The power of observation

One of the most powerful tools a writer has is the power of observation. Study who you’re writing about and then paint a picture for the reader using description to make the personality portrait come alive. Use descriptive visual cues to make the reader see the person you’re writing about.

Below are a few examples from different feature stories when the writer uses colorful descriptions to flesh out the subject:

No. 1

Vyola Ortner, 95, has strong opinions and few regrets.

She’s petite and spry, with cat-eye glasses and thinning auburn hair combed into a clip behind her head. Recently, at her Palm Springs home, she wore a lime-green jacket over an equally bright blouse. The shade matched almost exactly the color of her kitchen walls.

Ortner is the oldest living member of the Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians, an indigenous Southern California tribe with more than 450 members.

She chaired the tribal council during the turbulent 1950s, making regular trips to Washington, D.C. to secure the right for Caliente Band members to rent out land they owned for as long as 99 years.

No. 2

Richard Hudgins, barefoot on the driveway of the Durango house where he lives, inspects a newly acquired, junky 1986 Mitsubishi van that runs on propane.

It’s a hulking metal mass of gray, filled with odds and ends and a laughing hula Buddha jiggling on the dashboard.

Hudgins sees a potential “killer robot.”

The 68-year-old, known since his days with the U.S. Marines as “Hudge,” said he has transformed more than 30, but fewer than 50 old cars.

No. 3

A horseshoe-shaped scar near John Franco’s right ear covers an incision made during brain cancer surgery. Forty-seven staples in his skull gave shape to the scar resulting in Franco’s “Frankenstein look.”

More than five years later, Franco’s scar is hidden under a full head of hair. Today, there are no signs of Franco’s brain surgery even though he can still feel the titanium skulls in his skull.

Comparing media example story

Forty gun-related deaths have taken place in Chicago within the last month.

This story has been explored over many different forms of media.

From coverage of President Barack Obama’s speech on gun control to coverage of the slaying of a young woman, radio, television and print have been addressing this issue in several different ways.

National Public Radio covered the issue by interviewing several different people.

The coverage of this story was a half hour long and consisted of interviews with eight different people.

NPR has the most interviews out of any other medium explored.

Something that was different about NPR’s interviews is that the news show was taking calls from listeners about what each individual is doing to stop gun violence in their own communities.

No tactics were used to change “the scene” in the duration of the radio story.

Television and online news coverage more so addressed only the problem and Obama’s reaction rather than giving the public a voice.

The online news article is 454 words long, and can be viewed on a single screen.  

No outside sources were interviewed.

The writer claims she is well educated on the subject and has done research to support it.

Online news is more comparable to television coverage and much different than radio.

Television coverage of this story mainly discussed President Obama’s speech on gun control and how that affects the rest of the nation.  

The story was 3 minutes and 30 seconds in length.

The reporter interviewed one person and it was the bulk of the television story.

In general, television coverage was more in-depth on one specific subject rather than covering the entirety of the story.

Overall, radio was the most complete and well-researched medium covering this story.

Observing these three types of media made it clear that each has its own method of telling a story.

Tracking trends

Trend features are some of the most interesting stories in the media. Finding and reporting on trends provides a valuable service to readers. Trend features generally follow a formula: start with an anecdotal lead that illustrates the trend, identify the trend fairly high up in the story and then further examine the trend through the feature with quotes, information and descriptions while explaining how people feel about the trend. (Below are two trend features. Read both features and tell me which story you like better and why. Which story more clearly defines the trend and explains it better to the reader? Which story had better quotes and pick your favorite).

Haley Flores grew up poring over history books at the Santa Ana Public Library while her little brothers built up their vocabulary there and read tales about alien attacks and outer space.

But a visit to the downtown library has become, on many days, a walk through a gantlet of misery: Homeless men and women sleep in the lawn while others plead with visitors for change.

Inside the building, signs warned people to avoid restrooms where some homeless use sinks and even toilet water to bathe themselves and wash their clothes.

Some of Santa Ana’s down and out used the study carrels to look for jobs — others shot up drugs, with syringes found discarded in planters and even a box of toilet seat covers.

