Think What You See or See what You Think?

Who do we trust in the media? This question might sound depressing to many of us but people need to realize that media and technology are controlling our minds constantly these days. Sports new, political debates and news in general are covered by different media outlets, but where do we stop and actually listen?

Charlie Brooker’s Newswipe series on BBC tends to pick up on Fox News, one of the five highest rated television in America, and how they excaudate the problem of violence among the people in Haiti after the tragic earthquake. On the other side CNN is showing how much America helped Haiti and the positive outcome for them. Here we see how the media can shape people’s opinion based on the network they are used to watch. The people who always watch Fox will never know the other side of the situation. According to Manjoo, “we indulge information that pleases us and cocoon ourselves among others who think as we do.”

A great example given by Public Policy President Dean Debnam identified the real reason for Fox’s power: “A generation ago you would have expected Americans to place their trust in the most neutral and unbiased conveyors of news, but the media landscape has really changed, and now they’re turning more toward the outlets that tell them what they want to hear.” Following the same idea, people who watched Fox will look for stats that say how much people died after the earthquake rather than looking for statistics that will say how much people survived because of the rescue teams who went to Haiti and helped them in the struggle.

I am an immigrant and I remember how back in 2002 my grandparents used to call us after every hurricane in Florida and ask us if we are OK. The media in Europe presented the damages of the hurricanes in the worst possible way by showing the most tragic video footage that they had. On the other hand, here we knew that it was just a storm and nothing happen, but because of the media outlet oversees my grandparents have formed their knowledge. Here we see how the media can push the objectivity of the news called hostile media phenomenon.

By reading “True enough” by Manjoo I realize why people tend to stick to what they think is true even though the facts show the opposite. Selective perception and naive realism described in the book and backed up by the facts around the 9/11 tragedy theories. Another example like this would be the liberalization of the visa regime between Bulgaria and the United States. It use to be only three months and now is ten years for all travelers and business visas. All American people were against the liberalization of the visa regime, while Bulgarian’s were thinking that this is the best thing that can happen for their country. Both sides were not experiencing the same thing even though the facts were the same for both parties. American people can freely go to Bulgaria for vacation, but they don’t want Bulgarians to come freely to their country.

Another interesting issue that Majoo touch on in his book is the age of easy lying. I can’t mention the Ipad and all the blogs, videos, and photos that are available on the Web. More and more people are using the web to get their news, communicate and form their own opinions. “iPad Tortured to Death in Mass Social Experiment “ is a video in which Alex Jones, radio host, takes on a mental experiment that proves how the Ipad takes over people’s minds and they tend to forget that they are humans. Technology changes and manipulates people’s views. Alex Jones destroys the Ipad because he wants to prove a point, “whether humanity will concern itself with more with the senseless destruction of a computer than it does with the torture and senseless killing of more than a million Iraqis (to put forward one example) along with countless others across the globe.” To view the video by Alex Jones visit: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OyEhWeAseSo&feature=player_embedded

Farhad Manjoo and his book “True Enough” helped me understand how the media effect people’s views about the world around them. I knew that the media is a powerful persuasive tool, but not as far powerful as Manjoo presents it with his examples. After I read the book I think that professors in mass communications schools should make it a mandatory reading for students who want to become journalists. Al I can say is that “True Enough” helped me understand the difference between being a regular viewer and being a journalist.

A Walk in the Court House

Three hour walk in Hillsborough County Clerk of Circuit Court? Well, it sounds boring and repetitive because I was just there a month ago, but I was wrong. This time I was able to observe a trial hearing in a felony court. I have never been in a situation like this before and I felt like I was watching a movie.

I started my visit by going to the felony department. I walked into the desk where people were waiting to get hold of felony records in order to ask the people at the desk if there are any trials going on at this point of time. It was a little bit before lunch time and there were not much trial courts going on, but I was lucky to catch one. On the 5th floor of the court house in court 51A, Judge Emmett Lamar Battles’ trial case was going on break so I had to come back later to listen to it. This case involved home invasion as well as gun shooting.

I used the lunch break to go around the other important departments in the court house. I went to citrus civil court to look up some document on my public profile political figure. There I found that I was not the only person who was looking for case documents. The people at the room were mostly attorneys. I had to fill out a request form for which case I was looking for and what type of request I had. I could both view the docs and give them back or I had to put a request for prints. At this same room people where dealing with a lot of foreclosure and mortgage cases as well.

