Gerald Loeb Finalist

Rob O’Dell, reporter for the Arizona Daily Star, was named a finalist for the Gerald Loeb awards, which honor the nation’s top business reporting. He is a finalist in the online reporting category, where the other finalists include the staff of the New York Times, the business section of the Boston Globe, a team of 11 reporters for MSN Money, and a team of reporters from the New York Times. Rob was honored for his investigations into waste and mismanagement of $100 million in Tucson’s Downtown redevelopment district.

Here’s a list of the finalists:

Online

2009 FINALISTS CATEGORY I: ONLINE “Rio Nuevo Audit,” by Rob O’Dell, Arizona Daily Star “2008 Globe 100,” by Shirley Leung, Bennie DiNardo, Ann Silvio, Scott LaPierre, DC Denison, Joel Medina, Matthew Bottitta, Danielle Kost, Ronald Agrella, Essdras Suarez, Daigo Fujiwara and Javier Zarracina, The Boston Globe “Middle Class Crunch,” by Art Lenehan, Peggy Collins, Aaron Whallon, Anh Ly, Elizabeth Daza, Joe Farro, Sean Enzwiler, Rachel Elson, Mark Baumgartner, Lauren Barack, Richard Conniff and Judi Hasson, MSN Money “The Debt Trap,” by Gretchen Morgenson, Louise Story, Tara Siegel Bernard, Jenny Anderson, Mark Landler, Brad Stone, Jonathan Glater, Tom Jackson, Amy O’Leary, David Rummel, Rob Harris, Todd Heisler, Matt Orr, Emily Hager, Amy Schoenfeld, Amanda Cox and Matthew Bloch, The New York Times “Pogue-o-matic,” by David Pogue, Sam Grobart, Danielle Belopotosky, Zach Wise, John Niedermeyer, Tom Jackson and Raymond McCrea Jones, The New York Times

Here is a link to the press release for the awards:

http://www.businesswire.com/portal/site/home/permalink/?ndmViewId=news_view&newsId=20090513005325&newsLang=en

Journalist of Year Finalist

Rob O’Dell, a reporter for the Arizona Daily Star, was named as a finalist for Journalist of the Year in Arizona in 2008.

Rob finished as second runner up for Journalist of the Year.  Here’s what was read about Rob at the awards:

Second runner-up

Rob O’Dell

Arizona Daily Star

As a Tucson city hall reporter since 2005, Rob O’Dell has had a front-row seat to the Old Pueblo’s decade-long effort to revitalize its downtown through the Rio Nuevo District. In 2008, O’Dell detailed how $100 million has been raised and spent, and how little has been accomplished with those tax dollars. O’Dell painted a troubling picture of government incompetence and the ability of politics to override good planning and public policy.

“Isn’t this what enterprise reporting is all about? Rob’s decision to do what City Hall couldn’t do - to crunch numbers and inspect thousands of pages of documents - seems to be a public service with real consequences,” said judge Steve Paul. “O’Dell’s effort to get behind the smoke and mirrors of downtown redevelopment projects could be a model to newsrooms everywhere.”

Beelmaud echoed that: “His dogged pursuit, using open records laws, resulted in databases that detailed for readers which promises had, and had not, been kept. It was a textbook example of accountability reporting.”

In fact, O’Dell’s writing has prompted the Arizona Legislature to consider ending the district or slapping heavy reforms on it. His reporting led to the firing of Tucson’s city manager as well.

O’Dell, 30, specializes in public records investigations. He frequently speaks about public records law on journalism panels and to students at the University of Arizona.

Prior to working at the Arizona Daily Star, he reported for the North County Times in San Diego County, Calif., and the Hamilton Journal-News in southwest Ohio. He has also worked in the Washington bureau for Cox Newspapers in Washington, D.C.

O’Dell is a 2001 graduate of the S.I. Newhouse School of Journalism at Syracuse University. He is writing a book with his cousin who was shot and injured during the 2007 Virginia Tech shootings. He lives in Tucson with his wife, Sandra.

 

Also, Rob’s investigation into the Tucson’s redevelopment district called Rio Nuevo won the award for the Arizona’s top political and Government reporting for 2008.  This was Rob’s second straight recognition for in the prestigious John Kolbe Politics and Governmental Reporting Award. He finished second in 2007 as part of team investigating what it took to get fired from the public payroll. Here’s the comments from the award judges:

John Kolbe Politics and Government Reporting Award (17 entries)

Judge: Megan O’Matz, an investigative reporter with the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, won first place for in-depth reporting in 2007 from the Association of Capitol Reporters and Editors for a package of stories she co-wrote about people who had illegally received permits to carry concealed weapons.

 

First place

Rob O’Dell, Arizona Daily Star, Rio Nuevo downtown development district

“O’Dell’s persistent, resourceful reporting found that the city took in more than $77 million in taxpayer funds but had little to show for it, certainly not the museums, aquarium and hotels officials promised. One source called it “a giant boondoggle.” O’Dell’s stories are an example of watchdog journalism at its finest. The newspaper even went the extra mile, setting up a web page where readers can track the use of the money. The stories had immediate impact: state lawmakers considered reforms and even ending the funding.”

Check out a PDF of the awards magazine here:

http://www.azpressclub.org/content/contest/2008/08_AZPressClub_AWARD_MAG.pdf

Here’s a text-only verison of the winner’s list:

http://www.azpressclub.org/content/contest/2008/2008_winnerslist_text.htm

Knight Batten Awards

Rob O’Dell’s work as a reporter with Arizona Daily Star was honored as a notable entry in the Knight Batten Awards for Innovations in Journalism.

Rob’s series called Rio Nuevo Audit, was the first comprehensive evaluation of how much the city of Tucson spent in its effort to redevelop Downtown, along with the first records of what the city spent the money on. The series showed the city had essentially wasted about $100 million, and the series led to the firing of the city manager and potential reforms of the redevelopment district called Rio Nuevo by the Arizona Legislature.

Here are the comments about the series from the Knight Batten awards:

Arizona Daily Star investigated the Rio Nuevo project and made thousand of paper records available online. The Rio Nuevo project was supposed to revamp Downtown Tucson but since its inception in 1999 little progress, if any, has been made. Because of the ADS’s reporting and investigation, the public has been made aware of the project’s mismanagement and as a result, control of the project has been taken from the City Council by the Arizona Legislature and both the City Manager and Project Director have been fired. The Star’s Rio Nuevo investigations are innovative because they created a detailed and searchable list of what the city had spent redeveloping Downtown—information the public craved and learned for the first time from the paper.

 

Click on this link for more info:

http://www.j-lab.org/awards/category/2009_notable_entries

Wash Post Profile

Click below to read a profile of Derek from the Washington Post titled “Deceptively Strong”

A good read that is great profile of Derek.

 

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/story/2008/04/14/ST2008041403147.html

Meeting with President Obama

On President Barack Obama’s campaign trail, he stopped by Roanoke, Virginia and met with many of the VT students who were injured in the shootings. President Obama discussed some of the important issues relative to school shootings such as gun control, mental health awareness, and school safety. Here is President Obama with Derek and his girlfriend Laura.