Efficiency, competition at center of Powers speech

Every year around the school's birthday, University of Texas at Austin President Bill Powers delivers a "State of the University" address, speaking of issues and challenges facing the university and how administration and faculty are responding. I've been to all three speeches since I started attending UT: I covered the speech for the Cactus Yearbook my first semester here, which was unfortunately never published; my first news writing class my sophomore year had us write weekly stories, which I really enjoyed despite the amount of work to be done; and though I had no commitment to a class or student media, I had nothing to do and a full laptop battery and decided to attend again this year.
The first two years I wrote stories, but this year my approach was different. Live-tweeting has become one of my favorite things to do during events and social media has given me a new appreciation for connecting to important offices and voices. Though slightly obnoxious, I enjoyed listening to my university president talk about topics he's passionate about and doing my part to inform my followers who aren't in attendance about what his plans are for the coming years. You can view my Storify of the event as a slideshow below.

Tweets offer public knowledge during bomb threat

After taking "Social Media Journalism," an online course taught by former Austin American-Statesman social media director Robert Quigley, it's safe to say I thoroughly enjoy using the Storify website. In a critical situation like this, I've found that social media by far can reveal more details in a quicker manner than traditional mediums. Below is my recap of the UT bomb threat, as seen through Twitter.

#FollowFriday

Since I am a multimedia journalism major, my interest in the way people get their news through the internet has grown dramatically. As my mini-bio says, I consider myself a social media enthusiast and I want to learn as much as possible about these different networking platforms. 

You can follow my boards on Pinterest here.

You can also follow me on Twitter: @marimolina385

Find me on Facebook here.  

Fly on the wall

Easily, the best part of my internship at Your News Now has been getting the opportunity to shadow reporters and photographers out in the field covering stories and getting information. Below are a few of the stories I've gone out on that made an impact on my internship experience.

Clean power plant already generating benefits for Temple: I accompanied James Taplin, the newest photographer to the YNN staff to interview Tom Smith of Public Citizen about a new natural gas plant. Even though we were sent with two questions required to ask, I got to act as reporter and generate and ask follow-up questions.

Child psychologist offers advice regarding shooting discussion: Like the Tom Smith interview, I went out with James to a psychologist's office and played reporter. The focus was on how to talk to children about the shooting in Aurora, Colorado at The Dark Knight Rises midnight premiere. 


Crash kills 1 in Northeast Travis County: Of all the scenes I've been out to during my internship, going to a fatal car wreck stands out vividly. I followed a photographer named Jesse, and he had given me very helpful advice about how to shoot video. The way he explained it instantly clicked: establish a big shot then move in for details, almost as if your eyes were at the scene bouncing around to look at everything. It definitely reinforced the importance of being observant. 

Bee attack leaves 1 critical, 3 injured

Upon coming into the office this Wednesday morning, I was given the opportunity to update a developing story. John Salazar had covered a dangerous bee swarm and I worked on converting his script to a web format and incorporating the previous information into the story.

Austin Travis County EMS officials say a man is in critical condition after being stung by a swarm of bees in Pflugerville Wednesday morning.

According to crews at the scene, a total of four patients had bee stings.

Timothy Hackney witnessed a massive swarm of bees attacking workers at a business near SH 130 and Rowe Lane.

"I drive down the road to get fuel every morning and pretty much saw a wall of bees,” Hackney of Sawcrete Company said.

Hackney realized bees were on the attack when he saw a man who “probably had a thousand bees stuck to him.”

The victim was taken to Round Rock hospital, reportedly with 300 hundred stings to his body.

Professional beekeeper Timothy Huddle responds to scenes when emergency personnel need his help.

"They were hanging from that, so I saw this wooden box, lift that cover and that's what I found,” Huddle said.

An estimated 150,000 bees called the honeycomb home. According to Huddle, the worker bees cranked out 120 pounds of honey stored in an old filing cabinet.

"That's pretty average. You see all these covered cells. Each one of those covered cells is a baby. On the other side, it's the exact same thing. More covered cells. More babies,” Huddle said.

