The Life of a College Journalist

Intersections South LA | St. John’s Well Child to expand services in South L.A.

2012-01-25T22:06:00.002-05:00

Intersections South LA | St. John’s Well Child to expand services in South L.A.

St. John's clinics are located at Hoover and West 58th Streets.

Angela Cruz wouldn’t have access to health care without St. John’s Well Child and Family Center. The South Central Los Angeles resident lives near St. John’s clinics at Hoover and West 58th Streets.

“St. John’s is vital to this community. Because whether or not we have money to pay for health insurance, we are able to receive medical services and attention,” Cruz said through a translator.

On Wednesday morning, St. John’s broke ground for an expansion project on two of its clinics.

For the rest of the story, follow the link above.

Audio story: Child care workers protest unpaid wages

2012-01-16T21:10:00.001-05:00

In California, the Department of Education dolls out grantmoney to state-contracted agencies to help pay for child care in low incomeareas. However, the system is not regulated by any state legislation, allowingone agency to get away without paying their providers for several months.

Molly Gray has the report.

Child care workers protest unpaid wages by MollyReports

"Diet Coke Run" soundscape

2012-01-16T18:30:00.001-05:00

For my radio and broadcast class this semester, we were asked to edit a "creative" radio soundscape — a non-narrated story.

I chose to demonstrate a Diet Coke McDonald's run, something I am very familiar with!

Diet Coke Run by MollyReports

Intersections South LA | Child care providers demand full pay from the state

2012-01-13T13:28:00.001-05:00

Intersections South LA | Child care providers demand full pay from the state

Ruby Evans marches with two of the children she cares for.

As of Thursday morning, Ruby Evans had only $18.65 in her bank account. She runs Evans Family Day Care in Compton, one of many centers contracted by the state of California to provide subsidized child care.

In December, she only received 20 percent of her paycheck and wasn’t paid for the months of July, August, September or November last year.

Evans joined about 50 other care providers and parents who haven’t received payment to protest the Center for Children and Family Services Thursday morning.

For the rest of the story follow the link above.

Intersections South LA | Watts market helping those stranded in “food desert”

2012-01-02T00:35:00.000-05:00

Intersections South LA | Watts market helping those stranded in “food desert”

My final project about farmers markets in South Los Angeles was published by Intersections South LA, where I will be working starting in January. You can read the article and watch the video by following the above link.

Farmers Market a vital part of Watts community (video)

2011-12-14T19:03:00.000-05:00

Corine Recasner has visited theWatts Healthy Farmers Market nearly every week for more than four years. Someweeks she buys eggs and oranges, but other weeks she can be found sellinghomemade gumbo or berry jam.

For the African American womenin her sixties, the market is all about generating community and culture forher neighborhood. She talks shop with the vendors, educates young people aboutBlack history and swears by the fresh produce, and handcrafted artisanship forsale.

“It really feels like familyhere,” Recasner said. “The vendors are very friendly, we can relate to them.”

The market also happens to be oneof the few places near her home where Recasner can get fresh produce.

She lives in a “food desert,”an area with no access to fresh produce in stores.

According to a report issued in2011 by the United States Department of Agriculture, more than 81,000 people inLos Angeles County don’t have access to fresh produce. Most of those peoplelive in areas such as Compton, Watts, East Los Angeles and Inglewood, wheretraditional grocery stores are nowhere to be found.

“The reasons are really variedand diverse,” said Charles Fields, a regional program manager with CaliforniaFreshWorks, a program funded by the California Endowment. FreshWorks is a nonprofitfund that encourages grocery chains to set up shop in inner city areas.

Fields said that grocery chainsoften don’t want to enter these areas for several reasons: a misconception thatpoor people don’t want to eat healthily, the fact that big pieces of land arehard to find and the fear that there isn’t a profit to be had where householdincomes are so low.

“A lot of that can beovercome,” Fields said. “They just don’t realize it and that’s why we are hereto help them.”

The organization provides loansat low interest rates, provides assistance in obtaining permits and guidesgrocers as to how to make a profit in poor areas — all in an attempt to bringfood to the people.

“Our long-term goal isultimately to make the people healthier,” Fields said. “We’re hoping that ifpeople have increased access to healthy foods that they will actually buyhealthy foods and then we’ll see a lot of the health problems that are typicalof these communities start to decline.”

In the mean time, farmersmarkets serve as a vital alternative, Fields said.

(story continues below)

The Watts market is one ofseven farmers markets put on by Sustainable Economic Enterprisesof Los Angeles, a nonprofit organization hoping to create access tohealthy food for inner city and poor communities.

The other markets are locatedin Atwater Village, Echo Park, Leimert Park Village, Central Los Angeles andtwo in Hollywood.

“In an area like South L.A.,there are very few places where you can get really quality produce,” saidAshley Heistand, the Watts market manager. “There are a lot of liquor stores,fast food stores, corner stores that don’t always have the healthy productsthat people desire and want to feed their bodies and to make them and theirfamilies healthy.”

But even when produce isbrought to these areas, affordability can still stand in between the people anda healthy lifestyle.

“We take food stamps, and wealso take WIC — not the just the yearly coupons that people get, but we takethe monthly fruit and vegetable checks,” Heistand said. “We feel like that isreally important for all farmers markets to take.”

On top of that, the marketfeatures a matching program — for every dollar of federal benefits a consumerhas, the market will match them an additional dollar — in order to get peopleto use their benefits on healthy food at the market instead of at a fast foodrestaurant.

Additionally, community memberscan apply to be certified sellers and sell produce from their home gardens tomake additional income. Recasner will begin selling pecans from a tree in heryard next week.

“They recognize that it is aneconomically deprived community and allow us to partake in the business,” shesaid.

But the main goal has been andalways will be health, Heistand said.

“We try to provide healthservices for the community. So, we’ll do blood pressure and vaccines and havenutritional information and do cooking classes,” Heistand said. “We really dobelieve that a big part of the health and wellness component is in the educationand the tools to really use the produce that you just purchased.”

Part of that effort involveshaving representatives from the health care industry at the market each week.

Maria Aguirre, a communityoutreach manager at Kaiser Permanente’s Watts Counseling and Learning Center,spends her days teaching Watts residents about nutrition and health benefits.

“In terms of health conditions,I think obesity continues to be an issue, diabetes and cholesterol. There is alot of asthma,” Aguirre said. “And I think a farmers market really gets the messageacross that there are other ways to promote health.”

Brenda Vizcarra brings herthree-year-old daughter Sophia Rodriguez to the market because she knows thatthe fruits and nuts she loves will be organic and free of chemicals andpreservatives.

“It’s a blessing to have fruitthat you know is okay and healthy,” Vizcarra said. “Especially for my daughter.She loves the oranges and the carrots … everything about it, it’s just adifferent taste. I just love it. It’s a blessing to have it here in Watts.”

This week the two sharedhomemade pupusas — thick tortillas stuffed with cheese — from a Salvadoranvendor.

Despite the health benefits,economic considerations and community atmosphere of the park, only 600 peoplecome through each week — just slightly more than 1 percent of the Wattspopulation.

The majority of the market’spatrons are senior citizens and mothers with young children, but they haverecently started to see an influx of teenagers and young adults.

“It’s only increasing as peoplehear about the market, as people tell their friends and neighbors about some ofthe great things that the market has to offer people,” Heistand said. “We haveslowly grown over the years so we hope that we will continue to see more peopletaking an active role in their health.”

Currently the market is tryingto involve local churches and high schools with special events to bring morepeople to the park.

Recasner is confident that ifshe can get people there, they too will fall in love with the market.

“Once you try it,” shesaid. “You’re here to buy it.”

Documentary tells of a lifetime of fighting and overcoming HIV

2011-11-28T19:19:00.001-05:00

Joseph Kibler goes shoeshopping every three weeks. That’s how often his black Airwalk tennis shoes have to be replaced because of the “massive holes” causedby the hobbling and feet-dragging when he walks.

But the frequent trips toPayless Shoes don’t bother him. They are a symbol of how far he has come.

Kibler, a 22-year-old castingdirector, was diagnosed with HIV when he was only a year old. His body didn’tdevelop normally. Doctors told his mother they didn’t know how long her sonwould live, let alone whether he would ever be able to walk.

The first few years of Kibler’slife were filled with doctor’s visits, purple casts that covered his legs fromtoe to hip and lots and lots of pills. When he grew older and still couldn’tstand or walk, he was put in a wheelchair.

At the time, Kibler believed hecouldn’t walk because of cerebral palsy, not HIV. His mother, who was alsoHIV-positive, had kept it from him because of the stigma surrounding thedisease during the early 90s.

It wasn’t until he was 12 yearsold and a doctor accidentally let his real condition slip that Kibler knew thetruth.

“That ride home was a ride homethat I won’t forget,” Kibler said of the day his mother explained to him how hehad gotten HIV and what it meant to be positive.

She told him she hadn’t knownshe was infected until he and his twin brother John, who died from the virus atthe age of 15 months, were diagnosed.

He said he remembers feelinghurt, scared and confused.

“A lot of it had to do with thefact that my dad was the reason that my mom got infected and I hadn’t reallybeen close with my father,” he said. “He wasn’t around. He was there, but hewas in and out.”

Kibler’s father cheated on hismother one week before their wedding and contracted the virus and infected her.

Then he was told he had to hidehis condition from friends, from teachers, from everyone.

“For a good deal — seven oreight years — I kept it quiet and didn’t talk about it, which was very hardbeing 15 or 16 (years old),” he said. “I didn’t know how to talk to girls firstoff, let alone how to even approach the subject of HIV. Not even to myfriends.”

In high school, Kibler told afew close friends that he had HIV.

“I felt privileged that he trusted me enough to tell me the truth,” saidTara Brown-Ogilvie, who went to school with Kibler. “I think that it reallystrengthened our friendship.”

Brown-Ogilvie said Kibler used to tell her about the three and four-hourtrips he would take by taxi, bus and train to get to theater auditions when hefirst moved to Los Angeles from Florida.

“He still pushes through even on the roughest of days and hasaccomplished so much,” she said. “Joe truly lives in the moment.”

It wasn’t until he was 18 yearsold that Kibler went public about the cause behind his disability. It wasduring an exercise at theater camp, where each student had to get on stage andtell the group something they had never told anyone before.

“I took it as my biggestopportunity and among 40 or 50 friends that I’d probably known about threeweeks, I said: ‘My name is Joseph Kibler and I’m HIV-positive.’”

The camp was a turning point inKibler’s life. He felt the weight of his condition lifted. The outpouring ofsupport he received from friends gave him the encouragement to continuefighting against his condition.

By that time, Kibler hadadvanced from a wheelchair to crutches after years of physical and occupationaltherapy. Toward the end of camp, one of the directors presented Kibler with acane that had been signed by students and faculty.

“That really gave me themotivation to get to where I could walk with a cane,” he said.

Later that year, he took hisfirst steps with his cane and today he jokes about losing it just like anyoneelse would misplace their keys.

“I spend 15 minutes sometimeslooking for it in the morning,” said Kibler, whose furniture is arranged sothat he can navigate his apartment without a cane. “The cane is always gettingaway from me.”

Kibler said his greatestaccomplishment was last year when he completed the 6.2-mile AIDS Walk LosAngeles course, the farthest distance he had ever walked.

“I had trained and spent anentire month getting to that point,” Kibler said. “I didn’t feel (the strain onmy legs). I didn’t feel the fatigue. There were so many people believing inme.“

He had attempted the walk in2009, but a fall forced him to drop out and put him back in a wheelchair forseveral months to recover.

Kibler, who graduated from theLos Angeles Film School last December, used the walk as the centerpiece for adocumentary he is making about HIV and AIDS awareness and his personal strugglewith his diagnosis and disability.

His initial plan was to createa short public service announcement about the virus, but Mark Bashian, whotaught Kibler at the film school, had a different idea on how to spreadawareness.

Bashian said he felt thatKibler’s story was so personal and touching that it could be a lot morepowerful as an 87-minute documentary than a 10-minute commercial. He signed onto direct “Walk On” and became a self-proclaimed HIV statistics guru.

“If we end up helping oneperson to be more educated about HIV and AIDS, we’ll have done our job,”Bashian said.

Kibler’s mother refused to beinterviewed for the documentary and doesn’t like to talk about her condition.However, Bashian flew her to California to see her son cross the finish line atthe walk last year.

“She lived in Florida and shecouldn’t come out to see even though she really wanted to, or at least that’swhat she told me,” Kibler said. “She was there at the finish line and that wasprobably the best part of it. The fact that she could share that and could bethere for it.”

These days, Kibler takes eightpills a day to contain the virus and visits his doctor every three months. Hegets up at 6 a.m. each morning to work on the documentary and spends hisafternoons working on different casting and producing projects.

For the most part, he lives hisday-to-day life as anyone else would, just with a few more falls.

“It’s a privilege to fall forme,” he said. “If I can fall and then get back up, that is something I couldn’tdo 12 years ago. I would rather do that every single day than go back to beingin a wheelchair.”

“Walk On” is set to premier in December. For more information or tomake a donation, visit www.Walkondocumentary.com.

Track coach invested in preparing team for college

2011-11-18T02:53:00.001-05:00

Track coach invested in preparing team for college

Alfred Bejar, 64, is the varsity track and field and cross country coach at Franklin High School in Highland Park. Though he has suffered a heart attack, he continues to coach these sports, as well as football, because he knows that the athletes need help and guidance to get to a good college and to make a better life for themselves.

Alfred Bejar profile by MollyReports

This was my first exercise in doing an audio piece. Looking back, I would have gotten MUCH MORE, like 10 times more, natural sound. When I was editing I kept having to think of ways to use the limited NAT I had creatively.

New ways to cover Food Deserts in your community | Reporting on Health

2011-11-15T17:01:00.000-05:00

New ways to cover Food Deserts in your community | Reporting on Health

A hot button health topic is what advocates and experts call “food deserts” — geographic areas that don’t have access to fresh, affordable, healthy food, such as fruits and vegetables.
Earlier this month, The Arthur M. Blank Family Foundation hosted a panel discussion and webcast called Street Food: Attacking Obesity & Wiping Out Food Deserts One City Block at a Time. It highlighted what different cities are doing to give families access to fresh produce and other healthy foods, including supporting corner stores, farmers markets and food trucks.
Panelists discussed the success of New York City’s green cart initiative to deliver fresh fruit and vegetables to underserved communities through funding from The Laurie M. Tisch Illumination Fund.

Follow the link above to read about five story ideas that came out of the webcast.

California exotic animal laws are strict and unique

2011-11-11T03:10:00.001-05:00

California exotic animal laws servedas an example for an executive order signed Friday by Ohio Gov. John Kasich aftermore than 50 animals were set loose there last month.

On Oct. 18 a sanctuary owneropened all the cages on his property and killed himself. Lions, tigers, monkeysand more ran wild for several days in Zanesville, Ohio.

After police killed nearly allthe animals, residents urged Kasich to immediately ban the private ownership ofsuch animals to prevent future disasters.

Owning exotic animals has beenoutlawed in California for nearly 80 years and law enforcement officials saidthat the laws, which each pertain to certain types of animals, are some of thestrictest in the country.

“The department makes everyeffort that we possibly can to keep non-native species out of California,” saidAndrew Hughan, spokesman for the California Fish and Game Department, which ischarged with enforcement of the bans.

In California, as well as 19other states, there is an all-out ban on private ownership of exotic animals,which are classified as large cats, wolves, bears, reptiles andmost non-human primates. Nine additional states have partial bans.

In addition, Californiabans dozens of species of birds, rodents, fish and forest animals, according toBorn Free USA, a national animal advocacy group.

Although California’s laws arethe most comprehensive in the country there are occasionally problems with illegallyowned animals, Hughan said.

According to Born Free USA,California fares well compared to other states in the number of incidents.There have been 73 reported cases of escaped exotic animals in California since1990. Florida, the state with the highest incident rate, has had 207 reportedcases in that time.

Most reports are limited tosightings or escape of exotic animals but there have been four people killed bythese animals in the state since 1990, according to database run by theorganization.

Most recently, a Siberian tigerescaped from the San Francisco Zoo in 2007 and killed a visitor and mauled twoothers before being fatally shot by police.

Aside from zoos, the largestcontingent of exotic animals in California is the entertainment industry.

Several different companies inSouthern California keep exotic animals for use in movies, commercials and privateevents. Hollywood Animals in Santa Clarita, 20 miles north of Los Angeles, hasbeen in business for more than 30 years and owns around 20 exotic animals.

In complying with the fish andgame department’s standards, Hollywood Animals has an approved veterinarian whovisits about 10 times a year to inspect the animals, said Eric Weld, one thecompany’s owners.

“Officers from fish and gamecome around occasionally too, because I know them and we have a good working relationship,”Weld said.

There is a very rigorousapplication process in place for companies like Hollywood Animals that includesproof of training and work experience with animals, inspection of facilitiesand proof of permit by the United States Department of Agriculture.

“We, along with the federalgovernment, keep a very close eye on these folks,” Hughan said. “Once in awhile we get somebody who we have to write a citation for, but it’s prettyrare. They get inspected early and often.”

Childhood obesity trends package

2011-11-02T12:51:00.002-04:00

This is a package that I shot and edited for my broadcast class.

Anchor lead-in:

"Children were trick-or-treating tonight at the Los Angeles Expo Center, but instead of candy in their bags they had fresh fruit and vegetables ... Molly Gray has the report."

A Very Healthy Happy Halloween

2011-10-30T21:35:00.002-04:00

Intersections South LA | A Very Healthy Happy Halloween

Children from across South Los Angeles went “trick or treating” Friday night at the Los Angeles Expo Center. But at the end of the night, their bags weren’t full of candy — they were full of fresh fruits and vegetables.

The Brotherhood Crusade, along with several other retailers and service organizations, held the second annual “Very Healthy Happy Halloween” event Friday night. The event was candy-free and offered healthy alternatives for children and their families.

“We’re really encouraging our families to look at how can they have a better healthy lifestyle and showing them alternatives on how to do that,” said Charisse Bremond-Weaver, the president of the Brotherhood Crusade, which provides social services for underprivileged areas throughout Los Angeles County.

For more follow the link above.

Highland Park AT&T Building Mural Finally Restored | Neon Tommy

2011-10-23T13:12:00.001-04:00

Highland Park AT&T Building Mural Finally Restored | Neon Tommy

When Liz Torres first moved to Highland Park, 35 years ago, she fell in love with a mural just two blocks from her home.
She took all her friends to see it — that is until it became an eyesore covered in graffiti.

But today, that has changed.

The restored “History of Highland Park” mural on Meridian Street, near North Avenue 56, was unveiled Saturday morning by Los Angeles City Councilman Jose Huizar (pictured below).

For the rest of the article, follow the story above.

Highland Park mural brings together community it represents

2011-10-22T19:00:00.003-04:00

When Liz Torres first moved toHighland Park, 35 years ago, she fell in love with a mural just two blocks fromher home. She took all her friends to see it — that is until it became aneyesore covered in graffiti.

But today, that has changed.

The restored “History ofHighland Park” mural on Meridian Street, near North Avenue 56, was unveiledSaturday morning by Los Angeles City Councilman Jose Huizar.

“To see it disappearing was abig heart break for me,” said Torres, 64, who has lived two blocks from themural since moving to the neighborhood just north of Downtown Los Angeles. “Iam so proud of it today.”

