A Day in the Life: Brooke Cain

This account was written for the MidAtlantic News Research Conference on July 18-19, 1997.


Brooke Cain
The News & Observer


10am: I get to work, check my voice-mail, email and other messages.  Send
replies to a couple of reporters who have sent out "help" messages that
haven't been answered yet.

10:30: Talk to reporter Cathy Clabby about a project she and Joe Neff are
working on, involving a "health care" business that is in some legal
trouble.  She needs information on the company and the owner (and the
owner's husband) and we discuss the types of information she needs and
what I'll get for her.  I then send a message to Joe Neff letting him know
that I'm working with Cathy on this and if he has any questions or if he
needs duplicates of my research to let me know.

11:00: After learning a North Carolina native is about to be named
Chairmen of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Todd Richissin makes a request for
information on Hugh Shelton.  I send him all our archive stories (which
the reporters usually do for themselves but since he is in a big rush and
has to leave the office soon, I offer to do it for him), check for clip
files and "Tar Heel of the Week," and get national profiles of him.

11:30:  Get a story about DOT members taking "gratuities" in Atlanta from
Atlanta paper; while I'm in nexis, get a couple of book reviews for
Columnist Dan Gearino.

12 Noon: Lunch

12:45: Message from Dane Huffman, sports writer in our Charlotte bureau.
He needs to know the parents of the wife of a football player (he actually
needs to contact them) and he asks me to search national papers for their
recent wedding announcement.  I do this and find nothing.  I call him back
and he tells me the parents live in San Diego and that the woman is also
from there but has lived in Charlotte for the past year since marrying.  I
decide to do an Autotrak report, hoping her parents are listed.  Sure
enough, they are.  I send him the information.  He is amazed.  I am
revered.

1:30: Todd Richissin now needs the most recent population of Speed, NC
(pop. 91) and an obit of an old general named Max Thurmond.

2:00:  Sports writer Steve Elling comes to me with more information
regarding a tip he received about a possible serious traffic ticket that a
player for a local college basketball player may have received. The player
has an out of state license, so I check AutoTrak "Driver's of the Nation"
and learn he does have a valid license and get his exact address there.
Then I call the NC DMV press contact and talk to her about what kind of
information we can get on him if he received the ticket in North Carolina.
She gave me the information from her records about the other past tickets
he has received and confirmed that his license is not revoked but that his
driving privileges in NC have been suspended.  This supports part of
Steve's tip.  She explains that other tickets will not show up in her
system until or unless he is actually convicted of the offense.  I relay
all this information to Steve and give him her phone number and the number
of her counterpart in South Carolina.

2:45:  Todd Richissin now needs me to search Army Times for stories about
Hugh Shelton and he reminds me that Army Times is available on AOL.  Not
remembering (or not realizing) that Army Times (and Military City Online)
is now available on the WEB, I spend about 25 minutes trying to get my
stupid, useless AOL software to work.  I enlist Sperry's help and we
finally get it going.  It takes forever b/c of the nature of the beast,
and when I finally get through to Army Times, there's nothing really there
on Shelton.  I get Todd one story and he says he has enough and that he'll
recommend I get a credit line for my help.  

4:00:  Kyle Spencer comes back and asks about databases we have on Raleigh
Police Department incident reports.  I search our "Database of databases"
and get her printouts of each applicable database we have.  She says she
will look at these and decide what she needs and then talk to Charles
deBose (database guy) if she needs a tape loaded (because we can't tell
from the printouts if the tapes have been loaded or not, but I think they
have because we used some of these last week while researching the owner
of an unlicensed daycare who had a baby die of a head trauma while in her
care). 

4:30:  Begin some of the research for Cathy Clabby that we discussed
earlier in the day (she did not need it right away so I put it lower on my
list of priorities).  Checked Secretary of State records for the company;
call DMV to get a list of vehicles owned by the owners of the company in
question.

5:30:  Show someone where the maps are.
 
5:35:  Read the wires to see the latest on the Versace murder

5:45:  For Clabby request, get a Duns Market Identifier on the company to
give her basic information; do a search of online publications to see
what, if anything, has been written about the company.  Make a note to
call the county of residence tomorrow to get list of properties owned by
the people in question.

6:30:  Pack up, go home.



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