What has 395,000 locations, runs through $10.1 billion a year and is the capital "C" in CASH COW? The answer is your friendly, neighborhood ATM. It's part of a larger family of machines stretched across the planet, in 7-11s, free standing kiosks in shopping centers, the supermarket where you shop, and on and on. It's become part of our lives, something we depend on for its convenience. And of course, the owners of ATM's don’t do too bad with the fees they hit us with. We certainly pay for the convenience. I suspect it helps banks with their overhead too, no human tellers, just machines to spit out the money and add up the fees.

Even though I hate getting my monthly statement when they dollar me to death, this was not a motivation for our I Team story. The motivation came from some interesting Internet research our team came up with. The story was given to reporter Lauren Reynolds, photojournalist Michael Gonzalez, I team researchers Sarah Steadman and Stacy Lee to develop, and it has turned out to be a MOST curious story.

It began after we found U.S.Department of Justice statistics and information on ATM crimes. Using this, we could tell our audience what an ATM thug "looks" like. We could provide a profile of the typical gun- or knife-toting hood that will do what it takes to get your money. We got all of that, no problem. To go with this story, we wanted to find out which ATMs in our region have the greatest incidence of robberies. That's something you would think would be available with a little digging. Not so. We checked with the San Diego Police Department, and they told us ATM crimes were considered street robberies, and no specifics on ATM crimes were available. They were all lumped togther. We knew about a specific ATM location at College and El Cajon that had been hit twice in one week last year and asked for information on those crimes but were told by a police spokesperson "there was no significant public interest" in releasing the information If I was one of the "public" who used this particular Washington Mutual ATM I probably would probably have a great deal of interest in a robbery series. But it’s not just our local “we know what's best for you” police department. We also found Los Angeles, Phoenix, Denver and St.Louis police departments didn't track ATM crimes. Now that seems odd. Or maybe it is just me. We knew the feds don’t have any information, they have to depend on the locals to feed it up the line to them.

So who better to know about ATM holdups than the banks that control most of them? After all, it is their bal game. So we contacted the California Bankers Association and the American Bankers Association. Before we did, we did find they both have the same outdated 12-year-old information on their Web sites. Twelve years old? What is that about? So we e-mailed and called both associations with this question "Does the (ABA,CBA) have any current data on ATM robberies involving customers using the machines?" You would think this sort of information would be readily available Our e-mail request and phone question went to cpaullins@cabankers.com and mmohsberg@aba.com. We explained this was for a story to air on 10News and on 10News.com Usually, well- heeled outfits get right back to you. Not these two. . So far, not even an acknowledgement of the phone calls or e mails.

At the time of publishing this blog, it's been over two days and counting.


Let me know what you think.

jwblog@10news.com

Our I-team story on "SALVIA" bounced around like a car with bad shocks on an Anza Borrego desert outing. We started the research, then thought about killing it, then went back to reporting the story. Was it the right thing to do? You decide. First let me tell you about salvia, aka salvia divinorum. Most San Diegans have no idea what it is. It's a bright, leafy green plant found in Mexico. It's smoked or chewed and brings on hallucinations, like "magic" mushrooms or LSD. It's legal in California but banned in other states and countries.

The fact that it is banned elsewhere and so easy to buy in San Diego had a curious. We found it for sale all over the region, and actually purchased some in a couple of shops in the College Area. And it's all over the internet. Go to Youtube and see the salvia performers ingest and then go into a Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde routine.

I did an informal survey around our studios on Air Way. Not one person over forty has heard of it. Most under thirty have. I only learned of it after reading about its growing popularity on the east coast and the concerns of health officials about the plant. So doing a story seemed like a slam dunk. We would warn parents who were not aware of salvia divinorum and advise users that the consequences of long term use are unknown.

In researching the story, Steve Atkinson, our reporter and researcher/producer Karin Ingrande had picked up some information that could very well kill the story. Federal and local drug agencies are telling us salvia isn't on their radar-not in San Diego anyway. So we talked about dumping the story.

As each agency came back with pretty much the same response, the Salvia story looked dead in the water. One agency thought any publicity would only spur sales--it is a relatively inexpensive and as I said, a legal drug in this state.

All reasons not to do the story.

HOWEVER-----It has been my experience government agencies often are the LAST to know about what is happening on our streets. It's only after people get sick or die, does the information work its way up the ladder to agencies. And if there is poor communication between agencies (which is more likely than not) there could be a considerable lag time before the agencies catch up with reality.

It bought to mind going through the same handwringing five years ago after we learned about a prescription drug that acts like heroin only is tougher and meaner to shake. Oxycontin. Our calls to local agencies turned up nothing on oxycontin. They had no cases, they hadn't heard of it. But we talked to store fronts, counseling services, half way houses. Not only had they heard of it, they described it as a tidal wave of trouble. It turned out to be just that. And we did the story.

Then, I saw YouTube video mentioned above. The clincher was information our I team developed from an alcohol and drug health educator from SDSU who told us she is seeing a small number of students beginning to use saliant. She fears the number of users could be growing. That did it; I felt the good far outweighs the bad in reporting this.

You consider the factors and try to make the right call.


jwblog@10news.com