Where: Boise State University downtown facility, 301 Capitol Blvd., Boise, across from Trader Joe’s

What: Join us for our annual Fall Conference featuring hands-on clinics to help you get the most from data, as well as discussions about media literacy.

Registration details: Free for current Press Club members, new members who join prior to registering for the fall conference and students. $15 for non-members. Visit www.idahopressclub.org/2015-fall-conference/ to register.

By Clark Corbin

As journalism continues to evolve in the 21st Century and news organizations expect more from reporters, the need for training and education is as great as ever.

Unfortunately, many newsrooms struggle with tight budgets and limited resources, often leaving the burden of paying for pricey workshops, seminars and conferences to cash-strapped journalists.

That got us thinking about how the Idaho Press Club could tap our own resources to further our mission of improving journalism in Idaho and offering tangible benefits to IPC members.

For the first time in recent memory, your IPC has decided to offer its Oct. 17 Fall Conference free for current members, members renewing their memberships and any new Press Clubbers who join our ranks prior to registering for the conference. We’ll also open the conference up to students to attend for free, and are charging a modest registration fee for non-members who don’t want to miss out on valuable data journalism training and a critical discussion about media literacy.

Based on feedback from attendees who participated in last year’s conference, we’re striving to make this year’s event even better by emphasizing the hands-on nature of training.

To that end, we’re asking everybody to bring their laptop to the conference Oct. 17, and make sure they have a free Gmail account so they can test drive some of Google’s online reporting tools that we will be demonstrating.

We’ll kick things off right with plenty of Flying M coffee and Guru Donuts to perk everybody up. Then Audrey Dutton from the Idaho Statesman will help try out some free online reporting tools that can help you make the most of your online story presentations, from the easy to the advanced. Dutton will demonstrate how journalists can build interactive timelines, embed Tweets and work up Google charts that have helped the Statesman visualize crime trends.

Then Idaho Education News’ Kevin Richert will explain why reporters don’t need to be afraid of data and spreadsheets. One of Richert’s specialties is using data to ferret out the stories that others overlook and providing data-driven reality checks that refute conventional wisdom. He’ll use his own stories as case studies, and walk attendees through basic Excel functions and statistics.

Finally, we will close out strong with a critical discussion of media literacy and how reporters can help educate the community, led by Seth Ashley, Boise State University’s associate professor of journalism and adviser of The Arbiter. Ashley has written about the emerging field of media literacy locally for The Blue Review and co-authored a scholarly paper on the subject with the Robert R. McCormick Foundation, which is available online to review before the conference: http://scholarworks.boisestate.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1062&context=communication_facpubs.

We hope many of our members take advantage of this opportunity to participate in a morning of free hands-on training provided by some of Idaho’s best and brightest working journalists. We are also looking forward to welcoming back any past IPC members who let their status lapse in recent years.

We strive to offer an array of benefits and services for our members. As longtime IPC members already know, Press Club members receive deep discounts on entry fees for our annual awards contest. Members also enjoy timely access to newsmakers at events during the legislative session. At the moment, we’re also planning two more social events — one this fall, and our annual pre-legislative party — to help keep things fun and light.

If you haven’t already, please take a moment today to renew or start your membership at www.idahopressclub.org/join, so you’ll be able to enjoy all of those benefits — free admission to the Fall Conference, social events throughout the winter and big savings when you enter your best work into our contest.

Clark Corbin is a Statehouse reporter for Idaho Education News, and is the president of the Southwest Chapter of the Idaho Press Club.

Everyone in Idaho – including reporters, public officials and citizens – should know about the Idaho Open Meeting Law and the Idaho Public Records law, what’s in them, and how to comply.

That’s why Idahoans for Openness in Government (IDOG) has partnered with Idaho Attorney General Lawrence Wasden to put on lively, interactive seminars about these two important laws each year since 2004, all around the state. This year, the IDOG sessions are coming to the Treasure Valley.

The first in this series of workshops took place in McCall on Sept. 21, when more than 80 people gathered in the basement community room of the Idaho First Bank for a three-and-a-half-hour workshop (counting a break for refreshments). Those attending ranged from city, county and fire district officials to clerks, reporters, citizen watchdogs and more.

