Doyle Reports

DoyleReports now moving...

2008-11-15T07:36:00.003-05:00

DoyleReports, my initial venture into blogging, has now metamorphosed into Suits & Sentences, the legal affairs blog for McClatchy Newspapers. I expect to have DoyleReports on hiatus, and urge one and all to check out:
http://washingtonbureau.typepad.com/law/

Pigford: Lawyers at the Trough

2008-11-10T08:36:00.002-05:00

A federal judge is unhappy, again, about how aggressive lawyers -- imagine that! -- are scrambling for a piece of a multi-hundred million dollar settlement with aggrieved African-American farmers.

The settlement in the so-called Pigford litigation was supposed to compensate African-American farmers who faced Agriculture Department discrimination. After the original filing deadline passed, Congress then allowed some 63,000 additional African-American farmers to seek payments of $55,000 each. Separately, the farmers' lawyers were then supposed to get attorney's fees -- but U.S. District Judge Paul Friedman noted at a recent status conference:

I’ve seen the Web sites of some of the law firms, and I don’t like them. I don’t like people saying it’s going to cost you a third of your relief, whatever I get for you, or 20 percent of your relief, whatever I get for you, because that’s not what Congress had in mind."

That's not all. Friedman has expressly warned about the "reasonableness and transparency" of the attorneys' fee agreements; colloquially speaking, some farmers might be getting ripped off. On Friday, Nov. 14, Friedman has summoned the attorneys for a status conference to try to fix things.

https://ecf.dcd.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/show_public_doc?2008mc0511-19

Obama's Law Course

2008-11-09T06:16:00.002-05:00

Can Barack Obama undo Bush's tangled legal legacy?

By Marisa Taylor and Michael Doyle | McClatchy Newspapers

WASHINGTON — When Barack Obama becomes president in January, he'll confront the controversial legal legacy of the Bush administration.

From expansive executive privilege to hard-line tactics in the war on terrorism, Obama must decide what he'll undo and what he'll embrace.

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/staff/marisa_taylor/story/55520.html

Jon Kyl: Supreme Nay Sayer

2008-11-07T17:42:00.004-05:00

Honeymoon? What honeymoon?

From the Phoenix Business Journal, Nov. 7:

"Jon Kyl, the second-ranking Republican in the U.S. Senate, warned president-elect Barack Obama that he would filibuster U.S. Supreme Court appointments if those nominees were too liberal.

Kyl, Arizona’s junior senator, expects Obama to appoint judges in the mold of U.S Supreme Court Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, David Souter and Stephen Breyer. Those justices take a liberal view on cases related to social, law and order and business issues, Kyl said.
“He believes in justices that have empathy,” said Kyl, speaking at a Federalist Society meeting in Phoenix."

http://www.bizjournals.com/phoenix/stories/2008/11/03/daily77.html

Kennedy at Duke

2008-11-06T14:04:00.003-05:00

Richard Nixon's alma mater gets some Supreme Court lovin'. From the Duke Law School communications office:

Supreme Court Justice Anthony M. Kennedy will speak at Duke Law School at 9:30 a.m. Saturday, Nov. 8, during a dedication ceremony celebrating the school’s recent renovation and expansion project.

The complete schedule of events, as well as links to directions and parking information, can be found at http://www.law.duke.edu/about/building/dedicationschedule. RSVPs should be directed to events@law.duke.edu by Monday, Nov. 3.

But here's a quick trivia question: who was the first Duke Law grad to be tapped for a coveted Supreme Court clerkship? The answer, according to a Wikipedia site http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_law_clerks_of_the_Supreme_Court_of_the_United_Stateson the subject: Mr. Kenneth Starr. The name rings a bell...

'Fantastic or Delusional'

2008-11-06T12:52:00.001-05:00

A gentleman named Edward B. Baltimore may have spoken for many when he sued all three branches of the federal government and all the 50 states; wrote Mr. Baltimore, the myriad defendants have:

"failed miserably...by knowing(ly) conspiring to deprive, oppress, maim, torture, torment and compromise the lives of people citizens of the world and have molested the minds of infants and newborns."

Which pretty much sums it up, I think. But in an opinion made public Thursday, U.S. District Judge James Robertson dismissed Mr. Baltimore's lawsuit as based on "fantastic or delusional scenarios." Both, I think.
https://ecf.dcd.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/show_public_doc?2008cv1918-3

Nude, Live Law

2008-11-05T16:45:00.005-05:00

Nude dancing girls populate the Play Pen and the Pig Pen alike.
There the resemblance ends.
The Play Pen Gentlemen's Club is in East Los Angeles. The name, I think, says it all. The Pig Pen is in Los Santos, part of the virtual world of Grand Theft Auto. As Judge Diarmuid F. O’Scannlain put it in a 9th Circuit Court of Appeals opinion issued Wednesday:

"Not especially saintly, Los Santos is complete with gangs who roam streets inhabited
by prostitutes and drug pushers while random gunfire punctuates
the soundtrack."

Sounds like East Los Angeles, right? But In an entertainingly written opinion, the 9th Circuit panel dismissed the claim by the proprietors of the Play Pen that the makers of Grand Theft Auto infringed on the strip club's trademark -- even though the computer game makers did draw some of their inspiration from photographs they had taken of the East L.A., err, milieu. Writes O'Scannlain:

"Both San Andreas and the Play Pen offer a form of lowbrow
entertainment; besides this general similarity, they have
nothing in common. The San Andreas Game is not complementary
to the Play Pen; video games and strip clubs do not
go together like a horse and carriage or, perish the thought,
love and marriage."

Nicely put, Judge!
See more at:
http://www.ca9.uscourts.gov/ca9/newopinions.nsf/F67C75971EA40D9A882574F800511B57/$file/0656237.pdf?openelement

Gimbernat's Ligament

2008-11-05T12:32:00.005-05:00

The mystery of Gimbernat's Ligament must be solved!
A gentleman named Antonio Gimbernat sued the federal government, ultimately going to U.S. Court of Federal Claims with an array of charges and a demand for $100 million. Many charges revolved around his 1987 discharge from the Navy. Mr. Gimbernat contends he was "singled out" by a Navy company class leader and at the age of 17 was "forced to call himself a homosexual;" in time, he said, this treatment caused "severe emotional and mental harm...dependence on alcohol, drug abuse, and numerous altercations with law enforcement."
But that's not all. Mr. Gimbernat further claimed he was "entitled to receive “inheritance royalties” due to his ancestor’s discovery of “Gimbernat’s Ligament.” Which sounds like it could be the next DaVinci Code, doesn't it?
Claims Court Judge Emily Hewitt didn't touch that one and, in fact, dismissed in her new ruling the entirety of Mr. Gimbernat's suit.
The very useful web site http://www.whonamedit.com
sheds a bit more light on this Gimbernat's Ligament, which evidently honors a Mr. Don Manuel Louise Antonio de Gimbernat y Arbos
who is a 17th century gent; like I say, this Hollywood should snap this baby right up...

Spy Games

2008-11-04T16:11:00.004-05:00

The CIA deceives our nation's enemies, which is a good thing.
But it better draw the line at federal judges.
On Tuesday, in what can only be described as a judicial spanking, D.C.-based U.S. District Judge Gladys Kessler denounced the CIA's "highly misleading representations" and "extraordinary misbehavior" in a Freedom of Information Act case filed by the National Security Archive. Kessler, who sounds awfully ticked to me, further declared that the CIA's "past actions strongly suggest that their alleged misconduct will recur;" consequently, she emphatically sided with the archive in its revived lawsuit.

The case arises from the National Security Archive's efforts to be treated as a news media organization for the purpose of filing FOIA requests. The CIA twice agreed to do so. The CIA agreed to treat the archive as a news media organization, wrote a letter apologizing for not doing so -- and then, Kessler noted, "immediately resumed its practice of denying the archive news media status." Since the CIA can't be trusted to do the right thing on its own, Kessler concluded, she agreed to revive the archive's original lawsuit and order the CIA to follow the law.
https://ecf.dcd.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/show_public_doc?2006cv1080-40

Effing Brilliant, Part Deaux

2008-11-04T13:13:00.005-05:00

Associate Justice Antonin Scalia said the G-Word on Tuesday.
And that word, of course, is "golly waddles."
I think it's a neologism.
Amazingly enough, the Supreme Court on Tuesday spent an entire hour discussing indecent language without anyone using the words in question. Instead, during what proved to be a pretty darn lively oral argument in the case FCC v. Fox Television, justices and attorneys alike preferred the terms "F-word" -- 16 separate times -- and the "S-word." Bor-ring.
But that's not to say the oral argument was entirely devoid of spicy language. Not at all. Justice Scalia, for one, offered up the term "golly waddles" as a, well, as a fanciful euphemism I guess you would call it.
And let us not ignore:
Justice Stevens used the word "dung." As in, the S-word without the S.
Justice Souter used the word "prong." As in, the three-prong test that right at this very moment sounds extra salacious.
And, my personal favorite, Solicitor General Gregory Garre's ominous warning that loosened decency standards could lead to "Big Bird dropping the F-bomb on Sesame Street."
All of this delicacy should be no surprise. After all, an earlier DoyleReports Special Investigation revealed that a majority of the amicus briefs filed in the dirty words case http://www.abanet.org/publiced/preview/briefs/nov08.shtml avoided using the words themselves. Of seven amicus briefs filed in support of the FCC's zip-your-lip position, only Morality in Media used the swear words. The others, filed by the likes of the National Religious Broadcasters, prefer circumlocutions.
Of course, if I was smart, I would use the words in this post and thereby optimize search results...McClatchy story in full at http://www.mcclatchydc.com/257/story/55255.html

Bend Over, It's the Law

2008-11-03T18:07:00.003-05:00

Courtroom security can be a bitch.
Just ask Dianna Johnson, who complained that all female prisoners appearing in Superior Court in D.C. were subjected to strip, visual body cavity and/or squat searches. Johnson and other arrested women noted in a lawsuit that men weren't subjected to the same humiliating round of searches, unless authorities had some reasonable and particularly suspicion to act upon.

