COMINGS & GOINGS
Additions ... at the S-T: Tara Ransom, an assistant business editor, formerly an assistant business editor at the Detroit Free Press; after getting adjusted in the Fort Worth office for a month, she will shift to Arlington and supervise the four business reporters in eastern Tarrant County ... Ball State grad Amanda Kingsbury, travel editor, formerly features editor of the East Valley/ Scottsdale Tribune in Mesa, Ariz.
Promotions ... at the S-T: Sarah Yoest Pederson to Weekly Review/OpEd editor ... seven-year Star-T veteran and multi-threat performer Maricar Estrella, formerly a p. 1 designer, Sunday news editor and Stock Show editor, to city editor in Arlington
Exits ... at the S-T: features copy editor Amber Nimocks, to the Wilmington (N.C.) Star-News as features editor, while husband Josh Shaffer, a writer in the features department, seeks fame as a freelancer ... Paula Caballero, to the Dallas Theater Center as PR director (easy commute -- her office will be across the street from her and husband Darrin Scheid's house) ... 10-year photo lab veteran Larry Parrish, moving to Atlanta
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RESOURCES
BaseballLibrary.com is handy for facts, figures and biographies, with sections on players, teams, baseball chronology, history and more.
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PRESIDENT'S CORNER
Pamela Smith, Greater Fort Worth PRSA
In 2004 PRSA will continue its mission of advancing the profession and the professional. The Greater Fort Worth board is working diligently to fulfill this goal with a number of initiatives, and this month I would like to highlight two.
The first, advocacy -- actively getting involved in issues that affect our profession -- is a new focus for the chapter. You may have seen the Jan. 12 PR Week op-ed piece by PRSA member John Paluszek, senior counselor at Ketchum and PRSA liaison to the United Nations, where he examines the role of public relations in foreign policy. While PRSA's 20,000 national members will never agree on every issue before us, I think we all do agree that it is time to ensure that those outside our profession have a better understanding of the value public relations has on shaping the global society.
Secondly, you may not get the chance to hobnob with world leaders, but you may witness local political or legal issues that if not addressed could deflate the value of our profession. Please contact chapter director John Hoffmann, john.hoffmann@americredit.com, with any concerns, which he will forward to the national office.
On a lighter note, March 25-26 will bring PR practitioners from throughout the Southwest together for the PRSA District Conference in Irving. This affordable venue allows professionals the chance to learn best practices, network with peers and gain new perspectives. Chapter director Krista Brown has worked closely with the Dallas chapter to schedule a great set of speakers. Keep checking our Web site, fortworthprsa.org/sw_district_conference.htm, as details develop and for registration information. Contact Krista at krista@maverickad.com for volunteer and sponsorship opportunities.
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OVER & OUT
John Dycus, Fort Worth SPJ
Our deepest sympathies to Penny Cockerell and her family on the death of her brother, Kyle, in Afghanistan. He was one of seven U.S. soldiers who were killed Jan. 29 by an explosion at an arms dump. He had been in Afghanistan less than a month. He wanted to be a war correspondent. He had big plans. Twenty-nine-year-olds usually do. ...
Borrowing from a Star-Telegram piece on the death Jan. 10 of Marty Haag: He left an indelible mark on local TV news, molding it with professionalism and setting a standard that others would try to emulate. He joined the lowly rated WFAA/Channel 8 in 1973 and made it one of the most respected news broadcasts in the United States. At a time when TV wouldn't tackle subjects that required explanation or that defied visual storytelling, Haag was bringing investigative reporting to the nightly news. The station's reputation grew to where ABC and CNN had no problem depending on Haag's reporters, photographers and producers to feed stories live. He was the consummate journalist, possessing a nose for news and a heart for humanity. "Do something, even if it's wrong," he told the June 2001 SPJ meeting. "Roll the satellite truck -- you can always call it back! Don't be afraid to listen to your instincts." ... And from Washington Post writer Adam Bernstein on the death Jan. 27 of Jack Paar. "Wry, spontaneous and brainy," Bernstein wrote in description of the late-night-TV pioneer, alternatively cerebral and emotional, who turned "The Tonight Show" and "The Jack Paar Program" in the 1950s and early '60s into exercises in tension and delight. John and Robert Kennedy, entertainers Jonathan Winters and Judy Garland, Nobel laureate Albert Schweitzer -- they all made appearances. Richard M. Nixon, having lost the 1960 presidential race and the 1962 California governorship, played a self-composed piano composition. Paar took camera crews to Cuba to interview Fidel Castro, to Berlin just after the Berlin Wall was erected and to Africa to visit with Schweitzer. The trips courted controversy but came to be seen as efforts that distinguished his shows for their scope and curiosity. ... I shook Mr. Haag's hand once, and I stayed up late and thought I was getting away with something to watch Mr. Paar. Glad I did both. ...
Say you're filling out a Mensa application under the name of, oh, George W. Bush and need his Social Security number. Joe Shannon, chief of the economic crimes unit in the Tarrant County District Attorney's Office, likely can get it for you. That and Colin Powell's home address and Donald Trump's driver's license and Tony Blair's cellphone. They're all on the Internet, it seems, some well-hidden, others just below the surface, easy pickings for cyberthieves who would be you if it pays, and it does. Joe's upcoming program for Fort Worth SPJ is a must-attend for anyone with a bank account. Hang out with us Saturday afternoon, Feb. 21, for a couple of hours. What you learn might spare you grief down the road. ...
Hats off to Star-T newsroom assistant Nancy Waldie, who refuses to feel sorry for herself in the Cleburne Rehabilitation and Health Care Center as she recovers from a stroke. The other day she met a fellow there who cannot read. Nancy, a former teacher, is teaching him to read. Do we attribute this to the selfless, reach-out nature of newsroom types everywhere? Nah, I think that's just Nancy. ...
Web sites like SPJ's invariably have a "Resources" page, and sure enough ours does, but it's been unfinished for, what, four years? As long as there's been an SPJ Web site, it's been there useless. Finally, it's fixed. More links than a chain around Busta Rhymes' neck. As always, your comments are welcomed.
Closing words: "In the consensus view, the U.S. economy is breaking out of its anemic growth pattern. ... We strongly disagree with this assessment. The growth spurt in the third quarter was exceptional, due to a one-off splurge in tax rebates and a burst in the mortgage refinancing wave. As to investment spending, what essentially matters is the change in total nonresidential investment, and that continues to show virtual stagnation. ... All the economic growth of the past two years, anemic as it was, is traceable to a seemingly endless array of asset and borrowing bubbles ... first the stock market bubble; then the bond bubble; then the housing bubble and the associated mortgage refinancing bubble." -- economist Dr. Kurt Richebächer ... "Non-defense discretionary spending under Clinton was going up at about 2.5 percent. Under Bush it's been going up roughly twice that. I think that the Republicans, unless they want to lose the definition of their party and what they mean to the base out there that supports them in election after election, have to come to grips with the fact that they are letting that definition be eroded." -- David Keene, American Conservative Union