Deputy Attorney General Brian Kane told the public officials among the crowd that they can call him with open meeting questions, but noted, “Just know that when you call, our most likely advice is going to be to open it up. … The policy is openness.”

Among the points brought out at the workshop: Because two-thirds of a governing body must vote to go into executive session, that means on a five-member board, it takes four votes. Three aren’t enough – they’re just 60 percent. And if just three members of the five-member board have shown up at the meeting, they can’t go into executive session at all – the vote must be two-thirds of the board, not two-thirds of those present. They can still conduct business, though, Kane noted – in the open.

The crowd participated in interactive skits to learn about the open meetings and public records laws, with one casting local citizen watchdog Dennis Stewart as “Helpful, the Deputy City Clerk” and an animated Cascade City Councilor Judy Nissula as “Bluster, the Citizen,” who was initially highly suspicious as she contacted the clerk about a public records request. There were laughs, snacks, lots of questions and answers and lots of learning.

Two more seminars are scheduled as part of this series; the next will be on Oct. 7 at Nampa City Hall, co-sponsored by the Idaho Press-Tribune and the City of Nampa, from 6-9:30 p.m.; and the third Oct. 20 at Boise State Public Radio in Boise, co-sponsored by Boise State Public Radio and the Idaho Statesman, and also running from 6-9:30 p.m.

Don’t miss these! It’s the first time that IDOG’s open government worships have returned to the Treasure Valley since late 2012.

Similar sessions were conducted last year in Moscow, Lewiston, Coeur d’Alene and Sandpoint; next year, they’ll head back to eastern Idaho, and continue around the state on a three-year rotation.

IDOG is Idaho’s non-profit coalition for open government; its board members range from retired Idaho Secretary of State Ben Ysursa to prominent attorney-lobbyist Skip Smyser to CWI trustee and citizen activist Emily Walton. Other board members are Idaho Statesman Managing Editor Bill Manny, Lewiston Tribune Publisher A.L. “Butch” Alford, retired Idaho Public TV General Manager Peter Morrill, Jan Wall of the Idaho Commission for Libraries, Elinor Chehey of the League of Women Voters of Idaho, retired state Archivist Steve Walker, BSU journalism Prof. Seth Ashley, and Post Register Editorial Page Editor Corey Taule. I’m the organization’s president, and the Idaho Press Club is among its founding members. There’s more info at IDOG’s website, www.openidaho.org.

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

Although the Open Meeting Law applies to the Legislature, it is enforced there through legislative rules that echo the law; courts cannot impose penalties for violations. We learned this when we sued the Legislature over closed committee meetings in 2006, in a case that relied on the Idaho Constitution, rather than the open meeting law. Since then, legislative rules have been tightened up to more directly echo the open meeting law with regard to when a legislative committee can hold an executive session.

Here is the letter we sent:

October 2, 2015

House Speaker Scott Bedke

Senate President Pro-Tem Brent Hill

Via email

Dear Speaker Bedke and President Pro-Tem Hill:

We are writing you today for two reasons: To thank you for the Legislature’s decision to provide full notice, streaming and openness for all future meetings of the Tax Working Group, and to express our concern that those steps weren’t taken for the Sept. 17 meeting of the group.

We know that like us, you value openness and citizen access to our state government, and that our legislature designs its processes and rules to be consistent with the principles of the Idaho Open Meeting Law and its requirements for openness. Therefore, we were concerned to learn that some apparently thought that by selecting members for the working group who make up less than a quorum of the House or Senate tax committees, open meeting considerations would be eliminated.

Instead, by creating a new group empowered to consider public business and make recommendations to the Legislature, under the open meeting law, the only quorum requirement that applies is that there be a quorum of this new group. At the Sept. 17 meeting, 11 of the 12 lawmakers appointed to the panel were present, and they were there to deliberate on an important matter of public policy: Possible changes in Idaho’s state tax system.

