February Mid Month Update

2006 WINTER BLUEGRASS STATE GAMES

It's almost time for the 2006 Winter Bluegrass State Games and to the many of you who have promoted the Games in past years, a black and white ad for this winter's games is available. The games will be held in March, spread out over a couple of weeks. You can just add your newspaper's logo at the bottom or take the initiative to sell the space to a local merchant/business to help promote the games. With the Winter Olympics underway, might be a good time to get local businesses to promote Kentucky's own version -- the Bluegrass State Games.

Click Here for Full Size JPEG

2006 LEGISLATIVE UPDATE

HOUSE BILL 456 -- We understand that the 50-cent per copy fee in House Bill 456 has been or will be pulled from the bill. As they say around here, what's true at 8:30 p.m. may be different by 8:30 a.m. So we won't believe it until we see it. This is the county clerk's association legislation to raise various fees it can charge and within the very lengthy bill was one line, allowing county clerks to charge "up to 50 cents per page" for making a copy of a public record.

HOUSE BILL 171 -- Legislation supported by KPA, the Kentucky League of Cities, Kentucky Association of Counties, Kentucky County Judge Executives Association, Kentucky County Magistrates and County Commissioners Association, flew out of the Senate State and Local Government Committee yesterday and now heads to the full Senate for a vote. That could come as early as next week. It passed the House 90-4 two weeks ago. So if it gets a favorable vote from the full Senate, it'll be on its way to the Governor for his signature. It was unanimous in the Senate committee.

http://www.nna.org/Meetings/GAC2006

The National Newspaper Association's Government Affairs Conference is March 8-11 at the Wyndham Hotel in Washington, D.C. Join Max Heath, Chip Hutcheson as well as colleagues from around the country to get the first-hand scoop on what's going on in Washington, and what Congress has planned that will affect your newspaper and business.

Speakers include Senators John McCain and Barack Obama. Other speakers will be Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, former CIA Director Stansfield Turner, Republican Study Committee Chair Mike Pense, Postmaster General Jack Potter and Iraq war critic Rep. John Murtha. Michael Gartner, former editor of the Louisville Courier-Journal will emcee.

You'll also want to attend NNA's Congressional luncheon during the conference and then tag along with Max, Chip and other Kentuckians as we visit with some of Kentucky's Congressional delegation to tell them how various issues in D.C. affect newspaper operations.

Hotel reservation deadline is February 15; convention registration deadline has been extended to February 23.

http://www.kypress.com/laws_legal/krs365.asp

With the start of another year, we've been getting some calls about what is required with "Going Out of Business Sales." Remember, not only those kinds of sales but several types -- fire sale, moving sale, lost our lease sale -- all require the merchant/business to get a permit from the county clerk's office and to include that permit number in ALL advertising. We've posted the law related to these types of sales on the KPA website. The link above takes you to each section of the law related to the sales. Share the laws with your advertising staff and also feel free to print a copy for merchants/businesses when they question why they need a permit and where they get the permit.

http://www.kypress.com/adcontest

Friday, February 24 is the deadline to enter the Advertising Excellence in Kentucky Newspapers - 2006 competition. The link above is to all the information about the contest. Entries must be postmarked by Friday, February 24. The contest will be judged in mid-March by the Illinois Press Association.

The contest awards lunch is scheduled for Friday, April 28, as a part of the 2006 KPA Spring Ad Seminar. Information about the seminar, April 27-28 at the Holiday Inn South/Airport in Louisville will be posted in early March on the KPA website.

http://jcomm.uoregon.edu/payneawards

The University of Oregon is seeking nominations for its Payne Awards for Ethics in Journalism. It is seeking nominations of a collegiate or professional journalist or a news organization that wrestled with an ethical dilemma during 2005.

If you know of a journalist, collegiate or professional, or a news organization that demonstrated high standards of ethical behavior in the face of significant political or economic pressure, additional information and nomination forms are available on the University of Oregon's website -- http://jcomm.uoregon.edu/payneawards. The deadline for nominations is Friday, February 24, 2006.

Nominations and winners are not limited to the state of Oregon but to journalists and news organizations across the U.S.

http://cjc.umd.edu/fellowships/fellowships_fiveday.html

Apply now to attend CJC's national conference, "Crossing Divides: Reporting on Diverse Communities,” March 12-16, 2006, outside of Washington, D.C.