When I found out that my case documents were destroyed I went down to the first floor to check the docs in family law department. I was mainly looking for marriage license records for my public profile, but I could not find any information by looking at the computers at the room. One of the ladies at the department’s desk helped me to look if there are actual docs for my person. She was able to find some case docs, but not the once I was looking for. I went to pay my $1 a page fee at the front desk. While I was waiting on the long lines I observed how chaotic the situation in child support department and traffic is. The lines were endless. Some people were filling new cases and others were paying their current fees. I remembered how Path Frank was saying that her staff was short, but this time I experienced it myself. The lines were endless and the workers were doing what they could but unfortunately their work power was not enough to deal with the work load. The process was very slow. Even I had to wait thirty minutes to pay my five pages.

I came back to the court room after their brake and then it hit me. The case I was listening to was true. I was not sitting in a movie theater; I was sitting in a court room. The witnesses were coming one by one and the attorneys for the plaintiff and the defendant were asking questions and then showing their evidences to the jury people. I was able to see some of the witnesses from the sheriff department who were the detectives and crime investigators that responded on the home invasion and gun shooting call back in July, 2009. They were explaining how the process went and who they talked to at the scene. I was able to record some of the witness’s names as well as the plaintiff’s name but I rather not mention them here because I am not sure if I can. I looked up the case and the arrests made just of curiosity after I left the room. Felony cases take a lot of time and jurors didn’t look very happy to be there again and again. to follow the case here the link to it:http://publicrecord.hillsclerk.com/oridev/criminal_pack.ap?pcSearchMode=NS&pnPidm=952050&pcCaseId=09-CF-007748&pnCnt=9999

After the court house, my final stop was at the State Attorney’s Office to see if I can look for any more records but there were none for the public profile person.

School Board of Hillsborough County Meeting

Free parking space at Downtown Tampa! Is that an April 1 joke or is it true? I was really surprised from the moment the security personnel at the parking lot told me that on the days of School Board meetings visitors can park for free. I entered the building and I heard a beautiful sound coming from the piano played by a disabled high school student. So far my experience was nothing like I am used to on other public meetings.

I entered the meeting hall and I decided to approach Doretha W. Edgecomb, Vice Chair of the school board. She was sitting alone at the table of the board and I was wondering what will be the hottest issues that they are going to discuss at the meeting. School board policies and operations were the main issues that I was about to hear at the meeting.

Susan L. Valdes, Chair of the board, started the meeting by first focusing on the Virtual Instruction Program Re-Organization of structure. For this to happen the Hillsborough School Board have a manager position designed to overlook the process. According to April Griffin, Manager Position, every student in the high school level needs to have one virtual course completed before graduation and there is some legislature passed about this matter. This program will save the district a lot money and the actual savings right now are $97 850. board member, said “Virtual School is the Thing Now.” He also added that this program is here to prepare more students to get into college and actually survive when they are there. Virtual school is the next step to college.

The next item on the agenda was the approved grants application for several scholarship programs. The members of the board mention that there are a lot of partnerships involved in these programs in order to happen. One reason why those programs are there is to support adult community classes.

The approve contract and schedule of payments between SEER Analytics and Hillsborough County Public Schools were described by “the best money spend by Hillsborough School System,” said Kurdell-Jack R. Lamb. Also accordant to him this program will become a model for other districts.

The approved subagreement between the University of South Florida and Hillsborough County Public School for Services Associated with HCPS Role in the Federal Javits Gifted and Talented Students Education Grant Program, Project REACH – Recognizing Extraordinary Accomplishments of Children is the first government money given for gifted students, according to Mr. Lamb. Nine schools from the county will be included in this program.

Toward the end of the Hillsborough County School Board Meeting the citizens that were there were able to give their comments and concerns about the issues, which were presented. The first three gentlemen that were able to speak to the members presented their concern about private security companies being unable to work in the county schools. They wanted to see why their contracts were not resigned and there was no competition entry available. Even though this issue was not mentioned in the meeting the members of the committee said they will try to address the item next time they meet. The board’s attorney knew more about the issue and he said he would present the details to the board and Susan L. Valdes, Chair so they can work on it.
For more info visit: http://apps1.sdhc.k12.fl.us/

Root of all Good or Evil!

In his second visit to USF Preston Trigg, Director of Administration & Special Projects, cover one of the least favorite topics for journalists, budgets. If you ask most journalists they would say that their job is to write, but the reality is that they should also know how to operate money.

