Our snow-delayed event with H&R Block’s Tax Institute has been rescheduled for

Thursday, Feb. 26
9 a.m.
McClendon Room, National Press Club

Amy McArarney, the head of H&R Block’s independent tax research arm, The Tax Institute, will speak with RRA members to share the implications of pending legislation and resources the group has to bring DC tax policies and proposals to readers back home.

Please RSVP so I can get an accurate count.

Thomas Burr
RRA President
president@rra.org

 

This program at the National Press Club might interest some regionals:

 CIA informants gone bad. Terrorists who slip through security. What’s the real risk? The National Press Club in Washington hosts two seminars to help you cover those and a host of other stories that involve risk. Plane crashes, food poisoning, climate change to terrorism, the environment, health and public safety: they all have key questions reporters must answer in order to tell audiences whether something is risky and, if so, how much. These sessions will also help you understand how people perceive risk — why some people are “freaked out” about relatively small ones but are not more concerned about really big ones.

 Our series of two 1.5 hour seminars will be held Wedneday, Jan. 13 through Friday, Jan. 15 at various times and will be presented by Harvard instructor and former Emmy award-winning television reporter David Ropeik. Ropeik is co-author of RISK: A Practical Guide for Deciding What’s Really Safe and What’s Really Dangerous in the World Around You and author of the forthcoming How Risky Is It, Really? Why Our Fears Don’t Match The Facts. 

SESSION I: The Basic Components of Risk (it’s more than statistical “odds) 

SESSION II: The Psychology of Risk Perception

These sessions are free for National Press Club members and $10 per session for non-members; coffee and snacks provided as are resource materials. See the various session times and sign up online at: http://press.org/library/riskreporting/.  

The seminars are sponsored by the NPC Eric Friedheim National Journalism Library’s Professional Development Committee with support from the Lounsbery Foundation, a foundation aimed at helping the public understand science and technology. Classes will be held in the library’s Bloomberg Center for Electronic Journalism classroom.  For more information, contact committee Chairwoman Susan Heavey at sheavey@reuters.com

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The White House Media Affairs shop has agreed to join members of the Regional Reporters Association for a happy hour tomorrow, Tuesday, July 7, at the National Press Club. Your regional spokespeople have been invited, and I hope you can join us to chat off-the-record in a social environment.

The board has approved some funds so that everyone should be able to enjoy at least one free drink. Members who have not yet paid their 2009 dues may do so at the event.

The deets:

When: Tuesday, July 7, starting at 6:30pm
Where: National Press Club’s McClendon Room (529 14th St, NW)
Who: The White House Media Affairs Office and the Regional Reporters Association

Best, Tommy

Thomas Burr
RRA President

A letter from RRA President Thomas Burr, following the annual meeting:

Fellow regionals,

At a general membership meeting today at the National Press Club, your entire slate of Regional Reporters Association officers and board members were re-elected to serve another term. A list of those elected by acclamation is below.

I am again humbled by your support to serve for one more term as president of the group and hope that we can do all we can to help boost opportunities for regional Washington correspondents and promote our important work to the masses.

As you well know, it’s a difficult time for us correspondents given the economic downturn and the industry troubles. But as you also are aware, no one in this town can sift through and dig out hometown news better than those of us regional correspondents working the halls of Congress and pressing officials from departments, agencies and the White House.

As always, please feel free to suggest ideas or offer suggestions on how RRA can help you as a regional correspondent.

Best, Thomas

Officers

President:Thomas Burr, Salt Lake Tribune
Vice President:Joe Morton, Omaha World Herald
Secretary: Lisa Mascaro, Las Vegas Sun
Treasurer: Malia Rulon, Gannett News Service

At-large directors

Alex Daniels, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Todd Gillman, Dallas Morning News
Michael Coleman, Albuquerque Journal
Bart Sullivan, Memphis Commercial Appeal
Jessica Wehrman, Dayton Daily News
Paul Merrion, Crain’s Chicago Business
Josh Drobnyk, Allentown Morning Call
Keith Chu, Western Communications Newspapers (Oregon, Calif.)
Herb Jackson, The Record ( Bergen County, N.J.)