Security guards carry syringe disposal kits on their tool belts.

 “It’s a great place to hang out. You get something valuable,” Haley, a 14-year-old high school freshman at USC College Prep, said. “Now, it’s just uncomfortable.”

The growing debate over homelessness in Orange County has found a crucible in a library that this year was named one of five winners of the 2016 National Medal for Museum and Library Service, the nation's highest honor given to libraries and museums for community service.

Libraries around the country, including in downtown Los Angeles, have long been safe spaces for transients.

But Orange County’s homeless population has been increasing sharply in recent years, and the Santa Ana civic center, where the library is located, is now home to an encampment of more than 400 people that the City Council earlier this month labeled  “a public health crisis.”

The situation got so severe that in August, officials closed the library for two weeks for “a reconfiguration” aimed at better dealing with the homeless population.

Cubicles in upper floors were removed to reduce certain kinds of activities, and seating for adults is now concentrated on the ground floor, facing the entrance, so that library staff can better monitor what’s going on. 

The number of full-time security guards stationed inside and outside the 40,000-square-foot library was increased from two to four, and a “day porter” was hired to travel between the library and Santa Ana City Hall to clean heavily trafficked bathrooms.

Additional electrical outlets were installed by digging below the ground floor so that patrons, including the homeless, could recharge their phones.

Heather Folmar, library operations manager and a 25-year veteran of the main branch, called it a balancing act “that allows us to try and serve everyone — those with or without a home.”

But at recent council meetings, residents have complained that there are too many homeless people at the facility, causing other patrons to stay away. 

“It’s outrageous. The homeless are an epidemic in the city, and it’s preventing families from using our award-winning library,” said Peter Katz, a retired postal worker and 50-year resident of Santa Ana.

Libraries around the country have long been sanctuaries of knowledge for the youngest and the oldest, for the poorest to the most well-heeled — places to keep cool in the summer and warm in the winter.

This is no less true for the homeless, who have long benefited from relative succor that libraries offer. Nationwide, at some libraries, officials distribute cards offering access to services including food banks and employment offices.

Others provide bus passes and resumé classes, or even hire mental-health experts to help transients who show up, according to Julie Todaro, president of the American Library Assn.

"A library can be a haven. Public libraries have always tried to leverage their service with their sense of community,” Todaro said.

As she waited for her sixth-grade daughter to use materials to finish her homework in the children’s section, Mili Martinez said being in the library feels increasingly unsafe. She said she instructed her child “never to touch the toilet. No fingers. We flush with our feet.”

Some of the homeless people who spend time of the library, like Keith Cowan, 52, said they tried to stay out of the way. He has been living on the streets for 10 years. The former cement worker said he mostly goes into the building to use the restroom.

“I’ve tried my best not to be a bother. I’ve never talked to library customers, and I know that this place is for families only,” he said. “The guards remind me to be conscious of my manners.”

Steven Sebreros, a trained mechanic in his 40s who grew up in Santa Ana, said people misunderstand many of the homeless, like himself.

“Like anyone else, we want stable work and to feel safe,” he said. “But we’re ignored. We suffer silently.”

Folmar, the librarian, said she and staff members started seeing a rise in the number of homeless people showing up on the grounds of the library about a year ago. She said their presence generates both alarm and sympathy.

“One homeless woman told me, ‘We’re not animals’ and I felt frustrated for her, and for us. I felt such sadness for their plight,” Folmar said. “We’ve had people sitting on floors, lying on floors, charging phones. The study carrels were used for purposes other than study — and for things I can’t talk about.”

As worry increased about public health and safety for government workers and for visitors doing business at the civic center, county officials launched staff training on blood-borne pathogens found in syringes and on diseases that are transmitted through bodily fluids.

The library has won praise for services that include health ambassadors who show patrons how to live a more active lifestyle, cooking classes, mentoring programs for different age groups, and football and basketball activities run by the young-adult department.

“At this library, it’s very disturbing to have all these wonderful things to offer people, especially young people, and to have them and their parents be afraid to come in,” Folmar said.

