eChaser: April 2004


	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! Barr Printing Co. Bass Performance Hall Blue Marble Media Business Wire DFW Printing Co. Esperanza's Bakery Fort Worth Business Press Fort Worth Rail Market Friends of the Fort Worth Public Library Gaylord Texan Resort & Convention Center Immotion Studios InterStar Marketing and Public Relations Joe T. Garcia's Mexican Food Restaurant North Texas Daily Optimist, Abilene Christian University Pancho's Mexican Buffet PR Newswire PRSA Consultants Group The Shorthorn, UTA Star-Telegram TCU Daily Skiff Texas Wesleyan University Tony Roma's The University of Texas at Arlington Weber Shandwick Worldwide Wise County Messenger Witherspoon Advertising and Public Relations April 2004 MEETINGS Next at IABC/Fort Worth ... Beyond Blasting: How Legislation and Common Sense are Revolutionizing E-mail as a Marketing Tool A year ago e-mail was a fantastic marketing tool because it was cheap and easy. Too cheap, it turned out. Because it cost next to nothing, most organizations didn't take it seriously enough to drive common-sense best practices regarding the core principles of database marketing. Now with the issues surrounding spam, legislation and customer demand, smart marketers realize that they need to move beyond blasting and toward target one-to-one communications. One of those smart marketers -- Chris Baggot, founder of ExactTarget, a leading second-generation software solution for multichannel e-mail marketing -- will enlighten the April IABC meeting on the state of affairs regarding e-mail as a marketing tool and how some of the most innovative communicators in America are leveraging one-to-one like never before to drive lifetime value and profits. Time & date: 11:30 a.m.-1 p.m. Tuesday, April 6 Place: Petroleum Club, Carter-Burgess Plaza, 777 Main St., 39th floor Parking: $2.50 in parking garage at Seventh and Commerce streets (get ticket validated) Cost: $17 members, $22 nonmembers, $12 students RSVP: Julie Trowbridge at trowbridgeja@c-b.com ----- Next at Greater Fort Worth PRSA ... Creating a Dialogue: Education Campaign on Sexual Assault Produces Dramatic Results Fueled by an alarming statistic -- reported rapes in Texas were up 4.1 percent, giving it the second highest number of rapes in the country -- the Texas Association Against Sexual Assault in 2002 launched an awareness drive featuring an unprecedented amount of research, paid and donated TV and radio advertising, and PR. At its heart were six extraordinary women, victims of assault, who traveled the state sharing their lives. The combination of personal stories and specific tactics to reach teen and college-age students brought results. Much of the credit goes to TAASA public affairs director Chris Lippincott. A former aide to U.S. Rep. Max Sandlin, D-Congressional District 1 in East Texas, Lippincott will tell the April PRSA meeting how the campaign developed and the challenges and successes he experienced along the way. The meeting -- new day, new location this month -- also is Pro Am Day, where members visit one-on-one with students from Abilene Christian University and TCU. The PRSSA members will do the Mystery Tour, seeing various workplaces, then join members and guests for lunch. Time & date: 11:45 a.m.-1 p.m. Wednesday, April 21 Place: Joe T. Garcia's in La Portita, the former chapel south of the restaurant, 2201 N. Commerce St. Cost: $20 members, $23 nonmembers, $18 students RSVP by noon April 19: rsvp@fortworthprsa.org ----- Next at Fort Worth SPJ ... A Celebration of the First Amendment Lucy Dalglish, executive director of The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press and an outspoken defender of journalists' rights, will keynote Fort Worth SPJ's inaugural First Amendment Dinner, April 30 at Ridglea Country Club. "After the 9-11 terrorist attacks," she says, "the Bush administration passed sweeping, unprecedented measures that have hampered the public's right to know and made newsgathering much more difficult." The title of her report: "Homefront Confidential." The dinner marks an expansion of FW SPJ's annual scholarship banquet to include, in addition to the college and high school recipients, recognition of winners in the First Amendment Awards. The chapter created the awards this year to honor work by journalists in Texas and Oklahoma that upholds First Amendment freedoms. UTA President James Spaniolo will introduce Dalglish, who has headed the Reporters Committee since January 2000. Before that, she worked as a media lawyer for almost five years and as a reporter and editor at the St. Paul Pioneer Press. She received the Wells Memorial Key, SPJ's highest honor, in 1995 following her three years as chair of SPJ's national Freedom of Information Committee. She was on the national board from 1988-91. The nonprofit Reporters Committee, based in Alexandria, Va., has become a major resource for academicians, state and federal agencies, and Congress. Every year it assists 2,000 or so working journalists, none of whom has ever paid for its help in defending First Amendment rights. Date: Friday, April 30 Time: cash bar opens 6 p.m., dinner 6:30 Place: Ridglea Country Club, 3700 Bernie Anderson Ave. Cost: $50; early reservations are encouraged as seating is limited Menu: chicken breast around Black Forest ham with Swiss cheese, leafy greens with fresh strawberries and Mandarin oranges, roasted new potatoes; for dessert a Texas pecan ball (ice cream rolled in pecans); bread, tea, coffee; the chicken cordon bleu can be prepared without ham RSVP by April 29: Kay Pirtle at mkpirtle@yahoo.com =================================================== STRAIGHT STUFF Investigative reporter Suzanne O'Malley, author of "Are You There Alone? The Unspeakable Crimes of Andrea Yates," will keynote the Association for Women Journalists' spring scholarship banquet Friday, April 23, at the Fairmont Hotel in Dallas. A silent auction starts at 6:30 p.m. and dinner at 7:30. O'Malley is the first reporter to have access to Yates, the Houston woman who drowned her five children in the bathtub in 2001 and was sentenced to life in prison. O'Malley corresponded with the imprisoned woman for 15 months and interviewed her husband more than 30 times. Also at the banquet, AWJ will honor winners of the Vivian Castleberry Journalism Competition. Tickets are $50 each or $385 for a table of eight. Reach Angela Brown at akbrown@ap.org. ... Nancy Farrar, president of Farrar Public Relations, will review how to deal with internal and external crises and share insights from her own career at the PRSA Consultants Group meeting at 11:15 a.m. Friday, April 16, at Central Market, I-30 and Hulen Street. ... Last call for Bronze Quill entries. Early deadline is April 8, final deadline ($20 late fee) April 14. See iabcfortworth.com. ... The joint SPJ Region 8 spring conference/National Writers Workshop is May 22-23 in San Antonio. All relevant facts are at www2.mysanantonio.com/promotions/nww/. ... Presidential counselor Karen Hughes, one of the highest-ranking women ever to work in the White House, will discuss her book, "Ten Minutes from Normal," at 7 p.m. Thursday, April 15, at Highland Park United Methodist Church, Wesley Hall, on the SMU campus, 5500 Mockingbird Lane. The speech is open to the public. Call (214) 523-2270. ... Dallas Morning News editorial page director