For six straight years, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa vowed he would take on the trucking industry and impose strict air quality rules that would reduce truck emissions at the Port of Los Angeles by 80 percent by 2012.

The Port of L.A. launched the Clean Truck initiative in 2008 in an effort to scrub clean the air at the country's largest port. By barring older trucks from the port, by requiring other trucks retrofit in stages, and by providing incentives for purchasing newer and cleaner trucks, the plan aimed to hit the port's emissions goal in five years.

What seemed impossible took on a sense of reality in October when the mayor and port officials called a news conference to announce they reached a milestone:  truck emissions had dropped 70 percent at the Port of Los Angeles by mid-2009, putting the port three years ahead of its aggressive schedule.

"This is the most successful effort to clean a port in the world," Villaraigosa said. "I mean, think about it. Nobody thought it was possible to retrofit 5,000 trucks in a year, and we're at 5,500 and growing."

No one at the news conference cast much of a skeptical eye. Headlines in the L.A. Times read the next day, "Diesel emissions down drastically at ports of L.A., Long Beach."

A Neon Tommy team of investigative reporters set out to document the progress being touted by all types of organizations,  from the Port of L.A. to the National Resources Defense Council.

In interviews with truckers, port officials, and cargo companies, the team discovered truck companies use new and cleaner trucks to pick up cargo at the port, while the old and dirty trucks wait just outside the port to haul the cargo through Los Angeles.

Amanpour is the kind of lady who would mortify your grandmother at the dinner table...she loves the two subjects you can never talk about but are so delicious...religion and politics. 

So being this big journalist superstar--she's the chief international correspondent for CNN and before that reported for 60 Minutes---you would think she'd have an internet footprint a mile-long. And what do you know? Yep. She does. Pictures, videos and biography entries about her bust up the internet. 

Her CNN bio with her awards and recognitions a mile long:

"She has secured exclusive interviews with world leaders from the Middle East to Europe to Africa and beyond, including Iranian Presidents Mohammad Khatami and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, as well as the presidents of Afghanistan, Sudan and Syria and Palestinian leader Yassar Arafat among others. After 9/11 she was the first international correspondent to interview British Prime Minister Tony Blair, French President Jacques Chirac and Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf.

Her body of work has earned an inaugural Television Academy Honor, nine News and Documentary Emmys, four George Foster Peabody Awards, two George Polk Awards, three duPont-Columbia Awards, the Courage in Journalism Award, an Edward R. Murrow award and other major journalism awards as well as honorary degrees from The American University of Paris, Georgetown University, New York University, Smith College, Emory University and the University of Michigan.

In 2007, Amanpour was made a Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (CBE) by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II for her 'highly distinguished, innovative contribution' to the field of journalism. In 1998, the City of Sarajevo named her an honorary citizen for her 'personal contribution to spreading the truth' during the Bosnia war from 1992 to 1995. "

Live blogs, excited tweets and re-mixed broadcast clips flooded the internet last Wednesday as journalists scrammbled to cover Obama's health care speech. Websites tried to be new and sassy in synthesizing the story through a combination of innovative multi-media techniques.

 Politico and The HuffPost provide two good examples. 

HuffPost

Bloggers/Journalists of the Huffington made comments about Obama's speech on a bloggers reaction page as Obama gave the speech.  All the bloggers/journalists that participated in the live blog have been writing about the health care debate since this past summer, when Obama initiated a reform plan. As can be expected of the Huffington, a liberal leaning website, the bloggers gave Obama very positive reviews.

 Examples include:

Paul Begala: "Obama's speech rallied dispirited Democrats, reassured disenchanted independents and intimidated Republicans. He called out lies, and pledged to call out the right-wing thugs if they continue lying.

Peter Dreier: "Having a president who inspires people to act collectively on their own behalf can make a difference. It gives people hope and courage to defy obstacles."

Ray Hanania: "The President's speech was so powerful it probably sent many of the nation's health insurance industry robber barons into economic cardiac arrest."

However, some of the Huffington bloggers seemed upset about the President's lack of commitment to a public option.

