Author: Chelsea Zukowski

By DEVIN RODRIGUEZ
USFSP Student Reporter

ST. PETERSBURG – Tattooed on one forearm in thick black letters is the word “Comfort.” And on the other, “Afflict.”

When asked what they mean, Anthony Cormier smiled wryly. “Journalists are supposed to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable,” he said.

Cormier is an investigative reporter for the Tampa Bay Times who loves his work. He said that he couldn’t see himself doing any other kind of journalism.

“This is the one place where we can really help the public and, in some small way, nudge the world in the right direction,” he said.

Last year Cormier and two colleagues gave a forceful nudge to the state of Florida, exposing horrific conditions in its six primary mental health hospitals.

The yearlong investigation by Cormier, Leonora LaPeter Anton and Michael Braga showed how $100 million in budget cuts led to acute staff shortages, patient neglect and violence against both patients and staff.

Stung by the disclosures, the Legislature this spring added $16 million to the mental hospitals’ budget and $42 million to community programs geared toward mental health.

And in April the three reporters who did the nudging won journalism’s highest honor – the Pulitzer Prize – for investigative reporting.

“If winning the Pulitzer does anything, I hope it creates awareness for Florida’s mentally ill,” said Cormier, 37. “The prize is an incredible honor, but my focus is on the work, on continuing to do important journalism. That’s been the goal all along, and it hasn’t changed.”

The prestigious prize capped a vagabond-like personal journey for Cormier that is typical in the newspaper industry.

When he graduated from Florida State University in 2000 with a degree in creative writing, Cormier said, he couldn’t find a writing job.

So he tended bar and delivered papers for the Panama City News Herald.

When the News Herald needed a stringer to cover a feature story, Cormier got the assignment. That, in turn, helped him land a full-time job at the paper as a sports writer and, later, a cops and crime reporter.

Several years later, he wrote a story titled “Files Wide Shut” about how government, school district and law enforcement officials in seven Florida Panhandle counties violated the state’s Public Records Law. That won a first place award from the Florida Society of News Editors and helped him land a job with the Sarasota Herald-Tribune in June 2006.

In Sarasota, Cormier had the time and freedom to find, write and edit in-depth stories about police misconduct, profligate city spending, gang violence and a man whose Ponzi scheme bilked investors out of $162 million.

He also earned the admiration of Herald-Tribune executive editor Bill Church, who called him “our newsroom’s version of a gym rat, someone who studies the nuances of other journalists and shows he’s got game, too.”

Cormier moved to the Times in May 2015 to continue reporting the mental health hospital investigation that the Herald-Tribune was conducting in collaboration with the Times.

The unusual partnership between a large, independent newspaper – the Times – and a midsized chain paper – the Herald-Tribune – led to the explosive findings that ran in both papers. The series was titled “Insane. Invisible. In Danger.”

In the months that followed, Cormier has continued to collaborate on enterprise stories.

A two-month investigation with Alexandra Zayas and Steve Contorno led to a story called “Safe, Then Sorry.” The reporters disclosed problems at the Spring of Tampa Bay, a shelter for domestic violence victims that is run by a much-admired charity and funded in part by tax dollars.

A 5-year-old girl who was living at the shelter with her mother said she had been molested by another resident, an incident that exposed a bigger issue – the shelter’s policy to not run background checks on the women the agency serves.

Because three reporters worked on the story, Cormier said, it brought newer and broader perspectives to the table.

“Our team is very specific,” he said. “We have the time to make certain that we are as precise as possible. In this job we don’t raise questions – we answer them.”

On his current project, Cormier is working with Caitlin Johnston, the Times’ transportation reporter.

At issue is the Tampa Bay Express project, a plan by the Florida Department of Transportation to add toll lanes to busy stretches of interstate highways in Pinellas, Hillsborough and Polk counties.

Under the plan, the state will have to acquire and knock down more than 100 homes and businesses along Interstates 275 and 4.

On a recent Wednesday, Johnston and Cormier went door-to-door to speak to people whose homes lie in the path of the project. Many of the people seemed unaware of the plan and the procedures the state will follow in taking homes.

The reporters knocked on doors for most of the day. Many residents were upset. Many were away at work.

“This is a story that we have to play straight down the middle,” Cormier said. “The Transportation Department doesn’t have a lot of options, and people just don’t know what’s coming.”

Cormier also offered this advice to journalists who work on similar shoe-leather stories: “Get comfortable shoes you don’t care about; you’ll destroy them doing this work.”

