Behind The Headlines

Trying to be sensitive about thrill rides

In the July 27 issue of Weekender, we’ll feature a guide to area theme parks, roller coasters and thrill rides. Considering a Louisville girl's severe injuries on a ride last month at Kentucky Kingdom, some readers might raise an eyebrow about why we’re publishing such a package. Here’s the background:

The weeks of June 11 and 18, staff writer Jamie Gumbrecht and interns Yvette Lanier and Tricia Spaulding traveled to Kings Island near Cincinnati, Cedar Point in Sandusky, Ohio, and Six Flags Kentucky Kingdom in Louisville to survey the parks so that readers could have a guide to one of summer’s most popular activities: going to amusement parks. The story package was scheduled to publish Friday, June 29.

Then on June 22, a 13-year-old Louisville girl’s legs were severed while riding the Superman’s Tower of Power ride at Kentucky Kingdom. This was a ride Jamie, Yvette and Tricia had ridden just a week before.

Obviously, we pulled the story from publishing June 29. It was just too soon after such a horrible accident to draw attention to thrill rides. We thought about publishing the package in mid-July, but we decided again that it was still too soon.

But after careful consideration and reporting on the status and safety of the rides we are featuring, we will publish the package on July 27. All the parks say their rides have been inspected and have reiterated their safety, including free-fall rides like the Tower of Power. Kings Island has just this week reopened its ride called Drop Zone, which is similar to the Tower of Power but, according to that park, uses a different rider configuration. Also, the injured girl, Kaitlyn Lasitter, was discharged from the hospital in mid-July and is reportedly recovering. (Jamie, Yvette and Tricia also were confident with the perceived safety of the rides. If they had ever been uncomfortable with an attraction, we would have pulled the story package altogether.)

In short, we feel like our story package will share the joy of one of summer’s most popular activities and help readers move forward after such a terrible accident.

Scott Shive
Assistant features editor

Lexington traffic driving you crazy?

It's always a favorite topic of water-cooler conversation around the Bluegrass, and the conversation usually starts like this: "What's that mess on XXXX Road?" Central Kentuckians love to talk — and complain — about traffic. We get lots of calls with questions about traffic, and stories about roads and roadwork are traditionally among the most widely read on Kentucky.com.

Which leads me to a conversation I had recently with a couple of other editors and reporters in the newsroom. Other newspapers around the country have a weekly (or more frequent) traffic column, in which readers ask questions about road work, strange traffic situations or things that just irritate them on the drive to work. The paper then sets out to answer those questions, both online and in print.

That got me to thinking: What kinds of questions do Central Kentucky readers have about traffic? I'm not sure there's enough fodder out there to sustain a weekly traffic column like this in Lexington, though we do seem to write frequently about transportation issues. That's where the Web is such a beautiful thing. Think of this as a test run, so to speak. What questions do you have about traffic in Lexington and Central Kentucky, and what traffic topics would you like to see us tackle?

If you have a traffic or transportation-related question, post it here as a comment, or e-mail it to me by clicking on my name below, or call me at (859) 231-3446. I'll post again later with the questions you send.

Peter Baniak
metro editor

Experimenting with magic

It’s a fun day in a newsroom when we get to report on events people are happy and excited about. Today is one of those days.

The buzz surrounding the release of J.K. Rowling's book Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows tonight is reaching fever pitch. The Lexington Public Library reported Thursday that it had ordered 175 print and audio editions of the book, and had put more than 500 reservations on its waiting list.

The Herald-Leader has tasked six reporters and photographers with collecting stories and images from parties, bookstores and libraries all over Lexington and Georgetown. They’ll be experimenting with blogging, audio recording, digital slideshows and video production, all live in the space of about 10 hours today. Two editors in the newsroom will be compiling their work for use on a couple of different Web sites as well as the morning newspaper.

Then resident wizard Heather Chapman, and guest writers from the community, will take over blogging as she sprints through the book.

