Los Angeles Times Pressmens 20 Year Club: October 2007

Los Angeles Times Pressmens 20 Year Club

Wednesday, October 31, 2007

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Have a safe and exciting Halloween!

Tuesday, October 30, 2007

Robert Goulet, RIP

Get Lost With Easy-Writer: Remember when they could belt them out?

Just Another Tuesday

Woody Johnson Jr. the pool shark

Bloodletting at Houston's alleged leading information source - Brazo Sport
Guardian's suit against Weekly clears hurdle - San Francisco Peninsula PC
LA Times Threw Everything Into Covering The Fires - Ken Reich
The Dean Singleton strategy - Mark Lacter
Washington Times Seeks "Visionary" to Replace Pruden - Washingtonian
Get to know the new Breeze - Daily Breeze via LAObserved
AMPTP Suddenly Feeling Teamsters' Heat - Nikki Finke
Firefighters Halloween Bash in Hollywood - Brian Humphrey
Paste Magazine Says, 'Pay What You Want' - Minonline
FEMA Aide Loses New Job Over Fake News Conference - NY

LAT Orange County Plant Knocked Offline

On Saturday October 27th, 2007 the Los Angeles Times Costa Mesa Production Facility lost all power to the plant. The entire Sunday edition was produced at the downtown Olympic Facility, with subscribers in Orange County affected directly with late newspapers Sunday morning.

The reason for the outage are still a mystery, one source claimed it was caused by a burst water main under the sidewalk at the facility, and yet another claimed it was caused by the Plate Making Department.

After speaking with Warren Tice, Electronic Department Supervisor at Olympic, he stated the four main breakers overheated and tripped into the off position. The water main had nothing to do with the outage, and if the generators could be started, the power would still not flow into the building as the breakers were tripped off, not allowing any power into the plant. The electric shop employees made many attempts at resetting the breakers without success. Russell Electric was called in Sunday morning, and found nothing wrong with the system?

If this was a test of the output from the Olympic Facility, it appears we can produce the Los Angeles Times at one facility if need be.

Los Angeles Times Composing Room

As I searched the Internet for photographs of the Times Orange County Production Facility I discovered a website run by former Composing Room employees. The site has five pages of images of the old timers, which many of you will recognize from Anthony’s and the Redwood. Drop in and take a look for a step back in time by clicking here.

The Missing Man Formation

Retired pressroom shift supervisor, Bill Widner, is seeking contact information of two former colleagues, Robert Whaples, and Dick Ware. If you know the whereabouts of either of the two, please contact Bill Widner at wwidner1@gmail.com

Monday, October 29, 2007

Passing of Colleagues

October has not been one of our best months with the loss of three former colleagues.

Former first color at the shuttered Chatsworth Facility, Martha Hernandez, passed away from a stroke in Las Vegas, Nevada on October 11.

Klaus Belda, retired pressman from the former downtown printing facility, passed away October 14th from a heart attack.

Former Olympic Pressroom supervisor, Jose Delmendo, lost his father as well. I do not have his father’s name at this time, but he worked at Times Mirror Square in the Facilities Department before retirement.

Jose's fathers name was Dominador Delmendo.

h/t Emmett Jaime III

Internet Speed Monitor

Having used computer’s for over twenty years I thought of myself as an experienced user, until a program called Internet Speed Monitor showed me how little I really know.

Last week my computer started giving me a warning notice with a popup that said my server was busy, and could not continue what I was doing. The message gave me two options, retry the program or cancel the task at hand, but I could not close the warning popup box. Clicking on any of the options, or trying to close the box resulted in the activation of the Internet Speed Monitor. This program would open a new window in my browser, which would display a different advertisement every time it was activated.

It did not matter if I was running Internet Explorer or not, the program would take control of my computer for five minutes at a time, that’s how long I had to wait before I was able to close all the open windows. It was a pain in the rear, and a waste of my time.

After upgrading Spybot and Ad-Aware, I ran each program separately, and removed all the adware, malware, and cookies that were suspect. Yet, Internet Speed Monitor continued running, displaying all types of advertisements I had not ask to be bothered with.

My next step was to run the spyware removal programs in safe mode, which you can do as well by tapping on the F8 key as your computer boots up. This method also failed to achieve the results I was seeking, removal of the Internet Speed Monitor.

Just by accident, as I prepared to remove a video program I was testing, from the add/remove area of control panel, I discovered Internet Speed Monitor had been installed as a program onto my hard drive. After un-installing this adware generator, I have not been troubled with any further false alarms or unwanted advertising. I am back in control of my computer, for the time being.

Monday Morning News

Click on Image to Enlarge

FCC Proposes Rules for Greater Media Consolidation - Portland Independant
Tribune earnings support LBO, but price is high - Reuters
At FEMA Your IQ Must Be Below This Line - CBS News
New look at Daily News - Kevin Roderick
Flag-folding recitations now banned at national cemeteries - Michelle Malkin
STRIKE COUNTDOWN - Nikki Finke
Chicago's Free RedEye Grows to 200,000 Copies - PR News
Gannett, Tribune Form Joint Venture - Associated Press
Daily News Editorial, "Mayor V. tell the truth" - Red Spot
Tony Snow: "Newspapers Are a Niche Market" - Portfolio
Murdoch's Choice: Paid or Free for WSJ.com? - WSJ
Will newspapers survive? - The Boston Globe
Supervisor Michael Antonovich Now a Blogger - Claremont Insider
Brijit Cuts Magazine Pile Down to Bite-Size Pieces - Washington Post

Saturday, October 27, 2007

How To Help Those Affected By The Fires

KTLA and the Los Angeles Times have created a joint program that will help those affected by the 2007 California wildfires.

Walk For Hope Canceled

Tomorrow’s Walk for Hope 5 kilometer walk has been canceled due too poor air-quality, a direct result of the recent wildfires in Southern California. The Southern California walk is one of the nine walks held across the country for City of Hope research, treatment and education programs. The Los Angeles walk is expected to be rescheduled sometime next month, for additional information call 800.544.3541, ext. 26304 or visit City of Hope online.

My daughter Lauren raised $520.00 for the fundraiser.

Save Our Trade: Local 404 Meeting November 4th

By Ronnie Pineta

Local 404 President Doug Brown asked me to invite our members to attend their Annual General Meeting on Sunday November 4th at 10:00 AM.

There are quite a few of us who are card carrying members of Local 404, so President Brown would especially like for you to make every effort possible to attend.

GCC/IBT President Tedeschi and GCC/IBT Organizer Marty Keegan will also be in attendance at this meeting so if you may not be planning on attending our meeting on Monday November 5th in Fountain Valley, you might consider joining us a day earlier in Monrovia.

Local 404 is located at 518 west Duarte Rd. Monrovia, Ca.91016 Just south of the 210 fwy at the Myrtle exit, west of Myrtle on the left immediately after Mayflower Ave.

Everyone is welcome to come and witness the processes that take place in these type of meetings and get a look at our future, because we will also have meetings like this one.

See you there!

Save Our Trade: Local 404 Meeting November 4th

Editors message:
GCC/IBT President Tedeschi urges all Los Angeles Times departments to attend either the Nov. 4th or 5th meetings, since so many have shown an interest in becoming part of the union movement at the newspaper. Union Organizer Marty Keegan will also be in attendance to answer your questions and supply authorization cards for your colleagues.

Friday, October 26, 2007

Firefighters photographed escaping danger

Photo by Karen Tapia-Anderson / Los Angeles Times

Twelve firefighters are trapped atop a ridge off Santiago Canyon Road in Orange County after flames jumped the road. The blaze roared up the hillside and prompted the crew members to deploy their fire shelters. They were surrounded by burning brush, but they made it out alive. "We just remained calm, everyone

did," one firefighter said after he was checked out by paramedics. All of the firefighters were treated at the scene and did not want to go to the hospital.

Saul Daniels pointed out this fascinating report about an LA Times photo from tonight's NBC Nightly News: Firefighters photographed escaping danger Oct. 26: A group of firefighters was photographed using their silver-coated emergency suits in a moment some feared was the end of their lives. Don Teague reports.

Jim O'Shea Editor Los Angeles Times to Staff

To the staff:

Before the fires die down, I want to mark an extraordinary moment in the long, proud history of the Los Angeles Times: Its transformation from a great newspaper to a great interactive newspaper and website.

Readers expect outstanding newspaper journalism from us, and we delivered it this week. More than ever before, we simultaneously demonstrated the power and reach of our website, a reflection of outstanding work by many people over the past several months.

We are building the technical and journalistic capabilities to provide readers with exciting storytelling in print and online. Those efforts coalesced in our fire coverage and readers reaped the rewards. Millions of additional readers sought our journalism with record-shattering visits to latimes.com.

I hope everyone noticed the creative additions to the site: slide shows embedded in the home page, tools to connect displaced residents with family and friends, real-time interactive maps, live updates to mobile devices, cell phone photos from reporters on the ground, and user-generated video. We also sharpened our breaking news blog with more than 100 updates a day.

We gave readers the opportunity to share stories with us and with others. And, boy, did they respond. Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday were the three highest traffic days ever. On Tuesday, the site had 8 million page views, double the previous record and three times the daily average. The number of unique online visitors surpassed by 30 percent the number of people who bought our newspaper. Talk about a news organization with reach!

None of this would have happened a few short months ago. But this newsroom, starting with the Spring Street Report and continuing with the Reinvent project, responded to a challenge. We started the year with the Internet 101 training in the newsroom. Many editors and reporters have received additional training. Every daily section -- and many of the weekly sections -- now have web deputies to shape the online report. The website has beefed up its editorial and technical staff, giving us the flexibility to compete in this rapidly changing media landscape.

What draws people to our site are the same things that have drawn them to our newspaper for more than 125 years: Great storytelling, community and context. People want to understand the world around them. In times of crisis, they turn to us. The staff of The Times earned and held the trust of Southern California this week with crack coverage, sweeping stories of the struggle between nature and mankind, and vital lists of useful information on closures, evacuations and emergency procedures.

The web is vital to our future. Readers and advertisers are moving there and we have to move there, too. But the fire coverage showed that we don't have to leave great journalism behind. It also showed that we can move forward together and forge a prosperous future.

Over the next few weeks, we will accelerate our video training to give reporters another form of storytelling. We are also integrating the newsgathering process more tightly to eliminate the gaps and disconnects between what we do "for the web" and "for the paper." When we treat the paper and the web as one, we all benefit.

Thanks so much for all your hard work this week. I hope you are as proud of the results as I am.

Regards,
Jim

Dennis FitzSimons on Southern California Wildfires

From: Dennis FitzSimons
Sent: Friday, October 26, 2007 11:22 AM
Subject: Southern California wildfires

Dear Fellow Employee,

The devastating wildfires out West seem to be coming under control—good news as we close out the week. As the incredible work and collaboration by KSWB-TV, KTLA-TV and the Los Angeles Times continues, we’re reminded of how important the work we do is to the people and communities we serve. Tribune employees are once again going “above and beyond” to fulfill our journalistic mission.

KSWB (“ San Diego ’s CW5”) has been providing live shots and other video to KTLA, which in turn has supplied latimes.com with a steady feed of streaming video. That’s great teamwork, and our customers have responded enthusiastically to the expanded coverage. Web traffic on latimes.com has tripled thanks to around-the-clock reporting and features such as eyewitness blog accounts, stunning photography from Times staff members and readers, and information on evacuations, road conditions and air quality. Print coverage also has been comprehensive, and the Times delivered free papers to evacuation centers and went “off road” to serve subscribers in the fire zone.

While it appears the worst may be over, thousands of people have been impacted by the wildfires. Our Southern California business units are responding with Fire Relief Campaigns in partnership with the McCormick Tribune Foundation. Two fundraising campaigns are under way. In the San Diego area, KSWB is working with the North County Times, based in Escondido . In Los Angeles , KTLA and the Times are conducting a joint campaign. More information is available at mccormicktribune.org.

Finally, I’m including a link to a remarkable photograph taken on Tuesday by John Weigand, KSWB’s chief engineer (CW5 photo). It shows the station’s tower and transmitter at the summit of Mt. Miguel completely surrounded by wildfire. CW5’s dedicated staff, through hard work, preparedness and good fortune, kept the station on-air without disruption.

Thanks once again to all of our employees in Southern California for their outstanding efforts on this important story.

Sincerely,

Los Angeles Times People Finder

By Margit Rubins

In a unique collaboration during the Southern California wildfires, the Los Angeles Times launched a "people finder" site with several other newspapers that allows residents to register information so that others will know where they are. The site, http://firesearch.latimes.com, is also being linked to Web sites of KTLA-TV, San Diego Union-Tribune, The Voice of San Diego, North County Times of Escondido and the Daily Transcript of San Diego. Meredith Artley, executive editor of latimes.com, estimated at least 1,500 people have registered since the site launched on Oct. 24.

The Times also announced the creation of a relief fund, along with KTLA-TV, which will match donations at 50 cents per dollar. The Los Angeles Times Family Fund/KTLA-5 Charities Fire Relief Campaign is a joint effort of the McCormick Tribune Foundation, The Times and KTLA.

The Times editorial staff is preparing a special section on the wildfires for Sunday, Oct. 28.

Finally Friday News

In Memory of Bryan Padgett

Los Angeles Times Union Meeting in Fountain Valley - Ronnie Pineta
Lauren Padgett only $80 from Walk for Life Goal - City of Hope
Los Angeles Times - KTLA Fire Relief Campaign - McCormick Foundation
Tribune Continues To Slide In Los Angeles - Ken Reich
Murdoch’s recent WSJ acquisition set him apart from competitors - Future of News
LA Times/ KTLA Launch Fire Relief Fund - Kate Coe
A Cautionary Tale for Old Media - Business Week
AP Changing Packaging and Pricing Structure - Associated Press
DOJ allows Hearst to buy 30% of MediaNews - San Francisco Peninsula PC
Singleton tells Conn. Journalists to reapply for their jobs - The Advocate
Blogs Open Floodgates for Political Coverage - Washington Post
US agency apologizes for news conference on fires - Reuters
Belo Reports Results for Third Quarter 2007 - Belo Corp.
The Dog That Did Not Bark - Claremont Insider
News Leader reporter fired over fabrications, plagiarism - News Leader
Donations For Southern California Fire Victims - CBS 2
L.A. County Opens Wildfire Victim Assistance Centers - Brian Humphrey
LA Times: Forest thinning spared homes - Michelle Malkin
Dodgers to Host Red Cross Fundraiser at The Stadium - Militant Angeleno
KTLA Fans Applaud Lack of News - Fishbowl L.A.
Newspapers Will Rebound -- But Not 'Till 2012 - Editor & Publisher

Kevin Sites Reports on Jill Leovy

Los Angeles Times reporter Jill Leovy reports on every murder in Los Angeles County in her blog "The Homicide Report." It provides recognitions for otherwise anonymous victims and vital statistics about the invisible war of violence within our own country.