Cormier said he will continue searching for stories that are important to the community. One emotion helps drive him.

“To do my job, you need a healthy dose of anger,” he said. “If you don’t have a deep well of skepticism and anger, bad guys are going to make you feel like you don’t know what you’re saying. You need to come at them with anger.”

By JEFFREY ZANKER
USFSP Student Reporter

TAMPA – When state inspectors visited the Burger King at 9925 Adamo Drive on March 8, they found five major health violations and ordered the restaurant to close.

Forty live roaches. Roach excrement. “Potentially hazardous” food temperatures. Improper hand-washing by an employee. Problems with the mop sink faucet.

The restaurant was allowed to reopen the next day, but it was too late to escape the glare of publicity.

That came a week later, when reporter Beau Zimmer and photojournalist Angela Clooney of 10News WTSP-Channel 10 arrived to do a story and ask employees for a copy of the Health Department report. By law, restaurants are required to give a copy to anybody who requests it.

Zimmer’s report, which aired March 22, was the latest installment in a weekly feature that 10News WTSP calls “Restaurant Red Alert.”

Using state inspection reports, Zimmer warns consumers that all is not well behind the counters, in the kitchens and on the floors and walls of popular restaurants.

“People do not like seeing roaches crawling across their plates at a restaurant,” said Zimmer, 36. “It is important for customers to know what they’re eating.”

The name Zimmer is well-known hereabouts. Zimmer’s grandfather, the late Don Zimmer, was a longtime resident of Treasure Island and a player, coach and manager in Major League Baseball for 66 years. His father, Thomas Zimmer, is a scout for the San Francisco Giants.

But Beau Zimmer said he always wanted a career in broadcast news, not baseball. He got his start when he was only 9, appearing as a reporter on WTSP’s Saturday morning kids program, “This Side Up.”

Three years later, he was a reporter on CNN’s weekly “Real News for Kids.” Most of his stories were about Florida.

“It was my first real adventure,” he said.

Zimmer graduated from St. Petersburg College in 1999 with an associate degree and from the University of Florida in 2002 with a bachelor’s degree in telecommunications news.

At his first full-time job, at Gainesville’s WCJB-TV in 2002 and 2003, his general assignment beat included restaurant health alerts from the station’s bureau in Ocala. Not much was on the Internet then, he said, so “I had to drive up to Jacksonville to see the reports, which were handwritten.”

In October 2003, he moved to WDRB-TV in Louisville, Kentucky, where he said his stories on children struck by cars at school cross walks helped change state law on speeding in school zones and earned him a nomination for an Emmy award.

Zimmer returned to St. Petersburg and 10News WTSP in 2005 to cover consumer and enterprise stories.

He feels lucky to work in his hometown and at the station where it all began, he said. “It is rare for reporters to work in their hometown, since they move around for jobs.”

The day he visited the Burger King started around 9 a.m. in the newsroom of the station’s headquarters at 11450 Gandy Blvd. N in St. Petersburg.

Around him were journalists with phones pressed to their ears and fingers typing on keyboards.

“So many cooks in the kitchen,” Zimmer said.

At 9:30, a group of reporters and producers gathered in the news conference room to discuss story ideas and plan when stories might air. National news dominated the discussion, from the Zika virus to the presidential race.

Most of the reporters were young. They scanned through their phones for ideas.

Zimmer mentioned reports of possible health violations and residential abuse at an assisted living center in Tampa. To get ahead, he wanted to record video of the building after his visit to the Burger King.

His office is in a dimly-lit corner of the newsroom, not far from reporters Noah Pransky and Mike Deeson. Pransky was researching developments in the presidential race with what he called his “good friends of Google,” and Deeson was watching video footage to help him update a story.

Zimmer said his daily schedule was “slammed and busy.” He wanted to get started on an assignment about IRS scams before visiting the Burger King, then catch a 6:30 p.m. flight to Virginia for vacation.

After he discussed his day with producer Amy Marinec, he decided to visit Burger King first, then begin on the IRS story later.

Then he drove to Adamo Drive and parked on the back side of the restaurant, where Clooney, the photojournalist, was preparing her equipment.

Zimmer and Clooney came to the restaurant without notifying anyone.

“If you come in announced, you will always find a clean kitchen” he said.

In reporting his “Restaurant Red Alert” segments, Zimmer and the photojournalist who accompanies him tell employees why they are there, seek out the manager for comment, and ask to see a copy of the inspection report, which by law must be made available to anybody who asks for it.

