eChaser: June 2005


	Welcome to our newsletter ... Society of Professional Journalists, Fort Worth Professional Chapter Public Relations Society of America, Greater Fort Worth Chapter International Association of Business Communicators, Fort Worth Chapter eChaser archive [graphics format] We appreciate our advertisers! Advanced Mobility Systems Barr Printing Bass Performance Hall Business Wire DFW Printing Co. Fort Worth Business Press Fort Worth Zoo Helping Restore Ability Immotion Studios InterStar Marketing and Public Relations Joe T. Garcia's Mexican Food Restaurant Jubilee Theatre North Texas Daily Optimist, Abilene Christian University Pancho's Mexican Buffet PR Newswire PRSA Creative Consultants SIG The Shorthorn, UTA Star-Telegram TCU Daily Skiff Tony Roma's The University of Texas at Arlington VMS Weber Shandwick Worldwide Wise County Messenger Witherspoon Advertising and Public Relations June 2005 MEETINGS Next at IABC/Fort Worth ... Let's Celebrate! Who? You! The annual Fort Worth Bronze Quill fandango is just around the bend, with decorated Star-Telegram sports columnist Jim Reeves the keynote speaker and a ballroom full of area communicators eager for affirmation of just how sharp they are. The Bronze Quill competition is an IABC/Fort Worth tradition that recognizes outstanding work in a variety of categories. This year has a Western theme, "Fort Worth Style," and promises to be a rip-roaring good time. Reeves has covered Fort Worth-Dallas sports for more than 40 years, 35 of them at the Star-Telegram, where he has been a columnist since 1987. He has won four first-place awards from the Texas Associated Press Managing Editors and two coveted Katies. He was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize in 1989 and was named Texas sports writer of the year by the National Association of Broadcasters in 1999 and by the Texas Newspaper Association in 2000. Time & date: 11:30 a.m.-1 p.m. Tuesday, June 7 Place: Petroleum Club, Carter-Burgess Plaza, 777 Main St., 39th floor Parking: $2.50 in parking garage at Seventh and Commerce streets Cost: $30 members, $40 nonmembers, $20 students RSVP by noon June 3: Julie Trowbridge at trowbridgeja@c-b.com ----- Next at Greater Fort Worth PRSA ... Getting It, Keeping It and Growing It: Business Development Strategies for PR Practices Whether your practice is an established business, a new business or an internal corporate function, Roslyn Dawson Thompson's lively, irreverent and fact-filled presentation at the June meeting will show how to quantify the value delivered to clients, how to expand client relationships and how to merchandise your successes. In a two-part morning seminar, Thompson, principal at Dallas-based dawson\|duncan, will explore both "getting it" -- knowing the competition, defining your niche, branding your practice, developing the value equation, traditional and nontraditional marketing for new business -- and, after a break, "keeping it and growing it" -- understanding the client's agenda (internal and external), measuring and proving value, managing organic growth and client acquisition, and developing client advocates. Thompson founded dawson\|duncan in 1986. She lectures frequently on branding and public relations, drawing on a 30-year career that includes stints as a print and broadcast journalist, university lecturer, nonprofit agency executive and entrepreneur. Time & date: 9-11:30 a.m., noon-1 p.m. Wednesday, June 8 Place: Petroleum Club, Carter-Burgess Plaza, 777 Main St., 39th floor Parking: free valet in parking garage at Seventh and Commerce streets Cost: $50 members, $75 nonmembers, $30 students; seminar only $30 members, $55 nonmembers, $15 students; lunch only $20 members, $23 nonmembers, $18 students RSVP by noon June 3: rsvp@fortworthprsa.org ----- Next at Fort Worth SPJ ... Strong, Aggressive Journalism: A Primer Charles Lewis, a respected contributor to American journalism and founder of the Center for Public Integrity, will address an SPJ special dinner meeting at Cacharel in Arlington on Wednesday, June 22. Expect a look at the Newsweek/Koran gaffe, a little corruption in high places and other topics of our times. Lewis will take questions; bring good ones. Under Lewis' direction, the center produced 14 books and more than 250 reports on public policy issues around the world. He has had a hand in five books and is working on a sixth, tentatively titled "The End of Truth: Power, the News Media and the People's Right to Know." From 1977-88, he did investigative reporting at ABC News and at CBS News as a "60 Minutes" producer, and his stories twice received Emmy nominations. During the 1996 presidential campaign, the center repeatedly uncovered information that resonated with millions of Americans. It broke the Lincoln Bedroom scandal, for instance, in which hundreds of campaign contributors spent the night at the Clinton White House. Four years later, the center's "The Buying of the President 2000" revealed that Enron was George W. Bush's top career patron. In 2004, the center posted all of the major U.S. contracts in Iraq and Afghanistan online and showed that Vice President Dick Cheney's former company, Halliburton, and its subsidiaries had received by far the most money in contracts there. The Village Voice called Lewis "the Paul Revere of our time" in early 2003 after he obtained a copy of the Justice Department's draft legislation sequel to the U.S.A. Patriot Act and posted it on the center's web site. Time & date: cash bar opens 6 p.m., dinner 6:30 Wednesday, June 22 Place: Cacharel, 2221 E. Lamar Blvd., Brookhollow Tower Two; from Fort Worth or Dallas, off I-30 go north on Ballpark Way, east on Lamar, look for tall building on left next to Arlington Hilton Cost: $30 Menu: Grilled chicken breast served on a bed of basil whipped potatoes with oven-dried tomatoes and asparagus; Cacharel house salad tossed in a raspberry vinaigrette; bread, tea, coffee and, for dessert, the remarkable Cacharel chocolate soufflé RSVP by April 6: Kay Pirtle at mkpirtle@yahoo.com =================================================== STRAIGHT STUFF Did you know that George Bush has a dog named Buddy, after Bill Clinton's canine? Did you know that George Bush is a truck driver? An atheist? Gay? No, not the president or his father, but dozens of people across the country who share their name. Dallas author Martha Boone Mattia interviewed these people for her book "Conversations with George Bush -- Beyond Polls and Partisanship: Real Life in the USA." Mattia will speak at the Association for Women Journalists' annual scholarship banquet Friday, June 10, at Hackberry Creek Country Club, 1901 Royal Lane, Irving. Silent auction begins at 6:30 p.m., dinner at 7:30. Also, AWJ will recognize four college scholarship winners of the Vivian Castleberry Award. Tickets are $40 each or $300 for a table of eight. Reservations must be made by June 4; send a check made out to AWJ to P.O. Box 2199, Fort Worth 76113. Vegetarian meals are available. ... Publisher Ed Avis will pay two trustworthy people $100 each per day to run his Marion Street Press book sale June 15-18 at the National Association of Hispanic Journalists gathering in Fort Worth. The work is not difficult, Avis