The mural was originally finishedin 1978 but had suffered extensive graffiti and weather damage and was describedby resident as “blighted.” The unveiling Saturday was the result of four yearsof effort by community organizations and Huizar to restore it.

The mural spans two sides of abuilding owned by AT&T Inc., which funded the $78,000 project. It ispainted in rich sepia tones and depicts historical parts of the community,including streetcars that used to run to Downtown, Hispanic workers building arailroad and a Sparkletts water tower all woven together by indigenous flowersand plants.

The restoration project is thesuccess of residents banding together not only to raise awareness but also totake action. Residents took part in a day-long cleanup project in January andtook turns providing refreshments for the artists during the 40-day paintingprocess this summer.

Several of the originalartists, including Judy Baca, Joe Bravo and Sonya Fe, undertook therestoration.

The Historic Highland ParkNeighborhood Council approached Huizar in 2007 and asked him to help orchestratetalks between the community, the mural’s original artists and AT&T.

“The graffiti and vandalismgave the impression that people in our neighborhood don’t care how they live —which is simply not true in Highland Park,” said Janet Dodson, director at-largeof the historic council. “We wanted to show people that we can change the waywe live and that the way to do that was to get the community involved.”

Highland Park is slightly morethan 70 percent Hispanic, according to Census data, and though it’s a primarilyresidential neighborhood, York Boulevard, the neighborhood’s main road, isfilled with Mexican restaurants and taco stands.

Currently in Los Angeles thereis a ban on private murals, which was part of a sign ordinance that was passedin 1986. At that time city officials wanted to control what was displayedaround Los Angeles and they have only been allowing city-appointed muralssince.

Artists want that ban revoked.

Huizar and others on the citycouncil are working to lift the ban and voted Wednesday to allow the draftingof a vintage mural permit for restoration projects such as this one. The proposalwould help protect established works on private property from fines or removalfrom the city.

“I grew up with murals inBoyle Heights and I know how important they are to a neighborhood,” Huizarsaid. “We will lift the ban soon. We are going to do more for the city’sartists.”

MollyReports joins Tumblr

2011-10-18T12:44:00.003-04:00

I've very excited about a new project I am taking on. I have decided to start a Tumblr feed to share the pieces of journalism I read that inspire me to be a better reporter and that encapsulate the type of reporting that I hope to do with my career.

If you're interested in keeping up with what I'm reading in the wide world of journalism, please follow me on Tumblr!

Calif. Prison Hunger Strike Reaches 12th Day As Citizens Rally In Support | Neon Tommy

2011-10-07T14:30:00.002-04:00

Calif. Prison Hunger Strike Reaches 12th Day As Citizens Rally In Support | Neon Tommy

One prisoner wrote about the desolate and lonely conditions of solitary confinement, saying that his only wish was to be able to take a picture of himself and send it to his parents at Christmas time.

Another wrote a poem to the “fellas of the hood” saying that when he entered prison he felt he became an “afterthought in someone’s memory, wasting away.”

Follow the link above to read more.

A night in Southeast Los Angeles

2011-10-06T04:23:00.000-04:00

I honestly didn't know what to expect when I showed up at the Southeast Division LAPD headquarters. I was there for a ride-along with a sergeant over the gang unit and I had plenty of preconceptions of the area.

The night started off easy enough, we went on patrol through the area — mostly between 98th Street and 108th Street from the 110 freeway over to Alameda Street — which covers part of Watts, several housing projects, Gardena and South Gate.

The first thing that Sergeant Segee told us about were which gangs inhabited the area. The two major gangs were the Grape Street Crips and the Fudge Town Mafia Crips. The gangs are located within blocks of each other and there is a lot of tension between the groups. They both are heavily involved in drug selling and using, as well as gun fights and domestic issues. They have inhabited the housing projects and the surrounding private homes.

Grape Street Crips — From streetgangs.com

Aside from gang-on-gang violence, Segee said that they often see innocent people killed by the gangs. He remembers one case where a man was throwing a birthday party for his 18-year-old daughter. Gang members invited themselves to the party and started get rowdy. The father of the birthday girl asked the gang members to stop throwing up their gang signs and associating the house with their gang. They shot him dead at his daughter's 18th birthday party.

Another shocking thing was that children get started in gang activity as young as 8 or 9 because they don't know any better and don't have any role models or parental figures that can take care of themselves. Segee says that the best way to stop gang proliferation would be to find some way to educate the children about a different way of life.

It was so sad to see children in this part of town. They just sat out on the sidewalk or on their porches watching people drive around or gang members walking by. They have nothing better to do and so they start to associate themselves with that activity. When we drove by in a cop car they just stared at us — everyone just stared.

Backup requested

The first call that we went on was a backup call. We were driving through the Jordan Downs projects when we got an officer requesting backup call on the radio. That means that someone is attacking them or resisting arrest and so every cop in the area comes as quickly as they can. We were only a couple blocks away and were one of the first to show up. Within 3 minutes there were 10 cop cars, with more than 15 officers, sergeants and even the division captain.

There had been a dispute with a man and a woman after the woman found a child wandering the streets. The man tried to take the child away from the woman without identifying himself and she called the police. It turned out that the man was supposedly the child's older brother. However, because he resisted arrest and was uncooperative, the officers had to do a pretty intensive investigation. We left before it was resolved.

Not from around here

Another thing that the officers of the Southeast division have to look for is people who do not belong in the area. If they don't live around there, it usually means that they are there to buy or sell narcotics — and the popular ones in that area are cocaine and PCP.

Officers had found a man doing meth behind a building on 103rd Street. After questioning him they found a house that was dealing, but they couldn't do anything without a search warrant. However, they soon saw an Armenian man driving around in a nice shiny white Mercedes. He was stopped and they searched his car.

They didn't find any actual drugs, but he had scales in his trunk and a bunch of empty boxes that we claimed were part of his business card business and that he had been there selling business cards. His story didn't quite match up and he kept changing it. But there was nothing the officers could do, so the narcotics detectives took his information and then let him go.

Prostitutes

Something else that amazed me was that amount of prostitutes in the area. They are all over the place up and down Figueroa Street. They even tell the cops how much they charge, what they are doing and whether or not men are roughing them up or shaking them down for their money. However, the one thing that they won't do is give up their pimp because they are more scared of the pimp than the police.

I couldn't believe that they were so out in the open. I honestly thought that prostitution on the street was a thing of the movies and that real prostitutes were in nasty brothels, hidden away from the general public and especially the police.

Search warrant

The excitement of the night was when we got to watch a search warrant being served at a crack house — a house that was dealing rock cocaine. The narcotics officers from earlier in the night had some intel on this house from tips and surveillance. So they served the warrant and searched the house. They found the dealer and a woman hiding in a closet — who the presume is also a prostitute.

After they had detained the suspects and searched the house with a drug dog, they let us have a look through. It was mind-blowing. The house was bare to the bone. There were just two beds, a couch and a TV, some basic furniture and a pile of clothes on the floor in one of the bedrooms. The narcotics officers said it was actually one of the cleanest crack houses they had ever seen.

We saw rock cocaine, some meth and some marijuana. What amazed me though, was that they had tagged the walls of their own house. Random nothings were written all over the walls, probably during an intoxicated state.

And the best part of all, was that in the "master bedroom" was a sign that said: "Change your habits, change your life." Considering that the inhabitants were all in handcuffs about to go to jail, I'm not so sure that worked out for them.

What can journalists do better?

One of my personal goals with the ride-along was not only to get a feel for the area and the issues, but to also talk to the officers to find out what they thought journalists as a whole could do better. Here is what they said:

They often put personal bias toward an issue into their story
They twist a story so that it is interesting, when in reality it is not a big story
They only come when bad things happen but don't look at the good we do
Advice to keep your word, if you honor off-the-record promises then you can get a core group of cops who are willing to work with you
Be willing to earn the trust, it doesn't come automatically

Chicago-born musician striving to make it in Los Angeles

2011-10-06T03:23:00.000-04:00

This was another assignment that was supposed to be shot using the BBC 5-Shot method. I was pretty happy with the composition of all of my shots, however, the cameras that we use are really horrible in low lighting settings — such as the drafty, converted warehouse that the musician lives in. I really enjoy the sound quality of his drum playing, however!

Aaron Hatch is a jack of all trades when it comes to music. He composes choir music, plays piano, drums and guitar, and is the bassist for an up-and-coming pop band called Eyes Lips Eyes.

The band lives together in a converted warehouse north of Downtown Los Angeles and have recently had a show at the Roxy Theatre in West Hollywood.

New Initiative to Look at Health Disparities Among Immigrants | Reporting on Health

2011-09-30T18:24:00.001-04:00

New Initiative to Look at Health Disparities Among Immigrants | Reporting on Health

The average immigrant comes to the United States as a healthier individual than the average U.S.-born American. However, by the time they reach the age of 75 or 80, immigrants suffer from much higher rates of chronic illness than their American-born peers.

Addressing that phenomenon is the goal of a new initiative at the University of Southern California. The Immigrant Health Initiative (iHi) is spearheaded by 12 faculty members from different schools across the USC campus who will focus on finding solutions to the persistent health disparities faced by immigrants.

At the initiative’s inaugural seminar Thursday, Dr. William Vega, Ph.D., spoke on defining those health disparities and ways that researchers can go about looking for solutions.

He said that one of the main goals of the initiative was to “interpret health disparities in the context of social adaptation of immigrants to the U.S.”

Immigrants tend to live in poverty, which has long-lasting effects on health.

“By the time (immigrants) get to their 80s, what happens is that the difficult conditions they experience and live in during their lives leads to more chronic illnesses in old age,” said Vega, who is a provost professor and executive director of the USC Edward R. Roybal Institute on Aging. “What we need to do is figure out how to keep them as healthy as they are when they get here.”

Vega outlined three pillars that lead to a high quality of life:

Community context
Health, medical and social services
Social support

He said that if the initiative can create ways to strengthen each of those pillars in the lives of immigrants living in the United States, they could help produce a healthier sector of the population.

Key barriers for immigrant communities are wealth, high incidence of violence, low incidence of school attendance and poor access to adequate health services.

These and other factors are what iHi plans to look at as they begin their research into the health disparities of immigrants.

The initiative is funded by the USC Collaboration Fund to foster collaborations across disciplines and create new research and educational opportunities.

New season for vendors at Santa Monica Pier

2011-09-28T19:41:00.000-04:00

For an assignment in my digital journalism class, I created this photo essay about the change of season and how it affects vendors at tourist locations, such as Santa Monica Pier.

Vendors and performers at Santa Monica Pier range from a psychic reader to a jazz saxophonist. Whatever their trade, however, they rely heavily on tourist traffic along one of California's most recognizable piers for their main source of income.

So when overcast skies and chilly weather becomes the norm, artists like Lily Chen, 34, see a significant drop in revenue.

(Visit Flickr site and click "show info" for photo captions)

John Deasy speech broadcast script and video

2011-09-28T19:34:00.000-04:00

For that same John Deasy speech, I had to write a 50-sec LEAD-SOT-VO for my audio/visual class. (Sorry the formatting is a little off and the columns don't line up like they are supposed to.)

We were only required to shoot video, not to edit it, so here is a sampling of the footage I got.

Anchor Molly

OTS: School changes

Take SOT at :00

Take VO at :10

WS - Eagle Rock high school

CU – Students exiting classroom building

MS – Deasy speaking with audience member after speech

TRT: 50 sec

(((ANCHOR MOLLY)))

L.A. SCHOOLS CHIEF JOHN DEASY IS FACING A LONG-LIST OF PROBLEMS IN HIS FIRST YEAR AS HEAD OF THE DISTRICT.

HE SPOKE TO EDUCATION STUDENTS WEDNESDAY NIGHT AT OCCIDENTAL COLLEGE AND HAD MORE TO SAY ABOUT ISSUES THAN ANY SOLUTIONS.

ONE PROBLEM DEASY NOTED WAS THE LOW NUMBER OF STUDENTS WHO GRADUATE ELLIGIBLE FOR THE U-C SYSTEM.

HE BELIEVES MORE STUDENTS COULD DO WELL IN CLASSES SUCH AS ALBEGRA AND ADVANCED LITERATURE, BUT CURRENTLY ONLY 23 PERCENT OF STUDENTS ARE ALLOWED TO TAKE THEM.

— SOT —

“Failing is not what keeps our students from graduating. Being turned away from classes is what keeps our students from graduating.”

— VO —

DEASY SAID HIS MAIN COURSE OF ACTION FOR HIS DISTRICT IS TO ENACT STRICTER TEACHER EVALUATIONS IN HOPES OF CREATING BETTER ENVIRONMENTS FOR THE STUDENTS.

HOWEVER, TEACHERS UNION OFFICIALS IN LOS ANGELES WORRY THAT HIS NEW REGULATIONS WILL CREATE A COMPETITIVE ENVIRONMENT AMONG TEACHERS.

###

Deasy offers little in the way of concrete improvements for struggling district

2011-09-28T19:29:00.002-04:00

For an assignment in my text reporting class, I covered a speech by Los Angeles Unified School District Superintendent John Deasy on Wednesday, September 21, 2011.

John Deasy

L.A. schools chiefJohn Deasy assailed his own district Wednesday night with a long list ofproblems needing to be fixed, saying his top priorities are dealing with a 23percent drop out rate, a disciplinary system that unfairly penalizes studentsand poor teaching performances.

Deasy, who startedthe job in April, said his motto is to become the “best in the west and No. 1in the nation,” but he offered little in the way of concrete improvements whenhe spoke to education students at Occidental College.

Deasy, who mostrecently served as the deputy director of education for the Bill & MelindaGates Foundation, inherited a district with what he described asrampant-but-fixable problems.

Currently, only 23percent of students have taken the necessary classes to meet the bare minimumcriteria for admission into the University of California system. Additionally, another23 percent don’t even make it to graduation.

Deasy said he believes more students are capable of taking thenecessary classes, such as algebra or advanced English classes, but they aren’teven given the opportunity.

“Failing is notwhat keeps our students from graduating,” he said. “Being turned away fromclasses is what keeps our students from graduating. Tens of thousands ofstudents are being systematically sorted out of courses.”

By not allowingstudents access to critical classes, the schools are setting them up forfailure at the college level, Deasy said.

Similarly, Deasyfaulted problems with the district’s disciplinary trend for the high drop outrate.

Students are beingsuspended for minor infractions such as not turning in homework or notparticipating in classes — creating a snowball effect toward poor attendanceand, for some, dropping out completely.

“What that tellsthe student is that we don’t want them there and if a student doesn’t thinkthat we believe in them, they won’t learn how to read, they won’t apply effortand they won’t succeed,” he said.

To fix theseproblems, Deasy said he is pursuing quick and drastic changes in how teachersand administrators run the schools, even with pending budget cuts. He wants toimplement stricter teacher evaluations with additional measurements for successin the problem areas.

However, Unionofficials fear that the system will pit teachers against each other.

“We just reallydon’t think that creating a competitive environment is going to be what is bestfor our schools and our students,” said Marla Eby, a spokeswoman for UnitedTeachers Los Angeles, who has spoken out against Deasy in the past. “It’s justnot the way to fix the problems we have here.”

BBC 5-Shot Method

2011-09-28T19:21:00.002-04:00

For an assignment for my digital journalism class, I practiced the BBC 5-Shot method, which includes getting footage of five distinct shots for a quick and easy package.

Glendale Blood Drive

Guadalupe Olivares and her staff were in Glendale, Calif., Thursday for a blood drive. The region's blood banks are on low and the Red Cross is urging people to come out and donate at privately-hosted blood drives, like this one at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

We were also asked to complete a quick video interview. I was disappointed that half-way through my interview someone propped open the door and ruined my lighting — I didn't realize until I got home. A lesson in always checking your footage before you leave!

Guadalupe Olivares - regional manager

Photo Bingo

2011-09-28T19:13:00.001-04:00

For an assignment in my digital journalism class, we had bingo cards of different types of photos that we needed to take.

You can view these photos on Flickr here.

Hands

Ant POV

Red

Eyes Only

Action

Looking Up

WTF?

Self-Reflection

Something Delicious

Why I want to be a journalist assignment

2011-09-28T19:07:00.000-04:00

For an assignment in my digital journalism class, I had to write a blog post and create a "vlog" or video blog about why I wanted to be a journalist.

My name is Molly Gray and I'm a journalist.

That might sound like someone at an addiction recovery, but trust me there is no recovering from this addiction.

I became a journalist because ever since I was a young girl reading the Los Angeles Times with my dad before school, I have had an insatiable desire for knowledge. I began to realize how crucial good journalism is to society and to the people who have to survive in society.

I have always believed that people, no matter what class, have a fundamental right to understand the world they live in. Meaning, that a high school dropout who works at a gas station has the same right to understand what is happening on Wall Street as the CEO of a Silicon Valley conglomerate. I believe that it's journalism's job, or more accurately, the journalists' job to make that happen.

I think that journalism is really important to democracy. Sometimes the only people who can inspire change are journalists because they bring light to problems and issues, educating the masses — who, in turn, put pressure on the people in power.

This principle applies to more than just corrupt politicians or big business men, but also cultural entities, human interest, art and sports. I love that through journalism, obscure beauty can be brought to the forefront and celebrated.

In addition, I love technology and so I want to become a digital journalist and embrace all of the ways that technology can improve and revolutionize the trade I have always loved.

I am optimistic for the future and grateful to be a part of it.

Set in stone

2011-08-08T14:50:00.001-04:00

Set in stone

PAULDING, Ohio — The sun beat down on a mountain of rocks late one hot July afternoon, but David Mielke kept pounding away with a small hammer.

He said finding just one “bug” in the LaFarge Quarry would make it a good day.

Mielke is a fossil hunter who has unearthed hundreds of fossils all over the country. It’s the next find that keeps him going.

And he’s had plenty of good days.

For more, follow the link above.

Bridge to ... where?

2011-07-31T08:33:00.000-04:00

Bridge to ... where?

A $2.1 million bikeway bridge connecting the Hilltop and the Scioto Trail is to be completed soon, but cyclists won’t be headed anywhere fast when they get to the other side.
The bridge, which took a year to complete, opens in conjunction with a road project that created bike lanes on Eureka Avenue and Harper Road on the Hilltop, connecting W. Broad Street to McKinley Avenue. The intent is eventually to connect the West Side to Downtown via the trail.

For more, follow the link above.

Medication score a helpful hint for doctors?

2011-07-30T10:42:00.001-04:00

Medication score a helpful hint for doctors?

Having a good credit score has become imperative when you buy a car, get a credit card or sign a home loan. So what's a good medication score?

FICO, a Minneapolis-based analytics company that compiles consumer credit scores, has launched something called a Medication Adherence Score, which promises to identify patients who might not adhere to prescription instructions or get refills in a timely fashion.

The company says the score will help physicians follow up with those patients who need reminding.

For more, follow the link above.

Six local post offices could be shuttered

2011-07-27T07:18:00.001-04:00

Six local post offices could be shuttered

Six Columbus-area post offices could close as the U.S. Postal Service takes a look at eliminating retail locations in favor of offering services inside local businesses, such as pharmacies and grocery stores.

The review is evaluating 120 of Ohio's 1,241 post offices and a similar percentage of branches nationwide.

"The current condition of the Postal Service requires us to look at how we can more efficiently consolidate our services," spokesman David Walton said yesterday, noting the agency's projected $8 billion loss for this year.

For more, follow the link above.

Galena man killed in I-71 motorcycle crash

2011-07-27T07:13:00.002-04:00

Galena man killed in I-71 motorcycle crash

A Delaware County man died Sunday morning when he lost control of his motorcycle on I-71 just south of Rt. 250 near Ashland.

