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Finally, the good stuff.
You will be asked to write an inverted pyramid news story using one of the following sets of facts:
Building fire
• Lots of old buildings downtown. Some of them date back to the 19th century, and if you look closely at them, they give a good visual flavor of what the downtown must have looked like way back then.
• The three oldest are the First Commerce Bank building, which was built in 1877; the Kress Building, built in 1892; and the Hopkins Mercantile Building and Warehouse, built in 1897.
• Fire last night in the Kress Building; interior almost completely and utterly destroyed. Each of the three floors of the building suffered severe and extensive damage.
• First call came into the fire department about 12:35 AM, and three firetrucks were on the scene within 5 minutes; blaze took an hour to be put out, according to Vern Johnson, assistant fire chief.
• Johnson: “We had a tough time with this one. It flamed up pretty quickly, and got really hot inside. By the time we got there it was going pretty good. All the wood in the interior didn’t give us much of a chance to do anything but contain it. Fortunately, we were able to do that.” Vern says two firefighters were treated for smoke inhalation at the scene of the fire, but they’re okay; they finished the shift and are home now and okay.
• Building located at 201 Water Street. No other buildings damaged. Brick exterior of the building still looks solid, although it is charred around the windows.
• Two businesses operated in the building. One was the Lincoln Independent Insurance Agency. John Grant is the president. He said all of the records and property of the agency were destroyed. He put the value of that at about $50,000. The other business was the Eon Graphics Arts Company. Marsha Golden is the director of the company. She said the value of the equipment and property they lost was about $75,000.
• Can the building be saved? “We certainly hope so. The Kress Building has an architecture that is worth preserving. The outside looks like it is in pretty good shape. I don’t know about the interior.” How much would it cost to renovate the building. “Not sure. Probably at a minimum, 750 thousand dollars, considering the number of square feet on each of the three floors.” That was Josh Whitfield, the president of the County Preservation Society.
• Building owned by First Industrial Bank. Spokesman for them said he didn’t know if they would be try to renovate the building or just tear the building down.
• Mayor Cynthia Dixon: “Once again, our fire department did an outstanding job in responding to this situation. As always, they’re first priority was saving life and property, and they did a magnificent job. The city owes them a hearty word of thanks.”
School board
• City school board met last night; big issue on their agenda was to select a new principle for Haraway High School
• Board did some other things like approve some tenure applications for about a dozen teachers.
• Most of the debate centered on the two finals for the Haraway job: Juli McCorvey, who is currently now the assistant principal at Haraway and has held that job for six years; Mike Coleman, the principle of a high school in Louisiana.
• Over 40 people applied for the job; search committee of the school board narrowed the choices down to these two.
• Harley Duncan: “We have two fine candidates here. I find it very difficult to choose between them. Both of them have accomplished a lot during their careers, and I believe they each would do a good job for us at Haraway.” Harley is a member of the board, weighs 270 pounds and speaks very slowly.
• Crowd of 200 people there; some supporters of McCorvey, some not. McCorvey and Coleman were not in the room; they were waiting in another room in the city board offices while the debate was going on.
• Alex McCreless, 1615 Ireland Dr. : “I have a child who is about to graduate from Haraway, and while I have nothing against Ms. McCorvey, I think it high time we got some new blood into our school system. We need some fresh thinking and new ideas. I think we need a change.”
• Taylor Whitson: “I have a daughter in the 10th grade at Haraway, and we have been helped a great deal by Mrs. McCorvey. Haraway is a good school, and I don’t see . . . I mean, like I think that’s because Mrs. McCorvey has worked so hard. I think she deserves this chance to be in charge and that she will do a good job.” Taylor has a daughter in the 10th grade at Haraway and lives at 2121 Blackoak Drive.
• Darren McGarity: “Let me tell you something. My son done real well because of the extra time and attention that Mrs. McCorvey give him. He was having some problems in the 9th grade, and she was able to figure out what help he need and got him that help. He’s going to graduate in June, and its because of her. She deserves that job.” He was real excited and talked real fast.
