A bill that should alarm proponents of open government received its first reading in the Missouri House of Representatives today.
HB 379, filed by 120th District Rep. Shannon Cooper, R-Columbia, creates exceptions to Missouri's Sunshine Law. Under Cooper's bill, requests for documents from any public governmental body can be turned down if the requests are termed to be "vexatious."
The bill defines a "vexatious request" as any request for documents which is "frivolous, repetitive, or unreasonable and made for the primary purpose of harassing a public governmental body or any member of a public governmental body."
The bill also says that if a request is found to be vexatious, "the court may award costs and reasonable attorney fees to the prevailing party."
Undoubtedly, there are frivolous (maybe even vexatious) requests for documents, but that is the price we pay for living in a free society. Keeping our records open ensures that our public officials are doing what they are supposed to be doing. This law could put a chilling effect on open government. Any group trying to uncover wrongdoing can be silenced by the people committing the wrongdoing. The old boys network can make sure that no one can break their stranglehold on City Hall or the County Courthouse or the local board of education.
Sunshine laws are part of what makes America great. You don't have to be a policeman or an elected official to request public records. All you have to do is be a citizen.
***
The connection between O'Sullivan Industries and Newell Rubbermaid grew even stronger today with the announcement that William J. Denton, former president of Rubbermaid Home Products, has been named to the O'Sullivan Board of Directors. Denton worked for Rubbermaid for 25 years.
More recently, Denton served as president and CEO of Fiskar Brands, Inc., from August 2000 to December 2004. Denton will serve as a member of the Compensation Committee, determining the pay and contracts of O'Sullivan's top officials.
Those top officials include three who formerly worked at Newell Rubbermaid, including million-dollar CEO Bob Parker, Rick Walters and Michael Orr.
The company also named Keith E. Alessi to the board and designated him as chairman of the Audit Committee.
The two men will serve on the boards of directors of O'Sullivan Industries Holdings, Inc., O'Sullivan Industries, Inc., and O'Sullivan Industries- Virginia, Inc, according to a company press release filed with the federal Securities and Exchange Commission.
***
Carthage's Fortune 500 company, Leggett & Platt, reported record fourth quarter sales today. According to documents filed with SEC, Leggett had fourth quarter sales of $1.28 billion, a 12 percent increase from the previous year.
Full year revenues were a record $5.09 billion, up 16 percent from 2003.
Earnings were 33 cents per diluted share for the fourth quarter, a 10 percent gain over last year.
In a news release issued today, Felix E. Wright, Leggett chairman and CEO, said, "2004 was a very good year for Leggett's investors. Our stock price rose 31 percent during the year and traded at an all-time high of $30.68 in December. Sales exceeded our prior record by 16 percent and pre share earnings improved substantially." Wright said Leggett was one of only two Fortune 500 companies to have increased dividends for at least 33 consecutive years at a compound annual rate of over 14 percent.
***
Reporters and news personnel are not thrilled at KODE and KSNF are not thrilled with the way their news operations have been compromised by owner Nexstar Broadcasting since its war with Cable One and Cox Communications heated up late last year.
The Turner Report has noted how the station's news personnel were forced to air a bogus protest against Cable One, which was actually staged by Echostar (Dish Network) as one of a series of similar protests in cities across the U. S., including Seattle and Oklahoma City.
News personnel were also required to read what amounted to advertising for the satellite company and slanted its coverage of the battle with Cable One over payment for airing Nexstar programs.
The KODE and KSNF websites have had an open letter from Nexstar to Cable One customers as their lead news story for the past month, moving other, more important local stories down the list. Of course, the local stations do not decide the placement of stories on their websites. All stories are sent to Nexstar's corporate headquarters where they are then placed on the individual stations' websites.
I have received communications from personnel at both stations who are not pleased that Nexstar officials seemingly have no interest in maintaining the credibility of the local news departments and appear to have no ethical guidelines other than do what is necessary to line their pockets and the pockets of their stockholders.
***
Tonight at midnight, barring any last-minute settlement or reprieve, KODE and KSNF will no longer be carried by the Cox Communications franchises in Lamar and Carthage. In today's Carthage Press, lifestyles editor Kaylea Hutson quotes Tim Tippitt, vice president for Cox Communications' public affairs, as saying his company is trying to negotiate with Nexstar. "But we can't negotiate with an empty chair."
Tippitt told The Press Nexstar is asking Cox to pay nearly half a million over a one-year period to carry KODE, KSNF, and another Nexstar station in Bossier/Minden, La., and Magnolia, Ark., area.
Plans have been made to add HBO Family and ESPN News to Cox in place of KSNF and KODE, Cox officials told The Press.
***
It must be a matter of perception.
In his most recent column for his constituents, State Representative Kevin Wilson, R-Neosho, saw a different State of the State speech than the one I watched on KOZJ. Wilson wrote, "The governor gave a rousing speech punctuated by a multitude of standing ovations." I watched as Blunt paused and waited, sometimes uncomfortably for a few seconds to get these "spontaneous" standing ovations started.
Even scarier, Wilson writes that he and the governor are cut from the same cloth. "I was especially pleased to hear his proposals for education and for streamlining state government. He is thinking outside the box that we had put around several issues and is challenging those of us in government to come up with new ideas and better ways to deliver services. In education, he talked about looking at different ways to fund education. I have been proposing that for the last two years so I was glad to hear that he was thinking along the same lines."
Let me get this straight. In a speech in which the state had its first opportunity to hear what the ideas of our new governor, his main idea is that we have to do things differently? We already knew that.
***
State Senator Gary Nodler, R-Joplin, chairman of the Senate's Education Committee, will be interviewed on MSSU's program "Newsmakers" 5:30 p.m Monday, Feb. 7, and 5:30 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 9, on KGCS-TV, 5:30 a.m. Sunday, Feb. 20, on KOAM- TV, and 12:30 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 20, on KOZJ.
***
Cable One will live up to it promise and not raise rates this year.
In a news release issued today, the company said the price freeze will apply to "all residential services encompassing basic cable, digital video recording, digital cable, and high speed Internet.
In the release, Cable One CEO said, "We are pleased to freeze rates in 2005 just as we did in 2003."
***
The purchase of the Pulitzer chain by Lee Enterprises Sunday gives Lee the fourth largest number of daily newspapers, 58, in the United States behind three companies with newspapers in this area.
The top company, with 101 is Gannett, owner of the Springfield News-Leader and a loser in the Pulitzer sweepstakes. Coming in second with 96 newspapers is Community Newspapers Holdings, Inc., owner of The Joplin Globe. Liberty Group Publishing, owner of The Carthage Press and The Neosho Daily News, owns 66 daily newspapers.
***
While Enesco, owner of the Precious Moments line of collectibles is working on a long-term credit agreement, it entered into a temporary one today, according to an SEC filing. The company entered into an agreement with Fleet National Bank and LaSalle Bank to commit $101 million worth of credit.
***
A nurse who served as ICU and emergency room director at Freeman Neosho is suing the hospital for wrongful dismissal. In the suit, which was filed today in U. S. District Court for the Western District of Missouri, Kelli Whitehead says she was fired due a seizure disorder from which she suffers.
Ms. Whitehead had worked for Freeman for more than 14 years before she was fired on July 16, 2004, according to the petition. She says Freeman officials made "no good faith effort to assist (her) to determine what reasonable accommodations could be made to keep her employed" and "failed to assist her in finding other job openings within (their) hospitals."
She also charges hospital officials with violating the Family Medical Leave Act.
Ms. Whitehead is asking for a permanent injunction against the hospital, barring these alleged illegal actions and is asking to be awarded compensatory and punitive damages.
Ms. Whitehead is acting as her own lawyer.
Monday, January 31, 2005
Sunday, January 30, 2005
Lee Enterprises has bought Pulitzer, Inc., the company that owns the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. The news will be featured in the Monday edition of the Post-Dispatch.
The sale will prevent Gannett, owner of the Springfield News-Leader from having control of two of the three biggest newspapers in Missouri.
Lee is based in Davenport, Iowa, and owns a number of small Midwestern dailies. The cost of the deal was reportedly $1.46 billion.
***
The Joplin Globe will report in its Monday edition that Nexstar Broadcasting and Cox Communications have made no movement to bridge the gap between the two companies and Nexstar will pull KODE and KSNF off the Cox franchises in Lamar and Carthage as of midnight today.
The sale will prevent Gannett, owner of the Springfield News-Leader from having control of two of the three biggest newspapers in Missouri.
Lee is based in Davenport, Iowa, and owns a number of small Midwestern dailies. The cost of the deal was reportedly $1.46 billion.
***
The Joplin Globe will report in its Monday edition that Nexstar Broadcasting and Cox Communications have made no movement to bridge the gap between the two companies and Nexstar will pull KODE and KSNF off the Cox franchises in Lamar and Carthage as of midnight today.
Workers at the former Sunbeam plant in Neosho can be cautiously optimistic following a few statements made in Wichita last week by the CEO of the plant's new owner, Jarden.
Jarden completed its purchase of American Household, parent company of Sunbeam and Coleman last week. During a visit to the Coleman plant in Wichita, CEO Martin Franklin said he saw no reasons for layoffs at the Wichita plant or for further outsourcing of jobs to China. According to an article in The Wichita Eagle, Franklin said the previous owner had done enough of that.
"All of the changes that need to be made have been made," the article quoted Franklin as saying. "Now we'll be focusing on trying to be as efficient as possible."
Franklin also indicated he is not afraid to put money into the Coleman plant, the Eagle article indicated. "The checkbook is open," he said.
