More

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Nov 28

Finding Transportation Statistics

The first snowfall in Central New York has reminded me of the dangers of winter driving.  If you want some statistics about transportation, do you know where to go? The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) publishes accident fatalities. For 2010, … Read More

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Oct 28

What To Do In A Hurricane

Here are helps for hurricane coverage: FEMA advice on what to do before, during and after a hurricane Tips on terms from the Federal Emergency Management Administration (FEMA)  — click “Know the Terms” at bottom of page See what is available … Read More

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Mar 07

Check that AP style: here’s help for politics

You’re writing stories today about Super Tuesday.  And is it Super PAC or super PAC?  AP style calls for the latter. Well, it’s been, hm, how many years since I had my last AP style quiz in college. Okay, I … Read More

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Feb 22

Find when to tweet to reach most of your followers

I love this new service I just learned about from @journtoolbox, Tweriod. It will tell you when most of your followers are online so you know best when to tweet.  Seems this is great inside information for news organizations and … Read More

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Feb 08

Help for sportscasters in searching twitter

Following up on yesterday’s post here is more help for sportscasters tracking the buzz.  Find out what’s being talked about the local team, coach or players on Twitter. Twitter advanced search can be filtered now in many ways.  I just came across … Read More

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Jan 18

There’s more than Wikipedia for reference

Okay so Wikipedia is temporary down today — What do you do?  While  Wikipedia can be a good pointer to information, you likely know that it isn’t always reputable and has sometimes had some bogus information.  So, as with all … Read More

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