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Who to root for during the Super Bowl; behind the reporting on Johnny Doc’s indictment | Weekend Newsletter

We go behind the scenes of our reporting on the major indictment that shook Philly's labor community this week.

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If weather-prognosticating rodents are to be believed, an early spring is on its way. Punxsatawney Phil saw his shadow yesterday, and thousands flocked to Gobbler’s Knob and camped at Walmart to witness the spectacle live. Speaking of spectacles, the indictment of union boss Johnny Doc and City Councilman Bobby Henon garnered some serious attention this week. This morning we spoke with reporters Jeremy Roebuck and David Gambacorta about how they sifted through the fed’s 159-page report as the news broke.

In 2018, our newsroom told stories that invoked significant change, from City Hall to public schools and beyond. We also brought you the events and personalities that celebrate what makes Philly special. Here’s an update on where we’re headed in 2019 and beyond. Please let us know how we are doing by emailing our publisher, Terry Egger, at TerryAMA@inquirer.com.

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Oona Goodin-Smith, Tauhid Chappell (morningnewsletter@philly.com)

The week ahead

  1. They can never take away the Philly Special, but the Rams and Patriots will face off for Super Bowl LIII glory tonight in Atlanta. And — hot take alert — if you’re an Eagles fan, you should be rooting for the Pats, writes columnist Mike Sielski. 

  2. Meanwhile, the Birds are already looking to next season. The team is expected to use its $20 million contract option sometime this week on Nick Foles, but that doesn’t mean he’ll stay with the Eagles. Another player whose future in Philly is unknown: Chris Long

  3. Philly is honoring Black History Month with plenty of events. Look out for a list of the region’s celebrations later this week. 

  4. The Year of the Pig officially begins Tuesday and there are plenty of places around Philadelphia to ring in the Lunar New Year. To many Asian communities, it’s one of the most important holidays of the year and it’s all about food and family.

  5. Keep an eye out this week for our Spring Arts Guide, with everything you need to know about the concerts, plays, exhibits, movies and more coming to Philly this season.

This week’s most popular stories

Behind the story with Jeremy Roebuck and David Gambacorta

Each week we go behind the scenes with our reporters and editors to discuss their work and the challenges they face along the way. This week, federal officials indicted the leader of the region’s largest electrical union, Johnny Doc, as well as City Councilman Bobby Henon. We chatted with Jeremy Roebuck and David Gambacorta, who were part of a large contingent of reporters tasked with parsing through the indictment, about telling the complex story.

Walk us through your approach in examining the 159-page indictment. What did you look for at first?

Jeremy Roebuck: The chief goal at first was just determining how much of Local 98’s operation was touched by this indictment. We’ve been covering this investigation for years and at various points have reported that investigators were scrutinizing everything from allegations of worksite intimidation and the misspending of union funds to Local 98’s prolific political giving to candidates across all levels of government. Only some of that scrutiny resulted in charges. The indictment really zeroed in on two chief concerns – the alleged embezzlement by Dougherty and others to enrich themselves on the back of union workers and Dougherty’s relationship with Councilman Bobby Henon.

David Gambacorta: It’s a little manic. The indictment was posted online a few minutes before the U.S. Attorney’s Office held a press conference to explain all of the charges, and we needed to get a story up simultaneously. So you go into triage mode — read a few passages, add a little more to the story, read some more, and mine whatever you can from other reporters who are posting interesting bits on Twitter and Slack.

What methods did you use to distill all of that information to make it easier for a reader to digest?

Roebuck: I typically cover the federal courthouse, where a lot of the big, newsworthy cases involve complex indictments covering multiple crimes stemming from investigations that stretch on for years. So figuring out a way to distill and compartmentalize a large amount of info into the space we have to report it comes with the gig. In this case, the job was made easier by the fact that the indictment so clearly was separated into two halves – the allegations of embezzlement of union funds and the corruption charges involving Dougherty and Henon. In both aspects of the case, it was important to show readers how they – or people they knew – were affected. The embezzlement piece, if proven in court, directly affected union members, who prosecutors say were ripped off by a man who enriched himself off of their hard labor. With the allegations involving City Council, the actions described in the indictment affected the whole city. If there were corrupt dealings behind issues such as the soda tax, Comcast’s franchise agreement, and audits of the Parking Authority to determine if it was paying enough to Philadelphia schools, the public should know and be outraged. We aimed to foreground those aspects in our coverage.