Though no indication has been given of what will happen at the Neosho plant, signs seem positive so far. However, Franklin did say the first 180 days at the Wichita Coleman plant will be spent "fine-tuning the company's operations to cut costs in order to raise operating profit margins." Similar words have come back to haunt the employees at many companies.
Sunbeam has gone through much upheaval in the past decade, including the hiring and firing of controversial CEO Al "Chainsaw" Dunlap and the bankruptcy that he led the company toward during his stormy tenure.
***
An internet source confirms what has been written during the past several days in The Turner Report. The Deal.com, a site that specializes in business sale and merger information, says that the proposed sale of Liberty Group Publishing, owner of the Neosho Daily News, The Carthage Press, The Neosho Post, and The Big Nickel, and 300 other publications across the United States, is off.
On Jan. 18, The Turner Report, relying on initially confidential letters that were later filed with the federal Securities and Exchange Commission, reported that Liberty had made an arrangement with Wells Fargo for $330 million worth of loans. The loan will enable the company, which is heavily in debt to put off its day of financial reckoning for another seven years. The Deal said its information came from "sources involved in the process."
***
When a large amount of money was poured into the financially-troubled Boys and Girls Club of Joplin Friday, KOAM had its cameras there, but KODE and KSNF were nowhere in sight.
The KOAM report did not mention it, but Cable One has recently been putting a portion of its signup money into the Boys and Girls Club, and of course, that company is on the outs with Nexstar Broadcasting, owner of KSNF and de facto owner of KODE. You don't supposed that has anything to do with the the two stations' absence, do you?
No, of course not. Through all of this controversy, the Nexstar stations have done nothing to let us think they are less than professional.
***
All right, now that I've stopped laughing, time for a little personal news. One hundred dollars will be donated to the South Middle School Band Monday thanks to the performance of the South faculty at the second annual Joplin High School Band Trivia Night Friday.
The South team, which consisted of counselor Karensue Hensley, special education teacher Caryn Deckard, librarian Bonnie Turner, seventh grade social studies teacher Jason Weaver, eighth grade social studies teacher Rocky Biggers, and eighth grade communication arts teacher Randy Turner took first place out of 38 teams, correctly answering 73 percent of the trivia questions. The winning team won $100 in the event, which was emceed by KSNF weatherman Gary Bandy.
It's sad when you know that it was not Peter Falk who was originally sought to play Columbo, but Bing Crosby. The Trivia Night was a fun activity and all of the proceeds went to the JHS band. Other teams came from the Joplin schools, MSSU, and various businesses.
***
The arrest of a Neosho man as a result of another of Diamond police officer Internet stings unfortunately indicates that not all of the people who prey on our young come from out of state. Of course, the charges against Gary Reed Blankenship, 55, Neosho, are just that, charges.
The Sunday Neosho Daily News article on the arrest reminded me of just how often the word allegedly is misused. When someone is charged with a crime, that is the allegation. Newspaper reporters, especially inexperienced ones, but sometimes veterans, as well, have a tendency to think that the word "allegedly" is a cureall for all ills.
One example: "Also during those chats, Blankenship allegedly revealed he lived in Neosho, the assistant prosecutor said. I highly doubt that the assistant prosecutor told The Neosho Daily News that Blankenship allegedly revealed that information. He most likely said Blankenship revealed the information.
Or "On Wednesday, Blankenship allegedly told the girl he was in Lamar, would be driving to Neosho soon and would be coming to Diamond. He agreed to meet the girl at a Diamond convenience store." An easier way to handle that would be to say the same sentence, without the word allegedly, but attributing that information to the assistant prosecutor. After all, he is the one making the allegation.
The Daily then did a fine job of filling in on the background on what had happened with the other people who fell for Murray's scams.
***
State Representative Kevin Wilson, R-Neosho, has withdrawn a bill that would allow the courts to impound vehicles driven by people convicted of driving while intoxicated or excessive blood alcohol content for one year. Wilson indicated he plans to refile the bill later during this session.
***
State Senator Gary Nodler, R-Joplin, will begin tearing into the meat of the education bills when his Education Committee meets 2 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 1.
Among the bills scheduled to be taken up by the committee:
SB 102- Allows certain school districts to be reimbursed fully for costs associated with offering special educational services.
SB 20- Creates a tax credit for teachers' out-of-pocket expenses.
SB 112- Formulates a procedure for recalling school board members.
***
Senators will begin discussing a bill that could lesson the strain during future occurrences of the tax increment financing situation at the old K-Mart building which will take money from the Joplin R-8 School District. SB 80, which would dedicate at least 10 percent of future TIF increments to schools affected by the TIF, will be discussed during a 3 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 2, meeting of the Senate Economic Development, Tourism and Local Government Committee in the Senate Lounge.
Jarden completed its purchase of American Household, parent company of Sunbeam and Coleman last week. During a visit to the Coleman plant in Wichita, CEO Martin Franklin said he saw no reasons for layoffs at the Wichita plant or for further outsourcing of jobs to China. According to an article in The Wichita Eagle, Franklin said the previous owner had done enough of that.
"All of the changes that need to be made have been made," the article quoted Franklin as saying. "Now we'll be focusing on trying to be as efficient as possible."
Franklin also indicated he is not afraid to put money into the Coleman plant, the Eagle article indicated. "The checkbook is open," he said.
Though no indication has been given of what will happen at the Neosho plant, signs seem positive so far. However, Franklin did say the first 180 days at the Wichita Coleman plant will be spent "fine-tuning the company's operations to cut costs in order to raise operating profit margins." Similar words have come back to haunt the employees at many companies.
Sunbeam has gone through much upheaval in the past decade, including the hiring and firing of controversial CEO Al "Chainsaw" Dunlap and the bankruptcy that he led the company toward during his stormy tenure.
***
An internet source confirms what has been written during the past several days in The Turner Report. The Deal.com, a site that specializes in business sale and merger information, says that the proposed sale of Liberty Group Publishing, owner of the Neosho Daily News, The Carthage Press, The Neosho Post, and The Big Nickel, and 300 other publications across the United States, is off.
On Jan. 18, The Turner Report, relying on initially confidential letters that were later filed with the federal Securities and Exchange Commission, reported that Liberty had made an arrangement with Wells Fargo for $330 million worth of loans. The loan will enable the company, which is heavily in debt to put off its day of financial reckoning for another seven years. The Deal said its information came from "sources involved in the process."
***
When a large amount of money was poured into the financially-troubled Boys and Girls Club of Joplin Friday, KOAM had its cameras there, but KODE and KSNF were nowhere in sight.
The KOAM report did not mention it, but Cable One has recently been putting a portion of its signup money into the Boys and Girls Club, and of course, that company is on the outs with Nexstar Broadcasting, owner of KSNF and de facto owner of KODE. You don't supposed that has anything to do with the the two stations' absence, do you?
No, of course not. Through all of this controversy, the Nexstar stations have done nothing to let us think they are less than professional.
***
All right, now that I've stopped laughing, time for a little personal news. One hundred dollars will be donated to the South Middle School Band Monday thanks to the performance of the South faculty at the second annual Joplin High School Band Trivia Night Friday.
The South team, which consisted of counselor Karensue Hensley, special education teacher Caryn Deckard, librarian Bonnie Turner, seventh grade social studies teacher Jason Weaver, eighth grade social studies teacher Rocky Biggers, and eighth grade communication arts teacher Randy Turner took first place out of 38 teams, correctly answering 73 percent of the trivia questions. The winning team won $100 in the event, which was emceed by KSNF weatherman Gary Bandy.
It's sad when you know that it was not Peter Falk who was originally sought to play Columbo, but Bing Crosby. The Trivia Night was a fun activity and all of the proceeds went to the JHS band. Other teams came from the Joplin schools, MSSU, and various businesses.
***
The arrest of a Neosho man as a result of another of Diamond police officer Internet stings unfortunately indicates that not all of the people who prey on our young come from out of state. Of course, the charges against Gary Reed Blankenship, 55, Neosho, are just that, charges.
The Sunday Neosho Daily News article on the arrest reminded me of just how often the word allegedly is misused. When someone is charged with a crime, that is the allegation. Newspaper reporters, especially inexperienced ones, but sometimes veterans, as well, have a tendency to think that the word "allegedly" is a cureall for all ills.
One example: "Also during those chats, Blankenship allegedly revealed he lived in Neosho, the assistant prosecutor said. I highly doubt that the assistant prosecutor told The Neosho Daily News that Blankenship allegedly revealed that information. He most likely said Blankenship revealed the information.
Or "On Wednesday, Blankenship allegedly told the girl he was in Lamar, would be driving to Neosho soon and would be coming to Diamond. He agreed to meet the girl at a Diamond convenience store." An easier way to handle that would be to say the same sentence, without the word allegedly, but attributing that information to the assistant prosecutor. After all, he is the one making the allegation.
The Daily then did a fine job of filling in on the background on what had happened with the other people who fell for Murray's scams.
***
State Representative Kevin Wilson, R-Neosho, has withdrawn a bill that would allow the courts to impound vehicles driven by people convicted of driving while intoxicated or excessive blood alcohol content for one year. Wilson indicated he plans to refile the bill later during this session.
***
State Senator Gary Nodler, R-Joplin, will begin tearing into the meat of the education bills when his Education Committee meets 2 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 1.
Among the bills scheduled to be taken up by the committee:
SB 102- Allows certain school districts to be reimbursed fully for costs associated with offering special educational services.
