Stories To Tell > ProPublica Podcast: Codes of Silence + Journalism's Obligations

Codes of Silence and Journalism’s Obligations

by Topher Sanders
ProPublica, Yesterday, 10:31 a.m.

Podcast: A reporter in Chicago took on the police department’s alleged code of silence on misconduct. He produced a memorable story and poses some provocative questions to go with it.

The integrity of police officers and the departments they work for have come under considerable scrutiny in the past several years. In few cities, however, has that scrutiny been more intense than in Chicago, where reporter Jamie Kalven has broken a number of important and disturbing stories.
Kalven has worked in Chicago for decades as a human rights activist, and across those years he has written about conditions in the city’s public housing, as well as the broader lives of its residents.
His reporting on the police killing of Laquan McDonald earned him the 2015 George Polk Award for Local Reporting.
Kalven’s dogged pursuit of the details in the shooting death of the 17-year-old turned up evidence of an effort by police to mislead the public.
"The accumulating denials, you know, as the denials came in and as I cataloged them in the legal documents, I have to say that actually built my confidence in the story. Because remember this is a story about official denial; this is a story about the code of silence."

Listen to this podcast on iTunes, SoundCloud or Stitcher. For more, read Kalven's series, Code of Silence.

El Rancho 2 Digs Into The New Urban DTMesa

Community Development Partners, the company that brought Rancho del Arte to the New urban Downtown Mesa last year, currently has two small and incremental construction projects in the works.
This is one ground-breaking event today, although as you can see construction has been moving along on-site in these images taken last week.


According to this press release today
Community Development Partners Breaks Ground on El Rancho II

Affordable Community in Mesa, AZ

Promises to Become Community Hub

News provided by

Community Development Partners

Oct 17, 2016, 11:00 ET

 

 

MESA, Ariz., Oct. 17, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Community Development Partners is pleased to break ground on El Rancho II in Mesa, AZ.  The groundbreaking ceremony will take place today, October 17, 2016 at 11am at 659 E Main St., in Mesa, and include speakers ADOH Director Michael Trailor and City of Mesa Mayor John Giles.
El Rancho II represents a comprehensive approach to designing and developing affordable housing, where not only are residents' basic housing needs met, but a community is energized and engaged. 
El Rancho II will consist of 47 units serving low-income households earning between 40-60% of the Area Median Income, with a preference for families with children. The project will be comprised of 26 two-bed, 11 three-bed, and 10 four-bed units, with sizes ranging from 942 to 1,988 square feet.  A New Leaf will provide resident supportive services and Local First Arizona will provide an on-site micro enterprise accelerator program for enterprising residents. Similar to its predecessor El Rancho del Arte, the adjacent El Rancho II will integrate the arts into its design through installations and ongoing programming.  The community—designed by Perlman Architects, constructed by Rytan Construction, and managed by Celtic Property Management—is aiming to achieve LEED Gold certification. 

Eric Paine, Chief Executive Officer of Community Development Partners, says, "Our mission is to not only provide housing, but create healthy and engaged neighborhoods.  We are pleased with how El Rancho del Arte is becoming a community hub and look forward to delivering a second phase that continues the mission."

The project was partially financed by the sale of 9% Low Income Housing Tax Credits awarded by Arizona Department of Housing (ADOH) in 2015.  The tax credit investor is Alliant Capital.  A construction and permanent loan from Chase bank, HOME and Housing Trust Funds from ADOH and a HOME Loan from the City of Mesa, along with an acquisition/pre-development loan from Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC) financed the remaining project costs.

About Community Development PartnersFounded in 2011, Community Development Partners develops and operates sustainable, life-enhancing affordable housing with a focus on long term community engagement and innovative design. The company is based in Orange County and has developed or currently operates properties in Arizona, California, and Oregon.  For more information, visit: communitydevpartners.com.

