Mar. 2, 2005

WASHINGTON - Somebody LexisNexis me.

For those of you not that savvy on search engines, that means I published a story with a byline!

It appeared in CongressDaily's Wed. AM edition, on page 9. I covered a House Education & the Workforce Committee hearing on rules aimed at preventing fraud in for-profit education companies. The rules are up for repealing this year.

My first published story was the product of blood, sweat, and dead brain cells. I only had a limited time to research the reason for the hearing, the issues of which I had no prior knowledge. Then, came the protocol. The press were reserved a small table in the corner of the hearing room, while people lined the barrier sectioning us off, effectively blocking my view of the proceedings. Never mind that I got a seat facing the wall and not the hearing table.

The hearing lasted at least two hours. The majority of the time was spent in opening statements from all the witnesses, the committee chair, and then each committee member who gave a statement before they asked questions. Then came the crossfire approach of one witness testifying to extreme problems in the system and the other side denying it. I won't bore you with the details, nor will I try to slight the importance of the hearing; if you want to, you can read my article through LexisNexis, presumably.

Other than that, I'm pushing hard on contacting representatives who co-sponsored the bill repealing the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" law, working on graphs and substories to go on "Page 3," and generally trying to tame the madness that is working in a fast-paced professional environment. Oh, and the Washington Nationals had their first spring practice game today. Go Nats! I'm a fan already. :-)

Until next time,

next entry>>

Click on image for caption and larger view