SB 20- Creates a tax credit for teachers' out-of-pocket expenses.
SB 112- Formulates a procedure for recalling school board members.
***
Senators will begin discussing a bill that could lesson the strain during future occurrences of the tax increment financing situation at the old K-Mart building which will take money from the Joplin R-8 School District. SB 80, which would dedicate at least 10 percent of future TIF increments to schools affected by the TIF, will be discussed during a 3 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 2, meeting of the Senate Economic Development, Tourism and Local Government Committee in the Senate Lounge.
Saturday, January 29, 2005
Newton County prosecutors have told the family of James Dodson, Neosho, and his granddaughter, Jessica Mann, who were killed July 31, that the drunk driver who killed them may receive as little as 18 months in prison.
Missouri Southern State University's newspaper The Chart broke that story this week as it covered the testimony presented by Mike and Amy Mann at a Missouri State Senate hearing for a bill sponsored by Senator Gary Nodler, Joplin, which would increase the penalty of involuntary manslaughter when drunk driving is involved.
Currently, the maximum sentence that can be given to Edward Meerwald, 50, Noel, if he is convicted, is seven years in prison. Nodler's bill would make the crime a Class A felony if the driver has a blood alcohol content of 0.12, one-and-one-half times the legal limit.
***
Television stations will be allowed to cover Meerwald's hearings and his Feb. 23 trial, according to a decision issued by Judge Joe Schoeberl Friday. Meerwald's attorneys had filed a motion asking that the electronic media be excluded.
Meerwald's attorney did win one battle. His client will be allowed to dress in street clothes in any hearing prior to the trial, rather than in the orange county jumpsuit.
***
Changes in management and direction have greatly improved the prospects of O'Sullivan Industries.
That was the message million-dollar CEO Bob Parker hit hard in a news release covering the company's performance during the second fiscal quarter, which ended Dec. 31.
In the news release, a copy of which was filed with the federal Securities and Exchange Commission, Parker said, "Organizational changes and a focused strategic plan are beginning to manifest themselves in the marketplace." Hmm, well, you can't beat that.
Net sales of $66.2 million were reported for the second quarter, up 1.5 percent from the first. That's definitely good news.
The news release notes that cash flow for the second quarter was $6.9 million, compared to a negative $1.2 million in the first quarter. Things are sounding better all the time.
Rick Walters, executive vice president and CFO, (and another member, along with Parker and Michael Orr, of the Newell Rubbermaid expatriates who run O'Sullivan) said, "By focusing on working capital improvements, especially on inventory efficiency and production control, we were able to generate a quarterly positive cash flow of $6.9 million while meeting all our current interest obligations. Continuing to emphasize balance sheet improvements and a company-wide focus on cash management should provide adequate funds to meet continuing cash needs and give us the financial stability for future growth."
I am sure those positive words give O'Sullivan workers and their families and the city of Lamar a sigh of relief, coming after all of the controversy that has enveloped the company since its board of directors brought in the Atlanta triumvirate and cut its ties with the Lamar people who made the company a furniture giant in the first place.
Unfortunately, that is not all that is included in the news release. It probably would be if there weren't federal requirements that you present a complete picture to potential investors. So after all of the positive statements, buried deep in the news release was a truer picture of the situation facing O'Sullivan Industries.
Despite the removal of those Lamar officials, who the board apparently thought were holding the company back, O'Sullivan had a net loss for the second quarter of $12.1 million, compared to a net loss of $5. 4 million during the previous quarter. Net loss for the first half of fiscal 2005 was $20.6 million compared to $12.7 million the previous year.
The decline, the news release said, "was due primarily to our lower operating income."
The news release adds, "As expected, the focused extension on reducing working capital, especially inventory levels, resulted in an operating loss of $3.2 million for fiscal 2005's second quarter"
No need to worry, however. "This gross profit impact was in-line with company plans and reflects the successful execution of an inventory reduction of almost $10 million in the quarter."
I can't wait to read what company officials have to say when O'Sullivan actually begins making money...if that happens.
And that may be awhile, according to Bob Parker's comments at the end of the news release. Things aren't going to get better anytime soon, he indicates, but don't worry, that's all part of the plan. "Financial performance for the balance of fiscal '05 will continue to be a challenge compared to the prior year results. We anticipate a reduction of net sales in the mid single-digit range and lower earnings due to the impact of high material costs, unfavorable manufacturing absorption as we reduce inventory, and a higher mix of promotionally priced products."
***
Though the point of view from O'Sullivan Industries' new corporate headquarters in Atlanta suburb Roswell are rosy, things had very different feel in Lamar this weekend as today's Joplin Globe reported the arrest of Gary Blankenship, Neosho, an O'Sullivan official, on 10 sex charges in connection with another of Diamond Police officer Jim Murray's internet stings.
Blankenship, 55, faces one count of enticing a child, one count of promoting obscene material to a minor, and eight counts of possession of child pornography, according to the Globe.
***
Editor & Publisher, a newspaper industry magazine, reported this week that the sale of Liberty Group Publishing may be off. In the well-researched article, writer Mark Fitzgerald gives credit to a reporter from Crain's Chicago Business for being the first to report on Liberty's obtaining $330 million of loans from Wells Fargo. Fitzgerald deserves credit for making sure it is known that another reporter first uncovered the information. Unfortunately for him, that information came out in The Turner Report more than a week before Crain's picked up on it. Both of us obtained the information by researching filings with the federal Securities and Exchange Commission. I wrote Mr. Fitzgerald, not because I was upset about that...he had no way of knowing that a Southwest Missouri blogger had first printed that information...but just to let him know that bloggers are out here gathering information and breaking news stories. Mr. Fitzgerald quickly and graciously responded to my message, which again, was not meant as any criticism. His article was well-researched.
***
The Chicago Sun-Times picked up on another item recently featured in Crain's Chicago Business, writing today that Vornado may be ready to make a run at derailing the Sears-K-Mart deal.
The Sun-Times article featured the added information that problems with the stock prices of both Sears and K-Mart may open the door for Vornado.
***
Nexstar Broadcasting COO Duane Lammers continues to win friends and influence people.
Today's Baltimore Sun reports that Nexstar will not allow any of the cable companies that carry his FOX stations to air a high-definition telecast of the Super Bowl.
This would include the newly-christened KSFX, formerly KDEB, Channel 27, in Springfield.
"If they think we're going to give them our channels for free and then they can charge $10 or $15 a month for digital cable, then they can drop dead," the eloquent Lammers told the Sun.
"The issue at heart is that broadcasters are trying to insist that they are compensated for something they get from the government for free," Keith Cordoza, a spokesman for Time Warner Cable, told the Sun.
***
Nexstar and the Dish Network have reached an agreement to bolster the broadcasting company's position in its fight with Cox Communications over carrying Nexstar's stations in Abilene and Sweetwater, Texas. Satellite customers had not received the stations prior to the deal.
The Sky Reporter News, a satellite industry publication, carried that information Friday.
***
A 7 p.m. Monday, Feb. 7, meeting will be held in the Nevada/Vernon County Community Center, to discuss the results of a recently completed petition audit, according to a news release from State Auditor Claire McCaskill.
As reported in the Sept. 8, 2004, Turner Report, the audit has already uncovered criminal activity.
An initial audit report indicated receipts totaling $39,701 were collected between January 2002 and April 2004, but were never deposited. Auditors said "the city does not track payments for various types of tax revenues to ensure all payments are properly received and recorded in the city's accounting records."As a result, cigarette and franchise taxes totaling $24,445 received by check were deposited into the city's bank account but were not recorded in the city's accounting records. These checks were substituted into the city's deposits and recorded cash receipts were not deposited, and (were) apparently misappropriated."An additional $15,256 was apparently stolen from the city's pool and golf course, the audit said.
Missouri Southern State University's newspaper The Chart broke that story this week as it covered the testimony presented by Mike and Amy Mann at a Missouri State Senate hearing for a bill sponsored by Senator Gary Nodler, Joplin, which would increase the penalty of involuntary manslaughter when drunk driving is involved.
Currently, the maximum sentence that can be given to Edward Meerwald, 50, Noel, if he is convicted, is seven years in prison. Nodler's bill would make the crime a Class A felony if the driver has a blood alcohol content of 0.12, one-and-one-half times the legal limit.
***
Television stations will be allowed to cover Meerwald's hearings and his Feb. 23 trial, according to a decision issued by Judge Joe Schoeberl Friday. Meerwald's attorneys had filed a motion asking that the electronic media be excluded.
Meerwald's attorney did win one battle. His client will be allowed to dress in street clothes in any hearing prior to the trial, rather than in the orange county jumpsuit.
***
Changes in management and direction have greatly improved the prospects of O'Sullivan Industries.
That was the message million-dollar CEO Bob Parker hit hard in a news release covering the company's performance during the second fiscal quarter, which ended Dec. 31.
In the news release, a copy of which was filed with the federal Securities and Exchange Commission, Parker said, "Organizational changes and a focused strategic plan are beginning to manifest themselves in the marketplace." Hmm, well, you can't beat that.
Net sales of $66.2 million were reported for the second quarter, up 1.5 percent from the first. That's definitely good news.
The news release notes that cash flow for the second quarter was $6.9 million, compared to a negative $1.2 million in the first quarter. Things are sounding better all the time.
