[Journalists] Website navigation for SEC info

[Cheryl Wade]

I'm a business writer for a small newspaper in Michigan. Could you 
folks provide some information about navigating Securities and 
Exchange Commission websites? I am not one of those intuitive 
computer users and am (at least for now) using some older Mac 
software that makes tricky navigations difficult. (I'm finally taking 
Windows training because I think the adaptive software navigates 
sites better.)

As a business writer, we follow The Dow Chemical Co. and subsidiary 
Dow Corning Corp.,  Chemical Financial Corp. and a company affiliated 
with CMS ENergy. Can you give me tips for checking the status of 
company activities? And short of attending conferences, is there a 
good book/webinar/whatever that could help me improve my 
computer-aided research?

By the way, as a brand-new member, I'm excited to share information 
and mentor young people. I actually got to this listserve through an 
NFB guide dog listserve message sent to me by one of my journalist 
mentees (is that a word?)

I think the worst kinds of stories I've ever had to do are those 
related to gas prices, where you have someone drive you around to 
local service stations, go up to the pump and talk to whoever is 
getting gas to find out how bumbed they are that gas is (was) $3.25 a 
gallon. At first, I'd get out of the car alone and walk up to where i 
thought the pump was, but sometimes I couldn't tell where the person 
was standing, or if there even WAS a person, because of the ambient 
noise. I've finally gotten it right and asked my sighted assistant 
to get out of the car with me, walk up to the pump and point me in 
the direction of the human being - a little degrading but it got the 
job done.

I hope to start checking your archives and see what you folks talk about.

Thanks for organizing such a group.

Cheryl Wade
Midland Daily News
Midland, MI