The Idaho Press Club’s “Best of 2010” awards contest honors the best work in print, broadcast, online and P.R. in Idaho in the past year – and you should enter. This year’s contest features an array of categories in which to compete, generous discounts for IPC members, entry fees held to last year’s level, and a chance at bragging rights, adulation from your peers and a boost for your resume. The deadline to enter is Jan. 20, and entries are now being accepted.

All the details are at our website, www.idahopressclub.org, and that’s also the place to start this year, as we have a new entry system, making slow strides toward our future goal of an all-online entry process. This year, start by filling out your individual entry form online at the website and submitting it. You will receive an email with the judging sheet; you’ll need to print out and attach that form to your actual entry. Next, fill out the Master Entry List, even if you are only entering one item. There you will have the option to pay online through PayPal or the old-fashioned way, by mailing in a check. Award entry fees are staying the same: $14 for IPC members, $27 for non-members, $8 for student members and $16 for student non-members.

If you pay through PayPal, you will be charged an additional $1 fee per entry to cover the PayPal costs. Again, you will receive an email with a copy of the Master Entry list. Print that out and include it with your entries, judging sheets and your check, if you didn’t pay online. To qualify for the contest, all entries must be postmarked by January 20, 2011 – but it’s definitely OK to send them in earlier!

You can review all the categories and rules on the awards section at www.idahopressclub.org. If you have any questions, contact our executive director, Martha Borchers, at (208) 389-2879 in Boise or email: email@idahopressclub.org

Remember, members get a big discount but you must pay your 2011 dues to qualify for the member price. You can pay for your membership online as well (click “JOIN” at the top of our website), or include a separate check with the members’ names and contact information with your entries. Our membership dues also hasn’t increased; it’s still a bargain at just $25 a year, or $10 for students.

The winners will be announced at the Idaho Press Club’s annual banquet on May 7, 2011. Be one of the “Best of 2010.” Enter by Jan. 20, 2011 and join us in May to honor Idaho’s outstanding journalists and P.R. professionals.

Joan Cartan-Hansen is a producer/reporter/writer/host  for Idaho Public Television, a former Idaho Press Club president, and the current Idaho Press Club treasurer.

The conference, put on by the Press Club’s Southwest Chapter, took place Sept. 25 in downtown Boise. Here are some of the tips the presenters passed along to the assembled journalists:

(@carsonjw on Twitter) discussed how to break news and interact with the audience through such tools as Twitter and Facebook. Walker said social networks can be an important way to find eyewitnesses and primary sources, though journalists always must authenticate quotes from social media and check out claims. It’s also useful to mine the community as part of your beat.

“Be transparent about who you are,” when setting up a social media account for reporting use, Walker advised. He noted that the 2010 AP stylebook has four pages on social media.

Walker advised creating a strategy and setting goals: What do you want from the account? What do users get from the account? How often/what will you tweet? How can you engage your audience? He also said it’s important to develop a voice, and find ways to personalize your communications.

Ideally, Walker said, social media will build brand loyalty and drive conversations to your news site and your advertising.

(@tweetmcg on Twitter) discussed copyright law on the Internet. Sample letters for requesting permission to use copyrighted material are all over the Internet. Whether material used without copyright permission falls under the “fair use” doctrine for news reporting is dependent on how “transformative” the use is – McGrath advised that reporters link to the original work, instead of re-posting a copyrighted article, a practice called “scraping.” Just use an excerpt, and then link.

At least one organization is now buying copyrights to newspapers’ content, then trolling the Internet for violations and suing.

Whether or not linking can create a liability for defamation has not yet been decided by the courts, McGrath said. Edits that materially alter the meaning of the original cancel your immunity for content posted by others, she said, but legally you’re OK to edit or remove comments on your blog posts or stories.

Lori Robertson of FactCheck.org made a very timely presentation on fact-checking political ads – as many of the reporters in the room were working on just that in the run-up to the November elections.

FactCheck.org launched in 2003 for the 2004 presidential election, and is a project of the University of Pennsylvania’s Annenberg Public Policy Center. It was founded and is headed by Brooks Jackson, who pioneered ad watch stories at CNN. FactCheck.org is nonprofit and its content is free; the organization fact-checks political ads in major races across the country and posts the results.

