Arizona: East Valley Tribune

by David Safier

If you live in Tucson and you want to know about the tuition tax credit/STO mess, there's currently only one place to go: my posts on BfA. The Star has been AWOL when it comes to covering the story. I don't think it would take all the fingers on one hand to count up the articles the Star has published on the topic since the story broke. Meanwhile, the East Valley Trib put together a 5 part investigative series which has received national recognition and has added much more information since then with regular, in depth reporting. The Republic is giving the Trib a run for its money, doing its own research and adding to the discussion.

Posted by azBlueMeanie:

Earlier this year, Arizona suffered the loss of its oldest continuously published newspaper, the Tucson Citizen. Now Arizona will suffer the loss of the award winning East Valley Tribune. East Valley Tribune to shut down Dec. 31:

The Tribune Newspapers will cease operations on Dec. 31, parent company Freedom Communications said Monday.

Freedom officials made the announcement to Tribune employees Monday morning, citing the economic recession and changes in the newspaper industry that have caused many publications to close and others to file for bankruptcy protection.

Freedom, which itself is operating under Chapter 11 reorganization, had been attempting to sell the Tribune, but no acceptable offers have come forward, said interim Chief Executive Burl Osborne.

by David Safier
From the Democratic Caucus, AZ House of Representatives:

Task force on private school tax credit program to hold first meeting
 
STATE CAPITOL, PHOENIX – The Bipartisan Task Force on the Private School Tuition Tax Credits program will hold its first meeting this month to look at the program’s problems and reported violations.
 
First Meeting of Bipartisan Task Force on the Private School Tuition Tax Credits program
When: Monday, Sept. 21 at 10 a.m.
Where: State Capitol, House Hearing Room 3
*Task force members will hear from experts on School Tuition Organizations. At a future meeting, the public will have an opportunity to raise concerns and ideas with the task force.

by David Safier
Ryan Gabrielson and Michelle Reese have received much deserved praise for their series in the East Valley Tribune, Rigged Privilege, about the misuse of tuition tax credits and improper behavior by the STOs that manage and disburse the funds. Now they've received an award and a little bit of extra cash for their efforts.

The Sidney Hillman Foundation have given the two reporters its Sidney Award for Social Justice Journalism. The award comes with $500.

This isn't the first such award for Gabrielson. He was awarded a Pulitzer along with Paul Giblin for their five-part investigative series about Sheriff Joe Arpaio. Ironically, Giblin was downsized out of his Trib job because of budget cuts and is now on the staff of the