Posted inNewsletter
Newsletter: July 31, 2013
by Lorie Hearn July 31, 2013 August 11, 2020 Why you can trust inewsource
Dear friends of inewsource,
San Diego's mayor continues to be in the national spotlight, and inewsource and KPBS are advancing the story and covering it responsibly. In the past week, anonymity fell away from the allegations against the mayor when women attached their names and faces to the stories. Through a lawsuit, rising calls for his resignation and recall attempts, Filner is staying put.
Now more than ever, the public needs inewsource's level-headed brand of journalism. At the end of August, we will launch our first-ever membership campaign. Stay tuned for details! I hope you will participate.
Show your support for finding the truth. Share this email!.
— Lorie Hearn, Executive Director | loriehearn@inewsource.org
And then there were eight
As four more women stepped up to complain of unwanted sexual advances by San Diego Mayor Bob Filner, and two separate recall drives got going, inewsource continued to partner with KPBS in tracking down the news. We also reported our own story of Filner's apology and his surprise announcement that he'd seek two weeks of treatment for his behavior toward women but wouldn't resign.
Reporters in San Diego and beyond were all over this story. Joanne Faryon and Brad Racino told it concisely, while still providing plenty of useful context.
Criticism of Filner accelerated, and yesterday an eighth woman stepped up to complain of his unwanted sexual advances when he was a congressman. One comment under the KPBS story online noted that it had become a case of "He said, she said, she said, she said, she said, she said, she said, she said, she said."
Our interactive map of Mello-Roos fees proved its worth again when the Poway School District admitted there were mistakes in some Mello-Roos tax bills after a Poway resident used the map to discover he was being overcharged. Like the problems found by two Del Sur homeowners, this one stemmed from incorrect square footage listed on building permits filed with the city of San Diego.
Joanne Faryon, who wrote the story with Kelly Paice, said she was surprised that the errors extended beyond one Mello-Roos district. "That raises all sorts of questions about the integrity of the entire system. We are now in the process of trying to track down the scope of the problem.
"Also worth noting: City of San Diego Councilman Mark Kersey is asking the school to district to audit all of its Mello-Roos districts because so many of his constituents pay into these districts. We will be following up with their response."
For you, a special price…
For online shoppers, the threat "I know where you live" now has this creepy addendum: "and I know how often you've shopped here, how long you take to decide and what computer you use. What's more, I'm going to use that information to decide what price to offer you."
Our partner ABC 10News reported this week that San Diego Rep. Susan Davis has warned constituents of this and introduced legislation requiring internet companies to disclose the practice.
It's known as dynamic pricing, allowing companies to charge customers different prices based on information collected about them. KPBS listeners may have heard about it on Marketplace last year. That radio report tracked the price of a Star Wars Blu-Ray DVD box set and found a $64 range, with the lowest during the week before Black Friday and the highest that Saturday.
Truth matters. Help us find it.
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Percentages are based on 15 total survey responses. The numbers include full-time and part-time staff, full-time fellows and full-time and part-time interns. Newsroom
Percentages are based on 15 completed survey responses to this question. Business
Percentages are based on 15 completed survey responses to this question.
Gender Identity Gender Identity Gender Identity
Women 80% Women 82% Women 75%
Men 20% Men 18% Men 25%
Sexual Orientation Sexual Orientation Sexual Orientation
Straight 87% Straight 82% Straight 100%
LGBTQ-identifying 7% LGBTQ-identifying 7%
Not specified 7% Not specified 7%
Speak a language beyond English at home 33% Speak a language beyond English at home 18% Speak a language beyond English at home 75%
Race/Ethnicity Race/Ethnicity Race/Ethnicity
White 67% White 73% White 50%
Hispanic or Latinx 20% Two or more races 18% Hispanic or Latinx 50%
Two or more races 13% Hispanic or Latinx 9%
Age Age Age
20-29 40% 20-29 45% 20-29 25%
60 or older 13% 60 or older 9% 60 or older 25%
* The percentages in the charts have been rounded and may not add up to 100.
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Your comments, questions and suggestions can be sent to the team as a whole at contact@inewsource.org or you can contact a specific member of our staff.