For reporters working on their own ad watch stories, Robertson advised asking the campaign for support or backup for the claims made in the ad. “This backup might actually debunk the claim for you,” she said. She also advised reporters to refer to the exact wording of the claim and “remind yourself: What exactly am I debunking?”

Common suspect claims include those claiming a record, the largest, the highest or the worst, she noted. Also, context matters. Sometimes the report the ad cites to back up its claim is itself incorrect.

The 1st Amendment protects false advertising by politicians, Robertson said. But it also protects a free press – one that can point out what’s true and what’s not.

Recently, after receiving several complaints from members of the media about their experiences making public records requests of the City of Boise, Press Club board member Allen Derr and I met with Boise Mayor Dave Bieter.

The mayor graciously met with us for more than an hour, and discussed our concerns in depth. A city attorney and city spokesman Adam Park also participated in the meeting.

Mayor Bieter was quite concerned that we thought the city was taking a troubling new hard line on public records requests from the news media, and said that was not his intent at all. He also assured us that the city would not try to stake out a legal argument to withhold from the public all draft ordinances, though it denied one request regarding a draft ordinance for legal reasons unrelated to that principle.

Another big concern we discussed was the city’s recent practice of charging large amounts for labor when complying with public records requests – amounts that in one recent request topped $500, prompting the reporter and station in question to consider dropping the request.

Bieter defended the charging of labor costs, though we debated the issue at length. In the end, he agreed to consider halving the charge in that station’s case, and to work with city staff to find ways to get information out without running up big labor charges.

However, some weeks later, the mayor decided not to reduce the large fee at all. The station swallowed hard and paid it.

Here is a letter I recently wrote to the mayor on this issue:

Dear Mayor Bieter:

Thank you very much for taking the time to meet with me and Allen Derr on Sept. 30, to discuss our concerns about the City of Boise’s recent handling of public records requests from the news media. We appreciate your taking the time to discuss our concerns with us, and were heartened by your assurances that the city wants to be open and transparent, isn’t launching any new policy to get tough on media public records requests, and wants to be responsive to media requests.

We were quite disappointed, however, to learn that despite your commitment to consider substantially reducing the $500-plus fee the city had decided to charge a local television station for labor for a public records request regarding city contracts, you opted in the end not to reduce the fee at all, and to charge that full amount.

Mr. Mayor, in my entire reporting career in Idaho – 24 years – I have never been charged for labor for a public records request. Though the law allows for that, that clause was added (over our objections) supposedly to deal with huge requests from lawyers and such with the potential to bog down public agencies and prevent them from doing their jobs.

As I told you, I believe responding to legitimate public records requests from the media for the purposes of reporting news about the functioning of government is part of the city’s job, and part of the job of city employees. As we discussed, it’s entirely possible to work with the reporter on a public records request that, as phrased, may seem unduly time-consuming for city workers, to perhaps narrow the request and perhaps find ways that the reporter could do some of that work, be it contacting various departments, digging through files or copying or scanning documents.

As we discussed, the current state of the news media industry in Idaho is severely depressed, and it is rare indeed that any reporter can afford $100 in fees for any public records request. I told you that I had recently paid $76 for a  public records request to a state agency, and it required notification to my city editor, a big gulp, and a quick though reluctant decision to pay up. That request was for 760 pages of photocopies of records that did not exist electronically. It did not include ANY charge for labor. In the vast majority of public records requests that I file, there is NO fee charged at all.

On behalf of the Idaho Press Club, I’d like to strongly encourage you to reconsider the city’s approach to charging labor costs on public records requests from the news media. It is in all of our interests to have good, accurate and in-depth reporting about the city from the news media. Throwing up insurmountable financial barriers will prevent this, and that’s a disservice to the citizens the city serves.

Thank you again for taking the time to meet with us.

Sincerely,

Betsy Russell

President, Idaho Press Club

Betsy Russell is a Boise-based reporter for The Spokesman-Review newspaper, and is president of the Idaho Press Club.

Most of us probably gave thanks for about the same things Thursday — homes, families, health, the usual. For me, though, something else came to mind this year: My job.

Not that I haven’t always been thankful for it. These days, anyone with a job should be thankful. But with the end closer than the beginning of a career in what has become an uncertain occupation, I’ve come to appreciate more fully the good luck of having spent my life in the newspaper business.