Thursday, October 25, 2007

On His Way Home!

Today I heard from my daughter Candice that her husband Thomas is on his way home from Iraq! She spoke to him this morning and he was in Kuwait, waiting for his flight back to the United States. He's expected to arrive in Hawaii sometime this weekend. Needless to say, Candie is excited and happy at the prospect of having him home.

Thanks to all who prayed for his safe return. Please remember to keep praying for our troops and their families. They need our love and support.

God bless you!

LA Times Fire Relief Campaign

LA Times Family Fund and KTLA Charities Fire Relief Campaign

The Los Angeles Times, KTLA-TV and the McCormick Tribune Foundation have teamed up to create a fire relief campaign to raise funds for agencies that help those affected by these devastating fires.

The Foundation will match at least the first $500,000 raised at fifty cents on the dollar, with additional matching funds available based on fundraising response.

The Los Angeles Times, KTLA, and the Foundation will cover all administrative costs, so 100% of your donation plus the match will be granted to organizations supporting disaster response and recovery in Southern California.

You may make a donation online, by phone or by check.

Click here to make a secure donation online.
Call toll-free: 1-877-713-0278.
Make checks payable to: LA Times Family Fund and KTLA Charities Fire Relief Campaign 202 W. First Street Los Angeles, CA 90012

THANK YOU.

For information, please contact the Los Angeles Times Public Affairs Department at 213-237-5390.

David Hiller and LAT Fire Fund

Folks,

I first want to thank everyone involved in our extraordinary efforts to cover the fire story, and to get the news out to our friends and neighbors in a time of great need. It has been a truly heroic effort all across the company. I recounted some of these efforts on my blog this morning (http://blogger.latimes.com/David-Hiller/ for our MAC users), including the nice things Sam Zell had to say about the paper and our website. Please feel free to post your own comments or experiences about the fire and our coverage.

We are also launching a Fire Relief Fund, in partnership with KTLA and the McCormick Tribune Foundation. All the funds raised will go to help people left homeless or needing other help after these devastating fires. McCormick Tribune will match at least the first $500,000 we raise, 50 cents on the dollar, and we will cover any administrative expenses so all the contributions get put to work. We and KTLA will start promoting the Relief Fund tomorrow. For more information on the fund, be sure to visit www.latimes.com/firerelief.

Thanks again for all your efforts. It’s times like these that really remind us why we do what we do, and how much it means to our communities.

David

Is It Friday Yet News?

Raul Compos, Bill Conover, and your favorite Blogger

Sun-Sentinel parent sees Q3 revenue drop - Bizjournals
Lauren Padgett Nears Goal in Walk for Hope - City of Hope
Hearst to buy two Tribune papers for $62.4 mln - Reuters
Buyout Alert: Could The New York Times Be Next? - Forbes
Strike Happy - Nikki Finke
Smoke Gets In Your Eyes - Militant Angeleno
The blogosphere heats up - Opinion L.A.
Arson suspect killed, another arrested - Los Angeles Times
And this is why there are traffic laws - Blogging L.A.
Tribune Says Deal Is on Track - New York Times
LA Times really throwing their muscle into fire coverage - Darleeneisms
Los Angeles police make arson arrest - Los Angeles Times Blog
Lost Angeles: Carthay Circle Theatre - JozJozJoz
Covering the Fire Coverage: A Return to Normalcy? - Franklin Avenue
Are Burning Homes Good For the Economy? - Brady Westwater
Antonovich mourns 'loss' of KTLA News - Kevin Roderick
Profit slide at Tribune persists - Chicago Tribune
Main Street's take: Trouble ahead - Los Angeles Times
Southern California Disaster Recovery Assistance Information - LAFD
Illegal aliens caught stealing wildfire relief supplies - Michelle Malkin

San Francisco Peninsula Press Club: Hearst considers offers for Chron building

Hearst Corp. is talking to developers about selling the Chronicle building at Fifth and Mission streets to take advantage of the area's surging real estate values. The Chron quotes Stephen Hearst, vp and gm of Hearst's West Coast land management unit, as saying the company is committed to keeping the Chron in San Francisco. But he provided no details about a potential new location. He expects to receive proposals from developers by mid- to late-November. Hearst said he is "reasonably confident" a sale will take place. A story today gives details about what Hearst plans to sell. Chron management has been talking about selling the building for a couple of years. In December 2005, Pubisher Frank Vega said a developer was interested in buying the Fifth and Mission site, but he said at the time it wasn't for sale.

Hearst considers offers for Chron building

(Photo credit: Deanne Fitzmaurice, Chronicle)

TRIBUNE COMPANY PRESS RELEASE

October 25, 2007

Tribune to Sell Southern Connecticut Newspapers CHICAGO, Oct. 25, 2007

Tribune Publishing, a division of Tribune Company (NYSE:TRB), today announced the sale of its Southern Connecticut Newspapers, The Advocate (Stamford) and Greenwich Time, to Hearst Corporation for $62.4 million. The newspapers will be managed by MediaNews Group, Inc., under an existing joint venture agreement with Hearst.

The transaction is expected to close within the next few weeks. It does not include real estate in Stamford and Greenwich, which Tribune plans to sell separately.

Ashes In My Hair

Photos from the LA Times

We've had fires here in Southern California, and all week I've been worried about my house going up in flames. Tonight, I took the dog out. It smells of something beyond just wood burning. It's sickly sweet. It's the smell of metal, and all sorts of materials being incinerated. It isn't good. The winds roared from the desert, picking up speed as they came down the mountains and the force could be heard all Sunday night.

It was with a familiar feeling of dread that I thought about the fires already raging in Malibu. I'd had been nervous before. At one point, we lived in a gorgeous canyon area. But we knew it had a wicked side. There was one flat road in, and one hilly road back down the ridgeline if ever the flat road got closed. When fire season came, I'd put records and belongings in empty laundry baskets, line up the pet carriers, talk to a neighbor about a plan of evacuation --essential for her because she not only had horses, but an adult son with CP, confined to a wheelchair. Then, I'd listen to the volunteer fire department patrol all day & night.

On Sunday night, it was apparent that the fires had the upperhand. I spent the day rewatering potted plants, fretting over a tree that I hadn't

had money to trim this summer. And then if felt like I just waited, sniffling, sneezing, and worrying about my youngest with asthma. One of my staff called in sick on Monday --like the rest of us, she hadn't slept and sounded extraordinarily stressed and congested. On Tuesday, we found out that her elderly grandparents had been evacuated into Qualcomm center in San Diego.

The winds have stopped. Some of the fires are only 10% contained, a few burning out of control. All the fires are in steep terrain, and people live there because they love it. 25 years ago, even 8, many of these new communities didn't exist. But then 25 years ago, we didn't have as massive a population (42 million, I think) that we do today.

At some point, we need to talk about the numbers we have in California. It's expected to reach 50 million in the next decade. This isn't the state I grew up in. It's already at numbers that aren't environmentally sustainable. The more we push into these rugged terrains, the more terrible loss of homes and lives we'll see. I take the very conservative view that a bit of planning and can act as prevention. Unfortunately, politicians would rather talk about feeling gypped that they didn't "get" the funding for fire fighting equipment. While this might be true, they have to realize they were part of the process that let it slip through. Simply put, we've got to quit building entire developments where they don't belong.

The kids haven't been allowed outside all week at school due to "unhealthful air" conditions. They're going nuts. On Friday I pick up my daughter and her new friend from school. I'm also picking up the sister. I'm taking them for ice cream, then they'll come play here. She's just moved here. Her mother works a lot as a nurse. Her father is a Marine in Iraq. They're divorced, but they both love their kids. All in all, it's not an easy situation. I hope that for awhile, my house can be a place where they can relax, have fun. I'll ask her mother if their dad has a camera and microphone. If not, I'll tell her they can connect at my house if it's possible.

That's all for now.
I really do like reading your blogs.
I'll write more on Monday.

Wednesday, October 24, 2007

Save Our Trade: Message From Mike Laspina, Newsday Local 406 Business Agent to all other L.A. Times departments

By Mike Laspina

To all my brothers and sisters in the non-union departments,

When I was kid many years ago, my mother would tell my brothers and sisters and me to do chores, such as clean our rooms or pick-up after ourselves. The first words out of our mouths were “WAIT! We’ll do it later! Her response to us was always the same--Wait broke the wagon!

I would think to myself, what the hell does that mean? Well, after hearing this many times I finally asked her. She told me you put enough weights on a wagon, and it will break down and go nowhere.

I used this saying with my children, and I am saying it again to you. The latest win at the L.A.Times with the N.L.R.B. should show you that once you elect to unionize, you have a lot more rights with this company. (Our union, GCC, organized the pressman at LA Times this summer). We at Newsday are Local 406. We have 41 pages of rights called a collective bargaining agreement contract.

Mike's complete post can be read by clicking on the link below.

Message From Mike Laspina, Newsday Local 406 Business Agent to all other L.A. Times departments

TRIBUNE COMPANY PRESS RELEASE

October 24, 2007

Tribune Reports 2007 Third Quarter Results

CHICAGO, Oct. 24, 2007 Tribune Company (NYSE: TRB) today reported third quarter 2007 diluted earnings per share from continuing operations of $.69 compared with $.65 in the third quarter of 2006.

Third quarter 2007 results from continuing operations included the following:

A severance charge of $.02 per diluted share, primarily at publishing.
A net non-operating gain of $.33 per diluted share, which included a favorable income tax expense adjustment of $.72 per diluted share related to the settlement of the Companys Matthew Bender tax appeal, partially offset by a net loss of $.39 per diluted share primarily related to marking-to-market the derivative component of the Companys PHONES and the related Time Warner investment.

Third quarter 2006 results from continuing operations included the following:

A net non-operating gain of $.22 per diluted share, which included a gain of $.19 per diluted share related to the restructuring in September 2006 of TMCT, LLC and TMCT II, LLC, two limited liability companies that Tribune inherited in its acquisition of Times Mirror.

Tribune presents earnings per share amounts on a generally accepted accounting principles ("GAAP") basis only. This differs from the pro forma earnings per share amounts supplied by broker analysts to databases such as First Call.

"Our third quarter results reflect a combination of better revenue trends, strong expense controls and an increase in equity income," said Dennis FitzSimons, Tribune chairman, president and chief executive officer. "Publishing revenue trends improved slightly in the third quarter despite the impact of the housing slump on our Florida and California newspapers. We are also encouraged by positive national advertising trends, led by improved Tribune Media Net sales."

"In television, ad revenue improved as the quarter progressed. New York finished the quarter strong on higher ratings from new syndicated programming and the CW networks fall launch. Chicago also had a good September, thanks in part to Chicago Cubs telecasts."

"The closing of our going-private transaction is still expected in the fourth quarter, following FCC approval of our waiver requests and receipt of a solvency opinion," FitzSimons added.

FULL REPORT HERE

SOURCE : Tribune Company

Breaking News...

CNN: President Bush signs a federal disaster declaration, freeing up federal funds for families affected by the wildfires.

WOW, Georgy Boy, that was fast! What's the difference in 'Qualcom' stadium and the 'Superdome?'

Just curious...

Iowa Caucus: The Animated Edition!

Ever wonder what the heck the Iowa caucus is really all about? Into animated stick figures? Man, have we got the video for you. We lay it all out for you in this week’s episode. Questions? Suggestions? Let us know about it in the comments.

- Jacob Soboroff

Mid-Week News Sources

LAT Olympic ElectroTech Dave Nelson

Barrington upgraded shares of Tribune Stock - Blogging Stocks
Lauren Padgett Raises $495 for Walk for Hope - City of Hope
Denver Dailies Suffer Production Disaster on Worst Possible Day - Westworld
Local stations air non-stop news coverage - Variety
Tribune's 3Q Profit Slides 7 Percent - Associated Press
Press problems delay Ventura County Star delivery - Ventura Star
Police To Press: Shave Head, Get Scoop - The Daily Pulp
M'SOFT AND GOOGLE DUKE IT OUT OVER FACEBOOK - NYP
California Fires Drive Traffic -- And Challenge Coverage - E&P
A Historic Day For Broadway And All Of Los Angeles! - Brady Westwater
Socal Fires Point Up Need For Local Ownership - Ken Reich
Media myths about the Jena 6 - Christian Science Monitor
Zell: Too much “complacency” in newspaper industry - SFN
Zell on Tribune Deal - Free Press
Sam Zell Speaks at Inland Conference - Editor & Publisher
Zell: newspapers 'too slow to change' - Greenslade
Claremont: "Security through Obscurity" - Claremont Insider
Hoy expands advertising reach with Google Print Ads - 901am
New York Times quarterly profit, revenue rise - Reuters
FCC Proposes Rules to Allow for Media Consolidation - Salon
Houston Chronicle to Trim its Work Force - Houston Chronicle

Save Our Trade: Incident Reports and L.A. Times/N.L.R.B. Settlement available on Save Our Trade

You can now download and print copies of the incident report document as well as the recent settlement between the company and the NLRB. Just click here to get to the Links/Resources page. I suggest you save the incident report on your computer should you need to report any incidents you feel violates our rights under the National Labor Relations Act.

Thank's Albaro for making these documents accessible to the members who utilize the resources you make available on Save Our Trade's Homepage. Keep up the good work.

Ronnie

Incident Reports and L.A. Times/N.L.R.B. Settlement available on Save Our Trade

Tuesday, October 23, 2007

The Front Page I Never Read

Seems many newspapers are having a difficult time delivering their products to subscribers, with fires raging and wind howling through Southern California the last few days. On Monday Kevin Roderick reported that the Daily News was unable to deliver their product to many consumers, and today my San Gabriel Valley Tribune was missing the main section, both MediaNews papers. They made up for the missing sections by adding an additional local news section into my newspaper, which I did not discover till I unwrapped my paper tonight. Appears the production transition from Azusa to Valencia is not going very smoothly.

