My First Week As A Reporter

Today marks the end of my first week as a journalist for the Ennis Daily News. The week has gone quite fast, however that may be because I come in at 10 in the morning and leave at around 3:30 in the afternoon, but in my defense it is because I have gone to meetings in the evening.
Sandy, my editor, is teaching me a lot. Tuesday and Wednesday I wrote up a mock story for the meetings I had gone to the previous night. Sandy then had me compare the story to what was published in the morning paper by Micah. We have yet to go over those stories, but we plan to next week. Yesterday I went on a scavenger hunt for different locations and offices throughout Ellis County. I now can find the Sewer Treatment Plant in Ennis and the Waxahachie Civic Center. Good for me.
For today, I was assigned a research project. I had to find the answers and documentation for the following:
1. List of all registered sex offenders in Ennis zip codes.
2. How much money did the Texas Department of Transportation (Tx DoT) spend on projects in Ellis County in 2004?
3. List of Ellis County projects currently in progress by Tx Dot.
4. Find and prepare an open records request to the Ellis County Sheriff's office asking for the total number of drug-related arrests in 2004 and 2003.
5. How many veterans are there in Ellis County?
6. What is the total rainfall for Ellis County this year? What was the coldest, hottest, wettest day of this year so far?

I found an answer to all but the veterans question. I believe this office is closed for good because they have been closed the last two days during my scavenger hunt and they haven't returned my phone call yet. That was another cool thing about the research project was that I got to call around and ask people for official documentation to be faxed to Matt Cook, government reporter at the Ennis Daily News. How cool is that? The coolness will fade away according to Micah.
I had the biggest problem trying to locate the weather answers. It cannot be found on the national weather website. I eventually called KERA in DFW and asked them where I could find the answers. After the initial dumbfounding sound in their laughter at my question they eventually transferred me to enough people that I could get a reliable phone number to call. I had to get the info from the Waxahachie Fire Department.
The two biggest things about this week have been my paycheck (for two days baby) and my first published picture. I took a picture during a prayer meeting Wednesday night and it was published on the front page of the Thursday edition. My mom and friends are all so proud of me. If you would like a detailed description of Wednesday nights events, go to James' blog. His link is on the right. I really like my job and can't wait to learn more.