reports, and his representatives need to be friendly, never flustered during busy periods and maybe speak Spanish (not a necessity). The most exhausting day is the last day, when the leftover books need to be packed up and prepared for shipping. E- edavis@marionstreetpress.com. Convention organizers expect more than 2,000 journalists and media types. Info at nahj.org. ... A free National Press Foundation/UT School of Journalism/National Academy of Social Insurance seminar for journalists on Social Security hits the UT Austin campus from 9 a.m. to 1:15 p.m. Friday, June 10. The program has gotten excellent reviews ("I loved the basic explanations of what the system does now and the proposed changes, and the potential impact. They spoke English."). Register with Kashmir Hill, (202) 663-7282 or khill@nationalpress.org. Info here. ... Harvard is offering free tuition for students whose family income is below $40,000. Really. See adm-is.fas.harvard.edu/FAO/index.htm, or call the school's financial aid office at (617) 495-1581. ... Postmark deadline is July 15 to enter the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists' annual competition for outstanding investigative global journalism. First prize: $20,000. Five finalists will receive $1,000. Entries must have been produced between June 1, 2004, and June 1, 2005. See publicintegrity.org, or call (202) 466-1300. ... Register at expo.ncmonline.com/news/ for daylong -- Thursday, June 9 -- workshops at Columbia U. on ethnic media with, among others, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, FCC Chairman Michael Copps and Nicholas Lemann, dean of Columbia's Graduate School of Journalism. ... Deadlines are June 24 and 25, respectively, to apply for the East-West Center's fall 2005 Jefferson Fellowships, a program for mid-level broadcast and print journalists from the U.S., Asia and the Pacific, and to submit a proposal to the South Asian Journalists Association that focuses on the tsunami aftermath. More at eastwestcenter.org/sem-mp.asp and saja.org/srf.html. ... New York columnist supreme Pete Hamill will conduct a session, accept an award and sign your cast if you ask with the proper respect at the 29th annual National Society of Newspaper Columnists conference, June 23-26 at the Gaylord Texan Resort & Conference Center. Not enough of a draw? Then weigh the presence of Laura Miller, who wrote Dallas Observer columns before entering elected life. No betting line on whether she'll call someone at the conference an idiot. Details here, or e- head perp Dave Lieber at conference@yankeecowboy.com. A month later, at the Grapevine Hilton DFW Lakes, "The Orchid Thief" author Susan Orlean headlines the Mayborn Literary Nonfiction Writers Conference of the Southwest. More at mayborninstitute.unt.edu/. PRSA local update: Larry Lauer, TCU vice chancellor for marketing and communication, will front the Education SIG's 2005 Integrated Marketing Communications Forum from 10-11:30 a.m. Thursday, June 30, at the TCU Tucker Technology Center, 2840 W. Bowie St.; park in the Mary Couts Burnett Library lot east of the library and north of Tucker Technology. Breakfast refreshments are free to Education SIG members, $5 for nonmembers. Lauer wrote "Competing for Students, Money and Reputation: Marketing the Academy in the 21st Century" and in 2003 received the Alice B. Beeman Award for research in communication from the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education. RSVP: chris.smith@tccd.edu. ... The Independent Practitioners SIG will meet Friday, June 17, at Central Market, I-30 and Hulen Street. ... If you want someone to call you, update your profile at prsa.org. The FW chapter will print a directory soon and covets current addresses and phone numbers for its people. PRSA local update II: A reminder that the offer to join ($225 national dues, plus $65 initiation fee) and get a free one-year membership in one of the 19 professional interest sections ends June 30. Reinstating members who have been inactive for at least a year are also eligible. More at prsa.org/_Membership/main/specialoffer4.asp or from chapter membership chair Holly Ellman, hellman@fwcds.org. The chapter earned a $100 Incentive Award from national for most members added during this promotion in October/November 2004. Three people joined as a result of the section push, placing Fort Worth in a three-way tie for chapters of 100-199 members with the California Capital (Calif.) and Hampton Roads (Va.) chapters. Current chapter president Heather Senter was the membership chair. PRSA local update III: Former Dallas Observer columnist Laura Miller will discuss how a communications background helped her become mayor, and what communications pros can learn and expect from Dallas City Hall, at the annual Joint Communicators Luncheon on Tuesday, June 21. More here. ... ACU senior Amanda Van Noort and Matthew B. Eaton of TCU have received $500 Greater Fort Worth chapter scholarships for 2005-06. Van Noort, an integrated marketing communications major from Sioux Falls, S.D., will be ACU chapter president in the coming school year. Eaton is an ad/PR major and PRSSA officer, and a 2001 graduate of Nolan Catholic High School. SPJ national update: Demise of a hard-fighting squad; blue over Green; and a papal purge? Among the four Marines killed and 10 wounded when an explosive device erupted under their Amtrac in Haban, Iraq, on May 11 were the last combat-ready members of a squad that four days earlier had battled foreign fighters holed up in a house in the town of Ubaydi. In that fight, two squad members were killed and five wounded. In 96 hours of fighting and ambushes in far western Iraq, the squad -- one of three that make up the 1st Platoon of Lima Company, 3rd Battalion, 25th Regiment -- had ceased to be. Every member had been killed or wounded. More here. ... The Army missed its April recruiting goal by 42 percent, the third month in a row that the active-duty mission was not accomplished. Worse, Operation Blue to Green -- trading blue service uniforms for Army green -- was expected to turn 3,500 airmen and sailors into soldiers; the fiscal year ends Sept. 30, and Blue to Green has produced 189 soldiers. More here. ... That the Rev. Thomas J. Reese has been forced to resign after seven years as editor of America magazine sent shock waves through the worlds of Catholic journalism and academia. Reese faced five years of criticism from the man who is now Pope Benedict XVI for publishing articles that questioned the Vatican's writings on issues such as same-sex marriage, stem-cell research and salvation for non-Christians. More here. SPJ national update II: Fixing the facts; scrutinize the nominees; the fight for FOI; and students sue. Eighty-nine congressional Democrats on May 6 asked President Bush to explain a secret British memo that said "intelligence and facts were being fixed" to support the Iraq war in mid-2002, well before the president brought the issue to Congress. The Times of London published the memo -- minutes of a high-level meeting on Iraq held July 23, 2002 -- on May 1. British officials did not dispute the document's authenticity. More here. ... Four in five Americans want the Senate to thoroughly examine the