AT&T California Offering Free Emergency Phone Services to Customers Displaced by Southern California Fires

Below is information about free emergency phone services to

customers displaced by fires. I thought this information may be of

value to friends, neighbors, relatives, etc.

For more information contact:

Brian Brokowski, 619-246-3810 or

Courtney Bylund, 714-926-8106

San Francisco, October 22, 2007 - In response to the fires in Southern California, AT&T California is making available a number of free services to support AT&T customers displaced by the fires to ensure they have the ability to send and receive calls to family members and others.

AT&T California is providing certain voice mail and call forwarding features, free of charge, for 30 days to displaced consumers and small businesses. For customers who need a local service line installed at a temporary or new location the Line Connection Fee will be waived. AT&T residential customers displaced by the fires can call 1-877-722-6787 and small business customers can call 1-800-750-2355 to set up the following services:

• Call Forwarding - Automatically forwards calls to any phone number.

• Remote Access to Call Forwarding – Allows displaced customers to dial in and direct normal home phone calls to another number from any phone.

• Remote Call Forwarding – Allows displaced customers to permanently forward their number to another number.

• Message Center/Voice Mail Series 50/50+ - Allows displaced customers to retrieve messages left at their home or business phone line from any location, as well leave a greeting telling callers their status.

• Phone Line – For displaced AT&T customers who set up phone service at a new location, AT&T will waive installation charges.

"The necessity to communicate with family, friends and loved ones, as well as critical community support services, becomes even more vital during a crisis," said Mark Leslie, San Diego area vice president for external affairs. "We are doing all we can to ensure those impacted by the fires will be able to keep in touch with family and have access to other important contacts during this difficult time.”

The voice mail box being made available is located inside AT&T’s central office, so it will be a central and secure place to leave and receive messages. With call forwarding and remote access to call forwarding, impacted AT&T customers can direct incoming calls to their home numbers to the telephone number of their choice to ensure they are receiving their phone calls.

Again, AT&T residential fire victims can call 1-877-722-6787, and small business customers can call 1-800-750-2355 for information regarding the free AT&T phone services.

Despite the severity of the fire emergency and the mass evacuations, calls to 911 are being routed appropriately and the AT&T network is performing well.

About AT&T

AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) is a premier communications holding company. Its subsidiaries and affiliates, AT&T operating companies, are the providers of AT&T services in the United States and around the world. Voice Mail services provided by AT&T Messaging. Among their offerings are the world's most advanced IP-based business communications services and the nation's leading wireless, high speed Internet access and voice services. In domestic markets, AT&T is known for the directory publishing and advertising sales leadership of its Yellow Pages and YELLOWPAGES.COM organizations, and the AT&T brand is licensed to innovators in such fields as communications equipment. As part of its three-screen integration strategy, AT&T is expanding its TV entertainment offerings. Additional information about AT&T Inc. and the products and services provided by AT&T subsidiaries and affiliates is available at http://www.att.com.

© 2007 AT&T Knowledge Ventures. All rights reserved. AT&T and the AT&T logo are trademarks of AT&T Knowledge Ventures. For more information, please review this announcement in the AT&T newsroom at http://www.att.com/newsroom.

Colleagues Impacted by Fires

Four of our colleagues from the Olympic Facility have been impacted by the wildfires in the Aqua Dulce and Castiac Fires, Greg Malcolm, John Walker, Kal Hamalanen, and families have been evacuated from their homes. Everyone at Olympic is hoping for a positive outcome in the aftermath of this terrible disaster.

Our prayers are with you.

Bill Delgado, on his way home to Apple Valley last night, was caught in the closure of the 15 Freeway. Both directions of the freeway were closed, and Bill was awaken by the California Highway Patrol around 2:30 a.m., as he slept waiting for the passageway to open. He was unable to drive home, but returned to his parents home in Los Angeles. Let's hope he has better luck getting home to his family tonight.

Something to think about

Just so you know, Ed, Nubia & I are still supporting the fundraiser to send military kids to summer camp. Today we learned that among the many who have been evacuated are many military families down around the Navy Base around Coronado.

Fire Information

Those of you who have friends or family in the local fire areas can get information at these sites:

Cal Fire

Cal Fire News

City of San Diego Emergency Fire Information

Daily Bulletin

Los Angeles County Fire Dept.

National Interagency Fire Center

Orange County Fire Authority

Riverside County Fire Dept.

San Bernardino County Fire Dept.

Ventura County Fire Dept.

SOURCE : Claremont Insider

Outstanding Fire Coverage - OShea memo

Congratulations to the staff for the outstanding newspapers of the last few days. We've distinguished ourselves with our incredible fire coverage, both in the newspaper and online. We've given the reader compelling, authoritative fire coverage but also utility in our consumer features. The layout and design of the paper have been great. And I can't take my eyes off the fire photos. We are also working much better with our colleagues online. Our website traffic is soaring. You are simply the best. We've continued to cover the rest of the world, too, with stellar reporting, photos, graphics, headlines and writing throughout the paper. You should all be proud of your work. I know I am.

Thanks so much,

Regards,
Jim

James O'Shea
Editor
Los Angeles Times

Wild Dogs Run in Packs

A pet agency with an Iron Hand has littered the news lately. Ellen DeGeneres adopted a dog, then gave it to the family of her hairdresser. No big deal, unless a contract says you cannot do this. Read all contracts! Also take note of Ellen's hair, could this woman really care for a dog??
Marina Baktis, (rhymes with Bat Kiss) the owner of "Mutts and Moms", explained that her policy is "A new house must fill out an application online." Well, long story short, authorities came to recover "Iggy the Dog", from Ms. Hairdresser. Here is a picture of Bat Kiss holding the dog in question, and demanding a can of Chuckwagon for the ride back to doggy jail.

While I did not personally sign any contracts to get our dog "Wrinkleskins" from the seller, I am sure there may be some unspoken guidelines. For instance, this week Mrs. Speedcat and I went to the Halloween Pet Show at the community center back in Hollydale MN. Wrinkleskins` costume was probably NOT very comfortable, and as you can see, she is in the front seat behind the steering wheel without a seat belt. I'll have to be careful not to let anyone see this! They might send PETA or the Humane society to take her away from our home.

. . . . . . . Basketball Neck Wrinkleskins

I wrote all of this to convey the way in which news is blown out of proportion. We have issues with children in homes where neglect is common, a major health care problem in the US, and issues of free speech being squelched. Let the dog be....

Labels: basketball, dogs, Ellen, Speedcat Hollydale

Monday, October 22, 2007

Monday Morning News

David Hiller to Kevin Roderick: Show Me the Money - Kate Coe
Lauren Padgett $130 from Walk for Hope Goal - City of Hope
Daily News not Delivered to Most Readers - Kevin Roderick
NLRB Settlement Notice - Ronnie Pineta
Yes, some blogs are profitable - very profitable - SF Chronicle
Dishonorable Discharge - Claremont Insider
Just sack all the editors - Baltimore Sun
Interactive Map of Los Angeles Wildfires - Brian Humphrey
Venice Beach Ordinance 42.15 - Zuma Dogg
Improve the Newspaper - Stop the Buyouts - Romenesko
Presidential Cabinet members start blogs - Associated Press
'Wash Post' Edges Up Monthly List of Top 30 Web Sites - E&P
A Windy, Firey, Devastating Sunday - Franklin Avenue
How Many Site Hits? Depends Who’s Counting - New York Times
Newspapers down but definitely not out - Fortune
Malibu Fire - Day Two - Veronique de Turenne
Blogging the SoCal wildfires - Michelle Malkin
Out-of-Control Malibu Fire Keeps Burning - Nikki Finke
Chronicle finds another way to display ads - San Francisco Peninsula P.C.

Sunday, October 21, 2007

NLRB Notice to Los Angeles Times

The Los Angeles Times has reached a settlement regarding violations of the labor code at the newspaper, and signs in the two pressrooms have been posted for employees to better understand the charges and the settlement.

Ronnie Pineta has the full story at Save Our Trade.

Photo by Victor Banuelos

Saturday, October 20, 2007

Mixed Messages on Tribune Transaction

On Thursday, October 18th, the mainstream media informed the American public the Tribune deal with Sam Zell would be consummated. Yesterday, the media did a flip-flop, and questioned weather the FCC would approve the transaction, which in turn ran the price of Tribune stock down to $26.49.

I suppose us gullible readers are to believe there is actually a debate occurring regarding cross ownership of media in the same city. The Tribune Company deal will go through as planned, end of debate.

Friday, October 19, 2007

Message from Dennis FitzSimons - CEO Tribune

From: Dennis FitzSimons
Sent: Friday, October 19, 2007 1:46 PM
Subject: FCC review process

Dear Fellow Employee,

During the last two days, you may have seen some of the stories about the Federal Communications Commission’s ongoing review of local media ownership rules. There has been a great deal of speculation about the FCC’s process and its impact on our going-private transaction. Two months ago, however, FCC Chairman Kevin Martin told a congressional oversight committee he expected that during the fourth quarter the commission would vote on our request to transfer our TV licenses and extend our waivers in markets where we own both a television station and a newspaper. We continue to believe that the commission will act within the chairman’s stated timeframe, enabling the company to close the going-private transaction before the end of the year.

In the meantime, let’s continue to focus on serving our readers, listeners, viewers and advertisers in the best way possible.

Sincerely,

United States of Mexico?

As I exited the Santa Monica Freeway, at Sante Fe/Mateo, Monday I noticed something unsettling on Enterprise Street, the Mexican Flag in front of a pallet business. As you know, my mother is from Mexico, and has a home on the Island of Cozumel, so I’m not anti-immigrant. But, I am pro American, and disagree with the message S.A.Q. Pallets is sending out to the drivers that pass the business daily. Someone needs to tell S.A.Q. Pallets this is still an American City, so hang the Flag of the United States above the Mexican Flag, or return to Mexico.

Click on pictures to enlarge.

The Weekend is Upon Us News

Former LAT Pressman Robert Rios with Victor Banuelos

City Admits Error in Paystubgate - Claremont Insider
Angelina Jolie, Brad Pitt, and Clint Eastwood Rule in San Dimas - Foothill Cities
Lauren Padgett Raises $470.00 in Walk for Hope - City of Hope
New Photographers at Los Angeles Times - Kevin Roderick
Sheriff's deputies arrest New Times owners - AZ Central
FCC plan clouds deal for Tribune - Chicago Tribune
St. Paul Pioneer Press, news union strike deal - Newsvine
Futurists Envision the Newspaper in 2020 - World Association of Newspapers
Tribune depending on FCC media consolidation rules - Beachwood Reporter
Inspiring Team Spirit at the Los Angeles Times - LAObserved
Tribune deal is mired in FCC rift over cross-ownership rules - LAT
Dennis Zine Speaks On Illegal Phone Tax - Zuma Dogg
Won’t you take me to Chinatown? - Michelle Malkin
California Poet, Robinson Jeffers - Kanani Fong
McClatchy debt at risk of share buybacks - Reuters
Sacramento Bee editor resigns after dispute - San Francisco Peninsula P.C.
FCC chief wants December media ownership decision - Reuters
Rift Over Media Ownship Rules Threatens Tribune Deal - New York Times
The OTHER Proposed Massive Giveaway To Giant Corporations - D-Day
Singleton memo on business, Putin meeting - San Francisco Peninsula P.C.
Tribune deal mired in FCC debate - Reuters
Willanserbellouwskifimkerskinnzz - SpeedCat Hollydale

San Dimas Invaded by Pirates

Yesterday as I scanned my favorite blogs I ran across an article on the Foothill Cities Blog regarding the take over of San Dimas by pirates. The only problem was the lack of an address, so I mentioned the pirate ship to my grandson David, and we were off on an adventure to discover where the house turned ship could be located. All we had to go on was the decorated home was near the Clint Eastwood movie being filmed in San Dimas. As we drove up and down the streets, we became discouraged and finally decided to head home. Just as we started home we spotted the ship, and stopped to admire the homeowners work.

As I snapped several photo's of the ship, I caught the attention of the homeowners, and they told me channel 7 had also came out for some footage, with no date of when the story would be aired.

The pirate ship is located at 623 Pershire Ave., San Dimas, CA.
Here's the map from Mapquest in case you would like to pay the ship a visit.

The owners requested that visitors bring a bag of candy for all the children that come to see the house nightly.

Veracruz Mexican Restaurant

Former San Fernando Valley pressman, Robert Rios, always wanted to own his own restaurant, and his dream finally materialized after leaving the Los Angeles Times. I have only met Robert twice, yet his charm gives you the impression you have known one another much longer as he greets his customers with a big smile and welcome. Located but a few miles West of the Times Olympic Facility, at the Hoover exit of the Santa Monica Freeway, call in your order and it will be ready as you walk in the door as I did just a few days ago. And Robert would enjoy seeing his old colleagues as well, so either give him a call or better yet, stop in before your shift begins. And for you non-Spanish speakers, Robert's restaurant specializes in sea foods such as Camarones, Langosta, Cocktails, Pescado, and Caldos.

Veracruz Y Cocina Mexicana

2306 South Union Avenue

Los Angeles, CA. 90007

213.745.3003

Closed on Monday's the regular hours of operation are11:00 am to 9:00 pm.

MAP to restuarant

Thursday, October 18, 2007

A Message from Lauren Padgett on Breast Cancer

Walk For Hope To Cure Breast Cancer

I just wanted to inform everyone that I'm not only doing this Walk for Hope to Cure Breast Cancer, to aid cancer victims; I have volunteered to do this special walk in honor of my Nana, she passed away on May 14, 2007 from breast cancer.

Her case was a little bit different from others. The doctors gave her a few months to live about 3 years ago. Well she proved those doctors wrong! She kept on fighting the entire time and ended up living much longer than predicted.

I remember when I first found out my Nana had breast cancer, I was devastated as was my family. I remember saying to myself why her? She is such a loving and good person and to top it off my grandma. I always knew she was a fighter and she knew it wasn't her time to go.

