Deadline day
One of the things I like about my job is that I get to run around town one day and the next I get to write in the newsroom. Monday night I had a borough council meeting, Tuesday morning two preliminary court hearings, Tuesday afternoon I went on a hawk watch and Tuesday night visited the home of a 5th place world champion in the Agility World Championship in Austria the weekend of Sept. 18. I saw the dog do some runs in the backyard. Click on this video of the championship!
Yesterday marked my second day reporting from the district court. I was covering two preliminary hearings — both waived — one case concerning a woman who will plead guilty to stealing funds from a middle school nonprofit association (she was the treasurer), and one for her husband, who will plead not guilty on the stance that he was not involved.
Like my first time reporting from court, we didn’t have an available photog, so I had to take my editor’s camera. It was easy last time…there were camera people from all of the major networks who thought it was cool that it was my second day ever as a reporter and told me where to stand for a good shot (and I was in the shot when NBC ran the story 11 p.m…exciting). I got two decent pictures that day. This time I didn’t really get any decent pictures… just one that looks like a weird mug shot of the mister. I was talking to the woman’s attorney when she slipped out and I got a bad angle on her husband when he left. Ideally, they would have left together. But I had to sit through a hearing in the middle. One old woman was accusing her neighbor of trying to strangle her. This is what sitcoms are are made of.
On the bright side, I think I fared pretty well without the NBC and CBS reporters to follow. Politely challenged an attorney’s statement… and then while driving away thought of a further challenge, based on the affidavit of probable cause. Baby steps. I’m still a bit slow. The story is going on the front page tomorrow, which is one of the exciting aspects of working for a small paper.
