Jackie Nespral, Life as an Anchor

Jackie Nespral shares her life story as an anchor with Coral Gables War Memorial Senior Citizens, during their monthly lecture luncheon.

Nespral, who originally was a University of Miami psychology major, stepped into journalism quite by accident.

Nespral's name was entered into the Orange Bowl Queens Pageant by her mother, which in turn triggered a chain reaction from winning the pageant to getting a job on the Latin American show, Sabado Gigante.

Upon the completion of her degree at UM, Nespral decided that entertainment was not her passion, and hoped that news television would suit her better.  Nespral left Univision, got herself an agent and shortly after interviewed in New York City for the NBC Today Show. 

At the young age of 25, Jackie Nespral was hired as one of NBC's network anchors, and had the opportunity to interview on an international forum.

"I had the opportunity to interview all kinds of people, including my long-time hero, Barbara Walters," Nespral said.

Even though she loved NY, Nespral decided to return to Miami, commuting for several years between both cities.

Following the expiration of her contract, Nespral gained a permanent position in Miami.

"I went from interviewing international presidents to local politicians," Nespral said.

OxyContin Health Insurance Scam

In a second wave since the initial arrest in 2005’s OxyContin health insurance scam, the Miami-Dade Police and State Department arrested 62 additional people, of which 56 were government employees, including a police officer, a felony court clerk, two corrections officers and 17 school bus drivers.

“We get people who get arrested for drug abuse and possession all the time, but it’s different when government employees are involved,” Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office Media Relations Spokesperson Terrie Chavez said.

All 62 people face charges of racketeering, conspiracy to commit racketeering and grand theft. According to prosecutors, the six so called recruiters found these public employees willing to use their health benefits for prescription fraud.

The initial scam dates to January of 2003, when six recruiters enlisted a group of mostly local government employees, to participate in an illegal drug ring in which they fraudulently obtained prescriptions from physician Ronald Harris for the painkiller known as OxyContin.

“The same doctor, Ronald Harris, was involved in both cases,” Chavez said. “In the initial arrest in 2005, all of the people that went down with him were the same type of people as in this current case.”

According to Federal Court documents, Dr. Ronald Harris, who is represented by the court appointed Jan Smith, has revoked his initial plea, and plans to plead guilty on five counts in a future hearing.

“During Ronal Harris’s initial arrest, a lessened plea was negotiated for further information, which eventually lead to these arrests,” Chavez said.

In August of 2005, a total of 29 defendants were charged by the Federal Prosecutors Office; 22 of which were county and city school board employees.

These public employees presented their prescriptions at local pharmacies to obtain the OxyContin tablets, which they would then sell for quick cash to their recruiters or pushers.

“The real villains are these pushers, who target the weak,” Chavez said. “They target bus drivers, who find themselves without employment for three to four months out of the year, with the prospect of easy money.”

In addition to claiming fraudulent prescriptions, the employees submitted their insurance claims to their employer issued health insurance company, fraudulently claiming reimbursement for the cost of the prescriptions.  

For government employees, it was their taxpayer-subsidized health insurance benefits that allowed them to fill fake prescriptions for the painkiller and provide the drug to black market dealers.

“For the number of folks working for the government, including myself, there are a great deal of benefits which the private sector does not have,” Chavez said.” “When you abuse your benefits all of us end up paying for it, and these people abused their benefits.”

Since the initial roundup in August of 2005 by Mark Trouville, Special Agent in Charge of the Miami Drug Enforcement Administration, the State Department has conducted a three-year investigation to bring down this second wave of criminals.

“The first case was a federal indictment since it was an organized racketeering group,” Chavez said. “After that we continued our own investigation, and everything trickled down from there. You have to collect good evidence to prosecute, and with the first 29 they had hard evidence.”

As stated by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, OxyContin is a prescription painkiller used for moderate to high pain relief associated with injuries, bursitis, dislocations, fractures, neuralgia, arthritis, lower back pain, and pain associated with cancer. It contains oxycodone, the medication's active ingredient, in a timed-release tablet. However, when abused, the drug can be deadly.

“It is a drug commonly misused to get high, but its purpose is to aid cancer patients to relieve pain,” Chavez said.