I cherish the last few years I have had with my Nana. She was always there for me any time I needed her. She always had answers to any questions I had about life or just anything. I always would go to her for any advice I needed, as it was always good advice! I just hope one day we will be able to find a cure for this horrible cancer so others won't have to lose loved ones in such a horrible way.

Thank you to everyone for your support and donations. I never thought I would be over my original goal of $300 by now as I just signed up for the walk on Monday, October 15. I have raised the bar a little bit and I hope you will all support me!

In Loving Memory
Mary Bridget Martinez
January 19, 1941 - May 14, 2007

Sincerely,
Lauren G. Padgett

Editors Message: Yesterday I visited our human resources office at the Olympic Facility seeking the matching gift form from the Tribune Company. When I was unable to locate the form I asked our representative, Sam Parks, if he could supply the needed form to match my one-hundred dollar donation, and Sam told me "The Tribune has reached it's limit this year for matching employee contributions". WOW, I said to myself. I challenge all Tribune Employees to make a donation, even if our company will not do so, by clicking on the link below the picture or clicking on the title of this post. If you would rather donate by check or money order feel free to contact me for the file I will send via email. Thank you, Edward

Rehabilitation Program for Tribune Employees

As I pondered checking myself into the Tribune sponsored rehabilitation center in Malibu, California, I daydreamed about how I would spend my time rubbing elbows with stars also attempting to give up cigarettes. But when I logged onto the cessation site, my dreams were shattered when I discovered I would not be staying at the plush rehabilitation center after all.

If you would like to kick the smoking habit, for personal reasons or to avoid the $100.00 per month tariff to your health insurance premiums, visit Free & Clear to register for the program today.

Thursday Morning Links

Olympic Pressman Tim Stock

Media owners have been chomping at the bit - Blogging Stocks
Lauren Padgett Raises $400 for Breast Cancer - City of Hope
FCC repeals ban on owning newspaper,TV or radio station - SF Sentinel
Dean Singleton Speaks - Kevin Roderick
1 Dead, 4 Hurt In Illegal Street Racing Wreck - CBS2
Plan Would Ease F.C.C. Restriction on Media Owners - Day Life
The Los Angeles Times Completes Sale of Recycler - AI Newswire
Barry Tunick, 72; co-wrote Times crosswords since 1980 - LAT
Ad slump hits newspaper publishers - Reuters
Turning off the TV set - CNN Money
Printing Press Accident Snarls Traffic all Day - Santa Cruz Sentinel
FCC ruling is of particular concern to Tribune Co - Reuters
Fake news is kind of becoming a thing now - Naperville Sun
Newspaper Killers have papers fearing for its life - PC Magazine
Tribune taking over home delivery of the Sun-Times - Chicago Reader
Gannett Squashes Split-Up Talk - The Street
San Antonio Express-News Offers Buyouts - Romenesko Memo
Big Investor Sells Times Co. Stake - New York Times

Wednesday, October 17, 2007

Ed and Speedy's Aura

is Hawaiian shirt.

Open Enrollment Correction

After taking many questions regarding open enrollment for medical benefits this afternoon from my colleagues, and unable to locate anyone that could answer the questions. I logged onto TribLink to see for myself if I was able to update my options for 2008, and sure enough I updated my benefits tonight. On Monday I reported pressroom employees were unable to update their health care options, this was in error and I apologize for this mistake.

From TribLink:
There are important changes to your health and welfare benefits for 2008. To view a summary of the changes, Click here. To view details about the changes, Click here. You may also click on the eBenefits Help link above for links to this and other useful documents.

To change your benefits for 2008
To change your benefits for 2008, make your elections using the following screens during Open Enrollment from Oct. 15th through Nov. 2nd. Click the Update buttons next to each plan to see the options available and the associated cost, link to provider directories and plans summaries, and make changes.

If you make changes to your benefits for 2008, please remember to print a Confirmation Statement when prompted after clicking Submit. A statement will not be automatically sent to your home.

Enrollment Deadline
You may not make any changes to your benefits after Nov. 2nd. The elections you make are effective January 1, 2008 through December 31, 2008, unless you experience a qualified change in family status and contact the Tribune Benefits Service Center within 31 days of the event.

You Must Take Action
If you do not want to make any plan changes, you must answer the two questions related to tobacco use and spouse/domestic partner available coverage. Go back to the Benefits Enrollment page, click Select, scroll down and click Submit to proceed directly to the questions.

If you participate in Flexible Spending Accounts, you must re-enroll, or you will not participate in these accounts in 2008.

All other benefit elections will remain the same for 2008 if you do not re-enroll.

A Crappy Bucket of Half Assed Sentiment

The Berkeley Daily Planet tries to pay respects to our troops
Read the pathetic attempt to say, thank you.
It'll have you howling toward the end, the lady is so conflicted about her own feelings.

Us vs. Them

Those of us who have been following the news, have seen a sharp increase of homicides in South Central L.A. Innocent people, gunned down.
Today, in the Times, it seems a sort of gang induced ethnic cleansing has been taking place. Latino gangs targeting African Americans, which correlates with what we've heard taking place.

Over on an excellent blog, Political Grind they've been talking about how immigrant groups are no longer striving for the larger mainstream. It seems to many that we're more separated than ever. When a lot of us were growing up, sure, there were cultural differences. There were hyphenated Americans, but there seemed to be a mainstream we all wanted to join, help build and thrive in.

But it's not like that anymore. It's become increasingly each to his own, and us vs. them. What's your take on how the mainstream became a less desirable place to work, live and do commerce in?

My Aura is Red

Your Aura is Red

You have a high level of emotion. This can mean passion, but it can also mean rage.
Usually, you don't take these emotions out on others. You just use them as motivation - and it works!

The purpose of your life: embracing all the wonders of the life, lots of travels, and tons of adventures

Famous reds include: Madonna, Marilyn Monroe, Jennifer Lopez

Careers for you to try: Dancer, Boxer, Surgeon

Hmmm...Excuse me while I go "Dancing With The Stars" :-)

Hump Day News

My grandson David Padgett

With Stock Tattered, McClatchy Says Sorry - TheStreet
Lauren Padgett Raises $200 for Breast Cancer - City of Hope
P-I asks the NLRB to help settle dispute with Guild - Seattle P.I.
BBC unions prepare to strike over job cuts - Telegraph U.K.
New Monthly L.A. Times Magazine A Success - Ken Reich
East Valley Tribune debuts tab size, free distribution - Business Journal
The racial crimes the Left doesn’t want to talk about - Michelle Malkin
Print as a medium will ultimately fade away - Pushing Envelope
Gannett Ekes Out Earnings Beat - TheStreet
City of Claremont has Money to Burn - Claremont Insider
Murdoch To Times: I Will Bury You! - New York Observer
Facebook agrees to shield minors - Los Angeles Times
Latinos and the media - Bill Boyarsky
AOL to Cut Global Work Force 20 Percent - Breitbart

Blog Burn Out

Yup, I've got it.
Yup, I can't stand it. (not this blog, my other blogs)
Nope, I don't even like forums right now.
What I want:
to read, to write, to watch movies. To garden, to have lunch with friends, to GET OUT OF THE HOUSE!

Tuesday, October 16, 2007

Ed's Aura Quiz

Well, I saw Ed's "What Color is Your Aura" post and thought it sounded cool so I clicked on the link to see what color my aura is. Of course, I couldn't find the aura quiz so instead I took the "What Color Crayon Are You?" quiz. Apparently, I'm a green crayon:

"Your world is colored in harmonious, peaceful, natural colors.
While some may associate green with money, you are one of the least materialistic people around.
Comfort is important to you. You like to feel as relaxed as possible - and you try to make others feel at ease.
You're very happy with who you are, and it certainly shows!

Your color wheel opposite is red. Every time you feel grounded, a red person does their best to shake you."

You know, this is just so typical of me! I try to take a cool quiz like Ed and then have to settle for a childish quiz instead...oh well, maybe someday I'll get to be cool too!

God bless everyone, especially our troops and their families.

Jade

P.S. My son-in-law will be home from Iraq in about two weeks! We are all so thrilled.

Your Aura is Violet

Your Aura is Violet

Idealistic and thoughtful, you have the mind and ideas to change the world.And you have the charisma of a great leader, even if you don't always use it!

The purpose of your life: saying truths that other people dare not say.

Famous purples include: Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Jr., Susan B. Anthony.

Careers for you to try: Political Activist, Inventor, Life Coach

What Color Is Your Aura?

Tuesday Morning Media Links

E.W. Scripps to split into two companies - Reuters
Publisher McClatchy Will Take 3Q Charge - Associated Press
Unions give up on gov.'s health plan - Los Angeles Times
SJ-R offers voluntary severance program - SJ-R
News Forums on Topix Exceeds Number of U.S. Newspapers - Topix
Flint Journal offering employee buyouts - ABC 12
L ATimes Expands Calendar Weekend - Kate Coe
Scripps not talking with Tribune on Food Network - Reuters
Sun-Sentinel Kills National/Foreign Desk - Daily Pulp

Lauren Padgett in Walk for Hope

My daughter Lauren has requested my help with her fund raiser for breast cancer, and how could I say no to her?

The City of Hope has setup a web page just for Lauren, click here if you would be interested in sponsoring this worthy cause, and helping Lauren reach her goal of $300.

The Tribune Company will match your donation if you are an employee of the company, check with your human resources office for the form.

NLRA Violations and Workplace Rights

The National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) forbids employers from interfering with, restraining, or coercing employees in the exercise of rights relating to organizing, forming, joining or assisting a labor organization for collective-bargaining purposes, or engaging in protected concerted activities, or refraining from any such activity. Similarly, labor organizations may not restrain or coerce employees in the exercise of these rights.

Examples of Employer Conduct Which Violate the NLRA Are:

Threatening employees with loss of jobs or benefits if they join or vote for a union or engage in protected concerted activity.
Threatening to close the plant if employees select a union to represent them.
Questioning employees about their union sympathies or activities in circumstances that tend to interfere with, restrain or coerce employees in the exercise of their rights under the Act.
Promising benefits to employees to discourage their union support.
Transferring, laying off, terminating, assigning employees more difficult work tasks, or otherwise punishing employees because they engaged in union or protected concerted activity.
Transferring, laying off, terminating, assigning employees more difficult work tasks, or otherwise punishing employees because they filed unfair labor practice charges or participated in an investigation conducted by NLRB.

Examples of Labor Organization Conduct Which Violate the NLRA Are:

Threats to employees that they will lose their jobs unless they support the union.
Seeking the suspension, discharge or other punishment of an employee for not being a union member even if the employee has paid or offered to pay a lawful initiation fee and periodic fees thereafter.
Refusing to process a grievance because an employee has criticized union officials or because an employee is not a member of the union in states where union security clauses are not permitted.
Fining employees who have validly resigned from the union for engaging in protected concerted activities following their resignation or for crossing an unlawful picket line.
Engaging in picket line misconduct, such as threatening, assaulting, or barring non-strikers from the employer's premises.
Striking over issues unrelated to employment terms and conditions or coercively enmeshing neutrals into a labor dispute.

For a comprehensive discussion of all activities that violate the NLRA, please refer to the complete text of the National Labor Relations Act.

Monday, October 15, 2007

Save Our Trade: Benefits Open Enrollment

By Ronnie Pineda

I recieved a call from Chuck Reney stating that he visited Triblink to review his open benefits enrollment and informed me that the website indictated "You do not have an open benefits enrollment".

I also visited to determine if my benefits information would be the same and it was. If you click on the "detail" on the benefits page, you will see an opening disclaimer which reads:

"Benefits for union-represented employees are subject to collective bargaining and the benefits summarized in this material may not currently apply. Local Human Resources or Tribune Benefits Service Center representatives can answer any questions about benefits for union-represented employees".

We will begin negotiating our contract in a couple of weeks and our benefits and their costs will be discussed and negotiated as this statement indicates. Our benefits are to remain as they are until we negotiate differently and agreed to by the bargaining unit.

Benefits Open Enrollment

Dream Interpretation

Sunday morning I had my first dream of my deceased son Bryan, all of my children have had dreams of their brother, with my son Nathan waking with tears after dreaming of his brother. In my dream, I left my kitchen out the sliding glass door to our backyard, but the backyard I entered had a large tree with lots of grass in the surrounding area. Our backyard consists of a cement slab with a wooden patio cover and flowerbeds made of bricks. Anyway, Bryan was asleep in his bed with all of his clothes on, and I did my best to wake him three different times in my dream, without success.

This afternoon I understood where Bryan was sleeping. Bryan was buried near a tree and his bed was placed where his grave is situated from the tree, I’m still trying to figure out what this dream means. If anyone can enlighten me to the meaning of this dream feel free to either email me or add a comment.

Thank you.

Dr. Ingersoll IV

One thing that blows me away, is the year of the Gore. Funny thing is .... it's not over quite yet.

Here is a man with a blockbuster film, a bestseller in print, multiple awards, and now a Nobel Prize. If this was not enough, millions of dollars flowed into his bank account like a champagne fountain with a 10 horse Briggs & Straton pump.

Politically, I take no sides, and will stop elaborating about this wonder boy of 2007. We are close friends - and that's where it ends. His letter thanking me was quite enough, and I promised Al that I would not share the picture he emailed me yesterday. (except here on Padgett's page)

This is what I think. Al will stay out of the Presidential race until the final moments. For months he will watch the other candidates tear each other to shreds, and laugh like a hyena from his lazy-boy recliner with gold trim. THEN, with a mesmerizing blow to America, he will jump into the running during the month of October.

Will I endorse Mr. Gore? .... of course not. I am holding out for "Ed" to enter the presidential campain. "Vice President SpeedyCat" - sounds good, and I'll have plenty of time to hang by the pool and smoke Cuban cigars!!!
Until ALL of the candidates are running, I will be pulling for this man, a Dr. Ingersoll IV

Of course, an attempt to be photographed with Rudy and Hillary will be in the future for a certain "Mr. Hollydale".

USA!!!