At some restaurants, managers let the 10News team inspect the kitchen and other spots where violations were found and interview customers in the dining room.

But at Burger King, the employees did not cooperate.

“Nobody wants to be spoken to,” said a cashier.

Another employee arrived and declared, “Hey, you need to back off from here.” He put his finger on Clooney’s camera and told the journalists to “skedaddle on this way,” pointing to the door.

Then Zimmer was handed a cell phone to take a call from a manager. He explained his purpose, repeated his request for a copy of the state health report, and agreed to wait outside.

Several minutes later, an employee came out to give him a copy of the report.

Meanwhile, Zimmer interviewed two brothers who had just eaten at the restaurant.

The younger brother, Brindon Williams, had gotten a milkshake from the machine where state inspectors had found roach excrement.

“I think that’s kind of gross because I don’t like feces on my milkshake,” Williams said.

Story in hand, Zimmer returned to the station, typed a short transcript and recorded his voice-over at an empty booth while Clooney scanned through the video.

While editing, Clooney noticed a smudge on the lenses. She realized that it was the fingerprints of the employee who told them to “skedaddle.”

Zimmer looked over the video and chuckled. “That was the first time someone told me to skedaddle,” he said.

His report was ready for the 11 p.m. newscast six days later.

When Zimmer introduces himself, he said, some people associate him with his baseball-famous grandfather. But he wants to be known as the reporter who alerts consumers about dirty restaurants.

“I like to be recognized for myself.”

You can reach Beau Zimmer at bzimmer@wtsp.com and follow him on Twitter @Zimm10 or on Facebook.com/beauzimmer.

By IVELLIAM CEBALLO
USFSP Student Reporter

TAMPA – Reporter Tony Marrero stood at the entrance of the Tampa Convention Center amid a colorful sea of people.

On one side was a long line as hundreds of supporters waited to get inside to hear Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump.

On the other side were dozens of protesters holding bold signs like one that read, “Love has no borders.”

Marrero had put his ballpoint pen behind his ear and his old-fashioned reporter’s notebook on a tall flower pot beside him. Now he was shooting video with his Iphone.

As the presidential campaign heated up, the bombastic Trump had attracted crowds and controversy in equal measure, and violence had begun to break out at his rallies. When he visited Tampa on March 14, the day before the state’s important primary, the Tampa Bay Times was ready.

Marrero, another reporter and a photographer were stationed outside the convention center. Two other reporters and a photographer waited inside as people made their way through the doors and security.

“When a story this big – a national story – is in our own backyard, we want to own it,” Marrero said.

Marrero, 40, is the early-morning breaking news reporter in the Times’ Tampa office. He covers crime, fires, weather, and other big events – like a Trump political rally – for the paper and its website, tampabay.com

Marrero was born in Baltimore. He’s lived in Florida since he was 21. He said he always enjoyed writing and knew he wanted to be a journalist so he got a bachelor’s in journalism from the University of South Florida in Tampa.

Marrero was working for Hernando Today, an affiliate of the Tampa Tribune, when the Times hired him in 2009. He covered Hernando courts and Pinellas County government before moving to the paper’s breaking news team.

“The variety really makes it fun,” he said.

He feeds off the energy of his colleagues as they work together, especially on assignments like the Trump rally, he said.

“I couldn’t see myself doing journalism anywhere else.”

Marrero had arrived at the newsroom at 7 a.m.

By then, colleague Marlene Sokol had gotten word of the planned protest and posted it on “Bay Buzz,” the Times’ blog on local politics.

After doing some research on the protest, Marrero looked up from his desk to chat with three colleagues, the only other people in the large newsroom.

On top of everything else going on, his editor needed a weather story. Skip O’Rourke, a photo editor, reminded everyone that he took a photo through their seventh story window to meet a deadline some days ago. They laughed.

“Digital recorder, extra batteries, pens…” Marrero went through what he needed as he packed his laptop bag. He finally decided not to take the laptop because it would be extra weight.

It was 10 a.m. Time to go. The rally was scheduled to begin in four hours.

Marrero left the office with just enough time to pick up a piece of pound cake from Kahwa Coffee, which he ate as he walked to MacDill Park along downtown Tampa’s waterside pathway.

There, Marrero chatted with protesters as they gathered to begin a march to the convention center and back. Many of them shouted, “Build a wall, build it high, let’s put Donald Trump inside.” Reporters followed along, their cameras and microphones in hand.