Authorities estimate that approximately 130 medically unnecessary prescriptions for OxyContin, more than 12,000 tablets, were presented to the pharmacies with an estimated street value of $400,000.

“There can never be an excuse for helping put dangerous drugs onto our streets,” Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle stated in a press release. “When public employees are a part of the problem and when public medical benefits are used to make the scheme work, these are shameful events. They are also crimes.”

According to Miami-Dade County Public Schools spokesman John Schuster, district employees who were arrested will be reassigned to positions were they will not come in contact with students.

“The impact we are most concerned with is people losing faith in their government workers,” Chavez said. “Luckily these school employees only passed the drugs back to their pushers, but there is always a lingering doubt in parents’ mind.”

The Miami Herald Features Cirque Du Soleil Sneak Peek

In this multimedia presentation, the Miami Herald featured a video on Cirque Du Soleil as it gave residents of Miami a sneak peek of their upcoming show, Corteo. 

Two of their acts were performed on the Lincoln Road Mall in Miami Beach to give people a taste of what Corteo is about. 

Fashion On The Street In NY by Bill Cunningham

The New York Times featured a small multimedia sound slideshow titled On the Street I Windward, by photographer Bill Cunningham.

The slideshow is a visual journalistic piece, describing the different forms of fashion that have made their way to the streets following an early start into winter.

Cunningham's voice accompanies his images, as he gives a descriptive narrative of the fashions as well as the decorative and natural signs of the approaching season.

This is a great example of a sound-slide, since both the audio and the photographs go well with one-another, and while individually they are both strong pieces, neither would do well on its own in this kind of format.

Presidential Debate Poll

Following Friday’s presidential debate, the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute released their Swing State polls on October 1, suggesting that Sen. Barack Obama favors over 50 percent in Florida, Ohio and Pennsylvania.

The poll consists of a study conducted prior to the presidential debate, in comparison to a study conducted subsequently to the debate.

The poll concluded that following the debate, Obama‘s favorability increased by two percent in Florida, one percent in Ohio and five percent in Pennsylvania, whereas Sen. John McCain’s remained the same in both Florida and Ohio and dropped down to four percent in Pennsylvania.

“It is difficult to find a modern competitive presidential race that has swung so dramatically, so quickly and so sharply this late in the campaign,” Peter Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute said in a press release on October 1. “In the last 20 days, Sen. Barack Obama has gone from seven points down to eight points up in Florida, while widening his leads to eight points in Ohio and 15 points in Pennsylvania.”

The importance these three states play to the overall poll is due to the fact that no presidential candidate has been elected president since 1960 without taking two of these three large swing states.

Even prior to Friday’s debate, a polling study conducted by Quinnipiac University from September 11 showed that Florida’s favorability towards Obama had increased from 43 to 49 percent whereas McCain’s dropped from 50 to 43 percent.

“Sen. John McCain has his work cut out for him if he is to win the presidency and there does not appear to be a role model for such a comeback in the last half century,” Brown said.
While the polls suggested that more than 84 percent of voters in each state did not change their mind following the debate, 13 to 17 percent of voters in each of the three states say that Obama did a better job and 15 to 27 percent of independent voters believed Obama to have won the debate.

“Sen. Obama clearly won the debate, voters say. Their opinion of Gov. Sarah Palin has gone south and the Wall Street meltdown has been a dagger to McCain’s political heart,” Brown said. “Roughly a third of voters, and almost as large a share of the key independent vote, say McCain did more harm than good in trying to resolve the financial crisis, and the share of voters who see the economy as the top issue has risen from roughly half to six in ten.”

Twitter 5: A Win is a Win

Hurricanes defeated UCF 20-14 on Saturday at Dolphin Stadium despite what was considered to be a somewhat sloppy game.

Twitter 4: Voters Favor Gay-Marriage Ban in Polls

According to the Miami Herald, a statewide poll in Florida shows voters favoring a gay-marriage ban.

Twitter 3: Bush causes Traffic Stand-Still in Miami

Pres. Bush visits Miami to meet with Cuban-American leaders at Havana Harry’s, causing an hour-long traffic standstill on Le Jeune Road.