True, it’s a business that isn’t always held in high regard. One survey rated journalists just above lawyers at the bottom of the esteem rankings.

But surveys and obnoxious-reporter stereotypes aside, there’s no denying the worth of journalism to society. Think Watergate, My Lai, Goldman Sachs …

It’s also an endlessly interesting way to make a living. I switched to journalism in my junior year of college, reasoning that it was more important to do something you enjoy than something that makes you a lot of money.

And, while the big bucks might have been nice, it was a decision rarely regretted.

My first big assignment out of school was to interview the widows of the Kellogg Mining Disaster, which claimed 91 men. Intruding on people’s grief is something any reporter with an ounce of humanity dreads, but those women couldn’t have been kinder. They taught me that even people in deep suffering want their stories told if treated with dignity and compassion.

My rookie years took me to a North Idaho flood aboard the governor’s lumbering DC-3, to the devastation of the Teton Dam collapse, to heart-stopping landings on back-country airstrips. Forest fires, plane crashes, movie sets, election campaigns, corrupt officials, it was always something. And almost never dull.

I got to meet some famous people — Jimmy Carter, Gerald Ford, Hank Aaron, Katharine Graham, Clint Eastwood and others — but the interviews I’ve loved most have been with unique Idaho characters. I call them Idaho originals — people like Pinto Bennett, Free Press Frances Wisner, Dugout Dick the Salmon River Caveman …

One of my favorite stories will always be that of Bob Ertter, the “prairie captain,” who alternated weeks between running a tiny store on the Camas Prairie and a giant oil tanker on the San Francisco Bay.

Ed Ketner lived beside a dump and built houses — just for fun — out of things other people threw away.

Harold Hannebaum invented a fireplace that made him a fortune. He also modified his Lincoln to run on water.

Shirley Kroeger and Jeanne DeLurme were modern-day pioneers. They built a home on a remote stretch of desert and became entirely self sufficient using only tools and library books.

One day the boss broke the monotony of my routine by telling me to buy an Amtrak pass and see how I far I could get in two weeks, writing a story a day.

I got as far south as Alabama, as far east as Vermont and interviewed a man who helped Ernest Hemingway save the manuscript to “A Farewell to Arms” from a fire.

How can you not love a job like that?

Two memorable trips I owe to late Statesman Sports Editor Jim Poore. Jim could talk the boss into anything, including trips to the Soviet Union to write about what life was like there and Great Britain to write about … ghosts. I miss Jim a lot.

In 1999, the paper sent photographer Gerry Melendez and me to Kosovo to cover Idahoans helping war refugees there. Every day in one of the camps, a group of girls and women sat under a tree and wailed. The Serbs had killed every last man in their village. We vowed never to feel sorry for ourselves again.

Two years of work on special sections about Idaho Indian tribes taught me to feel in my gut, as opposed to just knowing in my head, the crimes against humanity that all but led to their extinction.

One of the best parts of writing a column is the bond with readers, first through the mail and now email. Many have become friends. Without this job, I never would have known them.

Working for a newspaper has been a lifelong education, and way more fun than anyone deserves to have and get paid for.

My hope for young journalists in these precarious times is that somehow they’ll be as lucky.

With the end closer than the beginning, the decision to change majors in school looks pretty good. It spared me from a life of well-heeled boredom.

For that I couldn’t be more thankful.

Tim Woodward is a longtime reporter and columnist for the Idaho Statesman newspaper in Boise.

By Natalie Hurst

It’s no wonder creativity is interwoven into sentence structure at the Boise Weekly. Just take a look at the Features Editor.

She’s a founding board member of Riot Act, Inc., a theater company in Jackson, Wyo., has enjoyed whitewater rafting her whole life and travels whenever she can.

“It’s no secret that we do have fun in our jobs and our writing reflects that,” said 34-year-old Deanna Darr, the newest member of the Idaho Press Club Board. “As an alternative paper, we definitely have more freedom to have a voice in our writing, and sometimes that voice is silly or sarcastic.”

Darr, who joined the state board just a few months ago, has worked at the weekly newspaper for 3-1/2 years. She said balancing the job of a journalist with the creative style of the newspaper is more challenging than many expect.