After the march ended, Marrero conferred with Dirk Shadd, one of the photographers assigned to the story. Scanning the crowd, they agreed to approach someone wearing the most colorful hat.

Shadd and Marrero walked up to a group of young adults and learned that the friends had driven from Melbourne to attend the rally.

By 1:13 p.m., the Times had a story on its website.

One of the best parts of the job, according to Marrero, is the teamwork involved – “especially when you like the people that you work with.”

The Times reporters worked together, using #trumptbt, as they tweeted updates to the story.

When police announced that no one else would be admitted into the rally, the Trump supporters and protesters outside began to argue.

While Shadd worked his way into the middle of the trouble, Marrero watched intently from nearby. He snapped his last photo of the day and struggled to catch what the verbal combatants were saying.

Later, walking back to the newsroom to update the story, Marrero noticed a group of police vehicles that were apparently escorting Trump to the rally.

The convoy passed the site where five developers – using Trump’s name – promised in 2005 to build the tallest, most luxurious condo tower on Florida’s west coast.

The project fizzled. The lot is empty.

By KATHERINE WILCOX
USFSP Student Reporter

TAMPA — As a business reporter for the Tampa Bay Times, Justine Griffin often writes on weighty topics: An analysis of what a Donald Trump presidency might mean for local tourism. Profiles of prominent business leaders. A tour of Amazon’s grand new warehouse in Ruskin.

But on a recent Monday, Griffin had a much sweeter assignment: Try a doughnut ice cream cone at a shop in south Tampa.

Her assessment? “It’s sweet, and filling, and within a matter of minutes it becomes a sticky, melted mess,” she wrote. “But it’s just so Instagram-worthy.”

Griffin, 28, was born and raised in Pasco County and graduated from the University of Central Florida in 2010 with a bachelor’s in journalism and humanities.

She has been a reporter for six years.  She started in 2010 at the St. Augustine Record on the breaking news and police beat, then spent time at the South Florida Sun Sentinel and the Sarasota Harold-Tribune before arriving at the Times in May 2015.

When she’s not covering her beat, Griffin enjoys riding her horse, Belinda, and writing for several blogs, including “Horse Junkies United” and “Deal Divas,” the Times’ blog on fashion and shopping.

She is also vice president of the Journalism and Women Symposium, a national nonprofit that works to empower women in the field.

Griffin was at the Herald-Tribune in 2014 when she tackled the most ambitious project of her career: a 32-page narrative of her experience as a first-time egg donor.

“I had a friend pass when I was young,” she said. “After she died, her mom had trouble conceiving.”

That’s when Griffin became interested in donating to help other families having trouble getting pregnant.

Her report, titled “The Cost of Life,” ran as a long-form narrative in print with no ads and as a multimedia project online – exposure that any 25-year-old journalist would welcome.

Now, two years later, Griffin was waiting in Datz Dough, a doughnut and ice cream shop at 2602 S MacDill Ave. in Tampa that features the newest viral sensation – an ice cream cone made out of a doughnut.

Her day had started early in the nearly empty St. Petersburg office of the Times, where she met with her editor, Chris Tisch, and got advice from food critic Laura Riley, who gave her some pointers on evaluating the odd dish.

On her way out, Griffin ran into food editor Michelle Stark, who asked her to post photos of the cone to the paper’s food Instagram account.

Upon arrival, Griffin interviewed Tony Pullaro and Gina Moccio, the communications and public relations coordinators for the bakery. She asked some basic questions about the background of the shop and how they came up with the idea for the unusual cone.

According to Pullaro, the idea was based on a viral image on an Instagram from a bakery in Prague that invented the special cone.

Soon Times photographer James Borchuck arrived and Tina Contes, the lead confectionist and general manager of Datz Dough, invited them into the kitchen to see where the magic happens.

Contes, who created the recipe used at the shop, takes pride in the different forms of the creation that she invents every week.

This week it’s a cinnamon sugar doughnut cone lined with chocolate ganache, stuffed with Boston cream ice cream and topped with chocolate whipped cream, chocolate sprinkles, and a homemade potato chip dipped in chocolate.  Last week, it was topped with cotton candy.

After Contes finished her creation, she passed it to Griffin to taste on camera for the Times’ website, tampabay.com. After one bite, the creation was melting down the sides and falling apart, something Griffin said she would have to mention in her story.

Griffin explained that although the ice cream doughnut cone was tasty, she still had to note the negatives and the whopping $10 price.

