An Opportunity for some Journalism The unfolding story about North Adams' self-insurance trust fund presents an interesting opportunity for our local paper. Can The Transcript devote the time and resources to actually understanding the issue - which includes tricky subjects like state insurance law, labor law, municipal accounting, etc.... - or will the reporting simply be "he said, she said" quotes.

I know the paper has very limited resources these days, but this is the kind of story that can and will increase readership if residents believe that they can actually learn something. The reporters at the paper are smart cookies. They can figure it out if given the time to do some independent analysis.

At the risk of overstepping, let me suggest a few things:

1) Ask the unions for their numbers and analysis. Sit down with someone and have them go through their allegations in detail.
2) Ask the city and its officials for their numbers and analysis.
3) Call the state insurance commission and ask for a quick tutorial on municipal self insurance trust funds.
4) Investigate the allegations that this issue is why Mary Katherine Eade resigned from her position a couple years back.
5) Explain the difference between the private audit that the city performs on its books and the public audit that the unions are requesting.
6) Most importantly, take the time needed to understand the whole picture. If that means that a few mundane stories do not get written this week, so be it. This one is a biggy!

Good luck with this. Tight budgets, election year politics, opaque and boring subject matter, etc.... will not make it easy.  ¶ 8:43 AM