“Being responsible and funny isn’t easy,” she said. “Our readers respond well to our style, though, and have come to expect it from the Boise Weekly. It’s part of our identity.”

Darr said much of the Boise Weekly content is planned weeks, if not months, in advance. There are seven full-time editorial employees and a select group of freelance writers.

“Boise Weekly is true to its designation as an alternative weekly, meaning we offer another voice to the community,” she said. “As a news organization, we strive to break stories online and then to offer a more in-depth perspective in print. We have a heavy focus on local business, the arts and the local music scene, as well as politics.”

Stories are reviewed in an editorial workshop on the Thursday prior to publication. Section editors spend Fridays and Mondays reading page proofs before the paper is sent electronically to the printing facility in Ogden, Utah by noon Tuesday. The newspaper is then brought to Boise overnight for delivery Wednesday morning.

The Weekly also has a strong web presence. Internet content that’s identical to the print version is posted by 4 a.m. Wednesdays. The Boise Weekly staff also adds new, online-only content to the web

throughout the week and posts to social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, 4square and Gowalla.

“Our online growth is a huge part of our changing focus over the last year as we’ve worked to increase our online presence and offerings while maintaining and defining the print edition,” Darr said.

She said her favorite issues tend to be the ones that require the most work: Best of Boise, Annual Manual and Fiction 101.

Darr, who graduated from Arizona State University’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communications, previously worked for The Bulletin in Bend, Ore. and the Jackson Hole News and Guide in Jackson, Wyo. She’s found a home now in the Treasure Valley.

“I get to have fun at my job, work with an amazing group of people who are equal parts talented and crazy,” she said. “And I get to meet wonderful people in the community while doing things most people don’t get to do.”

Natalie Hurst is a news anchor at KBOI-TV, and is a broadcast representative on the Idaho Press Club

TIMES-NEWS

The editor and publisher of The Times-News in Twin Falls says he plans to retire at year’s end. Brad Hurd has worked for Lee Enterprises for 31 years and has been publisher of The Times-News since November 2004. He was named editor last year. He also oversees the Elko Daily Free Press in Elko, Nev. Hurd joined Lee in 1979 as an assistant city editor for the Missoulian in Missoula, Mont. He was the Missoulian’s editor from 1982 to 1994, when he became manager of Farcountry Press, a Lee-owned book and magazine publisher in Helena, Mont. In 2001, he added duties as publisher of the Independent Record in Helena.

BOISE WEEKLY

It’s been a busy summer at Boise Weekly. Nathaniel Hoffman stepped down as News Editor to get to work on a book about immigration love stories. George Prentice, former host and reporter at KBSX-91.5 Boise State Public Radio, is now heading up BW’s News department. Zach Hagadone, who joined Boise Weekly last spring at Business Editor, took a contributing writer position after moving to his hometown of Sandpoint, where he’s finally running a weekly newspaper he started several years ago. Other new additions to the BW editorial staff include Heather Lile as the calendar department (yep, the whole department) and Josh Gross, expert video and social media wrangler.

TELEVISION

Idaho Falls-Pocatello Market

KIDK

Emily Florez, a reporter, departed for a job in Salt Lake City.

KPVI

Matt Gittins is the new Sports Director. He came from BYU. Paul Shahen, a sports reporter, departed for a job in Chattanooga, Tennessee.

KIFI

Marissa Bodmar is a new reporter. Troy Campbell is a new reporter. He comes from California. Brittany Borghi is a new reporter. She comes from Pennsylvania. Ido Walker, Digital Content Director, has moved to morning weather anchor. Lenny Smith has been hired as the new Digital Content Director.

Aman Charba, a reporter, departed to become a Sports Director in Grand Junction, Colorado. Michelle Costa, a reporter, departed for a new position at KMVT. Hailey Higgins, a reporter, departed for a new position in South Dakota.

Lewiston Market

KLEW

No change

Twin Falls Market

KMVT

Gina Jamison, who was one of the 6 and 10 PM weeknight anchors, left to pursue other job opportunities. Nick and Danielle Koser have been hired, both to work on a new one-hour (6:00-7:00)

morning news show starting November 1st. Both Nick and Danielle were previously with the Fox affiliate in Beaumont, Texas on their AM news product. Danielle is an anchor/producer and Nick is a weather person. Brittany Cooper, a reporter and our previous weekend weather person, is moving into our new AM news product.