Rick Walters, executive vice president and CFO, (and another member, along with Parker and Michael Orr, of the Newell Rubbermaid expatriates who run O'Sullivan) said, "By focusing on working capital improvements, especially on inventory efficiency and production control, we were able to generate a quarterly positive cash flow of $6.9 million while meeting all our current interest obligations. Continuing to emphasize balance sheet improvements and a company-wide focus on cash management should provide adequate funds to meet continuing cash needs and give us the financial stability for future growth."
I am sure those positive words give O'Sullivan workers and their families and the city of Lamar a sigh of relief, coming after all of the controversy that has enveloped the company since its board of directors brought in the Atlanta triumvirate and cut its ties with the Lamar people who made the company a furniture giant in the first place.
Unfortunately, that is not all that is included in the news release. It probably would be if there weren't federal requirements that you present a complete picture to potential investors. So after all of the positive statements, buried deep in the news release was a truer picture of the situation facing O'Sullivan Industries.
Despite the removal of those Lamar officials, who the board apparently thought were holding the company back, O'Sullivan had a net loss for the second quarter of $12.1 million, compared to a net loss of $5. 4 million during the previous quarter. Net loss for the first half of fiscal 2005 was $20.6 million compared to $12.7 million the previous year.
The decline, the news release said, "was due primarily to our lower operating income."
The news release adds, "As expected, the focused extension on reducing working capital, especially inventory levels, resulted in an operating loss of $3.2 million for fiscal 2005's second quarter"
No need to worry, however. "This gross profit impact was in-line with company plans and reflects the successful execution of an inventory reduction of almost $10 million in the quarter."
I can't wait to read what company officials have to say when O'Sullivan actually begins making money...if that happens.
And that may be awhile, according to Bob Parker's comments at the end of the news release. Things aren't going to get better anytime soon, he indicates, but don't worry, that's all part of the plan. "Financial performance for the balance of fiscal '05 will continue to be a challenge compared to the prior year results. We anticipate a reduction of net sales in the mid single-digit range and lower earnings due to the impact of high material costs, unfavorable manufacturing absorption as we reduce inventory, and a higher mix of promotionally priced products."
***
Though the point of view from O'Sullivan Industries' new corporate headquarters in Atlanta suburb Roswell are rosy, things had very different feel in Lamar this weekend as today's Joplin Globe reported the arrest of Gary Blankenship, Neosho, an O'Sullivan official, on 10 sex charges in connection with another of Diamond Police officer Jim Murray's internet stings.
Blankenship, 55, faces one count of enticing a child, one count of promoting obscene material to a minor, and eight counts of possession of child pornography, according to the Globe.
***
Editor & Publisher, a newspaper industry magazine, reported this week that the sale of Liberty Group Publishing may be off. In the well-researched article, writer Mark Fitzgerald gives credit to a reporter from Crain's Chicago Business for being the first to report on Liberty's obtaining $330 million of loans from Wells Fargo. Fitzgerald deserves credit for making sure it is known that another reporter first uncovered the information. Unfortunately for him, that information came out in The Turner Report more than a week before Crain's picked up on it. Both of us obtained the information by researching filings with the federal Securities and Exchange Commission. I wrote Mr. Fitzgerald, not because I was upset about that...he had no way of knowing that a Southwest Missouri blogger had first printed that information...but just to let him know that bloggers are out here gathering information and breaking news stories. Mr. Fitzgerald quickly and graciously responded to my message, which again, was not meant as any criticism. His article was well-researched.
***
The Chicago Sun-Times picked up on another item recently featured in Crain's Chicago Business, writing today that Vornado may be ready to make a run at derailing the Sears-K-Mart deal.
The Sun-Times article featured the added information that problems with the stock prices of both Sears and K-Mart may open the door for Vornado.
***
Nexstar Broadcasting COO Duane Lammers continues to win friends and influence people.
Today's Baltimore Sun reports that Nexstar will not allow any of the cable companies that carry his FOX stations to air a high-definition telecast of the Super Bowl.
This would include the newly-christened KSFX, formerly KDEB, Channel 27, in Springfield.
"If they think we're going to give them our channels for free and then they can charge $10 or $15 a month for digital cable, then they can drop dead," the eloquent Lammers told the Sun.
"The issue at heart is that broadcasters are trying to insist that they are compensated for something they get from the government for free," Keith Cordoza, a spokesman for Time Warner Cable, told the Sun.
***
Nexstar and the Dish Network have reached an agreement to bolster the broadcasting company's position in its fight with Cox Communications over carrying Nexstar's stations in Abilene and Sweetwater, Texas. Satellite customers had not received the stations prior to the deal.
The Sky Reporter News, a satellite industry publication, carried that information Friday.
***
A 7 p.m. Monday, Feb. 7, meeting will be held in the Nevada/Vernon County Community Center, to discuss the results of a recently completed petition audit, according to a news release from State Auditor Claire McCaskill.
As reported in the Sept. 8, 2004, Turner Report, the audit has already uncovered criminal activity.
An initial audit report indicated receipts totaling $39,701 were collected between January 2002 and April 2004, but were never deposited. Auditors said "the city does not track payments for various types of tax revenues to ensure all payments are properly received and recorded in the city's accounting records."As a result, cigarette and franchise taxes totaling $24,445 received by check were deposited into the city's bank account but were not recorded in the city's accounting records. These checks were substituted into the city's deposits and recorded cash receipts were not deposited, and (were) apparently misappropriated."An additional $15,256 was apparently stolen from the city's pool and golf course, the audit said.
Thursday, January 27, 2005
Liberty Group Publishing appears to be off the auction block.
Newspaper industry sources say that Liberty's $330 million loan commitment from Wells Fargo, reported exclusively last week in The Turner Report, indicate Liberty officials were not thrilled with the offers they received after the first, and so far only, round of bidding ended Oct. 25. Liberty owns The Carthage Press, The Neosho Daily News, The Neosho Post, and the Big Nickel in this area, and more than 300 newspapers nationwide.
Liberty's rush to a sale was due to a whopping debt payment that comes due this summer. The refinancing through Wells Fargo will help delay the company's day of financial reckoning for another seven years.
Liberty earnings totaled $44.3 million in the first nine months of 2004, but those were erased by the interest payments on the company's debt, which increased to $47 million, up from $32 million the previous year.
SEC records indicate Liberty lost $17.8 million over the first nine months of this year, compared to a $10.5 million loss over the same period in 2003.
***
Chicago Business is reporting that Vornado Realty Trust may be getting ready to attempt a takeover of Sears, in an effort to trump the previously announced, but unclosed deal with K-Mart.
The newspaper reports that Vornado filed papers with the SEC indicating it plans to issue as much as $2.5 billion in equity and $5 billion in debt. The company already owns four percent of Sears and indicated in its SEC filing that it might use the money for the "funding of an acquisition."
The deadline for antitrust approval for K-Mart's proposed takeover of Sears, is midnight tonight, the article said.
Vornado has been rumored as an obstacle to the Sears-K-Mart deal since it was first announced late last year.
***
Jarden Corporation has completed its acquisition of American Household, owner of the former Sunbeam plant in Neosho, according to a company news release filed with the federal Securities and Exchange Commission today.
The deal, which was originally announced Sept. 20, had Jarden paying $745.6 million and repaying $100 million worth of indebtedness.
American Household features the Sunbeam and Coleman brands.
***
On the same day that Jarden released to the SEC a copy of the news release it issued upon the finalization of the American Household purchase, the company also released information indicating it knows how to take care of its employees...at least if those employees are at the upper end of the totem pole.
New employment agreements were filed for the company's three top executives, including British-born CEO Martin E. Franklin. Franklin, 39, will receive an annual salary of $1,840,000. If he does a good job, he will receive an annual bonus of $920,000. He also will receive stock options, four weeks of paid vacation, and he will be able to observe all religious holidays that he "historically observes."
"For security purposes, (Franklin) shall be required to use at company expense private aircraft transportation for travel in North America unless a private aircraft is not reasonably available. Outside North America, he shall be entitled to first class air travel for business-related travel."
The company will also pay to have Franklin's personal income tax returns filed, give him a $10 million life insurance policy, plus he can have expenses of up to five percent of his annual salary, ($92,000) and he does not have to account for how he spends that money.
If for any reason, Franklin is not covered by the company's health insurance, he will receive an annual health care allowance of up to $30,000.
Slightly less lucrative arrangements were also made for Jarden's chief financial officer and chief operations officer.
***
The Neosho Daily News reports the metal detectors have been removed from the courthouse. No one minds some heightened security when it is necessary, but to force people who are at the courthouse to pay their taxes or to get a marriage license, to have to go through that hassle is unnecessary. An extra guard or two and perhaps metal detectors during times when particularly sensitive cases and hearing are being handled in the courtrooms would be fine, but to force everyone to go through this during every day normal business is ridiculous.
***
A Feb. 16 preliminary hearing has been scheduled for Travis Wyrick, 18, Joplin, who is charged with leaving the scene of an accident, a felony, in connection with the hit-and-run death last week of Joplin High School senior Jamison Alexander. Wyrick entered a not guilty plea during his arraignment this morning in Jasper County Circuit Court. A public defender is being appointed for him.
***
The coverage of the funeral of Jamison Alexander and the arraignment of Travis Wyrick topped the newscasts on the local stations this evening with comprehensive coverage offered by every station except KODE.
KOAM, KSNF, and KFJX each offered strong packages with interviews with students who knew Mr. Alexander and Wyrick's arraignment. KODE also featured the events in its newscasts but did not offer any interviews and featured only voiceover narration for the footage it used.
Just as interesting was the way the death of Jamison Alexander and Travis Wyrick's arraignment were featured on the television stations' websites.