According to Trigg every government agency that we as journalist are going to visit will have a budget. Here in Florida most likely those budget records will be open public records that we as reporters can look at it. Well managed budget will have equal revenue and expenses.

In addition to the revenue and expenses government budgets include facts and background information about the agency. Usually the government will meet in advance in order to plan the next year’s budget based on the information from the previous year’s budget cuts or increases. For some people budgets are complicated topic, but as we know asking questions doesn’t hurts as long as those questions come on time.

For people who have no idea what revenue and expenses mean Trigg explains it as money coming in need to equal money going out. The confusion for journalists continues when they keep hearing the government officials to refer to end cycling period of the budget as a fiscal year. If there is any extra money in the revenue they will be carried over for the next year.

Where revenue does comes from for the government budget? The answer is most of the money collected at the tax collector go towards the revenue of the budget. The list includes property and sales taxes, user fees, fines, occupational licenses, and state and federal grants. Don’t be surprised if you see major increases in water bills or property taxes especially at today’s recession! The revenue is short and the increases will fill up the empty spots in the revenue.

Money going out as I mention earlier are the expenses. They are separated to personal (salaries), capital (constructions), and operating (utilities, travel). Here is where journalist should take a deep look for any major expenses especially in the personal and capitol sector of the government budget.

In every budget there is miscellaneous money and usually they cause problem to most government agencies especially when journalists want to look at the data.

Again government budgets are complicated and we as journalist should simplify them as much as we can for our readers.

Tampa- Certified Gold Green City

Mayer’s citizen/TECO Energy Conservation Task Force meeting took place at the Mayer’s, Pam Iorio, conference room on Thursday afternoon. Going into this meeting I didn’t expect to sit just a couple of seats away from the Mayer. Actually, this was my first time seeing her in person. Pam Iorio welcomed all of the citizens and she made it very specific that those kinds of meetings are recorded and the Sunshine Laws require them to have the conversations taped.

Did you know that Tampa is one of the few cities in the America that is been certified as a Gold Green City? I didn’t. As a matter of fact TECO is the electrical company in town that helps the government to reach the green status of the city.

TECO works with the Mayer Pam Iorio and her energy conservation task force member on the green project for about a year now and they are trying to find the most efficient way to save energy and keep the city green. Those members included representatives from different organizations in town that are directly involved with the management of the energy use. The City of Tampa Staff attendees were also present at the meeting along with two representatives from TECO.

For over a year this force committee is been working on several recommendations on how to achieve energy savings. At the meeting the Mayer wanted to move forward and focus on the action plan that should be happening now in order to keep the progress in going green. Some members recommended education plan to be planned for the middle class residence to spread the word about their goal. She followed this offer by saying, “Do we want to target homes that use the most energy?” An example of this would be the people in the rich areas of Tampa.

According to the Mayer, TECO made some suggestions to their energy users but she wants to see soon a marketing plan on how to reach more people and businesses and make them aware that energy use is an issue. The educational idea was an interesting point, but the budgets don’t allow any money spending at this time.

Sharon Hanna, USF-Dept. of Mgmt & Org College of Business, offered her students research help for a future data which might be needed for accomplishing the Energy Conservation Task Force goals.

An interesting point made by C. J. Raynolds, Seminole Heights Neighborhood Association, included the small businesses knowledge on how to cut their use of energy and cost at the same time. She said that those companies don’t know and don’t pay much attention to saving the green world. TECO should focus on those types of energy customers in order to make a difference in their usage.

Stephen Koontz, Tampa Bay Trane, said the he is looking for something that will bring faster results for energy savings. He mentioned the $50 instilment kid for energy users offered by TECO that made a quick progress within customers.

In closing the long debate about the best idea for energy savings the Mayer asked the Task Force member to continue on working on this project with her because this is the best way she would stay informant of the “going green issue.”

Unusual and Final Trip

Dr. Vernard Adams is a Chief Medical Examiner for Hillsborough County. His twenty years of experience and ironic character talks to a great extend for his professionalism.
http://www.hillsboroughcounty.org/medexam/about/director.cfm
At first I was confused between coroner and medical examiner because they both investigate death scene.

