Texas Happenings 2007, No. 18
Week of September 3, 2007TEXAS HapPENINGS is a biweekly advisory to AP member editors on upcoming stories or projects of special interest and a source of news about other AP developments.
FOIA REQUEST LEADS TO AP IMPACT PIECE BY BROWN
When AP Fort Worth Correspondent Angela K. Brown attended an Aug. 21 news conference at Fort Hood, officials gave little information from a report about the June death of an Army sergeant who disappeared during a training exercise. Two weeks earlier she had requested the report through the Freedom of Information Act but had not received a response. At the news conference, officials said the investigative report would not be released.
Brown then pressed the military officials, asking them to release the report - which had already been given to the soldier's family - or cite provisions under the law on why the report would remain sealed. Later that week, Fort Hood said the report would be released to the AP.
After Brown drove the 2.5 hours to pick it up, she spent the rest of the day and that weekend poring over the 1,700 pages of documents. The report revealed heart-wrenching details, such as how Sgt. Lawrence Sprader didn't have time to refill his canteens and how trainers didn't take precautions on the hot day. The report also detailed how Sprader made several cell phone calls asking for help - at one point hearing the horn of a soldier who had driven out in the rugged training area to look for him. But troops didn't find his body until four days later.
Brown's Aug. 28 story was an AP Impact piece that had prominent play in newspapers and Web sites. Her efforts were recognized in a national in-house Beat of the Week program.
Meanwhile, Texas sports editor Jaime Aron had another nice enterprise story out of West Texas with a story on former NFL player Bake Turner.
In May, desk supervisor John McFarland saw a brief in a West Texas paper about a federal lawsuit involving the retired NFL player taking on the league over his pension. He forwarded it to Aron, who put it in his "preseason football" file.
Once it was time to start planning for football season, Aron followed up on the tip. After discovering nothing had ever been written about this case, he called the court to get the attorneys' phone numbers. It turned out that the player was representing himself.
Aron called Turner and discovered him to be quite a colorful character. Turner was reluctant to discuss his case at first, mainly because he didn't have the verdict yet, but he opened up more with each phone call. Then he agreed to a visit. The day before Aron headed out, Turner called to say the court had told him he'd be getting the verdict any day.
Aron's trip to Alpine ended up producing two stories: a feature on 59-year-old linebacker Mike Flynt, which moved Aug. 22, and a narrative about Turner and his case (BC-FBN--Bake Turner vs. NFL), which moved for release this past weekend.
AP writer Michael Graczyk was preparing to cover the third execution in as many days last week when he got a call from a Texas Department of Criminal Justice source that the state’s parole board had voted to recommend to the governor that Kenneth Foster should be spared.
Graczyk confirmed the decision, then filed a NewsAlert and a writethru to the execution story that was already out. In Austin, April Castro was dispatched to the governor’s office after Graczyk learned Foster’s attorney was on the way there. Castro got word that Gov. Rick Perry was agreeing to the commutation and called Graczyk, who filed another NewsAlert and another writethru and then updated the story with quotes from the brother of the man who was killed and quotes the TDCJ provided from Foster.
AP Sports Writer Jim Vertuno in Austin gave readers an idea of the euphoria that Appalachian State players might be feeling with a column that recalled his role in a college football upset in 1987.
Among other enterprising efforts by the Texas staff:
• Houston business writer John Porretto reported on the job prospects for engineers fresh out of college as companies scramble to find workers for the bustling oilfields.
• El Paso Correspondent Alicia A. Caldwell covered the search for a Fort Hood soldier who disappeared from a training base in New Mexico and was later found dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
• San Antonio Correspondent Michelle Roberts wrote about a border ferry on the Rio Grande that is powered by five men pulling a rope, the last such ferry on the border. Roberts also reported on plans by AT&T to give parents more controls over their children’s cell phones.
• AP Intern Grant Slater in Dallas reported on the technology of an Austin company that could mean major changes in the electric car industry. Slater also took a look at the Web support for Ron Paul’s presidential bid.
• AP writer Monica Rhor in Houston reported on the uproar surrounding the exhibit of Lucy, a 3.2 million-year-old fossil.