As of early this evening, only KOAM featured the story at the top of its news listings. Neither KODE nor KSNF led with that story, instead sticking with Nexstar Broadcasting's "Open Letter to Cable One Customers," the company's continued way of making its news staffs look like minor league operations.
KODE followed the open letter with an article entitled "Funeral for Joplin Teen Today."
KSNF followed the letter with three articles, "Alexander Funeral," "Dillon's Collections" (a story about a fund set up for Mr. Alexander by his former employer), and "Wyrick in Court."
KOAM combined those stories for its lead article, "One Teen Buried While Another Faces a Judge."
KFJX, the sister station to KOAM, juggled that station's top two articles, putting "Residents Oppose Trash Transfer Station" above "One Teen Buried While Another Faces a Judge."
***
Of course, even the Nexstar letters were more top of the page newsworthy than the article The Lamar Democrat led off its Wednesday, Jan. 26, edition with: "Seventh Annual O'Reilly Auto Parts Autofest- Democrat giving away 50 tickets."
If you don't have any other news for the top of page one, that might be all right, but buried beneath the fold was an article in which Lamar R-1 Superintendent Mike Resa explained the tax levy proposal which is being submitted to district voters in April.
And, by the way, has anyone told The Democrat that Daniel O'Sullivan resigned as chairman of the board at O'Sullivan Industries three months ago. It certainly seems as if that would be a major story for Barton County's paper of record.
***
Remember Rep. Kevin Wilson, the same sterling judge of leadership who praised Governor Matt Blunt's inaugural speech, saying he showed true leadership by cutting it short because it was cold?
Well, Rep. Wilson is at it again.
In Editor Buzz Ball's article in today's Neosho Daily News, Wilson again gushed with approval for the newly-elected governor's State of the State message. "It was an outstanding speech by the governor," Wilson told the Daily News. "He fulfilled his campaign promises by vowing to make government more accountable and making sure that we, as a state government, live within our means."
Of course, Wilson wasn't the only one kissing up to Blunt. State Senator Gary Nodler told the Daily, "The governor laid out a plan that would take Missouri forward into the 21st Century. He reassured us that education is his first priority. He constructed a road map on how to get there by increasing funding for education, while at the same time, make some long overdue Medicaid reforms."
State Rep. Marilyn Ruestman also praised the speech. "Once again,' she said, "those views are in step with the views of those in southwest Missouri."
The scary thing is, it appears these comments were made in all seriousness.
Newspaper industry sources say that Liberty's $330 million loan commitment from Wells Fargo, reported exclusively last week in The Turner Report, indicate Liberty officials were not thrilled with the offers they received after the first, and so far only, round of bidding ended Oct. 25. Liberty owns The Carthage Press, The Neosho Daily News, The Neosho Post, and the Big Nickel in this area, and more than 300 newspapers nationwide.
Liberty's rush to a sale was due to a whopping debt payment that comes due this summer. The refinancing through Wells Fargo will help delay the company's day of financial reckoning for another seven years.
Liberty earnings totaled $44.3 million in the first nine months of 2004, but those were erased by the interest payments on the company's debt, which increased to $47 million, up from $32 million the previous year.
SEC records indicate Liberty lost $17.8 million over the first nine months of this year, compared to a $10.5 million loss over the same period in 2003.
***
Chicago Business is reporting that Vornado Realty Trust may be getting ready to attempt a takeover of Sears, in an effort to trump the previously announced, but unclosed deal with K-Mart.
The newspaper reports that Vornado filed papers with the SEC indicating it plans to issue as much as $2.5 billion in equity and $5 billion in debt. The company already owns four percent of Sears and indicated in its SEC filing that it might use the money for the "funding of an acquisition."
The deadline for antitrust approval for K-Mart's proposed takeover of Sears, is midnight tonight, the article said.
Vornado has been rumored as an obstacle to the Sears-K-Mart deal since it was first announced late last year.
***
Jarden Corporation has completed its acquisition of American Household, owner of the former Sunbeam plant in Neosho, according to a company news release filed with the federal Securities and Exchange Commission today.
The deal, which was originally announced Sept. 20, had Jarden paying $745.6 million and repaying $100 million worth of indebtedness.
American Household features the Sunbeam and Coleman brands.
***
On the same day that Jarden released to the SEC a copy of the news release it issued upon the finalization of the American Household purchase, the company also released information indicating it knows how to take care of its employees...at least if those employees are at the upper end of the totem pole.
New employment agreements were filed for the company's three top executives, including British-born CEO Martin E. Franklin. Franklin, 39, will receive an annual salary of $1,840,000. If he does a good job, he will receive an annual bonus of $920,000. He also will receive stock options, four weeks of paid vacation, and he will be able to observe all religious holidays that he "historically observes."
"For security purposes, (Franklin) shall be required to use at company expense private aircraft transportation for travel in North America unless a private aircraft is not reasonably available. Outside North America, he shall be entitled to first class air travel for business-related travel."
The company will also pay to have Franklin's personal income tax returns filed, give him a $10 million life insurance policy, plus he can have expenses of up to five percent of his annual salary, ($92,000) and he does not have to account for how he spends that money.
If for any reason, Franklin is not covered by the company's health insurance, he will receive an annual health care allowance of up to $30,000.
Slightly less lucrative arrangements were also made for Jarden's chief financial officer and chief operations officer.
***
The Neosho Daily News reports the metal detectors have been removed from the courthouse. No one minds some heightened security when it is necessary, but to force people who are at the courthouse to pay their taxes or to get a marriage license, to have to go through that hassle is unnecessary. An extra guard or two and perhaps metal detectors during times when particularly sensitive cases and hearing are being handled in the courtrooms would be fine, but to force everyone to go through this during every day normal business is ridiculous.
***
A Feb. 16 preliminary hearing has been scheduled for Travis Wyrick, 18, Joplin, who is charged with leaving the scene of an accident, a felony, in connection with the hit-and-run death last week of Joplin High School senior Jamison Alexander. Wyrick entered a not guilty plea during his arraignment this morning in Jasper County Circuit Court. A public defender is being appointed for him.
***
The coverage of the funeral of Jamison Alexander and the arraignment of Travis Wyrick topped the newscasts on the local stations this evening with comprehensive coverage offered by every station except KODE.
KOAM, KSNF, and KFJX each offered strong packages with interviews with students who knew Mr. Alexander and Wyrick's arraignment. KODE also featured the events in its newscasts but did not offer any interviews and featured only voiceover narration for the footage it used.
Just as interesting was the way the death of Jamison Alexander and Travis Wyrick's arraignment were featured on the television stations' websites.
As of early this evening, only KOAM featured the story at the top of its news listings. Neither KODE nor KSNF led with that story, instead sticking with Nexstar Broadcasting's "Open Letter to Cable One Customers," the company's continued way of making its news staffs look like minor league operations.
KODE followed the open letter with an article entitled "Funeral for Joplin Teen Today."
KSNF followed the letter with three articles, "Alexander Funeral," "Dillon's Collections" (a story about a fund set up for Mr. Alexander by his former employer), and "Wyrick in Court."
KOAM combined those stories for its lead article, "One Teen Buried While Another Faces a Judge."
KFJX, the sister station to KOAM, juggled that station's top two articles, putting "Residents Oppose Trash Transfer Station" above "One Teen Buried While Another Faces a Judge."
***
Of course, even the Nexstar letters were more top of the page newsworthy than the article The Lamar Democrat led off its Wednesday, Jan. 26, edition with: "Seventh Annual O'Reilly Auto Parts Autofest- Democrat giving away 50 tickets."
If you don't have any other news for the top of page one, that might be all right, but buried beneath the fold was an article in which Lamar R-1 Superintendent Mike Resa explained the tax levy proposal which is being submitted to district voters in April.
And, by the way, has anyone told The Democrat that Daniel O'Sullivan resigned as chairman of the board at O'Sullivan Industries three months ago. It certainly seems as if that would be a major story for Barton County's paper of record.
***
Remember Rep. Kevin Wilson, the same sterling judge of leadership who praised Governor Matt Blunt's inaugural speech, saying he showed true leadership by cutting it short because it was cold?
Well, Rep. Wilson is at it again.
In Editor Buzz Ball's article in today's Neosho Daily News, Wilson again gushed with approval for the newly-elected governor's State of the State message. "It was an outstanding speech by the governor," Wilson told the Daily News. "He fulfilled his campaign promises by vowing to make government more accountable and making sure that we, as a state government, live within our means."
Of course, Wilson wasn't the only one kissing up to Blunt. State Senator Gary Nodler told the Daily, "The governor laid out a plan that would take Missouri forward into the 21st Century. He reassured us that education is his first priority. He constructed a road map on how to get there by increasing funding for education, while at the same time, make some long overdue Medicaid reforms."
State Rep. Marilyn Ruestman also praised the speech. "Once again,' she said, "those views are in step with the views of those in southwest Missouri."
The scary thing is, it appears these comments were made in all seriousness.
Anyone hoping for a dazzling display of leadership from our newly-elected governor had to be disappointed in his State of the State speech.
In the speech, which was presented Wednesday night before the General Assembly, Governor Blunt showed that he is willing to go to the mat (no pun intended) to give his biggest campaign contributors what they want.
A case in point would be his attacks on worker's compensation claims and civil suits. The Republican take on these issues has been that lawyers are the root of all evil. When people sue for medical malpractice, insurance rates go up astronomically. When people claim they have been injured in the workplace, insurance rates go up astronomically.