• About a dozen other people spoke, three of them in favor of Coleman and the rest in favor of McCorvey, thus proving where the crowd stood; board voted after an hour of debate and discussion to hire Coleman; vote was five to 4.
• Coleman was born and grew up and has lived most of his life in Louisiana and has a bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Backwater State University in Tennessee. He is the principal of Sandy Bar High School in Sandy Bar, LA. He’s done that for about 10 years.
Libel
A local businessman has sued the local newspaper for libel. His name is Harvey Segovia. The paper’s name in the Tuscaloosa Tribune.
Harvey owns a local lumber company that supplies lumber and lumber products to local contractors and builders in the area. He began this business when he was in his twenties, and he has been an active member of the community in its business and civic affairs ever since then. Lots of people know Harvey and like him.
A couple of years ago, during the construction of a new building on Greensboro Avenue, some scaffolding gave way and two workers fell more than 40 feet. One of them, Max DeBillo, died instantly from the injuries that he sustained to his head. The other, Aaron Marks, was paralyzed. The contracting company that they worked for was Knight Contracting Company, also a Tuscaloosa company.
When the accident occurred, the Tuscaloosa Tribune wrote a story about it. In it the reporter quoted the city building inspector, who at the time was a woman name Harriet Davies, as saying the reason for the accident was some rotted wood that was used for the scaffolding. Here’s a direct quote that the reporter used in the story: “Whoever put that scaffold together should have checked the wood. That person and the supplier of the wood are responsible for this terrible tragedy.” The reporter then called the contractor, and a secretary told her that DeBillo, the guy who was killed, had probably put the scaffold together because he was the guy who usually did that. The reporter asked who their main supplier of wood was, and she told him it was Segovia Lumber Company, Harvey’s company, and the reporter put that into her story.
When Harvey read the story, he was furious and called the newspaper and asked for a retraction. Abe Streeter, the editor, refused. So then Harvey sued. That was all two years ago, and it just got to court this week. The lawyers had been trying to work out a settlement but could not.
During the trial, Harvey and his lawyers charged that the newspaper acted maliciously. He said the reporter never did ever call him when she was doing the story and ask for his comment or his side of the story. They said this deviated from standard journalistic practices. They had this expert witness, Sanford Bruce, a professor of journalism at Minnesota Tech, who testified the newspaper should have asked him about it. Harvey and his lawyers also brought to the witness stand witnesses who said that his company wasn’t the only wood supplier for Knight.
For its part, the newspaper argued that Segovia was a “public figure,” which in libel laws means that a plaintiff has to prove more than a news organization just made a mistake. The plaintiff would have show that the mistake was deliberate and the newspaper was out to get him. The newspaper also used the defense of truth. They said the wood used in the scaffolding could have come from Harvey’s lumberyard. Therefore the allegation could be true. Finally, the newspaper said Harvey didn’t suffer any damage from the report, and they produced financial statements to show that Harvey’s business actually had increased over the past two years.
The jury didn’t buy any of that, however. This afternoon they returned a verdict in Harvey’s favor. They awarded Harvey and the Segovia Lumber Company $500,000 dollars in damages and one point five million dollars in punitive damages. The judge thanked the jury and dismissed them. His name is Eugene Zacaire.
Outside the courtroom, you talked to the newspaper’s lawyer, Banks Brookwood. “This is an outrageous verdict. We believe that the jury did not understand the real issues here. They seemed to have it in for the newspaper. We are going to file an appeal tomorrow.”
“We couldn’t be happier about this. The jury got it exactly right. The newspaper damaged me and my reputation, and they should have to pay for their slovenly reporting methods and their arrogance. Now that we have been vindicated, me and my family, well, we can get on with our lives.” That was what Harvey said when he stood with his family and lawyers on the courthouse steps after the trial.
You are a reporter for the Birmingham Gazette. You need to write a 200 to 250 word story on what happened.
Storm
A dark and stormy night. Thunderstorm began about 6 o’clock in the evening and it rained until right around Midnight. At times it got pretty heavy. National weather service station near the airport recorded the areas as getting about two inches of rain in a six-hour period.