Labels: Al Gore, Dr. Ingersoll IV, Nobel Prize, President, Speedcat Hollydale

Monday Morning Hyper-Links

Brady Westwater the LA Cowboy

He's king; the L.A. loft scene is his throne - Steve Lopez
Google's aggressive defense of MoveOn.org - Jon Healey
Smokers? 9021-oh-oh - Patt Morrison
What will MarketWatch's future be under Murdoch? - SF Gate
Reporter For Post Is Fatally Shot In Baghdad - Washington Post
Fire Safety Facts For People 50-Plus - Brian Humphrey
Reuters Is No Pasadena Now, But Still… - Foothill Cities
Health care showdown in CA--Over what? - Jenny Price
Gannett, Tribune to Publish USA Today Outside US - AP
NEWSWEEK GETS A NEW LOOK - New York Post

Sunday, October 14, 2007

Illegal Street Racers Kill 5 in the Southland

Last week my children and I marked the two-month anniversary of Bryan’s death, and to make matters worse, there happened to be three different street races that resulted in deaths the day before, the day of, and the day after October 8Th. This only magnified this particular day for all of us, as we knew how the families that lost loved ones felt as we read their stories.

As a recap of last week’s carnage and mayhem in Southern California, here are the stories with links to the three street races I’m referring to.

Sunday Oct. 7th, 2007
Pico Rivera: Brian Ramirez, 18, of Los Angeles, was killed while racing against Fitzgerald Paragas, 18, down Rosemead Boulevard at 90 mph around 7:00 on Sunday night, according to a California Highway Patrol report.

Monday Oct. 8th, 2007
El Monte: A mother and her two children were burned to death when the vehicle they were in was hit by two cars racing in El Monte Monday, authorities said.

Tuesday Oct. 9th, 2007
Reseda: A 5-year-old boy critically injured in a Reseda crash Tuesday died Wednesday night, police said. His mother and infant sister remained in critical condition Thursday.

(Click on the red dates above for the articles from the Los Angeles Times, CBS News, and the San Gabriel Valley Tribune)

My son Bryan was killed while racing another Mustang on August 8Th, 2007, which has led me to attempt to inform the public, especially young men and women of the dangers of street racing. The movies portray young street racers as heroes, which almost always walk away from their accidents with a few bumps and bruises; nothing could be further from the truth.

I would like to think I am making a difference, but sometimes we aren’t really sure anyone is listening, until a reader shares his or her story, like Jerry Holden did a few weeks ago. Jerry told me he had placed a down payment on a Camero for his sixteen-year-old grandson, and after reading my son’s story, had a change of heart. He cancelled the purchase of the Camero, and bought his grandson a four-cylinder car.

The chances of this Youngman racing against anyone on the streets have dropped dramatically.

So if my colleagues wondered why I was not my usual self last week, this may reveal why I was agitated.

The photo above is what remains of Bryan's car, the coroner stated on his death certificate, Bryan died a rapid death. Click on picture for larger view.

In case you feel I'm only exaggerating illegal street racing because my son was killed, here are a few examples of what is being said online regarding this epidemic.

A father's tragedy: 'Worst day of your life times three' - Los Angeles Times
What should we be doing about street racers? - Los Angeles Times Comments
Ontario goes on the offensive against illegal street racers - Ride Lust
Street racing a reoccuring problem - San Gabriel Valley Tribune
Illegal street racing – your say - MyNHRA Motoring
Fast and The Furious? Not in Elk Grove, CA! - Chris Molina
Race the Strip. Not the Street - NHRA
Illegal street racers cannot plead ignorance - Dianne Jacob
Officials Target Illegal Street Racers - ABC Television

Saturday, October 13, 2007

Saturday Night News Links

Joquin Velasquez with Denice Kolm

Tribune Employees Are SMOKING - Chicago Business
The Mass Media and Systematic Propaganda - Tribe
"Truth Syrum" Unmasks Lawmaker Fabian Nunez - Ken Reich
CBS buys SF-based celebrity Web site - San Francisco Peninsula Press Club
Who deserves government-subsidized health insurance? - Michelle Malkin
Tell me Fabian Nunez Political Career Isn't OVER! - Zuma Dogg
DJ Union Members OK Three-Year Contract - CNN Money

Tribune Company Dependent Audit Results

From: Corporate-Relations
Sent: Friday, October 12, 2007 1:03 PM
Subject: Message from Luis Lewin/Benefits Update

Dear Fellow Employee:

With open enrollment set to begin on Monday, healthcare issues are in the media nearly every day. In a recent Chicago Tribune article, the American Hospital Association (AHA) noted that the price tag for just three common conditions - asthma, diabetes, and hypertension - is $30 billion a year. The AHA's president said, "The message is clear:Preventative medicine and wellness programs must be central to our health care system." (To read the article, click here)

That is exactly why Tribune, as part of our 2008 benefits plan, is focusing attention on reducing prescription drug expenses associated with these three most prevalent medical conditions. Under our primary medical plans, employees and covered dependents who purchase prescriptions for asthma, diabetes or hypertension through the mail order program will receive generic drugs for free and brand-name drugs for only $5. This will enable people with these conditions to get the important medications they need and reduce overall medical costs.

It's vitally important that the company do everything it can to contain these expenses. In 2008, Tribune expects to spend nearly $100 million on medical, dental and vision plans.

Another way to control healthcare expenses is by ensuring that dependents covered under our medical plans are eligible according to the plan rules. Because healthcare is an expense shared by the company and our employees, covering ineligible dependents results in higher medical insurance costs for everyone.

Last week, Tribune received preliminary results of the second phase of a "dependent audit" that began earlier this year. For those of you who were involved, we greatly appreciate your assistance as we realize that this was a rigorous and inconvenient process. Thanks to your cooperation, more than 700 individuals who did not meet eligibility requirements were removed from our plans, resulting in an annual savings of nearly $1.3 million. This savings will help contain healthcare expenses for all Tribune employees.

Finally, two more important changes to our 2008 medical benefits are designed to promote wellness and contain expenses. Both involve the implementation of "medical fees," a growing trend among large U.S. companies. Peer companies like Gannett and Scripps, as well as Fortune 500 companies such as General Mills, PepsiCo and others currently utilize one or both of these fees.

Tobacco Use: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that tobacco users cost companies about $5,700 more per year than non-smokers. To encourage a smoke-free lifestyle, on October 17, Tribune will begin offering a company funded smoking cessation program. Information about the program can be found on the Human Resources page of TriLink. While Tribune employees who use tobacco products (or have covered dependents who do), will pay a $100 per month fee (per family) in addition to their medical premium, the monthly fee will be waived upon completion of the program.

Spousal/Domestic Partner Coverage: Employees who enroll a spouse/domestic partner under Tribune's medical plan when that person also has access to coverage through another employer will pay a $75 per month fee in addition to their medical premium. This fee enables the company to recoup some of the expense incurred by insuring individuals who have access to other insurance plans. Employees should keep in mind open enrollment for benefits begins Monday, October 15, and ends on Friday, November 2. Be sure to access eBenefits via the TribLink homepage or tribuneathome.com to review your elections any time during this period, and feel free to call the Tribune Benefits Service Center at 800.872.2222 if you have any questions.

Sincerely,
Luis E. Lewin
Senior Vice President/Human Resources

700 Tribune Dependants Lost Health Care

Heard through the Los Angeles Times Grapevine yesterday the bean counters at Mercer have taken seven hundred Tribune dependants off the health care system, which will save the Tribune Company $1.3 million annually. Since I do not have access to email at the Los Angeles Times, I will have to wait for LAObserved to post the memo to verify this rumor.

Friday, October 12, 2007

LA Cowboy: SMASHBOX Mercedes-Benz Fashion Show Promoters TRASH TALK Downtown Los Angeles!

In an AP story in the GUARDIAN, the promoters of the Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week attack Downtown Los Angeles as a place people such as Vogue Editor-in-Chief Anna Wintour simply will not go.

Downtown is also accused of having traffic and parking problems, unlike the Westside which, of course, we all know, has zero parking and traffic problems. They also made it clear that even if they leave Culver City - any place in the City of Los Angeles appears to not be up Mercedes-Benz's standards since if they do expand - it will be to... Beverly Hills.

So the next time any of you in Los Angeles thinks about buying a Mercedes-Benz - you might want to consider what the people running their fashion show think about our city. And don't forget to check out our Los Angeles fashion shows at: http://www.boxeight.com/.

SMASHBOX Mercedes-Benz Fashion Show Promoters TRASH TALK Downtown Los Angeles!

Take Back the Times: Smoking Surcharge Is New Low For Tribune Co.

By Ken Reich

In the entire inept and squalid record of CEO Dennis FitzSimons and his lackey, xxxxx xxxxxx, at the Tribune Co., there is no greater low than was reached this week with the announcement that beginning New Year's, the company will charge Tribune-employed smokers and their family members who smoke a $100-a-month surcharge on their health insurance.

I do not smoke, but this sad innovation can only be viewed as the beginning of a new effort by this stinking corporation to impose ever more onerous and unacceptable conditions on its unhappy employees, so unfortunate as to fall into the grip of men who make the old corporate robber barons seem almost generous in comparison.

This, clearly, is only the first such step. Pretty soon, if its gets away with it (and there are already grievances pending), Tribune will be imposing surcharges for drinking, for obesity, for having had cancer, and a whole host of other conditions which will eviscerate the whole traditional meaning of health insurance.

Click on link below to hyper-jump to complete article.

Smoking Surcharge Is New Low For Tribune Co.

No Left Turns --a great story by a newspaper man

by Michael Gartner, editor of newspapers large and small and president of NBC News. In 1997, he won the Pulitzer Prize for editorial writing.

My father never drove a car. Well, that's not quite right. I should say I never saw him drive a car. He quit driving in 1927, when he was 25 years old, and the last car he drove was a 1926 Whippet.

"In those days," he told me when he was in his 90s, "to drive a car you had to do things with your hands, and do things with your feet, and look every which way, and I decided you could walk through life and enjoy it or drive through life and miss it."

At which point my mother, a sometimes salty Irishwoman, chimed in:
"Oh, bull----!" she said. "He hit a horse."

"Well," my father said, "there was that, too."

So my brother and I grew up in a household without a car. The neighbors all had cars -- the Kollingses next door had a green 1941 Dodge, the VanLaninghams across the street a gray 1936 Plymouth, the Hopsons two doors down a black 1941 Ford -- but we had none.

My father, a newspaperman in Des Moines, would take the streetcar to work and, often as not, walk the 3 miles home. If he took the streetcar home, my mother and brother and I would walk the three blocks to the streetcar stop, meet him and walk ho me together.

My brother, David, was born in 1935, and I was born in 1938, and sometimes, at dinner, we'd ask how come all the neighbors had cars but we had none. "No one in the family drives," my mother would explain, and that was that.

But, sometimes, my father would say, "But as soon as one of you boys turns 16, we'll get one." It was as if he wasn't sure which one of us would turn 16 first.

But, sure enough , my brother turned 16 before I did, so in 1951 my parents bought a used 1950 Chevrolet from a friend who ran the parts department at a Chevy dealership downtown.

It was a four-door, white model, stick shift, fender skirts, loaded with everything, and, since my parents didn't drive, it more or less became my brother's car.

Having a car but not being able to drive didn't bother my father, but it didn't make sense to my mother.

So in 1952, when she was 43 years old, she asked a friend to teach her to drive. She learned in a nearby cemetery, the place where I learned to drive the following year and where, a generation later, I took my two sons to practice driving. The cemetery probably was my father's idea. "Who can your mother hurt in the cemetery?" I remember him saying more than once.

For the next 45 years or so, until she was 90, my mother was the driver in the family. Neither she nor my father had any sense of direction, but he loaded up on maps -- though they seldom left the city limits -- and appointed himself navigator. It seemed to work.

Still, they both continued to walk a lot. My mother was a devout Catholic, and my father an equally devout agnostic, an arrangement that didn't seem to bother either of them through their 75 years of marriage.

(Yes, 75 years, and they were deeply in love the entire time.)

He retired when he was 70, and nearly every morning for the next 20 years or so, he would walk with her the mile to St. Augustin's Church. She would walk down and sit in the front pew, and he would wait in the back until he saw which of the parish's two priests was on duty that morning. If it was the pastor, my father then would go out and take a 2-mile walk, meeting my mother at the end of the service and walking her home.

If it was the assistant pastor, he'd take just a 1-mile walk and then head back to the church. He called the priests "Father Fast" and "Father Slow."

After he retired, my father almost always accompanied my mother whenever she drove anywhere, even if he had no reason to go along. If she were going to the beauty parlor, he'd sit in the car and read, or go take a stroll or, if it was summer, have her keep the engine running so he could listen to the Cubs game on the radio. In the evening, then, when I'd stop by, he'd explain: "The Cubs lost again. The millionai re on second base made a bad throw to the millionaire on first base, so the multimillionaire on third base scored."

If she were going to the grocery store, he would go along to carry the bags out -- and to make sure she loaded up on ice cream. As I said, he was always the navigator, and once, when he was 95 and she was 88 and still driving, he said to me, "Do you want to know the secret of a long life?"

"I guess so," I said, knowing it probably would be something bizarre.

"No left turns," he said.

"What?" I asked.

"No left turns," he repeated. "Several years ago, your mother and I read an article that said most accidents that old people are in happen when they turn left in front of oncoming traffic.

As you get older, your eyesight worsens, and you can lose your depth perception, it said. So your mother and I decided never again to make a left turn."

&nbs p; "What?" I said again.

"No left turns," he said. "Think about it. Three rights are the same as a left, and that's a lot safer. So we always make three rights."

"You're kidding!" I said, and I turned to my mother for support "No," she said, "your father is right. We make three rights. It works." But then she added: "Except when your father loses count."

I was driving at the time, and I almost drove off the road as I started laughing.

"Loses count?" I asked.

"Yes," my father admitted, "that sometimes happens. But it's not a problem. You just make seven rights, and you're okay again."

I couldn't resist. "Do you ever go for 11?" I asked.

"No," he said " If we miss it at seven, we just come home and call it a bad day. Besides, nothing in life is so important it can't be put off another day or another week."

& nbsp; My mother was never in an accident, but one evening she handed me her car keys and said she had decided to quit driving. That was in 1999, when she was 90.

She lived four more years, until 2003. My father died the next year, at 102.

They both died in the bungalow they had moved into in 1937 and bought a few years later for $3,000. (Sixty years later, my brother and I paid $8,000 to have a shower put in the tiny bathroom -- the house had never had one. My father would have died then and there if he knew the shower cost nearly three times what he paid for the house.)

