Search results for "city government" ...

• How Safe is Your Food? How to report on food safety and restaurant inspections

  This tipsheet is a good guide to investigating food safety. The authors begin by offering tips like "get multiple years of data." Each tip is accompanied by a detailed explanation backed up with the authors' own experience. Then, the tipsheet ends with advice about building a database of restaurant inspections. The authors share their own experience doing this and offer a lot of suggestions to make the database efficient and effective.

  Tags: restaurant; food poisoning; city government; food inspectors; FDA; state government; public health and safety

  By Chris Schnaars; Tim Darragh

  2006

• Backgrounding Individuals

  This tipsheet demonstrates how to background an individual using all of the public records available in North Carolina. It discusses a whole variety of public records, including those available at the Clerk of Court's office, the Department of Corrections and the Tax Collector's office. The tipsheet explains what information can be gleaned from each record, and how it could contribute to the story.

  Tags: research; public records; open records; backgrounding; sourcing; city government

  By Pat Stith

  2005

• Investigating City Hall

  This tipsheet shows which public documents reporters need for investigating local government, and what those documents will tell. Two stories by Novak and Warmbir are included as examples.

  Tags: city hall; local government; investigating; beat; FOI; document

  By Tim Novak, Steve Warmbir

  2005

• Tips on City Hall Beat Reporting

  Kevin Flowers' tipsheet gives the basics of local government reporting. He suggests knowing agendas, learning how your government works and making friends who are familiar with the inner workings of the city. He also gives hints on getting FOI requests filled and how to spot a good story.

  Tags: city hall; beat; reporting; government; local; meeting

  By Kevin Flowers

  2005

• Investigating State and Local Government

  This tipsheet lists some general tips for covering state and local government. For example, one of the tips is: "The best stories seem to start with tips, not fishing expeditions." At the end of the tipsheet is a list of topics, such as budgets and elections laws, that generally lead to good investigations.

  Tags: state capital; ordinances; city council; records; sources

  By J. Andrew Curliss

  2005

• Finding Source Documents

  This tipsheet lists good resources for finding documents. Specifically, it covers finding government documents, statistics, court rulings, polls, surveys and academic journals. Most of the resouces listed are online resources. Both national websites, and sites specific to Oklahoma are included.

  Tags: internet; online; web; statistics; search engines; lexisnexis

  By None

  2004

• Six Key Records for the Local Government Beat

  From payroll to city property, Mansur lists six records every reporter covering the local government beat should obtain.

  Tags: local government; beat reporting; public records; city officials; personnel and payroll records; budget; finance; early-retirement programs; cell phone records; property; inspection records; investigative reporting

  By Michael Mansur

  2004

• Cultivating Sources and Using Documents

  Mike McGraw lists different tips on how to look for the best sources of information in almost any beat. The tipsheet also lists a number of different types of documents, including government documents and official reports, that may help bringing credibility to any story.

  Tags: government; financial reports; federal tax liens; FOIA; public records

  By Mike McGraw

  2004

• Car Tips for City Hall Stories (and every other beat)

  Tips on using spreadsheets and databses for local government and other stories

  Tags: City Hall; Spreadsheets; databases

  By Jodi Nirode

  2004

• Tax Increment Financing: Great stories behind the dull name

  Tedesco explains Tax Increment Financing (TIF). This tipsheet contains detailed graphics, information about the law behind TIF and advice for reporters interested in investigating the program in their community.

  Tags: Tax Increment Financing; TIF; Tax Increment Reinvestment Zone; TIRZ; development; infrastructure; city planning; San Antonio; municipalities; city hall; local government; developers; urbanism

  By John Tedesco

  2004