Some people have criticized a needle-exchange program that operates on Saturday from noon to 3 p.m., saying it attracts homeless people to the civic center. Statistics show that since opening in February, volunteers have logged 3,750 client visits and distributed 233,065 clean needles.

Kyle Barbour, one of the founders of the Orange County Needle Exchange Program, said those complaints are baseless. He said the homeless encampment has grown because of forces that allow it to.

“There’s the lack of shelters. Orange County does not have an adequate net or enough solutions to help this population,” he said. “No one’s going to come to the civic center seven days a week because of a program that they access for five minutes a week.

This month,  the Orange County Board of Supervisors chose Mercy House Living Centers Inc. to run a new 200-bed, year-round emergency shelter and multi-service center in Anaheim — expected to open in 2017 — to serve those without permanent housing.

The county will also operate seasonal cold-weather shelters at National Guard armories in Fullerton and Santa Ana.

Santa Ana Councilman David Benavides believes that the homeless have been drawn to Santa Ana to be closer to healthcare agencies and social services.

 “The civic center has a lot of public space and public transit is nearby. Everything is convenient,” he said. “I’m hoping that we’ve hit our peak in terms of the high numbers. Now, because there’s more attention on the crisis … I really think we can work with the county to make things better.”  

Teenager Anthony Daniel, who has been homeless for six months, said he’s still learning what’s available to homeless youth in the area. He uses some of the library’s 23 computers to search for jobs at restaurants or in retail.

“I don’t go in there and talk to anybody,” he added. “I mind my own business.”

He said he's drawn to the civic center “because it’s welcoming. There are really nice people if you get to know them.”

Haley Flores’ mother, however, isn't taking any chances with her children spending time at the library. She has enrolled her daughter and 8- and 9-year-old sons in boxing classes.

“My mom really feels that we need to know self-defense,” said Haley, as she clutched a copy of “The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian.” “It’s kind of scary to be near shirtless people. I also worry if they drink, or maybe they can rob you.”

HEROIN TREND FEATURE

Adam Conkey held out the tip of his middle finger to reveal a tiny circle of black-tar heroin.

He’d scoured trash bins, collecting cans for a couple of hours on a sweltering summer afternoon just to earn $8 to buy this heroin — just shy of a "dime," or $10 worth.

Conkey, 39, placed the piece, resembling a watermelon seed, on the bottom of a Natural Light beer can he’d stashed in some weeds next to a white garage in a Franklinton alley.

He cut the heroin in half with a pocket knife and added a few drops of bottled water to one piece, using his middle finger to dissolve the drug. He brought a short red straw up to his nose.

A long sniff. Then a shorter one. And the liquid was gone. Conkey was on his way to another high.

He reserved the other half of the heroin for his girlfriend, Natasha Long, who quickly snorted the drug.

Conkey and Long are among an estimated 435,000 Americans who regularly use heroin, nearly triple the number who used in 2007, according to 2014 figures from the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.

“It’s the devil,” Conkey said, as the couple began the 20-minute walk back to his cousin’s backyard and the tent they call home. “Leave it alone. It’s not worth it. You’ll piss your life away."

Every day, 78 people in the United States die from an opiate overdose — 29 of them from heroin, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That's more than 10,500 deaths a year attributed to heroin and more than 28,000 deaths from opiate overdoses.

The number of fatal overdoses in Ohio that involve heroin has soared from 87 in 2003 to 1,424 last year. It was a factor in 47 percent of all fatal overdoses, higher than any other drug.

The number of Ohioan deaths rises to 2,590 when other opiates are considered. This includes prescription pain medications and fentanyl, a drug often mixed with heroin that is 30 to 50 times more potent.

The numbers alarm authorities who see the effects of heroin on addicts — from treatment professionals to police officers. They’ve made great efforts to slow the growth of heroin overdoses and addiction, using education, enforcement and other tools.

Still, the crisis continues. Heroin’s grip can be seen in many areas:

·         Ohio's child-protection system now has close to 14,000 children in custody. That's an increase of nearly 13 percent since the end of 2012. At the same time, the hospitalization rate for babies born with symptoms of drug dependency has soared.