There is no denying that frivolous lawsuits and worker's compensation claims are a problem, but the hairtrigger response of insurance companies that any claim should trigger a major rate increase is just as big a part of the problem. Of course, insurance companies contribute a great deal to the Republican party, which obviously intends to protect their interests and their huge profits.
People in the Joplin area can recall a time only a few years ago when all of the local state representatives came from the ranks of the insurance industry.
Governor Blunt also showed no leadership on the education front. If you can get a sales tax or an income tax to pass, go ahead and do it. Hey, if it were that easy to get a tax increase passed, education would not be having any difficulties. And while the concept of giving an equal share of casino and lottery money to each pupil in the state sounds good, it means nothing if nothing is done to correct the imbalance between the state's richest school districts, such as Ladue in the St. Louis area, and its poorest, McDonald County.
Blunt calls for privatization of many government functions, something that traditionally appeals to his party's base, and enriches the coffers of its members, but nearly always at the expense of the working man and woman.
An embarrassing part of the State of the State message was when the governor clearly stopped his speech as a trigger for Republican applause for whatever he said. Apparently, someone had written "stop for applause" numerous times in his speech. Someone should have held an applause sign so people would have known when to clap.
Another awkward part of the speech was the governor's attempt to emulate the late President Reagan by introducing people from the audience, usually with poorly written transitions and with only vague connections to what he was talking about. It was revolutionary when Reagan did it. It really doesn't work at the state level, at least not with an inexperienced governor making the introductions.
The biggest problem with Matt Blunt's first State of the State message is that it did not show that he has any unique quality of leadership that should have placed him in the governor's mansion, other than a familiar last name.
Democrats always want Republicans to reach out and embrace some of their ideals. Matt Blunt did not have to do that in order to make an early positive impression on Missourians.
It is possible to take conservative ideals and with aggressive leadership turn them in a new direction. That doesn't appear to be in the cards for the Blunt administration. Judging from his first major speech, our new governor is tending to Republican business as usual. Big business is the order of the day.
***
Today is the day that friends and family will say goodbye to Jamison Alexander, 18, the Joplin High School senior who was killed by a hit-and-run driver last week. Apparently, the notation on case.net that Travis Wyrick, 18, Joplin, the man who has been charged with leaving the scene of an accident in connection with the incident, was being charged with a second offense, is not accurate.
His only other arrest, on a drug charge last April, ended with a guilty plea to an amended misdemeanor marijuana possession charge.
It should be interesting to watch the local TV newscasts today (those of you who are able to do so) to see how they handle the two parts of this story, Mr. Alexander's funeral this afternoon and this morning's arraignment of Wyrick. Just the vast difference in atmosphere and the contrast between the two events should make solid television.
In the speech, which was presented Wednesday night before the General Assembly, Governor Blunt showed that he is willing to go to the mat (no pun intended) to give his biggest campaign contributors what they want.
A case in point would be his attacks on worker's compensation claims and civil suits. The Republican take on these issues has been that lawyers are the root of all evil. When people sue for medical malpractice, insurance rates go up astronomically. When people claim they have been injured in the workplace, insurance rates go up astronomically.
There is no denying that frivolous lawsuits and worker's compensation claims are a problem, but the hairtrigger response of insurance companies that any claim should trigger a major rate increase is just as big a part of the problem. Of course, insurance companies contribute a great deal to the Republican party, which obviously intends to protect their interests and their huge profits.
People in the Joplin area can recall a time only a few years ago when all of the local state representatives came from the ranks of the insurance industry.
Governor Blunt also showed no leadership on the education front. If you can get a sales tax or an income tax to pass, go ahead and do it. Hey, if it were that easy to get a tax increase passed, education would not be having any difficulties. And while the concept of giving an equal share of casino and lottery money to each pupil in the state sounds good, it means nothing if nothing is done to correct the imbalance between the state's richest school districts, such as Ladue in the St. Louis area, and its poorest, McDonald County.
Blunt calls for privatization of many government functions, something that traditionally appeals to his party's base, and enriches the coffers of its members, but nearly always at the expense of the working man and woman.
An embarrassing part of the State of the State message was when the governor clearly stopped his speech as a trigger for Republican applause for whatever he said. Apparently, someone had written "stop for applause" numerous times in his speech. Someone should have held an applause sign so people would have known when to clap.
Another awkward part of the speech was the governor's attempt to emulate the late President Reagan by introducing people from the audience, usually with poorly written transitions and with only vague connections to what he was talking about. It was revolutionary when Reagan did it. It really doesn't work at the state level, at least not with an inexperienced governor making the introductions.
The biggest problem with Matt Blunt's first State of the State message is that it did not show that he has any unique quality of leadership that should have placed him in the governor's mansion, other than a familiar last name.
Democrats always want Republicans to reach out and embrace some of their ideals. Matt Blunt did not have to do that in order to make an early positive impression on Missourians.
It is possible to take conservative ideals and with aggressive leadership turn them in a new direction. That doesn't appear to be in the cards for the Blunt administration. Judging from his first major speech, our new governor is tending to Republican business as usual. Big business is the order of the day.
***
Today is the day that friends and family will say goodbye to Jamison Alexander, 18, the Joplin High School senior who was killed by a hit-and-run driver last week. Apparently, the notation on case.net that Travis Wyrick, 18, Joplin, the man who has been charged with leaving the scene of an accident in connection with the incident, was being charged with a second offense, is not accurate.
His only other arrest, on a drug charge last April, ended with a guilty plea to an amended misdemeanor marijuana possession charge.
It should be interesting to watch the local TV newscasts today (those of you who are able to do so) to see how they handle the two parts of this story, Mr. Alexander's funeral this afternoon and this morning's arraignment of Wyrick. Just the vast difference in atmosphere and the contrast between the two events should make solid television.
Wednesday, January 26, 2005
On the same day that friends and family will say goodbye to Joplin High School senior Jamison Alexander, the man accused of driving over him, then leaving the scene of the accident will be arraigned.
Court records indicate that Travis Wyrick, 18, Joplin, will be arraigned at 8 a.m. Thursday, Jan. 27, before Judge Richard Copeland in Division 5 at the Jasper County Courts Building in Joplin.
Copeland has granted a media request that camera be allowed in the courtroom.
Wyrick is charged with a felony, leaving the scene of an accident, according to court records.
Funeral services for Mr. Alexander, 18, will be held at 1 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 27, at the Joplin Family Worship Center. Visitation is scheduled from 4 to 6 p.m. today (Jan. 26) at the Worship Center.
***
Keep good records.
That's the credo of any good reporter. You never can tell when that one little piece of information will turn out to be the piece that makes your story.
When I worked at The Carthage Press and The Lamar Democrat I kept comprehensive files on my old stories (and I still have a lot of those, though many of them had to be sacrificed when I moved to Joplin five months ago). Sometimes I could go back to an old story and find a quote that seemed to be at variance with what a public official was saying, or find some link between two people that might otherwise have been overlooked.
The Joplin Globe missed a golden opportunity this morning to add a critical piece of information to its otherwise extremely well-done article on the selection of new Neosho R-5 Superintendent Richard Page.
Wally Kennedy, who has been one of the best reporters in southwest Missouri for the last two decades did the legwork for the story, no doubt about it. He covered all of the bases.
Except one.
Kent Wilson, a member of what was purportedly a screening committee (its recommendations were totally ignored by the R-5 Board) told The Globe, "It's apparent now they have been grooming Dr. Page for the job. Superintendent Mark Mitchell, who said he was not involved in the process, wrote a letter of recommendation for Page. The board president, Steve Marble, said months ago he supported Page. The whole thing was pre-planned."
It was one thing to have Kent Wilson saying that Steve Marble supported Richard Page. It would have been far better to get those same words out of Steve Marble's mouth...and The Globe had them.
In The Turner Report last week, it was mentioned that in the Oct. 27, 2004, Globe, before the search process had really started, Marble expressed his support for Page.
In the article, Marble was quoted as saying, "I certainly wouldn't speak for the board, but there's no doubt in my mind that Dr. Page is my first look." Marble also told the Globe that Page had been groomed for the position.
The omission doesn't take away from the solid reporting done by Kennedy. Most likely it comes because of the departure of Dena Sloan, the reporter who wrote the Oct. 27 article. It is not easy to jump onto a story that was begun by another reporter.
I would still like to see something mentioned about the apparently illegal nature of the meeting in which the screening committee was selected. The Globe has not touched on this and even though the information came out initially in The Neosho Daily News, there was no indication from the Daily's article if its reporter realized he was witnessing a Sunshine Law violation.
***
***
School activities are the heart and soul of a small community, which was why I was so disappointed to see the way The Lamar Democrat handled the crowning of the Lamar High School Basketball Homecoming queen last week.
When I was at The Democrat, and for a long time afterward, the Homecoming was considered to be a major event. A photo (or two) of the queen being crowned was featured prominently on page one, not just because it was a big story for the community, but also so the community knew that we recognized that fact.
Apparently, it no longer is as important as routine meetings of the Barton County Memorial Hospital Board of Trustees or the Lockwood City Council.
That's sad.
***
One of the top trade associations in the United States is quickly slipping from the upper echelon.
Furniture Today reported that Leggett & Platt, the Fortune 500 company based in Carthage, has withdrawn its membership from the International Sleep Products Association, joining earlier departures by Sealy and Serna.
“It is with regret that we no longer feel that continued membership in the association can be justified and is therefore not in the best interest of our shareholders,” L&P Executive Vice President Karl Glassman said in a letter to ISPA President Dick Doyle today. “In many respects, we believe that ISPA has become a supplier that is no longer meeting our needs.” The letter was reprinted by Furniture Today.
