We have a SOLD OUT awards luncheon and a lineup of amazing speakers. We just added two more to the list:

-Nyier Abdou, an Emmy-awarding winning reporter and videographer for the Star-Ledger, will lead a session on how to shoot and edit a news video. This session will be at 1 p.m. Friday, April 12.

-Adam Glenn, a former ABCnews.com producer who now teaches a bootcamp digital journalism class at CUNY, will lead a talk on useful journalism web tools, at 2:30 p.m. on Friday, April 12.

For students, we’ve added “Pizza with the Pros” an informal hour-long conversation between student journalists and 3-4 professionals at 6 p.m. Friday, April 12 in the faculty lounge in room 323 on the third floor of the SCI building. Seating is limited, so you MUST RSVP to conference organizer John Ensslin at damon_runyon@hotmail.com by April 9.

To see the latest schedule, check out www.spjr1c.org.

We are putting the final touches on this year’s SPJ regional conference at Rutgers University this year. We have nationally renowned speakers and timely panels. Learn how basic math can reveal powerful narratives and what lessons reporters learned covering Hurricane Sandy and the Newtown school shootings. Check out our all-star lineup at www.spjr1c.org and register for early bird rates. Reduced early rates expire March 17, so sign up before St. Patrick’s Day!

The conference, organized by the Press Club of Long Island chapter of SPJ, will bring together professional and student journalists from Maine to Pennsylvania for a day and a half of programming March 23-24 at Stony Brook University. It is guaranteed to be exciting and informative event — not to mention an investment in your future.

The event will include programs on social media, mobile journalism, your rights at crime scenes and news events, freelancing in a down economy, useful web tools for journalistsand much more. An opening night reception will be held in Stony Brook at the Long Island Museum’s beautiful carriage galleries.

Ellis Henican, a Fox News analyst, Newsday columnist, radio host and New York Times best-selling author, will deliver the keynote address at the student Mark of Excellence awards ceremony on Saturday, March 24.

To sweeten the deal, Hotel Chocolat is donating chocolate for a Friday afternoon break, while Megabus.com is offering free rides from their locations to New York City stops for those coming from long distances. You can then take the Long Island Rail Road to Stony Brook University. Register for the conference and reserve your seat before they’re all out.

There are also discounted rates at several local hotels.

For details on the SPJ Region 1 Spring Conference and to register, visit spjr1c.org.

Hear from five journalism professionals about what made them look to mystery writing and the type of  skills serve you well in both professions. The panelists for the event are:

• Mary Jane Clark, a former CBS news producer who is the New York Times bestselling author of the “Wedding Cake” series of mystery novels.

• Don Dahler, who currently anchors the weekend morning and evening CBS 2 newscasts and wrote the novels “A Tight Lie” and “Water Hazard.”

• Bruce DeSilva, a former editor at the Associated Press editor and winner of the Edgar Award for Best First Novel in 2010 for his mystery “Rogue Island.”

• Wallace Stroby, a former Newark Star-Ledger reporter and author of “The Barbed-Wire Kiss,” which was a finalist for the 2004 Barry Award for Best First Novel. 

Larry Light, the executive vice president of Mysry Writers of America, a veteran editor at BusinessWeek, Forbes and the Wall Street Journal whose many published books include the “Karen Glick” mystery series, will moderate.

The event starts at 7 p.m. and will be preceded by a  half hour reception. After the event, the panelists will be available to sign copies of their work.

The event is free, but RSVPs are recommended. Click here to let event organizers now if you plan to attend.

Get the downloadable app via Guidebook through any app store (guidebookapp.com/getit).  Or if you prefer, go straight to sked.spjr1c.org and save the page to your device’s home screen.

This year’s schedule will allow you to explore the detailed agenda using multiple visual formats and filters, create a personalized itinerary and discover other attendees, speakers, & exhibitors.

Getting started is easy, simply connect your Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn account and we’ll show your friends & contacts also attending. Or create a private account to keep your plans to yourself.

Print out your plans to keep them handy or get the most up to date data by using your mobile device or subscribing to the schedule and synchronizing with Microsoft Outlook or Google Calendar.

The 2012 Region 1 Spring Conference is March 23rd and 24th at Stony Brook University. For more information or to register, go to the web site for this year’s conference.

PCLI’s Bill Bleyer has secured $5,000 in sponsorship funds for the event: $2,500 each from News 12 Long Island and Newsday. And newly elected chapter president Dominick Miserandino has brought in a $300 goody-bag sponsor.

“We are honored to have the support of News 12 and Newsday,” Miserandino said. ” It’s comforting to know that their support this far in advance will help us put on an exceptional conference. We hope their contributions will inspire other media organizations to participate and support the advancement of journalism throughout the region.”

