Always on the record

I usually blog about projects I’m working on or what’s making headlines at the State House. But what I’ve noticed recently is that as a reporter, it’s pretty hard not to take the office home, as they say. Here’s what I mean.

I’m recently engaged and waist-deep in wedding planning. While touring venue after venue in and around the Boston area, I carried a notebook and pen with me at all times. After the first few visits, the pages resembled the scribbles in my reporter’s pad. Each catering and sales manager would glance curiously at the pages as I jotted down prices, names, confirmed  prices again and asked question after question.

During one tour, the on-site wedding coordinator appeared especially flustered, so I offered an explanation: “I noticed you’re staring at my notebook,” I said. “I’m not a bridezilla. I’m just a reporter who doesn’t know how to stop.”

No time to miss a beat

Staying on top of any beat takes time and persistence, every day. After nearly four weeks away from the State House to cover for various positions in the main newsroom, I’m ready to get back to Beacon Hill. Yesterday I was back in the press room, and with little time for catch-up. State Treasurer Tim Cahill — a Quincy politician, so very local for my paper — announced his candidacy for governor. An hour later, a six-hour hearing started on a proposal to temporarily fill Kennedy’s U.S. Senate seat with a gubernatorial appointee.

A busy day on Beacon Hill keeps the adrenaline going, but what was most fun about yesterday was that a friend of mine — a reporter at the Cape Cod Times — was up at the State House for the hearing. He and I worked together on our college newspaper at Boston College, with me as the editor in chief and he as the managing editor. Reporting on the same hearing, cracking a few jokes and filing our stories across the room from one another brought back fond memories of our college newsroom. Not to mention the few beers we kicked back afterward.

Due to the writing hiatus, there are only a few byline updates these past three to four weeks. Check out some of my Kennedy and Cahill coverage the Political/State Coverage page of this site.

Short writing hiatus

If you’ve arrived at this page, you’re visiting my professional site where I compile all my news clips. But there won’t be any new bylines until September. That’s when I return to my desk at the State House bureau. Until then, I’m taking a two-week break from the political beat and supervising my paper’s numerous features sections, from Food on Wednesdays to Entertainment on Saturdays, and the weekend preview Get Out! on Thursdays.

MBTA in the headlines

It’s been a week of MBTA headlines. Coverage of its plan to possibly shut down commuter ferry service to and from Boston and three South Shore terminals caused quite a stir locally, drawing a lot of emails on the topic. People definitely love their water ride to work, but the transit agency got them all worked up for nothing.

Today, I wrote that this plan has been put on hold due to the ouster of T General Manager Dan Grabauskas. Check out the story.

After spending an entire day at the state’s transportation building waiting for the MBTA board to announce whether it had voted to oust Grabauskas or not, the announcement finally came shortly before 8 p.m. I had been there with about a dozen print, radio and TV reporters since 1 p.m. The building has an atrium with a food court. For most of the day, those of us who hadn’t eaten lunch (or dinner) could smell food, but were too hesitant to go down two flights in case we missed any announcement. I finally gave up and took my chances. Turns out, I still had 2.5 hours left at the time. If I had known that, I would’ve scarfed down that pizza much more slowly.

What’s new? July 26

I returned to the State House beat this past week after a week-long training session with my paper’s features editor. I had to learn the ropes for managing her many sections — from Food to Entertainment to Family pages — because I’m taking the reins for two weeks in late August while she’s on vacation. Working in features was a really refreshing change from hard, breaking news to more human interest-centric, lifestyle pieces.

Here’s a few of the stories I’ve written over the past two weeks. One of the more challenging assignments was assembling a series of charts to compare and contrast the two health care reform bills making their way through the U.S. Senate and House. I was working from lengthy bill “summaries” (the actual bills are thousands of pages long), but it was still tedious work.  It made me grateful I write news copy, not legislation.

These stories can also be found on the Political/State Coverage page of this site. To view clips on other topics, like local news, just navigate through the pages to the right.

Retailers hope customers buy big-ticket items before sales tax hike
Published July 24 | READ FULL STORY

Bill would make some body parts off-limits for piercing
Published July 21 | READ FULL STORY

Melissa’s Bill: Lock up repeat offenders for good, family pleads
Published July 15 | READ FULL STORY AND WATCH VIDEO

What’s new? July 10

Took some days off this week to visit New York City with a close friend visiting from L.A. I highly recommend a Greenwich village cafe called Sweet Revenge. It pairs gourmet cupcakes with wine and cocktails. A true sommelier may turn his nose up at the concept, but I thought it was truly fun. Try the vanilla one with a glass of pinot noir.

Now back to the news. Received numerous calls en route to the Statue of Liberty about the state treasurer leaving the Democratic party. The morning I got back, a Republican threw his hat in the race. So I jumped in at the tail end of a pretty newsy week for state politics. I filed an analysis piece on how a three-party race could split the vote. Check it out below.

Also check out my stimulus funding package and my most recent coverage of the ever-present elderly driver issue here in Massachusetts.

These stories can also be found on the Political/State Coverage page of this site. To view clips on other topics, like local news, just navigate through the pages to the right.

Crowded race for governor could help Patrick
Published July 9 | READ FULL STORY

Four months later, still no stimulus money
Published July 4 | READ FULL STORY

Cities and towns frustrated, confused about stimulus funding
Published July 4 | READ FULL STORY

As politicians debate, elderly driving incidents pile up
Published July 1 | READ FULL STORY

What’s new? June 22-27

I did a lot of reporting this week for future stories, but I had only a few actual bylines. It was a busy week at the State House, with the Legislature tackling its final reform bill for now on ethics. But I spent a lot of time in the main newsroom to  help cover a few shifts on the news desk.

Here’s what I was up to at the State House. These stories can also be found on the Political/State Coverage page of this site. To view clips on other topics, like local news, just navigate through the pages to the right.

State political leaders pass for now on disability pension reform
Published June 23 | READ FULL STORY

T prices may rise yet again but still lag behind other systems
Published June 22 | READ FULL STORY

Redesign complete!

Welcome to my professional Web site. It has been reincarnated after a much-needed redesign to make my clunky list of clips and links a bit more user-friendly. I’ve organized my work into story categories and fixed up the formatting.

Thank you to everyone who offered tips for re-thinking the site. I’m very open to more suggestions, so if you visit and want to leave a comment, please do.

Moving forward, I plan to use this home page to post updates about what’s new.  In the future, I’ll be linking to my personal blog, General Assignment, which is also undergoing a facelift.

Welcome to my Web site

 

If you’ve made it to this site, it’s still being worked on. Feel feel to take a look, but the clips library is incomplete and does not reflect the past six months of work.

Please check back on Friday, June 19 to see the completed site. Thanks!