We hope you will keep openness in mind in any such future instances, and again, want to express our appreciation for the move to keep this new group to the same standards of openness moving forward as all other Idaho legislative task forces and interim committees

Sincerely,

Betsy Russell and Rebecca Boone

Idaho Press Club

CC: Idaho Attorney General Lawrence Wasden

We will open the website for entries in early December.   Watch for a notice in your mail which will also indicate your membership renewal status and check our website often to see more details about the opening date. The deadline for entries this year will be Jan. 21, 2016. There will be no extensions, so please plan ahead! Entry is done entirely online; please start early, to ensure you have all the time you need to gather, upload and enter your work and ensure it’s considered for recognition.

Entry fees this year are $20 per entry for Idaho Press Club members, and $15 for student members. Non-member fees are $45, or $30 for non-member students; fees include PayPal charges. If you’re not a member, consider joining right now! You can do this easily on our website, www.idahopressclub.org, and it could mean substantial savings for you on your contest entries, while also supporting all the good work the Idaho Press Club does.

For the broadcast and print general excellence categories, the randomly selected dates will be announced on Jan. 14, 2016

Also be sure to make plans to attend our gala awards banquet on April 30, 2016 in Boise!

We gather applications from across the state and award a $1,500 scholarship to one Idaho high school graduate who is currently enrolled in college, preparing for a career in journalism or communications.

We also award a $500 Mid-Career Scholarship to any Press Club member who will use the money toward a project or professional development opportunity that will improve the working press in Idaho.

Details about each scholarship are available on our website at www.idahopressclub.org. Scholarship entries are due February 15 each year.

Deb Kristensen is an at-large member of the Idaho Press Club board. She is currently a partner at Givens Pursley specializing in media law. She was the third woman in the history of the Idaho State Bar to serve as its President and has been named one of the Best Lawyers in America since 2010, a Mountain States Super Lawyer and “Top 40 Women” Mountain States Super Lawyer. Deb was received the Women of the Year Award from the Idaho Business Review and the Idaho Women Lawyers top honor in 2005 for her work chronicling the first 50 women lawyers in Idaho.

Interviewed by Joan Cartan-Hansen

Where were you born and where did you grow up?

I was born outside of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and then moved to Milwaukee, Wisconsin before ending up at the age of 5 in the Bay Area where I grew up.

What was your first job?

My first job (outside of babysitting the neighbors’ kids) was as a hostess/waitress for Bob’s Big Boy in Dublin, California at the age of 15.   Standing on your feet all day in a brown polyester uniform for minimum wage was a real motivator to continue my education.  And, as my parents like to remind me, was the time when I truly learned the value of money.

Education?

I am a true product of California schools.   I did my undergraduate work at U.C. Berkeley, and then law school at Santa Clara.

Why did you decide to study media law? 

When I was in law school, there really wasn’t a specialty called “media” law or “communications” law.  Instead, everyone took constitutional law – which covered a wide variety of subjects.  I knew I wanted to be a litigator and I’ve always been interested in constitutional law given its profound effect on our day to day lives, but didn’t get introduced to true media work until I went to work for a large law firm in Seattle that had some of the more preeminent lawyers practicing in that area.  I found myself attracted to this work, and the people.  I began by representing local newspapers and television stations with pre-publication/pre-broadcast reviews and public records issues, and eventually found myself working for large national cable networks, television broadcasters and movie studios.  In fact, since I was admitted in California, I spent the first few years of my practice in Seattle traveling to, and working in, the firm’s Los Angeles office to help establish a media law practice.

What has been your most interesting case?

I’ve been involved in many interesting cases over the years. I represented CNN in a successful challenge to a prior restraint issued by a Florida state court judge prohibiting CNN from airing a tape-recorded conversation with ousted Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega.  I got to draft the petition for certiorari to the U.S. Supreme Court in the case, and it was literally the first month of my law career.  We received an in-chambers opinion from U.S. Supreme Court Justice Blackmun overturning the prior restraint in just over one week. I successfully challenged Boise’s anti-nudity ordinance on behalf of a theater group and adult entertainment providers; and more recently, I represented Turner Network Television in thwarting an attempt by a criminal defendant to prohibit the broadcast of TNT’s program “Cold Justice” which featured real-life efforts to solve a 10 year-old murder in Pocatello that resulted in the defendant’s arrest.

What is the biggest legal challenge you foresee for journalists in the next few years?