Storm caused power outages in many areas. Probably as many as twenty thousand customers had to do without power at some point in the evening. So an Alabama Power Company spokesperson said. Her name is Amy Winston.
“Our power crews worked all night to get power turned back on. We had about five crews out working until early in the morning. All of our customers had their power back on by about five in the morning, but it was a struggle. A couple of power polls were damaged because of some minor flooding in certain areas. Still, the crews did a wonderful job, and the city owes them a great deal of thanks.” That’s what she said.
John Stallings is the guy you talk with at the police department. He’s a captain. He tells you that because of the storm, a number of traffic lights were knocked out and they were not working for part of the evening. “That caused some really hazardous conditions.” Any accidents? “Well, yeah, you always have your fender-benders go up with things get like that.” Anything serious? “A guy with an SUV slammed into this woman in a Corolla down at 10th and Main Street. Pretty much totaled her car. Ambulance had to take her to the hospital.” Was this because of a traffic light being out? “Yeah. That light there wasn’t working at the time.”
You check the police records and find that Maxwell House has been charged with drunk driving in connection with this accident. He’s a local lawyer, a fact that you confirm with the police. The accident happened about eight pm.
The woman injured in the accident is Sarah Leigh. The information desk at City Memorial Hospital says she is in fair condition. You talk with a family member who says she has a broken arm, a broken kneecap, and two broken ribs. She is still in the hospital, but they expect her to be released in a couple of days. The family member you speak to is Sandra Leigh, her sister. Sarah is twenty-five years old and not married and works as a junior accountant for the accounting firm of Winken, Blinken and Nod. She lives at 855 Old Seedfarm Road.
One of the paramedics, Mike O’Dell, who worked the accident said it took about thirty minutes to get Miss Leigh out of the car. “Everything was pretty badly mangled. It was a mess. She was lucky she wasn’t hurt more seriously than she was.”
A few homes in the Blackfriar’s Creek area were flooded. A person with the city’s fire department rescue squad tells you that they were there, on the scene, within about an hour, but there was nothing that he would call “serious.” “There was some water that got into the houses along Delaney Road near the creek, but it wasn’t bad enough that we had to evacuate anyone. A few yard items might’ve gotten washed away, and it made a mess of a few houses, but most of the folks there did a good job of protecting their stuff and getting out of the area if they had to.” That was Jamie Tarrant. He works for the Fire department. He’s been there twenty years.
Frat house
• Lots of people concerned these days with drinking at fraternity parties; recently a couple of students, one at LSU and one at MIT, have died from alcohol poisoning
• Two weeks ago: University president restates policy banning alcohol from fraternity houses located on campus property or within campus environs. His name is Harvey Smithville. He said at the time, “Any fraternity in which the members have alcohol will be immediately suspended. A second offense within a year will result in the banning of that fraternity for five years.”
• Inter-fraternaty Council president Bart Addison issued statement then. “We wholeheartedly agree with President Smithville that alcohol has no place at fraternity parties.”
• This past weekend: three students from the Alpha Beta Zeta fraternity admitted to local hospital; statement from University public relations office said they had been at a party at ABZ house; diagnosed as having alcohol poisoning
• Admitted to hospital early Sunday morning at different times
• Three students: Press Martin, from Shethar, New Hampshire; he’s a junior in engineering; Al Amalek, freshman majoring in liberal arts, and he’s from Nashville, TN; and Rob Smith, sophomore in business, and he’s from here in town.
• Statement from University: “Our initial investigation indicates that these young men were at a party in the ABZ house. A number of witnesses say alcohol was being consumed by them. Based on that we are suspending the fraternity and all its activities on campus. We have not decided how long the suspension will last.”
• Jan Mize is the person in the University’s public relations department who released the information; she said that usually a suspension like this one that comes from these circumstances is for about a year.
• Martin and Smith were released from the hospital on Monday morning; Amalek is still there and listed in critical condition.
• Addison: “I am shocked that this incident has occurred. I believed that everyone was adhering to the University’s policy. However, I do not believe that the entire fraternity should be held responsible for the actions of a few. I am going to ask President Smithville to reconsider his suspension of the ABZs.”