Gambacorta: Legal language can be cumbersome and repetitive, so sometimes it’s just a matter of simplifying things and asking yourself, “What actually happened here? One guy called another guy in June? Let’s just say that.”

How did you coordinate coverage with other reporters?

Roebuck: Because of the intense public interest, we had dozens of people involved in the coverage on the day the indictment was finally unsealed. Our reporting early on in the investigation helped us to identify key areas that were likely to feature in the indictment, which helped us decide even before the document was released which stories we would want to focus on aside from the big news of the day. When you throw a lot of reporters at a big breaking story, communication is key to ensure people aren’t duplicating work or stepping on each other’s toes in the heat of a breaking news moment. Thanks to that early planning we were able to avoid a lot of that and turn out a series of solid stories that highlighted distinct aspects of the news without too much overlap.

Gambacorta: Jeremy is truly a pro’s pro — in the criminal justice world, I think he probably has a better handle on what’s coming down the pike than some of the judges, so it’s great to work with him on a story like this. He knows all of the players and plot threads, which makes it easy to sort of divide how we tackle reporting and writing.

What was the most difficult part of covering an indictment of this magnitude?

Roebuck: Dougherty has left a bigger footprint on this city than almost anyone working today. When you think about the impact he has had in organized labor, the city’s construction boom and his union’s role in helping dozens of elected and appointed government officials win their posts, it’s almost impossible to understate his influence. He’s made a lot of friends along the way – and also a lot of enemies. So there was clearly a lot of interest in this story from the day the FBI raided Local 98’s union hall in 2016. Learning as much as we could about the investigation, where it was headed and the charges it would eventually result in was a challenge – especially given the fact that the details of federal probes are always kept tightly under wraps.

Gambacorta There’s never enough space to fully tell a story like this, at least not on the first day.

Follow David Gambacorta and Jeremy Roebuck on Twitter for ongoing updates. You can also email them at JRoebuck@phillynews.com and DGambacorta@philly.com

Through Your Eyes | #OurPhilly

It was a snowy one, this weekend. Thanks for capturing it @behtany!

Tag your Instagram posts or tweets with #OurPhilly and we’ll pick our favorite each day to feature in this newsletter and give you a shout out!

#CuriousPhilly: Have a question about your community? Ask us!

Have you submitted a question to Curious Philly yet? Try us. We’re listening to our readers and doing our best to find answers to the things you’re curious about.

In light of the indictments against Johnny Doc and Councilman Bobby Henon this week, we’re asking you what you want to know about the case. What questions do you have for our reporters about the investigation? Let us know and we may answer them in an upcoming article.

What we’re…

  1. Eating: A Cajun salmon BLT at Green Soul, the soul-food inspired “bridge to better eating,” where Inquirer food critic Craig LaBan says there’s something for everyone

  2. Drinking:  Whatever we can drown our sorrows in, because the Patriots are once again in the Super Bowl and our beloved Eagles are not. 

  3. Watching: Robert Carsen’s production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, an opera which has traveled around Europe and Asia but is just now making it to the U.S.

  4. Listening to: All five of the best song performances at the Oscars, thanks to reconsideration by the Academy. In 2018, that’s an especially good thing, since music contributed so much to the nominees’ themes and emotional impact this year, writes film critic Gary Thompson.

Comment of the week

Having read the details shown, two questions arise: 1) in admitting a guilt, is the time serving validation for dismissing critical evidences. And is it adequately modified in contents of charges. 2) When passing or tossing a hot potato, is it fair to say that when the potato is received cold, that the case should be closed, without the evidences of fact on record? — Julie Audrey Ward on a Philly man winning a new trial after the DA handed over evidence it withheld for 15 years.

Your Daily Dose of | Skinny living

Nestled in an 11-foot-deep strip of land in Chinatown, this seven-unit structure could be the skinniest apartment building in Philadelphia.