How do state politicians use campaign money?
We shouldn’t overlook how our representatives in state legislatures raise and spend money.
Matt Spina of The Buffalo News offers a real eye-opener about New York state legislators’ use of campaign money for babysitters, season tickets for sports events, payments for cars and such.
See Matt’s Sunday front-pager here.
deadlines amuse me 
Dr. Wilkins,
I suppose this is a bit odd, a stranger commenting on your livejournal, without an actual comment on the post. I apologize for that and forgive me if this is out of line; I noticed that your livejournal is mostly comprised of posts relating to news articles and stories. I’m afraid to tell you that this comment has nothing (and yet everything,) to do with such.
About a week and a half ago, I attended J/MC day at St. Bonaventure. After having a great deal of time to reflect on the morning that I spent there, I wanted to thank you for such a wonderful presentation. While each speaker had valuable information and opinions to share, I took what you had to say to heart. One of the biggest reasons that I was shying away from majoring in J/MC was the “risk.” Listening to what your student wrote about risk and what you had to add, I realized that this is a risk that I would like to take. I can’t wait to share with the world what I have to say, to report the news, to write for a critical audience, to “expose the unexposed,” to dive into the J/MC field.
Unfortunately, I’m not ready to promise you that I will be attending St. Bonaventure in the fall of 2007, as I do have a number of other colleges to visit. Even so, please know that you have made a difference in my future. You may not ever be my professor but you have still taught me a lesson that I will never forget.
As a child, I was the perfect Girl Scout; I followed “Be Prepared” like it was my life’s motto. That may have been a good thing, but in all actuality I was only prepared to prevent anything out of the ordinary from happening. I was continually afraid of taking chances and forgetting about the risk that doing so would present. After rethinking what you had to say, I feel that I am finally truly prepared – prepared to abandon the “What If’s” going through my mind, prepared to be a risk-taker for once in my life.
Anyways, after four paragraphs I’m probably starting to ramble on, something no doubt frowned upon by a Journalism professor. Please accept the excess of words as nothing but gratitude to you. I feel that I owe you a world of thanks for everything that you said on J/MC day. Do continue to influence the students of St. Bonaventure as you have influenced me in a single morning.
Sincerely,
Christine Filer
l0ud_m0uth414
July 24, 2006 at 10:22 am
Christine,
Thank you for your kind words. Sometimes, at such events, I never know whether I “get through” to people.
I had a similar experience at a similar age. A UMass geology professor taught me, too, to take a risk. You may be the well-prepared Girl Scout; I was the Boy Scout equivalent.
Don’t underestimate the need to minimize risk through preparation. That’s a principal reason for going to college — to prepare yourself for the rest of your life.
If you’ll drop me a note by e-mail, I’ll send you the text of what I read, written by my student, Maddy Fitzpatrick. If you’d like to tell her yourself what you thought of her words, her e-mail is FITZPAML@sbu.edu.
Good luck on your search. On your campus visits, remember to eat the food, find out where you can do laundry, see the room across the hall — and attend as many classes as you can.
DrD
Dr. Denny
July 24, 2006 at 12:25 pm
DrD,
You’re welcome. I meant every single one of them.
= ) I’m glad to know that I’m not the only one to have felt this way.
Brilliantly said. I’ll try not to underestimate.
I will e-mail both you and her, thank you.
Great advice. Thank you for everything,
Christine
l0ud_m0uth414
July 24, 2006 at 1:00 pm