Keven Ann Willey will reveal "What the Dallas Morning News Editorial Board Does, How and Why" at the Dallas PRSA meeting Friday, April 23. More at prsadallas.com/april_lunch.html. ... The Society of American Business Editors and Writers will announce the winners in its 10th annual Best in Business contest at the organization's national conference May 2-4 at the Renaissance Worthington. More at SABEW.org. ... The Institute on Political Journalism, an educational program sponsored by the Fund for American Studies and operated in cooperation with Georgetown University, is accepting entries for its annual journalism awards. Winners receive $5,000 and a bronze eagle trophy to be given out at an event in Washington, D.C., in the summer. More at tfas.org/programs/ipjawards.htm, or e- director Traci Talerico at ttalerico@tfas.org. SPJ national update: Energy in the dark, cops in the kitchen, pen-and-inkers in the lurch, and Matrix gets bad review. The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, SPJ and the American Society of Newspaper Editors filed a Supreme Court friend-of-the-court brief in the issue of access to the meetings of the national energy task force chaired by Vice President Dick Cheney. The groups argue that access would provide a check on misconduct and not interfere with the president's constitutional duties. More here. ... In a groundbreaking 5th Circuit Court of Appeals decision that legal experts say will affect everyone, police officers in Louisiana no longer need a warrant to conduct a brief search of a home or business. Leaders in law enforcement say it will provide safety to officers. Two dissenting judges called it the "road to hell." More here. ... After a month and no takers, "Doonesbury" creator Garry Trudeau (abetted in all things cartoon-y by his artist alter ego, UTA ex Don Carlton) called off his "Bush Guard Service" contest, which offered $10,000 cash to anyone who could "definitively corroborate Mr. Bush's claim" that three decades before he became president, he served in the Alabama National Guard. Lacking a credible witness to take the prize, Trudeau mailed a personal check for $10,000 to the USO. ... Wisconsin and New York are the latest states to abandon the Matrix data-sharing program. The Multi-State Anti-Terrorism Information Exchange gives law enforcement copious information culled from government and commercial databases, including driver's license pictures, addresses, names of neighbors and relatives, even domain-name registrations and hunting permits. Participating states agree to feed their automobile and driver's license databases into a centralized computer. Thirteen states representing more than 50 percent of the population kick-started the program, which initially received $12 million from the Department of Homeland Security and the Justice Department. Only Michigan, Ohio, Florida, Connecticut and Pennsylvania remain. SPJ national update II: Declassify this, and FOI victories in South Dakota, Tennessee and New York. Former U.S. counterterrorism chief Richard Clarke asked the White House to make public his testimony to Congress as well as other documents about how the administration has handled the terror threat. Senate majority leader Bill Frist called for declassifying Clarke's July 2002 testimony before a hearing of the Senate and House of Representatives Intelligence committees. "Let's declassify all six hours of my testimony," Clarke said on NBC's "Meet the Press." "Let's take all of my e-mails and all of the memos that I sent to the national security adviser and her deputy from Jan. 20 to Sept. 11, and let's declassify all of it." ... South Dakota Gov. Mike Rounds on March 2 signed legislation that eases free-speech restrictions and increases penalties for open meeting violations. A task force spent 15 months working to reform state law. In Tennessee, Gov. Phil Bredesen signed a law March 12 that requires state colleges and universities to disclose certain types of disciplinary records involving sex offenses, and possession of alcohol or drugs by a student under 21. In New York, the state court system will start making all but a few records available on the Internet. A report suggests making records available to the same extent there as at the courthouse. Go here and here and here. SPJ national update III: Weapons of mass deception. Eighteen journalism groups, led by the Association of Health Care Journalists and including SPJ, have asked the Department of Health and Human Services to stop using video releases that look like authentic news reports. On March 16 The New York Times reported that the Bush administration paid people to pose as journalists praising the new Medicare law, including expanded coverage of prescription medicines. "Government officials have a duty to communicate to the public," noted AHCJ president Andrew Holtz, "but they should speak for themselves and not hide behind a paid announcer who is falsely identified as a reporter. " More here and here. ... Medicare's chief actuary told lawmakers March 24 that he gave analyses last June to the White House and the president's budget office predicting that prescription drug benefits being drafted on Capitol Hill would cost $150 billion more than President Bush said he wanted to spend. Richard S. Foster said administration officials threatened to fire him if he provided lawmakers with his cost estimates. A truthful estimate likely would have torpedoed the White House-backed Medicare prescription-drug plan. The House of Representatives passed the benefit by five votes in November. More here. SPJ national update IV: Do-as-I-say-not-as-I-do alert at level orange, and wonder how much health care that would buy. An official GOP merchandise Web site has sold clothing made in Burma, whose goods President Bush banned last year. A $49.95 fleece pullover was sent to Newsday as part of an order that included a shirt made in Mexico and a hat that lacked a country-of-origin label. The president of Denver-based Colorado Trading & Clothing said the pullover was in one of the last shipments before the import ban kicked in. "It's a terrible irony" that the jacket went to Newsday, he said. Charles Kernaghan, director of the National Labor Committee, a human rights group, said "it's amazing that the campaign would be selling stuff made in the most brutal country on Earth, known for things like child labor and sexual slavery." More here. ... The Pentagon has granted $240,000 for embryonic stem-cell research linked to Parkinson's disease. Lund University in Sweden said the Defense Department believes the findings could help treat neurological illnesses caused by battlefield toxins. The president has forbidden the use of federal funds to manipulate human embryos and limited research to a few existing cells taken from fertility clinic leftovers. Meanwhile, Elizabeth Blackburn, an advocate of stem-cell research and therapeutic cloning who was recently fired from the President's Council on Bioethics, has become a cause celebre for researchers who say that politics is distorting White House science policy. "I don't feel martyred," the University of California, San Francisco scientist and native Australian said. "I wear it (the dismissal) as a badge of honor." ... Struggling with rising workloads and stagnant staff levels, the IRS opted not to pursue 2.25 million tax cases last