MOVING FOR MONDAY:
WHARTON, Texas - A quirky bit of American history huddles next to old Highway 59. It's easy to miss, but it is there: a row of 10 freshly-painted, sand-colored tepees. As in the Tee Pee Motel, a throwback to the 1940s and '50s, when roadside businesses used gimmicky architecture - like a gas station that looked like an oil derrick - to lure customers. For years, however, it was little more than 11 gutted shells engulfed by a tangle of overgrown weeds. Then, diesel mechanic Bryon Woods won $49 million in the Texas lottery in July 2003. Four months later, Woods and his wife, Barbara, were driving by the ruins of the Tee Pee Motel when Barbara Woods piped up, "I want to stay there. Let's buy it and renovate it." By Monica Rhor. AP Photos.
AND FOR SATURDAY-SUNDAY:
AP MEMBER EXCHANGE: SEASONED ARCHAEOLOGIST
VICTORIA - Archaeologist Kathleen Gilmore has unlocked some of the most elusive mysteries of Texas history. She spent decades hunting down the location of the French explorer La Salle's lost fort before discovering it near the Gulf Coast. She also excavated a number of Spanish colonial forts in Texas, including Mission Rosario, near Goliad. At age 92, the Preston Hollow resident will visit Spain in December to study a recently discovered cache of documents sent from early Texas missions. But her greatest accomplishment may have been digging the way for other women to follow in her footsteps. By Allen Houston, The Dallas Morning News.
REAL TIME HELP FROM TEXAS MEMBERS
The San Angelo Standard-Times and the Bryan-College Station Eagle made sure to keep the AP in mind recently with stories offered on-cycle.
San Angelo had the story of a former teacher who received deferred adjudication as part of a plea for having an improper relationship with a 17-year-old.
Bryan-College Station tipped that four members of a family had died in a Labor Day weekend crash and shared their story when it became available.
Meanwhile, a story offered on-cycle by the Fort Worth Star-Telegram about a massive spider web at Lake Tawakoni State Park drew attention from around the country.
If you’ve got a story that you want to offer, please send it to dalcarbon@ap.org or APTexas@ap.org. You can also call us at 1-800-442-7189 and talk to the supervisor.
SEND US THOSE FOOTBALL SCORES
It’s hard to believe, but high school football is well under way again in Texas. That means the AP NEEDS scores from games in your area as soon as possible.
Please ask your sports staffs to send e-mails to dalcarbon@ap.org with their newest scores as often as possible instead of waiting until the end of the evening for one big batch. This helps make sure that we get all the Top 10 results as quickly as we can.
It is important that we get the scores e-mailed instead of having to pull them from Web sites.
Thanks for your help with the long season ahead.
APME CONFERENCE HIGHLIGHTS
Have you made your reservations yet? October is just around the corner and that means the APME conference in Washington, D.C.
Here are some of the highlights for the Oct. 3-6 event:
• A sneak peek at the new Newseum. While the building won’t be fully completed by the time of the conference, editors will see and experience plenty reminding them of the value of a free press and the First Amendment.
• 500 Great Ideas editors can take back to the newsroom.
• Presentations on doing video online.
• A ground-breaking study on online ethics.
• A live satellite link from Baghdad to learn what it’s like covering the war.
• A discussion of the 2008 election, led by COB Sandy Johnson.
• An appearance by a major newsmaker or two.
You can also go to www.apme.com for more details, including how to register for the conference and book a room at the conference hotel, the JW Marriott on Pennsylvania Avenue. Sign up now: the cut-off for APME’s tremendously discounted room rate is Sept. 12.
NEWSPAPER TO APPEAL JUDGE’S RULING
The San Antonio Express-News plans to appeal a judge’s ruling that ordered it to hand over records about a guardianship case and to not publish articles related to them.
State District Judge Alex Gabert last month ordered the newspaper to hand over its copies of court documents and destroy electronic ones related to the case of Robert C. East, a prominent South Texas rancher who died in June and left an estate worth hundreds of millions of dollars. The newspaper had acquired the sealed documents outside the court system.
The newspaper published an article in July on the complicated legal issues surrounding East's final days and the nasty estate dispute that included such issues as the 87-year-old's mental competence. The story was based in part on documents the judge has now ordered the paper to return.
Express-News Editor Robert Rivard said the newspaper published a story that was of public interest and based on documents obtained legally.
