Midterm

1. The documents that I would search for upon the news of the arrest would first to look for an arrest report on the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Web site. After verifying the arrest, I would then go to the jail that he was being detained at to ask for a Criminal Incident Report in order to gain further knowledge of the crime and how Mr. Zimmerman reacted to authorities at the time of his arrest. At this juncture, I would ask police officers involved in his arrest questions regarding to how willingly Mr. Zimmerman cooperated with their arrest. If they were able to speak on the details of the case, I would ask questions as to what evidence they had unearthed and what instances led to the initial suspicion and eventual arrest. After receiving documents pertaining to his arrest, I would try to locate documents that led to his arrest. As noted by J.D. Calloway, I would like to inspect the warrant of arrest. Mr. Calloway made it seem that the media did not usually review such documents, but generally had great information for creating a story about the events leading up to the arrest including information about the crimes committed. To add to my story, I would try to find out if Mr. Zimmerman himself had any children by searching for birth certificates with his name listed as a parent. If Mr. Zimmerman did in fact have children, I would want to ask family members or neighbors who were open to talking to the media how Mr. Zimmerman conducted himself around his children or if they had any fears for their current safety and past histories with their father. I would ask the DCF for documents pertaining to Mr. Zimmerman’s Internet usage from his office’s computers. I would ask for e-mails and Web site history from Mr. Zimmerman’s office computer. If Mr. Zimmerman had a secretary at the DCF, I would ask him or her how often Mr. Zimmerman used the Internet from work and if he had ever asked his secretary to erase Web site history from his computer or redact information from e-mails or public spending documents. In addition to see if any possible government money was part of the child pornography operation, I would ask the DCF for documents on Mr. Zimmerman’s spending and use of government funds. In regard to interviews, I would want to interview a co-worker or supervisor of Mr. Zimmerman’s to see if any suspicions had arisen at work in regard to his extracurricular activities. I would want to know if Mr. Zimmerman had any personality traits that would lead one to believe that he had the potential to commit such a crime. I would specifically ask for such instances where Mr. Zimmerman prompted co-workers to outright wonder why he conducted himself in such a manner. To further that I would ask a superior to Mr. Zimmerman if there had ever been any sort of investigation launched inside of the agency about Mr. Zimmerman’s possible behavior or computer usage. In order to keep my readers up to date with where Mr. Zimmerman’s case stands, I would go to the Clerk of Courts to seek information regarding bail amounts and arraignments. In addition to looking for information on the current case, I would also look for past cases including Mr. Zimmerman to see if this was an isolated incident or one that has been recurring. After learning of the bond at status of Mr. Zimmerman I would want to know when a trial date would be held to be able to further my story throughout the entire court proceedings. Finally, I would try to reach out to Mr. Zimmerman himself to address the allegations and allow him to voice his side of the story. Throughout my interview with Mr. Zimmerman, I would be trying to get him to answer if he in fact had child pornography and if his answer was no then what was the reasoning behind his arrest.
3. When Mr. Crist announces his bid for Congress, my immediate reaction would be to look into his performance as a state senator. I would want to know how he voted on certain issues and would turn to my Supervisor of Elections to scan over voting history. I would specifically be looking for items that he voted on that may in fact contradict the campaign that he is running. If Mr. Crist were purporting himself to be pro-life, I would want to find cases where he had voted to uphold such cases as Roe v. Wade or a woman’s right to privacy. Next I would want to know who has donated to his campaign. I would use the Web site opensecrets.org to see how much Mr. Crist has spent on his campaign as well as how much he has raised. In addition to his money raised, I would be looking to see who his contributors were both personal and businesses. I would especially look to the business contributors to see if Mr. Crist might be greatly influenced in his job by certain industries. If Mr. Crist did in fact have certain industries contribute large amounts of money to his campaign, I would then turn to the Web site sunbiz.org. I would be searching to see if Mr. Crist has any businesses under his name that may in fact be a part of the industry that is contributing so much money to his campaign. In order to make sure that no illegal activities were occurring in regard to his campaign donations, I would want to cross-reference campaign contributors from opensecrets.org with companies that Mr. Crist may own or be owned by a large contributor from one of the industries backing Mr. Crist. In essence, I would try to find out if companies that would benefit from Mr. Crist making it into Congress were forcing their employees into donating to the Crist campaign. The main focus of my efforts would ultimately be to see if Mr. Crist would be unbiased in his work in Congress or if certain lobbyists or groups would sway him. I would look into any form of PAC contribution or 527s. I would try to follow the money as best as possible first from the documents kept by the campaign itself and trying to see who is listed as the donor. I would then try to do background searches on these individuals using such tools as AutoTrack to find out who they were and what assets or companies they may hold that would be affected by Mr. Crist’s election to Congress. In order to determine that Mr. Crist is qualified for the job in Congress, I would want to look into employment history. I would seek out his employment records as a state senator to see how long he has worked for the state as well as how much he has made. In addition, I would try to seek out employment information before becoming a state senator to determine if he has worked in the community long enough to understand the needs of the people he will be representing.