year worth $14 billion in individual income taxes and $2.3 billion in corporate taxes, the Treasury Department said in written answers to Senate Finance Committee questions. The median size of the delinquent accounts was $14,000; the largest account exceeded $50 million. The money left on the table would cover NASA's 2004 budget or the budgets of the departments of Commerce and Interior combined. More here. SPJ national update V: Oops, and oops, and ask not for whom the intel tolls. Six months after promising to create an office to help the nation's struggling manufacturers, President Bush's choice to head it backed out when it was learned that he had opened a factory in China. Anthony Raimondo's firm, Behlen Manufacturing Co. of Columbus, Neb., laid off 75 U.S. workers in 2002, four months after announcing plans for a $3 million factory in Beijing. ... The president marked International Women's Week by paying tribute to women reformers. "Earlier today, the Libyan government released Fathi Jahmi," he said in a White House speech March 27. "She's a local government official who was imprisoned in 2002 for advocating free speech and democracy," Ah, but Jahmi is a man. "Definitely male," said Alistair Hodgett, a spokesman for the human rights advocacy group Amnesty International, whose representatives tried to see Jahmi in prison during a recent visit to Libya. ... The White House claim that Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein had ties to al Qaeda "appears to have been based on even less solid intelligence than the administration's claims that Iraq had hidden stocks of chemical and biological weapons," Knight Ridder writers Warren Strobel, Jonathan Landay and John Walcott said in a story released March 3. Further, "administration advocates of a preemptive invasion frequently hyped sketchy and sometimes false information to help make their case. On two occasions, they neglected to report information that painted a less sinister picture." More here. =================================================== PEOPLE & PLACES Greater Fort Worth PRSA ringleader Sandra Brodnicki, owner of Brodnicki Public Relations, received the Star-Telegram Entrepreneur Expo Small Business Award during the Lockheed Martin/JPMorgan Chase Entrepreneur Expo on March 12 hosted by the Fort Worth Women's Business Center. She is a graduate of the center's Project NEW, which she credits with helping her three-year-old company increase its profits 314 percent in 2002 and 83 percent last year. The WBC is one of 83 women's business centers in the nation; only two are in Texas. ... PRSA Southwest District Conference co-chairs Krista Brown and Ann Heidger are awash in gratitude to the 200 attendees and speakers, sponsors -- Alcon Labs, Biz 360, Burrelle'sLuce VMS, Business Wire, Cockrell Printing, Corporate Communications Center, the Irving Convention and Visitors Bureau, Market Wire, Medialink, MultiVu, PR Newswire and VOCUS -- the planning and implementing committee -- Carolyn Bobo, Mary Dulle, Cathy Mueller, Kara Roberson, Chris Smith, Pamela Smith, Kelly Strzinek, Glenda Thompson, Beth Ann Black, Elizabeth Nuño, Jeff Smith, Angela Vargo, Chad Perry (PRSA Southwest District president) and Kelly Albanese (PRSA national) -- and everyone who participated in the 2004 conference at the Harvey Hotel in Irving, conducted by the Greater Fort Worth and Dallas chapters. From Krista and Ann: "Thank you!" ... Suzie DeMent, formerly publications editor at Alcon Labs, has been promoted to marketing associate, surgical. Writes Mary Dulle: "Suzie came to work at Alcon while still a student at TCU and has done an outstanding job in the public relations group. Her former PR colleagues foresee a shining future for her." ... Star-Telegram city government reporter Anna M. Tinsley won two first-place awards, four third-place awards and an honorable mention, and her brother, Ben Tinsley, a police reporter in the paper's Northeast Tarrant County newsroom, won three second-place and one third-place award at the Press Women of Texas annual conference March 27 in Waco. ... The Star-T's Darren Barbee (writer), Michael Currie (page designer), Mark Hoffer (graphic artist) and Danny Robbins (writer) nailed first-place honors, and Liz Stevens, Pete Alfano, Linda Campbell, Mark Horvit, Dave Lieber, Tim Madigan, J.R. Labbe, Ken Parish Perkins, Wayne Lee Gay, Stewart House, Kate Gorman, Alison Woodworth, Paul Moseley, Clif Bosler and Seth Schrock took home a passel of seconds and honorable mentions in the Texas APME competition. The Star-Telegram won first place in team effort for its coverage of the Baylor University basketball scandal and a first in team page design for "Crime of Fashion!!!" Renee Studebaker of the Austin American-Statesman won a Headliners Award as Star Designer of the Year, and Dean Hollingsworth of The Dallas Morning News won a first in infographics; both are UTA Shorthorn exes, as are Barbee, Currie, Hoffer, Campbell and Schrock. ... The Associated Press Sports Editors last month named the Star-Telegram one of the top 10 papers in the U.S. for daily and special sections. In Society for News Design competition, the Star-T sports department received nine awards of excellence -- the most of any paper in the large circulation category -- in the 25th annual SND judging. Michael Currie won four awards, Seth Schrock and Rusty Hall one each, and the department's body of work received one of only six Judges' Special Recognition awards. UTA Shorthorn exes Currie and Schrock were among only six designers to receive an award of excellence for their portfolio. Outside sports, Ralph Lauer won two SND awards for portrait photography, and Mark Hoffer won an award for special section design. ... The Shorthorn, UTA's 85-year-old student newspaper, and Renegade, the university's one-year-old student magazine, have won the top U.S. student media awards for overall excellence. The Shorthorn was one of eight U.S. college newspapers, and the only paper from Texas, to receive the Columbia Scholastic Press Association's Gold Crown during ceremonies March 21 in New York City. More than 650 college newspapers entered the competition. This is The Shorthorn's second Gold Crown in the past six years. Renegade will receive the Associated Collegiate Press' Pacemaker award, generally considered the Pulitzer Prize of college journalism, in November ceremonies in Nashville. Renegade is one of nine college magazines nationwide, and the only magazine from Texas, to receive a Pacemaker this year. ... Still at UTA, the Texas APME named The Shorthorn this year's best daily college newspaper in Texas. The paper's rate card won first place in College Newspaper and Business Managers competition, and a recruitment ad designed by Michael Roger won Best of Category in black-and-white promotions. =================================================== GET A JOB YMCA of Metropolitan Fort Worth seeks a marketing specialist. A degree in marketing communications, ad/PR, journalism or related field is required, along with strong writing and graphic design skills. Experience with Pagemaker, Photoshop/Illustrator and other design software is a plus. Submit a résumé and writing sample to marketing director Hope Caldwell, YMCA of Metropolitan Fort Worth, 540 Lamar St., Fort Worth 76102. ... JPS Health Network seeks a senior PR coordinator with a bachelor's degree in