Christopher J. Bishop, 47, of Galena, was headed south on a 2008 Honda Silver Wing motorcycle when he lost control and the motorcycle flipped over. Both Bishop and the bike struck the guardrail on the right side of the road, according to a news release from the State Highway Patrol.

For more, follow the link above.

Postal Service considering more consolidation

2011-07-26T13:10:00.001-04:00

Postal Service considering more consolidation

Six Columbus-area post offices could close as the United States Postal Service takes a look at eliminating retail locations in favor of offering services inside local businesses, such as pharmacies and grocery stores.

The review includes 120 post offices across the state.

"The current condition of the Postal Service requires us to look at how we can more efficiently consolidate our services," spokesman David Walton said today, noting the agency's projected $8 billion loss for this year.

For more, follow the link above.

Canal Winchester, Westerville place school levies on November ballot

2011-07-26T00:44:00.001-04:00

Canal Winchester, Westerville place school levies on November ballot

Two Franklin County school districts took steps tonight to place tax requests before voters this fall.

Canal Winchester board members opted unanimously for the higher of two levy proposals; Westerville school board members will have to choose from five options to send to the November ballot.

Canal Winchester

The school board decided to move forward with a 13.38-mill levy that would raise about $5.8 million annually for three years.

For more, follow the link above.

I did the Canal Winchester reporting and writing.

Jazz & Rib Fest sticking with roomy North Bank Park despite Wi-Fi lure

2011-07-24T11:08:00.001-04:00

Jazz & Rib Fest sticking with roomy North Bank Park despite Wi-Fi lure

A roomier space for setting up smokers and grills kept the annual Jazz & Rib Fest in North Bank Park again this year.

Despite the opening of the Scioto Mile promenade earlier this month, organizers of the annual food and music festival chose to stay north rather than return to the Civic Center Drive location.

For more, follow the link above.

Columbus postal facility may get more work

2011-07-21T09:00:00.001-04:00

Columbus postal facility may get more work

The Columbus mail-sorting facility could become a lot busier if the United States Postal Service proceeds with a cost-saving reorganization now under review.

The Postal Service is considering changes at several Ohio processing facilities amid financial troubles. One option would be to move some or all of the work now done in Dayton to the Columbus facility at 2323 Citygate Dr., near Port Columbus.

For more, follow the link above.

Closings of driver-test stations not done deal

2011-07-16T08:33:00.001-04:00

Closings of driver-test stations not done deal

Many Ohioans will have to travel farther to take their driver’s tests if the State Highway Patrol follows through with a plan to close almost half of the state’s exam stations in an effort to improve efficiency and save money.

The patrol’s head of field operations has recommended a plan to close 38 of the state’s 79 stations.

But drastic changes are far from certain.

For more, follow the link above.

Federal aid going to southern Ohio

2011-07-15T07:34:00.001-04:00

Federal aid going to southern Ohio

Officials in southern Ohio are breathing easier after the announcement yesterday that the area will be receiving additional federal aid after a spring of flash floods and severe storms caused large amounts of damage.

U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown announced yesterday that 21 counties were approved for the funding. They are Adams, Athens, Belmont, Brown, Clermont, Gallia, Guernsey, Hamilton, Hocking, Jackson, Jefferson, Lawrence, Meigs, Monroe, Morgan, Noble, Pike, Ross, Scioto, Vinton and Washington.

For more, follow the link above.

Counties eligible for federal disaster relief

2011-07-14T15:08:00.001-04:00

Counties eligible for federal disaster relief

Counties in Southern Ohio will receive additional federal aid after a spring of flash floods and severe storms caused large amounts of damage.

U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown announced today that 21 counties - Adams, Athens, Belmont, Brown, Clermont, Gallia, Guernsey, Hamilton, Hocking, Jackson, Jefferson, Lawrence, Meigs, Monroe, Morgan, Noble, Pike, Ross, Scioto, Vinton, and Washington counties - were approved for the funding.

For more, follow the link above.

Local cliffs, daredevils a risky mix

2011-07-14T07:43:00.001-04:00

Local cliffs, daredevils a risky mix

On hot summer days, some central Ohioans seek escape in "cliff jumping," plummeting 30 to 40 feet off a bridge or cliff into a body of water.
Refreshing as it might seem, hidden dangers lie beneath the surface, and authorities want to deter the jumpers, usually teens and young adults, from taking the plunge.
"They just don't realize that what they see they are jumping into is not really what they are jumping into," said Chief Terry Gill of the Bloom Township Fire Department in Fairfield County.

For more, follow the link above.

Fifth city pool opens in time for dog-days heat

2011-07-12T07:32:00.001-04:00

Fifth city pool opens in time for dog-days heat

Columbus opened its fifth city pool for the summer yesterday and, given the heat forecast for this week, the timing couldn't have been better.

The Maryland Pool at 1380 Atcheson St. on the Near East Side opened at 1:30 p.m. Admission is free for Columbus residents who have bought a $1 Leisure Card.

Natasha Hubbard, a day-care provider at Neighborhood House just down the street, brought seven kids with her for the pool's opening day. Hubbard had been taking the children to the Windsor Terrace swimming pool on Windsor Avenue, east of Cleveland Avenue, two or three times a week.

For more, follow the link above.

Heat advisory, air-quality alert called for central Ohio

2011-07-11T11:51:00.001-04:00

Heat advisory, air-quality alert called for central Ohio

With a heat advisory in place today, Columbus officials are warning residents to stay inside and out of the heat. The heat index - a measure of temperature and humidity - is expected to reach 101 degrees.

People with respiratory problems should also be aware that an air quality alert was issued for today. Children, the elderly and anyone with asthma or heart and lung conditions are advised to stay inside and avoid heavy physical exertion.

The Columbus Department of Recreation and Parks has several recreation centers around the city where residents can enjoy air conditioning during normal summer operating hours.

For more, follow the link above.

Region's hospitals aid electronic-records push

2011-07-10T09:01:00.001-04:00

Region's hospitals aid electronic-records push

Every hospital in central Ohio has signed up with a nonprofit group that will help doctors switch from paper to electronic health records.

The Central Ohio Health Information Exchange announced yesterday that Ohio State University Medical Center and Nationwide Children's Hospital have joined OhioHealth and Mount Carmel Health in the effort.

For more, follow the link above.

Asian stinker gobbles up fruit

2011-07-10T09:00:00.001-04:00

Asian stinker gobbles up fruit

The brown marmorated stink bug is living up to its reputation as a crop killer.

"The market value of (apple) losses so far is around $37 million," said Mark Seetin, director of regulatory and industry affairs for the U.S. Apple Association. "It's even worse for peaches.

"Penn State University estimated that Pennsylvania lost over half their peach crop last year."

This is what Ohio can look forward to.

For more, follow the link above.

Soot may hurt brain function

2011-07-06T00:19:00.001-04:00

Soot may hurt brain function

When soot levels in the air become unsafe, many people reach for inhalers or stay inside to avoid cardiovascular and respiratory problems.

But new research out of Ohio State University suggests there might be more to be concerned about.

Laura Fonken, an OSU doctoral student in neuroscience, studied soot in mice and found that it affects how well they learn, their memory skills and even their moods.

For more, follow the link above.

Players at Christopher Columbus Tournament get wet but are still game

2011-07-03T19:51:00.001-04:00

Players at Christopher Columbus Tournament get wet but are still game

When Nick Meyers started heading toward home plate, his dad - sporting an Ohio Elite baseball cap - jumped up from his chair and ran to the dugout to meet his son with a high-five over the fence.
After waiting an hour and a half to play, Nick had hit an inside-the-park home run to put his team ahead in the first inning.

For more, follow the link above.

Red, White & Boom draws big crowd

2011-07-02T01:59:00.001-04:00

Red, White & Boom draws big crowd

Last year, Rick Dennis watched Red, White & Boom from the Ohio State University farms at Lane Avenue and Kenny Road.

This year, he was on the pool deck atop a swanky Short North condominium complex.

"Last year, there was a bit of a smell, but this year, it's gorgeous. I can see the whole city," said Dennis, 37, who lives in Upper Arlington.

Throughout the night, residents of the Jackson complex and their friends could see fireworks from the east, south and north.

For more, follow the link above.

Wallaby bacteria may curb cows' greenhouse gas

2011-07-01T13:52:00.001-04:00

Wallaby bacteria may curb cows' greenhouse gas

That dairy cow you drove by the other day might seem harmless enough, but she's adding to global warming.

Sure, one cow might only produce as much as 240 pounds of methane in a year, but multiply that by the 100 million dairy and beef cattle in the U.S. , and you get one of the largest producers of methane gas in the country.

For more, follow the link above.

OSU researcher says he's found way to possibly curb cow burps

2011-06-30T15:48:00.001-04:00

OSU researcher says he's found way to possibly curb cow burps

An Ohio State University researcher said he's found bacteria in the gut of an Australian wallaby that curb its methane emissions by 80 percent.

So what?

For more, follow the link above.

New BeachGuard website lists water-safety alerts

2011-06-29T09:05:00.001-04:00

New BeachGuard website lists water-safety alerts

Looking for a clean beach along Lake Erie? Want to know if the water is inviting on an inland lake?

The state has launched a website that tells you whether anything is lurking on the sand or offshore.

For example, if you go to the Ohio BeachGuard site and navigate to Catawba Island State Park, you'll find an alert for high bacteria levels.

For more, follow the link above.

Columbus anesthetist helps sick in Africa

2011-06-27T21:09:00.001-04:00

Columbus anesthetist helps sick in Africa

She traveled by foot for miles, looking for the "white doctors" who could help her.

The 11-year-old Sierra Leone native had suffered terrible burns on her right arm, and the scars kept her from moving her wrist and elbow.

For more, follow the link above.

Shortage of blood worse this summer

2011-06-27T21:08:00.001-04:00

Shortage of blood worse this summer

Central Ohio blood banks are running on empty.

The Red Cross says it is below the minimum required amount in seven of eight blood types.

That has central Ohio trauma centers worried.

For more, follow the link above.

West Nile virus found as mosquitoes thrive

2011-06-27T21:07:00.001-04:00

West Nile virus found as mosquitoes thrive

Two mosquito pools in Columbus have tested positive for West Nile virus.

The sites are the first confirmed in Ohio this year.

The two pools 5 miles apart are north of Grove City and inside I-270, said Zack Lustgarten, supervisor of vector control for Columbus Public Health.

For more, follow the link above.

Some smokers put off by cigarette warning labels

2011-06-23T07:41:00.001-04:00

Some smokers put off by cigarette warning labels

They can't smoke in bars, restaurants or even public parks in some cities. And when they go to buy a pack of cigarettes, increased taxes are pushing the price sky-high.

And now the labels on their smokes will graphically show the horrors of their habit.

Some smokers say they feel as if they are under attack.

For more, follow the link above.

Air-quality alerts are hit or miss

2011-06-23T07:40:00.002-04:00

Air-quality alerts are hit or miss

The Mid-Ohio Regional Planning Commission has announced air-quality alerts on 15 days since Jan. 1, 2010. Of those, 12 turned out to be false alarms. That might sound comforting, but it's really not.

Days such as Friday, when the ozone level in the air actually was unhealthy, often are not predicted and alerts are not issued. Of the 12 days that central Ohio air was unhealthy in 2010 and this year, only three had alerts.

For more, follow the link above.

Metro Parks acquire more Big Darby land

2011-06-23T07:38:00.003-04:00

Metro Parks acquire more Big Darby land

The Franklin County Metro Parks board has purchased land near Big Darby Creek in Brown, Prairie and Pleasant townships to improve water quality in the area and add to its parks.

Metro Parks purchased 102 acres from Frank and Vicki Dengg of Prairie Township for $826,000.

For more, follow the link above.

East Side refinery vows to curb odor, group says

2011-06-18T11:14:00.005-04:00

East Side refinery vows to curb odor, group says

An East Side oil refinery apparently is making changes to appease area residents and businesses, an environmental group is reporting.

Heartland Petroleum officials recently met with Ohio Citizen Action, which had sent more than 6,800 letters to the company complaining about odors at the refinery, where motor oil is recycled.

For more, follow the link above.

Oh, baby! What really works to start labor?

2011-06-18T11:14:00.004-04:00

Oh, baby! What really works to start labor?

Spicy food, exercise, sex and laxatives.

That might seem like an odd assortment, but more than half of pregnant women surveyed by Ohio State University researchers reported using these things - and others - to induce labor.

Of the 201 women whom Dr. Jonathon Schaffir, an ob-gyn at OSU Medical Center, surveyed, 102 said they used unprescribed methods in an attempt to kick-start labor.

For more, follow the link above.

Fans of public transit coax drivers to try it

2011-06-18T11:13:00.001-04:00

Fans of public transit coax drivers to try it

J.D. Blackwood rides a bus to his job Downtown from Grove City several times a week.
That might change.
Yesterday, he learned he could save $5,634 on gas and parking each year if he rode a COTA bus every day. Central Ohio Transit Authority officials calculated the savings for Blackwood and others during a Dump the Pump event yesterday in an effort to increase ridership.

For more follow the link above.

COTA urges Columbus workers to 'dump the pump' and ride

2011-06-18T11:11:00.001-04:00

COTA urges Columbus workers to 'dump the pump' and ride

When gas prices hit $4 in 2008, COTA ridership rose by 10.2 percent.
Although the price at the pump has ebbed and flowed since then, the number of people taking the bus continues to increase, officials with the Central Ohio Transit Authority.
Today, the agency touted its services during a 6th annual Dump the Pump event Downtown.
More than 17 million people rode COTA last year, according to Beth Berkemer, a COTA spokeswoman.

For more follow the link above.

Volunteers join scientists to seed burying beetles

2011-06-18T11:10:00.001-04:00

Volunteers join scientists to seed burying beetles

GLOUSTER, Ohio - Olivia Blatt squealed in a fit of giggles as she dropped a dead rat into a hole she had just dug yesterday in the hills of the Wayne National Forest.
Moments later, botanist Cheryl Coon helped the 7-year-old volunteer place two American burying beetles into the same hole.
Olivia was one of about 35 people who helped release the beetles into the wild yesterday. Her father, Steve Blatt, a Wayne forest biologist, thought it was a good way to celebrate her birthday.

For more follow the link above.

'Artificial immediacy' reigns: Analysts say 'breaking news' stretched too far in bin Laden coverage - The Lantern - Campus

2011-05-16T19:46:00.001-04:00

'Artificial immediacy' reigns: Analysts say 'breaking news' stretched too far in bin Laden coverage - The Lantern - Campus

Reports that President Barack Obama was going to make a major announcement first set sail at about 9:45 p.m. Sunday and from that moment on, the media was all hands on deck.
"We have seen the media at its best and at its worst. In the immediate hours of breaking news there is nothing like television to get out a story with immediacy," said Steve Safran, editor of Lost Remote, a website that covers social media and TV news. "Then, I was just watching ABC news (Tuesday) evening, and there is tons of crap."
Aside from the most recent development, that Obama told CBS's "60 Minutes" that he had decided not to release photos of bin Laden's dead body, Safran said most coverage in the days following Sunday's announcement has been overblown.
Regarding the decision not to give media or the public photos of the body, Safran said Wednesday that he agrees with the president.
"I believe in full disclosure for journalism so that reporters can decide what to report," Safran said. "But that wouldn't happen in this case. No good would come of it and from what I hear they are pretty gruesome photos, the man got shot in the head."

For more click on the link above.

The day I knew I wanted to be a journalist

2011-05-04T12:47:00.000-04:00

Osama bin Laden

I was twelve years old on September 11, 2001. I was the first in my household to hear the news because I was listening to the radio (KISS FM) before school. I told my mom and we turned on the news. I didn't quite understand the gravity at first and I remember wondering why my mom was crying.

When I got to school everyone was talking about it and some of my friends were worried about their aunts and uncles who worked and lived in New York City. We were only at school for about an hour — we were evacuated after the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, down the street from my school, was placed on the list of possible targets.

Because I wasn't at school, I spent the rest of the day watching the news. I don't remember what channel or even if it was cable news, but I remember how important it all seemed.

That day changed my life. It is the first time that I felt the importance, gravity and impact that journalists had on the country. I had always appreciated the news but this was the first time I had witnessed the ability of the news to cause or control chaos in the country through the dispersion of information.

That was it: I knew what I wanted to do with my life.

Ten years later I was working in a newsroom at the very time the world learned of the death of Osama bin Laden, the man behind the Sept. 11 attacks. I spent the next 48 hours reporting, writing and editing stories about the meaning and consequences of this major world event.

Although at a smaller scale, I was doing exactly what had inspired me to become a journalist back when I was in 7th grade. Not only was I working as a journalist, but I was also using the knowledge I have gained through all of my international studies classes. This was exactly what I had trained myself to do — exactly what I had dreamed of doing. The only thing that would have made it any better was if I was at the White House or overseas.

I feel invigorated, reassured and even more certain that I am doing what I was born to do. I have absolutely loved every minute of it, sleep-deprivation and anonymous comments included.

It hasn't stopped for me yet, I am still working on fall-out stories so stay tuned for those, but here are links to the stories that I have written or helped work on thus far:

Experts say al-Qaida 'not going anywhere'

Ohio leaders react to bin Laden's death

Bin Laden's legacy 'will live far beyond the man'

Some worry bin Laden death could make US ally an enemy

Despite end to bin Laden, news never stops

Experts say al-Qaida 'not going anywhere' - The Lantern - Campus

2011-05-02T17:07:00.001-04:00

Experts say al-Qaida 'not going anywhere' - The Lantern - Campus

Osama bin Laden's "death does not mark the end of our effort," President Barack Obama said on Sunday evening. "There's no doubt that al-Qaida will continue to pursue attacks against us."

The president announced Sunday evening that the United States found and killed bin Laden in Abbottabad, Pakistan. Bin Laden was the founder and leader of a militant Islamist group known as al-Qaida, which officially came into being in the 1980s and turned against the United States shortly thereafter.

The death of bin Laden "certainly is a blow to the psyche of the organization. There is no doubt about it. However in terms of the long-term viability of the organization it does very little," said Jonathan Schanzer, vice president of research for the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, based in Washington, D.C., and a former counterterrorism analyst at the U.S. Department of the Treasury. "This is something that I think most Americans need to be very aware of."

Bin Laden formed the radical, anti-Western group in Pakistan, the country in which he was killed 30 years later, despite the fact that he is a Saudi and his right-hand man, Dr. Ayman al-Zawahiri, is Egyptian. Bin Laden financed the group from his personal funds as the son of an oil tycoon.

"Bin Laden was very wise in the way that he constructed his organization in terms of its survivability," Schanzer told The Lantern.

For the rest of the story, follow the link above.

'We were dismissed all along'

2011-04-21T10:48:00.001-04:00

'We were dismissed all along' - The Lantern - Campus

Ohio State is nearing its final breath in a workers' compensation claim for Olga Stavridis, a woman who suffered a months-long illness that resulted in the loss of part of her lung.

Stavridis' claim already has been validated through two hearings at the Ohio Industrial Commission, which deals with all workers' compensation claim appeals in the state. On March 22, OSU appealed for a third hearing with the commission. A commission-level hearing is awarded on a discretionary basis and is rare, according to OIC's website.

Hearing officers at the district and staff level both allowed the claim in favor of Stavridis.