"A female Marshal directs the arrestee to pull up her skirt or lower her pants and to pull down any undergarments," Johnson's original complaint explained. "A female Marshal then makes the arrestee squat and turn around and display their buttocks and their genitals to the female Marshal...in front of all the female arrestees already in the cell block."

This is actually an excruciatingly long-running case, coming upon the sixth anniversary of its filing back in December 2002. Unfortunately for Johnson, the U.S. Marshal overseeing security in the DC Superior Court is a federal employee. U.S. District Judge Rosemary Collyer on Friday i this opinion, https://ecf.dcd.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/show_public_doc?2002cv2364-202 consequently dropped the District of Columbia as a defendant in Johnson's lawsuit.

"Because the District of Columbia has no authority to control the Superior Court Marshal and no choice but to turn over arrestees to him, the District of Columbiacannot be held liable for his allegedly unconstitutional acts."

Diana Levine

2008-11-03T17:10:00.004-05:00

Diana Levine looked radiant at the Supreme Court on Monday.

Strikingly white hair. Silver medallion around her neck. Purple dress. And, oh yes, one arm cut off below the elbow.
Did the justices see her? For that matter, was she deployed by her attorneys as a visual reminder of the human element in the case called Wyeth v. Levine? It's not out of the question. After all, uniformed military officers seem to show up in the justices' lines-of-sight during national security cases.
Levine's attorney, David Frederick, brought this handsome, artistic-looking woman out to the steps of the Capitol following oral arguments in the closely watched case called Wyeth v. Levine. (Is there any more commonly used phrase in Supreme Court reporting than "closely watched case?" The answer is, yes: "high-stakes case.")
"The drug manufacturer was negiligent in its warning," Frederick told reporters on the court steps, with Levine by his side, "and the results are here for all to see."
Levine declared herself "speechless" and said she was "just trying to digest" the legal arguments she had just heard. Other than that, Levine was silent; at least, in front of the mass of reporters. Which was too bad; Diana Levine struck me as an intriguing character whose physical presence articulated just the start of a fascinating story.

Businesses have much at stake in drug suit's outcome

By Michael Doyle | McClatchy Newspapers

WASHINGTON — Supreme Court conservatives on Monday sounded sympathetic to a drug company's pleas for protection from state court lawsuits.

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/257/story/55218.html

Ted Stevens: What, Me Convicted?

2008-10-31T08:11:00.005-04:00

I'd like to know where Sen. Ted Stevens learned his criminal law.
Oh, that's right: Harvard Law School, class of 1950.
A former U.S. Attorney, Stevens now has an aggressive interpretation -- one might say, a Williams & Connolly-ian interpretation -- of what it means to be "convicted."
On Thursday, Stevens told the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner:

“I’ve not been convicted yet,” Stevens insisted. “There’s not a black mark by my name yet, until the appeal is over and I am finally convicted, if that happens."

Is Stevens right, in some bizarro technical sense, or is it time for a little refresher course? On Oct. 27, a 12-member jury in Washington found Stevens guilty of seven felony counts of lying on financial disclosure statements. Sounds convicted to me; that's certainly the plain-language understanding of the term. The Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure, moreover, speak of "post-conviction procedures" initiated once the verdict is rendered. Case closed? No, it gets trickier!

18 U.S.C. 921(a)(20) states that "What constitutes a conviction [is] determined in accordance with the law of the jurisdiction in which the proceedings were held." In immigration law, for instance, if I read the cases right, "conviction" requires a sentence to be rendered. And in the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure, as well, the "judgment of conviction" is something signed by the judge after the verdict and sentence is rendered.
So, uhh, if I get this right: Stevens was convicted, but the judgment of conviction has not yet been rendered. Meaning: pick the definition that best suits your purpose!
http://newsminer.com/news/2008/oct/30/alaska-sen-stevens-says-he-will-clear-his-name/

Marijuana Mercy

2008-10-31T04:46:00.003-04:00

Score one for the little guy. If, by ‘little guy,’ you mean someone caught hauling 94 pounds of marijuana.

Tammy Levesque seemingly hasn’t caught a lot of breaks in her life. She’s a 33-year-old single mom and a high school dropout, basically unemployed since 2005. She had been trying to save money to fulfill her dream of opening a beauty parlor in Madawaska, Maine.

Unfortunately, her money came from earning $2,000 a trip for transporting pot in her pickup truck from Maine down the Eastern Seaboard to North Carolina. The cops busted her. She pled guilty to conspiracy to distribute, and agreed the government would seize some of her assets through forfeiture. Then, prosecutors overreached and demanded she cough up $3 million. Typical prosecutor math: number of trips Levesque made times the estimated amount of pot carried times the estimated dealer’s price of $2,000 a pound.

Nuh-uh. On Thursday, the 1^st Circuit Court of Appeals determined the $3 million asset forfeiture was an excessive fine in violation of the Eighth Amendment. That’s right: the same amendment the Supreme Court uses to cap corporate liability payments has now been used to cap a drug courier’s payments. The 1^st Circuit reasoned http://www.ca1.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/getopn.pl?OPINION=08-1344P.01A that “ruinous monetary punishments” that would effectively deprive a defendant of a future ability to earn a living are excessive.

That means that Ms. Levesque might still have a shot at making a go at that beauty parlor once she’s released next year from the Alderson minimum security facility in West Virginia.

Ted Stevens: What's Next

2008-10-30T11:08:00.002-04:00

Boomp3.com

Anchorage Daily News reporter Erika Bolstad discusses the next steps in the criminal case of Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens.

Nader v. Blackwell

2008-10-29T16:09:00.004-04:00

Ralph Nader on Wednesday won a battle but lost a war, or maybe it's vice versa, when the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals rejected his effort to sue former Ohio secretary of state Kenneth Blackwell. The case arose out of Nader's frustrated efforts to secure a place on the 2004 ballot, an effort blocked when he couldn't produce 5,000 valid signatures. Nader challenged Blackwell, personally, over enforcement of the Ohio law that requires petition-circulators to reside and be registered to vote in Ohio.

It's an intriguing opinion, packed with anecdotes about oddball behavior by Nader's petition-circulators, including the saga of Ronald Waller. Mr. Waller submitted 366 signatures on Nader's behalf, but the court noted that "Waller’s mother swore in an affidavit that he had not lived at the given address since March 2004. One individual whose name was on the petition swore that he signed a petition circulated by a white man and a white woman. Waller is a black man."

The appellate panel, moreover, determined Blackwell enjoys some of that sweet, sweet sovereign immunity that protects him Nader's lawsuit. For Blackwell, that may be the bottom line. Bye bye, lawsuit.

But then, in what may prove to be the longer-lasting part of the ruling,
http://www.ca6.uscourts.gov/opinions.pdf/08a0391p-06.pdf, the three-member appellate panel also concluded that Ohio's ban on out-of-state petition circulators violated the First Amendment. Saeth the court:

it is undisputable that Blackwell’s conduct sharply limited Nader’s ability to convey his message to Ohio voters and thereby curtailed Nader’s core political speech..

Effing Brilliant

2008-10-29T09:39:00.007-04:00

An R-rated case requires R-rated briefs, or so one might think.
But as the Supreme Court prepares to hear oral arguments Tuesday in the closely watched case FCC v. Fox Television Stations, many lawyers are delicately averting their eyes, and our ears, from the words in question. This is the case in which the FCC wants to fine television stations for naughty words ejaculated by Bono, Cher and Nicole Richie.
A DoyleReports Special Investigation -- thanks, Mr. PDF Search Mechanism! -- reveals that a majority of the amicus briefs filed in the dirty words case http://www.abanet.org/publiced/preview/briefs/nov08.shtml actually avoid using the words themselves. Of seven amicus briefs filed in support of the FCC's position, only Morality in Media used the swear words. The others, filed by the likes of the National Religious Broadcasters, prefer circumlocutions like "the f-word." The words are just too hot to handle!
Briefs supporting the broadcasters, perhaps predictably, are considerably more likely to let us in on the $#@!ing secret. Five such briefs, filed by the likes of the ACLU, cite the words in question. The idea, maybe, is to de-mystify them: see, they're mere words. However, five other briefs filed by the by the likes of Time Warner and the ABC affiliates avoided the swear words.
Of course, if I was smart, I would use the words in this post and thereby optimize search results...

Stevens: Go Now

2008-10-29T09:16:00.002-04:00

McCain, Palin ask Stevens to step down from Senate

By Erika Bolstad | McClatchy Newspapers

WASHINGTON — Wasting no time to separate their campaign from the "corruption and insider dealing that has become so pervasive in our nation's capital," Sen. John McCain and his running mate, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, called Tuesday on their fellow Republican, Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens, to step down from the Senate.

