Month: December 2010

In Limbo

I’m still waiting to hear whether I’m going to get to keep doing the New Hampshire Grand Initiative videos. They’ve got some concerns about liability, which we’re working on addressing, but for now the Grand Adventurer isn’t adventuring (officially, that is).

But today I get to do something else extremely rewarding in the North Country. North Country Education Services is an organization that works to promote excellence in the North Country education. They work with the schools to create opportunities for kids, and today I got to be part of one of those.

NCES put on a middle school film festival, where middle school students wrote, shot, starred in and edited movies about healthy living and healthy lifestyles. Their associate executive director, Lori Langois, is doing a leadership program with me, and she asked me if I would serve as host for an awards ceremony.

It was great. I got to read out the winners for best editing, best cinematography, best picture and the rest. I was handing out awards to fifth through eight graders (the first time I’ve ever been the tallest person on stage).

In journalism it can be challenging, because you need to keep your distance from every interest. No man is an island, but it is hard to serve on a board or put your support behind causes in a small community because you wind up covering those causes. I’ve already interviewed friends and former employers for stories at the Sun. That’s a tough place to be, because even if the story is evenhanded a possible bias exists.

But I’ve always been a champion of Coös. I’ve always felt as the reporter I was responsible for representing the interests of the people, whatever that means. But I couldn’t throw my hat in the ring, in many respects, because I might be interviewing the people in that ring a few weeks later. Now, however, I’m free of that burden—at least in Coös County. I don’t cover these communities nearly as much anymore, so I have the opportunity to throw my energy behind organizations there without having to worry about the appearance of favoritism.

I’m hoping I can work out something with the Initiative, but if not that’s OK. Either way, I’ve found a great place to invest my energy: Coös.

Sudan, Step Two

Good news: I’ve connected with a Manchester man from Sudan. He and another man are willing to talk to me about the impression the southern Sudanese referendum has on people living in New Hampshire. Now, with the holidays, work and everything else, I’ve got to figure out a time to speak with them…

Censored!

Not really, but it’s a bit of a theme this week in the media (think Wikileaks).

I have a contract with NCIC to do videos of outdoor fun about Coös (click here to see some), and the latest one, which I posted on here earlier this week, raised some questions within the organization about liability.

I totally get that. In fact, the first video I made I raised that same question. Outdoor fun isn’t boardgames—it can be dangerous. The part that gets me, however, is the perception of danger versus actual danger. Fear versus danger would be more accurate, I guess.

The roads were bad from Berlin to Dixville last week, with slick patches and slop. We were in real danger of getting hurt making the drive to the climb. More danger than on the climb? I don’t know. All I can say is we made it through the drive, and we made it through the climb. I can say I’ve got more friends that have been in car accidents than climbing accidents, and I’ve never had a friend die climbing (I can’t say the same for in a car).

The first video I did, where I climbed up Pinnacle Buttress on Mount Washington, raises the same concerns. So would a winter hike of Mount Washington. There’s a whole book of people who died up there. But a day skiing at Bretton Woods should raise the same questions. I ski patrolled for three years, and I carried many people off the mountain. I had a ski partner break both arms in a ski accident, and another friend hit a tree and require a helicopter rescue. But skiing is safe?

A good friend broke his femur riding his bicycle last month. He didn’t get hit by a car—he just fell off his bike. What does it take to get outside and stay safe these days? I guess I’m just not sure.

I am afraid to go to Iraq, but I’m not sure what the danger is. Fear is natural, but it isn’t always right. Danger is real, but it isn’t necessarily measured by fear (just think of most people’s reaction to speaking before a crowd). The two are always playing off each other in my head, and I’m constantly trying to measure “is this fear, or am I in danger?”

And, quite frankly, 200 feet up without a rope, adding fear creates danger. If you are confident in your movements, you may be in danger, but if you are tentative the danger only increases. So how can I say whether I was safe up there, or whether I was in danger? I can’t. The individual becomes part of the danger equation. They contribute to their own safety or peril, by their mounting or diminishing fear. I was as safe as I could be, considering the circumstances. That’s as good as I’m ever going to get.

But, I have to admit, I have no idea what that means for liability. Luckily that isn’t my purview.

Wading Through

I’ve been reporting for The Conway Daily Sun for more than two months now, and I think I’m starting to get things figured out. But now that I’m at a daily, I’ve started wading through topics that take me two to three days to report on. It’s a complexity I enjoy, but with a lot of work.

First, the backstory:

I broke a story about state legislators looking to add a $3 fee to AMC and RMC accommodations in the White Mountains last week, which launched me into a story about who pays what taxes. The AMC and the RMC offer similar (although not the same) accommodations on the sides of the mountains, including stays in rustic huts. A lot of people think the AMC and the RMC don’t pay the state’s 9 percent rooms and meals tax, so when it came to adding a $3 fee, people thought it seemed fair.

One problem—the AMC does pay the rooms and meals tax. Or, more accurately, they pay the rooms tax. Non-profits have an exemption from the meals side of things, but the AMC pays roughly $260,000 in lodging taxes (including some meals tax from their Highland Center, which has to pay the meals portion because they have a liquor license).

But the RMC doesn’t pay. Never has.

If you’re familiar with the two, you might say, “Hey, wait, but the RMC huts are simple, not the full service hotels the AMC offers.” And you would be right. But the AMC pays the lodging tax on all their huts’ operations, including the year round operations of huts like Carter Notch and Zealand, which, in the winter, are just a caretaker, just like the RMC’s huts.

