Manjoo Reflections

Sometimes I think about the rapper Tupac’s words”…it’s me against the world.” and I can truly say in a way it is kind of us against the world. We all have our own beliefs and our own truths that help us deal with the reality of not only our lives but the world as well. We are stuck between a world of truth and a world of comfortability.

Fahard Manjoo grasps this exact concept in his book, True Enough: Learning to Live in a Post-Fact Society. Manjoo reveals through various stories how we as people select our versions of the truth. We deny irrefutable data and settle with a truth that’s comfortable enough for our lives..a truth that is only true enough.

As I explained to my Public Affairs reporting class, this book really makes me want to immediately go and get my Masters degree in Psychology. Not only did I start questioning objectivity of news in the future but I questioned every lie or truth the world has ever imposed on me.  Being that psychology is my second passion after television news,  I picked on something Manjoo mentioned about people selecting their own versions of the truth, which in actuality may be inaccuries, but they go a step further and ask others to join their cause..to believe their truth..to deny what is really real.

Instantly, I though hmmm the acclaimed developmental psychologist Jean Piaget must be wrong. EGOCENTRISM doesn’t end in the early preschool years…it just cleverly evolves.  In case you’ve never heard of the term before, it was used for younger children who believed that everyone thought as they did and the world shared the same feelings and emotions that they had.

I saw this in the first story of a woman who started a group to encourage HIV/AIDS infected mothers to breastfeed, give birth vaginally, and not take necessary medication to prevent transmission to an unborn child. These are all scientific proven ways that children can acquire the disease, yet this woman is somehow a better expert than researchers and scientist who studied this for years.

There is nothing wrong with living with one’s own beliefs but it becomes a problem when other lives enter the equation. The best example of this isn’t found in politics, health, or education. MUSIC is where selective exposure thrives the best. Take these Lil Wayne lyrics for example:

”  Beautiful black women
I bet that bitch look better red”

(Right Above It 2011)

” I like her long hair, thick, red boned”

(Every Girl 2010)

” I like the red bone, pretty feet, cute face

Girl, if that’s you put yo number in my two way.”

Yes, it’s fine that he likes light skinned women but to say in a syndicated song that a dark skinned woman would look better if she was red instantly became the new “ish” for his followers, worshipers, imitators….whatever you want to call them. It sparked so much controversy in the black community because young dark skinned girls felt that they were not pretty because they didn’t have light skinned. It’s almost as if he’s stigmatizing light skinned women to be supreme over dark skinned women.The worse part of this is that he has a large majority of his fans ( mainly the young boys) taking these words and applying them to their lives.

Giving the world the benefit of the doubt, True Enough is not the start of knowing that many people have the tendency to believe what they want to believe, but I just truly think it gets out of hand when people who have no experience on anything become experts or moguls on a subject or worse when subjects that have no clear or accurate answer are given one by some random individual. A question such as “What’s prettier: light skin or dark skin?”  A question that should only be taken as one’s opinions.

Manjoo really opened my eyes into questioning the world around me. I’ve always been a skeptical young lady and now after reading this I believe I’ve captured skepticism at its finest. I am stuck between a world of comfortability and a world of truth. I don’t know where my loyalty lies. I don’t know which side I’m on..Do you?

A Walk with the Dead

Walking into the Medical Examiner’s Office, I thought this experience was going to be about seeing dead bodies and what specific clues the examiner looks for to see how a person died, something like that of what you would see if you’ve ever watched Dr. G Medical Examiner on the Discovery Health Channel. Something that looks like this:

For starters, let me say television makes everything look more appealing than it really is. My visit was nothing at all like this. The rooms were cold. It was as quiet as a cemetery-all indicators that the dead “lived” here.

Dr. Vernard Adams, Chief Medical Examiner for Hillsborough County, walked into the room and struck me as a man who been doing this for quite sometime based on his unbothered demeanor. It was amazing to find out that Dr. Adam’s two main missions is to determine the cause of death and dispose of unclaimed bodies, in which they dispose about 400-500 bodies.

Fun Facts about the M.E. Office

Photos are not public records…BUT sketches of unidentified bodies are put on the website.

Medical Examiners rely a lot on toxicology.

No one  HAS to claim a body..there is no rule saying you have to…even if it is a family member or spouse.

