Matthew Von Pinnon
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Von Pinnon is editor of The Forum.
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- Member for
- 3 years 9 months
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On the cover of today's Metro/State section of The Forum is a story about an internal investigation that led to the July resignation of the former Detroit Lakes High School principal. So why is The Forum publishing the story in March? We didn't know about the investigation until late January.
We're excited to announce some changes we're making to your newspaper starting with today's edition, though the biggest changes will be evident in weekday editions starting tomorrow. Today, and every Sunday from now on, Variety will be Section B and SheSays will be Section E. Weekday editions beginning Monday will feature four additions readers have repeatedly told us they want: • More space devoted to Business news. • More space devoted to local, regional, national and international news. • A Metro+State section front showcasing news from our area. • An expanded
Meet the seven new members of The Forum's Readers Board. They join five returning members whose terms expire in June. Members stay on for a year, but terms are staggered by a half-year. The paper's community sounding board chooses its own successors. We want to first thank departing members whose terms expired in December: Tim Dirks, Pete Fendt, Susan Johnson, Brent Larson, Jay Nelson, Carmen Wald and Brenda Warren. New members are: • Butch "Superfrog" Anton, 69, Lake Park, Minn., operates Superfrog Signs in Moorhead.
Is it ever justifiable for a journalist to break the law in pursuit of news? That's the question many area journalists and non-journalists are asking themselves following a local TV station's actions last week. To illustrate how easy it is for outsiders to enter and reach students inside F-M area schools, a local TV reporter, using a hidden camera, walked through three elementary schools, having ignored posted signs directing visitors report to school offices. Unlike a visitor who might have missed the signs and accidentally broke the laws posted on them, the local TV reporter's intent was
The Forum newsroom recently said goodbye to a visiting journalist from Pakistan whom we now call a friend. Masroor Afzal Pasha, who went simply by Pasha while here, spent three weeks with us as part of an exchange program through the International Center for Journalists. The fellowship is meant to improve journalists' understanding of different cultures and people to help improve reporting practices on both ends.
Today's front-page stories about area law enforcement officers being disciplined for professional missteps or ethical breaches is the latest in a series of recent Forum stories shedding light on the internal affairs of police agencies in Cass and Clay counties. So is The Forum out to get the law enforcement community, as one agency spokesperson asked us last week? Absolutely not. A few months ago, we asked the Fargo Police Department for its last five years of disciplinary complaints.
Sitting inside the HoDo lounge, it seems anything is possible. By day, business people craft plans on the back of bar napkins. Old friends hug before sitting down to lunch. By night, women in heels mug for cellphone photos with martinis while men in T-shirts and blue jeans join co-workers for a beer. It's an otherwise odd mix of people, but it doesn't feel odd here.
Every year at The Forum for as long as anyone can remember, we've welcomed summer interns into our newsroom. While they always learn a lot during their stay, and do the same kind of work that our professionals do, we benefit from them, as well. Today's youth, and what they're interested in, helps us see fresh perspectives.
Meet the six new members of The Forum's Readers Board. They join seven returning members whose terms expire in December. Members stay on for a year, but terms are staggered by a half-year. The news agency's community sounding board chooses its own successors. We want to thank departing members whose terms expired in June: Kirby Anderson, Aaron Feickert, Kevin Tobosa and Betsy Vinz. New members are: Joe Allen, 62, of Moorhead, works for Sanford Medical Center.
When a North Dakota legislator wants to dig into a year's worth of written correspondence of a university president, he files an open records request, obliging the president to turn over what he has. But if that same university president wanted to dig into even a day's worth of correspondence from that same state lawmaker, the legislator could outright ignore that request. That's right. If you are a public teacher, police officer, highway worker, jailer or college custodian, your written correspondence related to work falls under North Dakota's very public-friendly open records laws. But l
