PHXations—Friday, August 20, 2010
The Hoover Dam bypass is almost done. The most noted part of the new route, which means that the trip from Phoenix to Las Vegas will not include the crawl over the two-lane Hoover Dam, is a gynormous, 900-foot-high bridge.
Reports the Republic:
The Federal Highway Administration has not picked an exact opening date for the $114 million span, officially named the Mike O'Callaghan-Pat Tillman Memorial Bridge. At a sneak preview Thursday to showcase the completion of the bridge deck, officials announced an opening gala on Oct. 16. A federal spokeswoman said the bridge will open in early November.
Workers are finishing the last details on the bridge as well as the highway connections and access paths for walkers, gawkers and bicyclists. The work includes installing a pedestrian railing, building a parking lot for visitors, and adding lighting, striping and crash barriers to the approach roads.
The story says that the Arizona approach to Hoover Dam will be closed, so you’ll have to get to Nevada if you want to see the dam proper.
The dam’s official name is the Mike O'Callaghan-Pat Tillman Memorial Bridge.
Tillman, of course, is the Arizona football star was was killed in friendly fire in Afghanistan. O'Callaghan is a former governor of Nevada.
Nick Martin is the Valley’s best blogger, Phoenix magazine says.
The mag’s Best of the Valley issue salutes Martin’s blog, Heat City, calling it “a true marvel of D-I-Y journalism”:
Competing against entire newsrooms at The Arizona Republic and other newspapers, Martin took first place in breaking news at the most recent Arizona Press Club Awards for getting the scoop on a series of arrests related to the 2004 bombing of the Scottsdale diversity office
IN other media awards, the Republic’s E.J. Montini is given best columnist and Buildproof.com, which helps folks remodel their kitchens, is deemed best local web site.
The Arizona Department of Commerce says that unemployment in the state held steady at its already high rate of 9.6 percent.
From the PBJ:
The Phoenix metro area’s unemployment rate moved from 8.7 percent in June to 8.8 percent in July
From July 2009 to July 2010 Arizona lost 6,800 jobs, or 0.3 percent of its total workforce.
6:40 AM
Nick Martin joining the Arizona Guardian
This sucks for fans of Martin, because the Guardian is a pay site. Here’s what the local political blogger said on his site, Heat City:
That model has worked for the Guardian so far. Now, the founders are hoping to build on that accomplishment. They are open to new ideas and experiments, and that’s where I’ll be playing a role. What does that mean specifically? I’ll let you know once we figure it out.
Heat City will still be here. This site will remain a place for me to write stories that don’t have a home anywhere else. The only difference now is that my political (and sometimes legal) stories will be appearing in the Arizona Guardian.
More about Martin here.
The Guardian is here.
10:26 AM
Nick Martin takes home a big one at the Arizona Press Club awards
While the Arizona Press Club’s fondness for Young Martin Cizmar™’s work is somewhat quizzical, the club did take note of what I think was arguably the most memorable piece of local journalism over the past year outside of the regularly impressive investigative stuff New Times does: Nick Martin’s eerie Phoenix mag piece on the mysterious “third man” involved in the horrific Serial Shooter case.
When I wrote about his piece last year, it wasn’t available online; it is now, and can be read here.
Here’s my favorite part, detailing the unusual friendship the two known shooters had:
Known by regulars as a likable drunk, [killer Sam] Dieteman was the kind of guy who could toss down cocktails until last call, sleep it off for a few hours and return to the bar again in the morning when it reopened. That lifestyle fit well with [his shooting partner] Jeff Hausner, who claimed that because of anxiety attacks, it was better to drive drunk than sober.
So when Dieteman fell on hard times in early 2006 and had no job and no place to stay, Jeff Hausner offered to let his pal stay with him for a while. The quarters would be cramped. It was a two-bedroom townhouse where Jeff Hausner was already living with his female roommate and her son. But they would make it work in their own unusual way. The son had his own bedroom. The roommate slept on a couch in the living room. And Dieteman copped a spot on a pile of blankets next to Hausner’s bed in the other bedroom.
Martin now writes the Heat City blog. He was also given a first-place nod for breaking news, notable for a guy working alone against operations with scores of reporters on duty at any given time.
From the club:
First place: Nick R. Martin, Heat City, “Exclusive: Arrests made in ’04 bombing of Scottsdale diversity office”
Judge: Acting on a tip, Martin beat the competition on a big story — arrests in the 2004 bombing of Scottsdale’s diversity office. But he didn’t stop there. Within hours, he produced two more newsy write-throughs that continued to develop the story by using court documents and Web site statements from white supremacist groups to add important details. On a tight deadline, the pieces broke new ground, were authoritative and had just the right amount of background for readers to understand the story.
And finally, Martin came in second in the category of public safety reporting:
Second place: Nick R. Martin, Heat City, “Gilbert police investigating mayor on suspicion of poisoning wife”
Judge: Expansive story, raises questions and seeks to provide answers. Utilizes public records, documents and interviews.
9:56 AM
Freedom Communications: Bankruptcy ... and executive bonuses
Over at Heat City, Nick Martin has a list of execs at Freedom Communications who got bonuses, even as the company headed toward bankruptcy.
Freedom holds about 30 newspapers and eight TV stations across the country, including the East Valley Tribune, which announced last week it would close at the end of the year. The bankruptcy is a reorganization plan; the company as a whole isn’t going out of business. It was just a way to help it deal with nearly a billion dollars in debt it ill-advisedly built up.
As PHXated has noted before, before you cry tears for the newspaper industry, remember that it brought most of its problems on itself.
… Which makes the bonuses all the more appalling. Top execs were apparently getting more than $100,000 each—just for helping to run the company into the ground.
Heat City is here. The list of bonuses is here.
12:00 AM
Nick Martin's "Beta Journalism"
Martin is one of the better reporters in town; you can see his grim piece on the third serial shooter in the most recent issue of Phoenix Magazine.
He was an EVT staffer let go in one of the recent rounds of layoffs, but his blog, Heat City, lets him follow a few of his reportorial hobbyhorses.
His latest posting is a proposal for a variant on some of the new thinking of how traditional journalism can take advantage of some of the power of the web.
The trouble to this point has been that traditional journalism has had a hard time letting go of the control it’s used to having in reporting and telling stories. Martin’s proposal:
This could be done by creating a new web application to make it all possible. Here’s how the app would work:
- A journalist writes a story and posts it online in “beta” form. The public can then log in to suggest extra sources, point out typos, critique for bias and upload media. The journalist or editor makes or approves changes, verifies facts and posts a final draft sometime later (maybe hours or days). The names of the people who helped in the process are included at the bottom of the story as named contributors, giving them ownership of the piece.
Beta Journalism (working title) would be that open-source application. The idea relies heavily on the concept of crowdsourcing. It embraces the knowledge of the community. It tells readers: This is a work in progress – please help us improve it.
You can read his complete idea here.
6:00 AM