Week 3: Student Response and Assignment

ThursdayOct 19 at 8:19pm

Manage Discussion Entry

The story I am referencing for this post is about a dispute between Androscoggin County and a majority of the municipalities that make up the county. The group that filed the suit includes the city I live, Auburn, and the town I cover as a freelancer. I covered the topic in 2015, as a beginner, and I could use that story as an example of someone covering a court case badly. Instead, I chose to focus on Judy’s fine coverage of the story. She is my boss’ boss, and reading the story, you get an idea of why.

The crux of the story is a group of commissioners in our county decided to bypass the budget committee and vote themselves a raise. The members of the budget committee and the towns/cities they represent were infuriated by this, and filed a lawsuit. That was back in 2015. Recently a judge ruled against dismissing the case.

This story is not on a national scale, but county-wide there is much interest, with peripheral interest at the state level.

Judy puts the lawsuit into financial perspective in the last paragraph, “That spending totals $6,000 in disputed salaries and $25,200 in benefits. As of October 2015, the county had spent more than $44,000 to defend itself. The towns had spent about $15,000 and estimated they would spend another $20,000 to resolve the suit” (Meyer,2016, Par 16).

Judy gives details about how the suit came about, what the lawyers tried to use as grounds for dismissal, and the reasoning behind the decision, displaying her expertise as a journalist and adequate knowledge of the legal system in Maine.

Meyer, J., Managing Editor/Sun Journal. (2016, March 24). Civil lawsuit against Androscoggin County Commission to proceed. Retrieved October 19, 2017, from

The story I am referencing for this post is about a dispute between Androscoggin County and a majority of the municipalities that make up the county. The group that filed the suit includes the city I live, Auburn, and the town I cover as a freelancer. I covered the topic in 2015, as a beginner, and I could use that story as an example of someone covering a court case badly. Instead, I chose to focus on Judy’s fine coverage of the story. She is my boss’ boss, and reading the story, you get an idea of why.

The crux of the story is a group of commissioners in our county decided to bypass the budget committee and vote themselves a raise. The members of the budget committee and the towns/cities they represent were infuriated by this, and filed a lawsuit. That was back in 2015. Recently a judge ruled against dismissing the case.

This story is not on a national scale, but county-wide there is much interest, with peripheral interest at the state level.

Judy puts the lawsuit into financial perspective in the last paragraph, “That spending totals $6,000 in disputed salaries and $25,200 in benefits. As of October 2015, the county had spent more than $44,000 to defend itself. The towns had spent about $15,000 and estimated they would spend another $20,000 to resolve the suit” (Meyer,2016, Par 16).

Judy gives details about how the suit came about, what the lawyers tried to use as grounds for dismissal, and the reasoning behind the decision, displaying her expertise as a journalist and adequate knowledge of the legal system in Maine.

Meyer, J., Managing Editor/Sun Journal. (2016, March 24). Civil lawsuit against Androscoggin County Commission to proceed. Retrieved October 19, 2017, from http://www.sunjournal.com/news/lewiston-auburn/0001/11/30/civil-lawsuit-against-androscoggin-county-commission-proceed/1894944