The company has almost always been the largest exhibitor at ISPA’s trade shows, the Furniture Today article said. In his letter, Glassman said Leggett & Platt will not exhibit if it is not a member.
Court records indicate that Travis Wyrick, 18, Joplin, will be arraigned at 8 a.m. Thursday, Jan. 27, before Judge Richard Copeland in Division 5 at the Jasper County Courts Building in Joplin.
Copeland has granted a media request that camera be allowed in the courtroom.
Wyrick is charged with a felony, leaving the scene of an accident, according to court records.
Funeral services for Mr. Alexander, 18, will be held at 1 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 27, at the Joplin Family Worship Center. Visitation is scheduled from 4 to 6 p.m. today (Jan. 26) at the Worship Center.
***
Keep good records.
That's the credo of any good reporter. You never can tell when that one little piece of information will turn out to be the piece that makes your story.
When I worked at The Carthage Press and The Lamar Democrat I kept comprehensive files on my old stories (and I still have a lot of those, though many of them had to be sacrificed when I moved to Joplin five months ago). Sometimes I could go back to an old story and find a quote that seemed to be at variance with what a public official was saying, or find some link between two people that might otherwise have been overlooked.
The Joplin Globe missed a golden opportunity this morning to add a critical piece of information to its otherwise extremely well-done article on the selection of new Neosho R-5 Superintendent Richard Page.
Wally Kennedy, who has been one of the best reporters in southwest Missouri for the last two decades did the legwork for the story, no doubt about it. He covered all of the bases.
Except one.
Kent Wilson, a member of what was purportedly a screening committee (its recommendations were totally ignored by the R-5 Board) told The Globe, "It's apparent now they have been grooming Dr. Page for the job. Superintendent Mark Mitchell, who said he was not involved in the process, wrote a letter of recommendation for Page. The board president, Steve Marble, said months ago he supported Page. The whole thing was pre-planned."
It was one thing to have Kent Wilson saying that Steve Marble supported Richard Page. It would have been far better to get those same words out of Steve Marble's mouth...and The Globe had them.
In The Turner Report last week, it was mentioned that in the Oct. 27, 2004, Globe, before the search process had really started, Marble expressed his support for Page.
In the article, Marble was quoted as saying, "I certainly wouldn't speak for the board, but there's no doubt in my mind that Dr. Page is my first look." Marble also told the Globe that Page had been groomed for the position.
The omission doesn't take away from the solid reporting done by Kennedy. Most likely it comes because of the departure of Dena Sloan, the reporter who wrote the Oct. 27 article. It is not easy to jump onto a story that was begun by another reporter.
I would still like to see something mentioned about the apparently illegal nature of the meeting in which the screening committee was selected. The Globe has not touched on this and even though the information came out initially in The Neosho Daily News, there was no indication from the Daily's article if its reporter realized he was witnessing a Sunshine Law violation.
***
***
School activities are the heart and soul of a small community, which was why I was so disappointed to see the way The Lamar Democrat handled the crowning of the Lamar High School Basketball Homecoming queen last week.
When I was at The Democrat, and for a long time afterward, the Homecoming was considered to be a major event. A photo (or two) of the queen being crowned was featured prominently on page one, not just because it was a big story for the community, but also so the community knew that we recognized that fact.
Apparently, it no longer is as important as routine meetings of the Barton County Memorial Hospital Board of Trustees or the Lockwood City Council.
That's sad.
***
One of the top trade associations in the United States is quickly slipping from the upper echelon.
Furniture Today reported that Leggett & Platt, the Fortune 500 company based in Carthage, has withdrawn its membership from the International Sleep Products Association, joining earlier departures by Sealy and Serna.
“It is with regret that we no longer feel that continued membership in the association can be justified and is therefore not in the best interest of our shareholders,” L&P Executive Vice President Karl Glassman said in a letter to ISPA President Dick Doyle today. “In many respects, we believe that ISPA has become a supplier that is no longer meeting our needs.” The letter was reprinted by Furniture Today.
The company has almost always been the largest exhibitor at ISPA’s trade shows, the Furniture Today article said. In his letter, Glassman said Leggett & Platt will not exhibit if it is not a member.
Tuesday, January 25, 2005
The FCC announced today it will look into rules that are preventing cable companies like Cable One and Cox from getting network broadcasting from out-of-town stations when it is withheld from them locally.
Cable One viewers who did not get an antenna have been unable to watch NBC and ABC programming since the beginning of the year when Nexstar Broadcasting, owner of KSNF and de facto owner of KODE pulled those programs after Cable One refused to pay 30 cents per customer per month for the right to carry the two local stations.
The same situation faces Cox Communications customers in Lamar and Carthage at the end of this month. According to an article in today's Multichannel News, small cable operators have asked for the inquiry, believing that their inability to go out and get a network station from another market gives the local stations an unfair edge in negotiations.
The article said that Congress passed a law last month ordering the FCC to study the impact of its local carriage rules and file a report with the House Energy and Commerce Committee and the Senate Commerce Committee by Sept. 8.
The article said Congress is concerned that cable is being denied the ability to compete with satellite carriers.
The FCC will take comments through March 1, the article said.
***
The selection process for the Neosho R-5 superintendent position will be roundly criticized by members of the district's search committee in an article in the Joplin Globe tomorrow morning.
In the article, committee member Kent Wilson accuses the school board of having its sights set on its eventual selection, current assistant superintendent Dr. Richard Page, all along.
It also quotes committee members as being skeptical about only having 13 or 14 applications for a job that pays more than $100,000 a year. The article apparently does not mention a contention made by a committee member in a recent article written by Neosho Daily News Editor Buzz Ball, that Page was not the committee's first selection, nor its second.
Nor is there any mention in the Globe article about the apparent illegal method which the board used to select who would be on its screening committee, going into a closed session, which was not permitted under the Missouri Sunshine Law.
The Globe article features exhortations by Board President Steve Marble and Neosho Mayor and committee member Howard Birdsong to support Page.
***
If at first you don't succeed, you belong in the Missouri General Assembly.
Take the case of 86th District State Representative Jane Cunningham, R-Chesterfield. For the second straight year, the conservative Republican has introduced a bill that would discourage people from filing complaints with the Missouri Ethics Commission. Ms. Cunningham's bill would require that the person who is named in a complaint be given the complainant's name, address, and telephone number.
If that's not bad enough, her bill, HB 255, would make it a crime to release any information about a complaint while it is still a closed record, with a penalty of up to a $2,500 fine and one year in jail.
And apparently, Ms. Cunningham also wants to discourage citizens from reviewing the election records of their elected representatives, including her. The bill would require people who want to inspect or copy campaign finance disclosure forms to provide photo identification. If these are public documents, and they are, why should people have to show any kind of identification to look at them or make copies of them?
This attempt to discourage people from examining the records of elected officials failed last year, but who knows what might happen this time with a Republican-controlled legislature and a Republican governor.
***
No surprises were featured in The Weather Channel's response to the age discrimination lawsuit filed in U. S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia by former KODE-TV weather personality Marny Stanier Midkiff.
Weather Channel officials, in a response filed Jan. 18, denied Ms. Midkiff's allegations that she was fired because she was too old.
In her complaint, Ms. Midkiff noted that during her 16-year tenure at The Weather Channel, she "consistently received excellent performance reviews, progressive promotions and regular pay raises."
According to Ms. Midkiff's petition, Senior Vice President of Programming and Production Terry Connelly constantly referred to her and two other over-40 on-camera meteorologists as "matronly" and "dowdy."
An image consultant was brought in by Connelly in June 2003, the petition said, to "help the women look younger and sexier."
In August 2003, the petition said, Connelly held an "open forum" for female on-camera meteorologists in which he complained that "our women are matronly, dowdy, and nun-like." During the forum, he suggested that the women wear clothes that would make them look younger.
A few months later, Connelly fired both Ms. Midkiff and the other older female on-camera meteorologist. "Connelly turned over all of their management responsibilities to the remaining male manager. He turned over their on-camera work to the younger males and females he had been hiring and continued to hire during the 'reorganization.' "
He permitted the other older woman who was removed from her position on the television channel to continue to broadcast on the Weather Channel's radio program "where listeners would presumably be less sensitive about her age."
Ms. Midkiff is asking for back pay and benefits, reinstatement and/or front pay, attorney's fees, "and all other appropriate damages, remedies and other relief available."
***
Former Joplin Boys and Girls Club director Rob Clay's preliminary hearing on embezzling charges is scheduled for 1:30 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 3, in Judge Richard Copeland's courtroom in the Jasper County Courts Building in Joplin.
***
Former Sarcoxie minister Donald Peckham has been given until Thursday, Feb. 17, to file any amended motions in his attempt to have his conviction for child molestation tossed out by the Missouri Southern District Court of Appeals.
Cable One viewers who did not get an antenna have been unable to watch NBC and ABC programming since the beginning of the year when Nexstar Broadcasting, owner of KSNF and de facto owner of KODE pulled those programs after Cable One refused to pay 30 cents per customer per month for the right to carry the two local stations.
The same situation faces Cox Communications customers in Lamar and Carthage at the end of this month. According to an article in today's Multichannel News, small cable operators have asked for the inquiry, believing that their inability to go out and get a network station from another market gives the local stations an unfair edge in negotiations.
The article said that Congress passed a law last month ordering the FCC to study the impact of its local carriage rules and file a report with the House Energy and Commerce Committee and the Senate Commerce Committee by Sept. 8.