Dr. Adams referred us to Florida Statute 406.11 in order to understand the specific control of the Medical Examiner in response to a death occurred in his district or where the body was found to determine the cause of death when a person dies from the following:
- Criminal Violence
- Accident, suicide or poison
- Suddenly, when in apparent good health
- Unattended by a practicing physician or other recognized practitioner
- In any prison or penal institution
- In any suspicious or unusual circumstances
- By criminal Abortion
- By disease constituting a threat to public heath
- By disease, injury, or toxic agent resulting from employment
In continuation to the said above, the Medical Examiner is free to perform autopsies and other laboratory examinations, which will further explain the unknown to the public.

Six medical examiners and six autopsy physicians are available for Dr. Adams when they need to perform their forensic investigation in death scenes. Due to budget cuts the Medical Examiner’s Office stopped their overnight investigations.

Chapter 406.02 says that the Medical Examiner Office need dispose, cremate, and donate all unclaimed bodies. Tissues and organs
donating is done every day with the help of Live-link Donors.

In the second part of our visit Dr. Adams took us around the Medical Examiner’s facilities to show us all the documents and procedures done by his staff.

Each investigation case has a file that contains vital information for the public, next of kin, attorneys, and the investigators. You might think that death certificates are not public record, and you are right, but only for the medical part of it. Any undergoing investigation results, HIV test, hospital records, and autopsy pictures and videos are not public record. Rather than that the general autopsy report is public record, as well as examiners findings, supporting evidence, and attorney correspondence. An interesting fact about obtaining public records from the Medical Examiner’s office was that they don’t charge the regular fee of 15 cents a page. They ask for 2 stamps, an envelope, and a written request of what documents you want and they will send it to you for free.

To top of our visit, Dr. Adams took us trough the toxicology laboratories where we met Chief Forensic Toxicologist Dr. Pearson. There we saw the machines that analyses the blood and tissues for alcohol and drugs elements.

Just across the extraction laboratory we enter the autopsy lab where the autopsy medical personnel were working on three current cases. As soon as we cross the door we saw a death body. I just hope that I would never go back there for any type of info. I wonder how those people decide to work at the autopsy lab??????????

Judicial system in Hillsborough County

Being a Clerk of Circuit Court seems a powerful position that many people probably want to have, but wait until you know how much workload is expected to be done by Pat Frank. The responsibilities that clerk Frank deals with don’t end at the courthouse. She is also responsible for the finance investment portfolio for Hillsborough County, which equals to a million dollars.
The biggest concern that Pat Frank has is the 8% budget cuts for administrative cost that the courthouse is facing. The vast amount of workload is done by less and less people after the first cut of 117 employees but the only way the courthouse will survive is if the clerk takes another pay cut from her departments

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We as citizens have to ask the state legislators how they expect the Hillsborough County Courthouse to survive when they don’t do anything to help it. They even want nine additional judges to the court system in the county which will have to be paid by Mrs. Pat Frank. But the problem doesn’t end there, those judges each need three clerks to deal with their dockets for the cases, which makes the money problem even bigger.

With the recession we are in today our judicial system deals with more and more violations of the law are seen. The workload is overwhelming for each department in the courthouse that deals with family law cases, civil cases, felony cases, juvenile cases, misdemeanors cases, and traffic court cases. Those people not only maintain the paperwork of the cases for 75 years, but they also keep all of the evidences that go along with the cases.

The worries that Mrs. Frank has don’t end up with the 8% budget cuts. She also has to worry about converting all the data that the court maintains into electronic documents. The case documents are not safe at the warehouse on Falkenburg Rd. because they can be easily destroyed by any type of natural disaster. This long process is delayed for years due to pay cuts and workload volume.

Dana Caranante, Director of Juvenile Court Operations, in the office of Clerk of the Circuit Court, took us through family law department, civil case department, traffic, and felony case departments to see the amount of paperwork they keep. She also showed us how we can access the records available there. The only records we can’t copy for a $1 are the child abuse records because they are confidential.

Dana Caranante provided the class with some helpful tips and websites which will guide us when we are looking for public records in the Clerk of the Circuit Court for Hillsborough County.

Clerk of the Circuit Court for Hillsborough County - http://www.hillsclerk.com/
To search the Court Progress Docket-http://publicrecord.hillsclerk.com/oridev/criminal_pack.ins
Florida Statutes- http://www.leg.state.fl.us/statuts/
Florida Rules of Procedure- http://www.floridabar.org/
13th Judicial Circuit- http://www.fljud13.org/
To search official records- http://pubrec3.hillsclerk.com/oncore/Search.aspx