journalism or PR and two years experience, or a degree in a related field and three years experience; good writing and QuarkXPress skills; knowledge of design and layout, printing specifications and operations. Position is specifically responsible for the employee newsletter as well as other duties. Apply at jpshealthnet.org. ... A Las Colinas-based B2B company seeks a marketing manager. A college degree and 5-10 years experience in top-tier marketing are required, with an M.B.A. encouraged. Submit résumé and salary requirements to jobs@dgsystems.com. ... First Rate Investment Systems in Arlington seeks a full-time assistant to the marketing director. Minimum requirements: expertise in Microsoft Office applications and familiarity with Dreamweaver or MX suite, Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator; a degree in marketing, PR or advertising; two years of marketing, sales or ad experience; strong written communication skills; trade show/event planning experience; understanding of finance and investment concepts; project management skills and ability to lead teams. Send résumé to marketing@firstrate.com. =================================================== COMINGS & GOINGS Additions ... Erin L. Wade to The Dallas Morning News; she previously was editor of Dallas/Fort Worth House & Home magazine ... at the S-T: David Sedeño, long-time Dallas Morning News and AP reporter, senior writer downtown ... Kansas State U. grad and rabid KSU fan Sarah L. Bahari, to the law enforcement coverage team ... Terry Webster, formerly with the San Gabriel (Calif.) Valley Tribune, education reporter in the Northeast newsroom ... Katherine Cromer from The Memphis Commercial Appeal, also covering education in Northeast Exits ... at the S-T: great-with-kids (she could be your mom) Class Acts editor Amanda Rogers Kowalski =================================================== "Permanently" Kenneth Koch, Selected Poems, 1950-82 (Vintage) One day the Nouns were clustered in the street. An Adjective walked by, with her dark beauty. The Nouns were struck, moved, changed. The next day a Verb drove up, and created the Sentence. Each Sentence says one thing -- for example, "Although it was a dark rainy day when the Adjective walked by, I shall remember the pure and sweet expression on her face until the day I perish from the green, effective earth." Or, "Will you please close the window, Andrew?" Or, for example, "Thank you, the pink pot of flowers on the window sill has changed color recently to a light yellow, due to the heat from the boiler factory which exists nearby." In the springtime the Sentences and the Nouns lay silently on the grass. A lonely Conjunction here and there would call, "And! But!" But the Adjective did not emerge. As the adjective is lost in the sentence, So I am lost in your eyes, ears, nose, and throat -- You have enchanted me with a single kiss Which can never be undone Until the destruction of language. =================================================== PRESIDENT'S CORNER Pamela Smith, Greater Fort Worth PRSA The Southwest District Conference last month was a triumph on many levels. If you missed it, here's a recap. Participants chose from 15 breakout sessions on a variety of topics, including special events, public policy, crisis communications, integrated marketing, investor relations and Web management. The first day kicked off with a keynote luncheon featuring the director of public relations at Children's Medical Center and the principal from Richards Gravelle, the agency that assisted Children's with the research, planning, strategy and management of the opportunities and challenges surrounding the separation of the conjoined Egyptian twins. On day two, a PR staffer at Southwest Airlines told how the company turned a fascinating culture into reality TV. I both laughed and cried during the two presentations that showed how hard PR practitioners could work while at the same time having fun. As I listened to the many practitioners in attendance, I was reminded how rewarding public relations is, even when the battle to influence public opinion can be a tough one. Thanks to co-chairs Krista Brown and Ann Heidger for pulling off the tremendous task of organizing an invigorating conference. ----- OVER & OUT John Dycus, Fort Worth SPJ That was another forceful high school workshop March 27 crafted by SPJers Kristin Sullivan, Mark Horvit, Gayle Reaves-King, Dino Chiecchi, Kay Pirtle, Larry Lutz and Penny Cockerell, TCUers Tommy Thomason and Rix Quinn and presenters Bud Kennedy, John Gutierrez-Mier, Deanna Boyd, Lamor Williams, Scott Gordon, Mitch Mitchell, Pat Svacina and Don Fisher. Makes you proud. ... We're not big own-horn-tooters, but you should know that Mike Cochran and I will be inducted April 2 into the Texas Intercollegiate Press Association Hall of Fame. Previous inductees include Walter Cronkite, UTA journalism lioness Dorothy Estes and Bill Moyers, whom Dorothy taught when he was in the ninth grade. This year's class features author Willie Morris; legendary Texas historian J. Frank Dobie; Lyndon and Lady Bird Johnson; piercing political cartoonist Ben Sargent with the Austin American-Statesman, whom I've always wanted to meet before some Republican just shoots him and I lose the chance; and Lady Bird's former press secretary, Liz Carpenter, the funniest woman in politics. These are substantive people; yeah, I'll be in their club, and with gratitude. I remain unsure who nominated me or exactly how I was chosen. Maybe the inhabitants of those South Texas cemeteries who elected Lyndon to the Senate, and who did so after they were already dead, are still pulling the lever. ... Good fishing, good beach lounging and good wishes to chapter member Dawn Reiss, who has accepted a sports writer position at the six-times Pulitzer Prize-winning St. Petersburg (Fla.) Times. She starts April 5, working in Crystal River, north of Tampa-St. Pete on the gulf. "My main beat will be covering high school sports, but because the St. Petersburg Times has a circulation of 350,000 (100,000 more than the Tampa Tribune) and limited staff writers (compared to most larger newspapers), I will have the opportunity to cover professional events and many other things." She will continue to contribute to SPJ as national Freelance Committee co-chair. She contributed to the FW chapter, as well. You hate losing the ones who actually come to the meetings. Congratulate Dawn at dreiss100@hotmail.com. Closing words: "You can rob Peter to pay Paul for so long, but eventually Peter is going to run out of money. In this case, we are Peter." -- Tarrant County commissioner J.D. Johnson, a Republican, on Gov. Rick Perry's plan to cap local property taxes ... "Using my dead friends and my dead brother for political expediency is dead wrong." -- Chris Burke on World Trade Center imagery in GOP campaign ads; his brother died in the north tower ... "The grass may look greener on the other side, but it's just as hard to cut." -- geriatric rocker Little Richard, 70, at the South by Southwest music festival in Austin ... "Take care of the laundry." -- literal interpretation of a line spoken in Aramaic by Jim Caviezel in "The Passion of the Christ"; the subtitle reads, "Take care." ... "The Romans would never have found time to conquer the world if they had been obliged first to learn Latin." -- Heinrich Heine