In order to stop the aggressive nature of Wednesday morning’s bee swarm, Huddle had to kill the Queen Bee.

“I can actually give them a queen of my own that is more docile and start the hive again,” Huddle said.

Heavy spring rains have resulted in an increase in bee activity this year.

In the meantime, the victim is recovering and the bees are busy looking for a new place to start a colony.

Officials say bees are still aggressive and urge drivers to avoid the area near Rowe Lane and FM 685.

Colony Park neighborhood land set for development

From the script written by Jeff Stensland in Dalet, I wrote both the summary copy in the image and edited the story for the web. This includes information in the anchor "tease" and "tag" coming at the beginning and ending of a package, respectively. As part of the process, I also uploaded the video from our database and took a screenshot to act as the video's cover on the site.

In East Austin's Colony Park neighborhood, plans are moving forward to develop more than 200 acres of land.

Jesus Lopez doesn't have any kids of his own, but he treats his car like a child. He moved to Colony Park from Elgin a year ago and likes the decent size lots and quiet streets.

But getting anything beyond a loaf of bread in the neighborhood requires driving elsewhere. The nearest grocery store is about two or three miles away and if you want options, you'll have to go much further than that. As far as a sit-down meal at a restaurant, Lopez says you might as well go to Downtown Austin.

"Get the community more over here,” Lopez said. “Open up more restaurants and maybe a gym.”

The city received a $3,000,000 grant to design a master plan for 208 acres of public property just north of Colony Park.

"The houses will have more value out here. People will want to live over here because everything else is closer," Lopez said.

It's unknown how this land will look in five to 10 years.

"We want to spend the next three years talking with the community about what their vision is for this land, what they want to see, what amenities they need in their neighborhood," Kelly Nichols with Austin Neighborhood Housing & Community Development said.

Some have suggested it will be a mini-Mueller development. Nichols doubts that but does see some positives.

"There are elements of Mueller that we see—sustainability planning, the neighborhood engagement that went on there. There are some great practices that Mueller provides,” Nichols said.

Transforming Colony Park from a neighborhood of homes to a community with a better quality of life for residents begins with choosing a community engagement officer who will relay the desires of the neighborhood to planners.

City leaders are hosting an open house where residents can hear from and vote on the candidates for the position. The meeting will be held on Thursday, August 2, at Overton Elementary, 7201 Colony Loop Drive, from 4 to 8 p.m.

Whooping Cough cases rise in nation, decline in Travis County

With a numbers-driven package, editing Karina Kling's script for the web was actually enjoyable. By using information included in her story, I wrote copy for the summary, a headline as well as included a video and cover image. 

Health officials with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention say the U.S. could be on track for the worst year for Whooping Cough in more than five decades. 

But while the rest of the nation is experiencing a spike in cases, Travis County hit its peak in 2010 with 908 cases reported and is actually on the downswing.

Sandra Pierce brought her two nephews to the doctor Wednesday for their required vaccinations before school starts.

"Every once in a while they get a cold, but other than that they don't get sick," Pierce said.

And she wants to keep it that way.

One of the vaccines they received, DTaP, helps protect against pertussis, more commonly known as Whooping Cough.

Symptoms for the disease typically appear cold-like at first. They include a runny nose, congestion, fever and a mild cough. If the cough persists, it's time to see a doctor. The disease can be treated with antibiotics.

Dr. Phil Huang with the Austin Travis County Health and Human Services Department said Whooping Cough is persisting and still around. It's important especially for pregnant women and people who will be around infants to be vaccinated.

"It's really very serious for infants, and so to really protect the people who are around infants also. So that's any care givers, grandparents that are visiting infant grandchildren," Huang said.

Some health officials say the increase in number of cases could be due to changes to the DTaP vaccination.

"There was a change in the formulation of the vaccine in the late 90s. Now they're looking more and more that that might be related, that it might not have as strong of protective effect," Huang said.

A little poke and soreness in the arm can mean protection against a highly contagious disease that can strike people at any age.

Video can be found here.