Never accept ” cardiac arrest” as a cause of death. Think about it…a person wouldn’t be dead if their heart didn’t stop

 

Although I didn’t get to see an actual live autopsy, I did get to see a specimen of a heart, which in itself was pretty cool. I think  a  Top of Blog that my class didn’t realize was that in a way medical examiners are just like investigative journalists. They seek to understand something and investigate until they have found all the answers they were looking for.

 

 

Budget Buster to the Rescue!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

When I think of government budgets, I think of a child with an allowance. They only receive so much, so there is only so much to spend. But just like government officials, where money is concerned, manipulations follows.

Hillsborough County Tax collector, Preston Trigg enlightened us young journalism students on our least favorite subject: Math. I must say my expectations certainly did not align with the reality of this visit. After our mini Budget 101, I felt like Superman ready to catch the bad guys. I’ll probably call myself ” The Budget Buster” but anyways let’s explore the basics of a budget.

The easiest thing to remember about any budget, whether it’s for  government, school, or personal purposes is that it represents MONEY COMING IN (Revenue) AND MONEY GOING OUT( Expenses). And that’s all you need to know so THE END..I’m kidding. But if you keep that in mind, it will simplify a lot.

Government budgets  are filled with information including the number of employees, organizational charts and general info on the entity. Sometimes all of this information can come across as confusing or overwhelming so the best thing to do is ASK QUESTIONS if you don’t understand something. Not only is asking questions is important but knowing how a budget works may help save time when researching.

Budget “Basic” Basics

* Operates on a Fiscal Year that begins October 1 and ends September 3o of the following year. Ex : Oct 1, 2o1o- Sept. 20, 2011 = FY 2011

*Usually broken down into codes

* decreases in a budget is denoted by a parentheses ( ) or marked in red.

* Money specifically collected for something must be spent only on that ( even if there is leftover money it cannot spent on anything else)

So after knowing all of this information, I decided to do some reaseach on my school USF and see what is going on in their budget and I found a recent article in our school newspaper about our budget.

< http://www.usforacle.com/usf-administration-braces-for-budget-cuts-1.2523545 >

and I went even further to look up our school budget. The actual graph couldn’t be posted but the link to view the budget is below.

http://usfweb2.usf.edu/bpa/ob/10-11/1011_Operating_Budget_Web.pdf

Just as Superman has his super hearing and vision abilities, if I were Budget Buster, I would have my intuitive abilities and say that when USF does cut budgets, some students may want to pay close attention to where the cuts are coming from…will Administrator salaries be one?…Until next time..





Code Enforcement is strictly enforced in Temple Terrace

(Temple Terrace, FL)- The City of Temple Terrace City Council may not have the power to send city code violators to jail but the fines they enforce are just as unpleasing.

The council’s monthly municipal meeting was held on March 9, 2011 where more than four cases of violation were presented to the board. The meeting was called to order by chairman Rick Gibson.

The cases presented dealt with city code violations ranging from work without a permit to sanitation orders. A unique case which was, Case Number 11-0131 City of Temple Terrace vs. Atul Solanki, involved snipe signs and banners that were placed in front of Solanki’s residence without the necessary permits. A notice of violation was issued to Solanki on February and he was forced to remove the the snipe signs. Snipe signs were noted as signs that are out into the ground with wires such as the signs placed on corner streets. Even though Solanki removed the snipe signs and put the electronic banner in static mode by March 1, council member Michael Urbas made a motion to find Solanki guilty of the violation but no fine should be assessed. The board voted in favor of Urbas motion.

Other violation cases were not as fortunate to have a fine thrown out. A case that involved the City vs. U.S. Bank NA, Trustee, c/o Ocwen Loan Servicing brought charges against the foreclosed property for damage to a broken gate and open sliding glass door. Violation notification was issued on January 27,2011 and code enforcement officers found no change to the property as of March 9, 2011. Council member Andrew Ross made a motion to find the U.S. Bank guilty of violating sanitation orders and the council gave them until April 13, 2o11 to come into compliance. If they are not in compliance by  April 14, 2011 , the bank will be fined $100.00 per day until proven to be brought into compliance.