• In light of what happened, the University might increase its police patrols of fraternity houses on the weekends. This information comes from Mize.
Youth group
Write a 200 to 250 word news story based on this information.
• This happened in the woods of Mt. Cheaha state park. 14 girls from the New Hope Methodist Church youth group went camping on a Saturday. The girls spent the day in the woods doing various things.
• Doris McKay: “Late in the afternoon, six of the younger girls decided to take one of the nature trails. They promised they would not go far. We kept waiting for them to come back so we could fix supper. I guess we waited too late. By the time we decided to look for them, it was getting pretty dark.” McKay was one of the adult coordinators of the trip. One of her daughters was there, but she wasn’t in the group that wandered off.
• Earl Grey, he’s the supervisor of the state park: “The women contacted the park office about 7 o’clock, and by that time there was little that we could do. We drove along all the roads through the park shining bright lights and hoping that the girls were close enough to see them. Unfortunately, there are only a few roads through the park, and I don’t think the girls were close by.”
• Temperatures cooled off all the way down into the ‘30s that night. The girls were without food, and only one of them had a blanket. They ranged in age from twelve to 14. Early the next morning a park ranger found the girls a couple of miles from the original camp site. They were cold but unhurt. The girls were found by 8 o‘clock in the morning and left the park shortly thereafter. They made it to the 11 o‘clock worship services, where the church had made a big banner to greet them at the front door and it read, “I once was lost but now I’m found. Amazing Grace. Welcome home.”
• Stephanie Twinings: “When we realized what had happened to us and that we couldn’t find our way back, we remembered what we had always been taught. That was to stay where we were. Fortunately, we had a couple of girls scouts in the group. We found a comfortable place and all huddled under the blanket as best we could. We didn’t get that cold because we could keep each other warm. We got a little hungry. The worst thing was was that we knew people would be worried about us.” Stephanie is 14 and was the oldest member of the group.
• Doris McKay was asked if she would go camping with these girls again. She laughed. “Probably, but not for a while. Next time we’ll give them some rules about wandering off.”
• Grey says people get lost occasionally, but usually their pretty easy to find because its not that big of a park. Its only about 17,000 acres in size. He seemed like a pretty cool guy.
Fire
Write a 200 to 250-word story using the following information.
• Fire last month in neighboring Ticonderoga County; burned thirty-five hundred acres of forestland and woods; several hunting cabins burned; fire burned for 3 days, while firemen from several states came to fight the blaze; fire was helped by dry conditions; it’s only rained one inch in the last month; winds also helped the fire along.
• Estimates of damage from the Ticonderoga County sheriff’s department: three point five million dollars, a lot of money by anybody’s standard.
Sheriff Billy Hubert: “This is the worst fire we’re had in this county in more than a decade. We appreciate the fine work of our own fire departments in the county in putting out this blaze and the help we received from our neighbors.”
• About 25 people from outside the area came to help in putting out the fire.
• Sheriff says they suspect arson, they are investigating.
• Today two boys, along with their parents, showed up in the sheriff’s office saying they — the boys, that is — had been the cause of the fire; fire had begun as a campfire; sheriff says signs had been posted saying that camp fires were illegal.
• Names of the boys are not being released because they are juveniles. They are 14 and 15 years old.
• Sheriff says boys have been charged with misdemeanors – violating sheriff’s notices concerning public safety – and have been released to the custody of their parents; a hearing in juvenile court has been scheduled for two weeks from today.
• Sheriff: “I’m glad we got this cleared up. I believe that our investigation would have eventually produced those who started this fire. Now we won’t have to go through all of that.” What will happen to the boys? “That will be up to the juvenile judge to decide. I would hope that if they are held responsible, they will have to do some type of community service to get them to realize the seriousness and the consequences of their actions.”
• Sheriff says boys claim they thought they had put the fire out when they left the campsite; they thought they had smothered it with pine needles, but apparently it had smouldered after they left. Boys were old enought to no better but you know how kids are these days.
• Fire burned trees and land and other assorted stuff from two miles east of Highway 14 to the edge of the Ponderosa Valley subdivision, across the southern part of the county.
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