The opening night reception for the event will be held  at the Long Island Museum in Stony Brook on March 23. Some of the panels and professional development workshops will include:

- How to get a job in journalism
- Mobile journalism
- Music journalism
- Video storytelling
- First Amendment legal issues
- Turning journalism assignments into books
- Celebrity journalism
- Newspaper redesign

Register now for one of the year’s premier journalism events. And for more information on what’s in store for attendees, visit the conference web site.

Journalist Phil Datz will be showing the widely viewed video of his arrest as well as video of previous confrontations with police at crime scenes.

The program will feature a panel discussion on journalists’ rights and responsibilities at crime scenes as well the policies that police have and

the training they receive on managing the media at scenes. Panelists will include Newsday Associate Editor Cliff Schechtman and representatives from the Suffolk and Nassau Police Departments. Carolyn James – a former SPJ Region 1 director and the editor of the Babylon Beacon, Amityville Record and Massapequa Post – will serve as the panel’s moderator.

The department determined Monday afternoon that news cameraman Phil Datz was improperly arrested for filming the aftermath of a police chase on Friday.  Police Commissioner Richard Dormer urged the Suffolk County District Attorney’s office should dismiss all charges against Datz.

PCLI, the local chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists, the nation’s largest journalism organization, had called earlier Monday for the Department to drop all charges against the freelance video journalist.  PCLI had also demanded that the department investigate the sergeant involved for what video taken at the scene indicates is a clear case of police abuse of authority and infringement of the journalist’s First Amendment rights.

The video shows Datz, who was working for Stringer News Service at the time and had been charged with misdemeanor obstruction of governmental administration, was filming across the street on public property. He had not crossed a police line and was in no way interfering with officers.

When confronted by the Fifth Precinct sergeant, he politely asked where he could film and suggested contacting the Public Information Office but was only threatened. After he moved further away, he was then arrested without cause.

Meanwhile, pedestrians and motorists freely moved around the scene without interference by police.

Dormer said, “The department is conducting an internal review of the incident between a Suffolk County Police Department supervisor and a photographer that resulted in the photographer’s arrest. I am working with the Suffolk County District Attorney to have the arrest nullified.

“The police department believes in keeping an open line of communication with the media and we will be reviewing the department’s policy concerning involvement with the news media. The department will also provide refresher training to all officers regarding the interaction between the news media and department personnel.

PCLI also demands that the department investigate the sergeant involved for what video taken at the scene indicates is a clear case of police abuse of authority and infringement of the journalist’s First Amendment rights.

The video shows Datz, who was working for Stringer News Service at the time and was charged with misdemeanor obstruction of governmental administration, was filming across the street on public property. He had not crossed a police line and was in no way interfering with officers. When confronted by the Fifth Precinct sergeant, he politely asked where he could film and suggested contacting the Public Information Office but was only threatened.

After he moved further away, he was then arrested without cause. Meanwhile, pedestrians and motorists freely moved around the scene without interference by police.

We hope the department will correct this matter and work to avoid this kind of incident in the future.

Baker, along with Utah Pro Chapter member Linda Petersen, will receive the award during the President’s Installation Banquet at the Excellence in Journalism 2011 conference in New Orleans, hosted by SPJ and the Radio Television Digital News Association.

The award is named for Howard S. Dubin, a longtime SPJ member who remains active with the national organization, local chapters and the Sigma Delta Chi Foundation, the educational arm of SPJ.  Each year, an honoree is selected from a chapter with fewer than 75 members as well as one from a chapter with more than 75 members.

As your regional director, I’m pleased that Rebecca has received this honor since I have had the pleasure of knowing her for more than a decade.

Baker covers Westchester County courts and the criminal justice system for the Journal News in New York’s northern suburbs. But those of us in Connecticut remember her as a loyal and highly motivated SPJ member while work at the New Haven Register before she left to go to work for the Journal News.

She has helped expand the membership of the Deadline Club, which is already one of the nation’s largest SPJ pro chapters with  more than 300 members.  She put together a Freedom of Information panel, an annual event that won an SPJ award in 2010 and has become a staple of the Deadline Club’s annual programming.

Here in Region 1, she also chaired the sold-out 2010 spring conference. Rebecca showed great leadership, working with members of the Connecticut and New Jersey chapters to put on one of the most successful Region 1 conferences in recent memory.

Fellow Deadline Club member John Long said that, “regardless of the challenge,  Rebecca is always her cheerful, enthusiastic, optimistic, upbeat self, leading the charge that the rest of us just can’t resist following.”

Baker said that receiving the award is a tremendous honor for her.

“Howard Dubin has given selflessly of himself to the Society for manyears, and to be in the same company as him is a privilege,” she said.