California Watch
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| Founded | 2008 |
|---|---|
| Focus | Investigative Journalism |
| Location | |
| Method | Foundation and member-supported |
Key people | Robert Rosenthal, Executive Director of CIR Christa Scharfenberg, Associate Director of CIR Mark Katches, Editorial Director |
| Website | californiawatch.org |
California Watch is an investigative reporting newsroom operated by the nonprofit and nonpartisan Center for Investigative Reporting.
California Watch, which began operating in 2008, says its mission is to pursue “in-depth, high-impact reporting on issues such as education, public safety, health care and the environment” and produce “stories that hold those in power accountable, while tracking government waste and the misspending of taxpayer resources.”[1]
With offices in Berkeley and Sacramento, California Watch distributes its stories through local and regional news organizations, such as the San Francisco Chronicle, the Bay Area News Group, the Los Angeles News Group and the Sacramento Bee, as well as through online news websites, including the Huffington Post. It also publishes original news stories about California and databases about state and regional issues on a website, Californiawatch.org, and through social media such as Twitter and Facebook.
California Watch is supported by major grants from the James Irvine Foundation, the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, the California Endowment, and the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.[1]
Major Stories
Dubious Homeland Security spending
California Watch's first foray into a new model for journalism was a story on wasteful homeland security spending, purchasing violations, error-prone accounting and shoddy oversight throughout California during the years immediately after 9/11. [2]
CIR homeland security reporter G.W. Schulz examined thousands of pages of documents from 160 state homeland security monitoring reports. California Watch found more than $15 million in questionable costs, such as communities buying large-screen televisions with anti-terrorism funds; not using software or hardware purchases; failing to keep adequate records that lead to overpayment or loss of equipment; and not seeking competitive bids when buying both large and small-ticket items.[2]
The story got picked up by more than two dozen news outlets including California's top newspapers, reaching almost 2 million readers in print and many more online.[3]
Seismic safety
In mid-March 2010, California Watch published a report by higher education reporter Erica Perez investigating how California’s public universities are slow to fix buildings deemed significant seismic hazards. The story broadcast on television and radio stations throughout California and appeared in newspapers and online websites. A college student newspaper published the story as well (the Daily 49er at California State University Long Beach).[4]
California Watch supplied the story to news partners a week before publication to localize the story for their audiences. The San Francisco Chronicle published a lengthy version, while The Bakersfield Californian, The Eureka Times Standard, the Long Beach Press Telegram and Orange County Register included condensed versions in their publications.[5]
Hetch Hetchy Power Crew
Five highly-paid electricians working for the city of San Francisco spent years allegedly stealing from taxpayers by throwing sex parties with prostitutes, moonlighting on city time and fraudulently billing the city to pay for suburban lifestyles, according to a California Watch report by money and politics reporter Lance Williams and freelancer Stephanie Rice. [6]
Williams hosted an online question-and-answer session July 8, 2010, to answer reader questions about the investigation. He revealed the electricians were caught because of an anonymous tip to the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission that accused alleged ringleader Donnie Thomas of running a business on city time. Williams also said the city attorney’s office of San Francisco hired private investigators, who installed surveillance cameras around the offices on San Francisco Bay's Treasure Island to record the electricians' activities and compare with their time card punches. [7]
The San Francisco Chronicle featured the California Watch report in a front-page article July 4, 2010, while KGO TV, KQED public radio, and KCBS radio also covered the story. [8]
Shrinking school years
Education reporter Louis Freedberg investigated the effect California's budget crisis is having on public education in the state, finding that 16 of California's 30 largest school districts were opting to reduce the number of days in the academic year - a change affecting some 1.4 million students.[9]
Freedberg's report found that educators believe shrinking school years and other budget cutbacks could "depress hard-won academic gains in recent years," while some saw it as proof California's budget crisis is starting to erode "the core of public education in California."[9]
California Watch released the story July 15, 2010, and it was was widely covered in radio, television and newspaper accounts, including Spanish-language media such as La Opinión.[9]
References
- ^ a b "California Watch", "About Us page", 26 July 2010
- ^ a b "G.W. Schulz", "California Watch", "Homeland Security marked by waste, lack of oversight", 26 July 2010
- ^ "Ken Doctor","Content Bridges", "Bay Area Online News Renaissance: 7 Pointers Forward" 26 July 2010
- ^ "The Daily 49er", "Six CSULB buildings seismically unsafe", 27 July 2010
- ^ Robert Rosenthal, "California Watch", "California Watch reaches new partners with seismic story" 27 July 2010
- ^ "Lance Williams and Stephanie Rice", "California Watch" "Unsupervised city workers accused of brazen theft, cheating taxpayers", 26 July 2010
- ^ "Lance Williams", "California Watch" "Q & A: Lance Williams on the Treasure Island power crew", 26 July 2010
- ^ "KGO TV", "City workers accused of outrageous spending", 26 July 2010
- ^ a b c "Louis Freedberg", "California Watch" "Majority of state's largest districts shrink school calendar amid budget crisis", 26 July 2010