William March Visit

What do you get when you combine an old New York Times report, a determined investigative reporter, and public records? You have a compelling story that could have you in deep trouble with the law. That is exactly what happened in a story done by our latest visitor to our class, William “Windy” March, chief political reporter for the Tampa Tribune.

March explained to us that he works with public records on a daily basis and believes that he uses them more than the average reporter because of the fact that he covers politics.

He also explained to us that when he was starting out as a reporter that it was kind of difficult to find the records he needed because the technology back then wasn’t as advanced. Technological advances definitely helped him gather his information from public records much easier.

He gave us a better understanding about public records and how effective they are in an investigative story, especially with the technological advances.

March explained to us that when he was reading his daily New York Times, he came across a political story that dealt with people and organizations who gave money to political parties. These monies, “soft money”, is considered illegal because it is a non-limited amount of money that could be given to a political party and there is only a certain amount of money a person or organization is allowed to donate.

This would be the end of the story had he not come across Miami businessman Mark Jimenez who gave money to the Clinton/Gore re-election campaign. March had never heard of this man and felt that he should do some further investigation on this businessman.

What he found through public records was that Mark Jimenez was the owner of Future Tech and that his company was giving a thousand dollars to the campaign. What was more shocking was that his employees were also giving a thousand dollars. When March found this out, he quickly got the word out and Jimenez was arrested for money laundering.

March explains that with the help of public records, he wouldn’t have been able to find all the information needed to bring down a person doing an illegal act.