More On Using Clips and the Internet for Background

This is an in-class exercise that we'll do in teams. We'll start with the following basic info....

Date: Tuesday, Sept. 12, 2006

Where: Orange County Sheriff's Dept. Command Post, at the intersection of Blue Gum Drive and Rim Crest in Yorba Linda, near the South Ridge Trail entrance to Chino Hills State Park.

Speaker No. 1: Good morning, thank you all for coming. I'm Jim Amormino, public information officer for the Orange County Sheriff's Dept. I have a brief statement.

At 7:11 a.m., the sheriff's department received a 911 call about a mountain lion roaming the streets. A resident walking outside to drive his child to school saw what appeared to be a mountain lion crouched in the middle of the street, staring at him. A few seconds later, a motorist coming up Rim Crest to turn left on Blue Gum Drivehit the mountain lion from behind, killing him instantly. Sheriff's investigators and officials with the state Department of Fish and Game arrived on the scene and continue to investigate. There are no injuries to report, other than the dead mountain lion.

Speaker No. 2: I'm Doug Nash, an investigator with Fish and Game. The cougar appears to be a juvenile male, about 100 to 110 pounds, well nourished. At this time, it appears he came somewhere out of Chino Hills State Park. We don't know why. Where there are deer, there are mountain lions, and some residents have reported seeing more deer recently. A necropsy -- the animal equivalent of an autopsy -- will be performed to see if the mountain lion had rabies or any other disease that might have affected its behavior. Mountain lions are reclusive and rarely come into contact with humans.

Speaker No. 3: I'm Cassandra -- Cassandra Wilson. I live over there (points to 23316 Blue Gum). My husband Steve is the one who called 911. He was taking Timothy, our seven-year-old, to school when he saw it. It really freaked us out. We've been living here for more than six years and have never seen a mountain lion. It scares me, but I guess we chose to live near a state park, so we really don't have the right to complain."



That's what we got at the briefing at the command post. Back at the office, we decide -- or maybe our editor yells at us -- to give our reporting more depth by fleshing it out with background on mountain lions, Orange County, contacts with humans and so forth.

1)We start by Googling "mountain lions orange county"

2)We find a long article, but is the guy in it credible? Legit?

3)We next Google "California Department of Fish and Game" and search the department site for "mountain lions."