Bryan K Pruitt.net

Readable Archives

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INVESTIGATIVE / CAR STORIES:

At a loss for loans -- Shortly after arriving home from an IRE Better Watchdog workshop, I found myself seeking a really cool CAR story. In my anxious hand I held several CD's plump with data.

        My opportunity arrived with the release of a study by the California Reinvestment Committee chronicling predatory lending in the state. I localized it by filtering the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act database through Microsoft Access. 

Road worriers and From zero to 911 --  This was one of those stories assigned by an editor to which a reporter responds, "How much can I write about a highway?"

     A rash of fatality accidents on the Interstate 80 corridor through Vallejo prompted the editorial edict. After getting my mind into the story, I found more than 100 inches I could write, stretching it into a series that ran two days. It elicited a complimentary call to my editor from a highly placed California Highway Patrol official in Sacramento.

     The editor took credit for the story, naturally.

     "Road Worriers" (Part I) and "From zero to 911" (Part II) ran in the Oakland Tribune and several other ANG papers along the I-80 corridor. Each version was localized in subtle ways for the local readership. The version presented ran in the Vallejo Times-Herald.