Cenk Uygur: "Why bah humbug Obama's health care speech? Because it went almost exactly as predicted. Great rhetorical flourishes, but did anyone hear him say that he was definitely going to fight for the public option? No."

But most were upset about the Republican "You Lie" and Sarah Palin. Why liberal bloggers chose to pass the attention to Republicans, the same Republicans who are very out of power, beats the who-ya out of me. I guess it was more entertaining to write about...

John R. Bohrer: "Republicans are so high on themselves that one thought nothing of screaming, "Lie!" at the President of the United States as he was, ironically, in the middle of dispelling their lies."

Bob Burnett: "On September 9, Republican members of the House and Senate acted like petulant fraternity boys forced to attend Sunday mass."

Shannyn Moore: "Palin's Facebook page response to the president's speech on health care reform, I had to walk away and count to ten -- in Russian. Here is her statement with my response."

As you can see, the entries were very pithy and straight to the point. They mimicked a sort of twitter style without the exact 140 character limitation. The bloggers also had the option to make their comments longer by linking to their own blog pages, although the only thing that shows up on the Huffington reaction page is the short blurb. 

The most interesting aspect to the live blog would be the twitter feed Huffington attached to the bottom. It's interesting to see the citizen perspective on the speech alongside the pundit comments. What's more interesting is which tweets Huffington decided to add to its page. It shows what the Huffington perceives as important public comments or at least what it thinks public comments should be.

Politico

Politico covered the speech through a mixture of strategies.  Throughout the day it posted a lot of articles written about the upcoming address as sort of a pre-game or lead-up to the main event. It also summarized the health care plan and added some analysis, like a traditional news outlet would, immediately following the speech. One of the articles that compared Obama's speech to Clinton's 1993 speech on health care reform was particularly interesting. The Politico journalist, Eamon Javers, went so far as to count the number of times both Presidents used the same jargon in their speeches. However, the more telling analysis Javers made related to the style and composition of the Obama speech versus the Clinton speech.

Politico also effectively used it multimedia to cover the speech. It condensed Obama's hour long address into a series of five minute segments. Each segment was subtitled, which made it very easy for the user who did not want to watch the whole speech get the main gist of it. It included a 6 minute highlights reel.

"Highlights of Obama's Address":

Washingtonpost.com, Politico.com, Sacbee.com

History and Contents

Washingtonpost.com, politico.com and sacbee.com all have great reputations for their political coverage. These three websites are widely respected and well known, especially in the political junkie world. The Post focuses on national politics and the DC metro area, the Sacbee focuses on California politics and the northern California/greater Sacramento area, and Politico focuses exclusively on national politics. Politico, in contrast to the other websites, focuses on a very niche market.

The Sacbee and the Post are both old, traditional newspapers that have adapted to the dotcom boom with their successful online publications. Politico started a few years ago as an online publication but, due to popular demand, has recently developed a paper version of itself. (Interestingly enough, Politico's moneymaker turned out to be its paper version.)

The Set-Up

All three websites hire journalists to run blogs. These journalists, or blog operators, are very knowledgeable about the subjects they cover and have a knack for finding interesting story angles. The Post has bloggers like Chris Cillizza and Howard Kuntz, Politico has bloggers like Anne Schroeder and Michael Calderone, and the Sacebee has bloggers like  running Dan Walters and Marcos Bretton.  My favorite blogs tend to be witty and fun to read, which is why I like Politico's blogs the best.

All three websites also use multi-media including video, audio and photo slideshows. However, all three websites use and approach these tools in a distinct way.

For the most part, the Post uses multi-media to enhance its stories instead of as a tool to complement the overall website.  The approach explains why it does not have a multi-media tab on the homepage. The Post expects users to access its multi-media components by clicking on a specific story and then clicking on the video, audio or photo slideshow that corresponds with that story.

The Post puts together pieces using its own audio clips and photos, but borrows a lot of camera footage from other news sources like AP or CNN. The video it puts online tends to only cover major events and news conferences, and is taken directly from the broadcast news sources without any alteration. The way it simply plops the material into its multi-media section makes it boring to watch. In addition, the original video reporting the Post does do is not very interesting.

