Olten Suspect Charged with First Degree Murder

On Wednesday November 18th, the first trial in the murder case of 9 year-old Elizabeth Olten was held at the Cole County Courthouse in Jefferson City. The murder occurred on Wednesday October 21st 2009. 15-year old Alyssa Bustamante, after an 8 am hearing, is charged as an adult with first degree murder and armed criminal action.

I attended the first hearing, no cameras or any recording devices allowed when the judge ruled to charge Bustamante as an adult despite her age. Reasons for this decision included the viciousness and severity of the crime as well as insufficient juvenile services. A second hearing in the afternoon stated her indictment of first degree murder, which by definition is that she committed the murder with prior thoughts and reflection, as well as armed criminal action for her use of a knife in the murder. Since Bustamante did not have a lawyer in the second hearing, there were no cameras or recording devices allowed and the judge pleaded not guilty on her behalf.

The next time the court meets Bustamante will be assigned a public defender and until then she is in the custody of the Cole County Sheriff's Department. After the first hearing, Elizabeth Olten's family was very emotional, however Bustamante showed no emotion at either hearings. The next hearing for this case is December 7th.

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Five First Nation Report

Here is my national news anchor shift at the 5 pm from Monday November 16th. National stories this evening included tax troubles, Obama visiting China to speak about social media and

Atlantis space shuttle lifting off in Florida.

Local Non-Profits Fight Budget Battle

My '8 on your money' special aired on Wednesday November 11th at the 10 pm show. My story took an in-depth look about how local non-profits in Columbia are affected by the economic recession. After about a month of interviews, research, shooting, writing and editing my story finally came together! In the end, I was very pleased that I was able to humanize the financial problems of local non-profits by not only looking at the decrease of funding, but also highlighting the increase of volunteers. Even though donations are down, people are giving their time to help local organizations. The story turned out to have a positive side, despite all of the financial challenges presented to the non-profits. Here is my video story from the live broadcast as well as a link to my in-depth web story, which includes more information, links and pictures from my video.

Link to my story

First Ahead Report-A Look at KOMU 8 News at 10

Today for my live shot shift, I was the first ahead reporter. Since there are three live reporters every Wednesday for the 5 and 6 pm shows and only 2 live shots in each show, one reporter does a first ahead look on the 5 pm show about a story coming up later in the evening. My 8 on your money story about the effect of the economic recession on local non-profits airs on the 10 pm show tonight. So I did the first ahead report about my own story! The producer and I decided to use some of the video from my package as a rolling bam behind me while I gave a short preview of my story in the studio.

Here it is!

Five First Nation Report

Here is my first nation report from the 5 pm newscast this evening. The national headlines include brewing weather in Mississippi, a plane crash in South Carolina and a truck accident on the Bay Bridge in San Francisco.

Safe and Sound Bridge Improvement Program

Wednesday November 4th was an extremely busy day! I went to the station early in the morning to work on my HFR story on non-profits during the recession. I needed to log my interview sound to see what I could use for my story. After I went through all of my interviews, I sat down to write my script. By that time it was about 11 am and it was time to look at story ideas for my dayside live shot for the 5 and 6 pm shows.

I decided to do a story about MODOT's safe and sound bridge improvement program because as of Wednesday they completed over 100 bridges. The program aims to repair and replace bridges across the state. I spoke to the people at MODOT in charge of the program about their construction plans for the future and why this project was so important for Missouri. Most of the bridges average about 60-65 years old so they need to be improved or completely replaced to keep Mid-Missourians safe. I went live for both of the shows off Interstate 70 near the Highway 40 overpass bridge, which is being worked on this coming spring as part of the project. I also used a map graphic in my live shot to show other bridges in and around Boone County, some are complete and some are part of the next phase of the program. The project's goal is to complete all 802 bridges across the state by 2013.

Here is my live shot and my headline from the 6 pm show-enjoy!

Link to my story

Five First Nation Report

Today was the first monday of my new anchor shift. For the rest of the semester, I will be doing the national report at the 5 pm show. It usually consists of three or four of the top national news stories of the day. I anchor the stories in the studio in the first five minutes of the show. Since I have my advanced reporting class until 3:30 at KOMU, I am already at the station so I can do my make-up and read over the stories in just the right time to be ready for the 5 pm show.

Here it is-enjoy!

Getting in Line for Swine Flu

Last wednesday, October 28th, I started my dayside live shot shift for the 5 and 6 pm shows. I arrived at the station around 9 am to work on my non-profit story and discuss with my assignment editor how to best report my story for the day. I found the story on Tuesday and I needed to be at the station early so I could head out into the field by 11 am, when usually dayside live reporters do not arrive until noon or 1 pm. The first swine flu clinic in Boone County was being held at the Boone County Health Department, but not everyone was eligible for the vaccine. The clinic was giving the shot form or the flu mist to only children ages 6 months to four years old at no charge. The Missouri Department of Health made the decision a week ago to lift the ban on a restriction against children getting the swine flu vaccine because it contains a mercury preservative that was originally thought to be dangerous. The CDC approved that this mercury preservative, thimerosal was safe for children so Missouri finally lifted their ban as well.

Considering the clinic only lasted from 1 pm to 5 pm and there was a limited amount of vaccine, we expected to see a large crowd lining up for the vaccine. When I arrived at the Health Department in Columbia around noon, I was not surprised to see a large line of parents and children all along the front of the building. I met a local parent and her son who was getting the vaccine, and was able to follow them inside as they waited and then received the swine flu mist. I also spoke with a few other parents who were excited about this opportunity to keep their children healthy.

It turned out to be a solid story and after my day at the clinic, here is my live hit from the 6 pm show!

Link to my story