He continued to walk daily -- he had me get him a treadmill when he was 101 because he was afraid he'd fall on the icy sidewalks but wanted to keep exercising -- and he was of sound mind and sound body until the moment he died.

One September afternoon in 2004, he and my son went with me when I had to give a talk in a neighborin g town, and it was clear to all three of us that he was wearing out, though we had the usual wide-ranging conversation about politics and newspapers and things in the news.

A few weeks earlier, he had told my son, "You know, Mike, the first hundred years are a lot easier than the second hundred." At one point in our drive that Saturday, he said, "You know, I'm probably not going to live much longer."

"You're probably right," I said.

"Why would you say that?" He countered, somewhat irritated.

"Because you're 102 years old," I said.

"Yes," he said, "you're right." He stayed in bed all the next day.

That night, I suggested to my son and daughter that we sit up with him through the night.

He appreciated it, he said, though at one point, apparently seeing us look gloomy, he said:

"I would like to make an announcement. No one in this room is dead yet"

An hour or so later, he spoke his last words:

"I want you to know," he said, clearly and lucidly, "that I am in no pain. I am very comfortable. And I have had as happy a life as anyone on this earth could ever have."

A short time later, he died.

I miss him a lot, and I think about him a lot. I've wondered now and then how it was that my family and I were so lucky that he lived so long.

I can't figure out if it was because he walked through life, Or because he quit taking left turns. "

Life is too short to wake up with regrets. So love the people who treat you right. Forget about those who don't. Believe everything happens for a reason. If you get a chance, take it. If it changes your life, let it. Nobody said life would be easy, they just promised it would most likely be worth it."

Friday Morning News

Larry Washington

LA Times September Scorecard - Kate Coe
Another Way to Squeeze Smokers - Nobody's Business
MoveOn.org should just MoveOn and give up - Feral Pundit
Zell: Some ideas on Tribune papers - Newsday
Buyouts offered at Free Press, Detroit News - Detroit Free Press
Sonia Carvalo: In Her Own Words - Foothill Cities
'Los Angeles Times' Returns Name To Sunday Magazine - E&P
You want anonymous? We’ll give you anonymous - Daily News
Detroit Free Press offers buyouts, to 110 Employees - Poynter Memo
Transcript of Claremont City Attorney Remarks - Claremont Insider

Enough is enough

Citizens march on City Hall demanding officials mitigate street racing.

San Gabriel Valley Tribune

Thursday, October 11, 2007

Speedcat Hollydale Lands on Planet X

So... I was invited to join as a writer here on the Pressmens blog by Kanani and Ed. What an honor!
What I usually post are pictures that I create, and then add dialog to match. I will start here with what I know.
As a blogger, I am used to reader interaction. I never just throw something out there and move on. Comments lead me to create something new - sometimes I'll even ask point blank, "What would you like to see?" Hopefully readers here will comment in the same fashion. I will try to reply to everyone in return!

Below you will find a TEST. Some of the creations here are by "yours truly". Some are highly regarded pieces of art. To help you out a tad (this may be hard for the non-artisan), I put a few hints on some of the pictures.

Well? Simply count the number of professional artworks, and comment with your answer. I'll grade them up soon.

IN THE NEWS: I'm hungry for some hot wings! Gotta go!!

Labels: art, Pressmen, Speedcat Hollydale

The Anti-MoveOn Ads Google Won't Let You See

by Lance Dutson, Mainewebreport
Click on the title above to get the whole story (and if the LA Times doesn't start running these stories then I don't know what the heck to think!)

This story is currently #1 on the Examiner’s ‘most popular’ list across the country. It has been linked by the Drudge Report, Instapundit, Michelle Malkin, Right Voices, and many other blogs. People have been asking to see the actual ads, so I’m posting them here, along with the text of a support chat I had with a Google representative about their suspension of the ads:
Google bans anti-MoveOn.org ads

Google Bans Anti-MoveOn Ads

WASHINGTON (Map, News) - Internet giant Google has banned advertisements critical of MoveOn.org, the far-left advocacy group that caused a national uproar last month when it received preferential treatment from The New York Times for its “General Betray Us” message.

The ads banned by Google were placed by a firm working for Republican Sen. Susan Collins’ re-election campaign. Collins is seeking her third term.

Earlier this week, Google told Lance Dutson, president of Maine Coast Designs, that the ads he placed for Collins had been removed and would not be allowed to resume because they violated Google’s trademark policy.

To read more, go SF Examiner

Thursday Morning News

With the Tribune Company accessing Tribunites, that smoke, $100.00 per month in additional deductions for medical insurance, who will pay the tab for children's health care when we all stop smoking? The cartoon was reproduced with the permission of artist Nate Beeler.

Newspaper columnist whines about tobacco use fee - Schwitzer Health
"Deadline Hollywood"'s Nikki Finke is the sheriff in town - Elle
ABC Explains Move to Count Web Traffic - Bill Perry
Tribune's smoking fee - Mark Lacter
Reporters Only Allowed Negative Stories About Craigslist - NYT
How Newspapers Can Win Online - Market Watch
Tribune employees who use tobacco products - Michael Mayo
Claremont English (or The Ol' Misdirection) - Claremont Insider
Anonymous bloggers have their covers drawn? - Miss Havisham
Tribune Co. 'Smoker' Fee -- and Spousal Surcharge - E&P
Everyone's A Blogger, Part 1 - Mayrav Saar
Everyone's A Blogger, Part 2 - Mayrav Saar
Everyone's A Blogger, Part 3 - Mayrav Saar

Wednesday, October 10, 2007

Gore Vidal

Gore Vidal and the Condition of America

David Hiller Now a Blogger Newbie

From: Hiller, David
Sent: Wed Oct 10 16:06 2007
Subject: Publisher's Blog

Folks,

Taking up a suggestion a number of you have made, I have decided to do a blog about things going on at The Times and in our industry. It will be two-way, so you can post comments, give feedback and ask questions, and see what others are saying.

The Blog Homepage: http://blogger.latimes.com/

This is my first blog, so we’ll be experimenting together a bit.

We thought it would be good to start with a few guidelines:

This is internal, just for us, so please don’t share the blog content outside the company
Comments require the full name of the person posting – no anonymous posts
The blogs are moderated and all posts will be reviewed for inappropriate language (e.g., libelous, obscene, invasion of privacy, etc.)
The blogs will not get into specific employment matters (e.g., wages, hours, other terms and conditions of work)
Be open and candid, and (as always) considerate of others’ ideas and viewpoints
We may change our approach based on experience

So see you on the blog, and I look forward to our continuing conversation.

David

h/t Kevin Roderick

Message to Parents

IT IS SCARY FOR ALL OF US WHO HAVE CHILDREN & GRANDCHILDREN.
The Ugliest Drug Marketing Scheme Ever

SEND THIS TO AS MANY PARENTS, GRANDPARENTS
and PEOPLE WHO KNOW PARENTS AS YOU CAN.

Children's Meth
Checked this on Snopes. It is partially true.
http://www.snopes.com/horrors/drugs/candymeth.asp

A very scary thing is going on in the schools right now. There is a type of crystal meth going around that looks like strawberry pop rocks. It smells like strawberry also and it is being handed out to kids in school yards in AR.

I'm sure it will make its way around the country. Kids are ingesting this thinking it is candy and being rushed off to the ER in dire condition.

It also comes in chocolate, peanut butter, cola, cherry, grape and orange. It looks just like pop rocks.

Please instruct children to not accept candy that looks like this
even from a friend and to take any that they may have to a teacher,
principal, etc.

They call it strawberry meth or strawberry quick.

Special Agent Todd V. Coleman
U.S. Department of Homeland Security
U.S. Immigration & Customs Enforcement
Direct Office Line (956)753-4678
Office Fax Line (956)753-4673
todd.coleman@dhs.gov

Yer fancy schmancy reading t'day

Robinson Jeffers, 1887-1962

The Carmel area hold a very special place for me. We'd spend summers not far from there, and I remember the rugged beauty --much of which is still there, however, there are far more homes there now. I always wanted to return to live there, but things haven't worked out that way. Alas, let me get my book done, and work my way there.

I've been reading a lot of California literature as of late. One person I've stumbled upon is Robinson Jeffers, who lived in Carmel in the first half of the 20th century. What has crept over me the past decade or so, is the fact that when I was young, the educational Eurocentrism and East Coast dominance pervaded our curriculum to the point where we didn't cover many western writers or artists.

Back then, few but serious writers and Californians knew about Steinbeck. With poetry, we were rightfully taken through Dickinson and Frost --even Burns, but weren't introduced to one of the most gifted and important American poets of the 20th century, Robinson Jeffers.

He was an anti-modernist, a bit of an isolationist --more so during WWII, when his antiwar feelings made him unpopular. He loved his surroundings --the rugged cliffs of Carmel, where he started building his stone house from granite, situated on the tors in 1918. Tor House still stands today, and is the home of a yearly poetry festival (take note: they have a contest each year, and you should probably keep tabs and submit).

It was from here he pondered his relationship to his surroundings, and explored his feelings about love, change and the state of man. But here's an epic poet, one who wrote for himself. And so, as I was reading, I was aware of a lack of pretense. Opinion, absolutely. But there was none of the writing to please or to be popular (that you find in coffee houses). He wrote what he felt, in which there is a freedom that is so rare, it's to be deeply admired (even envied).

I'll let you explore more about him, if you wish. If you look him up on Amazon, you can even go through one of his books electronically!

Promise Of Peace

The heads of strong old age are beautiful
Beyond all grace of youth. They have strange quiet,
Integrity, health, soundness, to the full
They've dealt with life and been tempered by it.
A young man must not sleep; his years are war,
Civil and foreign but the former's worse;
But the old can breathe in safety now that they are
Forgetting what youth meant, the being perverse,
Running the fool's gauntlet and being cut
By the whips of the five senses. As for me,
If I should wish to live long it were but
To trade those fevers for tranquillity,
Thinking though that's entire and sweet in the grave
How shall the dead taste the deep treasure they have?

Wednesday Morning Links

Olympic Mailer David Brown

In appreciation of newsprint - TJ Sullivan
$mokers pay the price at Tribune Company - Sun-Sentinel
The Mayor's Shady Phone Tax Bamboozle - Mayor Sam
SGVN printing to move to Valencia - Pasadena Star-News
Dean Baquet has eye on Competition - New York Observer
Delay requested in sentencing in Newsday case - Newsday
Guild Tries For Reinstatement at MediaNews Papers - E&P
Newsday Pulitzers recovered - Newsday
Belo Split to Start a Trend? - The Motley Fool
Zell says he isn't selling LA Times - CNN Money
Andres Martines Found Not Guilty of Anything - Kate Coe
Free Speech Update - Claremont Insider
Reopening Old Wounds at the Los Angeles Times - Kevin Roderick

Tuesday, October 09, 2007

Sam Zell: No plans to sell LA Times

Beverly Hills, CA.

Billionaire and new owner of the Tribune Company Sam Zell said he has no plans to sell the Los Angeles Times to David Geffen, Eli Broad, or Ron Burkle.

But quickly stated "Now, if you have a price, we can talk." Which had the standing-room-only group laughing at the Beverly Hilton Hotel tonight.

Known for his frank way of talking, Zell used several expletives and told the group a joke regarding the male anatomy.

When asked about the possible shedding of the Chicago Cubs after the completion of the transaction of acquiring the Tribune Company Zell said "I have no idea who is going to end up with the Cubs, but it ain't gonna be me."

h/t Saul Daniels

San Gabriel Valley Tribune to Cease Operation Nov. 5TH

From: Larry Kline
Date: October 4, 2007
Re: Press Consolidation

"I know you join me in offering my sincere appreciation to the production employees who will be leaving our company. We will work with each to provide support in the transition to new employment."

San Gabriel Valley Newspapers will be printed at the Daily News production faciltiy in Valencia beginning Monday, Nov. 5, 2007
Decision was made to increase color positions for news and advertising.
No numbers for layoffs given just a lot of management success-speak.

Another insider from the newspaper said.

"Hi Edward! Yes, we had a brief on the business page Saturday (though I can't find it online) saying all three SGVN papers -- Star-News, Tribune and Whittier Daily News -- will be printed in Valencia at the LADN facility beginning Nov. 5. Publisher says it will more than double color capability for both news side and ad side and that it didn't make sense to buy new presses to do that when LADN already has press capacity. I remember at the old Star-News when in order to get rid of the ancient black and white presses that were in the basement we gave them away to a paper in the Philippines if it could just dig them out of the hole ... and it did!"

Tuesday Morning Media News

Pressroom Supervisors William Delgado and Woody Johnson

The bloodletting of 'Our Times' - TJ Sullivan
LA Times Starting to Pick up on Zuma Times - Zuma Dogg
BBC set to shed 12% of workforce - FT.com
Newspapers, bloggers now on same page - Los Angeles Times
West Looking for Editors,Writers, Direction - Kate Coe
Being Funny for $10.00 a Pop - Kevin Roderick
City Says, "Death to the Insider!" - Claremont Insider
Daily Bulletin Backs Bloggers - Foothill Cities
Bloggers Unite Movement - Speedcat Hollydale
2007 Los Angeles Firefighters Memorial Service - Brian Humphrey
Mark Cuban Wants to Buy Cubs - Associated Press
Newspapers' partnership with Yahoo fades - SFP Press Club
BusinessWeek is no longer red, white and blue - New York Business
When it's Your Union vs. Your Newspaper - Ethics Cases

San Gabriel Valley Tribune Production Outsourced

Media News Group will be consolidating production of the San Gabriel Valley Tribune with it's Daily News production facility at the end of the year, insiders tell me. No official word from Dean Singleton on this cost saving measure has been released as of this publication.

Many newspapers across the country are either combining production with competitors or completely outsourcing production to other printing companies.

Our Newest Contributor Speedcat Hollydale

Please welcome our latest addition, Speedcat Hollydale from Minnesota. Speedcat is the rock and roll golfer that will add a bit of a different outlook to our humble blog.

Welcome abroad Speedcat.

Driver killed in street race

PICO RIVERA - A high speed race in an unincorporated area north of Pico Rivera resulted in the death of one driver, and an arrest for manslaughter for another.

Brian Ramirez, 18, of Los Angeles, was killed while racing against Fitzgerald Paragas, 18, down Rosemead Boulevard at 90 mph around 7:00 on Sunday night, according to a California Highway Patrol report.