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/231/story/54879.html

Short and Plain

2008-10-28T11:16:00.003-04:00

I would like to know: Precisely how many seconds does it take a judge to resolve a case like Dixon v. Bush? I mean from start to finish: intake, reading, typing the opinion, sighing resignedly...
A Mr. Ernest Dixon, who has crossed our path before, sued First Lady Laura Bush for $40 million. Mr. Dixon dutifully explained in U.S. District Court in DC that:

"(she) has helped tear down (his) apartment building" in New York City and has "built her a building there."

On Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Ellen Huvelle dismissed the suit, https://ecf.dcd.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/show_public_doc?2008cv1845-3 explaining that it failed to include the necessary "short and plain" statement of the claim. Although, I get the feeling the plaintiff's explanation might end up being very long and very complicated.

Taxed

2008-10-28T09:14:00.003-04:00

And you think you have deduction problems.
On Monday, the U.S. Tax Court rejected WellPoint Inc.'s bid to claim more than $113 million in deductions on the insurance company's 1999 and 2000 tax returns. WellPoint had paid out the money in a settlement with Kentucky, Ohio and Connecticut after those states sued. Those original lawsuits arose following WellPoint's merger with the Blue Cross and Blue Shield system.
In Tax Court, WellPoint argued that the settlement payment was an ordinary and necessary cost of doing business, and hence deductible. The government argued they were capital expenditures and not deductible. Insert boring legal reasoning here.
Judge Diane Kroupa agreed with the IRS on this one, http://www.ustaxcourt.gov/InOpHistoric/Wellpoint.TCM.WPD.pdf
and the resulting tax deficiency appears to be over $51 million, which is enough to make anyone sick.

Stevens Convicted

2008-10-28T05:11:00.005-04:00

Will Stevens guilty verdict be a blow to GOP Senate hopes?

By Erika Bolstad and Richard Mauer | McClatchy Newspapers

WASHINGTON — A federal jury on Monday found Republican Sen. Ted Stevens guilty on seven counts of lying about thousands of dollars of gifts and home renovations on his financial disclosure forms, a verdict that ended in disgrace the four-decade Senate career of a man whose imprint on Alaska dates to before its statehood.

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/227/story/54834.html

A Man-Shoots-Dog Story

2008-10-27T19:32:00.007-04:00

Some Bubba-killing cops blew their appeal and now must go to trial.
Bubba, by the way, is a dog.
A very lovely dog, too, judging by the lavishly detailed opinion issued Oct. 27 by the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals. Bubba was a 7-year-old labrador retriever/springer spaniel mix. He was minding his own doggy business in a Milwaukee backyard the night of Aug. 15, 2004, when police came barging in, searching for a felon allegedly accompanied by a pit bull. Officer Montell Carter came armed with a shotgun; as he put it:

"The best weapon for a dog is a shotgun, in my experience."

The encounter went south. Carter shot Bubba twice; ten minutes later, when the whimpering dog came out from hiding, Carter shot the dog two more times. Killed him; even as, in Judge Richard D. Cudahy's words, the neighbors "were shouting at the officers, telling them Bubba wasn't a bad dog." As Cudahy put it, "this is not, to say the least, a record that paints a sympathetic picture" of the police actions. Turns out, moreover, that "every circuit that has considered the issue has held that the killing of a companion dog constitutes a 'seizure' within the meaning of the Fourth Amendment." Who knew?
The police claim sovereign immunity should block the subsequent lawsuit. For reasons that are not nearly as entertaining as the dog-shooting itself -- DoyleReports Rule of Thumb: fact patterns trump legal reasoning every time -- the 7th Circuit rejected the cops' appeal of a district judge's refusal to summarily dismiss the complaint. The civil trial will proceed, with Bubba watching from Dog Heaven.

A Taxed Former Judge

2008-10-27T15:00:00.003-04:00

It's been a rough decade for former Oregon Supreme Court Justice Edward N. Fadeley. And thanks to U.S. Tax Court, it's just gotten a little rougher.
First, Fadeley resigned from the Oregon court in 1998; he had throat cancer, but at the age of 68 he also faced a potential investigation into allegations he had a sexual relationship with a member of his staff. Last year, the Oregon Bar suspended him for 30 days following a dispute with a former client.
Now, the Tax Court has in a fairly sharp manner dismissed Fadeley's claims for many thousands of dollars in business and personal expense deductions for work done at his Oregon ranch. Tax Court Judge Stephen Swift sternly noted in Oct. 22 ruling that Fadeley "did not cooperate" with government officials, and seemed rather skeptical about Fadeley's claims that, well, the cougars ate the homework:

"(Fadeley) claims that one of the horses fell into a ditch and that cougars and an English bulldog killed some of the sheep and three pygmy angora sheep."

All the gory details at
http://www.ustaxcourt.gov/InOpHistoric/Fadeley.TCM.WPD.pdf

Fantastic or Delusional

2008-10-27T10:23:00.004-04:00

Kedist D. Hirpassa may have a problem. Unfortunately, it's not one the U.S. District Court in Washington can help him with.
Mr. Hirpassa sued the State Department; the Maryland resident and one-time State Department summer clerk explained that State has

"had persons to attempt to change or take my identity (and that) someone within the department have arranged police officers to assassinate by brother after relaying a message to me via email."

Sic all of the above; the phrasing, I mean. On Monday, citing the well-worn rules concerning "fantastic or delusional scenarios," U.S. District Judge James Robertson quickly dismissed the case, at https://ecf.dcd.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/show_public_doc?2008cv1829-3

John Doe 21: Justice Delayed

2008-10-27T08:58:00.005-04:00

Sick kids make sad cases.
So do long delays.
An unhappy U.S. Court of Federal Claims is giving another chance to the father of a child ostensibly damaged by immunizations. The child is dubbed John Doe 21; his real first name is apparently Jimmy. He was born in May 1999. His mother died of a stroke in March 2002.
Developmentally disabled, John Doe 21 has suffered myriad health problems including encephalitis. In April 2002, his father filed for compensation. Two years later, the deadline for a decision had passed without a compensation decision.

"For reasons that escape the court," claims court Judge Susan G. Braden noted in a new ruling, "it took seven months for the case to be reassigned."

The new special master, John F. Edwards, "then proceeded to take an additional four years to issue a ruling." Braden noted.

Ouch. Just to drill the point home, Judge Braden noted that "by any measure, "these proceedings were not expeditious" as required by law. Braden rejected the long-delayed special master's ruling and has now set a firm 90-day ruling for the latest special master to consider the case of John Doe 21. A ruling, in other words, should come before his 10th birthday.
The full opinion, made public Oct. 21, is at
http://www.uscfc.uscourts.gov/sites/default/files/BRADEN.DOE21102108.pdf

Stevens Jury: Back at It

2008-10-27T08:23:00.002-04:00

Jury in Stevens trial to resume deliberations today

By Erika Bolstad | McClatchy Newspapers

WASHINGTON — After a one-day delay in jury deliberations, Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens' corruption trial will resume Monday morning with an alternate juror replacing the one who left last week for her father's funeral.

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/251/story/54799.html

Real Law

2008-10-24T08:41:00.008-04:00

It's been that kind of week for the U.S. District Court in Washington.

A Washington, D.C. gentleman named Earnest L. Dixon conceived of a new way to replace George W. Bush at the White House. He's his own best advocate, explaining in his lawsuit that he was

"suing the formal District of Columbia Police for repossession of my mansion at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue Washington D.C. I want everyone to vacate the premises and leave the keys. Thank you."

Sorry Mr. Dixon! Late Thursday, in this inexplicably brief opinion https://ecf.dcd.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/show_public_doc?2008cv1811-3,
U.S. District Judge Ellen S. Huvelle declared the lawsuit was the kind of "fantastic and delusional scenario" that deserves rapid dismissal.
Now, why didn't John McCain think of this strategy for reaching the White House...

And then, on Friday, U.S. District Judge James Robertson confronted a lawsuit by a Mr. Victor Alvarez, currently residing at the U.S. Medical Center for federal prisoners in Springfeld, Ill. In his lawsuit, Mr. Alvarez demanded a modest $999 trillion as a result of various federal authorities "using UFO exotic weapons of laser tubs-technologies and military spionage and known as ciber electronical brain monitors connected to my brain with laser cables connected to military computers."

Fantastic and delusional indeed; case, sadly, dismissed. All the details at
https://ecf.dcd.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/show_public_doc?2008cv1819-3

Freeze, Trademark Police!

2008-10-22T15:26:00.006-04:00

First it was Al Capone on tax evasion. Now it's the Mongols on trademark infringement. Coming next: Osama bin Ladin popped for jaywalking.
In an apparently unprecedented maneuver, federal prosecutors in Los Angeles want to use asset forfeiture laws to seize the trademarked name Mongols from the motorcycle gang.
Here's the lede:
WASHINGTON — Uncle Sam could end up owning the name of the Mongols, a West Coast motorcycle gang accused by federal prosecutors of "crimes and acts of violence."
And here's the story:
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/staff/michael_doyle/story/54633.html
If prosecutors succeed, the feds will own the Mongols trademark and can charge patch-wearing gang members with trademark infringement; or, at the least, have one more reason to stop them for a little sidewalk chat. Which is bound to irritate the gang members. Which may be the point.
Pretty weird; maybe clever, maybe a mite troublesome. Read the story to find out! But here's the journalism lesson.
Turns out, the federal Patent and Trademark Office maintains a nifty searchable database. Starting at http://www.uspto.gov/, you can get the trademark documents for, say, the Hells Angels, or the Mongols, Brotherhood Nomads, Wicked Women MC or whichever other fraternal organization strikes your fancy.