·         Because of the high death rates, many in law enforcement now carry naloxone, a lifesaving drug that helps counter overdoses. Officers send out public-service warnings when bad heroin hits their streets, and they’re focused as much on intervention as arrests.

·         Even when addicts are ready to seek help, they often can't find a treatment center that has room for them. In 2014, just 13.9 percent of Ohioans who needed drug treatment received it.

·         Parents of heroin addicts struggle to help their children, and in the case of fatal overdoses, parents struggle with how to cope.

·         In 2014, Ohio reported more drug overdose deaths than any state except California, according to data from the CDC.

·          

“We are in the midst of an unprecedented epidemic of drug addiction and overdoses,” said Dr. Teresa Long, Columbus health commissioner. “It is touching many people’s lives in so many ways, in ways they would not have expected.”

Delivered like pizza

Ohio and the surrounding region are ground zero for the most recent heroin upswing east of the Mississippi River, said Sam Quinones, author of "Dreamland: The True Tale of America’s Opiate Epidemic." His book focuses on how the heroin crisis has devastated some towns, including Portsmouth in southern Ohio.

 “Ohio is really the center of this whole problem,” he said. “Black-tar heroin makes its appearance in 1998, and that’s the beginning of what we’re now seeing all over the country.”

Traffickers from Xalisco, Mexico, on the Pacific coast, chose central Ohio in an effort to avoid the gangs and guns associated with the drug trade in cities such as New York. They found a ready customer base in the state where Portsmouth, by the mid-2000s, had more pill mills per capita than any other U.S. town.

Because of the pill mills — clinics where doctors over-prescribed highly addictive opiate-based painkillers — the traffickers built an amazing business from 2000 to 2002, Quinones said.

When law enforcement agencies cracked down on the pill mills, the street price of the drugs skyrocketed, giving heroin, a much cheaper opiate, a foot in the door.

Dealers delivered it just like pizza. And often for a cheaper price.

“You have a guy that carries it in a bag in his car, and people are blowing up his cellphone: ‘ Hey, can you meet me?’” said detective Larry French of the Westerville police. They might pull up next to each other on a neighborhood corner or in a McDonald's, Meijer or Kroger parking lot and make a quick cash-for-drugs exchange.

The road to heroin

Addicts and recovering addicts often say their drug problems began with opiate pain pills. Some used them recreationally, but many had prescriptions because of routine surgeries, injuries or traffic accidents.

Then the prescription expired, or addicts couldn’t afford the pills sold on the street. Heroin offered a similar, but much cheaper, high.

Conkey was 19 when he dislocated his shoulder 20 years ago while helping to put up a fence at his brother’s house.

“They dosed me up with lots of Demerol and gave me pain pills afterward, and that’s what pretty much got my journey started,” he said. “Vicodin was my thing for a while, then I went to 30s (30 mg OxyContin pills), but they got expensive, and then heroin was so much cheaper.”

When he first started using heroin about 10 years ago, he paid $10 per high — far less than the $80 he was paying to get high on pills. Conkey guesses that he's since spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on heroin.

Conkey and Natasha Long had dreams. He wanted to be a police officer. She hoped to work in a veterinarian’s office. Long first used drugs with Conkey about 12 years ago, at age 27.

Now the couple occasionally works grouting floors at local fast-food restaurants and scours dumpsters in Franklinton for soda and beer cans to sell. Sometimes they get lucky; at least twice they found $20 bills in discarded birthday cards.

They were both clean for about a year once. Then they learned that their four children, who were in foster care, would be placed for adoption. “I just gave up," Conkey said. "What's the use in living if I can’t have what I love?”

Once the heroin takes hold, many users say, nothing else matters. They might ignore their children or have them taken from their care by family or Children Services workers.

Many addicts end up jobless and homeless, and many manipulate or steal from family members, friends and employers to get drug money.