A year ago e-mail was a fantastic marketing tool because it was cheap and easy. Too cheap, it turned out. Because it cost next to nothing, most organizations didn't take it seriously enough to drive common-sense best practices regarding the core principles of database marketing. Now with the issues surrounding spam, legislation and customer demand, smart marketers realize that they need to move beyond blasting and toward target one-to-one communications.

Time & date: 11:30 a.m.-1 p.m. Tuesday, April 6

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

Parking: $2.50 in parking garage at Seventh and Commerce streets (get ticket validated)

Cost: $17 members, $22 nonmembers, $12 students

RSVP: Julie Trowbridge at trowbridgeja@c-b.com

Next at Greater Fort Worth PRSA ...

Creating a Dialogue: Education Campaign

on Sexual Assault Produces Dramatic Results

Time & date: 11:45 a.m.-1 p.m. Wednesday, April 21

Place: Joe T. Garcia's in La Portita, the former chapel south of the restaurant, 2201 N. Commerce St.

Cost: $20 members, $23 nonmembers, $18 students

RSVP by noon April 19: rsvp@fortworthprsa.org

Next at Fort Worth SPJ ...

Lucy Dalglish, executive director of The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press and an outspoken defender of journalists' rights, will keynote Fort Worth SPJ's inaugural First Amendment Dinner, April 30 at Ridglea Country Club. "After the 9-11 terrorist attacks," she says, "the Bush administration passed sweeping, unprecedented measures that have hampered the public's right to know and made newsgathering much more difficult." The title of her report: "Homefront Confidential."

Date: Friday, April 30

Time: cash bar opens 6 p.m., dinner 6:30

Place: Ridglea Country Club, 3700 Bernie Anderson Ave.

Cost: $50; early reservations are encouraged as seating is limited

Menu: chicken breast around Black Forest ham with Swiss cheese, leafy greens with fresh strawberries and Mandarin oranges, roasted new potatoes; for dessert a Texas pecan ball (ice cream rolled in pecans); bread, tea, coffee; the chicken cordon bleu can be prepared without ham

RSVP by April 29: Kay Pirtle at mkpirtle@yahoo.com

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

Investigative reporter Suzanne O'Malley, author of "Are You There Alone? The Unspeakable Crimes of Andrea Yates," will keynote the Association for Women Journalists' spring scholarship banquet Friday, April 23, at the Fairmont Hotel in Dallas. A silent auction starts at 6:30 p.m. and dinner at 7:30. O'Malley is the first reporter to have access to Yates, the Houston woman who drowned her five children in the bathtub in 2001 and was sentenced to life in prison. O'Malley corresponded with the imprisoned woman for 15 months and interviewed her husband more than 30 times. Also at the banquet, AWJ will honor winners of the Vivian Castleberry Journalism Competition. Tickets are $50 each or $385 for a table of eight. Reach Angela Brown at akbrown@ap.org. ...

Nancy Farrar, president of Farrar Public Relations, will review how to deal with internal and external crises and share insights from her own career at the PRSA Consultants Group meeting at 11:15 a.m. Friday, April 16, at Central Market, I-30 and Hulen Street. ... Last call for Bronze Quill entries. Early deadline is April 8, final deadline ($20 late fee) April 14. See iabcfortworth.com. ... The joint SPJ Region 8 spring conference/National Writers Workshop is May 22-23 in San Antonio. All relevant facts are at www2.mysanantonio.com/promotions/nww/. ...

