Ask for a résumé or CV. Smart candidates these days have
Web sites and post résumés and other interesting stuff there. Ask them to help fill in any unexplained gap, and double-check items that sound unusual or too good to be true.
STUFF YOU CAN CHECK ON YOUR OWN:
A
. Education: You can’t get their grades, but you can confirm the dates they attended a school and degrees conferred. Be on the lookout for exaggeration.
B
. Awards and honors: Check for publicity concerning such by contacting people or associations that confer them. Again, be on the lookout for exaggeration, especially in things they tout, as in a decorated veteran of the Vietnam War.
■ You can verify claims of military service by checking
Military.com.
■
Poynteronline has a good tip sheet for military info.
C. Occupations: If there’s reason to be skeptical, check these directly. How long did they work there? What positions did they hold? How did they leave? Voluntarily? Check employer Web sites, association directories, etc.
D. News history: Check
the archives of your local newspaper for
mentions. Go back several years. Why were they
in the news? (If they’ve moved here recently, check the paper where they used to live.) Always check Lexis-Nexis, Newsbank and other
news databases.
E. Criminal and legal history: Check with the Clerk of District Court for felony charges or civil suits filed in Missoula County. Justice and Municipal courts have misdemeanors. You can check the state’s
criminal history database, but it will cost you $11.50 per request. However, searching the state’s
correctional offender network to locate people in prison is free. So are the state’s
sexual/violent offender databases. You can get federal information though a database called PACER, but it costs. (I have an account.) Again, the Web is a good starting place.
F. Political/Public service history: Again, start with a
basic Web/News search, but there are other databases, including
minutes of government meetings and government directories. You can also check to see if they’ve given money to
state or
federal candidates. If you’re researching the voting record of a state or federal elected official, check with the good folks at
Project Vote Smart.
G. Property and taxes: If they own property in
Missoula County, you can look up its physical description, location and tax information. To see if they own property elsewhere in the state, check the
Montana Department of Revenue’s Web locator.
H. Business records: If people own businesses, you can check to see what type they are and who represents them. Remember that
incorporated businesses can own property, so search the property-tax databases for that information too.
I. Bankruptcy: Bankruptcies, in which individuals or businesses seek protection from their creditors, are filed in a
special federal court. You can get this through PACER. The nearest U.S. Bankruptcy Court is in Butte.
OTHER ELECTION/GOVERNMENT TOOLS
For information about a Montana candidate’s past fund-raising, check the
Montana Commissioner of Political Practices site. It can lead you to information about lobbyists, too. For information about groups running so-called issue advertisements (“527 groups”) , see
Opensecrets.org.
Cops and courts writers face such a steady stream of daily stories that they sometimes overlook articles about how the justice system works. It's a rich field for enterprising journalists. For great story ideas, check out Covering Crime and Justice, a Web-site produced by some of the nation's top justice journalists and featuring basics of beat coverage and a great assortment of story ideas.