Being able to hire lawyers with the limited budgets that newsrooms have.  There seems to be less and less people working in newsrooms these days who are being asked to do more and more.  Finding the money to hire lawyers to fight about access to records or courtrooms will be increasingly difficult with the budgets they must work with.

You also sit on the Idaho Supreme Court’s “Fire Brigade.”  What is it and why is it important?

I think it’s an innovative way for the Court to approach issues that may arise when the media covers the judiciary – the hope is that costly litigation can be avoided by informal efforts to educate and reach out to those involved.

What should they have taught journalists in school that they didn’t?

I’m guessing that journalists of my era could never imagine all of the multi-tasking and different platforms that they would be working with in an effort to get the news out.  Flexibility and willingness to try new things seem to be important attributes of today’s working journalists.

Tell us about your family…

I have two amazing sons:  Drew is a sophomore at the University of Puget Sound in Tacoma where he is studying computer science; and Trent is a junior at Boise High where he plays basketball.  I’m extraordinarily close to my parents and two sisters and their families who all live in the Bay Area, so I find myself making many trips to California.   I also have an adorable golden retriever named Spud who will be one year old at the end of November.

What do you hope to accomplish on the Idaho Press Club Board?

I’ve been involved with the Press Club for a number of years.  I hope that my participation on the board as its only lawyer adds value to the IPC’s mission and activities.

Tell us one thing about you that would surprise most people…

People may know that I’m a huge Cal fan, but they may not know that I played Division I, Pac-10 volleyball at Cal from 1983-86.  At 5’10” I’m not that tall, but was able to play middle-blocker because I had a 36” vertical jump.  I’m guessing that no one looking at me today would guess that!

PRINT

MOSCOW-PULLMAN DAILY NEWS
Cary Wilton, a senior at Washington State University in winemaking, is the new half-time sports and weekend photographer at the Moscow-Pullman Daily News. He replaces Nathan Howard, who left after graduating from WSU in journalism to tour Europe.

TELEVISION

Boise market

IDAHO PUBLIC TELEVISION
Brad Iverson-Long, formerly a reporter for the Idaho Business Review, has joined “Idaho Reports” as an associate producer.

KBOI2 News
Reporter Eric Gonzales has left the station. New reporter Jeff Platt joins the staff from Cody, Wyoming. New producer Rachel Bjornestad also comes from Cody, while new producer Anja Kurtagic is from Boise.

KTVB-TV Newschannel 7
Reporter and weekend anchor Justin Corr left for a position as a morning anchor in Springfield, Mich. Brian Holmes has been promoted to full-time weather and Idaho life feature reporter.

KIVI Today’s 6/Fox 9 On Your Side
J Bates has moved from anchor/reporter to be the new Boise Director of Digital for E.W. Scripps.

Idaho Falls/Pocatello market

KIFI/KIDK TV
New Pocatello reporter Angelina Dixson arrives from Las Vegas. Lance Leonard, producer, came from Kansas State. Producer Morgan Timmons left to spend more time with family.
Lewiston market

KLEW-TV
New reporter Suzette Reynoso arrived from San Francisco.
Twin Falls market

KMVT-TV
Gray Television purchased KMVT, officially taking over on July 1; the company owns TV stations that get signals to 10% of the United States. Recent staff changes include the departure of weekend sports/weekday reporter Nikki K, who moved back east; and weekend anchor/weekday reporter Rachel Holt, who took a job in New York.

New arrivals include Zack Rickens, new weekend sports anchor/weekday reporter, who comes from Penn State University. Tim Coles is the new General Manger. He comes from WKYT and WYMT and was a digital sales manager. New News Director Chris Huston comes from KTAL in Shreveport, La.  He has worked previously at KIVI and KIDK.

PUBLIC RELATIONS

United Dairymen of Idaho has hired Will Hoenike as its consumer confidence manager; he will promote the state’s dairy industry through events and publicity and manage the organization’s website and social media presence. Hoenike was media and community relations director for the Idaho Steelheads and CenturyLink Arena for the past six years. He’s a past sports reporter, anchor and producer for KIVI-TV Channel 6 in Nampa.