Joey Martin, the son of News Director Joe Martin, is now working for us as a photographer and reporter. Jason Carter is now the Sports Director and comes to us from a station in St. George, Utah. Amy Gill is now our weekend sports anchor, and comes from KMPH in Fresno, California. Michelle Costa is the new weekend weather person and reporter and she comes to us from KIFI in Idaho Falls.

Boise Market

KIVI

Tauna Lange is the new News Director. She comes from San Diego. Natalee Morales is the new morning anchor, arriving from Medford, Oregon. Kirk Chaisson is a new videojournalist. He comes from Texas.

Mac King is a new videojournalist, coming to Boise from Northwestern. Tina Jensen is a new videojournalist, coming from California. Meghan McBride departed for other opportunities.

Megan Sweeney left to get married.

KBCI

Tami Tremblay is a new weekend anchor/reporter; she formerly worked at KTRV. Trina Cobbley is a new morning anchor; previously, she was a morning show producer/anchor in Utah. She will be joining Brian Morrin and Adam Behrman for the morning shows. Keyna Whitworth, a morning anchor, departed for a position in Arizona.

KTVB

Edgar Linares left to pursue new opportunities. Ysabel Bilbao departed KTVB to take a position with the University of Idaho.

Ty Brennan joins KTVB from KPVI in Pocatello as a general assignment reporter. Kathleen Spencer is the new evening editor. Brandon O’Rourke is a new producer, and Jamie Grey has come on as  a general assignment reporter. Eric Turner, formerly with KIVI, is a new KTVB photojournalist. Ryan Larrondo, formerly with KMVT, is now a KTVB sports reporter.

Among KTVB employees promoted were Don Day, promoted to Internet sales & product manager; Kelsey Jacobson to KTVB.COM senior digital media producer; and Emily Albrechtsen to promotions producer. Justin Corr moves from sports anchor/reporter to general assignment reporter, and Scott Evans was promoted to Saturday Morning News anchor/reporter.

RADIO

BOISE STATE PUBLIC RADIO

Boise State Public Radio is pleased to announce the arrival of Scott Ki as the station’s new General Assignments Reporter. Scott comes to BSPR from KUNM in Albuquerque, New Mexico, where he reported on regional and local news for the public radio station. Scott also reported for the public radio station in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Former News Director Elizabeth Duncan departed, and has taken a position with Saint Alphonsus Health System; see public relations Media Moves below.

PUBLIC RELATIONS

J.R. Simplot Company

After a short stay as public relations director at Stoltz Marketing Group, Sydney Sallabanks has accepted a position as communications manager for the J.R. Simplot Company.

Idaho Education

Association

Julie Fanselow is now communications director at the Idaho Education Association. She replaced Gayle Moore, who retired after 30 years in the job. Julie is also keeping a hand in travel writing as a columnist for the Idaho Statesman’s quarterly Treasure magazine.

Saint Alphonsus Health System

Elizabeth Duncan, formerly News Director at Boise State Public Radio, has accepted a position with Saint Alphonsus Health System. Duncan will be the organization’s new Director of Public Relations, a newly created position at Saint Alphonsus. Saint Alphonsus

Health System is comprised of Saint Alphonsus Regional Medical Center in Boise, Saint Alphonsus Medical Center in Nampa, Saint Alphonsus Medical Center in Ontario, Ore., and Saint Alphonsus Medical Center in Baker City, Ore.

Strategies 360
John Foster, formerly the campaign manager and senior advisor to Congressman Walt Minnick and former managing editor of the Idaho Business Review, is now the Senior Vice President for Idaho Operations at Strategies 360, one of the nation’s leading firms for strategic positioning, communications and public affairs. The company is headquartered in Seattle, and has offices in Anchorage, Helena, Spokane, Portland, Washington, D.C. and now Boise.

Lee Rozen, 61, will replace former Daily News managing editor Doug Bauer on June 28; Bauer went to the Lewiston Tribune as managing editor in May, replacing the retiring Paul Emerson.

Rozen, 61, was among the casualties when the P-I laid off most of its staff in March of 2009, including all of its top management. He had been assistant managing editor from 2005 to 2009, and first joined the Seattle paper in 1996 as its new media editor. As assistant ME, he led a staff of 42, including seven managers and two teams of reporters.