"Usually in about a month or so the Industrial Commission renders a decision saying yes or no that they will hear the appeal," said Ron Koltak, Stavridis' lawyer. "But (OSU isn't) guaranteed a third hearing."

If the Industrial Commission denies OSU's appeal for a third hearing, its only option would be to file a claim in the Franklin County Court of Common Pleas.

Stavridis' coworker, Amy Franklin, who also got ill in 2009, recently filed her own workers' compensation claim under advisement from Koltak. She said she believes OSU handled the situation poorly.

"It haunts me to this day that I heard Olga say ‘Chris (Mulholand, facilities engineer in the college of engineering), is it OK for me to be sitting in here breathing this stuff? I have three little kids at home,'" Franklin said. "He just kind of laughed and shook his head. I just feel like we were dismissed all along when we would express our concerns."

Read the rest by following the link at the top of this post.

$8,600 birthday party

2011-04-11T11:53:00.001-04:00

Last week, the Union, a building that cost $18.6 million to build, threw itself a birthday party. And you guessed it, it cost a very large amount of money: Over $8,600. I had fun with this graphic because I got to play with images more than I usually do. While the cupcakes are not the best "quantitative" representation of the figures, are goal was a more qualitative representation that students could really see where their money was being spent.

Security breach could mean more phishing, spam - The Lantern - Campus

2011-04-05T00:22:00.001-04:00

Security breach could mean more phishing, spam - The Lantern - Campus

Dozens of major corporations sent notices to consumers Monday morning saying that their names and e-mail addresses might have been obtained by hackers who attacked an e-mail marketing firm's database last week.
According to a press release on Epsilon's website, a security breach was detected on Wednesday as "a subset of Epsilon clients' customer data were exposed by an unauthorized entry into Epsilon's e-mail system."
Epsilon clients who have reported being affected include Cincinnati-based Kroger Co., Target, JPMorgan Chase, U.S. Bancorp, Citigroup, Best Buy Co., Walgreens and TiVo.
When contacted by telephone, Epsilon press contact Jessica Simon said the company is working with authorities on an investigation into the breach and couldn't comment further.
Despite the broad expanse of the breach, some students weren't concerned about their information.
"What is someone going to do with my e-mail? It's not important. I only check it once a week," said Seth Martin, a third-year in business.
Others weren't aware of the breach.
Unlike the data breach Ohio State experienced last fall, Epsilon is reporting that the hackers were only able to obtain names and e-mail addresses, which means the biggest concern for affected customers is phishing — when hackers imitate a trusted company and attempt to get sensitive personal information through e-mail.
"Since the hacker will have both your e-mail address and will know your real name and the companies that you have done business with … you could be lured into giving them personal information because you have given (the companies) online information before, and you figure it is just a legitimate e-mail contact," said Paul Stevens, director of policy and advocacy with Privacy Rights Clearinghouse.
Stevens said it is uncommon for hackers to only get names and e-mail addresses. Last December, OSU revealed a data breach that occurred in October in which hackers accessed names, social security numbers, dates of birth and addresses of about 760,000 current and former faculty, students, applicants and other university-affiliated people.

For the rest of the story follow the link at the top of this post.

Will the iPad 2 further news production?

2011-03-02T16:03:00.003-05:00

The iPad 2 was announced today. Now that I have had my iPad (first gen) for about three months now, I have some thoughts on whether or not the iPad is really a tool that could help journalists. Despite the chatter on Twitter and journalism blogs and forums, I don't believe that the iPad will really aid in news production anytime soon. The hardware and software is just to "young" in its development to compete with professional equipment. However, my iPad has proven extremely helpful in news gathering — research, interview and notes and information storage and organization.

First I will detail why I don't think that the iPad has reached the point of becoming a news production tool and then I will tell you what I love about my iPad throughout the news gathering process.

1. The Camera.

It seems as if everyone is raving about the new camera feature of the iPad. While it's exciting and relieving to see that the iPad is catching up to the iPhone in its hardware, I don't think that this feature is really going to prove worthwhile to journalists.

The quality is not going to come close to professional equipment, even if you only plan to run the photos online at 72 dpi. I haven't heard whether or not there will be on-board editing software (Read: I'm assuming there will be) but even so, I don't think that the iPad will be able to produce competitive photos.

The Good: Where the camera will come in handy is in breaking news situations. Not only will you be able to tweet photos but uploading them directly to websites and mobile apps on site will cut down on time lag between when an event happens and when the story gets out on the web.

Similarly, I was participating in a forum on USC Annenberg's Facebook page and someone suggested that the FaceTime would add value to interviews that would previously have been done on the phone. I'm not sure to what extent that will be helpful, but it's good food for thought.

2. Word processing software.

Screenshot of my Kasich article in Pages.

Personally, I use Pages on my iPad. I have only used it once for journalistic purposes — or any purposes other than reading documents that I have downloaded onto my iPad.

When I covered the Ohio governor's inauguration last spring, the wireless was not working so my laptop was out if I wanted to get my article online as soon as possible following Gov. John Kasich's address. I had my iPad with me and decided to try typing my article there so that I could use the 3G network to shoot it over to my editor before I left the inauguration.

In the end it worked out well, although I had sore wrists and probably a few more typos than usual!

The cons to this type of word-processor is two-fold. First, if you don't have a keyboard for your iPad, typing anything longer than a 500-700 word brief is a pain. Second, When only a few lines of text are visible at a time, editing is a little difficult as well. However, the ability to e-mail a .doc file straight from the Pages app is helpful in emergency situations.

3. Research.

I had to research Ohio worker's comp laws

What I have ultimately found to be most useful is the iPad's ability to complement and/or enhance news gathering. Having the full expanse of the Internet at the tips (literally) of your fingers is invaluable when you're on the road working on a story. I use my iPad all the time to fact-check, research and generate story ideas.

4. A portable filing cabinet.

Instead of lugging around documents journalists can just put the .pdfs onto an iPad and be able to pull up hundreds of documents at a moment's notice during an interview. Whether it's a copy of the Engineering School's annual expense report, a copy of a claim filed for worker's compensation or an artist's online portfolio, when would having additional material ever hurt?

When I was at the Ohio Sunshine Summit this past weekend, one of the tips given to the student journalists regarding the Freedom of Information Act was to carry a copy of your state's laws regarding public information and ask officials to show you exactly what statue they believe gives them permission to deny you entrance to their public university budget meetings. First thing I did was find a copy of the Ohio Sunshine Law to download on my iPad.

In what ways has your iPad helped you gather or produce news?

OSU worker in lawsuit breathing easier almost 2 years after illness

2011-02-07T03:17:00.003-05:00

OSU worker in lawsuit breathing easier almost 2 years after illness - The Lantern - Campus

More than a year after Olga Stavridis originally took sick leave for what became a months-long illness that required surgery to remove parts of her lungs, she is breathing easier.

A workers' compensation board ruled in her favor in December, finding Ohio State responsible for Stavridis' illness.

The university's lawyers have appealed the results of the Ohio Industrial Commission hearing, which involved testimony from Stavridis and others, as well as last-minute documents presented by OSU.

A second hearing is scheduled for Wednesday. An OIC staff hearing officer will rule on a workers' compensation claim filed in March 2010. Stavridis is seeking undetermined lost wages and medical costs for her battle with histoplasmosis, an illness she believes she contracted at her workplace, Hitchcock Hall on Neil Avenue.

Stavridis contracted histoplasmosis in 2009. The infection is caused by histoplasmosis spores that, when airborne, can infect the lungs. Stavridis had surgery in June 2009 to remove parts of her lungs. An administrator with the Bureau of Workers' Compensation allowed Stavridis' claim in August. OSU filed an appeal, which led to the Dec. 9 hearing. OIC handles all Bureau of Workers' Compensation appeals.

The district hearing officer found that Olga "has met the burden of establishing that she sustained an injury in the course of, and arising out of, her employment, when she developed (histoplasmosis) as a result of exposure to airborne histoplasmosis spores in her workplace," according to the hearing record.

What Stavridis and her lawyer, Ron Koltak, have tried to prove in the hearing process is that Stavridis was infected after a bungled clean-up job following a flood in her office in March 2009.

After the flood, building supervisors removed ceiling tiles in Stavridis' office and started running fans to rid the space of the flood-caused odor. It was at that time she believes she came in contact with the histoplasmosis spores.

"During the time that I was in my office, with the fans running directly above my head, I had a lot of particulate matter falling on me," Stavridis said. "It was so bad that I had to get Clorox wipes ordered through our office manager just to keep wiping off my monitor, my desk and my things."

Koltak said no new evidence has been presented for Wednesday's hearing, so the process will likely resemble December's, when Koltak and Stavridis presented tests confirming histoplasmosis spores were present in Hitchcock Hall prior to renovations done last year. Similarly, they presented reports from doctors at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., and elsewhere who believed she had the illness because of her working conditions.

OSU President E. Gordon Gee has said since The Lantern started reporting the story last March that OSU tests have come back negative for histoplasmosis.

"The university has done all this testing and we do not believe that (Stavridis' illness) was brought about by (the flood)," Gee said in a Jan. 12 interview with The Lantern editorial board, adding that he was unaware that the worker's compensation hearing had taken place.

Minutes before that hearing, OSU lawyers turned over a report to Koltak saying OSU's expert doctor had at one time believed Stavridis got the infection at work.

Dr. Samuel Rosenberg's first report was dated October 2010. Rosenberg, who works at University Hospitals in Cleveland, concluded then that the histoplasmosis "likely occurred consequent to the inhalation of contaminated dust coming from a source above her workspace area," as reported in the record of proceedings.

Koltak said he couldn't speculate on why OSU provided the report at the last minute, but said it surprised him.

"It is our practice to submit the medical report to the other side as soon as we receive results from the physician," said Amy Murray, assistant director of media relations for OSU. David McCarty, OSU's attorney, referred all questions to Murray.

It wasn't until after OSU approached Rosenberg with information that both an elementary school and a park near Stavridis' home had been under construction, did Rosenberg amend his report to say that it was "at least as likely that (Stavridis) was exposed to histoplasmosis from the earth movements necessary for those two projects," as recorded during the hearing.

"We remain sympathetic to the health conditions that this employee has faced, but the cause remains a mystery to us all," Murray said. "The university places a high priority on employee safety and we have done everything possible to remedy and investigate the matter."

Stavridis and Koltak, however, say the evidence is indisputable.

"Common sense tells you that that just doesn't make any sense," Koltak said. "First of all, there is no indication that there is histoplasmosis in that soil … and did any neighbor, anyone else get histoplasmosis? Of course, the answer is no."

And there were other cases of histoplasmosis related to Hitchcock Hall. Amy Franklin, an office manager in Engineering Career Services, frequently worked in Stavridis' office area and was in charge of packing up Stavridis' belongings in June when she took sick leave. Franklin was diagnosed with histoplasmosis after having surgery on her lungs in October 2009. Similarly, Chissy Nkemere, a second-year student at the time, was diagnosed with the infection in the summer following the 2008-09 school year. Nkemere had spent up to 20 hours a week in Hitchcock Hall rehearsing for a play.

It was Franklin's illness that Stavridis said forced her to pursue the source of the histoplasmosis.

"When Amy developed these lung problems and had to have a very risky surgery, I just wanted to put everything behind me and move forward, so I had the ceiling tiles tested," Stavridis said.
Those tests have been an important piece of evidence in the hearings.

Koltak said he is planning to file a workers' compensation benefits claim for Franklin after Stavridis' claim is resolved. Franklin and Stavridis also have a personal injury lawsuit filed on behalf of both workers against the university.

Stavridis has tried to move on in other areas of her life.

"My kids need to see their mom … back to a normal routine," she said. "I probably came back to work too early for what I was physically and emotionally ready to handle."

Stavridis was on sick leave for four months, but didn't return to full-time work until six months after her surgery.

Stavridis has since resigned her position as associate director of Engineering Career Services in favor of a teaching position in the college. She is now teaching an engineering graphics course in Hitchcock Hall. Stavridis' doctors have told her that she has built up an immunity to the spores and it is unlikely that she will get the infection again.

Either party can file an appeal following Wednesday's hearing, though Koltak said that it's very unusual for the OIC to allow workers' compensation claims to go to three hearings. The next step would be to take the case in front of the Franklin County Court of Common Pleas.

Once the claim is settled, if Stavridis is due workers' compensation, the Bureau of Workers' Compensation will pay her medical bills and lost wages. Stavridis said she didn't have an estimate of either the medical bills or lost wages, but most of the settlement with the BWC will go to her insurance company.

Stavridis said she just wants to move past the issue and leave behind a lesson for the university.

"It's frustrating to think that my place of employment, the place I graduated from and have been a supporter of for decades would think, for a moment, that I would be pursuing this for anything but what it is," she said. "And that is, I was subjected to a bad work environment and I only, and truly only, hope that this is never repeated so that no one person or family has to ever go through what I did."

Gov. Kasich's inauguration

2011-01-20T10:31:00.001-05:00

During the fall, I was able cover a lot of political events leading up to and including the 2010 midterm elections. I couldn't have asked for a better way to get my feet wet covering politics.

All of that experience culminated with covering the governor's inauguration last week downtown at the Ohio Theatre. It was interesting, because when we got there, no one was able to get onto the wireless inside of the auditorium. Luckily, I had my iPad with me, so I decided to write my article there so that I could send it back to my editors on the 3G network, problem-solving at its finest!

We sent one article out directly following the event, which you can see here.

The next morning, we published a flushed-out story.

CODY COUSINO / The Lantern

New governor in, now what?

Republican Gov. John Kasich took a ceremonial oath Monday afternoon in front of hundreds at the Ohio Theatre, half a block from the Ohio Capitol Building, where he says he will work to curb Ohio's budget deficit and create more jobs.

But now that the ceremony is over and the promises have been made, students are left wondering, "What now?"

"I'm just interested to see if (Kasich is) actually going to change things like he says he is, like a lot of politicians do," said Doug Fleischmann, a third-year in history. "I don't want to point fingers, but I think the big guy at the top (referring to President Barack Obama) said he was going to change a lot and so far I haven't seen it."

Throughout the campaign, Kasich's competition, former Gov. Ted Strickland, painted Kasich as anti-student and anti-education, threatening that Kasich would undo all of his work to make education more affordable.

In the two-and-a-half months since election night, Kasich has refrained from discussing tuition rates in detail, but has said he isn't ruling out the possibility of a hike in the cost of higher education. Kasich is facing an $8 billion deficit he has promised to decrease during his tenure.

The economy and job market were major talking points in his inaugural speech, given minutes after he and Lt. Gov. Mary Taylor were ceremoniously sworn-in.

"It is my only purpose, it is my only passion," Kasich said about Ohio's economy. "Nothing will stand in our way."

Kasich's most recent play before inauguration events began was to hire venture capitalist Mark Kvamme to transition Ohio from the Department of Development to a private nonprofit company called JobsOhio in order to rejuvenate the state's techonology production and manufacturing.

"I'm really hoping that will spike the job count in Ohio and there will be no more government oversight of the department," said Ohio State College Republican President Meagan Cyrus, a third year in political science. "I think it will make the department a lot more efficient and there will be no more government red tape."

Though Kasich received some criticism following this announcement, he said there are critical assessments that can only be made by a government outsider.

Kvamme will "assess what works and what doesn't work (in the department) and how they can improve with the purpose for creating jobs," Kasich said Friday on OSU's campus. "And to make sure that Ohio is going to answer the call to be creative and imaginative."

About one-third of university graduates leave the state of Ohio within three years of graduation. Kasich said he hopes to change that.

Change was a consistent theme throughout Kasich's campaign and it found its way into his inaugural slogan, "New Day." He said he wants to help Ohio realize its promise and destiny.

"It is so exciting to be a part of a movement that answers the bell," Kasich said. "As Ohio goes, so does America. They are watching us."

The crowd, which included supporters, such as Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives John Boehner, met the governor with applause and a standing ovation.

"I thought he was very inspiring. Sure, he was a little emotional, but he talked about his family and his friends and God," said Josh Bodner, a second-year in electrical and computer engineering who attended the inauguration. "He was showing he cares about the people a lot. And he definitely showed he cares about what the state is doing and where we're going."

Still, Kasich was met with disapproval from half a dozen people on the steps of the Statehouse across the street, who were holding Strickland/Brown campaign posters from last fall's heated race between the two candidates.

Following his oath, which occurred just after 12:15 p.m., Kasich warned Ohioans against being selfish and against partisan prejudice.

"We are not Republicans, we are not Democrats. We are Ohioans, we are Buckeyes, together!" he said. "Our enemies are those who refuse the power of the team. We will defeat them."

President of the College Democrats Matt Caffrey, a fourth-year in political science, said that he thinks Kasich will do what he has promised.

"He's just got this sort of vicious style to him and I expect him to try and make good on it," Caffrey said.

Kasich came to office last November when Republicans swept the state and national races. In Ohio, the win was accompanied by the election of Taylor, as well as Senator Rob Portman, U.S. Representative for Ohio's 15th Congressional District Steve Stivers and Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted. Kasich is an OSU alumnus and is a former Ohio congressman and executive at Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc.
The governor's official signing-in was shortly after 12 a.m. Monday.

Sarah Stemen and Aaron Green contributed to this story.

Ohio State vs. Michigan 2010

2011-01-20T10:17:00.001-05:00

I think I have put off this blog post because I hate to admit that I have most likely covered my last Ohio State football game. That being said, I couldn't have picked a better one.

As a student, the Ohio State—Michigan rivalry has always been a hallmark of what it means to me to be in college. I have been lucky to go to school during a time when Ohio State has been very successful. But even if I hadn't, I would like to believe that I would still always be able to look forward to beating the Wolverines! I can be proud to say, that Ohio State has not lost to Michigan in football while I have been in school.

As a journalist, the rivalry has always brought an additional hook to covering sports. It always lends itself to an additional feature or two. Especially my junior year when we had a starter who had transferred from Michigan, or my senior year when UM head coach Rich Rodriquez's time would be up if he didn't beat the Buckeyes.

For my last football game in Ohio Stadium, I had some fun article to write.

The first was about a couple of controversial penalty calls:

Unsportsmanlike penalties frustrate Buckeyes

The second was about the success of the senior class:

Seniors earn another Big Ten title, pair of gold pants

The third was about a career-day for one of my favorite players, Boom Herron:

Big day from ‘Boom’ boosts Buckeyes

Gov.-elect Kasich charges venture capitalist with renewing Ohio job market - The Lantern - Campus

2011-01-07T16:24:00.002-05:00

Gov.-elect Kasich charges venture capitalist with renewing Ohio job market - The Lantern - Campus

Gov.-elect John Kasich visited Ohio State's campus Friday to announce the appointment of Mark Kvamme as the director of the Ohio Department of Development.Kvamme, a longtime friend of Kasich, will make only $1 for the job.

At a press conference at the Fisher College of Business, Kasich said that Kvamme, a venture capitalist from California, is the "greatest entrepreneur you can find," so it was fitting that his involvement with the Ohio job market was announced to a class at the Center for Entrepreneurship.

Kvamme has been charged with analyzing the Ohio Department of Development and facilitating a transition to JobsOhio, a private non-profit corporation that will replace the department. During his six months of full-time work in Ohio, Kvamme will oversee this transition and hire someone as CEO. After that he will advise on a telecommuting basis.

His job will be to "assess what works and what doesn't work (in the department) and how they can improve with the purpose for creating jobs," Kasich said. "And to make sure that Ohio is going to answer to be creative and imaginative."