Presidential counselor Karen Hughes, one of the highest-ranking women ever to work in the White House, will discuss her book, "Ten Minutes from Normal," at 7 p.m. Thursday, April 15, at Highland Park United Methodist Church, Wesley Hall, on the SMU campus, 5500 Mockingbird Lane. The speech is open to the public. Call (214) 523-2270. ... Dallas Morning News editorial page director Keven Ann Willey will reveal "What the Dallas Morning News Editorial Board Does, How and Why" at the Dallas PRSA meeting Friday, April 23. More at prsadallas.com/april_lunch.html. ...

The Society of American Business Editors and Writers will announce the winners in its 10th annual Best in Business contest at the organization's national conference May 2-4 at the Renaissance Worthington. More at SABEW.org. ... The Institute on Political Journalism, an educational program sponsored by the Fund for American Studies and operated in cooperation with Georgetown University, is accepting entries for its annual journalism awards. Winners receive $5,000 and a bronze eagle trophy to be given out at an event in Washington, D.C., in the summer. More at tfas.org/programs/ipjawards.htm, or e- director Traci Talerico at ttalerico@tfas.org.

SPJ national update: Energy in the dark, cops in the kitchen, pen-and-inkers in the lurch, and Matrix gets bad review. The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, SPJ and the American Society of Newspaper Editors filed a Supreme Court friend-of-the-court brief in the issue of access to the meetings of the national energy task force chaired by Vice President Dick Cheney. The groups argue that access would provide a check on misconduct and not interfere with the president's constitutional duties. More here. ... In a groundbreaking 5th Circuit Court of Appeals decision that legal experts say will affect everyone, police officers in Louisiana no longer need a warrant to conduct a brief search of a home or business. Leaders in law enforcement say it will provide safety to officers. Two dissenting judges called it the "road to hell." More here. ... After a month and no takers, "Doonesbury" creator Garry Trudeau (abetted in all things cartoon-y by his artist alter ego, UTA ex Don Carlton) called off his "Bush Guard Service" contest, which offered $10,000 cash to anyone who could "definitively corroborate Mr. Bush's claim" that three decades before he became president, he served in the Alabama National Guard. Lacking a credible witness to take the prize, Trudeau mailed a personal check for $10,000 to the USO. ... Wisconsin and New York are the latest states to abandon the Matrix data-sharing program. The Multi-State Anti-Terrorism Information Exchange gives law enforcement copious information culled from government and commercial databases, including driver's license pictures, addresses, names of neighbors and relatives, even domain-name registrations and hunting permits. Participating states agree to feed their automobile and driver's license databases into a centralized computer. Thirteen states representing more than 50 percent of the population kick-started the program, which initially received $12 million from the Department of Homeland Security and the Justice Department. Only Michigan, Ohio, Florida, Connecticut and Pennsylvania remain.

SPJ national update II: Declassify this, and FOI victories in South Dakota, Tennessee and New York. Former U.S. counterterrorism chief Richard Clarke asked the White House to make public his testimony to Congress as well as other documents about how the administration has handled the terror threat. Senate majority leader Bill Frist called for declassifying Clarke's July 2002 testimony before a hearing of the Senate and House of Representatives Intelligence committees. "Let's declassify all six hours of my testimony," Clarke said on NBC's "Meet the Press." "Let's take all of my e-mails and all of the memos that I sent to the national security adviser and her deputy from Jan. 20 to Sept. 11, and let's declassify all of it." ... South Dakota Gov. Mike Rounds on March 2 signed legislation that eases free-speech restrictions and increases penalties for open meeting violations. A task force spent 15 months working to reform state law. In Tennessee, Gov. Phil Bredesen signed a law March 12 that requires state colleges and universities to disclose certain types of disciplinary records involving sex offenses, and possession of alcohol or drugs by a student under 21. In New York, the state court system will start making all but a few records available on the Internet. A report suggests making records available to the same extent there as at the courthouse. Go here and here and here.

SPJ national update III: Weapons of mass deception. Eighteen journalism groups, led by the Association of Health Care Journalists and including SPJ, have asked the Department of Health and Human Services to stop using video releases that look like authentic news reports. On March 16 The New York Times reported that the Bush administration paid people to pose as journalists praising the new Medicare law, including expanded coverage of prescription medicines. "Government officials have a duty to communicate to the public," noted AHCJ president Andrew Holtz, "but they should speak for themselves and not hide behind a paid announcer who is falsely identified as a reporter. " More here and here. ... Medicare's chief actuary told lawmakers March 24 that he gave analyses last June to the White House and the president's budget office predicting that prescription drug benefits being drafted on Capitol Hill would cost $150 billion more than President Bush said he wanted to spend. Richard S. Foster said administration officials threatened to fire him if he provided lawmakers with his cost estimates. A truthful estimate likely would have torpedoed the White House-backed Medicare prescription-drug plan. The House of Representatives passed the benefit by five votes in November. More here.

SPJ national update IV: Do-as-I-say-not-as-I-do alert at level orange, and wonder how much health care that would buy. An official GOP merchandise Web site has sold clothing made in Burma, whose goods President Bush banned last year. A $49.95 fleece pullover was sent to Newsday as part of an order that included a shirt made in Mexico and a hat that lacked a country-of-origin label. The president of Denver-based Colorado Trading & Clothing said the pullover was in one of the last shipments before the import ban kicked in. "It's a terrible irony" that the jacket went to Newsday, he said. Charles Kernaghan, director of the National Labor Committee, a human rights group, said "it's amazing that the campaign would be selling stuff made in the most brutal country on Earth, known for things like child labor and sexual slavery." More here. ... The Pentagon has granted $240,000 for embryonic stem-cell research linked to Parkinson's disease. Lund University in Sweden said the Defense Department believes the findings could help treat neurological illnesses caused by battlefield toxins. The president has forbidden the use of federal funds to manipulate human embryos and limited research to a few existing cells taken from fertility clinic leftovers. Meanwhile, Elizabeth Blackburn, an advocate of stem-cell research and therapeutic cloning who was recently fired from the President's Council on Bioethics, has become a cause celebre for researchers who say that politics is distorting White House science policy. "I don't feel martyred," the University of California, San Francisco scientist and native Australian said. "I wear it (the dismissal) as a badge of honor." ... Struggling with rising workloads and stagnant staff levels, the IRS opted not to pursue 2.25 million tax cases last year worth $14 billion in individual income taxes and $2.3 billion in corporate taxes, the Treasury Department said in written answers to Senate Finance Committee questions. The median size of the delinquent accounts was $14,000; the largest account exceeded $50 million. The money left on the table would cover NASA's 2004 budget or the budgets of the departments of Commerce and Interior combined. More here.