Seems like a lot over a children’s book, doesn’t it? Maybe so, but I relish the chance to experiment with new technology and ways of telling stories. This kind of effort on a light, fun story means our staff does an even better job telling the hard-hitting breaking news that comes when we least expect it.

Watch The Muggle Tongue blog starting about 5 p.m. today to see how our staffers are doing. And let us know if you like it!

Dori Hjalmarson
Assistant metro editor

What's with all those new bylines? Meet our interns

Journalism is a cross between profession and a trade. Many universities offer professional degrees specifically in journalism, yet much of journalism must be learned on the job, apprentice-style. Even if you have a journalism degree, if you haven’t had a summer internship at a daily newspaper, you’ll be hard-pressed to find a job in journalism.

I started at the Herald-Leader five years ago as a copy editing intern. Along with my colleague, reporter Delano Massey, who worked as an intern for a former Knight Ridder newspaper, I am proud to now be working with an outstanding class of 12 summer interns. In keeping with Herald-Leader tradition, Delano and I try to make sure our interns are treated like regular staffers and given all manner of assignments. We believe it’s the best way to learn the job.

If you’re a regular Herald-Leader reader, you’ve probably seen these interns’ bylines. I’d like to introduce you to them:

Megan Boehnke (pronounced BANG-key) has graduated from the University of Kentucky with a degree in journalism and was the top editor at the Kentucky Kernel student newspaper. She has spent most of her time reporting local news on the metro desk, and she spent the past couple of weeks working in our Frankfort bureau. Megan has taken on some major stories this summer, most notably the state attorney general’s recent opinion on domestic partner benefits offered by universities, and a lovely summer series on county fairs. In the fall, Megan will be starting an internship in Washington, D.C.

Leah Caudle is a senior at Western Kentucky University. She speaks Spanish and has a passion for working with Hispanic people and issues. She started out on the metro desk, then moved to the Communities and Faith/Values sections to work with editor Risa Richardson. Some of her notable stories this summer have been “The browning of Kentucky,” the paper’s first piece about the state’s movement into moderate drought, and “A night of fire and rain,” about the city’s damp Fourth of July festivities.

Azra Drljevic (DURL-yev-ich) is a sophomore at University of Kentucky. She will be lead designer of the Kentucky Kernel next year, and she has been a huge help on our features design desk this summer. Two of her notable designs have been in the A la Carte food section: pieces on rhubarb and on summer corn.

Allie Garza is a sophomore at University of Kentucky. She is working part-time for academic credit, and also does a bit of free-lancing for the Herald-Leader. This summer, she has taken especially nice pictures of Lexington’s Fourth of July diversity festival, and has worked with another intern on a story about a young Lexington girl who has taken up boxing. Watch for that story later this summer.

Yvette Lanier is a senior at Michigan State University. She has spent half her time on our features/lifestyle desk, and has recently moved over to the metro desk to cover hard news. Yvette is an idea machine and is always coming up with new stories and fresh angles on old stories. This summer, she has covered the Ichthus Christian music festival in Wilmore, the funeral for a Grant County soldier killed in Iraq, and local churches’ golfing ministries.

Christopher Pate studied at Kentucky State University and recently transferred to Harris Stowe State University in his hometown of St. Louis. Chris is studying education, not journalism, but he impressed us as editor of the KSU student newspaper, The Thorobred News. Chris spent the first five weeks of his internship as a copy editor, where he wrote lots of headlines. He recently moved over to the metro desk where he’s reported on a war protest and written about a documentary on the American Spiritual Ensemble.

Sean Rose is a senior at the University of Kentucky. He has won awards for some of his work on the Kentucky Kernel, including for a story on the crash of Comair Flight 5191 last year. Sean has covered the story of the month in June (Lexington’s yellow bike program) and has come up with numerous enterprising stories, including a report on a UK researcher trying to make fertilizer safer, and a Business Monday story about Kentucky transit systems going green with hybrid buses.

