I'm on leave this week from work and have been trying to fill my time with more than just catching up on the television shows I haven't watched over the last seven weeks.

As part of this I am taking several of the News University courses offered by Poynter. Earlier tonight I completed Beat Basics and Beyond, which I found extremely useful. In fact, I was so impressed by the course that I tried to track down the e-mail address of its creator Steve Buttry. I'm still working on a direct e-mail address for him (and if anyone knows it, I'd love the chance to tell him I appreciated the course.) Nonetheless, my search led my to his Web site where I stumbled upon a map he has made of all the places he has worked. It was very full and it made me want to do a similar project. Keeping in mind that I graduated a few months ago, I made this Google map of where I've worked. What a neat concept. I want to keep adding to this map over time. Any suggestions for what else I could include? I'm thinking about adding journalism conferences and press trips.

View Where I've worked in a larger map
I'm also interested other ideas about what I can be doing this week.
 
 
One of my favorite things to do is report on a story no one else does. I was sitting in the Missouri Senate today listening to the debate when I keyed in on an interesting discussion between two Senators about only naming highways after dead people because they can't do anything that might embarrass the state in the future. This made me think of the Mark McGwire Highway that runs along a stretch of I-70 outside St. Louis. Without directly referencing him and with very little debate the Senate was voting to change the highway to the Mark Twain Highway.

The editors liked my first line and my brief was sent out on the national wire and the national sports wire. What a great feeling. The story was picked up on ESPN.com. I never expected as a political reporter that I would end up on ESPN. The editor said it was my lede that sold the story.

Here are a few lines from the article and a link to the ESPN site.
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- The Missouri Senate wants to take away Mark McGwire's highway.

A stretch of Interstate 70 in St. Louis was designated the Mark McGwire Highway in 1999, one year after the Cardinals slugger hit a then-record 70 home runs.

The link to the brief can be found here.