Add to this mix that the Dartmouth Outing Club, which runs seven cabins that are open to the public and one lodge, reportedly does not pay the lodging tax either. And the Mount Washington Observatory does not either, and they provide accommodations for some guided climbers. I’m still waiting to hear back from the Harvard Mountaineering Club about their cabin in Huntington Ravine, but there are a lot of questions floating around.

I’m still trying to sort out who should be doing what. There are some exemptions out there, like one for non-profits running educational programs (the Observatory pointed that one out), but the fact that one non-profit is paying the tax while others aren’t does make you wonder. I’ve been on and off the phone with the state Department of Revenue Administration about this, but I’ve still got a ways to go before I’m clear.

Why does this matter? Because the state is starving for money, firstly, and they (or we, as it is government by and for the people) can’t afford to let money fall through the cracks. But more importantly if a non profit is offering a service that competes with local businesses (like, for example, lodging) they shouldn’t have any unfair advantages without providing some public good. Tax payers agree to give these organizations a break, but they have to be fulfilling some larger purpose. If a hiker hostel in Gorham has to pay 9 percent to the state for housing hikers then the AMC should, the DOC should, and so should everyone else. If the AMC or DOC is offering some additional educational opportunity, or something else, then there is a justification for the break. But as a matter of fairness, local businesses can’t compete with organizations that get a 9 percent subsidy. It would be unreasonable to ask them to.

So, as I look into this story, I’m wading through tax statutes, DRA rules, and legalese. It isn’t the most exciting topic, but it is something worth getting to the bottom of.

But it does take a toll on the daily news pace. Try to go through a crash course in tax law in a day, and see how many other news stories you can write.

A Few Good Tips

Saturday was one of the most productive work days I’ve ever had, and I didn’t get any work done. I drove to Concord to do a half-day workshop, where I learned ways reporters can be more effective covering the courts.

I also got about four story ideas on the drive down and the drive back, and I learned about an interesting program at Boston University in investigative journalism. It was a fantastically successful day, as far as I was concerned.

One thing that was interesting was the response I got when I mentioned I’d reported in Berlin. One guy snorted and laughed. It reminded me of just how misunderstood the northern part of the state is, and just how disconnected it is from the southern tier. I was in Coös County today working on a project. I love it up there. I wonder if the reactions were because people don’t know what it’s like up there, or if their perceptions are already so rigid they wouldn’t be able to see anything else but what they expect.

Three Dollars

Members of The state legislature are trying to add a $3 fee to overnight accommodations in the White Mountains to help pay for hiker rescues. I keep calling people to get their opinions on this, and it turns out they have not yet heard about the effort. Even the senator who proposed the bill wasn’t clear on the specifics. Not the easiest story to report, but whatever. I figure people ought to know so they can weigh in.
They should also know that hikers require roughly seven times as many rescues as any other user group in New Hampshire, and they currently do not contribute to the state’s search and rescue fund.
So what is fair? I’m interested to hear where this goes as the story develops.

Picking Up Speed…

It’s a little more than a month before I head to Iraq, and I’m reasonably well entrenched in my new job, so it’s time to get back to LPJ. The last two months, between the job transition, classes at Plymouth State (fulfilling prerequisites for the masters in economics I hope to someday chase down), and freelance projects for the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation and Northern Community Investment Corporation have had me to the wire for weeks. In the next several weeks, however, things will start to slow down, just in time to grab some bulletproof and head east.

I’ve been overwhelmed by the number of stories out there lately. There are more than I can handle. I’ve had a great time reporting on the Mount Washington Hotel’s effort to trademark “Mount Washington,” and the struggle over the privileges long-term pass-holders at Wildcat believe they deserve, but at the same time the Gorham mill has kept flipping turbulently toward an uncertain future.

I’ve been putting feelers out in the North Country for ways I can stay connected, because of the sense of community there, but at the same time I’m looking further abroad as well. I’m trying to get a story together on the Southern Sudanese in New Hampshire, and how they feel about that election, and possibly make the connections to go report there when the referendum happens in January. But that’s six days before I head to Iraq, so I have a hard time seeing that happen.

It’s all storytelling in my eyes: print, radio, photography, etc. And I am a far cry from getting enough of it. There are two compelling stories I want to cover—the rural American one, and the international one. Sometimes it’s hard to choose. But right now, with classes and projects and work, it’s been neither. I’ve been consumed by the day in front of me, barely able to put the plans together for the bigger, more profound stories.

But now that pace should be slowing down. Now it’s time to look for the stories first, and the outlets second, instead of finding the outlets that tell me what the stories will be. My projects may be slowing down, but I’ll be picking up speed, working on those things I have a passion for.

Iraq is step one. That trip, while obviously a work trip, will be a chance to test out one aspect of these two possibilities. As long as I come home safely I will have learned something about what direction to go.

And with this “slowing down” hopefully I’ll be able to polish off some of the stories that have been sitting for months. I have a Peru piece to finish, and a woman in western Maine to interview about how it feels to be the epicenter of the foreclosure scandal. I’ve got stories I’ve been trying to chase down, about immigrants, about industrialization and about energy, that have had to sit because I can’t hold on to all of them. Now, as things slow down, I’ll be speeding up…