Cakewalk

2008-10-21T08:36:00.004-04:00

In the wake of Ken "Cakewalk" Adelman's endorsement of Barack Obama, DoyleReports has exclusively obtained a copy of a new shooting script for a McCain campaign commercial, expected to air shortly.

NARRATOR: Barack Obama pals around with dangerous characters. Bill Ayers. Jeffrey Wright. Harry Reid. And now Ken Adelman has joined this Chicago politician's gang.

MONTAGE: (Black and white pictures of Adelman grinning with Donald Rumsfeld, sitting at a typewriter looking bookish, covers of Washingtonian magazine's Best Restaurant issues)

NARRATOR: Adelman found time to get his doctorate, but just like Obama he escaped military service during Vietnam. And when it really counted, his judgment was abominable.

VIDEO OF ADELMAN SPEAKING (From CNN Crossfire, 12/9/2002): I think it will be an operation that we can win and win relatively quickly with little casualties, with little civilian casualties and change the nature of the Middle East.

VIDEO: Car bomb explosions, firefights, quick scroll of names of 80,000 Iraqi civilian casualties.

VIDEO OF ADELMAN SPEAKING (From CNN Crossfire 4/26/2003): This is a very passing problem.

NARRATOR: Ken Adelman: Wrong Again.

VERBATIM TRANSCRIPT FROM CNN Crossfire 4/26/2003) Adelman: (unintelligible.)

Patent Moola

2008-10-20T13:55:00.004-04:00

The U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit is, in my untutored opinion, the World's Most Boring Court.
But fluency in its patent-law arcana can be pretty lucrative, even if you're just translating for others. A pending lawsuit shows precisely how lucrative.
Patent attorney Clark Cheney -- no known relation to that other guy -- is a Georgetown law graduate and former Federal Circuit law clerk. He's suing his former employer, Florida-based IPD Analytics, over a non-competition clause in his contract. On Monday, a DC-based federal judge ordered the case moved to Florida, https://ecf.dcd.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/show_public_doc?2008cv1044-21
But I'm not talking about change of venue. I'm talking about money. Cheney, according to the ruling issued Monday, left the partnership track at Dewey Ballantine to join IPD in February 2006. His job: follow Federal Circuit litigation and write reports attempting to predict how the court would rule. His compensation: $200,000 a year, a $10,000 signing bonus, $20,000 to help buy a Florida home and a first-year performance bonus of $50,000.

"Did Not Oppose"

2008-10-20T09:34:00.003-04:00

Colin Powell's Reputation Rehabilitation Tour '08 takes a turn with his high-profile endorsement of Barack Obama. Check out the intriguing phrase his biographer, Washington Post reporter Karen DeYoung, uses to describe the former secretary of state's involvement with, err, that whole Iraq unpleasantness.

"Powell did not oppose the 2003 decision to invade the country. "

Well, yes, that is certainly one way to describe the man who aggressively marketed the war before the United Nations. Cue the Feb. 5, 2003 speech: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rp6WuTSTyS8
I admire DeYoung's reporting but in this case her phrasing, I think, soft-peddles the facts in a way that may be unintentionally revealing about Powell's current priority as well a reporter's own agenda. She is serving Powell's interest in distancing himself from a debacle, trying to get on the right side of history. Moreover, by casting the case in this highly sympathetic fashion, the reporter is maintaining access to the source.

Rules of Statutory Construction

2008-10-17T08:41:00.005-04:00

Doyle's Second Rule of Statutory Construction: The merits of a bill are inversely proportional to the acronymic energy of its title.
I'm talking about the catch-phrase plague that's sweeping Capitol Hill. No one seems immune. Consider Sen. Obama's bill S. 117, also known as the Oil Subsidy Elimination for New Strategies on Energy Act." Get it? The Oil SENSE Act. Heh. Just consider the staff time it took to concoct that.
The Oil SENSE Act may lack the panache of H.R. 2264, a measure that amends the Sherman Act to make oil-producing cartels illegal; that voter-friendly beauty is formally called NOPEC for No Oil Producing and Exporting Cartels Act. Heh. But this is just the tip of an iceberg we saw earlier with the USA PATRIOT Act. A DoyleReports Special Investigation -- tip of the hat to ya', Mr. THOMAS! http://thomas.loc.gov/
-- reveals myriad spin-crazy titular abominations. In the 110th Congress, there has been S. 1521, the Prevention Resources for Eliminating Criminal Activity Using Tailored Interventions in Our Neighborhoods Act of 2007' or the `PRECAUTION Act'. There is S. 1222, a timely little number called the `Stopping Mortgage Transactions which Operate to Promote Fraud, Risk, Abuse, and Underdevelopment Act' or the `STOP FRAUD Act'. There is H.R. 955, the Clean, Learn, Educate, Abolish, Neutralize and Undermine Production of Methamphetamines Act, or CLEAN-UP of Methamphetamines Act. There is H.R. 1539, the "Academic Partnerships Lead Us to Success Act, or the A PLUS Act." There is the...
Enough already. I call it BOGUS.

The Heart of the Matter

2008-10-15T14:54:00.003-04:00

Vice President Dick Cheney's heart is in atrial fibrillation (left). The Dow Jones Industrial Average is in price fibrillation (right) Coincidence? I think not.

See Peanuts, op. cit.

2008-10-15T13:06:00.006-04:00

Good ol' Charlie Brown. Always good for a legal analogy; now, with footnotes!
On Wednesday, U.S. District Judge James Robertson in Washington invoked the cartoon character in explaining https://ecf.dcd.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/show_public_doc?2006cv1014-97 why he would not dismiss a multi-faceted patent infringement case pitting Dow Jones & Co. against Ablaise. The latter company patented methods for generating web pages based on user preferences. After a year of grinding discovery, Ablaise wanted to yank one of its patents out of the case right before it was time for summary judgement.
Robertson likened Ablaise's slippery move to "rewarding Lucy for snatching the ball away from Charlie Brown." Judge Robertson then elaborated with a footnote that for my money beats that tired old Carolene Products footnote number 4 hands down. Opines the judge:

"The analogy is admittedly imperfect. Charlie Brown and 2 Lucy were at least nominally on the same side, and Lucy didn’t want to keep the ball -- she just didn’t want Charlie Brown to have the satisfaction of kicking it."

Coming next: Garfield v. Lasagna.

2008-10-14T13:49:00.004-04:00

Journalism is becoming more of a real-time dialogue, and less of a set-piece monologue. This can be disconcerting, but it can also facilitate better reporting.
Here's what I mean.
I filed a daily newspaper story about efforts to restore California's San Joaquin River, at http://www.mcclatchydc.com/staff/michael_doyle/story/53753.html. Then I went home, done for the week. Or so I thought.
Once home, I found an e-mailed complaint from a smart California water lobbyist who said my story was one-sided. Turns out, the DC bureau had already posted the story online, 12 hours before it was to appear in print. Weirdly, I had scooped myself!
The lobbyist said I should have tried harder to get opposing viewpoints into the story. I took his comment to heart, got the cell phone number for one of his clients, conducted a quick interview and filed additional material to even out the version of the story slated for print. In other words, expanding that old cliche, we are now only writing the first draft of the first draft of history...

Cue The Dr. Evil Voice

2008-10-10T13:05:00.005-04:00

Here's a modest little claim.
A gentleman named Jerry Lewis Dedrick, currently doing time in federal prison, believes the U.S. Sentencing Commission discriminates against African-Americans. So from his Beaumont, Texas prison cell he shipped a lawsuit to U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C. , and sought damages. Something to, you know, send a message and maybe provide a little cigarette money.
Dedrick asked for $368 trillion.
Trillion. With a T.
On Thursday, somehow avoiding any urge for snark, U.S. District Judge James Robertson dismissed Mr. Dedrick's claim for the second time. https://ecf.dcd.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/show_public_doc?2008cv1279-6 Good ol' sovereign immunity, saving the country a bundle once more!
Of course, with Mr. Dedrick's prison term running through 2024 (see the Bureau of Prisons' useful inmate locator, http://www.bop.gov/iloc2/LocateInmate.jsp,)the courts may not have heard the last of this.

2008-10-09T20:34:00.003-04:00

Check out the Court of Federal Claims, a handy but unheralded story source.
The court is where people go with, well, claims against Uncle Sam. These aren't just slip-and-fall cases, either; big bucks and/or big questions are on the line.
This week, as part of my regular courts perusal, http://www.uscfc.uscourts.gov I noted a public safety officer case. Hmmn, I says to myself, wonder what that's about?
The first couple of sentences of the opinion, http://www.uscfc.uscourts.gov/sites/default/files/BASKIR.BICE100308.pdf reveal a grieving widower, a dead female firefighter and a 12-year legal fight with the Justice Department. Game on! The result: a reminder that obscure courthouse checks are worth the clicking, and a story http://www.mcclatchydc.com/staff/michael_doyle/story/53707.html
that begins a little something like this:
WASHINGTON — Volunteer Alabama firefighter Martha Bice died 12 years ago, done in by bad smoke. Many courtroom fights later, the Justice Department will finally be settling accounts for this woman Congress considers a hometown hero.