Contact: Beth Binger
BCIpr
619-987-6658beth.binger@BCIpr.com

'Time Warp' Here in Mesa > oCTOBER 22 | The Rocky Horror Picture Show

.Mesa will never be the same after this!     ....INTERACTIVE ART AT ITS BEST
 

Published on May 29, 2015

Scene from the 1975 cult classic, "The Rocky Horror Picture Show" - with lyrics on screen    

"The Time Warp (Remix 1989 Extended Version)" by Richard O'Brien, Patricia Quinn, Little Nell
Listen ad-free with YouTube Red

40th Anniversary of The Rocky Horror Picture Show
Film Screening Party with Barry Bostwick

Presented by Mesa Arts Center as part of the Performing Live Series

October 22, 2016

Saturday 7:30PM

Ikeda Theater

$42-$87

 

 

VIP Package:

•  Best seats in the house
• Post Show meet and greet with Barry Bostwick

 

Costume contest! Audience participation! Plus live talkback and Q+A with Barry! It’s the event that will have you shivering with antici….pation. Celebrate the 40th Anniversary of The Rocky Horror Picture Show with the one-and-only “Brad Majors” himself, Barry Bostwick. Be a part of this party celebrating 4 decades of the phenomenon that has sparked fans to dress up and shout lines in movie theatres across the world. Put your hands on your hips for the “Time Warp” and sing your loudest “Hot Patootie” as you enjoy a screening of the film with all your favorite creatures of the night.
 
Following the film, Barry Bostwick will dish on all his best behind-the-scenes stories, working with Tim Curry and Susan Sarandon and so much more. Brad! Janet! 
Dr. Scott! Rocky! Whichever character you decide to be, make it your best costume and enter the fun contest.

City of Mesa Employee Benefits Cost Are Sky-Rocketing

Report from Feb 8, 2016

Employee Benefit Trust Fund FY16/17 Funding Recommendations [PDF]

http://www.mesaaz.gov/city-hall/office-of-management-budget/presentations-reports

The Labour Panto!

Heads or Tails? U Win
It's democracy and it keeps you on your toes.
Everything from calling the new prime minister "Zelda from The Terror Hawks" and how the popular vote turns out in England and America - The Curtain Gets Raised!

Published on Oct 16, 2016

Views: 9,002

Corbyn & Trump: Two very different sides to the same coin!

Acoustic Guitar Man Joel Parker: Talent On-the-Corner Here @ MACFest



Standin' on the corner here in Mesa Arizona, such a fine sight to see ...[how's that Jackson Browne song go?]
Good news: he's scheduled for four more bookings
First did a post about Joel Poker back on February 6, 2016 check it out, including one of his self-produced videos.... 
More details to follow

More Re/ Jane Jacobs from The Atlantc Monthly

Reduced to a word, Jacobs’s argument is that a city, or neighborhood, or block, cannot succeed without diversity: diversity of residential and commercial use, racial and socioeconomic diversity, diversity of governing bodies (from local wards to state agencies), diverse modes of transportation, diversity of public and private institutional support, diversity of architectural style. Great numbers of people concentrated in relatively small areas should not be considered a health or safety hazard; they are the foundation of a healthy community. Dense, varied populations are “desirable,”
Jacobs warns of allowing political campaigns “to construct new reality.”
Excerpts and image from http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2016/11/the-prophecies-of-jane-jacobs/501104/?utm_content=bufferfb5fa&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_campaign=buffer
 . . a shrewd theorist who revealed how cities work, why they thrive, and why they fail. Jacobs lived to the age of 89, long enough to see her renegade theories become conventional wisdom. No one questions anymore that lively neighborhoods require diversity of use and function, that more roads lead to more cars, that historic buildings should be preserved, that investment in public transportation reduces traffic and promotes neighborhood activity, that “flexible and gradual change” is almost always preferable to “cataclysmic,” broad-stroke redevelopment.
Urban life was Jacobs’s great subject. But her great theme was the fragility of democracy—how difficult it is to maintain, how easily it can crumble. A city offered the perfect laboratory in which to study democracy’s intricate, interconnected gears and ballistics. “When we deal with cities,” she wrote in The Death and Life of Great American Cities (1961), “we are dealing with life at its most complex and intense.” When cities succeed, they represent the purest manifestation of democratic ideals: “Cities have the capability of providing something for everybody, only because, and only when, they are created by everybody.” When cities fail, they fail for the same reasons democracies fail: corruption, tyranny, homogenization, overspecialization, cultural drift and atrophy.