NEWS ‘MAKER’: When President George W. Bush made a stop in
Tampa, Fla., Feb. 17 to talk about his administration’s ongoing
global war on terror, former Johnsonburg resident Michael Hinman
was there.

Michael, 29, was part of the press pool covering Bush’s visit,
which included a briefing at MacDill Air Force Base, home of U.S.
Central Command, and a town hall meeting with more than 300 people
at the Port of Tampa’s Cruise Terminal 3 in the Channelside
District.

At the town hall meeting, Bush also talked about his desire to
allow immigrant workers to receive temporary employment passes to
do work that the president said Americans won’t do. He also
addressed affordable housing and efforts to lessen American
dependency on foreign fuel by seeking out alternative means of
energy.

Michael was covering the event as a staff writer for the Tampa
Bay Business Journal, where he has been covering his main beats of
residential real estate, technology and economic development since
last September.

He’s a part of a six-member newsroom covering seven counties in
the Tampa Bay region that has a total population of more than 3.5
million people. Cities in that coverage area include Tampa, St.
Petersburg, Lakeland, Clearwater, Bradenton and Sarasota.

In the Feb. 17 print edition of the paper, Michael joined with
reporter Jane Meinhardt to write an investigative report months in
the making titled “Whistle blown: Whistleblower’s lawyer alleges
Times duped into discrediting official,” that detailed aspects of a
whistleblower lawsuit filed three years ago by former Pinellas
County assistant county administrator Rick Dodge against the county
government.

The case, which was recently settled, detailed an incident,
according to depositions, that the current county administrator
“planted” stories he knew were not accurate in the St. Petersburg
Times, Florida’s largest daily newspaper that covers the region, as
a way to discredit Dodge.

The story was put together by extensive public records searches
by both Michael and Meinhardt, and resulted in the Times denying
the story.

Michael is the son of Richard Hinman of Zephyrhills, Fla., and
Rose Wiley of Johnsonburg. He graduated from Johnsonburg Area High
School in 1994, and spent time as a reporter locally with the
Johnsonburg Press and Ridgway Record back in the early 1990s before
moving to Florida in 1995.

His work has been recognized by the Florida Press Association,
Community Papers of Florida, and other organizations.