Dariush Shafa graduated from the University of Kentucky in journalism and English. He has interned at the Herald-Leader before, as well as at the Owensboro Messenger-Inquirer. This year, he’s working on our Business desk, where he produced the centerpiece of our Investment Quarterly section, on financial matters for young adults. He has also enthusiastically taken on several general assignment stories such as parking meters that were vandalized with glue, and a new goat cheese maker in Kentucky.

Jessica Shaw is a sophomore in journalism at Washington and Lee University in Virginia. She is working through a fellowship called the Shepherd Alliance poverty studies program. Many of the Shepherd Alliance interns work with charities such as Habitat for Humanity, but a couple of them are assigned to newspapers that cover Appalachian issues and aim to report on poverty and non-profits. This summer, Jessica has written about the Lexington Mayor’s Training Center, a voucher program to provide needy people with produce from the Lexington Farmer’s Market, and the Salvation Army’s LemonAID summer fund-raiser.

Jonathan Smith is a junior at University of Kentucky, where he has been a sports editor and a general assignment at the Kentucky Kernel. He is working on the Herald-Leader’s sports desk, where he has regularly covered the Lexington Legends and has contributed to a couple of UK basketball recruiting stories. Jonathan also writes interesting profiles of athletes, such as one of the top javelin throwers in the country, and UK’s new football kicker whose brother kicked for University of Louisville.

Tricia Spaulding just graduated from the University of Kentucky with a degree in journalism. She has been taking photographs for three years. Tricia loves to meet new people and tell their stories honestly and with compassion. That has come through in her coverage of the Communities at Oakwood, roller-coasters, and most notably, a summer series on county fairs.

Danielle Trusso just graduated from Ohio University. Last summer, she interned for National Public Radio. This summer, she is working through the Dow Jones Newspaper Fund online internship program and has produced numerous video and audio packages for Kentucky.com. To name a few, Danielle has interviewed Rick Dees, covered the release of the iPhone in the paper and online, and collected audio to accompany a feature story on auctioneers.

We are already starting to look for next year’s class of summer interns – the application deadline is November 9. If you would like to apply, please send a cover letter, resume, and clips to: Intern coordinators, Herald-Leader newsroom, 100 Midland Avenue, Lexington, Ky., 40508.

Or just e-mail me.

Dori Hjalmarson
Assistant metro editor

Is Eastern State Hospital safe?

From time to time, we get calls in the newsroom from relatives of people staying at Eastern State Hospital, asking us to examine the conditions inside the facility — the second-oldest psychiatric hospital in the United States.

In Sunday's newspaper, staff writer Beth Musgrave takes a look inside Eastern State Hospital. Beth, who has written extensively about services for the mentally ill and the mentally disabled in recent years, reviewed inspection reports and interviewed inspectors, officials in the state fire marshals office, Eastern State officials, advocates for the mentally ill and former patients and their families about the condition of Lexington's 180-year-old hospital for the mentally ill.

Although there are disagreements about the condition of the buildings, almost everyone agrees that the campus of Eastern State, near Newtown Pike, is obsolete. Through her reporting, Beth explains why, and updates plans to move and rebuild the facility in more modern fashion. Both in the paper and on Kentucky.com, find out why one advocate for the mentally ill says the aging structure is a "disgrace to our state" — and why advocates say rebuilding it needs to be higher on the priority list.

Then on Monday, Beth returns to the Communities at Oakwood, the state's largest home for the mentally disabled. The Somerset facility has been in the news throughout the last several years -- but few of the headlines have been good ones. Oakwood had been cited repeatedly by the state over patient safety concerns, and the federal government has threatened to revoke its funding. Oakwood is now under a new management team, and Beth found some noticeable changes there. In Monday's paper, Beth details those changes, which could prove crucial in whether the facility keeps its federal funding.

UPDATE (8/22/07): The state today will announce that it has reached an agreement to allow plans for a new Eastern State Hospital to move forward more quickly. For that story, click here.

