Recently in Investigations Category

Today, we give you two stories on Arnold Alvarez-Glasman, one in West Covina, the other Rosemead, where apparently he is angling to get another job. But the most interesting name thrown in the mix is Francisco Leal, city attorney for Maywood. In this fascinating story by LA Weekly's Jeffrey Anderson, Leal has had some interesting moments:"Perhaps foremost among the many controversies in which these lawyers have been embroiled are allegations explored in a 1999 L.A. Times story that Beltran, a Stanford-educated lawyer, and Leal, a Harvard Law School graduate raised by immigrants in El Paso, were threatening to launch recall campaigns against elected officials in Lynwood, Commerce and Bell Gardens if they did not vote to retain the two men’s legal services."
That would be the Bell Gardens where Glasman is now city attorney.

Reporter Frank Girardot has received a lot of complaints about the crossing arm near the intersection of Barranca Avenue and San Bernardino Road.
Earl Brown, 53, and his niece, Raven Smith, 10, were killed and Brown's daughter, Christina Brown, 12, injured when their car collided with a train there at 2 p.m. Sunday.
Metrolink officials said computer records from a crossing arm indicate it was functioning properly.
But residents who have used the railroad crossing have said that there were problems before. Police are still investigating the accident, so this story might not be over.

The New York Times has an interesting reader question and answer segment with editors and reporters. The latest one is with Matthew Purdy, investigation editor: "The best reporters are humble enough to ask "dumb" questions (two or three times, if need be), smart enough to know what they don't know and brave enough to let go of their first impressions. You are right that there is a danger in getting part of a story and mistaking it for the whole story. The only way to guard against that is to report against the findings of your story, in other words to test your conclusions. The best reporters, when they are finished with an article, understand what people who disagree with their conclusions would say about the subject and make sure that it is reflected in the story."
- It's the hardest skills for reporters to learn, and some never do.

I'm not sure I like this. We were part of this public records audit as a way to show that police departments need to be transparent. While there may be a point where we would have to file a lawsuit for a particular case, a general lawsuit like this sounds counterproductive.

Missed this story from former colleague Jason Newell about the Johnson's Pasture. (via foothill) Of interest was where Claremont wanted to get some of the funding. It sounded vaguely familiar. Someone should really do a story about the program, I wish I knew someone in the news business.

Journalists are by nature inquisitive and paranoid. Questioning everything our leaders do, whether locally or nationally, and then questioning everything we ourselves do. That habit smashed together in our last story about Rep. Gary Miler, R-Brea. Miller challenged our reporting on this story and so we turned our critical eye on our reporting. Despite hours of reviewing our work and exchanges with Miller and his office, we found the reporting by Fred Ortega and Gary Scott bullet proof. But since the newspaper is part of the discussion, we have an obligation to give the other side say. Most times that means allowing someone to write an Op-Ed piece. Instead we gave Miller space on our letters page. We don't agree with his conclusions, but we should allow him the opportunity to respond like we give other readers of our paper. It will also have no effect on our future reporting.

A fascinating article about the city of Cudahy, to the southwest of us, by LA Weekly's Jeffrey Anderson mentions Baldwin Park Councilman David Olivas, and not in a good way:
"The methods of Beltran, Leal and Olivas left a mark on their former law partner Jesse Jauregui, who broke all ties with the group in 2001. Jauregui has this — and only this — to say about his old colleagues: “I’m glad to no longer be a part of Tammany Hall–style politics. How far it goes, I do not know. It became a seamy situation.”
The legal maneuvering that led to new leadership in Cudahy was part of a larger strategy, says former Cudahy councilwoman Araceli Gonzalez, a child of Mexican immigrants. “They were very outspoken,” says Gonzalez of the lawyers who advised Cudahy and Bell Gardens. “They were telling people they were going to take over these cities and put Latinos in power.”
Olivas, now in his own law practice while wearing two hats — as Cudahy city attorney and councilman in Baldwin Park — argues that the move to anoint Perez as Cudahy city manager was about Latino self-determination, and that change in leadership in small southeast L.A. County cities was for the better."

Nope. But we could have done some cooler stuff online for our public record audit of law enforcement agencies. The Sacramento Bee had an interactive map. My only complaint: they should have allowed users to just rollover the dots for information.

You have a right to know what your government is doing.
That right includes having access to public records, so you can verify how, and how wisely, your tax dollars are being spent.
And a part of our mission as a newspaper is to protect that right.
That’s why joining a landmark public records audit of law enforcement agencies that was released last week was so important.

Part of our mission as a paper is to constantly monitor how public agencies release information that the public has a right to know. That's why joining a landmark statewide audit of law enforcement agencies was so important. Most of the local, county and state agencies, we contacted did miserably. We asked for simple documents, such as police reports and statements of economic interests. Now our reporters were instructed not to represent themselves as reporters. A tactic rarely used in journalism but was the only way for us to see how the public would be treated. No one lied. If they had no other choice, they had to answer who they were. Of course, agencies have no right to ask your name or ask for identification or why you want the information. You want it because you're the taxpayer and they work for you. That is enough. Hopefully, the audit will prompt some agencies to do things differently. I hope in the future to do similar audits of other agencies.

"Sharesleuth.com, bankrolled by billionaire Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban, debuted in August with an unlikely mission statement: to enrich Cuban by rooting out wrongdoing inside publicly traded companies he has shorted. Investors who take a short position on a stock are betting that its price will go down. The site's first target was Xethanol Corp., a New York-based ethanol company."

Part of our challenge online is how to create revenue. Some reporters have migrated with the backing of investors like this one. This is not advocacy journalism at its best, but 'gotcha' reporting at its worst and slimes all of us.