president's nominees to be federal judges -- an attitude shared by a majority of Democrats, Republicans and independents questioned in a new AP-Ipsos poll. More here. ... Big backlogs in FOI requests and a lack of enforcement when agencies ignore or delay response are among the problems a House panel heard about May 11 at a hearing on the Freedom of Information Act. As FOI requests increased 71 percent from 2002 to 2004, the number falling into backlog -- carrying over from one year to the next -- increased 14 percent. More here. ... Student journalists sued their Bakersfield High School district May 19 in an effort to keep the principal from censoring student newspaper articles on homosexuality. The suit, filed by the ACLU, requests an emergency order to allow the paper to publish the stories in The Kernal's year-end May 27 issue. More here and here. SPJ national update III: Koran news had been heard before; American, Arab reporters at risk; and no name, no quote. Newsweek's waffle-source story that a prison guard at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, flushed a copy of the Koran down a toilet reflects allegations, widely reported by U.S. and international media, of desecration of the Muslim holy book for more than two years. James Yee, a former Muslim chaplain at the prison, has asserted that guards' mishandling of detainees' Korans led the prisoners to launch a hunger strike in March 2002. Detainee lawyers said the strike ended only when military leaders issued an apology over the camp loudspeaker. But the lawyers said mishandling of the Koran persisted. More here. ... Newspaper Guild president Linda Foley drew criticism from conservatives for comments she made about "the cavalier nature of the U.S. military toward the killing of journalists in Iraq." The backlash was so severe that Guild headquarters staff in Washington, D.C., stopped answering the phone because of "people screaming at us." More here. Meanwhile, a Baghdad newspaper photographer says Iraqi police beat him for taking pictures of long lines at gas stations. A reporter for another local paper was invited to cover a police graduation ceremony, then received death threats from the recruits. A local TV reporter says she can't remember how many times Iraqi authorities have confiscated her cameras and smashed her tapes. The cases are under investigation by the Iraqi Association to Defend Journalists, a union that formed amid a chilling new trend of alleged arrests, beatings and intimidation by Iraqi security forces. More here. ... One year after instituting tighter controls, USA Today has reduced the use of anonymous sources by 75 percent, editor Ken Paulson says. "We still probably average about three or four anonymous sources in our copy each week," Paulson told E&P. "But it used to average about a dozen per week." One of the paper's five managing editors or a higher-ranking editor must sign off on the use of each unnamed source. More here. SPJ national update IV: What, me worry?; unleashing the dogs of civil war; and Senate Republicans working for you. A single-engine plane bearing down on Washington created panic May 11, but President Bush was not told until he finished a bicycle ride at a Maryland wildlife center, nearly 40 minutes after the plane had been forced to turn away. Bush's security detail decided that he need not be informed because there was no danger to him and because procedures for intercepting the plane, evacuating Washington buildings and increasing security at the White House did not require his authorization. More here. ... An unchastened insurgency sowed devastation across Iraq in May as security experts reported that no major road in the country was safe to travel. Some Iraq specialists speculated that Sunni fighters were effectively encircling the capital and trying to cut it off from the north, south and west, where there are entrenched Sunni communities. East of Baghdad is a mostly unpopulated desert bordering on Iran. "It's just political rhetoric to say we are not in a civil war. We've been in a civil war for a long time," said Pat Lang, the former top Middle East intelligence official at the Pentagon. More here. ... With the notable exception of the wealthy, nine out of 10 Texas households would have to pay more in taxes under a massive school finance overhaul headed for the Senate floor, a study released May 10 shows. The nonpartisan Legislative Budget Board found that the top 10 percent of Texas households, or those making more than $140,000 a year, would get a $212 million tax cut. Households in every other income group would see their tax burdens go up. The legislation would raise almost $700 million more in new taxes than it cuts over two years. More here. SPJ national update V: Close-to-the-ground journalism; conflict of coinage; and the censor ship of state. The Rocky Mountain News launched one of the nation's largest citizen-journalism initiatives last month when it debuted 40 neighborhood Web sites and 15 zoned print editions, all called YourHub.com. More here. ... Since 1998, Ohio has invested millions of dollars in the unregulated world of rare coins. Controlling the money for the state? Prominent local Republican and coin dealer Tom Noe, whose firm made more than $1 million off the deal last year. And now Ohio is suing Noe since $10 million-$12 million from the Capital Coin Funds are missing. More here and here. ... A study by TV Watch, a nonprofit advocacy group, says that 75 percent of 1,002 people polled "strongly agreed" that they would rather decide what programs to watch instead of having government censors decide. TV Watch, a coalition backed by three of the Big Four broadcast networks, said it wants to be a counterweight to such groups as the Parents Television Council and the American Family Association, which have filed most of the recent indecency complaints with the FCC. More here and here. =================================================== PEOPLE & PLACES Mike Price at the Fort Worth Business Press just loves Julian Haber's new corporate-power and drug-racketeering novel "Blood Avenger." Says it "moves relentlessly to a confrontational encounter that states a persuasive case for the relevance of an ancient Hebrew law to a ruthless modern-day society." The tone is "hardboiled reciprocity, leavened by compassion and strategically placed sentimentality." To learn what that might possibly mean, write Free Lance Writers, 7001 Candlestick Court, Fort Worth 76133, for an autographed copy. Twenty-five percent of the $22.95 price benefits SPJ scholarships. The book also is available at Amazon.com and most bookstores. ... Star-Telegram reporters and page designers won seven first-place and six second-place awards and eight honorable mentions in the Texas APME/Headliners Foundation of Texas competition. Jeff Claassen and Scott Streater, along with Seth Borenstein of the Knight Ridder Washington bureau, won the Star Investigative Report of the Year for their coverage of EPA regulation of oil refineries. UTA Shorthorn ex Michael Currie was named the Star Designer of the Year. Bill Teeter and Mitch Mitchell took second place in Star Breaking News Report of the Year. In the traditional APME awards, Jennifer Autrey, Toni