Author: dannystewart99

https://www.columbiamissourian.com/news/local/city-s-legal-fees-in-sanders-case-exceed-a-quarter/article_345a8938-105f-11e9-8118-63ba0af57361.html

https://www.columbiamissourian.com/news/local/musgrove-s-deputy-city-manager-position-dissolved/article_066f45fc-1039-11e9-a1e7-977893090af5.html

https://www.columbiamissourian.com/sports/prep_sports/kewpies-edge-out-spartans-in-crosstown-classic/article_7deb5798-10a1-11e9-9355-0f8461c47ca6.html

Friday was another busy day. The breaking news rumor from the night before broke Friday morning. We were all over it and the phone calling process began all over again but this time, we had an official release as a base to go off of. It was fun to work on this and the calls and experience was definitely interesting considering the night before, everything was being hushed up for no clear reason and then they sent out a release at 9 a.m. the next morning. It was odd, but it was fun to track all this stuff down in the Musgrove story.

The legal fees story turned into my primary work for the day though. That was more of the same. Calling, leaving messages and waiting for calls or emails back. Saturday morning, a source from the story said we were wrong about him having to pay the number presented. We would be wrong if we said explicitly that he had to pay it. I never wrote that he had to pay it. It’s heavily alluded to, but it’s not said. This is an ongoing issue for the time being I guess.

The basketball story was an easy way to start the weekend. After the long week covering a bunch of stuff I had never covered before, it was good to just relax and go cover a basketball game. It was a great game too which made it more satisfying. Though I had to walk to Hickman. I’m just glad it was at Hickman because it’s within walking distance….I need an effing car I think. This story was also another centerpiece one for sports.

https://www.columbiamissourian.com/sports/mizzou_sports/mu-wrestler-lewis-named-mac-wrestler-of-the-week/article_edc4318c-0f86-11e9-a0d5-8b0b8a6d6a66.html

https://www.columbiamissourian.com/sports/other_sports/local-roundup-stars-comeback-falls-short-against-harris-stowe-state/article_c001e048-0fc5-11e9-8689-f78b65775f98.html

https://www.columbiamissourian.com/news/local/want-to-be-interim-police-chief-start-writing-a-letter/article_9e5d0e36-0f9d-11e9-8adf-8f1c79b7fe6e.html

Busy day. A busy day that didn’t start out that busy but transformed itself as the day waned on.

Throughout the day, I was working on two small tasks: getting in contact with Steven Sapp, the city’s Community Relations manager, to answer a few questions about the Sanders trial and to find out information on the interim city manager’s memo request seeking candidates to fill the void that is Columbia’s police chief position right now.

I wasn’t having too much luck hearing back from Sapp but in the meantime, I wrote up the little thing on MU wrestling’s Daniel Lewis being named the MAC Wrestler of the Week. This was just a good thing that came up on Twitter because it got me to produce at least something while I was waiting on Sapp’s response.

During the waiting period, Keegan also asked me if I wanted to do the Local Roundup again, so later on in the night, I did that too.

But not before I finally heard back from Sapp. This is where things got interesting.

He couldn’t answer my questions about the Sanders trial just yet but he helped me out by sending the memo that the city manager sent about a new police chief. I had just finished writing that story when word broke from KMIZ that the Deputy City Manager was leaving his job.

We got to work right away to try and confirm this. I went back to Sapp and I didn’t get a response. I called a Council member and she said that she and the rest of the Council hadn’t seen nor heard anything about the situation. I called the mentioned Deputy City Manager on his office and personal number and didn’t get a response. Then I called the main help line for City Hall and I was being iced on hold until finally being put through to someone who said “we’re not making a comment at this time,” which is one of the worst things to hear.

We then tried to call the mayor without any luck.

We were deciding on whether or not we wanted to ride the coattails of KMIZ but decided against it. We knew the situation was fishy but we didn’t want to cannonball in on the situation without solid grounding first. We’ll see what happens moving forward.

This whole situation was cool though because it was a journalistic rush. Though we ended up not getting any information to go on, it felt cool trying to crack that egg.