How a California city got stuck in FEMA limbo
FEMA, it seemed, had the medicine this small town needed. But 12 years later, the agency is one of its biggest headaches.
... Read more
Sean McMinn is the multimedia fellow at the Scripps Howard Foundation Wire in Washington and a 2014 graduate of California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo. His work has appeared in USA TODAY and across broadcast, digital and print formats for Mustang News.
In January 2013, he was hired as a collegiate correspondent for USA TODAY, writing about college news across the country for five months. He covered the intersection of millennials and today’s news, from politics to media to country music. One of his stories, a data-driven report revealing the major hubs for recent college graduates, was featured in the Money section of USA TODAY’s print edition.
His experience covering higher education stemmed from two years as a reporter for Mustang Daily, focusing on government and administrative issues in the California State University system. His award-winning story on a freshman who was hospitalized the night after receiving an invitation to join the Alpha Phi sorority led to policy changes in Cal Poly’s sorority pledging process. A public record request about on-campus campaigning policies in the CSU — and the fight from the CSU to not give up the document — landed McMinn in a story featuring him on the front page of the L.A. Times’ California section.
After writing as a correspondent for USA TODAY, Gannett asked McMinn to intern at its headquarters in McLean, Va., just minutes from Washington. In addition to contributing more reporting to USA TODAY College, he also edited writing from correspondents and contributors, helped code stories in the USA TODAY content management system and contributed research to social media and mobile app development targeting millennials.
During his time in Washington, McMinn also began planning for a new student media convergence at Cal Poly, which would later be dubbed Mustang News. Students emphasizing in print, digital and broadcast came together to drop Mustang Daily’s print-first mentality and create a digital-first news operation. As the managing editor for news, he led the news coverage and served on the leadership team, contributing to all major decisions in direction of the news organization and its parent group, Mustang Media Group. Through this, he had a chance to work on a Coleman Foundation-sponsored grant researching innovative journalism curriculum at Cal Poly.
During his first quarter at Mustang News, McMinn also started a training program for first-year students interested in journalism. Named The Day After, he provided weekly feedback to freshmen writing follow-up stories to supplement the editorial content published in Mustang News. He designed and coded The Day After blog where these stories are housed on MustangNews.net.
Reporters under McMinn’s leadership have broken more stories at Cal Poly receiving national attention than ever before. His story on a controversial “Colonial Bros and Nava-hos” themed fraternity party made international headlines, and his further reporting on greek life was cited in Bloomberg News and The Huffington Post. Fox News and other conservative media outlets ran reports of his stories about a student government election policy that punished candidates for speaking to reporters — a policy McMinn and other editors challenged in an editorial and guest column in the local alternative newsweekly.
McMinn graduated cum laude in June 2014 with a major in news-editorial journalism and a minor in statistics. Faculty chose him for the Outstanding Senior award in the Cal Poly journalism department.
In January 2013, he was hired as a collegiate correspondent for USA TODAY, writing about college news across the country for five months. He covered the intersection of millennials and today’s news, from politics to media to country music. One of his stories, a data-driven report revealing the major hubs for recent college graduates, was featured in the Money section of USA TODAY’s print edition.
His experience covering higher education stemmed from two years as a reporter for Mustang Daily, focusing on government and administrative issues in the California State University system. His award-winning story on a freshman who was hospitalized the night after receiving an invitation to join the Alpha Phi sorority led to policy changes in Cal Poly’s sorority pledging process. A public record request about on-campus campaigning policies in the CSU — and the fight from the CSU to not give up the document — landed McMinn in a story featuring him on the front page of the L.A. Times’ California section.
After writing as a correspondent for USA TODAY, Gannett asked McMinn to intern at its headquarters in McLean, Va., just minutes from Washington. In addition to contributing more reporting to USA TODAY College, he also edited writing from correspondents and contributors, helped code stories in the USA TODAY content management system and contributed research to social media and mobile app development targeting millennials.
During his time in Washington, McMinn also began planning for a new student media convergence at Cal Poly, which would later be dubbed Mustang News. Students emphasizing in print, digital and broadcast came together to drop Mustang Daily’s print-first mentality and create a digital-first news operation. As the managing editor for news, he led the news coverage and served on the leadership team, contributing to all major decisions in direction of the news organization and its parent group, Mustang Media Group. Through this, he had a chance to work on a Coleman Foundation-sponsored grant researching innovative journalism curriculum at Cal Poly.
During his first quarter at Mustang News, McMinn also started a training program for first-year students interested in journalism. Named The Day After, he provided weekly feedback to freshmen writing follow-up stories to supplement the editorial content published in Mustang News. He designed and coded The Day After blog where these stories are housed on MustangNews.net.
Reporters under McMinn’s leadership have broken more stories at Cal Poly receiving national attention than ever before. His story on a controversial “Colonial Bros and Nava-hos” themed fraternity party made international headlines, and his further reporting on greek life was cited in Bloomberg News and The Huffington Post. Fox News and other conservative media outlets ran reports of his stories about a student government election policy that punished candidates for speaking to reporters — a policy McMinn and other editors challenged in an editorial and guest column in the local alternative newsweekly.
McMinn graduated cum laude in June 2014 with a major in news-editorial journalism and a minor in statistics. Faculty chose him for the Outstanding Senior award in the Cal Poly journalism department.
Stories by Sean McMinn - Multimedia Fellow 2014-2015
From the SHFWire: A Tableau HTML iFrame generator
Have fun, fellow data dorks. ... Read more
House panel criticizes regulators after May oil spill
Members of Congress voiced frustration Tuesday with the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration's failure to implement more than a dozen safety regulations required by a 2011 law.... Read more
In @POTUS’ Twitter foray, emphasis on health care, climate change
A simple word cloud of the president’s tweets — 70 as of Wednesday (not including retweets) — shows a digital list of priorities topped by health care and... Read more
If what’s past is prologue, Highway Trust Fund is in deep trouble
The Highway Trust Fund has been barreling down a hill toward insolvency for the past eight years, and there’s talk on Capitol Hill of — once again —... Read more
With clock ticking on Capps’s time in Washington, she’s looking for some ‘progress’
Though there’s an end in sight, the Central Coast Democrat isn't feeling the pressure to tack her name onto one last monumental achievement. ... Read more
After being eliminated, spelling bee contestant does NOT want a kiss from Mom
Mothers will always be there — even when you're on stage in front of the national media.... Read more
Rep. Capps resting in Santa Barbara after knee surgery
Capps, 77, injured her knee while running in Washington in March. ... Read more
Amtrak engine that derailed included new crash safety engineering
The train that derailed Tuesday night near Philadelphia included a recently debuted Amtrak locomotive with an advanced crash safety design.... Read more
As deadline nears, transportation advocates ramp up lobbying
With members of Congress back in their home districts and spring signaling the start of construction season, transportation industry groups are launching campaigns with the hope of forcing... Read more