The meeting went on with more violations and more fines until there was not anything else new to discuss. At the end of the meeting, the council discussed unfinished business cases; one in particular being a hoarder who was fined $25.00 per day reaching total of $ 700.00. The board discussed more about this cased because it was assumed that the fine would be capped at $500.00

Even though sitting in that meeting and listening to these cases made me think these people were really anal and bored with their lives, I thought what the community would look like without these rules and codes. It is true that we as humans have the right to do whatever it is that we would like to do, but it is also true that we must pay the consequences for our actions. Rules were never meant to be broken, at least not in concerns to code enforcement.

Politics and Money

Money may not make the world go around but it does help politicians get elected into office.

No matter what beliefs we have about money and politics there is no escaping the fact that corruption occurs here. They have policies to change neighborhoods, to lower crime rates, or even to lower taxes but they forget about the most important policy: TO TELL THE TRUTH..especially when it comes to their campaign finances.

I’ve always believed that if someone was dishonest and that dishonesty was actually harder than telling the truth, they would abort that mission but as I learn more in this Public Affairs Reporting class, I discovered they only bury the truth. But as reporters and maybe even just concerned citizens, we dig even deeper. Thanks to William March, a Political reporter at the Tampa Tribune, I know how to critically analyze a officials financial records and committees.

Since the topic is appropriate, I thought I would do some research on Kentucky Republican Senator Rand Paul, one of the individuals who wants to stop this government shutdown that is suppose to occur on March 4.

So I visited the website Mr. March gave us which is <http://www.maplight.org&gt;. Typed in his name under Legislators and found this :

 

Total Campaign Contributions Received by Rand Paul: $4,440,485

Top 10 Interests Funding

Interest	Contributions

Interest	Contributions
Health Professionals	$316,977
Misc Business	$148,783
Lawyers/Law Firms	$141,719
Misc Finance	$138,410
Mining	$126,327
Securities & Investment	$123,775
Real Estate	$108,327
Oil & Gas	$97,790
Republican/Conservative	$97,760
Misc Manufacturing & Distributing	$65,150

Top 10 Organizations Funding

Organization	Contributions

Organization	Contributions
Alliance Coal	$31,050
Koch Industries	$14,600
Mason Capital Management	$14,400
Corriente Advisors	$12,000
Griffin Industries	$12,000
University of Kentucky	$11,050
American Bankers Association	$10,000
Credit Union National Association	$10,000
Wellpoint Incorporated	$8,000
Bavarian Waste	$7,950

Contributions above are for the last six years of available data, Nov 23, 2004 – Nov 22, 2010. Contributions from political parties and from other candidates are not included in the “Top 10” lists.

 

WHAT DO YOU KNOW?! Koch Industries the 2nd largest organization as a contributor. For someone who constantly was talking about cutting trillions out of the budget so government does not have to shut down is being funded by an industry that does basically nothing for the middle-class. Last time I recalled the middle class was the class keeping this country together. Not to mention Koch’s unwanted attention in the media lately.

To make matters worst, this industry happened to be 2010’s dirtiest opponent of clean energy according to an article found in the Huffington Post.

<http://www.huffingtonpost.com/josh-nelson/koch-industries-2010s-dir_b_782836.html&gt;

Digging even deeper I discovered that just last week Kentucky had just ended a 4-day protest on a policy about mountaintop removal mining.  This seems pretty interesting being that Sen. Paul is a member of the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources. Hopefully his policies on energy and natural resources are different from the opinions of his contributors.

Let’s hope the truth isn’t just another 5 letter overrated word.

 

 

 

Clerk of Courts is the One Stop Shop

The Hillsborough County Clerk of Courts was popping more than a Saturday night club in Ybor City.  People were standing in line waiting to pay fines and even some waiting to see a judge for breaking some lawful rule.

As I entered the Juror room,  I sat down and almost had a sense of what it felt like to have Jury Duty.   Dana Caranante, the Director of Circuit Civil Court came in and talked about how the clerk of courts is basically the one stop shop.

