Fellow members,

In the past year, the Regional Reporters Association has brought you roundtables with top surrogates of the presidential campaign, briefings on covering the inauguration, the budget and the stimulus package, and we’ve worked to push for better access to the White House for regional reporters.
I hope you’re ready for more this time around.
I want to invite you to sign up for another year with the RRA, the only group dedicated to boosting opportunities for regional reporters and helping all of us do our jobs better. We have a lot of ideas and plans to improve RRA’s efforts, and welcome your suggestions as well.
At $20 a year, we’re probably the best deal in town these days. We’re keeping our membership cost low because we know times are tough, but as far as professional dues go, you can’t get a better return on your money.

Please visit www.rra.org to join. (Once you fill out the online form, our site gives you the option of mailing a check or paying through Paypal.)

A quick preview of what’s on the horizon:

• Revamped Web site - an updated site for regionals with a blog to keep you informed, a list of members and their papers and links to resources you might find handy.
• Members-only source list - A collaboration by members of good and accessible sources on issues we all cover; Leave your secret sources in your notebook, but if you’re willing, share your best academics on campaign finance reform of ethics, your go to political prognosticator and any other experts you find handy.
• Member-to-member exchanges - a new email address that will allow you to reach the other members to suggest coverage ideas or ask questions.
• RRA Facebook - improvements to our social networking group to help keep you informed, and provide a message board to interact.

Coming attractions:
The RRA is working to score roundtable discussions with Cabinet members and other top Washington officials. We’re organizing separate happy hours with spokespeople from the Senate and House, the White House and political committees. We’re planning other programs to

Please e-mail me at president@rra.org if you have any questions or ideas for RRA.

Best, Tommy

Thomas Burr
RRA President

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

RRA became one of 71 media organizations and companies to endorse the
newly introduced “Free Flow of Information Act”,  the latest proposal
to create a reporters privilege or “shield law” applicable to federal
proceedings.  There have been several attempts to pass a shield law in
recent years, spurred on by contempt charges levied against reporters
in high profile cases throughout the country (David Ashenfelter of the
Detroit Free Press faces jail time and other sanctions for refusing to
testify about information contained in several stories from 2004
regarding the Justice Department’s investigation of an Assistant
United States Attorney in Michigan).  The legislation is coming off a
strong, yet ultimately unsuccessful run in the 110th Congress, where
HR 2102 passed the House by a vote of 398-21 and the slightly
differing S 2035 passed the Senate Judiciary.  Time ran out on both
proposals after a Senate floor vote could not be scheduled.

The introduction of HR 985 on Wednesday, February 11 restarts this
process.  HR 985 is identical to its predecessor (we expect that the
Senate will introduce a bill identical to S 2035 in the near future).
It’s primary co-sponsors are Reps. Rick Boucher (D-VA) and Mike Pence
(R-IN), both longtime stalwarts of this effort.  However, there are 38
original co-sponsors, including House Judiciary Chairman John Conyers
(D-MI) and Ranking Member Bob Goodlatte (R-VA).

The RRA Board vote that formalized the organization’s endorsement
reflected the view of many in the media community regarding the Free
Flow of Information Act.  Board members opposing the endorsement
expressed opinions that ranged from a desire to avoid any requests for
specific help to the media from Congress to disappointment that the
bill does not go far enough to protecting reporters.  The latter comes
into play because the bill offers a “qualified privilege” which can
still result in the reporter being required to testify in certain
circumstances.  Ultimately, the prevailing Board view was that this
legislation, if enacted into law, will greatly benefit every reporter
in the country by removing the uncertainty and confusion that exists
when a reporter called into state-level court in 49 states or the
District of Columbia has a shield law or judicially created privilege
at his or her disposal, but remains unprotected if called to testify
in a federal proceeding.

The qualified privilege will apply in all federal judicial,
legislative and administrative proceeding  to anyone “who regularly
gathers prepares, collects, photographs, records, writes, edits,
reports, or publishes news or information that concerns local,
national, or international events or other matters of public interest
for dissemination to the public for a substantial portion of the
person’s livelihood or for substantial financial gain.”  The privilege
itself protects the reporter from having to testify unless it can be
shown by a preponderance of the evidence that:

·         The information sought is critical to a criminal case or
that it is dispositive of an issue in civil case; and
·         If all other sources for the information have been exhausted.

If the information sought would identify a confidential source or lead
to the revelation of the identity of a confidential source, the
reporter can be forced to testify if necessary to:
·         Prevent or identify any perpetrator of an act of terrorism
against the United States or its allies or other significant and
specified harm to national security;
·         Prevent imminent death or significant bodily harm;
·         Identify a person who has disclosed:
– A trade secret of significant value in violation of State or Federal law,
– Personal health information in violation of Federal law, or
– Personal financial information in violation of Federal law;
·         Identify the source of a leak of classified information,
where the leak has caused or will cause significant or articulable
harm to the national security.

In addition, the court will balance the public interest in compelling
the reporter to testify against the public’s interest in gathering and
disseminating news.

We’ll keep you posted on the progress of this effort and would love to
hear your thoughts as well.

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.