PEOPLE ASK ME all the time where we get our story ideas. There’s no easy answer. Sometimes they come from a tip, sometimes they spring from a question that needs answering, and sometimes the story starts out trying to answer one question and ends up somewhere entirely different. In this issue, we have a little bit of everything.
Jack Sullivan’s story about Johnny Ramos came to us through a tip. We heard that state officials had forced Ramos out of his job as a security officer—a job he had performed satisfactorily for 25 years—because of a felony conviction 34 years ago when he was 18. Everyone felt he was getting a bum rap, but no one saw a way to get around a 50-year-old law that prohibits anyone with a felony conviction from working a security job. Jack’s reporting uncovered all sorts of interesting policy questions about the case, from how long someone should be penalized for their crimes to whether blanket hiring prohibitions are discriminatory.
Many of the stories in this issue seek answers to questions. Those opposed to Gov. Deval Patrick’s $1.9 billion tax package say we can’t afford it. Paul McMorrow wanted to know if they are right, and ended up producing a great read about the best way to evaluate the state’s tax burden and the very superficial debate we are having about new revenues. Instead of debating which projects and programs should be funded, we seem to hunt for a “magic number.”
Gabrielle Gurley explores what happens when two brothers square off against each other in the race for a casino license in Springfield. A lot is at stake, not only for the Picknelly brothers but also for the state and its third-largest city.
Colman Herman wanted to find out whether there really is such a thing as secondhand chemotherapy, and whether a Rhode Island company pushing for legislation here in Massachusetts has the answer for it. Colman’s reporting indicates there is growing concern about the danger chemotherapy drugs pose for those who come in contact with cancer patients and the environment, but widespread doubts about the company’s solution.
My story in this issue is an example of reporting that started out focused in one area and ended up somewhere very different. I began by looking at how the Alliance to Protect Nantucket Sound, the chief opponent of Cape Wind, was financing a legal challenge to the wind farm by the town of Barnstable. That work whetted my appetite for more, leading me to the two protagonists in the fight over Cape Wind: Jim Gordon, the wind farm’s developer, and Bill Koch, the billionaire businessman who doesn’t want to look at turbines from his summer home in Osterville.
For awhile, it didn’t look like a story about the two men was going to happen. Gordon refused to talk to me and Koch doesn’t talk to many reporters at all. But then Koch did agree to an interview, and Gordon decided he better respond. To my surprise, two men who I presumed dealt with each other only through intermediaries were actually on a first-name basis and had been talking with each other about Cape Wind for more than a decade. For those who want to read transcripts of my interviews with the two men, check out our website.
By the way, you may have had problems in the past accessing the website because someone had launched an attack against it. But now everything is operating smoothly. Come back and give us another try.