Paragas survived the crash with minor injuries, but was arrested on suspicion of manslaughter, because of the death of Ramirez.

"If you are in a high speed race, any injury in that race can result in you being charged with a crime," said CHP Office John Seumanutafa.

Paragas is being held in county custody at $70,000 bail and has a court date scheduled for October 9, according to Sheriff's Department records.

The two were driving side by side just north of Gallatin Road, when they came upon a slower moving vehicle in the right lane, according to the CHP report.

To avoid the slower car, Ramirez pulled onto the right shoulder and accelerated past it, while Paragas passed it in the left lane.

Ramirez lost control of his 2005 Mitsubishi Evo while on the shoulder and spun left across the concrete divider and into opposite traffic, where he collided head on with a 2005 VW Jetta carrying four people.

Ramirez was pronounced dead at the scene, but the four people in the Jetta suffered only minor injuries, according to the CHP report.

Officer Seumanutafa said that Paragas also was involved in the collision, possibly when Ramirez spun left across the road. He also suffered only minor injuries.

SOURCE: San Gabriel Valley Tribune

Driver Sought In Deadly El Monte Racing Wreck

(CBS) EL MONTE, Calif. A mother and her two children were burned to death when the vehicle they were in was hit by two cars racing in El Monte Monday, authorities said.

The collision occurred just before 6 p.m. at Parkway Drive and Elliott Avenue, said Capt. Mike Brown of the Los Angeles County Fire Department.

More than three hours after the collision, firefighters still had not been able to get the victims' bodies out of the vehicle.

A red Mustang and a light brown Acura Legend were racing north on Parkway when a driver in a gray Nissan Altima pulled out of a trailer park on Elliott and was broadsided," El Monte police Detective Ralph Batres said.

"We know who the driver of the Mustang was," Batres said. "The driver of the second vehicle fled."

No arrests have been made. The investigation continued Monday night,

Batres said.

Video here

SOURCE: CBS2.COM

Monday, October 08, 2007

Waitress Polly

This is News?

Bill Garcia

McCain Should Know The Truth About Marijuana - Drop the Hammer
Kudos to the The Pressmen, Free Speech Story - Kanani Fong
The Price of Smoking and being Married! - Ronnie Pineta
Free Speech News - Claremont Insider
Bush the universalist - Get Religion
Free Speech, How one Group Tried to Take it Away - Video
FCC fast tracks Zell/Tribune merger - Musings, Essays & Ballads
LA anchor Dave Clark headed to KTVU - SFP Press Club
To me, a newspaper is like a meal - Robyn Blumner
Free meal behind that glowing online restaurant review - WSJ

Saturday, October 06, 2007

Move On's Shopkeeper Strong Arm Ignored By The Mainstream Media

BUY THEM HERE: PoliStew Café

I just noticed Tim Rutten's article on free speech, Rush Limbaugh and Move On.
But he failed to mention the debacle reported by Jon Healy and Michelle Malkin regarding Move On's strong arming of small shopkeepers at Cafe Press! I wonder why he didn't use the material from what I think is the funniest and most revealing political story in ages?

Mama Mia

If anyone has read my profile, you've probably noticed that I list bowling as one of my hobbies. My husband and I bowl on two leagues, one on Thursday night and one on Friday night. The Friday night league is a Sons of Italy league and this is our third year in that league. I really love to bowl and it's not necessarily because I'm good at it. On Friday nights I bowl with two other ladies and this season we've named our team, "Mama Mia". The first year we were "Chicks Rule", last year we were "Oh Chit" (and before you waste anytime wondering, yes that's exactly what we meant) but this year we are Mama Mia.

Barb, Dottie and I have been bowling together 3 years now. For a brief time we had my friend Chris on the team because Barb had shoulder problems. But last year and this year it's the three of us again. The other ladies in the league are Margaret, Anne, Anna and Graciela. The rest are men, including my husband Ray, Barb's husband Dan and Margaret's husband Richard. Bowling with these ladies has been one of the best times of my life!

We have lots and lots of inside jokes, and all it takes is one of us saying, "There will be no regalia tonight!" to send the rest of into hysterical laughter. In fact, sometimes it takes just one word to break the rest of us up. The men usually stand and look at us wondering what's so funny...to be honest, we probably couldn't begin to tell them because it's often beyond our understanding, too. The bottom line is, these women are my dear friends. I know if I had a problem or something bothering me, they would listen and give me their support or advice and I would do whatever they need as well.

I've grown to love these ladies like sisters and love the time I spend with them. Sure, we get very silly sometimes but I thank God for them because they have brightened up my Friday nights immeasureably. The hours I spend with them laughing, talking and bowling are important to me because of who they are.

Please continue to pray for our troops and especially for my son-in-law Thomas who is due to return to Hawaii this month. God bless everyone.

Help A Robin Out!

By Aaron Proctor

In my final Goth days, during Barbecuegate and the run-off election - outside of Robin’s

Robin’s is the best restaurant in THE WORLD (this video proves it) and not just because they named a burger after me.

Robin Salzer, former District 1 Council candidate and the Burgermeister himself needs YOUR help.

From the man himself:

"Robin’s has been nominated as one of the Best BBQ restaurants in Los Angeles at myfoxla.com. You are allowed only one vote per email address. If you have some spare time could you put out a SOS to your audience of followers, friends and disciples to help the cause and vote for Robin’s at myfoxla.com. I believe that the voting ends in November though I’m not sure. Where ever we can spread the word would be great. Thanks".

To vote follow this direct link and vote for Robin’s!

Weekend News Briefs

Will Zell’s $8 Billion Tribune Deal Close or Not? - Wall Street Journal
MoveOn.org Bullies Crack Down on Critics - Michelle Malkin
Tribune deal looks likely - Mark Lacter
Claremont Seeks an Injunction Against Google - Claremont Insider
Gloria Allred Slaps Back Warner's Robinov - Nikki Finke
Chicago says NO FREE NEWSPAPERS - Ronald Roenigk
Look at Me and ??? - Speedcat Hollydale
Did Singleton overpay for Bay Area papers? - SFP Press Club
Limbaugh leaves probation better, richer - Palm Beach Post
Speaking up for freedom of speech - Tim Rutten
Please Cubs … don’t win the World Series - Jim Caple and Eric Neel

Friday, October 05, 2007

Western Days Rides into San Dimas Oct. 6TH & 7TH

October 6th:Pancake Breakfast ($5 per person) - 7:00 a.m. - noon
Community Parade - 10:00 a.m.
Craft & Food Vendors - 10-6 p.m.
Casino Night (adults only) 7-11 p.m.
Rodeo noon-5p.m.
October 7th
Craft & Food Vendors - 10-6 p.m.
Rodeo noon-5p.m.

If you happen to be at the 13th annual San Dimas Rodeo on Saturday, give me a hollar, I will be there with my children and grandchildren under the white tent. We never miss this event.

Censorship in Claremont

We like to think freedom of speech applies to everyone, including bloggers, yet some feel the truth needs to be kept from public view.

The City of Claremont seems to feel the Blogger, Claremont Insider, is playing unfair by posting the salaries paid to city officials online. The blogger discovered the pay studs online in the archives of the Claremont City web site, which anyone else could have located as well, and published the information online Sept. 7, 2007.

The City of Claremont attorney cried foul to Google, which prompted Google to bring down the post, with an email of warning. The blogger responded by posting a text version of the pay studs, which by the way did not reflect social security numbers, driver license numbers, or any other personal information on the payees.

Yet, the City Attorney demanded that Google censor the Claremont Insider by halting all web hosting of the blog on their servers.

The Inland Valley Daily Bulletin requested a copy of Claremont’s complaint to Google. The request was at first denied by the city attorney, citing first client privilege, which didn't apply since the correspondence was between the attorney and Google, not the client, the city of Claremont. Then, the attorney claimed the letter was covered by a work product privilege, which also did not apply. The Bulletin made a public records request, which took the city several weeks to respond to.

The letters in question were posted today on the Bulletin's website, and I say, great job to the Daily Bulletin for keeping the public informed.

This was nothing more than an attempt by the City of Claremont to quiet a critical voice, which is the worst type of censorship I have seen.

Why wasn’t the blogger contacted by Claremont and asked to remove the pay stubs first, instead of attempting to close down the blog?

For The Weekend

Person of the Week

Click on Stevie Wonder and enjoy the interview!

Haven't seen him since the undergrad days and will pay a kings' ransom to see him when he's in my area!

A musical icon he is.

Potpourri of News For Friday

LAT Olympic Machinist Ed Zuniga

Just so we Know Who the Political Trolls Are - Take Our Country Back
Blogs, Online Chats and Databases Help Drive Readers to Sites - AP
A little 'Fiddler' on the Montana prairie - Kate Coe
Claremont's credibility took a big hit - Claremont Insider
More Changes At The Orange County Register - Mayrav Saar
BusinessWeek Undergoes Redesign for '21st Century - Folio
WEB AD $$ STILL FLYING - New York Post
Crush Rush: Now they want to censure him? - Michelle Malkin
Strange But True Press Releases - Eric Spillman
Video: Help! Fire! - Family Plan - Brian Humphrey
Union Negotiation Update: LA Times Saying, "14%-25%"... - Zuma Dogg

Thursday, October 04, 2007

R.I.P. -- Remembering the daily Valley Edition

To all,

And so today we remember the demise of the daily, free-standing, Times Valley Edition, launched Oct. 4, 1984. Even now, the Chatsworth office and printing plant is being converted into the new HQ for the fine folks who make Bratz dolls.

If I didn't remind you these things, who would?

Cheers,
Saul Daniels

*Saul Daniels is a former Los Angeles Times and Los Angeles Herald Examiner news editor.

Changing Light Bulbs

SO…I get up this morning at 4:15 to prepare for a day on the job. I commence to doing the S.S.S. routine and get dressed. I go to the sock drawer to grab a pair of trouser socks and continue to dress. Finish, leave and arrive at work.

When I get to my office and turn on the lights, I look down and I’m wearing navy socks with brown slacks! I mention it to my staff that I’m wearing the navy socks because the lighting in my bedroom sucks. It’s those darn energy-saving bulbs!

My announcement caused everyone else to take a look at their feet as well. Turns out, three others were wearing the wrong color socks and they all have the same bulbs as I.

This could make for a major fashion faux pas under other circumstances. I promised myself months ago that I would go back to using the old-fashioned bulbs, as this is not the first time this has happened.

Guess it’s time to make good on that promise.

Wednesday, October 03, 2007

Breaking News

Ed Padgett to run for President of the USA
Speedcat Hollydale mentioned as a possible VP
Kanani was going to but wanted to go shopping instead
Nubia agrees to be Secretary of State

Group will run on a platform of lower taxes and more time off
(welcome to our newest member, Speedcat Hollydale, aka Speedy, who is also #350-ish on Technorati)

Hump Day Media News

Bombing of the Los Angeles Times October 2, 1910

Photo Submitted by Mike Harnish

'Journal Sentinel' Buyout Offer 'Not Very Enticing' - Editor & Publisher
LA Times.com Adds More Blog-Bling - Kate Coe
Limbaugh Broadcaster Comes to Radio Host's Defense - Fox News
All the news that's fit to click - MarketWatch
People are Turning Cameras on Themselves - Los Angeles Times
Crowded House - American Journalism Review
Twelve things journalists can do to save journalism - Howard Owens
Capital- Gazette offers buyouts - Hometown Annapolis
Journal Sentinel Plans Voluntary Buyouts - Associated Press
Will Playoff Run Boost Cubs’ Price Tag? - Chicago Public Radio
Tribune to Announce 3rd Quarter Earnings October 24 - PR News
MediaNews profits up; Singleton gets $1.8M - San Francisco P Press Club

Times Publisher on Zarian Show

Glendale News Press

Los Angeles Times Publisher David Hiller will appear as a guest on Larry Zarian's Forum at 7 p.m. Thursday on Charter Communications Channel 26.

They will discuss changes at the Times' parent company, Tribune, and the effect they will have on the paper.

They will also discuss the importance of smaller newspapers.

The live show's call-in number is (818) 547-3668.

Calling in Sick at the Los Angeles Times

Paul Anders thought he was only suffering from indigestion, but in fact was experiencing a heart attack. Paul is at home recovering and would appreciate a call from his colleagues.

Greg Porchia dislocated his shoulder in a slip and fall accident while working, the company doctor told him he was clear to return to work, even though he could not lift his arm. Greg is under going physical therapy for his injury, and should return to work within a few weeks.

Laura Molina from the Olympic Plate making Department has had shoulder surgery and is at home recovering. Laura is another long term Los Angeles Times employee and is missed by her colleagues

Thank You John Walker

Prior to the Union victory at the Los Angeles Times, our press crews were awarded $5.00 discount tickets for lunch at our in-house cafeteria. This practice was stopped either because the union was voted in, or as a way to trim costs, I’m not certain of the reason it was halted? Last Friday my crew was awarded meal tickets, which caused many of our colleagues to ask why we were singled out, and not them?

Anyway, not wanting to be ungrateful, I would like to thank John Walker for granting the meal tickets to my crew.

MUZZLED BY MOVEON - New York Post

Take a look at what Michelle Malkin wrote in the New York Post about our MoveOn story last week, not bad for the pressman blogger and staff. To date $152.00 has been raised for NATIONAL MILITARY FAMILY ASSOCIATION, thank you everyone for the support.

From the New York Post:

October 3, 2007

MOVEON.ORG, the left- wing extremists who bashed the commander of American forces in Iraq as a traitor, should get out of the political kitchen. The George Soros-funded hitmen can't stand even a bit of heat from Mom-and-Pop retailers who tried selling T-shirts and mugs on the Internet critical of the "General Betray Us" smear ads against Gen. David Petraeus.

I heard from one of the independent T-shirt sellers targeted by MoveOn last week. The seller is a lifelong Democrat and member of the military. Incensed by the attack on Gen. Petraeus, the retailer opened up a shop at online store CafePress. The homemade designs at the PoliStew Cafe (cafepress.com/polistew) were stark and simple: "Move Away from Move On! "MoveOn.org NoFriend to Dems," and "General Petraeus has done more for this country than Move- On.org."
For daring to raise a voice and raise some money for the troops (all proceeds from the sale of his items go to the National Military Family Association charity), this T-shirt seller earned the wrath of MoveOn's lawyers. MoveOn chief operating officer Carrie Olson brought down the sledgehammer. She sent a cease-and-desist letter to CafePress demanding that PoliStew Cafe's items and other anti-MoveOn merchandise be removed from the store.