Currently, about one-third of university graduates leave the state of Ohio within three years of graduation. Similarly, many businesses in Ohio, even those who are recipients of Third Frontier money from the government, relocate elsewhere, a problem that Kasich says must be fixed.

"I get so mad at companies who high-tail it out of here with the public's money," Kasich said. "That's our money."

Kvamme admittedly knows little about the state of Ohio but believes the potential of the state is "unbelievable."

He also said that the future of Ohio is in the universities.

"The average age of the people we fund at Sequoia is 24 to 25. Why?" Kvamme said. "Because they know where the future is."

During a question-and-answer session with the students in attendance, Kvamme said that he is going to be focused on bringing passion and innovation back into Ohio.

"I've seen innovation in real time and you have the resources and the people to do it," he said.

Among those resources are the universities and university-sponsored programs that exist for research in the state. Kvamme said he believes research should be done at the university level and that the private sector should focus on development.

By nurturing a relationship between research and development, Kvamme said he believes Kasich and others can make Ohio a state where entrepreneurs and developers want to stay.

"They won't need to go to Silicon Valley, we won't be able to convince them to come to Silicon Valley," he said.

Kvamme will be taking a six-month leave from his partnership at Sequoia Capital, a private equity and venture capital firm located in California, where he lives with his wife and daughter. They have three children who have either graduated from or are attending college.

He said his decision to temporarily relocate to Ohio came out of a life goal to "help a million people," his trust in Kasich and his belief that "nothing is better than finding people passionate about their jobs."

Among Kvamme's list of successes is the company Apple, which Kvamme was involved with before it went public, according to Kasich. Kvamme is also identified with YouTube, PayPal, Google, Cisco Systems and Oracle.

Kvamme specializes in media and advertising services investments. He received his bachelor's degree from the University of California at Berkeley where he studied French economics and literature.

Though the transition period from the department to JobsOhio is scheduled to take about six months, the process to making Ohio once again the center for innovation and the heartland of the country will take some time, Kasich said.

Kvamme "isn't Santa Claus. We are going to have to make some tough assessments."

Why It's a Great Time to Be a Journalism Major - The College Solution (usnews.com)

2010-12-21T21:37:00.001-05:00

Why It's a Great Time to Be a Journalism Major - The College Solution (usnews.com)

Good news for college students looking to go into journalism!

The important thing is passion and I've got plenty of it!

This woman summed up the reasons why I still want to be a journalist. It's a quick and easy read so you should check it out if you want to be a journalist too!

Earthworks a site of ancient ceremonies - The Lantern - Campus

2010-12-01T16:38:00.000-05:00

Earthworks a site of ancient ceremonies - The Lantern - Campus

This past Halloween, the Columbus Dispatch had a really interesting story about ghosts and the stance of all the major religions about ghosts and other-worldly beings. It didn't talk about Halloween except in the lead but I thought it was a great idea for a feature to go with the holiday. I really liked the idea so I started thinking about something that I could do for The Lantern to run during the Thanksgiving holiday.

I did some hunting around and I found a great site that not only had a Thanksgiving tie-in but it also had a campus/Ohio tie-in: the Newark Earthworks. I knew that I would have to drive about 40 minutes to the site so I figured I would get everything out of the interview that I could. I ended up producing a short video about the earthworks as well to go on our website.

Earthworks a site of ancient ceremonies


MOLLY GRAY / The Lantern

This Thanksgiving, friends and family will gather around tables to eat, drink and be merry. Parents and teachers might tell children about the first Thanksgiving.

But scholars, such as professor Richard Shiels, associate professor in history at the Ohio State Newark campus, contend that the story we hear in late November really wasn't the first Thanksgiving at all.

For centuries, Native Americans traveled hundreds of miles to celebrate and give thanks for the harvest. One of their destinations is believed to be the Newark Earthworks, a set of geometric earthen enclosures about 40 miles east of Columbus.

"There were people who celebrated the harvest long before Christopher Columbus," said Shiels, who is also the director of the Newark Earthworks Center. "Two thousand years ago, people were having these same types of feasts."

The Great Circle, which is the centerpiece of the Newark Earthworks, is a four-square-mile, tree-lined plot of land enclosed by a ditch and, beyond that, a 14-foot-high wall. At the center is a mound made of soil, called the eagle mound. Both the eagle mound and the walls surrounding the circle were once covered in yellow clay.

"The yellow clay would light up when the sun hit it, especially if the ditch was filled with water, and it would have looked glorious," said Susan Fryer, executive director of the Greater Licking County Convention and Visitors Bureau.

The circle was likely used for religious ceremonies, experts said, and could have been used for sporting events similar to the Olympics, along with other large week- or month-long festivals.

"Evidence suggests that people came here for three or four months at a time," Shiels said. "We don't have any essays from these people telling us why they built these things. We like to say that the earthworks themselves are native knowledge written on the land."

The circle, as well as the Octagon Earthwork, located a few miles away, were built to line up with solar and lunar cycles and are the largest of their kind in the world. Openings around the Octagon line up with the path of all eight points in the lunar cycle; when the moon rises over the horizon it send light across the Octagon through the openings.

"Why would you go through the trouble to build something as big as that octagon and line it up with the moon?" Shiels asked when trying to decipher the purpose of the earthworks. "It's an 18.6-year cycle, and every time that moon aligns in the octagon, it's in a different season, so it doesn't help you figure out when to plant your crops. It doesn't seem to have any practical benefit."

That led Shiels to believe that the octagon was purely ceremonial. Throughout his years studying the earthworks, Shiels has brought many Native Americans, including tribal chiefs, to the grounds and said they have confirmed his theories.

"As you walk out into the center of the circle, your whole environment changes," Fryer said. "It becomes a real quiet place, a place that folks would take for reflection or prayer. You really do hear the birds more clearly and notice the trees."

Shiels and others said the Newark Earthworks was a site of pilgrimage because of the waterways surrounding three sides of the area. Similarly, artifacts have been found on the sites that could have arrived there only through long-range trade.

"There are shells from the Carolinas, copper from Wisconsin, obsidian and mica from the Grand Canyon, which is at least evidence of trade," Shiels said. "And if you go out to those places, you find spear points and arrowheads made of Flint Ridge flint."

Flint Ridge is an area close to the Great Circle that has a depository of unique flint.

The Hopewell people, who built the earthworks, lived during the time of Christ, Shiels said. Little is known about them and few of their artifacts have been recovered. However, one of their dwelling sites has been discovered near Chillicothe, Ohio, and it's believed that a dirt road stretched the 70-mile distance between the two areas.

The Great Circle is open to visitors year-round and the Octagon Earthwork, which is home to a country club golf course, is open to visitors during select hours.

USG: Extend Thompson's hours - The Lantern - Campus

2010-12-01T16:17:00.000-05:00

USG: Extend Thompson's hours - The Lantern - Campus

The student government at Ohio State has started a campaign to extend library hours at our main library on campus. A few weeks ago, The Lantern got notice of the movement and a Facebook event encouraging students to show up during the extended hours of finals week to convince the university that they will take advantage of late night space at the library in the future if it is open all year round.

When I saw the Facebook event and the amount of people who had already confirmed their attendance only a few hours after it was created, I knew it was going to be a story. So I first called library officials to see whether this movement had any sway or potential for sway. We thought at first that it was something that the university had already shot down and so we were unsure that it would be that important of a story. But what I found out was that the library officials supported USG in their efforts but just didn't have the funding to keep the library open. So from there, I knew my story needed to be more about what it would take to get the library the money it needs to stay open.

For that information I interviewed library officials, university officials, the student body president and even a representative form Gov.-elect John Kasich to see if he had any plans formed yet for higher education funding. Kasich was painted as being anti-student during his campaign and so I wanted to make sure that we got something on the record from him.

I also went and took my own photos in the library. It was the first time I had actually gone anywhere other than the first floor of the building. I had a great time covering this story. I explored a new place on campus. Formed a good working relationship with our USG president, which can come in handy in the future, and I brought this student issue to the front burner as a front-page story of the student paper.

USG: Extend Thompson's hours

MOLLY GRAY / The Lantern

A year after William Oxley Thompson Memorial Library reopened after extensive renovations, students are calling for more.

On Monday, 1,866 students confirmed themselves as attending a Facebook event titled "Do you want Thompson Library's hours extended?" The event, created by Tara Workman, Undergraduate Student Government associate director for libraries, and Niraj Antani, a senator in USG, is spreading word that there will be extended library hours during finals week, in hopes that it will generate support for extended hours yearlong.

But university officials are not convinced that many students would take advantage of extended hours, which could cost more than $100,000 a year.

"We're hoping to get a strong student turnout," said USG President Micah Kamrass. "That should be a persuasive argument as to why they should make (library hours) extended to 2 a.m. all year round."

During normal hours, the library is open until midnight Sunday through Thursday and 10 p.m. on Friday and Saturday. The hours will be extended until 2 a.m. Sunday through Wednesday of finals week.

"Thompson has a history of staying open late during finals weeks. However, we have not seen many students in Thompson during the midnight to 2 a.m. time period when we have been open," said Larry Allen, communications director for university libraries.

But some students want the library open late all year long because of its location in the heart of campus.

"More then once a week I study (at Thompson) until 12 a.m. and then go over to SEL. It'd be nice to stay in one place," said John Wernecke, an undecided second-year.

But other students, such as Michael Chandler, a fourth-year in civil engineering, said that even if the library expanded its hours, they would stay that late only on special occasions, such as during midterms and finals.

Kamrass, along with Workman and Katie Burwell, USG director of academic affairs, met with library administrators Oct. 22 to discuss the library and their hopes for extending normal hours until 2 a.m. during the week.

"In mine and (USG Vice President) Brad Pyle's campaign, one of the biggest topics that we pushed was that we thought our library could be open later than midnight," Kamrass said. "So we wanted to meet with people in charge of the library and find out if efforts have already been made on that and if not, what it would take to make that possible."

During the meeting, Kamrass learned that it would cost at least $130,000 a year to keep Thompson Library open until 2 a.m.

"The number is probably a little fuzzy, but that is a gross estimate that we came up with at the meeting with USG," said Nancyanne O'Hanlon, head of instruction for university libraries.

She said the extra cost would stem from additional security, extra student workers and staff to man the 12-floor library.

Both Kamrass and O'Hanlon said they wanted to increase the library budget to allow extended hours.

"We certainly want to be able to provide (later hours) but we have to be able to afford it and we have to see that it is really something students will take advantage of," O'Hanlon said.

Ohio Governor-elect John Kasich is required to announce an official budget by March 15. Kamrass said that after evaluating several considerations, including tuition, the library hours will be high on his priority list.

"We can't move until we see what the state budget looks like," Kamrass said. "Once we see whether or not there is room to increase the library funding, we can request that from the provost."

Kasich, who was painted as anti-student by his opponent, Gov. Ted Strickland, hasn't released any particulars about his plan for higher education.

"Gov.-elect Kasich will be rolling out his budget when it is finalized," said Rob Nichols, Kasich's press secretary. "The whole budget will be under the microscope, and we will put out the best value for the tax payers."

For now, however, Kamrass is hoping for support during the finals week hours, he said. USG will offer snacks during the extended hours and will help the library track the number of students who visit.

The Science and Engineering Library is the only library on campus open 24 hours a day, which is financially feasible because of the library's smaller size, officials said.

However, Kamrass said he and other members of the USG senate are concerned because SEL will likely lose about 150 seats when construction begins on Sullivant Hall on High Street. The university will temporarily move the music library from Sullivant Hall to the SEL.

Libraries Director Carol Diedrichs has proposed several potential sites for additional study spaces to make up for seats lost in the SEL, including Central Classrooms Building, Scott Laboratory, Hitchcock Hall, Smith Lab and the Physics Research Building.

Diedrichs gave her presentation in an open meeting, and it can be found at library.osu.edu.

Andrew Holleran contributed to this story.

Kasich wins race for governor - The Lantern - Campus

2010-11-30T10:01:00.002-05:00

Kasich wins race for governor - The Lantern - Campus

In the beginning of November I had the opportunity to cover the midterm elections. In a state like Ohio, an influential swing state over the past few years, it was an exciting time to cover politics. I was assigned to be at the Ohio Democratic Party's election night party, which was held at the Hyatt Regency in Downtown Columbus and I was to focus mainly on the gubernatorial race because I had previously covered the issues for Gov. Ted Strickland.

The elections were exciting from a journalistic standpoint this year because the Republican candidates swept all of the state offices. Not only did former Rep. John Kasich, now Gov.-elect John Kasich, kick out incumbent Strickland, but the lieutenant governor, secretary of state, the Ohio U.S. senate seat and the Ohio 15th district representative seat.

It was really interesting for me to see how the attendees and candidates at the democratic election night party reacted. For me, it was easy to predict or imagine how the winners would react and so I was glad that I could be around the losers and have the opportunity to portray that in my article.

This experience was a great opportunity for me to gain footing in the political reporting scene. Going to school in the state's capital has definitely put me in a position to explore that field early in my career and I am very grateful for that.

Kasich wins race for governor

ANDY GOTTESMAN / The Lantern

Just two years after Ohio voters helped elect President Barack Obama, the historically red state went back to its roots.

Ohioans took their disappointment with government spending, high unemployment and Democratic incumbents' policies to the voting booths and decided it was time for change.

That change includes governor-elect John Kasich, along with Republicans regaining control of the U.S. House of Representatives, winning seats in the Senate and the Ohio secretary of state's office.

"We took a step forward, to shrinking government and to making it work," Kasich said. "We took a step to making Ohio a better place to live and work."

The mood at each party's election gathering reflected the evening's results. With blue light projected on the ceiling of the Renaissance Hotel and "Taking Back Ohio" lights on the walls, the atmosphere at the Republican party was electric. When "Hang on Sloopy" played, the crowd burst out with chants of "O-H-I-O." The volume increased when Fox News projected the Republicans would take over the House at about 9:10 p.m.

At the Democratic election party at the Hyatt Regency, however, the atmosphere was subdued. Aside from Strickland's concession speech, there were few cheers.

"We didn't have a good night nationally tonight, we know that," said Sen. Sherrod Brown, whose seat was not up for a vote.

Kasich wasn't the only Republican to have success in gubernatorial races. Twenty-one other states had projected Republican winners by 1:30 a.m. The Democratic Party was projected to narrowly retain control of the U.S. Senate.

Democrats will need to convince moderate voters of their stance on the economy and the deficit before the 2012 election, said Charles Stewart, a visiting scholar at the Ohio State Moritz College of Law and a professor of political science at MIT.

There will "probably not (be) a lot of major legislation over the next two years" because of a split House and Senate, Stewart said.

As of Monday, Strickland and Kasich were tied, according to Quinnipiac polls. But Ohio voters were fueled by the 400,000 jobs lost during Strickland's two-year tenure as governor.

Ohio's unemployment rate was 10 percent in September, down from 10.1 percent in August, but remained higher than the national average, which stayed at 9.6 percent, according to the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services.

"I work for you, not Wall Street, not for the wealthy and not for narrow special interests," Strickland said. "I believe in Ohio. Even though we weren't successful, I think we fought a pretty good fight."

Strickland's main attack was to paint Kasich as anti-education, something he reminded Ohioans of in his concession speech.

"We fought to defend Ohio schools to make sure they were constitutionally funded," Strickland said as multiple attendees solemnly exited the hotel conference room.

But some students at the Republican election party were optimistic.

"I like Kasich, he seems to represent my ideals and Ohio's," said Jibreel Riley, a first-year in public affairs.

Other students simply voted to shake up the system.

"I kind of crossed lines in some categories for some candidates just based on if they've been in office or not," said Kevin Volz, a fourth-year in strategic communications. "I feel like people who have been in office haven't been doing so great, so maybe we should give some other people a shot."

Columbus Mayor Michael B. Coleman worried that Kasich's election will harm Ohio's education system because of his state budget policies.

"I am most concerned about the budget cuts that Kasich has proposed," Coleman said. "He is going to eliminate the state income tax and that is going to affect education. Fewer students are going to be able to go to college."

Coleman said he believed both candidates to be vague, but he was putting support behind the candidate he believed would do the best things for his city.

In his victory speech, Kasich promised that is what he would do.

He said he ran because he "wanted to improve the lives of people in our country. That is what it is all about. It's not about partisanship," he said. "You have one moment in time to do great things.

"We are going to raise the bar in Ohio."

Justin Conley, Jami Jurich, Alex Hampel and Rick Schanz contributed to this story.

My day as a photographer

2010-11-22T16:33:00.003-05:00

In my years at The Lantern I have frequently taken my own photos for stories about artists and events on campus and elsewhere. Most recently I had a large photo on the front page to go with my story on extending library hours (post on that experience coming soon).

But this past weekend I had what I like to think is the highlight of my photography career. I had the opportunity to shoot photos at the Ohio State vs. Iowa game at Kinnick Stadium in Iowa City, Iowa.

MOLLY GRAY / The Lantern

For the camera geeks who read: I shot with a Canon EOS 20D with a f/2.8 70-200 mm lens. As well, thanks a million to photog Ken May for letting me use his 500 mm lens for a good portion of the second quarter of the game. I got some great photos from across the field.

I was super nervous going into the game. First, I had never shot sports before and definitely nothing at the speed of a Big Ten football game. Second, my personal camera is a Nikon and I had never shot with a Canon (it took me a while to get that zoom was the opposite direction!). Third, it was supposed to be very cold and I am a baby when it comes to the cold.

But it ended up a fabulous experience. Once I got out there I had a lot of fun chatting with other photographers and asking all of them for tips. Most were very surprised that a reporter was venturing down to the field with a camera, but I just told them that I have always liked trying my hand at new things.

MOLLY GRAY / The Lantern

Things I learned:

1. Keep your eye on the ball.

A couple summers ago when I interned at NBC4 on the Football Friday Nights program a photographer taught me to always watch the ball when you are shooting video at football games. I figured that advice was applicable to still photos as well and I was right. Instead of trying to read Terrelle Pryor or Dan 'Boom' Herron I just kept my focus on the ball and tried not to lose sight of it.

2. Start wide, then go tight.

This is something that I have not confirmed with an actual photographer, but toward the end of the first half I realized that I had a better chance of getting a good photo at the end of a play (the crucial moment) if I started my lens at a wider angle and then quickly tightened it when I knew about where my shot was going to be. That way, I could see more of what was going on in the whole play instead of the micro view of the two or three players who had immediate contact with the ball.

3. Be patient.

Over three quarters of football (I sat out the third quarter to charge my camera's batteries) I took 750 photos. Of those I picked out 47 favorites and of those 21 made it into the slideshow at the beginning of this post. At the beginning of the game I was worried that I wasn't going to get a single good photo, but as the game went on I realized that not every single frame is going to be good. Not every play is photogenic. At the end of the day I had a ton of photos that I really liked, but it took an entire game to get them.

MOLLY GRAY / The Lantern

Overall, I had a really great experience and I definitely have a few photos that I am going to frame for myself and my family. I am always told that in order to get a job I am going to have to be able to do it all. Sure, I might not have produced photos as great as my coworker, Andy Gottesman, or the other experienced photographers, but my photos were used in the paper and online and I now know that in the future if my newspaper needs photos of a football game and it came down to me I would be able to produce something worth publishing.

MOLLY GRAY / The Lantern

Rally to Restore Sanity And/Or Fear

2010-11-18T10:09:00.004-05:00

While I was in Washington, D.C. I was able to run over to the Jon Stewart/Stephen Colbert rally on National Mall.