Those drawbacks didn’t seem to faze a group of women who saw Griffin eating the cone. They each ordered one.

After the questions were over and the videos were shot, Griffin went to the Times newsroom in Tampa to write her story.

Griffin pulled quotes from her memory, notes, and an email correspondence she had with a representative at a food research company based in Chicago. After about 30 minutes, she had finished the story and sent it to Tisch, her editor in St. Petersburg.

Then it was time to meet with the photographer to record some sound bites for the video feature that would accompany her story online.

Griffin said she doesn’t do this as often as she used to at the Herald-Tribune, but she feels comfortable in front of a camera or on a recording.

Within an hour, the story was up on the Times’ website. The next day it was in the paper and on the front page of tbt*, the paper’s free tabloid.

Not too shabby for four hours’ work.

Read the story here:  http://www.tampabay.com/news/business/retail/datz-dough-in-tampa-now-features-a-doughnut-ice-cream-cone-thats-big-messy/2271855

By MARLA KORENICH
USFSP Reporter

SARASOTA – At 10:30 on a Friday morning, she left the Sarasota Herald-Tribune office with purple streaks in her blond hair, an interrobang tattoo on her ankle, and a smile.

An interrobang is a question mark and an exclamation point together.

“It’s my favorite symbol. It explains my life,” she said.

Shelby Webb describes herself as enthusiastically curious. Her actions cause reactions, she said.

“People are always saying, ‘Really? What are you doing?’” she said.

Webb, 24, is the education reporter for the Herald-Tribune, and has been there for almost three years. She is a fifth-generation Floridian, born and raised in Sarasota. She graduated from the University of Florida in 2013 with a bachelor’s in journalism.

Following graduation, she applied to 90 papers. Only two responded. The Herald-Tribune was one of them.

This morning she is headed to Bradenton for an interview.

“Just so you know, my friend spilled a beer in my car, and it smells terrible,” Webb said.

Despite the smell, Webb’s quirky attitude keeps things rolling.

“I didn’t think my hair would turn out so purple, but no one has said anything about it yet, so I think it is okay,” she said.

At B’Towne Coffee Company shop in Bradenton, Webb met with three employees of Manatee County government to talk about an upcoming convention designed to get millennials more involved in local government.

The convention will include “cosmic shuffleboard,” and Webb went off on a tangent about hipsters and shuffleboard. She made a lot of jokes to keep the conversation going.

Rachel S. O’Hara, a Herald-Tribune photographer, joined to take photos and shoot video for Unravel, an online publication of the Herald-Tribune for young professionals in the Sarasota-Bradenton area.

To get a photo of the three government staff members in the street, Webb ran out into the middle of the road behind O’Hara to make sure no cars were coming.

“Hey, you watch the other side of them! I am depending on you,” Webb yelled.

Back at the office an hour later, Webb looked at the 13 red steno notebooks spread out on her desk.

“I don’t even know which one has the notes I just took,” Webb said.

There is also a stack of newspapers about 2 feet tall.

“I was going to do something with them, but I’m not sure what,” she said.

Also on her desk is a trophy in the form of a dog holding a hotdog atop a Grey Poupon jar.

“We did a hotdog-eating contest to boost morale in the newsroom,” she said.

Webb ate three hotdogs and buns the fastest, to the dismay of Katy Bergen, a reporter in the next desk.

There are 100 desks in the office, but only 15 had people in them. There was only one editor in sight.

Like virtually every other American newspaper, the Herald-Tribune has dramatically cut staff in recent years, but the empty desks don’t worry Webb anymore.

“I used to be worried, but they know I am a workhorse and pump stories out,” she said.

Webb talked on the phone with her editor, Victor Hull. She had to add some paragraphs to a Lakeland Ledger story to make it relevant to the Herald-Tribune.

“He’s the best editor I’ve had,” she said.

A previous editor would rewrite her stories, she said, but Hull is easier to work with. She thinks she has become a better writer since her start in 2013.

“I think they just gave up on you,” quipped Scott Davidson, a fellow reporter.

While getting a quote to add to her paragraphs, Webb talked to an official who alerted her to a government meeting next week.

“See, this is why it is so awesome. I called to get a quote, and he tipped me to a story idea,” she said.

When she writes stories, she said, she starts from the top down.

“I don’t like to leave an interview if I don’t know what my lead is going to be,” she said.

Several times during the day, Webb said how much she loves her job.

“Every day is different,” she said. “I get to meet people, learn new things every day. I know what’s going on in the county without trying.”