SPECIAL EDITIONS
The special edition package on cars will move Sept. 11
DEATHS
Former AP executive ROBERT H. “BOB” JOHNSON, who wrote AP’s first bulletin on the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, died Aug. 25 in Albuquerque, N.M., after suffering a stroke.
Johnson retired from the AP in 1988 after a 42-year career that included serving as AP’s managing editor and sports editor as well as chief of bureau in Texas, New Mexico, Indiana, Utah and Idaho. He served as assistant general manager and assistant to the president from 1977 to 1984.
"Bob Johnson was the quintessential AP newsman who thrived on breaking news, the bigger the better," said Mike Silverman, AP's managing editor. "As sports editor and as managing editor, he taught an entire generation of AP journalists the importance of quick, accurate work under deadline pressure, and his lessons were always laced with grace and good humor."
John Lumpkin, vice president of U.S. Newspaper Markets for the AP and a former Texas bureau chief, said, “No one in journalism could match Bob for the combination of his wide-ranging experience in news management, his acerbic wit and his ability to charm an after-hours crowd with his impressive singing voice.”
After retiring in 1988, he helped start the New Mexico Foundation for Open Government and made a new career out of fighting for public access to government meetings and records.
Johnson was a native of Colorado City, Texas. He joined the AP in Dallas in 1946 and was proud of having worked every news job in the Dallas bureau. He became news editor in Dallas in 1953 and was named bureau chief in Salt Lake City in 1954. He came back to Texas as bureau chief in 1963.
NELSON CLYDE III, publisher of the Tyler Morning Telegraph, died Aug. 29. following a lengthy illness. He was 61.
Clyde was also president of T.B. Butler Publishing Co. and was a fourth-generation member of the family business established in 1910. Clyde had been publisher and president since 1990. He received the 2006 Frank W. Mayborn Award for Community Leadership from the Texas Daily Newspaper Association in 2006.
"Our family and our organization mourn the loss of our leader," said Nelson Clyde IV, his son and associate publisher of the Tyler paper. "My father was a man who demonstrated his many character qualities in a quiet but significant way."
STAN SHELTON, a retired newspaper copy editor and news editor, died recently in Norman, Okla. Shelton, 85, worked for papers in Sherman, Wichita Falls and Corpus Christi in Texas. He also worked for the Toledo (Ohio) Blade and the Riverside (Calif.) Press-Enterprise.
ON THE MOVE
TYLER PATTON is the new publisher of the Valley Morning Star, succeeding DOUG HARDIE. Hardie, the grandson of the founder of Freedom Communications Inc., retired Sept. 1 but plans to remain as consultant for the company’s Internet products and news Web site. Hardie served as publisher of The Brownsville Star before being named publisher of the Valley Morning Star. Patton has been general manager of the Harlingen newspaper since 2004. He previously worked at the Odessa American.
DEANNA WATSON has been named editor of the Wichita Falls Times Record News. Watson, a 15-year veteran at the paper, succeeds Carroll Wilson. Wilson retired earlier this year. Watson has held a variety of positions at the paper during her career, including editorial page editor, city editor, managing editor for content and interim editor.
JOHN McKEON has been named president and general manager of The Dallas Morning News. McKeon most recently was president/CEO and publisher of the Los Angeles Newspaper Group, where he was responsible for nine newspapers and 1,925 employees. He has also held high-level posts with Knight-Ridder Inc. and the Tribune Co./Times Mirror.
PHIL HAMILTON, former managing editor of The Paris News, is now publisher of The Oilton Enterprise. Hamilton and his wife, Ursula, recently purchased the 81-year-old South Texas Plains weekly.
INDUSTRY NEWS
The AP Industry News summary is now available on the new AP Exchange system, a free system offering you Web-based access to the AP report. On AP Exchange, media industry news items will be available immediately, rather than transmitted once a week. For more on AP Exchange you can visit www.ap.org/apexchange.
If you do not have AP Exchange access yet, please contact AP Texas Chief of Bureau Dale Leach.
An AP Exchange account will permit you to access and search industry news, along with all your AP text, photo and graphics services. Until an AP Exchange account is created for you, we can add you to an e-mail list for distribution of media industry news items as soon as they arrive. If you would like to be added to the distribution list, please send your request by e-mail to talkback@ap.org.
If you’ve got news to share for TEXAS HapPENINGS, please send the material to Linda Franklin at lfranklin@ap.org.
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• April 16, 2007
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