“I’m really looking forward to this,” Rozen said in a Daily News article. “This is going to be an exciting adventure. I’m going to be coming into a place that’s already working at a high level, and I look forward to taking it only higher.”

Nathan Alford, editor and publisher of the Daily News and the Lewiston Tribune, said, “Lee has what we need, a passion for independent journalism and broad range of experience in print and online. He has an impressive track record and blend of skills to lead our newspaper in an exciting direction.”

Alford added, “He has a vision for the many good years ahead for the Daily News.”

Rozen holds a bachelor’s degree from the School of Communications at the University of Washington, and worked as a reporter and editor at The Columbian in Vancouver, Wash., from 1971 to 1984. Recently, he’s worked as a communications consultant in Bothell, Wash., and worked pro-bono for a nonprofit corporation, Midnight Writer.

Rozen and his wife, Sydney, are moving to Moscow from Brier, Wash. “I grew up in a small community and would really enjoy that connection with the people and the place … that you don’t get with metro journalism,” he said.

Idaho Falls/Pocatello  Market

KPVI-TV

Sports director Brad Shellgren took a job in Fort Myers, Florida.

KIDK-TV

Chris Huston, news director, is a new arrival from KFDX in Wichita Falls, Texas. Chris is in his 21st year as a news director, and 31st in broadcast journalism.  Family, friends, and lifestyle bring him to Idaho Falls.

KIFI-TV

Reporter Megan Boatwright left in January and returned to Florida where her family lives.   Brett Crandall replaced her in the reporting position; he comes to us from BYU-Provo.  Karole Honas just marked her 20th anniversary of being on the anchor desk at KIFI.

Boise Market

KTVB

Leaving:

Edgar Linares leaves for new opportunities.

Ysabel Bilbao leaves KTVB for University of Idaho. 

Arriving:

Ty Brennan joins KTVB from KPVI in Pocatello as a general assignment reporter.

Kathleen Spencer joins as evening editor. Brandon O’Rourke joins as producer.
Jamie Grey joins as general assignment reporter.

Promoted:

Don Day promoted to Internet sales & product manager.
Kelsey Jacobson promoted to KTVB.COM senior digital media producer.  Emily Albrechtsen promoted to promotions producer.  Justin Corr moves from sports anchor/reporter to general assignment reporter.  Scott Evans promoted to Saturday Morning News anchor/reporter.

KBOI-TV
Paul Fredericks, managing editor, departed, as did Brian Carrington, chief meterologist. Kendra Martinez is the new managing editor, coming from KIDK in Idaho Falls. Vin Crosby is the new chief meterologist; he formerly worked for KTRV Fox 12. Julie Weindel is the new news director. Evonne Simonds departed. New reporters are Michael Calcagno and Alana Brophy.
Tami Tremblay, formerly at KTRV, will start on Channel 2 beginning August 1.
KBCI became KBOI on February 1st.

KTRV-TV
Dan Hamilton has moved into the world of P.R. for AEHI, the company working to build a nuclear power plant in Payette County. Jill Hardy left to help start up a new video production unit for Bodybuilding.com. Tami Tremblay has also left the station.

Allison Warren has gone from general assignment reporter to morning anchor. Nate Kuester has gone from morning anchor to sports director. David Sleater is no longer on “Fox 12 This Morning.” Rachel Garceau has shifted from doing weekend weather to co-anchoring and morning weather.

New arrivals include Stacey Skrysak, anchor for the brand-new 10 p.m. newscast, Fox12NewsEdge@Ten, which launched January 11th. Adam Bartelmay replaced Dan Hamilton as anchor for Fox 12 News at Nine. General assignment reporters joining the staff are Matt Loveless and Bri Eggers.

KIVI-TV
Morning anchor Michelle Stark left Channel 6 for a job in Alabama.

DAILY NEWSPAPER

TIMES-NEWS
Times-News publisher Brad Hurd has named two new editors to the newspaper’s city desk: Eric Larsen has been named city editor, and Nate Poppino assistant city editor.