"I went from being a devoted mom, wife, daughter, sister to a drug addict," said Chasity Troyer, 36, a Hilltop resident who grew up in Marysville. "Every waking moment was getting or using drugs. From the time I opened my eyes until the time I went to bed, that’s what my world consisted of."

Troyer became addicted to pain pills after they were prescribed for the whiplash and arm burns she suffered in a 2005 car crash. She moved onto heroin when she had trouble finding and affording the pills.

At the height of her addiction, Troyer spent hundreds of dollars a day on heroin. She lost custody of her children and ended up homeless, sleeping in drug houses and abandoned homes in Franklinton and the Hilltop.

A drug-possession arrest landed Troyer in the Tri-County Regional Jail in Mechanicsburg. When a Union County judge told her that she could finish a treatment program and be placed on parole, Troyer agreed. She has been drug-free for more than a year.

"I don't think failure's an option. It's just not. I can never break that promise to my kids. I can never take away from them what they have back," said Troyer, who takes the anti-addiction medication Suboxone and attends counseling at the House of Hope treatment center in Columbus, as well as 12-step meetings.

She sees her children regularly and is trying to regain custody.

"I know that if I go back to heroin that one time, it could be my last time."

Some addicts progress to heroin from alcohol or marijuana.

Rachel Motil, 29, of the Northland area, considered herself a typical teenager before she started abusing alcohol. She soon advanced to pills, then heroin and crack cocaine.

She stole medication that her mother needed to treat rheumatoid arthritis and jewelry from her boyfriend's parents. She wrote herself checks from her parents’ bank account, but they caught on.

Her mother hid her debit card, but Motil would steal it anyway, from under her mom’s pillow while she slept or from the bathroom while she showered.

She took her infant son on heroin buys.

This isn’t the Rachel Motil who is talking about her addiction today. She’s been clean for nearly two years, after detoxing with the help of Netcare crisis services and the Maryhaven treatment center, and she is a finance student at Columbus State Community College.

Remorse and tears overwhelm her when she recalls how her son knew, even at 18 months old, that something was wrong and became more attached to his father. She tries to make peace with this and finds joy in the little things, like crocheting and taking her now-4-year-old son to the grocery store.

One time can kill

Heroin can destroy lives even before it becomes an addiction.

Laura Bagot, a 34-year-old Otterbein University alumna, died of an overdose on Dec. 28, 2012. It was the first time she’d used the drug.

Her friend, Shannon Shackson, 40, injected her with the heroin. He was convicted of reckless homicide and possession of drugs and is serving four years in prison.

Shackson was familiar with the dangers of heroin. Just nine months before Bagot’s death, Shackson was at a Westerville apartment when his then-girlfriend, Emily Thacker, delivered a heroin injection that led to the death of their friend, 36-year-old Russell “Andy” Ronske. Thacker, 30, also is in prison, serving five years on an involuntary manslaughter conviction.

Westerville police say the case highlights heroin’s grip on its users.

“I don’t think people can grasp what this does to people’s lives and livelihoods, and these two or three cases, I think, depict that very well, just how it can destroy and take lives,” said detective Eric Joering.

Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine created a heroin unit three years ago to reach out to communities about the epidemic. He said an initial tactic in fighting the devastation has been to have fewer people addicted to pain medications.

A state crackdown on doctors who prescribe them unnecessarily led to the revocation of close to 100 doctors’ licenses.

About 15 years ago, DeWine said, the medical community worried that doctors weren’t paying enough attention to people’s pain. It became a new vital sign, with medical professionals asking every patient to rate their pain on a scale of one to 10.

Then came OxyContin, an opiate not initially believed to be highly addictive. Doctors prescribed pain medication more and more often, landing in medicine cabinets in easy reach of teenagers who shared with their friends.

But pill mills and irresponsible prescribing aren’t the only reason for the current scourge, DeWine said. Along with the Mexican cartel's "perfect business model,” heroin became acceptable.

Besides injecting it, users now snort the drug or melt it and inhale its fumes, so the needle is no longer a barrier.

In the 1970s, DeWine said, heroin was considered taboo, even by people using LSD or animal tranquilizers.

