Our newsroom broke a couple of good stories this week. I played a role in both of them. In one story, Art Madrid, the Mayor of La Mesa, was found passed out and intoxicated on the street. In the other, the I team's Steve Atkinson reported the Red Cross paid for blocks of unused hotel rooms during the fires. At air time for the Red Cross story, I still hadn't gotten the dollars involved but it is considerable.


Both tips came by way of calls to my office. The hotel heads-up came from a brave and ethical individual in the industry who risked her career by coming to us. The mayor's story from a long-time source who has never burned me. This is how we do this stuff. Often it's a source who lives in my well-worn rolodex or it's a complete stranger.

In the Madrid story we were able to run down many of the angles in a relatively short period of time. The Red Cross story was one long intense week of putting all the elements together. The biggest worry for me was the size of the losses the National Red Cross experienced. Who cares about a couple rooms? But I was able to develop some wider contacts in the local hotel industry and was pretty comfortable that this was no minor screw-up.



I was uncomfortable with the drunken mayor story from the get-go and not because we didn't have a legitimate story with strong proof. The story had to go. And judging from the ongoing coverage from around the community, it was an important story. My problem is I personally like Art Madrid. I don't think the guy has a mean bone in his body. I was privy to some information on what happened to the mayor the night he ended up drunk before the story aired. I am not making excuses for the inexcusable but there are times in your life when bad things happen. And it's not easy to walk away.



On the other hand, when the primary source of the Red Cross story contacted me, there was no hesitation. I was pretty stoked. If you can't get excited over a story like this, get out of the business, that's my motto. The local Red Cross was not part of the main story, it all dealt with the big boys back in D.C. But the locals were nervous nellies and weren't willing to talk to our reporter until after our planned air date. The locals did provide me information on staffing during the fires that really helped put the pieces of this puzzle together. I found out later the office here was freaking because they were not exactly sure what information we had developed.



I told San Diego Red Cross the truth, apparently they didn't believe me. Here is a link to the Red Cross response to the story--the national media is starting to pick up on the story.

jwblog@10news.com