Heinzl, David Casstevens, Christopher Kelly, Felicia Smith and Shorthorn ex Tom Pennington took firsts, and Chris Vaughn, Randy Galloway, Sarah Huffstetler, Danny Robbins, Trebor Banstetter and J.R. Labbe each took a second-place award or honorable mention. After revolutionizing the TV listings biz -- the Star-Telegram was one of the first major metro dailies to add color to its grids and to figure out how to zone by making a simple black-plate change -- TV book/Live editor Jim Davis is retiring from the paper. In the '90s, under his leadership, the TV section won a number of national awards, including being named best in the country. At the Star-T he has been a copy editor, Encore editor and arts editor, and he was associate managing editor/features at The Philadelphia Inquirer. ... =================================================== GET A JOB The Tarrant Regional Water District seeks a corporate communications manager. Must have a degree in journalism, PR or related field, at least five years experience and proficiency in Word, Excel and PowerPoint. Preferred credentials include at least three years as a supervisor; biology, environmental or water management experience; and skills in design, production and video. Benefits and competitive salary commensurate with experience. Send résumé and two writing samples to TRWD consultant Julie Wilson at j.wilson@reasonsinc.com. ... Oprah Winfrey's magazine, O, seeks fall interns -- recent college grads or students needing credit hours -- in its Fashion and Style departments, to start immediately. Prior internship preferred, but not required. Send résumé with a cover letter to associate editor Cindy M. del Rosario, 1700 Broadway, 38th floor, New York, or call (212) 903-5149. ... Verizon has openings in engineering, computer science, information technology, business, finance or marketing for 2004 graduates of historically black schools. Send résumé to: melissa.w.langham@verizon.com. =================================================== NEW MEMBERS PRSA ... Lycrecia S. Atkins, Tarleton State University ... Rachael Gross, Harris Methodist Fort Worth Hospital ... Joan Hunter, TXU ... Sherry Elizabeth McKenzie, Stockyards Station ... Darren Meyer, Flowserve Corp. ... Ellen Elizabeth Smith, Girl Scouts Circle T Council ... Kathryn Carey Spence, Fort Worth International Center =================================================== PRESIDENT'S CORNER Heather Senter, Greater Fort Worth PRSA I would like to take this opportunity to thank a couple of folks and welcome some new ones to the PRSA board. As many of you know, Ashley Wesson, our director of special projects, recently married and is moving to Tulsa, Okla. Best wishes, Ashley! Before leaving, she took on the huge task of planning the spring '06 Southwest District Conference in Fort Worth. In less than five months -- and while planning her own wedding -- Ashley organized 12 volunteers into a committee that has already secured a location and is working on speakers. Her torch will pass to another event planner extraordinaire, Tracy Sturrock of the Fort Worth Zoo. Ashley and Tracy will co-chair the district conference position, and Tracy will complete Ashley's term as special projects director. Concerning the board, John Hoffmann, director of diversity, has been promoted at AmeriCredit. Congratulations, John! He decided to step down to focus his efforts on his newly expanded role. Tom Burke, APR, will fulfill John's remaining term. A big thank you to Ashley and John for their service to our chapter. And a big thank you and welcome aboard to Tracy and Tom. There are many ways to serve our chapter through voting board positions, committee chairs and committee volunteers. If you'd like more information on ways to become involved, please e-mail me at heathersenter@charter.net. ----- OVER & OUT John Dycus, Fort Worth SPJ A colleague of June 22 speaker Charles Lewis writes: "In recent years, Chuck has been preaching his brand of journalism across the globe. He has traveled extensively across the former Eastern bloc countries, South America, Africa and Asia, and helped establish a first-of-its-kind consortium of international investigative reporters, coordinating cross-border projects on subjects like chemical dumping, tobacco marketing and arms sales that help trace corrupt influences across continents. His most harrowing experience -- aside from dealing with Mike Wallace and the bureaucrats at "60 Minutes" -- was a careening car ride through the mountains that separate India and China at a high rate of speed on a narrow, single-lane road. Old car. Bad brakes. Questionable driver. Cars coming from the other direction. Thousand-foot drops everywhere. And all without the Indian driver's one indispensable safety feature ... a horn." Lewis' first meeting of the Center for Public Integrity's board of directors -- two close friends -- was at Memorial Stadium in Baltimore during an Orioles game. His passion outside journalism is movies, especially action films and the B-grade stuff that movie snobs disdain. He's a multifaceted character who has gone places you and I would like to go and done things we'd like to do, and isn't that why we go hear speakers? Never mind the Cacharel chocolate soufflé. No, do mind it. Lewis and the dessert alone are a fire sale at $30. The elegance and the ninth-floor view and the basil in the whipped potatoes -- we'll throw those in. ... It took six WHEREASes, but the House of Representatives of the 79th Texas Legislature gloriously congratulatedDonna Darovich on her retirement as UTA public affairs director. Donna left in October and is filling in for the summer as public information coordinator for the Tarrant County College District. Ironically, she reports via PR director Chris Smith to Bill Lace, whom she replaced as UTA public affairs director in 1981. She and Lace also worked together at UTA in what was then the public information office when she was an undergraduate and he was a sports information writer. "We warn communication undergrads to not burn any bridges with anyone while in college," she says. "You never know who will be your boss." It's like seven degrees of Donna Darovich. Closing words: "The Holy Sprit intended to teach us in the Bible how to go to Heaven, not how the heavens go." -- Galileo, who was found guilty of heresy in 1633 for publishing evidence that the sun and not Earth is the center of the solar system; 359 years later, Pope John Paul II declared that Galileo had been unjustly condemned Closing words II, G.W.B. & the Pharisees bracket: "It is my opinion that John Bolton is the poster child of what someone in the diplomatic corps should not be." -- Sen. George Voinovich, R-Ohio ... "Where, in the week after the Great Newsweek Error, is the comparable outrage in the press, in the blogosphere, and at the White House over the military's outright lying in the coverup of the death of former NFL star Pat Tillman? Where are the calls for apologies to the public and the firing of those responsible? Who is demanding that the Pentagon's word should never be trusted unless backed up by numerous named and credible sources? Where is a Scott McClellan lecture on ethics and credibility?" -- Greg Mitchell, Editor & Publisher