Circulating Dollars

2008-10-08T15:16:00.003-04:00

Clifford Frederick Weeks is an impoverished plaintiff with a sense of honor, or maybe it's a sense of humor.
Mr. Weeks brought suit recently against New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine and others. In his suit, filed in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C,, Mr. Weeks complained that New Jersey and Florida officials had denied him a driver's license. He filed his suit along with a petition to proceed in forma pauperis, which means he shouldn't have to pay the usual filing fee.
It gets a bit complicated, as such lawsuits often will. But here's the thing: In a noble gesture, Mr. Weeks also included a 1932 silver dollar with his filing. Doing his part, one might say.
On Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Ellen Huvelle said thanks-but-no-thanks. Huvelle dismissed the complaint, as out of place in federal court; her order included, as well, the statement that the court will "return the 1932 silver dollar to the plaintiff." Which, given the state of the economy, might well come in handy soon.

Sourcing Scotus

2008-10-07T09:22:00.002-04:00

Lawyers want to be quoted. Reporters want quotes. It's E-Harmony for sharks and minnows!
And here's how it works. Lawyers, law professors and their public relations allies cold-call reporters pitching insights on Supreme Court cases. The truly efficient ones embed a quote in an e-mail, piping hot for off-the-shelf use. It's cut-and-paste reporting; which I, for one, am not immune to.
In recent days, for instance, my in-box brought me a pitch from the public relations firm StarToplin, offering Temple Law School professors and other experts able to discuss "the hot issues." The public relations counsel for the law firm Reed Smith piched an interview with Chicago-based employment law expert Jim Burns, including a three-paragraph ready-made quote. The public relations gurus for the law firm Proskauer Rose promoted the firm's experts on three separate employment-type cases. The Federalist Society sent along a link to their recent Supreme Court preview. University of Richmond law professor Carl Tobias offered himself, as he does on many cases.
Personally, I am a fan of self-promotion: How else do you think items get linked on Romenesko or Above The Law? And, it can work. A DoyleReports Special Investigation -- You're the best, Mr. NEXIS! -- finds that Professor Tobias was quoted in 283 newspaper articles over the past year. Here's the thing: reporters use smart guys use Professor Tobias to put things in perspective, and the smart guys use hacks to get their ideas out into wider circulation. It's a beautiful use-use relationship.

Scotus

2008-10-06T13:25:00.006-04:00

"It's good to be back, covering something that nobody cares about," one well-known Supreme Court reporter said this morning.
Technically speaking, it's not true. Plenty of people care, starting with the two dozen or so reporters who showed up for the 10 a.m. oral arguments Monday. In the front row sat the regulars, AP's Mark Sherman, USA Today's Joan Biskupic, ABC's Jan Crawford Greenburg, the New York Times' Adam Liptak, Tony Mauro of Legal Times. With a tip of the hat to the 1927 New York Yankees' lineup, I'd call it a veritable Murderers' Row of the judicial beat.
The front two benches are handsome, padded and essentially reserved for dedicated court reporters. They offer a great, unimpeded view of the action. It's so close, you can almost hear Justice Thomas snoring.
Behind these benches are individual cheap seats jammed together, many located behind pillars. For all, strict rules apply. No cameras, no tape recorders and, the ultimate insult, no ID cards hanging on chains around the neck. For reasons unknown to me, court security insists that reporters take off the omnipresent ID chains and lanyards that mark the true DC professional.
Multiple challenges arise in covering oral arguments. One is simply recording accurately what the justices and attorneys say, since a real-time transcript is only made available on high-profile cases. (Update: scratch that. I just realized that now, same-day transcripts are routinely available. Sweet!) Fundamentally, a court reporter has to know how much to read into a question posed by a justice. Sometimes a question is just a question; sometimes, it is a revelation. Here, I summon the great Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., one of my heroes. Holmes said the law is predictive: what will a court do in a given situation? A goal of oral argument reporting, I think, is to use the evidence presented through questions and known predilections of individual justices to predict what the court majority will, in the end, decide.

A World of Hurt

2008-10-03T14:29:00.004-04:00

Tyrone Hurt defines the term "abusive litigant." Or, maybe he's just got a lot of time on his hands.
On Friday, in a rather snippy opinion, the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit dismissed 44 pending cases filed by Mr. Hurt. The three-member appellate panel tells it best; listen for the arched tone:

"An extraordinary number of people, institutions, and inanimate objects have wronged Tyrone Hurt. In just the last couple of years, Hurt has sued the Declaration of Independence, Black’s Law Dictionary, the United Nations, agencies of the District of Columbia and the Federal Government, and various courts and their officers...Nor are the slights Hurt suffered mere glancing blows; he routinely demands trillions of dollars in damages."

The per curiam opinion further suggests Mr. Hurt might be filing the "absurd and frivolous" lawsuits simply "as a form of costless entertainment." But no more. Sternly, the appellate court declares, http://pacer.cadc.uscourts.gov/docs/common/opinions/200810/06-5339-1141959.pdf, that from now on Mr. Hurt must pay for every lawsuit he files; no more IFP filings. And if you know what IFP stands for, you know this relatively rare move will likely be the end of Mr. Hurt's legal joy ride.

Doe v. Bin Ladin

2008-10-02T05:40:00.004-04:00

How would you like to be Osama Bin Ladin's attorney?
It screams out: insert lawyer joke here. How about this:
Q: What is the billing rate for Osama Bin Ladin's lawyer?
A: 72 virgins per hour.
Only, the case called Doe v. Bin Ladin is deadly serious. It is also another reminder that federal courts are a great, and often underutilized, reporting resource.
Pick a favorite federal court and check its opinions daily. The ever-busy U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia is particularly fruitful at http://www.dcd.uscourts.gov/. Often, the case names shout: story potential. Doe v. Bin Ladin, for instance: kind of has a ring to it, no?
In a 13-page opinion posted late-ish Wednesday, https://ecf.dcd.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/show_public_doc?2001cv2516-48, U.S. District Judge Richard Roberts rejected Afghanistan's request to have the lawsuit dismissed on sovereign immunity grounds. The case was filed by a man whose wife died in the 9/11 terrorist attacks. He claims Afghanistan, while under Taliban rule, was a co-conspirator in the attacks. Afghanistan's representatives were properly served with the suit, Judge Roberts notes. Mr. Bin Ladin, presumably, was not.
Insert process-serving jokes here.
Roberts' opinion delves into Afghanistan's sovereign immunity arguments and why they do not hold water, at least yet; the next step will be limited discovery.
Insert Bin Ladin deposition jokes here.

FOIA Foibles

2008-09-30T08:17:00.003-04:00

Here's why more reporters don't use the Freedom of Information Act:
On Dec. 19, 2001, I submitted a FOIA request to the Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. I wanted something simple, a log of FOIA requests. FOIA logs, by the way, can be a useful if sneaky reporting tool. They divulge who else is digging for dirt -- including, perhaps, political opposition researchers and other reporters.
Remember that date: Dec. 19, 2001. On Monday, Sept. 29, 2008 -- yesterday -- I received a response to my seven-year-old request. Now, if only I could remember why I asked for the material in the first place...
The FOIA log, moreover, is very rudimentary. It lists the requesters, but not what they were looking for. Thus, I can now reveal that then-Texas congressman Charles Stenholm filed a 2001 FOIA request, but not why. I can report that Sen. Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas filed a request, but not what for.
There's a word that comes to mind. It will come to me in a second...

Reporting Foundations

2008-09-29T06:37:00.002-04:00

I like the lede I wrote for a story about a firefighter who's raising money for sick kids, but that's not the take-away reporting tip. That's just self-regard. The tip has to do with researching foundations.
Here's the lede:

By Michael Doyle | McClatchy Newspapers
WASHINGTON — Virginia firefighter Alec Oughton lost his child and gained a cause, which is no deal at all. Neuroblastoma had gripped his daughter, Grace. She was 3, and he was desperate.

Here's the tip: The wonderful Foundation Center maintains an online directory, posting websites, summaries and -- here's the beauty party -- the IRS 990 forms for thousands of U.S. foundations. In a snap, you can identify foundations of interest -- say, ones based in your hometown, or ones set up by politicians of interest -- and track down to the penny where they are spending money. Check it out:
http://foundationcenter.org/
And here's the rest of the story:
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/staff/michael_doyle/story/53141.html

DC Area Journalism Enrollment Steady

2008-09-26T05:56:00.003-04:00

Teaching journalism can feel like selling tickets to the Titanic.
I go from my bureau, where reporters are trying on life jackets, to the George Washington U class I teach as an adjunct, where the students are smart, engaged and interested. Almost as if, you know, there's a real future out there.
Not only that, but the journalism classes in D.C.-area universities are filling up. Check it out: GW's School of Media and Public Affairs reports this week that there are 306 undergraduate students enrolled, of whom 167 are journalism majors and 139 are political communications majors. The entry level classes, Introduction to News Writing and Reporting, are all fully subscribed, and then some. Journalism seems more popular than ever.
The University of Maryland's Philip Merrill College of Journalism reports having489 undergraduates enrolled. The journalism school's director of public affairs, Matthew Sheehan, advises me that "enrollment is down slightly this year; however, it is on part with the decline in enrollment in the university as a whole."
American University journalism numbers tk.
I take heart in these enrollment numbers. I think the students are seeing through the current industry turmoil. Reporting endures, though the forms will change. These students will be landing, albeit on a different shore than the one we know.

