Dataset #1

KEYWORDS:  “air quality” “diesel” “particulate” “pollution”

SYNOPSIS:  Marion Ashley: “I’m not going to lose any sleep. I’m not going to have a guilt trip,” he said when I asked what example he might be setting with his lowly rated Yukon. “I’ve been driving SUVs for 10 years. I feel safe, I feel comfortable, I can see. The governor drives a Hummer for chrissakes. When he turns in his Hummer, I’ll turn in my Yukon.” Still, Tavaglione and Ashley say they might broaden the search for their next tax-financed vehicle. Ashley: “Hybrid cars are just coming on the scene. I’ll be looking at them.”
The agreement settling the 17-month-old lawsuit calls for the county to require developers to construct roads – or have the financing in place to do so – to deal with traffic their housing developments will generate before the projects are built. Also, the city and county will pay for a study, expected to be completed in about five months, aimed at finding ways to ease freeway congestion in southwest Riverside County. “Out of something bad (the lawsuit), good things happen. No one likes to file a lawsuit, but out of this came a wonderful opportunity,” said county Supervisor Marion Ashley. “The idea is, we have to get these roads out here before we bring any more development in.” Ashley also said, “It’s very important for the future of our county and region that we face this problem head-on, and this is a small first step in that direction.” The agreement calls for the county and city to ask the Riverside County Transportation Commission to conduct the freeway study to examine the effects of new housing in western Riverside County, where in the French Valley area alone, at least 10,000 homes have been planned or completed since 2000. It also calls for developers to establish financing districts that would pay for new roads – especially those that link freeways and state highways via such key regional corridors as Winchester, Scott, Newport and Clinton Keith roads.
“I’m very disturbed by the findings in both reports, and our leadership needs to sit down with GlobalPort post haste,” said Marion Ashley, another Riverside County supervisor who serves on the March JPA commission. “Appropriate action will be taken, and we cannot rule out anything.”
Supervisor Marion Ashley said he, “understands that truckers are constrained by a litany of rules, tight schedules and high gas prices.”
Total number of articles in which official is represented at least once as an attributed source: 12
Time span between first and last attributed statement by official: (Feb.17, 2005-April 16, 2009)

RESEARCHERS: N/A

SPREADSHEET: Ashley Set #1

Dataset #2

KEYWORDS: “redevelopment” “developer” “real estate development” “growth”

SYNOPSIS:  While researching the various articles that involve Riverside County Supervisor Marion Ashley, we came across some interesting observations. The first involved the key search words that were utilized, “redevelopment,” “developer,” “real estate development,” and “growth.” Out of the 7 archives we examined, which each consisted of multiple articles, the word that was associated the most with quotes from Ashley was redevelopment.  Even though Ashley spoke on behave of the “lower income population” in majority of the quotes, there was none where he specifically mentioned the Latino population. In addition, we had significant trouble with a few articles having any search results for one or all the words. There was even one article that did not have any results when all three of the words were searched.
Due to the ineffectiveness of the key words in regards to some of the articles, we typed, “Ashley said” to find specific quotes. Next, we read through and decided which quotes applied to the different key word categories. In order to grasp a perspective about how often Ashley is quoted in the articles we typed his full name into the search box. We found in all except for one article, Ashley was only quoted between 40%-63% of the time his name was mentioned. These small percentages lead us to wonder how accurately Ashley is portrayed in these articles. Without using specific quotes, the author obtains the power to create his/her desired representation of Ashley. By not providing concrete information, like direct quotes, that the reader no longer has the power to form their own opinion of Ashley. The author has the freedom to omit or disregard any information that goes against his or her desired representation.
Total number of articles in which Ashley is represented at least once as an attributed source: 12
Time span between first and last attributed statement by official (2-25-1995 to 11-29-2010).

RESEARCHERS: Jenny Brooks & Devon Buddan

SPREADSHEET: Ashley Set #2