Most totals estimate well over 200,000 people in attendance and I saw people gathered over a mile back from the stage. They couldn't hear anything but they were still ecstatic to be there.

I had originally planned on going just to check it out for personal reasons (I love community engagement). But, once I got there I started to see several families and couples with Ohio State gear on! Immediately I thought, "Well, there is a local angle I work with!"

So I pulled out my notebook and my camera and got to work. I was able to come up with a pretty good story about people traveling from Columbus for the rally and I really enjoyed doing it. It was cool because we were able to cover a national event with a D.C. dateline.

Once I got everything I needed I ran back to my hotel, which was about 8 blocks from the mall. I quickly wrote the article and sent it back to Ohio for edits. The story was posted around 6 p.m. that evening and then ran in the Monday print edition with additional quotes and context.

What I think I got from this experience was learning how to see a story and run with it. I had no idea that I was going to see people with OSU gear and be able to make a local connection. But I was prepared and was able to produce a good clip and great photos to go along with it.

What I was mostly impressed with was the amount of people there. The only time that I had seen that many people was when I attended the 2009 Lakers Championship Parade in Downtown Los Angeles. It always amazing me when so many people who don't know each other come together for one cause. There is a sense of unity and shared experience that always hits me.

Columbus residents make trip to D.C. for Stewart, Colbert political rally

Washington, D.C. — After traveling for hours to attend the Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear, Tobin Strohl, a Dublin, Ohio, resident, couldn't hear a word said by either Jon Stewart or Stephen Colbert, the two Comedy Central comedians who hosted the rally Saturday in Washington, D.C.

"We got about as close as we could," Strohl said. "We couldn't hear at all, but the atmosphere is pretty infectious."

The Comedy Central duo, accompanied by celebrities such as musician Ozzy Osbourne and actor Sam Waterston, held the rally on the National Mall. The crowd filled the mall and the streets and monuments surrounding it, drowning out the noise amplified from the stage, which was in front of the Capitol Building.

Strohl and his family set up camp just in front of the Washington Monument about a mile away from the stage.

"There has to be about five times as many people here as fit in the Horseshoe," Strohl said. "It's simply amazing."

News station CBS Corp. estimated that 215,000 people attended the rally.

Not being able to hear the rally didn't diminish the experience for Strohl, who attributed the large turnout to Stewart, saying he inspired everyday people to become more aware of politics.

"The radical extremes have taken over the media," said Strohl, who made the trip to Washington, D.C., for the rally with his wife, Samantha, an alumna of Ohio State. "Stewart really struck a nerve in people who might not have had the time to be politically active before. We want to be politically active but we have dinner to put on the table."

The Strohls brought their two sons, Jeremy and Samuel, along with them on the trip.

"It was quite the trip. We hopped on the Metro from our hotel, and it took us about an hour to get here with the strollers and chairs, but it has been well worth it," Samantha said.

Tyler and Meghan Brooks, much closer to the action, had to work their way out of the crowd. The couple took a seven-hour road trip from Columbus to D.C. for the rally.

"It was hard to get in, you had to push, but it was really great," Tyler said. "We can't believe how many people are here."

As they exited the rally, the Brookses said they saw lots of people with signs and costumes mocking the Tea Party and Fox News Channel, popular targets of Stewart and Colbert's satire.

Michael Trollan stood in the mall near Seventh Avenue holding up his MacBook Air with the words, "Fox News says there are 100 people here."

Trollan said his sign was an effort to mock Sean Hannity, a host on Fox, who reportedly used old footage to make a Tea Party rally in November seem larger than it actually was.
His only complaint: not being able to hear.

"I'll have to go and listen to it on the Internet somewhere because all I could hear was the massive crowd," Trollan said.

Other signs at the rally paid tribute to Colbert's notion that Americans should be afraid of the state of their country's political system.

Christoph Schwaiger, a native of France, came to the rally as a part of a four-month trip throughout the United States. He and a friend, Ian Kellett of Montana, held signs that read "(totally) scared" and "you can't spell COURAGE without RAGE."

Online News Association Conference

2010-11-09T10:07:00.001-05:00

Corrected Nov. 10, 2010 11:13 a.m.

Last week I had the great opportunity to work in the student newsroom of the Online News Association conference in Washington, D.C.

While there I was expected to produce content for the conference's website, while working with other students from across the country. In total there were 20 of us and I think I learned something from each and every one of them.

In the time that I wasn't working on material for the website, I was able to sit in on other sessions that interested me, meet with representatives from graduate schools and even explore the city. There is far too much to talk about so I just picked a handful.

What I covered:

1. A review of new mobile applications that make real-time coverage of events possible.

Real time coverage from scratch — the good, the bad, the ugly

A screen shot of my Pixelpipe post!

In this piece (follow the link above to read), I teamed up with another student to test out several applications that panelists recommended for real-time news coverage. Real-time news coverage includes crowd-sourcing and disseminating information in quick short bursts to keep up with what is happening in ... you guessed it ... real time!

I tested out two blog sites that were designed for quick and dirty posting, and an application designed to manage your Twitter account.

From the point of view of a journalist, the Twitter application seemed be of little use, but the two blogging sites could be used as a way to get information to your audience in a flash.

My favorite of the test samples, was Pixelpipe. It is a great way to manage various social media sites and send the same information to each of your audiences with one click, one e-mail or one text message. This is great for people like me, who manage several blogs and Twitter accounts.

2. A look at the perseverance of investigative reporting in the age of the Internet.

Investigative nonprofits booming

Click on image to view at full size.

For my second project I work with a student to cover a session about the rise in investigative nonprofit organizations.

A professor at American University released a study done by the Investigative Reporting Workshop that analyzed 60 different nonprofits that are operating in the United States at this time.

During his introduction to the session, Professor Charles Lewis gave a great list of statistics showing the success of nonprofits in the last several years.

I was really impressed with the numbers and so I decided to create a by-the-numbers graphic to go along with Mandy's video package.

I used Adobe Illustrator to draw the magnifying glass from scratch and then used InDesign to create the info graphic.

I made the decision to make some figures larger than others because I thought that the design looked too flat will all the figures at the same point size.

3. Roundup of legal concerns that have grown since the implementation of the Internet

Three legal considerations that didn't exist before the Internet

For my final piece, I attended a session about legal issues called "Law & Order: Special Digital Unit."

Panelists included a very prominent British attorney, general counsel of the New York Times Co., a D.C. area lawyer and the executive director of the Reporters Committee for the Freedom of the Press (RCFP).

After briefly discussing the probability, successes and failures of the attempt to pass a shield law in the U.S., the panelists discussed issues regarding legalities of content published on the web.

Because many of the questions asked and answered were sensitive in nature, this session was not broadcast or taped. It also meant that I had to find a way to cover the session without revealing the concerns or habits of attendees.

I decided to catch up with Lucy Dalglish, from the RCFP, and ask her what she thought were the most important concerns to watch out for. I took three of those and published a "what you need to know" type article with small sections on each of the three tips.

What I learned:

1. Crisis Reporting

One of the sessions that I was really excited to attend was a session on international crisis reporting because that is really what I am interested in pursuing as a career. With my second degree in international studies with a focus on Eastern Europe and Russia, I hope to be able to cover international politics and crises if they happen.

At the session, I was hoping to learn tips about international reporting, such as the first thing you should do when you hit the ground, or how to make sure you stay in communication with editors back at home. However, the session was focused more on new digital technology that reporters can use to improve their reporting.

The first thing that I was really impressed by was a company called Ushahidi. Ushahidi is an open-source crowdsourcing tool that coordinates text messages into a map showing where the needs are in a crisis.

For example, during the Haiti earthquake aftermath, people in Haiti could send a text message to a Ushahidi number giving them their location and their need (i.e. food, medical attention or clothing). The Ushahidi team, made up of translators, message receivers and dispatchers, relayed that information to humanitarian aid organizations and media. They also create a map showing what needs are where and telling the real story.

What I liked about this service is that it really tells the story from the people. In a crisis it is often difficult to get any straight answers from the authority figures as to what is happening and what people are in need of. Through Ushahidi, the voice of the people can be heard whether in contrast or complementary to the voice of authority.

Other resources that were discussed were: OpenStreet Map and Global Voices.

2. News is going mobile.

One of the things that I got to do outside of the conference was a tour of NPR headquarters (no more than two blocks from the hotel). It was fascinating to see how they operate. I was really impressed with the studios and the number of staff they employ in research and reporting.

One thing that really stood out to me from the tour was that NPR is really pushing toward mobile applications design, mobile podcasts and Internet news and they have been very successful in doing so.

With the rise of iPhones, Androids and iPads I think they were very smart to do so. I think this technology lends itself very well to news distribution and I hope that the industry learns to take advantage of it.

The Lantern Weekly Webcast, Oct. 22

2010-10-27T12:09:00.000-04:00

Meet Kelly Brauch-Marvin

2010-10-18T16:31:00.000-04:00

[Originally published by Friends of Goodale Park]

Kelly Brauch-Marvin can often be seen in Goodale Park on Saturday mornings keeping her head down and working on the weeds. Brauch-Marvin has been a steady and dedicated volunteer for the Friends of Goodale Park since April when she and her husband moved to the area from Powell, Ohio and since moving to Columbus, she has fallen in love with the park.

"It is the soul of the city," Brauch-Marvin said. "It really does feel that way and the organization has been so wonderful."

Aside from her husband and sons who come to the park occasionally, Brauch-Marvin has a constant companion in the family dog, Gilly.

"She's here twice a day so I'm here twice a day," she said.

She also comes every once in a while to indulge in photography, one her hobbies. Brauch-Marvin said she sometimes refers to herself as an amateur artist and she often gets inspiration for works from visiting the park.

But, more often than not, she comes to pull weeds or trim the hedges, even if it isn't a Friends of Goodale Park workday.

"I don't do it because I feel like I'm supposed to do that or want to be recognized for that," she said. "It feels good to me, it's a stress-reliever. I've been doing this for twenty years."

Brauch-Marvin and her husband moved into an apartment and she says that they have adopted the park as their new backyard.

"I thought, 'What am I going to do now?' when I realized I didn't have my big backyard anymore," she said. "But I realized that Goodale Park could be my backyard."

It's doubtful, however, that Brauch-Marvin ever had a party the likes of Comfest in her Powell backyard.

"Comfest was fabulous," she said. "But next year I don't think I'll volunteer quite as many hours so that I can get some time to go around because it was so much to take in. It was a blast and everyone was so unbelievably nice."

She has the same sentiment to share about the fellow Goodale Park volunteers.

"I was raised in the service so I know what service is and we are only as good as our service, and I truly believe that as corny as it sounds," Brauch-Marvin said. "It speaks to the values of the people in this neighborhood, that so many great people come to volunteer."

3L Goes Full-Circle With the U.S. Attorney’s Office

2010-10-18T16:27:00.001-04:00

[Originally published by the Moritz College of Law]

Several years before entering law school, 3L Bridget Hinegardner, a biology major at The Ohio State University, was hired as a runner at the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Columbus.

It was an experience to which she credits the rest of her education and the start of her legal career, which most recently has brought her back to the office as a clerk this past summer.

After her first year working at the U.S. Attorney’s Office as an undergraduate, Hinegardner switched her major to criminology and psychology and eventually enrolled at Moritz.

“When I started at the U.S. Attorney’s Office my freshman year in college, I really enjoyed the atmosphere there,” Hinegardner said. “I really liked the criminal law aspect of what they did and the idea of working for the government.”

After her first year of law school, Hinegardner landed an internship in Federal Public Defender’s Office, which helped her to further focus what she wanted to do within criminal law.

“I realized that the litigation aspect of being an attorney was really something that I could see myself doing,” she said. “So with those goals in mind I was able to focus more as a law student.”

Her favorite classes at Moritz have also stoked her passion for criminal law practice; she most enjoyed her trial practice and evidence classes. But it’s the culmination of all Hinegardner’s experiences that have led to her commitment to and interest in criminal law.

“One of the most interesting things I've experienced during my internships and time at Ohio State is being able to watch some big cases get up on their feet from the investigative aspect and through the litigative aspect,” Hinegardner said. “It's these two parts of the law: the investigation and the prosecution, which I have had the most fun studying and look forward to the most in practice.”

Hinegardner has had the opportunity to focus her efforts on a criminal specialty outside of the classroom as well, through student organizations and internships. She served as the Criminal Law Society president last year and is leading the Ohio State Journal of Criminal Law as editor in chief this year.

Hinegardner has several goals for the journal, one of which is to initiate a more environmentally friendly process of publication. While she said that it is still in the idea phase, she is optimistic about what she and her staff will be able to accomplish.

“We are a new journal and so we are still trying to implement the most efficient process of editing and writing,” Hinegardner said.

Hinegardner is looking forward to leading the journal during her year as editor-in-chief.

“We have really interesting writers this year and fun topics that I am excited to publish,” she said.
Hinegardner has plenty of first-hand experience to bring to the table in editing the journal after completing her summer as a clerk in the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

“As a runner during my undergraduate time there, I was not involved with legal research and writing,” Hinegardner said. “It was great to actually be able to write motions and see my work filed in court.”

Badgers' backs run wild on OSU

2010-10-18T11:24:00.003-04:00

ANDY GOTTESMAN / The Lantern

Badgers' backs run wild on OSU - The Lantern - Sports

The state of Wisconsin is known for its cheese, but it was Ohio State's defense on Saturday that looked like a block of Swiss: full of holes for Badger running back John Clay. The senior racked up 104 yards in Saturday's game, which Wisconsin won 31-18.

In last year's matchup at Ohio Stadium, Clay had 59 yards on 20 carries against the Buckeyes, but after just one quarter in Camp Randall, he had already racked up 71 yards, including a touchdown to put the Badgers up 14-0 early in the game.

"Football is a game of execution," OSU coach Jim Tressel said. "It's one thing to talk about football, it's another thing to draw it up on the board, and the big thing is to execute. They executed."

Senior captain and defensive lineman Cameron Heyward attributed Clay's success in part to the line's failure to execute defensively.

"They did a pretty good job," Heyward said. "But we didn't do a good job of executing as well. But you've got to tip your hats off to them, they played their butts off."

After giving up 184 total yards on the ground to the Badgers, Heyward took much of the blame.

"We have to learn from our mistakes." Heyward said. "I didn't perform as well as I wanted to, I take this loss very personally. If there is ever a finger to be pointed it's at me. As a leader of this defense I think it starts up front and I don't think we did a good job at all."

The final nail in the defense's coffin came after quarterback Terrelle Pryor and the Buckeye offense had brought the team within three of the Badgers. Wisconsin had the ball on the OSU 12-yard line and Badgers' running back James White scored to put Wisconsin up 28-18.

The Wisconsin offensive line "did a great job protecting and showing, obviously, the run and then passing," said defensive lineman Dexter Larimore. "But the bottom line is that our D-line didn't give enough pressure and we, as a defense, didn't collaborate on third down and get off the field."

Despite the defensive struggles, both Tressel and Heyward said that Wisconsin hadn't done anything outside of the ordinary, nothing that they hadn't prepared for.

"If I had to bet (what they did on offense) wasn't anything too earth-shattering, just excellent execution," Tressel said. "This was probably a lot of their base package."

OSU special teams continued to give up valuable points when David Gilreath returned the opening kickoff 97 yards for a Badger touchdown. It sparked a horrendous first half for the Buckeyes.

With 10 minutes left in the second quarter, OSU held the Badgers from within the 5-yard line for two downs before giving up a 1-yard touchdown to Clay, putting the Badgers up 21-0.

After two field goal attempts, the Buckeyes headed to the locker room down 21-3. The defense improved in the second half as the Buckeyes outscored the Badgers by five points, but their efforts were in vain.

"To Wisconsin's credit, when it got to (21-18), they stepped up and kept that 10-point cushion on us the rest of the second half and they came up with the win," Tressel said.

Another big game, another big struggle

2010-10-18T11:20:00.002-04:00

ANDY GOTTESMAN / The Lantern

Another big game, another big struggle - The Lantern - Sports

Ohio State fans thought they could rest easy: The Buckeyes' big game woes seemed to be over with wins against Oregon in January's Rose Bowl and Miami (Fla.) at home in September.

But alas, Tressel and his boys could not overcome the Camp Randall hoopla and OSU lost Saturday's game, and its short-lived No. 1 spot, 31-18 against No. 18 Wisconsin.

Quarterback Terrelle Pryor looked like he was unable to complete a meaningful pass. The defense allowed Wisconsin to run the ball at will. Special teams gave up a 97-yard touchdown on the opening kickoff.

To put it simply, the Buckeyes' preparation just didn't pan out.

"We've got to stop taking stuff for granted," Pryor said, unwilling to look anyone in the eye after the game. "I wanted to make sure that we stayed focused … and those things I talked about, it happened today."

There were many x-factors reminiscent of recent big-game losses for the Buckeyes, one of which is the 50-percent completion rate for Pryor, who was 14 for 28. In the 2009 Fiesta Bowl, Pryor went 5 for 13 passes, after splitting snaps with then-senior and former starter Todd Boeckman. The then-No. 3 Texas Longhorns beat then-No. 10 OSU 24-21.

As a Heisman hopeful and junior leader of the Buckeye squad, Pryor said he felt the weight of the loss on his shoulders after stating he had fully recovered from an injury he suffered during the Illinois game.

"I can't use the quad as an excuse, I had enough that I could run a little bit," Pryor said. "That's no excuse at all, I mean, the quad is fine."

It was the Buckeye defense that couldn't come back from star safety Tyler Moeller's injury against Illinois, as it gave up 104 yards to Wisconsin running back John Clay.

The last time the Buckeyes allowed an opponent more than 100 rushing yards was in another No. 1 matchup on Sept. 13, 2008, when then-No. 5 OSU visited No. 1, Southern California and Joe McKnight racked up 105 yards.

In Saturday's game, the Buckeyes made a run with 18 unanswered points, beginning in the second quarter. But the attempt turned out to be in vain when the Badgers added a touchdown and a field goal in the last seven minutes of the game.

"It's hard to have momentum in somebody else's house but we had a little bit of momentum," said coach Jim Tressel about the beginning of the second half. "But, you know, (Wisconsin) delivered."

The loss in momentum, however, that allowed Wisconsin to score the final points was not unlike the loss in momentum with minutes left against USC on Sept. 12, 2009. USC started with the ball on its own 5-yard line and managed to march down the field for a touchdown and 2-point conversion to make the final score 18-15 USC.

Running back Brandon Saine, who didn't see much action until late in the game, said there hadn't been a mental block for him or his teammates.

"I think people were thinking the right things, but you know, coming into the stadium and trying to pull off a win is always hard," Saine said. "This is one of the toughest places to play ever."

Despite their disappointment, Pryor said the Buckeyes have no reason to give up.

"It was a team loss, but we'll live to fight another day," Pryor said.

Lantern Weekly Webcast, October 15

2010-10-15T10:29:00.001-04:00

3L Veteran Finds Balance Between School, Village Council

2010-10-13T19:37:00.000-04:00

[Originally published by the Moritz College of Law]

At age 27, 3L Brian Stewart has accomplished more than most will at 47. He has served in the U.S. Army in Iraq, is married and has a daughter, has accepted an associate position for after graduation, and is an elected member of a village council.

With all of that it’s amazing that Stewart has time for law classes, let alone to serve as the president of the Military Law Students Association (MLSA) and as vice president of the Federalist Society.