Alias

2008-09-25T09:11:00.007-04:00

A good alias can be hard to pierce.
A federal judge has made it harder for author Jefferson Morley and Salon.com founder David Talbot to investigate, as U.S. District Judge Richard Leon put it this week, alleged "connections between CIA operatives and the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy and Senator Robert F. Kennedy."
Sexy stuff, if true.
But in an opinion quietly issued Wednesday -- and by "quietly issued," I mean I just discovered it -- Leon summarily dismissed Morley's and Talbot's Freedom of Information Act request for certain State Department documents concerning former CIA officers David Morales and George Joannides. The authors had originally sought code names, passport records, visa documents, aliases and more. This is part of a complicated story, the gist of which can be seen here: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jefferson-morley/#blogger_bio The State Department eventually coughed up some passport material, but refused to confirm or deny the existence of any aliases for the two ex-spooks.
In his eight-page ruling, available here: https://ecf.dcd.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/show_public_doc?2007cv0277-34, Leon declared that "the existence or non-existence of the requested material is exempt from disclosure" under FOIA. Leon approvingly cited the testimony of State Department privacy officer Margaret Grafeld, who declared that the confirmation or denial of the use of aliases could "seriously damage the ability of the United States to conduct covert intelligence-gathering activities." Leon further said it didn't matter that the CIA itself had previously acknowledged use of aliases by Morales and Joannides.

DC Reporting: Back to Basics

2008-09-24T08:50:00.002-04:00

"One man gathers what another man spills."*
Robert Hunter wrote it, Jerry Garcia sang it, and now D.C. reporters are proving it.
The ongoing evaporation of Washington, D.C. bureaus has proven a boon for the Capitol Hill trades and newsletters that cover Congress to a fare-thee-well. The result is a bunch of very seasoned journalists going back to their roots, dogging subcommittee markups and the like.
Most recently, former National Press Club president and long-time Palm Beach Post reporter Larry Lipman takes a buyout in the past month and ends up a part-timer for National Journal's CongressDaily. Edward Epstein takes a buyout from the San Francisco Chronicle, and lands at Congressional Quarterly Today. Copley Newspapers' Otto Kreisher takes a buyout and goes to CongressDaily. Former National Press Club president and long-time Knight Ridder reporter David Hess retires and goes to CongressDaily. Lisa Friedman leaves the Los Angeles Daily News and finds herself at Climatewire. And there are more, and there will be more.
It's remarkable. For years, a standard D.C. career trajectory moved the other direction: from trades and newsletters "up" to daily newspapers. Now, the trend reverses. Sad for the newspapers, sure, but benefits accrue to the experienced reporters who keep working, the readers who keep reliably informed and the younger reporters who can learn a thing or two from the old school.
*Bonus DoyleReports points for those who can identify this song.

Courting Reporters

2008-09-23T14:47:00.003-04:00

Free food, smart talk and quotes delivered on a platter: I love covering the Supreme Court!
This week, one of the rituals of Supreme Court journalism enters full bloom. This is the Supreme Court preview, wherein professors and practitioners opine on the coming Term. On Tuesday morning, for instance, former solicitor generals Paul Clement and Seth Waxman -- i.e., Very Smart Guys -- held forth on upcoming business cases at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. Food: fruit, bagels and some little egg thingies. On Wednesday, it will be the American Constitution Society's noon-time turn at the National Press Club. Food: light lunch and the company of many earnest law school students.
These seem to be getting more popular. The invaluable www.scotusblog.com lists at least eight separate Term previews. I suppose a case can be made that these events simply promote conventional wisdom and pander to reporters too lazy to develop their own independent sources. My view? Actually, everyone wins. Reporters come to understand the cases, experts get to be quoted and a good time is had by all. Though, just for kicks, I'd love to see a combo wine reception/Term preview next year: Loosen Up, Sandy Baby*
*Bonus points for commenter who can identify this Scotus reference.

George Will: Going to the Well Too Often?

2008-09-22T10:59:00.005-04:00

I admire George Will.

He's smart, articulate and seems more-or-less principled. But like all of us, he has some character ticks, and I don't mean the use of bow ties to signify good ol'-fashioned, Orville Redenbacherian integrity.

No. I mean his incessant use of the one-word sentence "Well." It generally follows a recitation of some liberal -- or possibly McCainiac -- position or statement. Then comes Will's "Well," which is followed by a thorough deconstruction of the opposing argument. But it's the initial "Well" that gets me. Just listen to it: arms crossed, eyebrows-raised, hardly knowing where to start. Withering. Even, one might say, snippy.

Check it out. A Doyle Reports special investigation -- thanks, Mr. NEXIS! -- reveals that Will has employed the one-word sentence "Well" in five separate columns this year. On Sept. 21, it was his retort to some fanciful claim by Fannie Mae politicos. In June, it followed a John McCain statement. In April, February and January, more of the same. Five times in nine months may not seem like much for a prolific columnist, but it's such a distinctive tone it sounds like more.
Look. These things happen. But I say, let's retire this one for a while and let the well recharge.

I See IG

2008-09-20T08:31:00.007-04:00

IG audits: gotta love 'em.
A slow Friday, one weekender already filed. I go cruising through the Inspector General home-pages, www.ignet.gov It's reporting by wandering around; or, at least, clicking around. I find a new Agriculture Department IG new audit on wetlands reserve program. Sounds promising, I open it up...and discover the audit includes California wetlands. A local angle; Oh, frabjous day!
The result is a reminder that IG audits are worth perusing regularly. The quickly turned-around story, http://www.mcclatchydc.com/staff/michael_doyle/story/52812.html started with this lede:

WASHINGTON -- The Agriculture Department is paying landowners to conserve wetlands but failing to monitor the results, investigators warn in a new report.
One result arose in the Sacramento Valley, where investigators uncovered trash piled up on property for which the Agriculture Department had purchased a conservation easement.

The Dirt on Meghan McCain

2008-09-19T05:11:00.004-04:00

Now I've got the scoop. Do I use it?
Turns out, one of my George Washington University reporting students attended private high school in Arizona with Meghan McCain, the senator's daughter. And man, oh, man, does my student have some dish. About uniforms, Starbucks, attendance, reputation and that time...
But hold on. How could any reporter justify exposing a high school student? Does she not deserve a zone of privacy, even if her father is running for president? Picture, here, a little devil on one shoulder and a little angel on the other, each making their pitch.
Use it: Meghan has thrust herself into the public debate, with her entertaining blog, http://www.mccainblogette.com. She has made herself a political commodity, and thereby forfeited certain privacy expectations. Her behavior reflects on the parental character of the man running for president. If I don't use it, someone else will. It will attract an audience for MSM, drive traffic for a blog. It's fun.
Drop it: It's nobody's business. Let the tabloids and blogs fill the trashy niche; maintain an elevated tone to avoid alienating a respectable audience. I'm dead in McCain World if I trash the daughter: goodbye, access! I wouldn't want my own privacy stripped away. She was just a kid.
It's trivial.
At which point, the little devil and the little angel agree to disagree and go off for a beer together, leaving me up in the air...

Introducing Bill-Introducing Stories

2008-09-18T05:05:00.003-04:00

Bill introduction stories are notorious, and deservedly so. The very phrase is shorthand for a type of journalistic hackery. The classic -- that is, the kind we mean when we talk about a "bill introduction story" -- is essentially a lightly laundered press release given the patina of neutrality by the reporter's byline.

Like every story type, they can serve several purposes. They can boost the ol' byline count. They can stroke the source. They can be written in one's sleep. But they can also illuminate, combining analysis with historical and political perspective.

Which is what I tried to do with this story about a fish-and-water bill. It's not just hack work, it's a case study! That's my own story, and I am sticking to it.

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/staff/michael_doyle/story/52683.html

Editing Still Pays

2008-09-17T06:19:00.004-04:00

Now, this IS news: an actual job opening in journalism. Hard to believe, I know. The Oberlin Alumni Magazine, an attractive four-times-a-year publication, http://www.oberlin.edu/alummag/summer2008/, is looking for a new top editor.
From the posting:

Responsibilities: Candidates must have excellent writing and editing skills and possess a strong sense of journalism and graphic design. Candidates must be able to plan, edit, and write stories; commission and direct freelance writers, photographers, and graphic designers; meet deadlines.
Requirements: Bachelor’s degree or higher. Five to seven years experience in journalism/writing and editing. Experience in magazine design and production. Working knowledge of graphic design and image editing software, preferably on the Macintosh platform.
To Apply: Submit a résumé, three recent writing samples, and up to three copies of any publications whose production you have supervised to: Ben Jones, Vice President for Communications, Oberlin College, 145 West Lorain Street, Oberlin, OH 44074 by October 10, 2008.

2008-09-16T05:02:00.005-04:00

Check out the Library of Congress. Part I in a never-ending series...
For a new story on the House approving a $3 million California dam study, I needed a quote. No one was around. I made do, pulling a comment from previous congressional testimony posted in the 'hearings' section of the House Natural Resources Committee's web site. 'Twas a reminder that congressional committee Web sites are now very useful in posting prepared testimony. http://www.mcclatchydc.com/staff/michael_doyle/story/52553.htm l
But go ahead, get offline! Bound transcripts of old congressional hearings are held in the Jefferson Building of the Library of Congress. Volumes for the years 1950 or so to the present are stored near the reference desk of the spectacular main reading room. Older volumes are back in the open stacks. Field Trip: Get a LoC reader card at the library's Madison Building, use the library's congressional hearing database (available only onsite, I believe), punch in a topic or individual of interest, and then troll the transcripts. Result: Story Gold!

