A Handy Guide to Missoula Government

Missoula's League of Women Voters has put together a pretty good site with links to lots of Missoula-area public agencies. Check it out for contacts and phone numbers of agencies near and dear to your beat.

And speaking of beat coverage, here are some great tips from those wonderful folks at the Poynter Institute, a Florida-based think tank devoted to doing great journalism.

Ladies and Gentlemen, Start your Beats!

Here's how the assignments worked out. If anyone would rather cover the local economy or K-12 schools, I'll accept requests for changes there.

Local economy – Brian Gaul
Missoula’s K-12 schools – Amber Kuehn
Higher education – Sean Breslin
Missoula police and Missoula County sheriff’s dept. – Anne Pastore, Dillon Tabish
Local and federal courts – Colin O’Keefe, Karen Plant
City and County government – Katie Michel, Leslie Brown
Public health – Pat Carey, Miller Resor, Stacey Davis
Natural resources, energy, environment – James Laber, Alexandra Brosh, Oriana Turley
Transportation – Mike Handford
Diversity, minorities – Jessica Mayrer, Emma Schmautz

Welcome to Public Affairs Reporting

This is newzhound, my incredibly hip class blog. Visit it often to find assignments, discussion items and useful links.

Here's your first assignment:

By 9 a.m. Tuesday (Aug. 29), along with your first story, send me an e-mail with your top three choices for a beat to cover. I’ll let you know your assigned beat by the day’s end. (Make sure the e-mail address is the one you intend to use all semester.) My e-mail address? dennis.swibold@umontana.edu.

The choices are:

1. The local economy
2. Missoula’s K-12 schools
3. Higher education
4. Missoula police and the Missoula County sheriff’s department
5. Local and federal courts
6. Local government
7. Public health
8. Natural resources, energy and the environment
9. Transportation
10. Minorities