SPJ national update V: Oops, and oops, and ask not for whom the intel tolls. Six months after promising to create an office to help the nation's struggling manufacturers, President Bush's choice to head it backed out when it was learned that he had opened a factory in China. Anthony Raimondo's firm, Behlen Manufacturing Co. of Columbus, Neb., laid off 75 U.S. workers in 2002, four months after announcing plans for a $3 million factory in Beijing. ... The president marked International Women's Week by paying tribute to women reformers. "Earlier today, the Libyan government released Fathi Jahmi," he said in a White House speech March 27. "She's a local government official who was imprisoned in 2002 for advocating free speech and democracy," Ah, but Jahmi is a man. "Definitely male," said Alistair Hodgett, a spokesman for the human rights advocacy group Amnesty International, whose representatives tried to see Jahmi in prison during a recent visit to Libya. ... The White House claim that Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein had ties to al Qaeda "appears to have been based on even less solid intelligence than the administration's claims that Iraq had hidden stocks of chemical and biological weapons," Knight Ridder writers Warren Strobel, Jonathan Landay and John Walcott said in a story released March 3. Further, "administration advocates of a preemptive invasion frequently hyped sketchy and sometimes false information to help make their case. On two occasions, they neglected to report information that painted a less sinister picture." More here.

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Greater Fort Worth PRSA ringleader Sandra Brodnicki, owner of Brodnicki Public Relations, received the Star-Telegram Entrepreneur Expo Small Business Award during the Lockheed Martin/JPMorgan Chase Entrepreneur Expo on March 12 hosted by the Fort Worth Women's Business Center. She is a graduate of the center's Project NEW, which she credits with helping her three-year-old company increase its profits 314 percent in 2002 and 83 percent last year. The WBC is one of 83 women's business centers in the nation; only two are in Texas. ...

PRSA Southwest District Conference co-chairs Krista Brown and Ann Heidger are awash in gratitude to the 200 attendees and speakers, sponsors -- Alcon Labs, Biz 360, Burrelle'sLuce VMS, Business Wire, Cockrell Printing, Corporate Communications Center, the Irving Convention and Visitors Bureau, Market Wire, Medialink, MultiVu, PR Newswire and VOCUS -- the planning and implementing committee -- Carolyn Bobo, Mary Dulle, Cathy Mueller, Kara Roberson, Chris Smith, Pamela Smith, Kelly Strzinek, Glenda Thompson, Beth Ann Black, Elizabeth Nuño, Jeff Smith, Angela Vargo, Chad Perry (PRSA Southwest District president) and Kelly Albanese (PRSA national) -- and everyone who participated in the 2004 conference at the Harvey Hotel in Irving, conducted by the Greater Fort Worth and Dallas chapters. From Krista and Ann: "Thank you!" ...

Suzie DeMent, formerly publications editor at Alcon Labs, has been promoted to marketing associate, surgical. Writes Mary Dulle: "Suzie came to work at Alcon while still a student at TCU and has done an outstanding job in the public relations group. Her former PR colleagues foresee a shining future for her." ...

Star-Telegram city government reporter Anna M. Tinsley won two first-place awards, four third-place awards and an honorable mention, and her brother, Ben Tinsley, a police reporter in the paper's Northeast Tarrant County newsroom, won three second-place and one third-place award at the Press Women of Texas annual conference March 27 in Waco. ... The Star-T's Darren Barbee (writer), Michael Currie (page designer), Mark Hoffer (graphic artist) and Danny Robbins (writer) nailed first-place honors, and Liz Stevens, Pete Alfano, Linda Campbell, Mark Horvit, Dave Lieber, Tim Madigan, J.R. Labbe, Ken Parish Perkins, Wayne Lee Gay, Stewart House, Kate Gorman, Alison Woodworth, Paul Moseley, Clif Bosler and Seth Schrock took home a passel of seconds and honorable mentions in the Texas APME competition. The Star-Telegram won first place in team effort for its coverage of the Baylor University basketball scandal and a first in team page design for "Crime of Fashion!!!" Renee Studebaker of the Austin American-Statesman won a Headliners Award as Star Designer of the Year, and Dean Hollingsworth of The Dallas Morning News won a first in infographics; both are UTA Shorthorn exes, as are Barbee, Currie, Hoffer, Campbell and Schrock. ...

The Associated Press Sports Editors last month named the Star-Telegram one of the top 10 papers in the U.S. for daily and special sections. In Society for News Design competition, the Star-T sports department received nine awards of excellence -- the most of any paper in the large circulation category -- in the 25th annual SND judging. Michael Currie won four awards, Seth Schrock and Rusty Hall one each, and the department's body of work received one of only six Judges' Special Recognition awards. UTA Shorthorn exes Currie and Schrock were among only six designers to receive an award of excellence for their portfolio. Outside sports, Ralph Lauer won two SND awards for portrait photography, and Mark Hoffer won an award for special section design. ...