Larsen has worked at the Times-News since 2003, and worked on the sports desk before advancing to assistant city editor. The 30-year-old Oregon State University alum replaces David Cooper, who is now editor of “Progressive Cattleman,” a nationwide trade publication based in Jerome. Poppino is a former beat reporter who began working at the newspaper in 2007, covering water issues and the environment. In his new post, the 25-year-old University of Idaho graduate will also be responsible for the community section that runs four days a week.

POST REGISTER
Nick Draper, formerly the lead reporter in coverage of government and politics for the Post Register, resigned in April. Nick and his wife, Samantha, will travel in Europe this summer. Once they return, they will live near Nick’s former home in Missouri. Nick plans to begin filling out law school applications this fall.

Nick was replaced on the staff by Emma Breysse, a Seattle-area native who graduated from Arizona State in 2009. While Emma won’t inherit Nick’s entire portfolio, she will be active in reporting on both government and politics. Reporter Clark Corbin also will have a role on these beats.

Jeff Robinson, a former sports editor in Bozeman and, most recently, former managing editor in Ellensburg, Wash., has been hired as City Editor, filling a newsroom management position that had been open since Matthew Evans resigned in December of 2009.

WEEKLY NEWSPAPER

TETON VALLEY NEWS
Pioneer Newspapers has named Scott Anderson the new publisher of the Teton Valley News in Driggs. Anderson initially started working with outgoing publisher Stacy Simonet, who is leaving the weekly paper to move to Idaho Falls. Anderson graduated from Weber State University in 2003 with a bachelor’s degree in technical sales and started his newspaper career at the Daily Herald in Provo, Utah. Most recently he headed the paper’s online department.

OTHER MOVES
Shea Andersen, former Southwest Chapter president and former editor of the Idaho Mountain Express and the Boise Weekly, has become the communications director for Democratic gubernatorial candidate Keith Allred.

In the newsroom and on the river, Todd Dvorak is lost in thought. Angling for the next big trout or the next thought-provoking story, the supervisory correspondent at the Boise Bureau of the Associated Press is pensive, always thinking about what’s going on.

His fascination with news first sparked in the late 1980s in the wake of major world events—the dismantling of the Berlin wall, the release of Nelson Mandela, and a major life event—college graduation. “I was floating around, trying to figure out what to do with my life,” said Dvorak. He became immersed in the New York Times and the Chicago Tribune coverage. “I was fascinated with the reporters who were in the middle of it all, and I thought, ‘I want to be there. I want to do that.’” And so he did.

Dvorak grew up in Dodgeville, Wisconsin, where his mother taught English and his father was a music professor at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. He earned a B.A. in history from the University of Minnesota in 1989—the year his life-long love of history finally made sense to his future.

Jumping right in as a beat reporter at the Livingston Enterprise, a small daily in south-central Montana, Dvorak covered everything, from city and county government, environmental issues, cops and courts, to wolf reintroduction. “I had an old curmudgeon editor who taught me plenty, and held me accountable for my mistakes,” recalled Dvorak.  He took up fly-fishing in his off hours. “It was during the ‘A River Runs Through It’ era, and I was right there where the movie was filmed. Everyone thought Brad Pitt looked good in waders, and there was just a lot of energy around fly fishing.” Dvorak has been casting a line ever since.

Dvorak moved on from Montana to report for newspapers in North Carolina, North Dakota and Michigan. He landed at the Associated Press in Iowa City, Iowa in 2002, where he covered state and national politics, legal affairs, higher education and Big Ten athletics for the single-person bureau.

In 2007, Dvorak and his wife Meg happily moved west where he took on the role of administrator and editor as supervisory correspondent for the AP in Boise.  He oversees four staff writers who cover news in Idaho.

The Associated Press is non-profit cooperative owned by its members, who pay for the content they receive. As the main wire service, the Boise bureau serves all major dailies and dozens of television and radio stations throughout Idaho. Members include news agencies from the Teton Valley News to KTVB News Group. Nationally, AP members span from the New York Times to CNN.

Despite Dvorak’s mellow personality, the nature of the AP newsroom can be high speed and high stress. “There is a pressure and a rush to coverage,” explained Dvorak.  “We’re competitive and we want to win. I feel good when we’re the first to break a big story.”

Accountability is key to quality journalism, says Dvorak. “I encourage our reporters to constantly mine public records and do the homework. I want them to write features about people and places in Idaho that will interest a national audience. We need to hold people and government accountable and tell the stories that impact what people think or do. If we are not having an impact, we are not doing our jobs.”

