u/ewwwdrey

Hello,

How many times have you covered a crime story while personally knowing the victim or suspect?

I’m less than a year into the profession. Over the weekend, I found out that a shooting I covered was a domestic violence dispute between two friends of mine. One of them is dead.
I wrote it up over the weekend without knowing it was them, and only found out from a friend today. I felt the floor knock out under me. I tried to get to work and do my job, but I couldn’t stop crying and had to leave early. Management was understanding.

I just want to know, how many times in your career has this happened to you? Does it ever get any easier? How do you continue to write crime stories after something like this? How do you write crime stories period?

Any advice is welcome. Thank you.

Hello, I moved into this apartment 8 months ago and everything was fine. A few months into my lease, I noticed mold growing around the windows. Okay, whatever, the windows are old, it's probably fine. At the beginning of June, my AC unit started leaking gallons and gallons of water a day. I put a bucket underneath the leak and had to empty the water every 6-8 hours. The AC unit is in a closet with the water heater. As you can imagine, that amount of water in an enclosed space is going to cause mold, and it did.

I called the emergency maintenance line every. single. day. for a week and a half to fix the water leak. I submitted a work order. Nothing happened, so I went to the leasing office and complained -- about the leak and the mold. The property manager came to my apartment and took photos of the mold, tells me there's several units throughout the complex with mold issues, and then leaves. It takes me another week of calling before maintenance fixes the leak. They patched it, but it's still leaking as I'm typing this.

Since the leak has started, and now that mold is blowing through my AC united throughout my apartment, I have had serious respiratory issues. I am coughing, wheezing, and having trouble breathing in my apartment. This morning, I coughed up blood. I have eczema, and it's gotten worse since I moved in. My cat is also experiencing respiratory issues.

I've called the health department and asked them to do a mold report. I've reached out to a local legal aid society to see if somebody would be able to help me break my lease. I'm planning on moving out ASAP because of the health issues I'm experiencing, and I've already secured housing elsewhere (not an apartment, parent's basement).

I'm just wondering -- if there is damage to the unit while I am not there (i.e. I turn the electricity off and it causes more mold to grow) will that come back on me? What else can I do?