The Sigma Delta Chi Foundation is accepting applications for the Eugene C. Pulliam Fellowship for Editorial Writing. The $75,000 fellowship enables a mid-career editorial writer from a U.S. newspaper to have time away from daily responsibilities for study and research. Applications must be in English and postmarked by July 1. Contact Heather Porter at 317-927-8000, ext. 204, or hporter@spj.org.
IABC local update: Brenda Siler, who has led communications programs at AARP, the American Red Cross, United Way and now the United Negro College Fund, will discuss "Re-Engineering Communication" at the Dallas IABC meeting Tuesday, April 10. Register here.
PRSA local update: Five Greater Fort Worth PRSA members scored victories in the 2007 Texas Public Relations Association Best of Texas/Silver Spur Awards. Kay Barkin, Community Solutions of Fort Worth, garnered a Silver Spur in the nonprofit public relations category for her work with Mental Health Connection of Tarrant County. Rhenda Gray won a Silver Spur in the same category for her work with Sundance Associates in promoting the "Race to Improve Race for the Cure" for the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation. Judy Everett Ramos, Hurst-Euless-Bedford ISD, earned two awards -- a Best of Texas Merit in the feature release category and a Silver Spur in special events. Jerrod Resweber with Weber Shandwick also garnered two awards -- a Best of Texas Bronze in the internal news story category and a Silver Spur in special events. Kim Speairs, APR, of the Balcom Agency won a Best of Texas Bronze for the special purpose publication "Building Life" for the LifeGift Donation Center.
PRSA local update II: Can't get enough of the whole Pro-Am Day idea? Dallas PRSA's is Friday, April 13. More here.
SPJ national update: "It is just not Walter Reed." Ray Oliva went into the spare bedroom in his home in Kelseyville, Calif., to wrestle with his feelings. He didn't know a single soldier at Walter Reed, but he felt he knew them all. He worried about the wounded who were entering the world of military health care, which he knew all too well. His own VA hospital in Livermore was a mess. The gown he wore was torn. The wheelchairs were old and broken. "It is just not Walter Reed," Oliva tapped out on his keyboard. "The VA hospitals are not good either except for the staff who work so hard. ... " Oliva is but one voice in an outpouring of accounts filled with emotion and anger about the mistreatment of wounded outpatients at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. Stories of neglect and substandard care have flooded in from soldiers, their family members, veterans, doctors and nurses working inside the system. They describe depressing living conditions for outpatients at other military bases, from Fort Lewis in Washington state to Fort Dix in New Jersey. They tell stories of callous responses to combat stress and a system ill-equipped to handle another generation of psychologically scarred vets. More here.
SPJ national update II: 2004 chief campaign strategist loses faith in his president. In 1999, Texas Democratic strategist Matthew Dowd was sufficiently impressed by the pledge of then-Gov. George W. Bush to bring a spirit of cooperation to Washington that he switched parties, joined Bush's political brain trust and dedicated the next six years to getting him to the Oval Office and keeping him there. Now Dowd is so disenchanted with Bush on so many issues -- the Iraq war, Abu Ghraib, Katrina -- that he feels a sense of duty to go public given his role in helping Bush gain power. "I'm a big believer that in part what we're called to do -- to me, by God; other people call it karma -- is to restore balance when things didn't turn out the way they should have," he said. "Just being quiet is not an option when I was so publicly advocating an election." Dowd is the first member of Bush's inner circle to break this publicly with him. More here.
SPJ national update III: Secret dockets on the way out; and House approves press-friendly bills. The Judicial Conference took steps March 13 to end secret dockets in federal courts. Meeting at the Supreme Court, the conference urged all federal courts to end the practice whereby some cases under seal vanish from electronic dockets and databases. When software changes are made, at least the notation "Case Under Seal" or "Sealed v. Sealed" will appear with a docket number, giving the media and others the ability to challenge or examine the circumstances behind the seal. Last year, a Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press study showed that as many as 18 percent of criminal cases filed in D.C. federal court were missing or undocketed. More here. ... The House on March 14 passed three bills to open government records to the public, brushing aside White House opposition and, in one case, a veto threat. The measures, highlighting the media-led Sunshine Week, would force government to be more responsive to Freedom of Information Act requests, make contributions to presidential libraries public and overturn a 2001 presidential directive giving the president authority to keep his records from public view. The Bush administration, maybe the most secretive administration in the nation's history, issued a veto threat on the presidential records bill and voiced opposition to the FOIA legislation. It also said the president would veto a fourth bill, to be debated, on whistleblower protections. More here.