The annual Fort Worth Bronze Quill fandango is just around the bend, with decorated Star-Telegram sports columnist Jim Reeves the keynote speaker and a ballroom full of area communicators eager for affirmation of just how sharp they are. The Bronze Quill competition is an IABC/Fort Worth tradition that recognizes outstanding work in a variety of categories. This year has a Western theme, "Fort Worth Style," and promises to be a rip-roaring good time.

Reeves has covered Fort Worth-Dallas sports for more than 40 years, 35 of them at the Star-Telegram, where he has been a columnist since 1987. He has won four first-place awards from the Texas Associated Press Managing Editors and two coveted Katies. He was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize in 1989 and was named Texas sports writer of the year by the National Association of Broadcasters in 1999 and by the Texas Newspaper Association in 2000.

Time & date: 11:30 a.m.-1 p.m. Tuesday, June 7

Place: Petroleum Club, Carter-Burgess Plaza, 777 Main St., 39th floor

Parking: $2.50 in parking garage at Seventh and Commerce streets

Cost: $30 members, $40 nonmembers, $20 students

RSVP by noon June 3: Julie Trowbridge at trowbridgeja@c-b.com

Next at Greater Fort Worth PRSA ...

Getting It, Keeping It and Growing It:

Business Development Strategies for PR Practices

In a two-part morning seminar, Thompson, principal at Dallas-based dawson|duncan, will explore both "getting it" -- knowing the competition, defining your niche, branding your practice, developing the value equation, traditional and nontraditional marketing for new business -- and, after a break, "keeping it and growing it" -- understanding the client's agenda (internal and external), measuring and proving value, managing organic growth and client acquisition, and developing client advocates.

Time & date: 9-11:30 a.m., noon-1 p.m. Wednesday, June 8

Place: Petroleum Club, Carter-Burgess Plaza, 777 Main St., 39th floor

Parking: free valet in parking garage at Seventh and Commerce streets

Cost: $50 members, $75 nonmembers, $30 students; seminar only $30 members, $55 nonmembers, $15 students; lunch only $20 members, $23 nonmembers, $18 students

RSVP by noon June 3: rsvp@fortworthprsa.org

Next at Fort Worth SPJ ...

Strong, Aggressive Journalism: A Primer

Under Lewis' direction, the center produced 14 books and more than 250 reports on public policy issues around the world. He has had a hand in five books and is working on a sixth, tentatively titled "The End of Truth: Power, the News Media and the People's Right to Know." From 1977-88, he did investigative reporting at ABC News and at CBS News as a "60 Minutes" producer, and his stories twice received Emmy nominations.

In 2004, the center posted all of the major U.S. contracts in Iraq and Afghanistan online and showed that Vice President Dick Cheney's former company, Halliburton, and its subsidiaries had received by far the most money in contracts there. The Village Voice called Lewis "the Paul Revere of our time" in early 2003 after he obtained a copy of the Justice Department's draft legislation sequel to the U.S.A. Patriot Act and posted it on the center's web site.

Time & date: cash bar opens 6 p.m., dinner 6:30 Wednesday, June 22

Place: Cacharel, 2221 E. Lamar Blvd., Brookhollow Tower Two; from Fort Worth or Dallas, off I-30 go north on Ballpark Way, east on Lamar, look for tall building on left next to Arlington Hilton

Menu: Grilled chicken breast served on a bed of basil whipped potatoes with oven-dried tomatoes and asparagus; Cacharel house salad tossed in a raspberry vinaigrette; bread, tea, coffee and, for dessert, the remarkable Cacharel chocolate soufflé

RSVP by April 6: Kay Pirtle at mkpirtle@yahoo.com

===================================================

Did you know that George Bush has a dog named Buddy, after Bill Clinton's canine? Did you know that George Bush is a truck driver? An atheist? Gay? No, not the president or his father, but dozens of people across the country who share their name. Dallas author Martha Boone Mattia interviewed these people for her book "Conversations with George Bush -- Beyond Polls and Partisanship: Real Life in the USA." Mattia will speak at the Association for Women Journalists' annual scholarship banquet Friday, June 10, at Hackberry Creek Country Club, 1901 Royal Lane, Irving. Silent auction begins at 6:30 p.m., dinner at 7:30. Also, AWJ will recognize four college scholarship winners of the Vivian Castleberry Award. Tickets are $40 each or $300 for a table of eight. Reservations must be made by June 4; send a check made out to AWJ to P.O. Box 2199, Fort Worth 76113. Vegetarian meals are available. ...