At the court you can:

* handle issues of child support

* handle domestic violence

* handle traffic violations

Since I’ve never had child support issues or domestic violence problems, I find the traffic violations very interesting. I’m pretty sure many Hillsborough County residents find themselves coming to the court to pay the most annoying violation: Red Light Traffic camera violations. Before going down to the court, many of these violators should look into this violation because residents in other counties have found out that IT’S ILLEGAL.Many of the companies who install the cameras work for the county not the state. A Miami-Dade County Circuit Court Judge ruled that the cameras could not legally be used to issue traffic citations in Florida. Interested? Check out the link below

<http://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/2010/02/florida-court-rules-red-light-cameras-illegal/&gt;

Another interesting and cool experience was actually meeting Pat Frank, the Clerk of Circuit Court. It was refreshing to know that she took time out of her busy schedule to speak with us. An interesting statement she made that caught my attention was her mentioning that court works with a domestic violence shelter called ” The Spring” when a person’s safety is threatened.

This is such a milestone because The Spring is Florida’s LARGEST domestic violence shelter.

The Spring offers much more than just a home for domestic violence victims and have various ways the public can help.  For more information, visit <http://www.thespring.org&gt;

 

 

 

 

Mo’ Taxes.Mo’Money…or Not!

We complain about them.

We can’t get rid of them.

But overall we HAVE to pay them. So what are they?

They’re called Property taxes.

When the Hillsborough County Tax Collector  Preston Trigg spoke to my Public Affairs Reporting class about taxes, I thought ” Who cares?”.  Yes, I grew up in a home but many of the faces I saw day to day did not. No one talked about property taxes in my neighborhood or my circle of friends because many of them don’t own homes and many may never own homes . However, I listened intensively knowing I would be different from the peers in my neighborhood. I will be a home owner.

Mr. Triggs told us how as reporters a property tax check should be one of the first things we do when conducting an investigation on an individual.  The link below is the Hillsborough County Property Tax Search. This allows you to see if a property owner has paid their taxes, how much they owe and the sale-history of the property.

< http://hillstax.org/taxapp/property_information.asp>

This one website can link you to so many different public records that are valuable and available to YOU..the public.

One interesting statement Mr. Triggs said was, ” Quid pro quo.”  It may look and sound foreign but its means “this for that”.It is against Florida law for any public employee that works in government to use their position for personal benefit.  It may seem like a pretty obvious law but it even applies in instances where a person may feel they are not given fair estimates of their property taxes.

Being that I am from South Florida, I did a little research on South Florida property taxes and found a pretty interesting article that focused on South Florida property tax appeals. Did you know that you could appeal if you believe that your property taxes should be cheaper?  Or did you even know that when you do appeal you appear before a board that gets paid $ 90 per hour out of YOUR TAX DOLLARS?  To know more interesting things, you’re going to have the read the article for youself.

<http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/state/south-florida-property-tax-appeals-on-a-blistering-860538.html?printArticle=y>

I’ve learned to important lessons from this visit.

1. ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS..follow the money.

2. Don’t let them* fool you! ( *them being anyone you’re requesting public information from)

Locked Up!

A few days ago, I went to jail for the first time ever.

I wasn’t driving under the influence.

I didn’t kill anyone.

I’m not a petty thief…in fact, I’m not a criminal at all.

I’ve never knowingly broken the law…but I went to jail.

When I walked into the Hillsborough County Jail for a class visit, I knew I wasn’t permanently staying in this solemn facility but I realized that I had one thing in common with the inmates in this place: Whether you’re in for an hour or in for a few days, it’s somewhere you don’t want to be.

Lieutenant Allen and Lieutenant Downie tried to lighten the mood with their comical jokes but it was no escaping that these walls produced fear and tense feelings.  I didn’t even know the structure of jail was organized from the floor up.

Little Unknown facts about the Hillsborough County Jail

*The jail has blue tile that only employees can walk on and red tile the inmates walk on.

*The guard to inmate ratio is 1:72 and the guards possess no weapons outside a foam spray. Effective Communication is the best weapons these professionals are equipped with.

*The worst misdemeanor these professionals deal with is a person arrested for trespassing.

* The inmates playing cards feature cold cases or missing persons.

* The hardest thing for the inmates to deal with is boredom

I discovered that just like me some of these inmates are not criminals. Some are just mentally unstable and are not put into mental institutions because there are none available.  There are hardly any mental institutions in the city of Tampa so most mental patients have no choice but to trade in necessary medical care for a hard bed and 3 frozen meals a day. That doesn’t sound like a good trade-off to me. Take a moment and imagine being viewed as a insane person locked in jail. Who would believe you do not belong there? Who would believe you deserved a second chance if you attacked someone when you were’nt in your right mind? No one!