Courting a Good Story

2008-09-15T05:02:00.003-04:00

A story on how presidential candidates and other politicians become entangled in frivolous lawsuits, http://www.mcclatchydc.com/staff/michael_doyle/story/52375.html, shows the power and limitations of PACER.

PACER is the federal judiciary's online access. Legal pleadings, opinions and more can be found for district and appellate courts. It's really terrific. When a federal judge last week routinely dismissed a case against Barack Obama, I used PACER to quickly find other cases against other politicians. Simply plug in the name of a politician and search. Here's the lede:

The dismissal of a prisoner's $10 million lawsuit this week against Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama shows how nagging litigation comes with the political territory.

PACER provided everything I needed from the comfort of my desk -- but, for some reason, the original complaint filed against Obama wasn't online. I didn't really need the complaint for my story, I could write around it. It was a Friday, I felt lazy. Grumble, grumble, stupid PACER. I finally moved my lazy behind down to Judiciary Square. Hurrah!. The court file included documents unavailable electronically, including letters sent from Obama's staff to the prison inmate, a heroin dealer now in federal Supermax prison. They provided this kicker, from Obama's constituent service director to the federal inmate.

"Good luck in your future endeavors."

McClatchy DC Bureau: Farewell to David Westphal

2008-09-14T08:22:00.007-04:00

The McClatchy newspapers' Washington bureau bade farewell on Saturday, Sept. 13 to David Westphal. For bonus points, identify the following journalists in the photographs: Steve Thomma, David Westphal, Mark Seibel, Les Blumenthal, John Walcott, Jim Rosen, Erika Bolstad, Lesley Clark

Reporting, Texas Style

2008-09-12T10:29:00.004-04:00

Boomp3.com
McClatchy's Washington bureau is losing a uniquely experienced reporter when Dave Montgomery, AKA Davey Joe Montgomery, returns to Texas to run the Austin bureau of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. Here, he talks about how journalism has changed.

Talking Point

2008-09-12T08:22:00.003-04:00

How about this for the new Republican campaign talking point; I just might want to trademark it and start charging royalty fees for its use:

"For John McCain's campaign, Sarah Palin is pure electoral Viagra!"

On second thought...

Who Am I Today?

2008-09-11T15:58:00.002-04:00

Cadaver kit. check.
It's 0400, and I'm getting the ambulance ready to roll. O2 bag, check. Trauma bag, check. Splints, saline, backboards. Check, check, check.
Tony Schloss and Jim Clarke, the other two crew members of Ambulance 102, are going through their own preparations. Jim is the driver this morning, Sept. 11. He was in the Navy between 1955 and 1959, or so. Tony is the officer in charge. He was an Air Force guy. He did spooky stuff with the Russian language. Don't ask. Now he's an IT guy.
I'm a reporter.
We're volunteers. This morning, through the Arlington Falls Church Volunteer Rescue Squad, we are helping the Arlington County Fire Department staff the Pentagon 9/11 Memorial dedication. We head out from Station 6 in Falls Church at 0440, reach Station 5, hang out. We get a briefing, snag some donuts, observe the pumped up SWAT guys, adorned with heat.
"The testesterone in there," one firefighter says, not unadmiringly, "is just flowing."
And then...

But wait. Who, exactly, am I? Right now, I mean?
My plan all along was to staff the ambulance, soak up the atmosphere and then when we got off duty write a story for McClatchy about the experience. I was looking forward to it. At 0515, though, I have second thoughts. It begins to feel sneaky, like I am a double agent. I get inside the lines, so to speak, by wearing my EMT uniform, my beloved blue ACFD hat. No other reporter could go where I go, in this particular occasion. And then I want to turn around, take down notes and bring this inside world to a broader readership? How about the people I am listening to -- the FBI SWAT medic, freshly scrubbed and heavily armed, or the grizzled Arlington medic and technical rescue expert, a great story teller who doesn't even know I exist -- am I a spy with them?
My loyalties would be too divided. I won't do it. I put down the pen and forget about being a reporter for a while....
Until, after hours of standing around talking on the perimeter of the event, no calls, utterly boring, it's time to help the lieutenant do a crossword puzzle. At last, my two worlds come together.

South Carolina Surrogacy

2008-09-09T09:41:00.004-04:00

Boomp3.com
Surrogates play an indispensible role in presidential campaigns, and in the coverage thereof. In the absence of the candidate, surrogates spread the word with varying degrees of wit, flexibility and intelligence. Reporters need surrogates, and vice versa.

Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham is one of John McCain's most faithful and interesting surrogates. James Rosen of McClatchy Newspapers' Washington bureau has covered Sen. Graham closely for The State and other newspapers, and here he discusses what he has observed.

2008-09-08T13:21:00.003-04:00

How is your local federal court doing? The answer could yield a decent story. Kind of like, come to think of it, the piece my Fresno Bee colleague John Ellis and I did recently about the long wait for justice in the Eastern District of California. Yay, us! http://www.mcclatchydc.com/staff/michael_doyle/story/51875.html

Here's the lede:

"Federal justice requires considerable patience, as Gary Condit and Baskin-Robbins can now testify.

The ice cream chain and the former San Joaquin Valley congressman have been waiting 11 months for a judge's verdict in a civil lawsuit. Delay may be frustrating. In federal courthouses, it's also commonplace."

Do a little reporting-by-wandering-around, and see what can be found in the annual report of the Administrative Office of the U.S. Court: http://www.uscourts.gov/judbus2007/contents.html

So, for example: In the District of Columbia, the median time interval between the filing of a civil case and its non-jury resolution is 44 months. In Maryland, which had about twice as many non-jury cases resolved, the median time was but 17 months. Yo, city desk!

Getting Inside the Newsmaking Loop

2008-09-06T11:36:00.003-04:00

Military minds speak of getting inside the decision-making loop of the adversary: to know it, anticipate it and possibly disrupt it. The accelerating news cycle enables newsmakers to do the same. Here's what I mean:

Andy Stone is the capable press secretary for Rep. Jerry McNerney, D-Calif. He pitched me persistently, but appropriately, about doing a story on a Sept 6 congressional hearing that Rep. McNerney had requested in Stockton. He convinced me, though the story I did played up the politics of the event, http://www.mcclatchydc.com/257/story/51871.html
I filed the story at about 2 pm Sept. 5, for use in the Sept. 6 Bee newspapers. The McClatchy DC bureau posted it on the bureau's web site about 3 pm Sept. 5. Within an hour, Andy had called me to comment on the story. And all of this, mind you, is happening a day before the story appears in the actual, you know, newspaper. In at least one other recent occasion, a similar thing happened in which the real-timer commenter alerted me to a mistake in the Web version that I was then able to correct for the print version.

Naming Names

2008-09-05T10:27:00.001-04:00

The Supreme Court on Friday agreed that the acting solicitor general can participate in an upcoming case involving prosecutorial immunity. The case arising out of Southern California, Van De Kamp v. Goldstein, raises serious questions -- but, for right now, who cares?!

Rather, check out this bit of name-freakery from Acting Solicitor General Gregory Garre's brief:

STATEMENT
1. In 1980, respondent was prosecuted for murder by Los Angeles County deputy district attorneys who were then under the general supervisory control of petition ers, the former Los Angeles County District Attorney and his chief deputy. During petitioner's trial, the pros ecution relied on the testimony of a jailhouse informant, Edward Floyd Fink...

For more on Mr. Fink, see
http://www.usdoj.gov/osg/briefs/2008/3mer/1ami/2007-0854.mer.ami.html

Sarah Palin: Questioning the Questioners

2008-09-04T10:15:00.006-04:00

The real-time, in-the-spotlight vetting of Gov. Sarah Palin provokes fascinating questions about, well, the questions reporters ask. Politico columnist Roger Simon offers his entertaining take,
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0908/13143.html
while former Anchorage Daily News Editor Howard Weaver, now a McClatchy vice president and blogger, offers his own provocative thoughts at http://editor.blogspot.com/

John Edwards' Shadow: Audio

2008-09-03T10:46:00.008-04:00

Lisa Zagaroli, Washington correspondent for the Charlotte Observer, talks about the challenges of covering former vice presidential candidate, and reputed hound dog, John Edwards. We can learn from Lisa's use of some classic reporting techniques, including stakeouts and document searches.
Boomp3.com

The Press and Gov. Palin: Audio

2008-09-02T08:14:00.014-04:00

Erika Bolstad, Anchorage Daily News and Idaho Statesman reporter in the Washington bureau of McClatchy Newspapers, talks about covering Gov. Sarah Palin.