Publisher Ed Avis will pay two trustworthy people $100 each per day to run his Marion Street Press book sale June 15-18 at the National Association of Hispanic Journalists gathering in Fort Worth. The work is not difficult, Avis reports, and his representatives need to be friendly, never flustered during busy periods and maybe speak Spanish (not a necessity). The most exhausting day is the last day, when the leftover books need to be packed up and prepared for shipping. E- edavis@marionstreetpress.com. Convention organizers expect more than 2,000 journalists and media types. Info at nahj.org. ...

A free National Press Foundation/UT School of Journalism/National Academy of Social Insurance seminar for journalists on Social Security hits the UT Austin campus from 9 a.m. to 1:15 p.m. Friday, June 10. The program has gotten excellent reviews ("I loved the basic explanations of what the system does now and the proposed changes, and the potential impact. They spoke English."). Register with Kashmir Hill, (202) 663-7282 or khill@nationalpress.org. Info here. ...

Harvard is offering free tuition for students whose family income is below $40,000. Really. See adm-is.fas.harvard.edu/FAO/index.htm, or call the school's financial aid office at (617) 495-1581. ... Postmark deadline is July 15 to enter the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists' annual competition for outstanding investigative global journalism. First prize: $20,000. Five finalists will receive $1,000. Entries must have been produced between June 1, 2004, and June 1, 2005. See publicintegrity.org, or call (202) 466-1300. ... Register at expo.ncmonline.com/news/ for daylong -- Thursday, June 9 -- workshops at Columbia U. on ethnic media with, among others, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, FCC Chairman Michael Copps and Nicholas Lemann, dean of Columbia's Graduate School of Journalism. ... Deadlines are June 24 and 25, respectively, to apply for the East-West Center's fall 2005 Jefferson Fellowships, a program for mid-level broadcast and print journalists from the U.S., Asia and the Pacific, and to submit a proposal to the South Asian Journalists Association that focuses on the tsunami aftermath. More at eastwestcenter.org/sem-mp.asp and saja.org/srf.html. ...

New York columnist supreme Pete Hamill will conduct a session, accept an award and sign your cast if you ask with the proper respect at the 29th annual National Society of Newspaper Columnists conference, June 23-26 at the Gaylord Texan Resort & Conference Center. Not enough of a draw? Then weigh the presence of Laura Miller, who wrote Dallas Observer columns before entering elected life. No betting line on whether she'll call someone at the conference an idiot. Details here, or e- head perp Dave Lieber at conference@yankeecowboy.com. A month later, at the Grapevine Hilton DFW Lakes, "The Orchid Thief" author Susan Orlean headlines the Mayborn Literary Nonfiction Writers Conference of the Southwest. More at mayborninstitute.unt.edu/.

PRSA local update: Larry Lauer, TCU vice chancellor for marketing and communication, will front the Education SIG's 2005 Integrated Marketing Communications Forum from 10-11:30 a.m. Thursday, June 30, at the TCU Tucker Technology Center, 2840 W. Bowie St.; park in the Mary Couts Burnett Library lot east of the library and north of Tucker Technology. Breakfast refreshments are free to Education SIG members, $5 for nonmembers. Lauer wrote "Competing for Students, Money and Reputation: Marketing the Academy in the 21st Century" and in 2003 received the Alice B. Beeman Award for research in communication from the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education. RSVP: chris.smith@tccd.edu. ... The Independent Practitioners SIG will meet Friday, June 17, at Central Market, I-30 and Hulen Street. ... If you want someone to call you, update your profile at prsa.org. The FW chapter will print a directory soon and covets current addresses and phone numbers for its people.

PRSA local update II: A reminder that the offer to join ($225 national dues, plus $65 initiation fee) and get a free one-year membership in one of the 19 professional interest sections ends June 30. Reinstating members who have been inactive for at least a year are also eligible. More at prsa.org/_Membership/main/specialoffer4.asp or from chapter membership chair Holly Ellman, hellman@fwcds.org. The chapter earned a $100 Incentive Award from national for most members added during this promotion in October/November 2004. Three people joined as a result of the section push, placing Fort Worth in a three-way tie for chapters of 100-199 members with the California Capital (Calif.) and Hampton Roads (Va.) chapters. Current chapter president Heather Senter was the membership chair.

PRSA local update III: Former Dallas Observer columnist Laura Miller will discuss how a communications background helped her become mayor, and what communications pros can learn and expect from Dallas City Hall, at the annual Joint Communicators Luncheon on Tuesday, June 21. More here. ... ACU senior Amanda Van Noort and Matthew B. Eaton of TCU have received $500 Greater Fort Worth chapter scholarships for 2005-06. Van Noort, an integrated marketing communications major from Sioux Falls, S.D., will be ACU chapter president in the coming school year. Eaton is an ad/PR major and PRSSA officer, and a 2001 graduate of Nolan Catholic High School.

SPJ national update: Demise of a hard-fighting squad; blue over Green; and a papal purge? Among the four Marines killed and 10 wounded when an explosive device erupted under their Amtrac in Haban, Iraq, on May 11 were the last combat-ready members of a squad that four days earlier had battled foreign fighters holed up in a house in the town of Ubaydi. In that fight, two squad members were killed and five wounded. In 96 hours of fighting and ambushes in far western Iraq, the squad -- one of three that make up the 1st Platoon of Lima Company, 3rd Battalion, 25th Regiment -- had ceased to be. Every member had been killed or wounded. More here. ... The Army missed its April recruiting goal by 42 percent, the third month in a row that the active-duty mission was not accomplished. Worse, Operation Blue to Green -- trading blue service uniforms for Army green -- was expected to turn 3,500 airmen and sailors into soldiers; the fiscal year ends Sept. 30, and Blue to Green has produced 189 soldiers. More here. ... That the Rev. Thomas J. Reese has been forced to resign after seven years as editor of America magazine sent shock waves through the worlds of Catholic journalism and academia. Reese faced five years of criticism from the man who is now Pope Benedict XVI for publishing articles that questioned the Vatican's writings on issues such as same-sex marriage, stem-cell research and salvation for non-Christians. More here.