While Dvorak is an admirer of Idaho and its outdoor offerings such as its rivers, mountains and “kick-ass climate,” he notes its heavily Republican political climate can present a challenge to covering politics. “Sometimes it’s difficult to get complete information in order to delve deep into the workings of both parties.”

The self-proclaimed “beer snob” also is a sporadic home brewer, who appears to be making the most of the lifestyle that Idaho has to offer. When not in the newsroom, Dvorak can be found fly-fishing and fly tying, reading novels, running and camping.

“Best thing is, I can be on the water in no time. Because most days, I’d rather be fishing,” he said.

Sydney Sallabanks is director of public relations at Stoltz Marketing Group, and is the associate representative on the Idaho Press Club board.

By Betsy Russell

One thing that I love about the IDOG open records and meetings seminars that we continue to hold around the state is that, even though I’ve been attending them since 2004, I still always learn something.

This spring was no exception. At well-attended and highly informative seminars in McCall and Mountain Home, Idahoans for Openness in Government joined with Attorney General Lawrence Wasden and an array of sponsors to bring a fun, interactive session to local government officials, journalists and citizens on how to comply with our state’s open meetings and public records laws.

My attention was caught by a question about whether a public agency has to let people tape-record or video-record their meetings if they want to. This has occasionally been an issue around the state, including a case just within the past couple of years in which a school board tried to prevent the local TV station from taking video at its public meeting.

The answer: Let ’em tape. The latest version of the Idaho Attorney General’s “Idaho Open Meeting Law Manual,” which you can find online at www.idahopressclub.org or at the AG’s website, has this to say in its Q-and-A section (Question No. 14) about the law:

“Q: May qualifications or restrictions be placed on the public’s attendance at an open meeting?

A: A public agency may adopt reasonable rules and regulations to ensure the orderly conduct of a public meeting and to ensure orderly behavior on the part of those persons attending the meeting. In Nevens v. City of Chino, 44 Cal. Rptr. 50 (Cal. App. 1965), the court nullified a city council measure which prohibited the use of any tape recorders at city council meetings. While acknowledging that the city council had an absolute right to adopt and enforce rules and regulations necessary to protect its public meetings, the California court held that the rule prohibiting tape recorders was too arbitrary, capricious, restrictive and unreasonable. A similar holding might be reached if a governing body prohibits the use of cameras by news and television people, if their presence is not in fact disruptive of the conduct of the meeting. In any event, the governing standard is the reasonableness of the rules and regulations. Use of a timed agenda, ‘heavy gavel,’ and/or compliance with Robert’s Rules of Order or some other procedural guideline may serve to facilitate the orderly conduct of a public meeting.”

That’s right. It says it right there: Case law says a local board can’t prevent recording if it’s not disruptive of the conduct of the meeting. So, as Deputy Attorney General Brian Kane explained in McCall and Mountain Home, if a someone’s rigging up bright lights and shoving cameras in the board members’ faces for close-ups during the meeting, that would be disruptive. If someone’s standing in back with a video camera, that wouldn’t.

IDOG is our state’s non-profit, non-partisan coalition for open government, joining similar coalitions in more than 44 states; the Idaho Press Club is a member of IDOG, I’m its president and co-founder. IDOG’s mission is “Open government, supervised by an informed, engaged citizenry.”

Another hot topic at this spring’s seminars was “serial” meetings – when public board or commission members contact each other serially to deliberate on an issue rather than gather together, in an effort to evade the Idaho Open Meeting Law. Serial meetings violate the law.

I’d like to thank all the enthusiastic and helpful local sponsors and attendees in McCall and Mountain Home, the Attorney General’s office for its strong commitment to this program (we’ve now done nearly two dozen of these seminars in every part of the state, all featuring Attorney General Wasden), our awesome IDOG board, and our grant funders, the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation through the National Freedom of Information Coalition.

As it says in the Idaho Open Meeting Law, “It is the policy of this state that the formation of public policy is public business and shall not be conducted in secret.” It’s great to see these words in action!

Betsy Z. Russell is a Boise-based reporter for The Spokesman-Review, and is the president of the Idaho Press Club.