Boomp3.com

Crime stats

2008-09-01T10:15:00.002-04:00

My new favorite web site comes from the Bureau of Justice Statistics, which really overflows with great story material. Example: highly detailed information about individual county prosecutors' offices. http://bjsdata.ojp.usdoj.gov/dataonline/Search/Prosecutors/index.cfm
So, in about five seconds flat, I find out that in Stanislaus County, Calif., prosecutors secured 89 felony convictions amid 4,856 closed felony cases. But just down the road in Fresno County, prosecutors secured 8,791 felony conviction amid 10,125 closed cases. Yo, city desk!
Or this: for a story detailing Laci and Conner's Law, making it a federal crime to harm a fetus, http://www.mcclatchydc.com/257/story/51153.html, I discover that no federal prosecutions have taken place in the four years since President Bush signed the law. Raises questions, one might think carmudgeonly, about the necessity of the law. Niftily -- adverb overload alert! -- the BJS site allows you to track prosecution statistics by U.S. Code title and section. http://fjsrc.urban.org/analysis/t_sec/stat.cfm
Assignment: find an obscure criminal statute and track its use...

Breaking News About Gov. DiFi

2008-09-01T09:36:00.003-04:00

San Francisco Chronicle reporter Zachary Coile, that rascal, filed an instructive story last week that led:
"California Sen. Dianne Feinstein, who has been forced to sit out this week's Democratic convention in Denver because of a broken ankle, acknowledged in an interview with The Chronicle on Thursday that she is actively considering running for governor in 2010."
Several lessons in this story, which got picked up statewide, http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/08/28/MN6Q12K52Q.DTL&type=politics.
First, Coile demonstrated the power of the ask. Sen. Feinstein was in Washington, laid up with her broken ankle. Coile, I'm presuming, simply asked for an interview. He had time, she had time, it's a date. Lesson: Ask, and sometimes ye shall receive. Turned down? Ask again later.
Second, note the adroit timing. Instead of assuming the entire DC political scene was dormant or relocated to Denver, as some journalists -- cough, cough, me -- might, the enterprising reporter cast about.
Third, the story' s construction shows how the nugget of news gets mined from a larger body of material. As the story notes in the 15th paragraph, Feinstein talked about the issue "only briefly - and reluctantly - as part of a (much broader) interview." It's the brief bit, though, that turns the wheel.
Photo: from Sen. Feinstein's Senate web site.

News Magnet

2008-08-30T08:04:00.005-04:00

The selection of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as the Republican vice presidential candidate confirms one thing: reporter Erika Bolstad http://www.mcclatchydc.com/231 is a black cloud. And that's a good thing, even if it means insane work hours.

In firefighter parlance, a black cloud brings lots of calls. A white cloud seems to dampen call volume. It's superstition, of course; a form of magical thinking, much like the conviction that the minute you say "it's been a quiet night," the tones will sound. But still, emergency calls are what firefighters want to get. Hence: black cloud=fun times.

So check it out. Erika arrived in the McClatchy DC bureau from the Miami Herald in 2007, covering the Idaho Statesman and the Anchorage Daily News. What's happened since? The Alaskan Bridge to Nowhere becomes the world's most famous pork barrel project. Alaska Rep. Don Young comes under investigation. Idaho Sen. Larry Craig gets popped in a men's room. Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens gets indicted. And now Gov. Palin -- who is, naturally, a University of Idaho graduate -- hits the national stage.

I can't wait to find out what happens next!

Tax Court Tales

2008-08-29T07:39:00.004-04:00

Ahhh, Tax Court. It's another untapped source of stories, the ANWR of news tips. Soon, I'm going to start wondering why I'm giving away all these clever ideas...
But that's just the kind of guy I am! So go to Tax Court, http://www.ustaxcourt.gov/.
Next, click the "opinions search" button. Then, punch in a geographic search term; for instance "California," and a date range. Voila! Cases arise from your area of interest. Recently, for instance, I uncovered a story http://www.mcclatchydc.com/177/story/46403.html about the widow of the late San Francisco Mayor Joseph Alioto; a man, it turns out, who, held many costly secrets...
That's Alioto up there, by the way, in a 1979 photo from the Associated Press, via Sacramento Bee

Federal Register: Be Still My Heart!

2008-08-28T20:38:00.004-04:00

Call me crazy, but I love the Federal Register. I check it out online every day at http://www.gpoaccess.gov/fr/index.html
Just scroll down the daily index through the agencies; the listed rules and proposals often speak for themselves: new wine regions, public land closures, visa fees, discredited doctors, safety rules etc..story ideas galore!
So, for instance, here is a F.R.-based story about Chilean table grapes getting a pass into the United States. Stop yawning. For California farmers who are responsible for 99 percent of grapes grown in the United States, it's dollars-and-cents relevant. And besides, it, you know, boosts the ol' byline count...
http://www.fresnobee.com/business/story/827624.html

Carolina Cuts A-comin'

2008-08-28T05:17:00.006-04:00

Citing "very tough economic times," executives at McClatchy's Charlotte Observer and Raleigh News & Observer have alerted staffers that the next buyout round will hit soon. In a three-paragraph memo sent to all employees late Wednesday afternoon, Charlotte Observer Publisher Ann Caulkins said the next cuts will occur as "we are restructuring our organization to become a fully integrated print and online media company." Word is, the N&O received an essentially identical memo, which stated:

"We expect to announce details of a voluntary buyout within two weeks...we are still ironing out the goals and details of our plan. We are trying to ensure that we examine all expenses before we decide how to go forward with staff reductions."

I should add: Because of potential conflicts, I won't be posting any more on internal McClatchy corporate matters. There's a lot more on law, journalism practice and California issues to keep me busy.

A Tony Ridder What-If

2008-08-27T08:56:00.004-04:00

Tony Ridder lost his company, his professional identity and, briefly, his cool when McClatchy bought Knight-Ridder. He has since dealt away some of his stock, in a good timing-bad timing kind of deal.
Through the journalistically invaluable moneycentral.msn.com site, it's possible to quickly track insider trading. We find that Mr. Ridder last November sold 29,800 shares, valued at $407,249. http://moneycentral.msn.com/investor/invsub/insider/trans.asp?Symbol=MNI
Nice, right? But look at it this other way: McClatchy shares were trading at $13.66 when he sold. In July 2006, when Knight Ridder went away, McClatchy shares were hovering around $24; or, in Mr. Ridder's terms, $715,200. Lost opportunity, right? But look at it this other, other way. McClatchy closed Tuesday at $3.53. If Mr. Ridder had held on to sell yesterday, it would brought only $105,194.

FOIA Fables

2008-08-27T05:16:00.007-04:00

The Freedom of Information Act is a great reporting tool, essential to exemplary projects like the investigation into Veterans Administration health care by my McClatchy colleague Chris Adams, http://www.mcclatchydc.com/staff/chris_adams/story/41363.html
And, really, I am no longer bitter that Chris's enterprising work beat me out for the National Press Club's Washington Correspondence Award this year. I am perfectly happy with my little Honorable Mention certificate. http://blog.press.org/?p=676. Perfectly happy, I tell you.
&$%)! FOIA.
But there are also persistent FOIA misconceptions we should dispel. One of the biggest has to do with what James Madison meant when he warned that

A popular Government, without popular information, or the means of acquiring it, is but a Prologue to a Farce or a Tragedy; or perhaps both.

So let's find out, shall we, what Madison really meant with this most famous of FOIA-friendly quotes. Prepare to be shocked!
http://www.legalaffairs.org/issues/July-August-2002/scene_doyle_julaug2002.msp

The Buzz: Politics Still Matters

2008-08-26T06:09:00.008-04:00

The Sacramento Bee's Capitol Bureau in Sacramento is, apparently, not going to be hit by the latest round of buyouts announced by the newspaper.
On Monday, the paper declared that buyouts would be offered to 200 of the 240 full-time news staffers. Editor Melanie Sill told the Bee's Dale Kasler that the paper would focus on "the most important areas of coverage." What that means exactly becomes more apparent as the buyout details circulate. The Capitol Bureau, with 12 or so staffers, is still seen as utterly fundamental to the paper's identity as the place to go for all things political. So, for now, the bureau remains intact.

Newsroom Blues

2008-08-25T09:55:00.004-04:00

Tacoma News Tribune reporter Les Blumenthal and Fort Worth Star Telegram reporter Davie Joe Montgomery try to avoid weeping as they discuss the state of the American newsroom.
http://www.box.net/shared/xhnlsqqgt8

A little sip of subsidy, perhaps?

2008-08-24T14:44:00.003-04:00

Here's a pretty sweet deal for foreign wine journalists and U.S. winemakers alike. Taxpayer funds provided to the U.S. wineries pay for the foreign wine writers to take junkets....err, I mean research trips...in exchange for which they write nice stories about U.S. wineries. FOIA made this story possible...
http://www.sacbee.com/103/story/446372.html

Advanced Stakeout Techniques

2008-08-23T17:44:00.004-04:00

The New Republic offers a useful, and appropriately respectful, tick-tock account of how The National Enquirer nailed the John Edwards affair story. http://www.tnr.com/politics/story.html?id=5d1e4170-2469-49cc-b000-327c6fde2515
The tactical decision in choosing which hotel entrances to cover in order to nab an elusive pol is a fundamental reporting skill. My colleague Liza Zagaroli of the Charlotte Observer's DC bureau could likewise teach the class in Advanced Stakeout; her proper calculation of Edwards' likely route of escape enabled her to capture this story:
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/214/story/46030.html

False Light, Camera, Action

2008-08-22T06:27:00.000-04:00

The story Joe Eszterhas forgot to share.
A Slate article about how the controversial Hollywood writer inadvertently shaped the law of privacy.
http://www.slate.com/id/2096120/