Peter Baniak
metro editor

County fair photo gets some criticism

About a month ago, two of our summer interns, writer Megan Boehnke and photographer Tricia Spaulding, conceived of a summertime series on county fairs. Megan and Tricia both have rural Kentucky roots, and they love fairs. They wanted to portray the interesting events that happen there. The Herald-Leader almost never covers county fairs, certainly not to the extent that Megan and Tricia were proposing, so we told them to go for it – starting with the Wayne County Fair beauty pageant. Their coverage appeared on the City | Region front page on July 1.

Putting the paper together the night before, I saw Megan’s story before I saw Tricia’s photos.

I’m an assistant metro editor, a word person. I usually have input but no final say in photo choice. When I saw black-and-white proofs (computer print-outs) of Tricia’s photos, I could tell she and Megan had worked closely together. The tone of the photos matched perfectly the tone of the story. The contestants carried giant umbrellas on the stage and had to keep their trains from dragging in the mud. Glue and tape kept costumes from malfunctioning. Girls paraded before the judges and a decidedly sparse audience. One girl registered five minutes before the event. Hairspray, tape and glue held everyone together between rounds. There was an element of the ridiculous: Chicken wings were had for dinner – can you picture beauty contestants wearing evening gowns and eating chicken wings?

Working with the night photo editor and the page designer, all of us women, I agreed that a photograph of one anonymous contestant, from behind, showing the drizzle and the stage and the onlookers, matched the tone of the story very well. The contestant was in a bathing suit and shown only from the waist down, which gave me some pause, but the bathing suit was firmly in place (glued?), so I did not think it offensive. We went with it.

Later in the evening, a man’s comment made me think twice. The copy editor, who writes headlines and edits for grammar, facts and taste, said he thought the girl’s behind was distracting and maybe not a good choice for the full-color lead photo. Could it be in poor taste?

I thought about the question and briefly discussed it with other editors again, but we decided the photograph was not in poor taste. It showed less skin than you might see at a public pool, the contestant was not named, and she was a willing participant in a pageant that focuses heavily on swimsuits. Also, the photo had other story-telling aspects – it showed the rain and the crowd in the background. We were up against our first edition deadline, so we went with the photo.

Then I saw our first edition paper, which is sent up from the press room to the newsroom before we start making changes for final edition. Interested parties – women and men including the night news editor, the copy desk chief, the night photo editor, the page designer, and several other newsroom staffers – gathered around to discuss again, since we were seeing it in print for the first time. We had a strong second choice for that lead photo spot: a picture of a contestant trotting along the stage carrying a large umbrella to stay dry. She was wearing a bathing suit, but you could see her face and her full body, from the side. The overall color, including a large green and white fair tent in the background, was also eye-popping.

There were opposing views shared that night. We all knew that some readers would have a problem with the strangeness of a woman’s butt on the front of the City | Region section. In fact, some people in the newsroom had a problem with it. We wanted the story and photos to correspond in tone and subject matter; we didn’t want one to detract from the other. We wanted a technically proficient photograph. We did not want to offend anyone, but we did want to grab attention and show readers there was something special and different to read here. We wanted a photo that was multi-layered, showing not only people, but also the place and the rain. We wanted to do justice to the beauty contestants; we weren’t deliberately aiming for an unflattering photo.

We went back and forth three or four times, building consensus for one photo, then for the other. We decided to stay with the original choice. It won out because it was surprising and multi-layered, and it came closer to matching the themes in the story – glued bathing suits and all. Our second choice, the photograph of the contestant with the umbrella appeared on Page B2 in final edition and in a slide show about the fair on Kentucky.com. It was our second choice because it was not as eye-catching and did not show as many aspects of the fair, such as the sense of place.

We have received a few complaints about the photograph since Sunday morning. Most of the complaints come from women, and most of them say the photograph portrays the beauty contestants as one-dimensional sex objects. That argument did not enter my mind on Saturday. The contestants were willingly, enthusiastically entering a contest judged solely on beauty in gown and bathing suit. The story and photos were done by two people who love the county fair and did not intend to offend but did intend to show a glimpse of reality – silly, sweet and strange all at once.

Dori Hjalmarson
Assistant Metro Editor