Stewart spent three years on active duty as an infantryman in the Army from 2003 to 2006. His time included a year-long tour in Iraq in 2005, and when he finished his enlistment, Stewart had worked his way up to specialist in the 3^rd Infantry Division, based out of Fort Stewart in Georgia.

Stewart’s dedication to public service and his knack for having a hand in everything is what brought him to law school in the first place, after receiving his undergraduate degree in political science from The Ohio State University.

“I was halfway through my deployment in Iraq in 2005, and I decided I wanted to eventually go to law school,” Stewart said. “The law always seemed like important work, since it often plays such a large role in people’s lives. I also thought that I would see a lot of variety because every case is different even if it’s the same type of law.”

Stewart will be practicing business law at Carlile Patchen & Murphy in Columbus, where he worked as a summer associate this past summer. The position is well-suited for Stewart, who said that his favorite classes at Moritz have been Property and Contracts.

“Property with Professor Cohen and Contracts with Professor Hoffer during my first year were eye-opening,” Stewart said. “I didn’t know about a lot of different areas of law before I came to law school. I only knew a little about criminal law, but after I took those two classes I thought, ‘Wow, I am really interested in this and I think I could see myself doing this for a living.’ I really enjoyed those classes.”

Whether he enjoyed the class or not, Stewart’s Contracts exam during his second semester will always stick out in his memory.

“My wife and I had our first child, our daughter Salem, just a few days after the exam,” he said. “She showed up just in time for the rest of finals.”

As a veteran, Stewart is no stranger to working under pressure. In fact, his time in the Armed Forces has prepared him well for law school.

“You get that discipline and attention to detail engrained in your way of thinking,” Stewart said. “And from my time in Iraq, once you’ve been in a war situation, coming back and having to read your book every night is not that big of a deal.”

He also notes, however, that returning to school is often a difficult transition for soldiers. That culture shock is something that he aims to help an increasing number of veterans with as a part of his role as president of MLSA.

“Veterans tend to be a little older than their peers because they have spent two to five years out of school,” Stewart said. “I feel like it is important that our group has a presence to let those returning veterans know that there are people here at school who have walked in their boots.”

Stewart has two goals for MLSA in the current school year. The first is an initiative that was originally proposed by a former Moritz student who has family serving in Afghanistan. She asked Stewart if the group could help with a book bag drive for children in Afghanistan.

“We are asking people to focus their efforts on a specific item and bring in their old book bags so we can send them overseas,” Stewart said.

The second thing he hopes to accomplish is to raise awareness of the contributions to the legal field made by veterans.

“If you think about Justices Rehnquist, Brennan, Stevens, and a lot of other justices in the history of the United States, another thing they have in common is that they were all veterans,” Stewart said. “I don’t think a lot of people realize how many influential judges and lawyers have spent time in the Armed Forces.”

Stewart’s leadership skills extend past his involvement in MLSA, as he was elected a councilman where he lives, in Ashville, Ohio. Stewart had lived in Ashville for about a year when he was approached by several town members and encouraged to run for council. So, in the fall of 2009 he went door-to-door on every street of the small town to help get elected.

“It was right during Appellate Advocacy, but I still went around with my literature knocking on doors,” Stewart said. “It worked, and I really like the job and interacting with the residents.”

The council does everything that a larger city council would do, including utilities, police activity, and budget plans, just on a smaller scale; Ashville has around 4,500 residents.

Stewart serves as chair of the Legislative Committee, putting his classroom knowledge into practice, and says that he and his family enjoy the town and plan to remain there.

Ted Manley '92

2010-10-07T10:16:00.002-04:00

Moritz Alumna Successful on All Sides of Employment Law

2010-10-07T10:14:00.000-04:00

[Originally published by the Moritz College of Law]

When Valerie Sharpe ’97 first thought she wanted to become a lawyer, she was under some unusual circumstances. Sharpe and 200 other protestors who she had helped organize had just been arrested for protesting the Gulf War in Santa Barbara, Calif. She was pursuing undergraduate studies in English and women’s studies at the University of California Santa Barbara.

“It turned into a huge legal battle because the prosecutor wasn’t satisfied with giving everyone a trespassing violation; he wanted to give everyone probation as well,” Sharpe said. “One of the probation requirements was that we couldn’t participate in any further protests, which we felt was an attempt to stifle our First Amendment rights.”

Because of the drawn-out nature of the case, Sharpe spent a year in Santa Barbara after graduation trying to decide whether to pursue a Ph.D. in women’s studies or to earn a law degree.

Sharpe worked as a legal clerk for a law firm in Santa Barbara and ultimately decided to get a master’s degree in women’s studies. It was that decision that brought the Del Mar, Calif., native to Columbus.

“At the time there were not many programs where you could get a master’s degree just in women’s studies,” Sharpe said. “Ohio State was one of three programs that would give me the degree I wanted, and it happened to be the most established program and the one that offered me the best situation financially.”

So Sharpe moved to Columbus and began her master’s degree. However, shortly into the two-year program she realized although she enjoyed teaching, she wanted to do something with more social action.

“I realized that I was more of a doer, as opposed to someone satisfied with just talking about intellectual issues” Sharpe said. “I wanted to feel like I was doing something, so I decided not to continue with academia after the program, but to go to law school.”

Once again Sharpe applied to schools around the country, but Ohio State came out on top because of the quality of the school and the fact that the women’s studies department and the law school allowed her to continue teaching at the University.

During her first year of law school Sharpe took a great interest in child welfare law because of the involvement she had with an organization in Clintonville called the United Methodist Children’s Home.

“I worked part-time at a group home on Como Avenue that was for teen moms and their kids,” Sharpe said. “They took on teenage moms who were in the foster care system and taught them parenting skills and gave them a place to be with their babies.”

Sharpe established a strong relationship with one of the moms and was asked to be the godmother to her two boys.

“I was actually just in Columbus last June for my godson’s 18^th birthday,” Sharpe said.

But after a child welfare law fellowship and an internship at a labor union, Sharpe decided to shift her focus to employment law and, at the beginning of her second year, she accepted an associate position at Littler Mendelson, a labor and employment law firm, in San Francisco.

While at Littler, Sharpe was able to maintain her passion for activism and child welfare through positions on the Board of Directors for the California Coalition Against Sexual Assault and a San Francisco organization called Legal Services for Children.

“I wanted to do some pro bono work and advocacy for children and sexual assault victims was something important to me and something that I already had experience working with,” said Sharpe, who taught rape prevention at the Women’s Place at OSU.

“I was very grateful to work with organizations that were consistent with my activist ideals,” Sharpe said. “But it became too time consuming as I was trying to build my career at Littler.”

Sharpe spent nine years with Littler Mendelson and she says that the most challenging, and yet most rewarding decision of her career, was when she decided to leave the firm and to not pursue a position as shareholder at Littler.

“The hardest thing was trying to find work-life balance,” Sharpe said. “I am most proud of the fact that I was able to leave a large firm and then through my own means, maintain a career.”

Sharpe left the firm in 2006 just over a year after she and her husband, who is also an employment attorney, had their first child. Sharpe joined the former managing partner of the San Francisco Littler office to practice plaintiff employee litigation, which had always been something she wanted to try.

However, after she welcomed her second daughter, Sharpe was offered work practicing employment litigation and labor arbitrations for PG&E, the main utilities company in Northern California. She formally opened the Law Offices of Valerie L. Sharpe and became outside counsel for PG&E.

At PG&E, Sharpe has found the balance she was looking for: the rewards of a competitive work environment and the freedom to put family first.

“I am not guaranteed work so I still have to hustle and make people happy so they keep giving me work,” Sharpe said. “It’s work that I like to do, it’s on my own terms, and I still make a decent salary working only 60 percent of the time that I did previously. I was true to myself and the desire that I had to find a work-life balance.”

The balance is most rewarding when she is able to spend time with her daughters, she said. She recently spent a Tuesday morning helping her daughter, who is entering first grade, paint stools for the art room at her new school.

“That really makes it all worth it for me,” Sharpe said.

Meet Nancy Fennessy

2010-10-07T09:58:00.000-04:00

[Originally posted by the Friends of Goodale Park]

Nancy Fennessy, the volunteer of the month for August, first started going to Goodale Park after she returned to Columbus from Budapest, Hungary. Fennessy had been working as a librarian in an American children's school.

"I worked with pre-k through fifth grade students," Fennessy said.

She moved into Victorian Gate across the street from the park and has since enjoyed reading and walking through the park when she is not working on one of her many charity initiatives or working at a clothing store.

While overseas, Fennessy started a program at her school in which the middle school children went to a local dog shelter and volunteered. After 10 years, the program is still going strong.

"We really helped them out a lot," Fennessy said.

Fennessy also started a website for cats promoting a technique called "TNR".

"Track, neuter and release. If you have a colony of cats living outside in an area you get them all neutered and put them back," Fennessy said.

The program typically applies when there are 25 cats or more, and the TNR process is something Fennessy has done all over and continues to facilitate that through her foundation, which she co-founded with another woman.

After moving back to the states, Fennessy didn't really think she needed to look for any additional volunteer opportunities, but the drive just couldn't be stopped when she saw the chalk advertisements for Friends of Goodale Park.

"Who needs the internet when you have chalk and a sidewalk?" Fennessy proclaimed.

Fennessy's first event was the Earth Day and she has been planting and weeding ever since.

"Planting and pulling weeds is pretty much all I've done," Fennessy said. "But I like it because I don't know much about it and I like to learn about things I don't know."

Fennessy says she doesn't have a favorite gardening tool, but she does have a favorite Friends of Goodale Park activity: lunch. Whether it is a trip over to the North Market or catering from a local restaurant, Fennessy enjoys a good chat over delicious food.

"We were treated to brunch last month," Fennessy said. "That was really nice."

When she's not helping out at the park on Saturday mornings, reading or playing tennis, Fennessy likes to walk through Victorian Village and admire the architecture, but mostly, she says, her cat website keeps her busy.

"What I really like best is just getting my hands in the community and feeling a bit of ownership," Fennessy said. "I could pick up trash, I could pull weeds, I could do just about anything and like it."

Part of what allows Fennessy to enjoy her work is her natural ability to mix and mingle with everyone.

"It's great to get to chat with the other volunteers and then have people to wave to and say hi when you see them in the neighborhood."

Obama: Universities should make spending more transparent - The Lantern - Campus

2010-09-28T09:43:00.001-04:00

Photo by Andy Gottesman / The Lantern

Obama: Universities should make spending more transparent - The Lantern - Campus

President Barack Obama issued a call Monday for greater transparency in university spending.

"There should be a pie chart at every university that says, ‘Out of every dollar you spend in tuition, here is where your money is going,'" Obama said to a group of college journalists during a conference call. College students "should have some good understanding of that and be able to make better decisions as a consequence of that information."

He said students and parents, as consumers, need to put more pressure on universities to make sure costs stay under control and money is spent in the right places.

"When I go to some public colleges and universities and I look at the athletic facilities that exist these days or the food courts or other things that have to do with quality of life, it's sure a lot nicer than when I was going to college, and somebody has to pay for that," Obama said. "Part of what we have to examine is, ‘Are we designing our universities in a way that focuses on the primary thing?' - which is education."

Jim Lynch, director of OSU Media Relations, said the university is in a unique situation because the athletic department actually provides money for the university, rather than the other way around.

"We are very proud of the fact that our Department of Athletics is one of the few schools in the country to operate without any state or university subsidies," Lynch said. "Not a penny of tuition or tax dollars" is used.

OSU's budget, which includes charts on spending, is posted online by the Office of Resource Planning.
The Lantern has repeatedly asked how much the university pays performers brought to campus by the Ohio Union Activities Board. Officials say those costs are "trade secrets."

"Unfortunately, it would not be wise for the university to release how much we pay to bring in national acts, as it would put us at disadvantage when negotiating future entertainers," Lynch said.

Increasing transparency in college spending is only part of Obama's goal to improve higher education in the United States.

Students "are going to drive the future success of the United States," he said. "The single most important step we can take is to make sure that every young person gets the best education possible. Countries that out-educate us today are going to out-compete us tomorrow."

Obama said that as a nation, the U.S. has fallen from first to 12th in college graduation rates for young people in a single generation. His goal for the next 10 years is to reclaim that No. 1 spot.

He has designed several changes to reach that goal, the first aims to reform federal student loans.
"Instead of handing over $60 billion in unwarranted subsidies to big banks … we are redirecting that money so that it goes directly to students," he said.

Obama said he plans to increase the value of Federal Pell Grants, which do not have to be repaid. Additionally, beginning in 2014, students who take public service jobs will be able to cap their debt at 10 percent of their salary.

"If you go into something like teaching, for example, public service jobs of one sort or another, (your debt) is forgiven after 10 years," Obama said.

The administration is also tripling its investment in college tax credits for middle class families with college students.

However, Obama said later that tax revenue at the state level needed to be increased so public universities would be less inclined to increase tuition year after year. Obama said that he expects increased tax revenue to come as the economy is strengthened.

The underlying caveat to the administration's goals, however, is the strength of the economy.

"If I keep on increasing Pell Grants and increasing student loan programs and making it more affordable, but higher education inflation keeps on going up at the pace that it's going up right now, then we are going to be right back where we started," Obama said.

Tuition at OSU recently increased by 3.5 percent both Summer and Autumn quarters. According to a press release from the College Board, most recent data shows that the national percent change for public four-year universities from the '08-'09 school year to the '09-'10 school year was 6.5 percent. During that time, OSU was under a state-imposed, two-year tuition freeze.

Last, Obama said his health care plan is designed to help college students and their families handle increasing costs of higher education.

"Under the Affordable Care Act, young adults can now stay on their parents' health plans until they are 26 years old," Obama said.

This program is designed so that college graduates who have not found a job or who are not offered health care by their employers will be able to save money on health care.

"Your parents' costs should not go up substantially on this plan," Obama said. "And that should give you a little bit of a cushion as you look for jobs coming out of college."

John McClelland, spokesman for Ohio GOP, disagreed with Obama.

"It's pretty pathetic that the only thing most young adults have to look forward to is not a career on their own, but rather staying on Mom and Dad's healthcare plan until age 26," McClelland said. "It's even worse that when they finally get a paycheck, their tax burden will eventually go up because the Democrats can't seem to stop borrowing their money to feed a bad spending habit."

When faced with a challenge, 3L student continues to rise to the occasion

2010-09-27T11:09:00.000-04:00

[Originally published by the Moritz College of Law]

3L Melissa Froelich began her law school career with a bang that rang loudly throughout Drinko Hall.

“It was the first day of orientation and I’m walking down the main stairway by the library with two classmates that I had met the day before.” Froelich said. “I’m all dressed up to have my picture taken and I took a spill, falling down the main stairs.”

It took Froelich about two seconds to start laughing, which resulted in all three beginning to laugh while helping her up. The three girls soon became best friends learning to laugh their way through the first year at Moritz.

Now, Froelich plans to leave law school with a bang as well, serving as the vice president of the Student Bar Association. Froelich hopes to create a sense of ownership and community for her class.

“This is no longer the day of ‘look to your right, look to your left, and one of those people won’t be here at the end of the year,’” Froelich said. “The moment we walked in the door we were all colleagues. The bonds that we form here will last much longer than anyone will be looking at the grade curve.”

Froelich has spent her entire career as a law student involved with SBA, starting out as a 1L representative during her first year and then serving on the Academic Affairs Committee during her second year.

She said that her favorite part of being part of SBA is the opportunity to shape the school to fit the evolving needs of the students.

“You are a law student once and never again will you have that perspective,” Froelich said. “Capturing that perspective and making sure that future students and the base of Moritz develop and grow through constructive feedback is critical. I want to make sure that we don’t just continue with the status quo because it is easier.”

Taking on a challenge like that is something that comes naturally to Froelich, who was a Division I swimmer at the University of Miami in Florida before returning to her home state to become the first member of her family to go to law school. As an undergraduate student, Froelich majored in advertising and political science, setting herself up for a multitude of different career paths.

“I came to law school for the challenge,” Froelich said. “I would complete internships and think ‘thank goodness, I know I don’t want to do that for the rest of my life.’”

This past summer however, while Froelich was clerking at Isaac, Brant, Ledman & Teetor, LLP, she felt confident in the decision to pursue her law degree.

“I had that moment this summer when I knew that litigation is what I am passionate about,” Froelich said. “That was an exciting step in the right direction.”

The rewarding feeling of the clerkship began with a challenge from an associate.

“We were on a very tight filing deadline for a federal motion for dismissal,” Froelich said. “It was basic, 1L, diversity jurisdiction that was filed the same afternoon I complete the assignment. Opposing counsel filed a motion of no opposition the very next day. Seeing that small accomplishment in the larger scheme of litigation was very rewarding.”

The court room isn’t the only place that Froelich has found herself feeling comfortable. So far at Moritz she has had the opportunity to work with clients one-on-one through the Student Housing Legal Clinic and feels that is has been one of the most beneficial experiences of her legal education.

“It is a fabulous experience as far as getting client intake experience, speaking with clients, and learning that form of communication,” Froelich said. Now that she has her intern certificate she will be able to continue working with the clinic and take cases to trial, if need be.

A bittersweet moment in Froelich’s time at Moritz was when she broke her wrist playing intramural softball during her second year. Luckily, it wasn’t her writing hand, but Froelich had to elevate her wrist during class, which inevitably led to a joke or two.

“Professor Rose called me out one day,” she said. “With five minutes left in class he said ‘Melissa, I know that you want to talk but you are going to have to put your hand down because I am not going to call on you right now.’ It was hilarious and just shows how the faculty's great sense of humor adds to the whole experience.”

New headshots

2010-09-25T13:56:00.003-04:00

A few weeks ago at the Marshall game, I had one of our photographers, Andy Gottesman, take a new headshot for me. I was getting a little bored with my last head shot and my hair is now 4-5 inches shorter than it was when I took the last one.

Here is my favorite! To check out more of Andy's photos you should visit his website.

Then my roommate took this photo after we borrowed some lighting equipment from an amateur photographer friend!

Gov. Strickland: Kasich is anti-student - The Lantern - Campus

2010-09-22T09:25:00.001-04:00

Gov. Strickland: Kasich is anti-student - The Lantern - Campus

Gov. Ted Strickland wants to make one thing clear to college students throughout the state of Ohio: He is the candidate in support of education.

"One of the first things I did after I became governor was ask all the university presidents to join me in Columbus," Strickland said during a conference call with college media Tuesday morning. "And I said to them in that meeting, ‘I am not your enemy, I am your friend.'"

His argument didn't stop there. During his opening remarks and each subsequent question, Strickland dedicated a significant amount of his response time to criticizing his opponent, former Ohio Republican Congressman John Kasich. Strickland described Kasich, who is leading in a recent Rasmussen poll by 6 points, as being "anti-student."

Rob Nichols, press secretary for the Kasich-Taylor for Ohio campaign, said Strickland "has no record on which he can run, so he spends all his time smearing John."

Strickland said that for seven years, Kasich charged Ohio State $1,000 an hour to lecture to students.

"It is the height of arrogance for him to have done this," Strickland said, commenting on Kasich's bid for professors to take on more classes in an effort to keep education affordable. "I think there is a very clear choice between John Kasich and me when students begin to vote this fall."

Nichols said the amount payable to Kasich for lectures was a contract agreed on by the university that covered far more than the lectures Kasich hosted on campus. It also included trips to Washington and other engagements in support of the program.

"This was a program that was set aside by a foundation; this wasn't tuition money, this wasn't taxpayer money. It was a program developed by Ohio State," Nichols said.