The Sacbee approaches multi-media similarly to the Post. It uses multi-media tools to enhance its news stories and disperses the material throughout its publication.  It also has a multi-media section like Politico that is accessible from the homepage, but it's hard to find. You have to scroll all the way to the bottom of the page.  I find the Sacbee to be the weakest multi-media operator of the three websites because it does not use enough of a variety. However, the Sacbee does do excellent video reports.  They're fun, engaging and give good information.

Another quick distinction between Sacbee multi-media and the Post and Politico multi-media is that it does not use camera footage from TV broadcast news. It takes all its own video and puts it together.

Politico has the most engaging and comprehensive multi-media section of the three websites. It uses an mélange of everything in a variety of styles and covers all sorts of topics from the Kennedy funeral to "regular folk" street interviews. The videos include "insider" blurbs from Politico journalists, kitschy "TV news broadcasts," and controversial political advertisements being played in different parts of the country.

Of the three websites, Politico does the most video reporting. The videos may include wacky graphics and other funny material, but the content is very good and credible. It also rarely borrows full clips from a single news station like the Post does. In addition, it is the only website of the three that makes it easy to access its multi-media by providing a multi-media tab on the top of its homepage, as well as linking individual videos to its homepage and articles. The way Politico structures its multi-media is to complement its articles and the website as a whole.

For example, Politico has also developed what it calls "Politico Playback," a section of clips that puts all the highlights from the political broadcast shows together. The splice and dice mix is a great way to see what all the pundits are talking about and hear quick interview blurbs from big politicians. It makes it easy for the user to see ABC Morning News, This Week with George Stephanopoulos, and the O'Reily Factor all in the span of three minutes. Some of Politico's Playbacks also include highlights from the late night comedy shows that poke fun at politics.  They're fun to watch.

Although these clips are not linked up to a specific article, they complement the website as a whole. Politico's mixture of online articles, broadcast "re-mixes," and video reporting helps it cover all realms of the political journalism world. The comprehensive multi-media section makes me feel like there is no reason to go anywhere else for news on national politics. It summarizes cable chatter, TV broadcast news and even late night political comedy in a matter of a few minutes while giving the reader quality articles. In fact, its articles have as much detail and depth as the articles written for the Post.

It seems to coordinate all the news outlets about the political world into one website, which is probably what has made it so successful. 

SANTA ANA--- "I like the good life," said Edwin Alvarez. "And the cheap beer." His answer as to why he wanted to stay in the United States resonated in its simplicity. It was charming, almost charming enough to distract from the house arrest bracelet strapped firmly to his leg.

He sat back in his chair, sipped on the cool Modelo and absorbed his surroundings; it's a one-bedroom Santa Ana apartment he shares with five others while he awaits his immigration hearing.           

Alvarez, a 20 year-old Honduran immigrant, came to the United States illegally five years ago. After escaping an extremely abusive upbringing at the age of ten, Alvarez had no real family as a young teenage boy and decided to venture north. He ventured through Honduras, Guatemala and Mexico for five days via train roof, sneaking from train top to train top until arriving at his Tijuana destination.  Fifteen hundred dollars and a coyote tour later, both provided for by his Uncle who also resides in the States illegally, Alvarez landed in Santa Ana. 

He stayed with his Uncle until his Uncle's wife chased him out, resorting to moving through the homes of different extended relatives and strangers. During this time Alvarez tried a stint of high school but quit shortly thereafter. Being illiterate, he found it too hard to catch up and his diminutive physical size made it difficult for him to socialize with peers his own age. (In Honduras he suffered from malnourishment making his fifteen year-old body look like that of a very young ten year-old.) He took up gardening.

Five years following his arrival, on Mother's Day, the Santa Ana police escorted Alvarez to jail where he stayed two days for public drunkenness and disorderly conduct. Since the arrest he has spent the past six months on house arrest at his uncle's ex-girlfriend's apartment; it was the only address the police could find for him.  Alvarez awaits his immigration trial patiently, fully expecting to be deported.

When asked what he will do when he returns to Honduras, he again answers simply. "I will steal. I don't steal here but in Honduras I can't find work so I steal. I will steal for three months and then I will come back. There are plenty of train roofs."