About the RRA: The organization was formed in 1988 by Washington-based regional reporters who found they could help each other without compromising competition and who had more success asking to interview a high-ranking administration official as a group than they did individually. The group currently has nearly 50 paid members, who represent papers from Detroit to Houston and from St. Petersburg to San Jose and many major cities in between.

Passing on from Diana Marrero, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:

I recently attended a boot camp at the National Press Club to help
prepare print journalists for television interviews. The boot camp was
led by two longtime Washington, D.C.-area television journalists
Andrea McCarren and Alisa Parenti. I thought I would share some of the
things I learned with other regional reporters. Hope they are useful.

(more…)

This event next week might be of interest to you. Plenty of
local officials coming to town and a couple reports with state
rankings. Best, Tommy

Date: April 14, 2009 Contact: Michelle Blackston 202-624-8667

Meagan Dorsch 303-856-1412
State Lawmakers Play Active Role
in Boosting America’s Economy

(more…)

WHAT: Happy Hour with press secretaries for the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) & National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC)
FEATURING: Brian Walsh of NRSC and Ken Spain of NRCC and a myriad of other folks from their respective press shops
WHO’S INVITED: Members of the Regional Reporters Association (RRA) — If you are not a member or haven’t paid up for 2009, now’s the time!
WHERE: Bobby Van’s Grill, 1201 New York Avenue (the Deuce, not the original steakhouse)
WHEN: 6:30 p.m. on Wednesday, April 15
WHY: To celebrate the filing of your taxes by drinking — And networking with Republican political operatives and fellow regional reporters
RSVP: Malia Rulon, mrulon@gannett.com (as a courtesy, so we know how many of you to expect, but feel free to swing by at the last minute too)
FYI: We’re working on a forthcoming event with the D side too

Most states and local governments eagerly await their share of the $787 billion economic stimulus package - but maintenance of effort clauses, uncertainty about deadlines and deep budget shortfalls mean many states will remain deep in the hole, even after receiving that money, said officials from three public lobbying groups.

John Thomasian, director of the National Governors Association Center for Best Practices, Michael Bird, federal affairs counsel for the National Conference of State Legislatures, and Edwin Rosado, legislative director of the National Association of Counties, took questions at a joint event of the Regional Reporters Association and the National Press Club’s Newsmakers Committee.

The event drew more than 30 people, and appeared on CSPAN.

Coverage:

States will still face major budget problems post-stimulus, wrote Reuters’ Lisa Lambert, in an article that cited comments by Thomasian and Rosado from the event

Top White House economic advisor Larry Summers briefed a few dozen regional reporters (and RRA members) on President Barack Obama’s stimulus plan on Tuesday. Summers spoke for about 12 minutes, then took questions for another 12 minutes.

At the meeting, the White House released estimates of jobs created by Obama’s plan, broken down by state.  Many RRA members filed stories about the event. Jonathan Riskind and Jack Torry of the Columbus Dispatch got Sen. Sherrod Brown’s reaction to Summers’ comments. The Salt Lake City Tribune’s Thomas Burr and Matt Canham led with the number of Utah jobs the plan would create - and why the state won’t get as much money as some officials had hoped.

Erika Bolstad, of the Anchorage Daily News and the Idaho Statesman, snapped a few photos beforehand. The briefing was held in a conference room in the Old Executive Office Building, adjacent to the White House.

Monday’s event on covering the inauguration will be held at the National Press Club’s Murrow Room at 11 a.m. We have nearly 100 people who have signed up for this event, so I’d advise showing up early if you want a good seat. It will be recorded and available on the press club web site at some point as well if you can’t make it.

Thomas Burr RRA President