Today: It's Reporters Roundtable Thursday, the day we turn to our colleagues from northwest Indiana media to talk about the stories they worked on for their employers online and in print. This week, we have two "Times of Northwest Indiana" writers -- education reporter Carmen McCollum and business reporter Joseph Pete. We also hear from Lakeshore Public Radio's Sharon Jackson.
Carmen focuses on U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos' visit to the Region to check out some charter schools, and how the past financial problems of the Gary Community School Corp. are revisited when the state-appointed emergency manager team started reviewing the school district's account books.
Carmen wrote many stories over the years about the Gary school district's cash shortfall, bills paid late, delayed payrolls and the like. Emergency manager Peggy Hinckley described the GCSC's finances to a state board as being "in total disarray."
Sharon Jackson talked with Gary Mayor Karen Freeman-Wilson about the Steel City's plans to submit a bid to be the home for Amazon's second world headquarters.
Joseph Pete talks today about the excitement generated by Amazon CEO Jeff Besos' public decision to seek proposals from any community in the U.S.and Canada for that "HQ2." Joseph also reviews his stories, in print and online, about the latest unemployment report from Indianapolis, the end of an auto mechanics' union strike against auto dealerships, ArcelorMittal conducts a tour of the Indiana Harbor mill for interested auto industry representatives, and of the expansion of the "Instacart" online shopping experience to more northwest Indiana stores.