Twitter 2: Reopening of School Tests Iraqi Safety

Iraqi safety is put to the test as Baghdad school reopens. NY Times reports that following a suicide threat the school is evacuated.

Twitter 1: How Accurate are Polls?

How accurate are the polls projecting Barack Obama’s victory?  The NY Times compares it to 2004, which predicted Kerry as the next president.

Bridget Carey Reviews the Click Free Automatic Backup

The above video is part Miami Herald's 60-second reviews featuring Bridget Carey's brief synopsis of the Click Free Automatic Backup.

The external hard drive which offers simple computer file backups, is "easy to use" as stated by Carey.

New York Times' "In Poverty and Strife, Women Test Limits""

New York Times' In Poverty and Strife, Women Test Limits, features a different kind of revolution in Bamian, Afghanistan.

It is one of the most peaceful corners in Afghanistan, and yet Bamian faces a new group of revolutionaries; women.

They are driving cars, working in public offices, and police stations and most importantly sitting in on local councils.

There is even a female governor, the first and only one in Afghanistan.

In order to effectively describe this story, the article is not enough, but with the aid of a few multimedia elements, the reader is able to complete the full picture.

As part of the packaging the New York Times included a map featuring the small civilization in Afghanistan. 

It also includes a video, which features the interviews of various female professionals, who share their opinions of female empowerment in Afghanistan.

The inclusion of a photographic slideshow, is another element within the package used to give the whole story to the reader.  

Even though the slideshow is a nice additional element, in this story however, both the map and video are more effective in conveying the importance of the story, since one acts as a visual informational tool, and the other gives the story the voice it requires. 

Multimedia Packaging

For online journalists, multimedia packaging is a form of combining key elements such as text, graphics, sound, video, rich content and links.

The combination of these elements, allow journalists to tell stories in a new and much more intriguing way, by overcoming the traditional limitations found in print and broadcast media.

Interactivity between these elements, allow the user to actually manipulate the information in a featured story, or construct their own story out of the individual media elements.

This type of interactivity with the media is done through the user making individual choices by clicking on links.

Interactivity also allows users to contribute to the story, by adding their personal opinions to the existing information.

As quoted by James C. Foust: "As an online journalist you have to be continually aware that graphics can be part of your storytelling arsenal and that some stories can be best understood only with a combination of words and graphic elements."

The National Geographic's The Daily Dozen

The National Geographic's NGM Widgets page features a small collection of cool downloadable widgets, that one can insert into their blog or website.

The above widget is called The Daily Dozen, in which National Geographic's Senior Editor Susan Welchman selects photographs for today's Daily Dozen.

The photos from which Welchman makes her selection, are submitted by interactive viewers who hope to have their images published on their web site.

And then, each morning, the embed widget features 12 of Welchman's favorite selections.

This form of interaction between the user and the site, allows for direct communication between both as well as a form of interactive user participation.

New York Times' "A City Uses Murals to Bridge Differences"

In a recent on-line article featuring the use of murals to bridge racial differences in urban Philadelphia, The New York Times utilized another subtle form of multimedia to enhance the readers experience. 

The article, A City Uses Murals to Bridge Differences, focuses on a ten-year community project, in which Philadelphia residents of a racially divided neighborhood, worked together to paint a mural featuring racial unity.

The mural, titled The Peace Wall depicts an image of a dozen ethnically different hands uniting one another in a message of equality and unity.

The program which originally began as a anti-graffiti project back in 1984, has produced more than 2.800 murals throughout the city, a majority of them covering the walls of low-income neighborhoods.

Alongside this on-line article, The New York Times decided to use a silent photo slideshow named The Peace Wall, as their multimedia packet.  Overall, I think that the use of the slideshow is a good example in depicting various different examples of these now famous compilations.  

The photographs themselves are of excellent quality, as they not only depict the actual mural but actually cast them in their urban settings, demonstrating to the reader the effect they have on the community. 

However, along with the slideshow, a collection of audio featuring the residents of the neighborhood, would deliver the emotions these murals have brought about in a more effective manner.  This would deliver the full and complete story.