 “That barrier pretty much doesn’t exist now,” he said. “We have to change the culture back, that this heroin becomes something people are scared of, that they understand how addicting it is.”

Scott VanDerKarr, a former Franklin County Municipal Court judge, retired from his role handling heroin cases in drug court to encourage leaders in other communities to create similar heroin programs.

Defendants in the Franklin County program are given a second chance, required to undergo drug testing and treatment with the opiate-blocker Vivitrol, and must participate in counseling.

The 6-year-old program has a 70 percent success rate and is being replicated in U.S. District Court in Columbus and in some smaller courts.

VanDerKarr said the majority of the people who came before him in Franklin County were white suburbanites. Their average age: 23.

The response to the epidemic has come largely because of the skyrocketing number of overdose deaths, but also because of who is dying.

“Yes, if you’re being honest, it’s now hitting the more affluent neighborhoods. So, therefore, you’re getting more people to pay attention,” VanDerKarr said. “That’s sad. It’s true to a certain extent. But look at the positive side of that: Things are happening.”

Both DeWine and VanDerKarr said there is reason for optimism in fighting the heroin epidemic, but it will take community-wide, grassroots support.

They advocate for involvement from not only cops, courts and lawmakers, but the business community, medical field, schools and churches. A goal, DeWine said, is to implement programs that keep addicts alive long enough to get them into treatment programs that work.

Ohio Gov. John Kasich also has touted state-backed initiatives, including new prescribing guidelines for doctors, increased naloxone administration, medication-assisted treatment options and an anti-drug program that helps adults talk to kids about drug prevention.

"Every time we think we’ve got something, we find out there’s four more things we need to do," he said. "You have to win battle after battle. The war is not going to be won in the foreseeable future."

DeWine said communities across Ohio are taking that first step to acknowledge that heroin is a problem, with suburban areas being the last to open their eyes, some coming on board within the past six months to a year.

In one week, VanDerKarr received invitations to four different anti-heroin events, including a discussion panel in Worthington that pulled together elected officials, law enforcement officers, business and school partners, parents and medical professionals.

And just last month, several faith-based leaders gathered for a Hope Over Heroin event at Dodge Park.

Programs that work can be replicated and used to fight not only heroin use, but also fentanyl use and whatever is next in the drug pipeline.

“We're not gonna turn this drug epidemic around quickly, but we know we can save lives,” DeWine said. “We'll probably always have some drug problem. If it's not this, it'll be something else. The question is, how do we save lives?”

Lead writing practice

Please write a one-sentence hard news leads based on the information that follows. Your leads should be one sentence long and 25 words or less. You cannot fit all the information provided in each fact set in your lead, so one of your tasks is to determine what information belongs in the lead ... and what does not.

Lead #1: Earthquake 

When: Today, at 8:33 a.m.
Where: Santa Clara County, in the foothills off Alum Rock Falls Road.
What: a small earthquake, with a preliminary magnitude of 2.2.
Who: N/A, but the source of your information is the U.S. Geological Survey.
Why/How: No injuries or damage was reported. The USGS said the quake’s epicenter was about four miles deep and about nine miles northeast of San Jose City Hall.

Lead #2: Highway Closed 

When: Yesterday.
Where: Santa Clara County, just west of Saratoga at Pierce Road.
What: Highway 9 was closed for almost nine hours, from 7:30 a.m. to about 4 p.m., by the California Department of Transportation. A California Highway Patrol spokeswoman provided this information.
Why/How: Several trees had fallen across the roadway overnight, apparently because of wind and rain. Caltrans crews closed the road so they could clear the trees from the road.
Who: N/A

Personality profile evaluation assignment

Write an evaluation of the personality profile feature story on the swimmer focusing on the following areas:

What is the angle/focus of the story and how soon into the feature does it become clear to you?

What do you think of the lead? Did it draw your interest into the story as a reader? Why or why not?

What are the two best quotes in the story and why do you like those quotes?

Cite two examples in the story where the writer uses description and two other examples where the writer uses information to bolster the story. In which paragraphs do you see this done?