Another hot topic in this year's election race has been the creation, or lack thereof, of jobs in Ohio.
Ohio's unemployment rate was 10.1 percent in August, according to a press release from the Ohio Department of Jobs and Family Services. The national unemployment rate was 9.6 percent.

Dodging a question about the loss of job's during his tenure, Strickland went straight to speaking about Kasich for several minutes, saying he must hate Ohio because he was quoted by The Cincinnati Enquirer as saying that if you wanted to meet a successful, young Ohio entrepreneur, you had to go to Naples, Fla.

Kasich "has compared Ohio negatively to Indiana, boasting that Indiana has done so much better than Ohio under the leadership of Gov. Mitch Daniels," Strickland said. "But the fact of the matter is that Ohio's unemployment rate and Indiana's unemployment rate is exactly the same."

Nichols said the only reason Kasich's statements held true was because Strickland has driven those entrepreneurs out of Ohio with his "oppressive taxes and a terrible business climate."

Kasich plans to help college students by "creating jobs for them, something this governor has failed to do &- 400,000 jobs have disappeared under this governor's watch. He has no plan or understanding of how to build an economy that has jobs waiting for you all when you graduate from school," Nichols said.

"John's goal is to create jobs, rebuild Ohio's economy from the ashes to which this governor has burned it down," Nichols said. "It starts with creating a business-friendly environment. We need to lower taxes, fix our broken workers compensation system and reduce regulations and frivolous lawsuits."

Strickland said his newest plan for creating jobs is to fund internship programs with money accumulated from Ohio casinos' lincensing fees.

"The data shows that if a student has developed that kind of relationship with a company while they are still a student, they are much more likely to be hired by that company and they are more likely to stay in the state of Ohio," Strickland said.

Strickland reverted focus back to education, highlighting a success he has had in funding for state schools.

In 1991, the Ohio Coalition for Equity and Adequacy of School Funding filed a lawsuit claiming that by relying heavily on local property taxes to fund schools, the state failed to provide a "thorough and efficient" educational system, as dictated by the Ohio Constitution.

After six years of litigation and rulings, the Ohio Supreme Court declared in DeRolph v. The State of Ohio that Ohio's school funding system was inequitable and unconstitutional. During his first campaign, Strickland vowed to bring Ohio's education system back up to those standards.

William Phillis, director of the coalition, said the main goal is to create a thorough and efficient system for high quality education. He said Strickland's administration has tried to connect the components of a quality education with a funding system through Ohio's taxes.

Ohio collected $19.5 billion from taxes in 2006, when Strickland was first elected governor, as compared with $16.2 billion in 2010. John Kohlstrand, communications director for the Ohio Department of Taxation, attributed the decline to a 17 percent cut in state income tax and national economic conditions.

Phillis said that despite the $3.3 billion loss, state education funding has remained the same, at $8.3 billion, accomplishing what he believes is the goal of the DeRolph ruling.

"The Strickland approach is a constitutional approach," Phillis said of the evidence-based model Strickland introduced. "Do we have sufficient money to fulfill that approach? The answer is, ‘No.' But we are on the right road to a constitutional system. The governor has put a tremendously heavy emphasis on education."

Strickland echoed Phillis' concerns about the lack of resources in the state, but he affirmed his support of reforms passed while he has been governor.

"We need to do more, certainly, but I do believe that we have reached a constitutional standard," Strickland said. "We have fundamentally changed the structure of the funding of K through 12 education in Ohio using the evidence-based model."

Strickland said that Kasich will do away with the evidence-based model and take away the reforms made in the past several years. He also said that while Kasich was in Congress, he proposed a bill that would require students to begin paying off student loans before they were out of school. Strickland said it would be "tragic" for the Ohio educational system.

Strickland compared that bill with the two-year tuition freeze he implemented for Ohio colleges and universities. Now, after the two years are up, Strickland says he strongly urges universities to keep their tuition increases under a maximum of 3.5 percent.

Since lifting the tuition freeze, OSU raised tuition 3.5 percent for Summer Quarter and another 3.5 percent for Autumn Quarter.

Since July, both Strickland and Kasich have been invited to editorial boards with The Lantern. Neither has agreed to a visit.

Dylan Tussel was a contributing reporter for this story.

FDIC chairman to discuss financial crisis, new book - The Lantern - Campus

2010-09-21T01:24:00.001-04:00

FDIC chairman to discuss financial crisis, new book - The Lantern - Campus

William Isaac has one entity to blame for the devastating impact of the 2008 financial panic: Washington.
Isaac, who served as the chairman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) during the 1980s, a decade that saw America’s last sweeping bank crisis, will be on campus at 1:45 p.m. tomorrow in Saxbe Auditorium in Drinko Hall to discuss his book, “Senseless Panic: How Washington Failed America.”
“I wrote ‘Senseless Panic’ out of a sense of frustration, and even anger, as I watched the financial crisis unfold and careen out of control,” Isaac said. “The economic circumstances and the circumstances within the financial industry in the 1980s were far more serious, in my view, than anything we were facing this time around.”
In his book, Isaac outlines several key reasons the most recent recession had a more sweeping and serious effect on the country’s economy, compared with previous bank failures.
During the ‘80s, 3,000 banks failed, compared with around 200 within the last two years. Banks closed in the ‘80s included the nation’s seventh-largest bank in Chicago and nine out of the 10 largest banks in Texas, Isaac said.
“And yet, through it all, we never had a financial panic,” he said.
According to a recent article in the Huffington Post, the gross domestic product grew at an annual rate of 7 percent to 9 percent for five straight quarters after the recession in the ‘80s, and the unemployment rate plunged from 10.8 percent to 7.2 percent in 18 months.
That amount of growth is still not being seen following the most recent recession, according to the analysis.
Isaac attributes today’s financial panic to several different factors, the first being that in the 1980s, the FDIC and the Federal Reserve were in charge of regulating the financial industry. Today, that job falls on the shoulders of U.S. Treasury members.
“The FDIC and the Federal Reserve are independent agencies. They are not political and they don’t have to make political decisions,” Isaac said. “I think that is a very important thing.”
Because Congress funds the U.S. Treasury and reports to the president, Isaac said he believes the decisions made there are highly political.
“One reason why we were able to get through the ‘80s successfully is that we anticipated problems,” Isaac said. “We were looking out months and years ahead.”
The inconsistency with which the current administration handled bank failures is evidence of the lack of preparation for the banking crisis, Isaac said.
According to a Reuters newswire article, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner told a commission investigating the causes of the crisis, in May, that “if the government had moved more quickly to put in place better-designed constraints on risk taking that captured where there was risk, the crisis could have been less severe, and if the government had moved more quickly to deal with the damage, this would have been less severe.”
Isaac also said the inconsistency led to a total system shutdown because banks all around the world stopped lending to each other out of fear and uncertainty.
Following the decrease in bank lending, the government issued the Troubled Asset Relief Program, or TARP legislation, which involved the U.S. Government purchasing assets and equity from financial institutions.
“In order to sell it, (the government) made very inflammatory statements,” Isaac said. “They called it a ‘financial Armageddon’ and said they didn’t know if the financial system was even going to be around in a week … it panicked the public even further and everyone stopped spending, and the economy flatlined in October of 2008.”
In his lecture tomorrow, Isaac said he hopes to educate students about the lessons he believes Washington failed to learn from the last financial crisis.
“Our political system is not working very well. Our country has a lot of problems right now,” Isaac said. “I don’t know how to fix it, except that I think we need to bring a lot of fresh blood in, whether it’s Democrats or Republicans. I’m a product of the ‘60s, and all of the reforms started on college campuses. We need that again.”
Admission to Isaac’s lecture is free, but students must register at mortizlaw.osu.edu/Isaac. The lecture is co-hosted by the Moritz College of Law and the Fischer College of Business.

Wenning Sets Ambitious Agenda for OSJDR

2010-09-20T21:46:00.000-04:00

[Originally published by the Moritz College of Law]

Rachel Wenning, the 2010-11 editor-in-chief of the Ohio State Journal on Dispute Resolution, respects and appreciates the 25 years worth of work that made the journal the high caliber publication it is today. However, don’t tell her there’s no room for improvement.

“It’s not perfect. There are definitely still ways that we can make the journal better,” Wenning said. “There is a sense of responsibility that we have to uphold as a part of this journal. Staffs over the past 25 years have really set the bar high for us. We would like to achieve as much as they achieved as well as make our own impact.”

Wenning’s disposition for editing is evident not only in her position with the journal but in her selection of a favorite class as well.

“I learned more in Advanced Legal Writing than in any other class. If you are unable to convey information to others, then the information is useless,” she said. “Professor Beazley teaches that class in a very organized and succinct manner and forces you to become a better writer. After taking that class, I find myself editing even short emails for clarity, concision, and cohesion.”

A Dayton, Ohio, native, Wenning has a handful of specific improvements she would like to implement during her year-long tenure. One such goal is to improve the Mayhew-Hite Report on Dispute Resolution and the Courts, which is the journal’s quarterly newsletter designed to update its readers on alternative dispute resolution developments across the nation. Steps have already been taken to improve the publication’s design.

“The Mayhew-Hite Report is a good gateway between the journal and practitioners,” she said. “It puts the journal out there in another way that displays what we do and provide for the practice.”

Wenning also would like to craft the journal’s issues so that a student note dissects a topic similar to one of the submitted and published articles. “It’s our goal to have an issue that is themed so that it focuses on how ADR affects a specific area or topic,” she said. “We’re looking for ways to make the journal issues more cohesive.”

Wenning’s experience on the journal, from being a 2L staff member and elected 2L staff representative to her term now as editor-in-chief, has given her what she hoped to get out of law school when she first walked through the doors of Drinko Hall.

“I had been thinking about going to law school since I was about 14,” she said. “I wanted to come to law school because I knew that it would be very challenging, and I haven't been disappointed. My journal experience so far has been similarly challenging but also very rewarding.”

Wenning challenges herself outside of academia as well, working out frequently at the RPAC and playing poker. On top of all that, she also reviews books for Elle Magazine.

“It has been relaxing to read books that aren't related to the law,” Wenning said.

One of Wenning’s goals is to continue a charitable effort on behalf of the journal to serve the community. Last year, the journal sponsored a food drive that benefited the Mid-Ohio Food Bank.

“We have 70 people available to participate in a service project, and we should use our numbers to help meet a need in the community,” she said.

A spring symposium is also scheduled regarding the intersection of alternative dispute resolution and election law. The choice was a good one because of Moritz’s strong programs in both disciplines, she said.

As an undergrad Wenning received a bachelor’s degree in philosophy from The Ohio State University and spent most of her time discussing abstract ideas and theories. Because of that experience she knew coming into law school that she wanted to focus on the practical side of law, which translated into tax law.

“Tax seemed like a good area to focus on because there are more rules and statutes, and less gray areas,” said Wenning, who hopes to make her career practicing tax law.

Wenning worked for three years before heading to Moritz and has also externed for Judge John D. Holschuh of the U.S. District Court, Southern District of Ohio.

ACSblog | Sen. Sherrod Brown on Corporate Pushback Against Progressive Ideals | American Constitution Society

2010-09-16T15:52:00.001-04:00

Follow the link to watch a video I created when Senator Sherrod Brown from Ohio came and spoke at Moritz!

ACSblog | Sen. Sherrod Brown on Corporate Pushback Against Progressive Ideals | American Constitution Society

Updated resume

2010-09-15T16:44:00.001-04:00

I have updated my resume! I have now added my most recent internship and my volunteer work! I have also added some information on a great opportunity that I am fortunate enough to have coming up in October at the Online Newspaper Association national conference.

If you ever want to view my resume, you can also find it on the right side of the page, underneath the "about me" section.

Thank you for downloading and checking it out!

Molly Gray's Resume

The Lantern - Special teams roller coaster keeps OSU, Miami on their toes

2010-09-12T14:55:00.003-04:00

The Lantern - Special teams roller coaster keeps OSU, Miami on their toes

Special teams proved to be an important aspect for both teams in Saturday’s matchup between No. 2 Ohio State and No. 13 Miami (Fla.).
With an 88-yard kickoff return and a 79-yard punt return, the Hurricanes put 14 points on the board and embarrassment on the faces of the OSU coverage unit.
“Are we concerned? Of course,” said coach Jim Tressel of the special teams performance.
In fact, in OSU’s records, which date back to 1936, Saturday’s game marked the first time the Buckeye’s had ever given up a kick off return and punt return for touchdown.
But that wasn’t enough to spur Miami to victory; OSU came out on top 36-24.
“You don’t give up two long returns like that and usually survive,” Tressel said. “Our guys stepped up and overcame that.”
The Buckeyes’ special teams unit came through as well, with both Jordan Hall and Jaamal Berry having long returns. Hall had a 47-yard return, while Berry had two long runs of 42 and 45 yards.
“When we were in the huddle we were like ‘Man, they just broke one, now we’ve got to break one,’” Berry said. “We just made it happen.”

Nathan Williams returns to play with a bang
Defensive end Nathan Williams missed the season-opener against Marshall last week due to a knee-injury, but after coming into the game halfway through the first quarter, he already had an interception to add to his rap sheet.
“It felt great, I was just anxious to get out there again,” Williams said. “Sitting out for three weeks was brutal.”
Williams, a junior, grabbed Jacory Harris’ pass and returned a few yards to the Miami seven-yard line, setting up a scoring drive that ended with a field goal by Devin Barclay.
“I just wanted to execute the plays and do what the defensive game plan wanted me to do,” he said.

Interceptions key in takedown of Miami
The Buckeye defense snatched four interceptions against Miami’s Harris, all of which led to scoring drives.
After Williams’ grab in the first quarter, cornerback Chimdi Chekwa got two of his own in the second quarter, setting up a touchdown and then a field goal for the last play of the first half, putting the score at 26-17 Buckeyes.
“We knew coming into the game that we were going to have to affect (Harris) to win this game,” said senior captain Ross Homan. “I think we did a good job with the D-line … we forced them into some bad situations.”
Quarterback Terrelle Pryor and his receiving corps allowed for no interceptions against the Buckeyes.
“When you can create four takeaways you’re going to have a chance,” Tressel said. “And when you have zero giveaways, you’re going to have a real good chance.”
Early in the third quarter, senior captain offensive lineman Cameron Heyward took his stab at the Hurricanes returning an interception 80 yards to the Miami 15, setting up for a Dan “Boom” Herron touchdown.
“I thought I had a chance, but you never know,” Heyward said of his reaction to seeing an open field in front of him. “I had some great blocks. I was just happy that I was in the right spot at the right time.”

Ground game goes unnoticed
Few of OSU’s big gains came on the run against Miami. Senior Brandon Saine had a net gain of only seven yards, while Herron had 66 yards over 14 carries. Both were out-run by quarterback Terrelle Pryor who had a total of 113 rushing yards.
“They were definitely keeping a lot of guys in the box,” Herron said. “So it was kind of hard for us to get our running game going at first.”

Barclay ties school record with five field goals
Failure to convert in the red zone gave Barclay plenty of opportunity to put points on the board, going 5-for-5 in field goals until early in the fourth quarter when he missed a 32-yard attempt. His five field goals tie an Ohio State record with Mike Nugent, Josh Huston and Bob Atha.
“It’s certainly something to be proud of,” Barclay said. “But if we would have lost, (tying) a school record wouldn’t have meant anything to me.”
Barclay’s longest field goal against Miami was 41 yards.

Bucks avert kickoff returns after 88-yard break away
Tressel did what he does best after giving up an early touchdown; he played conservatively. Tressel brought in Barclay for the kick off and had him drop it at the 25-yard line, which he did consistently for the rest of the first half.
“A kicker has to be able to do anything, and certainly enough we had to be ready for the pooch plays,” Barclay said. “For the most part we did well on the pooches.”
Barclay opened the second half with a kick to the 10-yard line, which Miami returned to the 20, but quickly returned to conservative play for the rest of the game.

3L Balances Work, Student Involvement

2010-09-06T15:15:00.000-04:00

[Originally published by the Moritz College of Law]

There are several things that define 3L Reyhad Kazmi. First, there’s his multi-cultural heritage. Second, he has a drive for social change and politics. And third: his place on the Moritz College of Law intramural basketball and football teams.

“Intramural football and intramural basketball at Moritz are a special part of my life,” Kazmi said. “It’s great; I love it. The flag football team is No. 1 coming up in the fall.”

The Moritz flag football team even made it to the championship game by beating out a number of teams from around The Ohio State University. But the team suffered a devastating loss after they were disqualified for personal fouls.

“It’s a little unfair for the rest of the teams from the University because we have somebody that played in the NFL and a few guys, including myself, who played pretty good college football,” Kazmi said.

He was a member of the varsity football team at both of his undergraduate universities, Ohio Wesleyan University and Capital University, where he graduated with a degree in economics and political science with a minor in international business.

As for the basketball league, which is exclusively comprised of Moritz students, Kazmi said it evokes a healthy level of competition.

“You walk by these people everyday and you would never think that they are as competitive as they are,” Kazmi said. “You would also never expect the level of talent that we have as well.”

But athletics are not the only way Kazmi breaks away from the classroom at Moritz; he is also heavily involved in student organizations. He is currently serving as treasurer of the Student Bar Association and is involved in several other groups as well, including the Black Law Student Association (BSLA) and the Middle Eastern Law Student Association (MELSA).

“BLSA and MELSA are a part of me ethnically,” Kazmi said. “I’m really interested in trying to help cultural sensitivity amongst everyone.”

Kazmi also takes part in promoting productive and socially engaged lives for African American males as the local chair of the Ohio Commission on African American Males, a non-partisan, nonprofit governmental entity commissioned by the governor.

“We conduct programs educating our constituency on various topics of life: healthcare, economy, fatherhood, etc.,” Kazmi said. “We want to create and support legislation that is beneficial for our demographic and fellow Ohioans who experience similar circumstances.”

Kazmi’s breadth of experience extends into his professional life as well. During his undergraduate studies, he worked as a page for State Representative Joyce Beatty. From there he went to work in constituent services in the governor’s office until he joined the Obama for America campaign.

Over the summer, Kazmi worked on personal injury and police shooting cases in the civil department of the Columbus city attorney’s office. What was the most surprising case of the summer? It involved tree cutting.

“I didn’t know why we cared that people were cutting down trees around the rivers in Columbus,” Kazmi said. “But then I found out that the trees help to clean the water right before it goes into our water supply. So the cases weren’t as pointless as I originally thought, they were actually helping the environment.”

Probably the most challenging part of his summer however, was when he was assigned a case at 4:45 p.m. the day before he was supposed to argue before the licensing board at 8 a.m.

“I had no idea what I was signing myself up for, I didn’t even know how the proceedings were conducted,” Kazmi said. “I was representing the city, who denied a woman a masseuse license, and we won. It was pretty awesome.”

His success before the board probably stemmed from his love of his civil procedure class, which he said easily ranked in his top three favorites, along with constitutional law with Professor Ruth Colker and voting rights with Professor Dan Tokaji.

The most humorous class he has been in, however, was during his contracts class.

“Each year Professor Larry Garvin dresses up in a costume for a case,” Kazmi said. “My first year, he dressed up in a chicken outfit, with the head of the chicken and everything. He even wore the head mask for the first part of class.”

As he starts his final year of law school, Kazmi said that he is sure he will miss Moritz and the people who have helped him along the way, including Dean Robert Soloman and Professor Christopher Fairman. As for his plans after law school, Kazmi hopes to work in government, politics, civil rights law, or business law.