The State Press removed this article on Friday, Aug. 31, 2012 after editors became aware that Raquel Velasco, a reporter who no longer works for the newspaper, has blatantly plagiarized a story that appeared in the Phoenix Business Journal on Aug. 24, 2012, titled “Tempe telling Mill Ave. musicians to turn the volume down.”
It is quite clear to our editorial board that Ms. Velasco copied phrasing, lifted quotes and used information reported by Connor Radnovich, the original article's author, when writing her story.
We would also like to acknowledge that Ms. Velasco took information and quotes from a press release published by the City of Tempe on Aug. 23, 2012.
We take every plagiarism case very seriously, and after our evaluation, the reporter has been fired and an official apology will be issued in print on Tuesday, Sept. 4, 2012.
We are investigating whether the reporter plagiarized other articles.
We hope that our readers, the Phoenix Business Journal and Mr. Radnovich can accept our most sincere apologies in this matter. It is never the intention of our editorial board or our newspaper to use or copy information that has been previously reported, edited and published by another publication.