SPJ national update II: Fixing the facts; scrutinize the nominees; the fight for FOI; and students sue. Eighty-nine congressional Democrats on May 6 asked President Bush to explain a secret British memo that said "intelligence and facts were being fixed" to support the Iraq war in mid-2002, well before the president brought the issue to Congress. The Times of London published the memo -- minutes of a high-level meeting on Iraq held July 23, 2002 -- on May 1. British officials did not dispute the document's authenticity. More here. ... Four in five Americans want the Senate to thoroughly examine the president's nominees to be federal judges -- an attitude shared by a majority of Democrats, Republicans and independents questioned in a new AP-Ipsos poll. More here. ... Big backlogs in FOI requests and a lack of enforcement when agencies ignore or delay response are among the problems a House panel heard about May 11 at a hearing on the Freedom of Information Act. As FOI requests increased 71 percent from 2002 to 2004, the number falling into backlog -- carrying over from one year to the next -- increased 14 percent. More here. ... Student journalists sued their Bakersfield High School district May 19 in an effort to keep the principal from censoring student newspaper articles on homosexuality. The suit, filed by the ACLU, requests an emergency order to allow the paper to publish the stories in The Kernal's year-end May 27 issue. More here and here.

SPJ national update III: Koran news had been heard before; American, Arab reporters at risk; and no name, no quote. Newsweek's waffle-source story that a prison guard at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, flushed a copy of the Koran down a toilet reflects allegations, widely reported by U.S. and international media, of desecration of the Muslim holy book for more than two years. James Yee, a former Muslim chaplain at the prison, has asserted that guards' mishandling of detainees' Korans led the prisoners to launch a hunger strike in March 2002. Detainee lawyers said the strike ended only when military leaders issued an apology over the camp loudspeaker. But the lawyers said mishandling of the Koran persisted. More here. ... Newspaper Guild president Linda Foley drew criticism from conservatives for comments she made about "the cavalier nature of the U.S. military toward the killing of journalists in Iraq." The backlash was so severe that Guild headquarters staff in Washington, D.C., stopped answering the phone because of "people screaming at us." More here. Meanwhile, a Baghdad newspaper photographer says Iraqi police beat him for taking pictures of long lines at gas stations. A reporter for another local paper was invited to cover a police graduation ceremony, then received death threats from the recruits. A local TV reporter says she can't remember how many times Iraqi authorities have confiscated her cameras and smashed her tapes. The cases are under investigation by the Iraqi Association to Defend Journalists, a union that formed amid a chilling new trend of alleged arrests, beatings and intimidation by Iraqi security forces. More here. ... One year after instituting tighter controls, USA Today has reduced the use of anonymous sources by 75 percent, editor Ken Paulson says. "We still probably average about three or four anonymous sources in our copy each week," Paulson told E&P. "But it used to average about a dozen per week." One of the paper's five managing editors or a higher-ranking editor must sign off on the use of each unnamed source. More here.

SPJ national update IV: What, me worry?; unleashing the dogs of civil war; and Senate Republicans working for you. A single-engine plane bearing down on Washington created panic May 11, but President Bush was not told until he finished a bicycle ride at a Maryland wildlife center, nearly 40 minutes after the plane had been forced to turn away. Bush's security detail decided that he need not be informed because there was no danger to him and because procedures for intercepting the plane, evacuating Washington buildings and increasing security at the White House did not require his authorization. More here. ... An unchastened insurgency sowed devastation across Iraq in May as security experts reported that no major road in the country was safe to travel. Some Iraq specialists speculated that Sunni fighters were effectively encircling the capital and trying to cut it off from the north, south and west, where there are entrenched Sunni communities. East of Baghdad is a mostly unpopulated desert bordering on Iran. "It's just political rhetoric to say we are not in a civil war. We've been in a civil war for a long time," said Pat Lang, the former top Middle East intelligence official at the Pentagon. More here. ... With the notable exception of the wealthy, nine out of 10 Texas households would have to pay more in taxes under a massive school finance overhaul headed for the Senate floor, a study released May 10 shows. The nonpartisan Legislative Budget Board found that the top 10 percent of Texas households, or those making more than $140,000 a year, would get a $212 million tax cut. Households in every other income group would see their tax burdens go up. The legislation would raise almost $700 million more in new taxes than it cuts over two years. More here.

SPJ national update V: Close-to-the-ground journalism; conflict of coinage; and the censor ship of state. The Rocky Mountain News launched one of the nation's largest citizen-journalism initiatives last month when it debuted 40 neighborhood Web sites and 15 zoned print editions, all called YourHub.com. More here. ... Since 1998, Ohio has invested millions of dollars in the unregulated world of rare coins. Controlling the money for the state? Prominent local Republican and coin dealer Tom Noe, whose firm made more than $1 million off the deal last year. And now Ohio is suing Noe since $10 million-$12 million from the Capital Coin Funds are missing. More here and here. ... A study by TV Watch, a nonprofit advocacy group, says that 75 percent of 1,002 people polled "strongly agreed" that they would rather decide what programs to watch instead of having government censors decide. TV Watch, a coalition backed by three of the Big Four broadcast networks, said it wants to be a counterweight to such groups as the Parents Television Council and the American Family Association, which have filed most of the recent indecency complaints with the FCC. More here and here.

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Mike Price at the Fort Worth Business Press just loves Julian Haber's new corporate-power and drug-racketeering novel "Blood Avenger." Says it "moves relentlessly to a confrontational encounter that states a persuasive case for the relevance of an ancient Hebrew law to a ruthless modern-day society." The tone is "hardboiled reciprocity, leavened by compassion and strategically placed sentimentality." To learn what that might possibly mean, write Free Lance Writers, 7001 Candlestick Court, Fort Worth 76133, for an autographed copy. Twenty-five percent of the $22.95 price benefits SPJ scholarships. The book also is available at Amazon.com and most bookstores. ...