CEO, Editor and Founder: Lorie Hearn, loriehearn@inewsource.org
Lorie Hearn is the chief executive officer, editor and founder of inewsource. She founded inewsource in the summer of 2009, following a successful reporting and editing career in newspapers. She retired from The San Diego Union-Tribune, where she had been a reporter, Metro Editor and finally the senior editor for Metro and Watchdog Journalism. In addition to department oversight, Hearn personally managed a four-person watchdog team, composed of two data specialists and two investigative reporters. Hearn was a Nieman Foundation fellow at Harvard University in 1994-95. She focused on juvenile justice and drug control policy, a natural course to follow her years as a courts and legal affairs reporter at the San Diego Union and then the Union-Tribune.
Hearn became Metro Editor in 1999 and oversaw regional and city news coverage, which included the city of San Diego's financial debacle and near bankruptcy. Reporters and editors on Metro during her tenure were part of the Pulitzer Prize-winning stories that exposed Congressman Randy "Duke" Cunningham and led to his imprisonment.
Hearn began her journalism career as a reporter for the Bucks County Courier Times, a small daily outside of Philadelphia, shortly after graduating from the University of Delaware. During the decades following, she moved through countless beats at five newspapers on both coasts.
High-profile coverage included the historic state Supreme Court election in 1986, when three sitting justices were ousted from the bench, and the 1992 execution of Robert Alton Harris. That gas chamber execution was the first time the death penalty was carried out in California in 25 years.
In her nine years as Metro Editor at the Union-Tribune, Hearn made watchdog reporting a priority. Her reporters produced award-winning investigations covering large and small local governments. The depth and breadth of their public service work was most evident in coverage of the wildfires of 2003 and then 2007, when more than half a million people were evacuated from their homes.
Managing Editor: Laura Wingard, laurawingard@inewsource.org
Laura Wingard is the managing editor at inewsource. She has been an editor in San Diego since 2002, working at The San Diego Union-Tribune, KPBS and now inewsource. At the Union-Tribune, she served in a variety of roles including as enterprise editor, government editor, public safety and legal affairs editor, and metro editor. She directed the newspaper's award-winning coverage of the October 2007 wildfires and the 2010 disappearance of Poway teenager Chelsea King. She also oversaw reporting on San Diego's pension crisis.
For two years, Wingard was news and digital editor at KPBS, overseeing a team of four multimedia reporters and two web producers. She also was the KPBS liaison with inewsource and collaborated with inewsource chief executive officer and editor Lorie Hearn on investigative work by both news organizations.
Wingard also worked at the Las Vegas Review-Journal as the city editor and as an award-winning reporter covering the environment and politics. She also was the assistant managing editor for metro at The Press-Enterprise in Riverside. She earned her bachelor's degree at California State University, Fullerton, with a double major in communications/journalism and political science.
Assistant Editor and Senior Reporter: Brad Racino, bradracino@inewsource.org
Brad Racino is the assistant editor and a senior reporter at inewsource. He has produced investigations for print, radio and TV on topics including political corruption, transportation, health, maritime, education and nonprofits.
His cross-platform reporting for inewsource has earned more than 50 awards since 2012, including back-to-back national medals from Investigative Reporters and Editors, two national Edward R. Murrow awards, a Meyer "Mike" Berger award from New York City's Columbia Journalism School, the Sol Price Award for Responsible Journalism, San Diego SPJ's First Amendment Award, and a national Emmy nomination.
In 2017, Racino was selected by the Institute for Nonprofit News as one of 10 "Emerging Leaders" in U.S. nonprofit journalism.
Racino has worked as a reporter and database analyst for News21; as a photographer, videographer and reporter for the Columbia Missourian; as a project coordinator for the National Freedom of Information Coalition and as a videographer and editor for Verizon Fios1 TV in New York. He received his master's degree in journalism from the University of Missouri in 2012.
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Tagged: Bob Filner, Mello-Roos, newsletter, Susan Davis
Lorie Hearn
loriehearn@inewsource.org
Lorie Hearn is the chief executive officer and editor of inewsource. She is a lifelong news-aholic who started her reporting career writing her Girl Scout newsletter at age 12. High school and college were filled with school newspaper work, and after graduation, she worked as a reporter for newspapers...	More by Lorie Hearn