The Shorthorn, UTA's 85-year-old student newspaper, and Renegade, the university's one-year-old student magazine, have won the top U.S. student media awards for overall excellence. The Shorthorn was one of eight U.S. college newspapers, and the only paper from Texas, to receive the Columbia Scholastic Press Association's Gold Crown during ceremonies March 21 in New York City. More than 650 college newspapers entered the competition. This is The Shorthorn's second Gold Crown in the past six years. Renegade will receive the Associated Collegiate Press' Pacemaker award, generally considered the Pulitzer Prize of college journalism, in November ceremonies in Nashville. Renegade is one of nine college magazines nationwide, and the only magazine from Texas, to receive a Pacemaker this year. ... Still at UTA, the Texas APME named The Shorthorn this year's best daily college newspaper in Texas. The paper's rate card won first place in College Newspaper and Business Managers competition, and a recruitment ad designed by Michael Roger won Best of Category in black-and-white promotions.

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YMCA of Metropolitan Fort Worth seeks a marketing specialist. A degree in marketing communications, ad/PR, journalism or related field is required, along with strong writing and graphic design skills. Experience with Pagemaker, Photoshop/Illustrator and other design software is a plus. Submit a résumé and writing sample to marketing director Hope Caldwell, YMCA of Metropolitan Fort Worth, 540 Lamar St., Fort Worth 76102. ...

JPS Health Network seeks a senior PR coordinator with a bachelor's degree in journalism or PR and two years experience, or a degree in a related field and three years experience; good writing and QuarkXPress skills; knowledge of design and layout, printing specifications and operations. Position is specifically responsible for the employee newsletter as well as other duties. Apply at jpshealthnet.org. ... A Las Colinas-based B2B company seeks a marketing manager. A college degree and 5-10 years experience in top-tier marketing are required, with an M.B.A. encouraged. Submit résumé and salary requirements to jobs@dgsystems.com. ... First Rate Investment Systems in Arlington seeks a full-time assistant to the marketing director. Minimum requirements: expertise in Microsoft Office applications and familiarity with Dreamweaver or MX suite, Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator; a degree in marketing, PR or advertising; two years of marketing, sales or ad experience; strong written communication skills; trade show/event planning experience; understanding of finance and investment concepts; project management skills and ability to lead teams. Send résumé to marketing@firstrate.com.

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Additions ... Erin L. Wade to The Dallas Morning News; she previously was editor of Dallas/Fort Worth House & Home magazine ... at the S-T: David Sedeño, long-time Dallas Morning News and AP reporter, senior writer downtown ... Kansas State U. grad and rabid KSU fan Sarah L. Bahari, to the law enforcement coverage team ... Terry Webster, formerly with the San Gabriel (Calif.) Valley Tribune, education reporter in the Northeast newsroom ... Katherine Cromer from The Memphis Commercial Appeal, also covering education in Northeast

Exits ... at the S-T: great-with-kids (she could be your mom) Class Acts editor Amanda Rogers Kowalski

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Pamela Smith, Greater Fort Worth PRSA

Participants chose from 15 breakout sessions on a variety of topics, including special events, public policy, crisis communications, integrated marketing, investor relations and Web management. The first day kicked off with a keynote luncheon featuring the director of public relations at Children's Medical Center and the principal from Richards Gravelle, the agency that assisted Children's with the research, planning, strategy and management of the opportunities and challenges surrounding the separation of the conjoined Egyptian twins.

John Dycus, Fort Worth SPJ

That was another forceful high school workshop March 27 crafted by SPJers Kristin Sullivan, Mark Horvit, Gayle Reaves-King, Dino Chiecchi, Kay Pirtle, Larry Lutz and Penny Cockerell, TCUers Tommy Thomason and Rix Quinn and presenters Bud Kennedy, John Gutierrez-Mier, Deanna Boyd, Lamor Williams, Scott Gordon, Mitch Mitchell, Pat Svacina and Don Fisher. Makes you proud. ...

We're not big own-horn-tooters, but you should know that Mike Cochran and I will be inducted April 2 into the Texas Intercollegiate Press Association Hall of Fame. Previous inductees include Walter Cronkite, UTA journalism lioness Dorothy Estes and Bill Moyers, whom Dorothy taught when he was in the ninth grade. This year's class features author Willie Morris; legendary Texas historian J. Frank Dobie; Lyndon and Lady Bird Johnson; piercing political cartoonist Ben Sargent with the Austin American-Statesman, whom I've always wanted to meet before some Republican just shoots him and I lose the chance; and Lady Bird's former press secretary, Liz Carpenter, the funniest woman in politics. These are substantive people; yeah, I'll be in their club, and with gratitude. I remain unsure who nominated me or exactly how I was chosen. Maybe the inhabitants of those South Texas cemeteries who elected Lyndon to the Senate, and who did so after they were already dead, are still pulling the lever. ...

Good fishing, good beach lounging and good wishes to chapter member Dawn Reiss, who has accepted a sports writer position at the six-times Pulitzer Prize-winning St. Petersburg (Fla.) Times. She starts April 5, working in Crystal River, north of Tampa-St. Pete on the gulf. "My main beat will be covering high school sports, but because the St. Petersburg Times has a circulation of 350,000 (100,000 more than the Tampa Tribune) and limited staff writers (compared to most larger newspapers), I will have the opportunity to cover professional events and many other things." She will continue to contribute to SPJ as national Freelance Committee co-chair. She contributed to the FW chapter, as well. You hate losing the ones who actually come to the meetings. Congratulate Dawn at dreiss100@hotmail.com.

Closing words: "You can rob Peter to pay Paul for so long, but eventually Peter is going to run out of money. In this case, we are Peter." -- Tarrant County commissioner J.D. Johnson, a Republican, on Gov. Rick Perry's plan to cap local property taxes ... "Using my dead friends and my dead brother for political expediency is dead wrong." -- Chris Burke on World Trade Center imagery in GOP campaign ads; his brother died in the north tower ... "The grass may look greener on the other side, but it's just as hard to cut." -- geriatric rocker Little Richard, 70, at the South by Southwest music festival in Austin ... "Take care of the laundry." -- literal interpretation of a line spoken in Aramaic by Jim Caviezel in "The Passion of the Christ"; the subtitle reads, "Take care." ... "The Romans would never have found time to conquer the world if they had been obliged first to learn Latin." -- Heinrich Heine