After walking the very halls the inmates walk everyday, we ventured into a section of the jail they don’t see. Records!!!

Here I learned that, the only thing not available for public records is an inmates social security number, medical information and juvenile cases. However, there is a stipulation with juveniles. If a juvenile is FOUND GUILTY of 3 misdemeanors or 1 felony, their case is public records.

As the visit came to an end, I walked out hoping this was my last time seeing the place from the inside.  Slowly walking to my car, I vowed I would not make 1201 Orient Road my permanent address any time soon.

What’s YOUR Emergency??

Upon my recent visit to the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office, I was introduced to things I’ve never seen in a police investigation. From a first hand experience, I’ve seen arrest, heard 911 calls, but never thought these warrants, recordings, documents were available for me to obtain. I felt most affected by the experiences of 911 operators.

When I stepped into the communications room, I felt as though I was a real 911 operator. I couldn’t believe that right outside of the room I was sitting in  a dispatch  operator was calmly helping a frantic caller in need of emergency assistance.  Before I would be able to hear the chaos the dispatchers deal with on a daily basis, I had to the hear sounds and words no one at the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s office expect to hear when they come in to work.

10-108! 10-108! Officer down….officer down.

These words took control of my thoughts as listened and visualized a suspect injuring multiple officers, other officers asking about the suspects location, and the operator remaining placid while taking in all of this information.  Looking at employees’ Woody’s and Alex green jackets that proudly displayed the Hillsborough County Sheriffs Office symbol with the word “COMMUNICATIONS” imprinted in all capital letters, I thought this seems like a job I can handle. After hearing and watching these life savers in the action, this turned from my words being a job that I can handle  to a job that I can appreciate.

The requirements for this career involves: Patience, Patience and maybe a little bit more Patience. Something I definitely didn’t have the first time I called 911. As soon as the dispatcher said, “911, what’s your emergency?!” I screamed, yelled and cried I needed an ambulance. She said calm down and I heard your problem isn’t important. After visiting the Sheriff”s Office, I realized it wasn’t that my problem was not important, it was that in order to best assist me the operator had to remain  emotionally unattached. Something these professionals are trained to do.

But with all the training in the world, they are still human and error is highly possible. Take for example a case that happened in October of last year. A Hillsborough operator was severely shamed when a young woman deemed the operator responsible for the death of  her father. The family said the operator did not take their call as a dire emergency. The full story can be found here: http://www2.tbo.com/content/2010/oct/18/182033/family-upset-with-911-dispatcher-after-death-of-fa/news-metro/

Of all things I learned at the Hillsborough Sheriff’s Office, I think the most important message I would like to spread is to know your emergency numbers outside of 911. This may save time and maybe even a life.  A list of the emergency numbers can be found at the website below!

http://www.hillsboroughcounty.org/emergency/info/

The Unexpected in Education

As a student, we expect to learn from the best. As a parent, we expect our children to be taught by the best…at least that’s what we thought.

According to the Herald -Tribune, hundreds of Florida school teachers have misused their power by sexually, physically, and verbally abusing students. The shocking news is… they have remained in the classroom.

Matt Doig, investigative editor for the Sarasota Herald -Tribune, gave an in-depth look into how many of our educational leaders teach with no certification in classrooms, teach with several offenses on their record, and teach without anyone knowing their secrets.

The thing that I found interesting that Mr. Doig did not discuss was teachers who appealed against these allegations and whether or not any had won their cases.  When a teacher is accused of an offenses against students, the matter can be handled in two ways: a police investigation if criminal activity is involved or a administrative investigation where the complaint is sent to the district.

Most cases are handle through an administrative investigation where after the incident has been reported to the district it goes to the Department of Education. By now an oblivious individual would think the situation had been taken care of because it reached the DOE. Right? WRONG! Actually, the Department of Education has no say in the teacher’s fate. A special board known as the Education Practices Commision files a formal order revoking the teacher’s certificate and adopting the allegations as fact.  Also, I discovered that most of the allegations that the Department of Education sends to this special commission hardly ever get denied.

So I found no cases of incidents where teachers had appealed and won their cases probably because most of these allegations are found to be true..whether they are true are not. This seems like a great story for a reporter to dig into and the first place they can start is in public records.

After all, most of these educational  criminals past could have been easily accessed if employment agencies used public records accordingly.