As more U.S. cities and states become "majority-minority," one in five children is an immigrant or the child of an immigrant. At the same time, the country is reckoning with mounting issues of the "underclass," as revealed by Hurricane Katrina. To help journalists tell stories of an America that struggles with issues of class, race, economics and culture, the conference will explore popular conceptions and understanding of immigrants and the underclass and how social institutions are grappling with this growing diversity. Sessions will focus on major institutions and systems, such as schools/education; health care; social services; criminal justice; the economy; politics; and social/cultural/religious life.

Be one of 30 print, broadcast and online journalists chosen to examine the challenges facing today’s diverse families. Participate in discussions with renowned researchers and build your skills in journalism workshops. Fellowships cover lodging, materials and a travel subsidy to the University of Maryland, located seven miles from downtown Washington. Applications are due on Monday, Jan. 23, 2006.

Confirmed speakers include keynoter Freeman A. Hrabowski III, president of the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, a national expert on minority student achievement; Hodding Carter III, journalist, author and former Carter Administration spokesman; Charles Murray, author and scholar; Annetta Seecharran, executive director of South Asian Youth Action; and Tamar Jacoby, writer and television and radio commentator.

For an application and addition information, visit http://cjc.umd.edu/fellowships/fellowships_fiveday.html.

Casey Journalism Center on Children and Families (CJC)
4321 Hartwick Road, Suite 320
College Park, MD 20740
Phone: 301.699.5133
Fax: 301.699.9755
E-mail: info@cjc.umd.edu

http://www.uky.edu/CommInfoStudies/IRJCI/resources.htm

Contact: Al Cross, Director, Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues
University of Kentucky, Lexington, 40506-0042, (859) 257-3744, al.cross@uky.edu

Institute launches resource guide for reporting rural issues

The Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues has launched Reporting Resources, a collection of computer-assisted reporting resources for covering a variety of rural subjects. The guide is designed help all journalists, both rural and metropolitan, do a better job of covering rural issues. The guide is available at http://www.uky.edu/CommInfoStudies/IRJCI/resources.htm.

The guide contains sources on several major topics for rural areas, such as education, health care and economic development, plus a separate section on the craft of journalism, including investigative tools for reporters. More topics will be added as the guide develops and the Institute receives suggestions from users. The Institute invites contributions from journalists who have used certain resources to prepare a story or deal with a professional issue, or from anyone interested in rural issues who knows a resource that should be listed. Please e-mail Institute Director Al Cross at al.cross@uky.edu <mailto:al.cross@uky.edu>. We also want to know of any shortcomings among the listed resources or other sections of our Web site, www.ruraljournalism.org <http://www.ruraljournalism.org/>.

The Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues was founded to help rural journalists define the public agenda in their communities, through strong, responsible reporting and commentary. It also seeks to help them grasp regional, state and national issues affecting their communities, and to help metropolitan journalists understand rural America and its issues, which often receive inadequate coverage in all types of news media.

The Institute is multi-disciplinary and multi-institutional. It is based at the University of Kentucky and has academic partners at Appalachian State University, East Tennessee State University, Eastern Kentucky University, Indiana University of Pennsylvania, Marshall University, Middle Tennessee State University, Ohio University, Southeast Missouri State University, the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, the University of Tennessee-Knoxville, Washington and Lee University, West Virginia University and the Knight Community Journalism Fellows program of the University of Alabama.

The Institute has presented seminars on covering the coal industry and health care in Central Appalachia; how to cover state and federal governments without having reporters based in the capitals; and a national conference on rural issues at the Knight Center for Specialized Journalism at the University of Maryland. Its principal funding comes from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, with additional support from the University of Kentucky and the Ford Foundation.

http://www.nna.org/articles/2006AmosMckinney.html

NNA calls for nominations for the Amos and McKinney Awards

COLUMBIA, MO—The National Newspaper Association is calling for nominations for the 2006 Amos and McKinney Awards, which are the association’s highest honors awarded to working or retired newspapermen and women who have exhibited distinguished service to the community press.

Criteria for nominations: The nominee may be a working or retired newspaperman or woman whose non-metropolitan newspaper is a member in good standing of the National Newspaper Association. The nominee must exhibit continuing and significant contributions to community leadership and community journalism.

The nominee must exhibit community leadership through advocacy and involvement in his or her community. The nominee must exhibit dedication to the advancement of the journalism profession through participation in state and national associations.

The Amos and McKinney Awards will be presented during NNA’s 120th Annual Convention, Oct. 11-14, 2006, in Oklahoma City, OK. Questions? Contact Sara Dickson at (573) 882-5800 or saradickson@nna.org .

Deadline for submission is May 31, 2006. Nomination forms and more information are located on NNA’s Amos & McKinney contest web site http://www.nna.org/Contests/Amos&McKinney.htm.