[CUT]

Edward Padgett, a Los Angeles blogger who spread the word about MoveOn's attempt to silence critics, laments: "For several years I have found MoveOn to be an inspirational anti-war group, but the past few weeks they have been an embarrassment to all Americans with their attacks upon President Bush and General Petraeus. I subscribe to the MoveOn newsletter, and even considered hosting an anti-war rally in San Dimas, but now I want no part of this radical group and will remove my name from their newsletter subscription . . . I guess to MoveOn, the First Amendment is only for the rich."

To jump to the complete article click here or on the title.

Tuesday, October 02, 2007

Writers in Residence Event Long Beach Oct 13t/ 27th

Writers in Residence Brings Scribes Out Into The Open

Long Beach bookstore, Open, sponsors October Is Arts Month Event

LONG BEACH, Calif., Sept. 23, 2007 – Writers in Residence moves the
solitary art of writing into the public eye at Open, an independent bookstore in
mid-town Long Beach, during the city’s arts month.

Saturday, October 13 and 27, from noon to 8 p.m., four local writers will work on their current projects in the bookstore, while interacting with customers through impromptu readings and sudden fiction, as well as discussions on the art and craft of writing.

The four writers bring different interests, experiences and techniques to

Writers in Residence:

Glen Golightly, the founder of Writers in Residence, is a former journalist
who writes feature film scripts and novels. He is currently finishing a
screenplay about the Vietnam War.
Lori Kozlowski is an author, a published poet and a journalist. Her first
book is about the mob in Las Vegas.
Rachel Levin writes, edits and teaches in Los Angeles. Her first book is a
memoir about her experiences as a white, Jewish girl from the suburbs
who fell in love with hip-hop.
Jethro Nededog, a short story writer and journalist, is working on his first
novel. His screenplay, “Drag” won first place at the 2006 Indie Gathering

Film Festival.
What: Writers In Residence, an interactive literary event
Where: Open, 2226. E. 4th St. Long Beach, CA 90814 - (562) 499-OPEN
When: Saturday, October 13 and 27
Time: 12 p.m. to 8 p.m.
Cost: Free
###

Contacts:
Sé Reed
562-499-OPEN
open@accessopen.com
www.accessopen.com

Glen Golightly
714-654-4495
info@glengolightly.com
www.glengolightly.com/

Newspaper Width Reduction

Aaron Johnson’s take on newspaper width reduction is funny, yet true, as he sees it. And I thought our readers might enjoy Aaron’s wit as much as I have. Aaron creates the comic strip What the Duck, which has been syndicated by Universal Press Syndicate, and will begin appearing in newspapers across the country soon.

What the Duck has been reproduced with Mr. Johnson’s permission, if you would like to use his work, please contact the artist first.

Tuesday Morning Media Links

Paul and Raul

Tribune Company gets Tax Refund - Reuters
30 Days, 30 Tips... Will We Make A Difference? - Brian Humphrey
Tribune deal just one of several that may unravel - Reuters
Denver NA revenue falls nearly 8% - Rocky Mountain News
Tribune gets a $344-million refund - Los Angeles Times
Redeye in Los Angeles? - Chicago Reader
Sweatin' Bullets: Oink - David Markland
O'Shea Reforms At LAT: Will They Be Good Or Not? - Ken Reich
Wall Street applauds Belo's split - Dallas Morning News
Journalists Share Front Page - Orlando Sentinel
New Hampshire Daily Switching to Morning Delivery - E&P

Monday, October 01, 2007

Clarence Darrow and the Bombing of the L.A. Times

97 years ago today.

From the Los Angeles Fire Department Historical Archive...

From 1886 to 1917, Harrison Gray Otis was the owner and publisher of the Los Angeles Times. During that time the newspaper pursued a strong conservative viewpoint, and was militantly anti-union in its editorials and in its relationship with employees.

On October 1, 1910, in the middle of a strike called to unionize the metal trades of the city, the Times building was dynamited. The south wall facing Broadway Street collapsed, causing the second floor to also collapse under the weight of its machines onto the first floor. The first floor then collapsed into the basement, destroying the heating plant and gas mains. The building, with many of its workers trapped inside, was soon an inferno. There was a loss of life of at least 20, and about the same number were injured, some of them permanently.

Continue reading Brian Humphrey by following link below.

Clarence Darrow and the Bombing of the L.A. Times

Move On's Fragile History as Do Gooders

Been Here, Done That: Carrie's Prior Slap Down
or How Jefferson Airplane Got Toasted By Wes, Joan, & Carrie

By Polly Stew with help from Speedy The Chef and Ned, The Guy On The Stool

It's true. No newspaper has covered this. In the LA Times, it's only gotten into the blog. Why? The only other person to give any space to this at all is Michelle Malkin. Just think. The hilarious story of the year everyone else --including the pundits have missed it. I guess this means she's the smartest.

It's been two weeks since MoveOn COO Carrie Olson strong armed shopkeepers at CafePress, citing trademark violation. These legal tussles are something Carrie Olson and her cohorts Wes Boyd and Joan Blades, who founded MoveOn, have played before. Prior to founding MoveOn, they'd been taken to court over a genuine trademark infringement themselves. As much as you'd like to think that Berkleyites are organic crunchers who bake bread, they're not.

They're millionaires, and they have their fingers in everything from Berkeley city council, the preservation committee, to starting a group for moms who think just like them. George Soros aside, these folks have plenty of money of their own, they made it when they were still young and have very little in common with the rank and trade, bible-thumping Democrats a lot of us grew up with.

They made their fortune with a company called Berkeley Systems, developing among other things, a screen saver with "flying toasters." These were winged toasters flying through the air on your computer in the late 1980's and 90's made by Berkeley Systems. Remember it? Unless you weren't born, or you were completely oblivious, there's no way you could not have seen this iconic image. Just look at them here. Look familiar? Well, maybe it ought to, if you followed music in the 70's.

In 1973, Jefferson Airplane released an album with... you guessed it, winged flying toasters.

It's such a zany idea. I mean, who would think of such a thing? It's very likely it was a popular LP in the grimy Berkeley apartments along with the smell of patchouli and Herbal Essence. Ned says something else, but we can't print that here.

By 1994, Berkeley Systems was big business. Jefferson Airplane sued Olson and her cohorts for copying their iconic image. Read about it here. Berkeley System claimed it had grown organically from the brain of one of their engineers named, Jack. Yeah, right, and pigs fly, too.

However, Jefferson Airplane LOST in court. The reason? JA had failed to register their trademark in 1973. (Well, it was a rock band you know. Who thinks of trademarks when you've got groupies?). Olson and fellow toaster banditos, Boyd and Blades, got off scott-free. Wade Boyd claimed to never have seen a flying toaster before they released their product. Either they've proven that there's no such thing as the subconscious, which liberals rely on, or this probably made them the squarest nerds in Berkeley. Speedy wonders why they didn't become Republicans, if this was the case.

Still, one can't help but notice the similarity between the two designs, hard to believe that they weren't in fact overgrown toaster hijackers. It would appear that there's been some unethical behavior here, and though only they know the truth, someone was angry enough to write several entries about it in wikipedia. It's the same childish mentality that created the Petraeus ad. Nonetheless, way back when, perhaps Olson learned a quick lesson. Slap this trademark schtick on a t-shirt and mug shopkeeper who doesn't have an intellectual rights attorney and you'll get your way.

She got away with it. Perhaps wisely, Cafe Press weighed the risk of taking on this alleged toaster burglars in court... even though they disagreed heartily with them. But boy, was she wrong.

From Jon Healy's article in the LA Times, which he only wrote after conferring with several trademark attorneys:

"Trademark law doesn't confer monopoly rights over all uses of a registered phrase or symbol, however, and it wasn't created simply to protect the trademark owner's interests. Instead, it's designed to protect consumers against being misled or confused about brands. The courts have repeatedly ruled in favor of parodies and critiques; that's why www.famousbrandnamesucks.com doesn't violate famousbrandname's trademark. And most, if not all, of the items targeted by MoveOn were clearly designed to razz it, not to trick buyers into thinking they were the group's products."

Olson, Boyd and Blades are no different than any other rich business titans used to getting their way. Even if it means quashing the First Amendment to anyone who disagrees with them.

To buy more, go to PoliStew Cafe Store . All proceeds benefit the National Military Family Association, Inc.

Message From Jim O"Shea - Editor LAT

To the staff:

In July, the Reinvent committee, a group of Times employees representing a cross-section of the newspaper, issued its report on ways to improve the Los Angeles Times. The report gave 48 specific recommendations ranging from improving local coverage to closer collaboration with the online news site. I've decided to more forward on about two thirds of the committee's recommendations, some of which are already under way and some of which will require further study. The committee's recommendations will be dealt with in three phases.

Phase One: The Public's Right to Know.

Traditionally journalists have interpreted the public's right to know as a key element of the newspaper's mission to shine a light on the operations of government and society. In recent years, an impressive body of evidence is building that it's in our interest to let the public know more about us, how we operate, how our decisions are made and by whom. I strongly believe that the perceptions of media bias and arrogance are directly tied to our insular culture. So we are starting to implement several of the recommendations to help us become more open and communicate better with our readers. We will soon launch a Reader's Representative page on latimes.com that will feature information useful to our readers. It will include a blog moderated by Jamie Gold and Kent Zelas that will answer reader questions and engage reporters and editors in dealing with their queries and observations. We will also update the staff lists online to include everyone's email address, office phone number and, ultimately, biographical information. We will improve the online navigation to help readers pass along news tips. Janet Clayton has agreed to stay on in a consulting role to help me develop better outreach to the community.

I've also decided to move ahead to improve beat coverage and work better with the online staff. Soon we will place all auto coverage under one department, Business. Highway 1, which is now in Features, will move to Business. The idea is to consolidate coverage that is highly relevant to California readers under one editor and develop an integrated print-web model that can be applied to other subjects and beats. We are working on a proposal for a new auto section and site that will improve our coverage and give the ad department a platform to reverse the decline in automobile advertising revenue.

Phase Two: Readership Issues.

The debate over long versus short stories has been around as long as I've been a journalist. So I will settle the debate once and for all: Short is better. That doesn't mean we won't run long stories. Tom Curwen's piece on the man who was mauled by a grizzly was long and excellent. As a reader, I couldn't put it down. But in too many other stories, we are not as disciplined as we should be. If we focus on becoming better writers and editors, our stories will be better, shorter and more inviting to readers. Hence Phase 2 of the report's recommendations -- the ones designed to make our stories more readable and accessible -- will be a phase that never ends. We've already started on the series of Newsroom U classes on graphics for print and online. These sessions are designed to improve our storytelling and provide readers with points of action. Other sessions will deal with updated and detailed profiles of our print and online readers and photography for both mediums and video. You will be hearing more about these staff development opportunities in October and November. The classes have one thing in common: They are designed to help us help readers navigate the paper and select and prioritize what they want to read from all of our great content.

Phase Three: The Big Ones.

A couple of the recommendations involve significant change that we will make or study over the coming months. A major change that I've already made is the consolidation of all projects under one editor, Marc Duvoisin. From now on, any story that requires a full page jump is a project. We also will be more disciplined about the projects we undertake. Project reporting is vital to the future of the paper. The consolidation of this kind of work under Marc will put the full force and resources of the Los Angeles Times behind our signature stories. In return, reporters and editors will be challenged to earn that signature.

The Reinvent report also recommended revitalizing local coverage. We will do that starting immediately with our new metro editor David Lauter. John Arthur will take the lead in working with David to restructure our coverage of Southern California. The report recommended changes in the pacing and content of the A-section, too. We will examine this issue in the coming weeks with input from all interested parties.

I am also appointing Russ Stanton to head a group to look at the Monday paper, our weakest circulation day. The Monday problem is chronic and we simply must fix it. It will require creativity, patience and teamwork. You can expect to hear progress on this and our local initiatives later this year and early in 2008.

Finally, I've asked Sean Reily to explore numerous initiatives to raise the newsroom's profile on local radio and television and to come up with newsroom ideas to appropriately generate revenue. He has had meetings with radio and television representatives to gauge their interest and see if there are mutually beneficial steps toward Times-branded programming. We will keep you posted on those efforts.

As we move into these three phases of improving the newspaper, I will amend the evaluation process to reflect the need for everyone to become more engaged in contributing to latimes.com. I will share details of these plans once they have been finalized.

Within a few weeks, I will have been editor of the Times for one year. This has been a challenging year but also an extremely rewarding one. My one regret is I haven't become better acquainted with all of you, a deficit that I intend to remedy. I also intend to become more involved in our news coverage and projects. I am looking forward to that.

The next year will be a challenging one with a change of ownership. I know it is tempting to sit back and wait to see how this all plays out. That would be a mistake. I intend to move forward now and accelerate some of the changes that our Spring Street and Reinvent reports recommended. The staff members who created these reports did great work. These are steps that you -- the staff -- recommended. And now we are going to embark on the course you set. The challenges outlined in these reports will create a new future, one that will be better than the troubled years we've all experienced. I remain determined to create growth. I refuse to accept the conventional wisdom that newspapers and the Los Angeles Times in particular are doomed. We have more talent, creativity and potential energy in this building and in our bureaus around the nation and world than any other media organization.. Everyday we produce something vital to our city, region, state, nation and world -- excellent news coverage, the key to our future.

Thanks so much,

Jim

James O'Shea
Editor
Los Angeles Times

SOURCE: LAObserved

Yolanda Malone Blogs About Her Son Jamal

As a scanned the Los Angeles Times California section Friday night I came across a story by Tony Barboza that caught my attention. Jamal Malone (pictured) was severely beaten last week, and is in grave condition at Mission Hospital in Mission Viejo, battling bleeding and swelling of the brain.

What caught my attention to this story was the fact that Jamal’s mother, Yolanda Malone is blogging about her son’s condition several times per day, as I did when I learned of my son Bryan’s death almost two months ago.

Drop in and send some love with the guestbook Ms. Malone has set up, and keep Jamal in your prayers.