Star-Telegram reporters and page designers won seven first-place and six second-place awards and eight honorable mentions in the Texas APME/Headliners Foundation of Texas competition. Jeff Claassen and Scott Streater, along with Seth Borenstein of the Knight Ridder Washington bureau, won the Star Investigative Report of the Year for their coverage of EPA regulation of oil refineries. UTA Shorthorn ex Michael Currie was named the Star Designer of the Year. Bill Teeter and Mitch Mitchell took second place in Star Breaking News Report of the Year. In the traditional APME awards, Jennifer Autrey, Toni Heinzl, David Casstevens, Christopher Kelly, Felicia Smith and Shorthorn ex Tom Pennington took firsts, and Chris Vaughn, Randy Galloway, Sarah Huffstetler, Danny Robbins, Trebor Banstetter and J.R. Labbe each took a second-place award or honorable mention.

After revolutionizing the TV listings biz -- the Star-Telegram was one of the first major metro dailies to add color to its grids and to figure out how to zone by making a simple black-plate change -- TV book/Live editor Jim Davis is retiring from the paper. In the '90s, under his leadership, the TV section won a number of national awards, including being named best in the country. At the Star-T he has been a copy editor, Encore editor and arts editor, and he was associate managing editor/features at The Philadelphia Inquirer. ...

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The Tarrant Regional Water District seeks a corporate communications manager. Must have a degree in journalism, PR or related field, at least five years experience and proficiency in Word, Excel and PowerPoint. Preferred credentials include at least three years as a supervisor; biology, environmental or water management experience; and skills in design, production and video. Benefits and competitive salary commensurate with experience. Send résumé and two writing samples to TRWD consultant Julie Wilson at j.wilson@reasonsinc.com. ...

Oprah Winfrey's magazine, O, seeks fall interns -- recent college grads or students needing credit hours -- in its Fashion and Style departments, to start immediately. Prior internship preferred, but not required. Send résumé with a cover letter to associate editor Cindy M. del Rosario, 1700 Broadway, 38th floor, New York, or call (212) 903-5149. ... Verizon has openings in engineering, computer science, information technology, business, finance or marketing for 2004 graduates of historically black schools. Send résumé to: melissa.w.langham@verizon.com.

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PRSA ... Lycrecia S. Atkins, Tarleton State University ... Rachael Gross, Harris Methodist Fort Worth Hospital ... Joan Hunter, TXU ... Sherry Elizabeth McKenzie, Stockyards Station ... Darren Meyer, Flowserve Corp. ... Ellen Elizabeth Smith, Girl Scouts Circle T Council ... Kathryn Carey Spence, Fort Worth International Center

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Heather Senter, Greater Fort Worth PRSA

I would like to take this opportunity to thank a couple of folks and welcome some new ones to the PRSA board. As many of you know, Ashley Wesson, our director of special projects, recently married and is moving to Tulsa, Okla. Best wishes, Ashley! Before leaving, she took on the huge task of planning the spring '06 Southwest District Conference in Fort Worth. In less than five months -- and while planning her own wedding -- Ashley organized 12 volunteers into a committee that has already secured a location and is working on speakers. Her torch will pass to another event planner extraordinaire, Tracy Sturrock of the Fort Worth Zoo. Ashley and Tracy will co-chair the district conference position, and Tracy will complete Ashley's term as special projects director.

John Dycus, Fort Worth SPJ

A colleague of June 22 speaker Charles Lewis writes: "In recent years, Chuck has been preaching his brand of journalism across the globe. He has traveled extensively across the former Eastern bloc countries, South America, Africa and Asia, and helped establish a first-of-its-kind consortium of international investigative reporters, coordinating cross-border projects on subjects like chemical dumping, tobacco marketing and arms sales that help trace corrupt influences across continents. His most harrowing experience -- aside from dealing with Mike Wallace and the bureaucrats at "60 Minutes" -- was a careening car ride through the mountains that separate India and China at a high rate of speed on a narrow, single-lane road. Old car. Bad brakes. Questionable driver. Cars coming from the other direction. Thousand-foot drops everywhere. And all without the Indian driver's one indispensable safety feature ... a horn." Lewis' first meeting of the Center for Public Integrity's board of directors -- two close friends -- was at Memorial Stadium in Baltimore during an Orioles game. His passion outside journalism is movies, especially action films and the B-grade stuff that movie snobs disdain. He's a multifaceted character who has gone places you and I would like to go and done things we'd like to do, and isn't that why we go hear speakers? Never mind the Cacharel chocolate soufflé. No, do mind it. Lewis and the dessert alone are a fire sale at $30. The elegance and the ninth-floor view and the basil in the whipped potatoes -- we'll throw those in. ...

It took six WHEREASes, but the House of Representatives of the 79th Texas Legislature gloriously congratulatedDonna Darovich on her retirement as UTA public affairs director. Donna left in October and is filling in for the summer as public information coordinator for the Tarrant County College District. Ironically, she reports via PR director Chris Smith to Bill Lace, whom she replaced as UTA public affairs director in 1981. She and Lace also worked together at UTA in what was then the public information office when she was an undergraduate and he was a sports information writer. "We warn communication undergrads to not burn any bridges with anyone while in college," she says. "You never know who will be your boss." It's like seven degrees of Donna Darovich.

Closing words II, G.W.B. & the Pharisees bracket: "It is my opinion that John Bolton is the poster child of what someone in the diplomatic corps should not be." -- Sen. George Voinovich, R-Ohio ... "Where, in the week after the Great Newsweek Error, is the comparable outrage in the press, in the blogosphere, and at the White House over the military's outright lying in the coverup of the death of former NFL star Pat Tillman? Where are the calls for apologies to the public and the firing of those responsible? Who is demanding that the Pentagon's word should never be trusted unless backed up by numerous named and credible sources? Where is a Scott McClellan lecture on ethics and credibility?" -- Greg Mitchell, Editor & Publisher