The article said Congress is concerned that cable is being denied the ability to compete with satellite carriers.
The FCC will take comments through March 1, the article said.
***
The selection process for the Neosho R-5 superintendent position will be roundly criticized by members of the district's search committee in an article in the Joplin Globe tomorrow morning.
In the article, committee member Kent Wilson accuses the school board of having its sights set on its eventual selection, current assistant superintendent Dr. Richard Page, all along.
It also quotes committee members as being skeptical about only having 13 or 14 applications for a job that pays more than $100,000 a year. The article apparently does not mention a contention made by a committee member in a recent article written by Neosho Daily News Editor Buzz Ball, that Page was not the committee's first selection, nor its second.
Nor is there any mention in the Globe article about the apparent illegal method which the board used to select who would be on its screening committee, going into a closed session, which was not permitted under the Missouri Sunshine Law.
The Globe article features exhortations by Board President Steve Marble and Neosho Mayor and committee member Howard Birdsong to support Page.
***
If at first you don't succeed, you belong in the Missouri General Assembly.
Take the case of 86th District State Representative Jane Cunningham, R-Chesterfield. For the second straight year, the conservative Republican has introduced a bill that would discourage people from filing complaints with the Missouri Ethics Commission. Ms. Cunningham's bill would require that the person who is named in a complaint be given the complainant's name, address, and telephone number.
If that's not bad enough, her bill, HB 255, would make it a crime to release any information about a complaint while it is still a closed record, with a penalty of up to a $2,500 fine and one year in jail.
And apparently, Ms. Cunningham also wants to discourage citizens from reviewing the election records of their elected representatives, including her. The bill would require people who want to inspect or copy campaign finance disclosure forms to provide photo identification. If these are public documents, and they are, why should people have to show any kind of identification to look at them or make copies of them?
This attempt to discourage people from examining the records of elected officials failed last year, but who knows what might happen this time with a Republican-controlled legislature and a Republican governor.
***
No surprises were featured in The Weather Channel's response to the age discrimination lawsuit filed in U. S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia by former KODE-TV weather personality Marny Stanier Midkiff.
Weather Channel officials, in a response filed Jan. 18, denied Ms. Midkiff's allegations that she was fired because she was too old.
In her complaint, Ms. Midkiff noted that during her 16-year tenure at The Weather Channel, she "consistently received excellent performance reviews, progressive promotions and regular pay raises."
According to Ms. Midkiff's petition, Senior Vice President of Programming and Production Terry Connelly constantly referred to her and two other over-40 on-camera meteorologists as "matronly" and "dowdy."
An image consultant was brought in by Connelly in June 2003, the petition said, to "help the women look younger and sexier."
In August 2003, the petition said, Connelly held an "open forum" for female on-camera meteorologists in which he complained that "our women are matronly, dowdy, and nun-like." During the forum, he suggested that the women wear clothes that would make them look younger.
A few months later, Connelly fired both Ms. Midkiff and the other older female on-camera meteorologist. "Connelly turned over all of their management responsibilities to the remaining male manager. He turned over their on-camera work to the younger males and females he had been hiring and continued to hire during the 'reorganization.' "
He permitted the other older woman who was removed from her position on the television channel to continue to broadcast on the Weather Channel's radio program "where listeners would presumably be less sensitive about her age."
Ms. Midkiff is asking for back pay and benefits, reinstatement and/or front pay, attorney's fees, "and all other appropriate damages, remedies and other relief available."
***
Former Joplin Boys and Girls Club director Rob Clay's preliminary hearing on embezzling charges is scheduled for 1:30 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 3, in Judge Richard Copeland's courtroom in the Jasper County Courts Building in Joplin.
***
Former Sarcoxie minister Donald Peckham has been given until Thursday, Feb. 17, to file any amended motions in his attempt to have his conviction for child molestation tossed out by the Missouri Southern District Court of Appeals.
Monday, January 24, 2005
A new judge has been assigned to handle the trial of Edward Meerwald, 50, Noel, who is charged with involuntary manslaughter in connection with the drunk driving related death of a Neosho man and his granddaughter.
A 3 p.m. Feb. 1 pre-trial conference will be held in Judge Joseph Schoeberl's courtroom in the Jasper County Courthouse at Carthage, according to court records. Meerwald's case is being held in Jasper County on a change of venue from Newton County.
Schoeberl was assigned to the case after the Missouri Court of Appeals removed Newton County Circuit Court Judge Timothy Perigo at the request of Meerwald's lawyer.
Meerwald allegedly was driving drunk July 31 when his car left Highway 86 and struck James Dodson, 68, and his granddaughter, Jessica Mann, 7, Joplin, as they were walking in his driveway.
Meerwald is also facing wrongful death lawsuits filed by the families of Dodson and Miss Mann.
***
KOAM's website reports that funeral arrangements for Jamison Alexander, 18, the Joplin High School senior who was killed by a hit-and-run driver a week ago, will be held at 1 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 27, at the Joplin Family Worship Center. Visitation is scheduled 4 to 6 p.m. Wednesday at the Worship Center. Mr. Alexander's family removed him from life support over the weekend after doctors determined he was brain dead.
Travis Wyrick, 18, Joplin, has been charged with leaving the scene of an accident. Court records indicate that this is a second offense for him, but the only other case involving Wyrick that is listed on the court website is an amended charge of misdemeanor marijuana possession for which he pleaded guilty in May. Whether that charge was originally leaving the scene of an accident is not in the portion of the court files that are on the internet. Court records indicate the amended charge came as a result of a plea agreement.
The case will be heavily covered by the news media. Media representatives filed a motion in Jasper County Circuit Court today to have cameras in the courtroom whenever Wyrick has hearings. Wyrick's arraignment has not been scheduled.
***
Missouri school districts will have to make a stronger effort to put out information to the public if HB 297 proposed by 121st District Rep. David Pearce, R-Warrensburg makes its way through the General Assembly.
The bill, which had its first hearing today, would require school districts to provide their annual report cards to "any household with a student enrolled in the district."
The bill says the reports must be given to all media outlets serving the district, under Pearce's bill.
The annual report cards provide information about students, staff, finances, academic achievement, and other information, including enrollment, experience level of faculty, pay level of faculty and administrators.
I would strongly suggest some additions to the bill. I would like to see the public informed just how much individual administrators make in a school system, so comparisons can be made between school districts. This will help the taxpayers to determine if their elected representatives are making wise decisions regarding how much they are paying administrators.
In the past, school district report cards included information on how much money was being spent on extracurricular activities. That needs to makes a comeback, with information broken down as to how much is spent on each activity, including the amount paid to coaches. Taxpayers also need to know how much money each of these activities makes. That shouldn't be the only consideration, obviously, but it is something taxpayers need to know.
The report cards as they are currently constituted, are handy tools, but do not really let taxpayers see if their money is going toward the best education possible.
I would even add that I would have no problem with listing the annual salary of every school employee. The taxpayers of the Joplin R-8 School District have every right to know how much money I am making as a teacher or how much any other employee is making. It's their money, whether it be coming to the school district through local, state, or federal funds.
***
Reports are reaching me through some of the postings on Wildcat Central that Diamond R-4 Board of Education President Wayne Webb may be preparing to push for an extra year on the contract of Superintendent Mark Mayo, who is already under contract through June 30, 2006.
***
The Missouri Senate's Gubernatorial Appointments Committee will review the reappointment of Charles McGinty to the Missouri Southern State University Board of Governors when the committee meets 8:30 a.m. Wednesday, Jan. 26, in the Senate Lounge.
***
Echostar is continuing its nationwide protests over cable rate increases, according to Satellite Industry Daily News. The satellite company's latest target was the Time-Warner cable franchise in Syracuse, N. Y. In what is referred to as guerilla marketing, Echostar has been staging protests in locales across the country, including Joplin. In Syracuse, Time-Warner recently increased its rates 8 percent. Reportedly, Echostar's protesters have not carried signs noting that Echostar is increasing rates for its DISH Network 4.3 percent as of Feb. 1.
***
Attorneys for former Newton County Sheriff Ron Doerge have asked a federal court judge to grant a summary judgment against a former inmate who is suing because he claims he was denied proper health care.
According to documents filed today in U. S. District Court for the Southern District of Missouri, Doerge's lawyers claim Donald Allen has no legitimate claim against the former sheriff.
***
It apparently does not take much to get State Representative Kevin Wilson of Neosho excited about our new governor.
In his weekly column, which runs in The Neosho Daily News and The Newton County News, Wilson talked about the speech that Matt Blunt gave at his inauguration. Wilson wrote, "A throng of people had gathered outside of the Capitol to witness the swearing-in and a drizzle of cold rain started as the new governor began his remarks. Matt gave a great speech but in respect for those gathered he did cut it a little short."
Then Wilson gushed, "In my mind, that is a true leader- one who thinks more of others than of himself. I am excited about the next four yeas because I truly believe the greatest days of Missouri are ahead of us."
I hate to see what Rep. Wilson is going to write when our new governor actually does something.
A 3 p.m. Feb. 1 pre-trial conference will be held in Judge Joseph Schoeberl's courtroom in the Jasper County Courthouse at Carthage, according to court records. Meerwald's case is being held in Jasper County on a change of venue from Newton County.
Schoeberl was assigned to the case after the Missouri Court of Appeals removed Newton County Circuit Court Judge Timothy Perigo at the request of Meerwald's lawyer.
Meerwald allegedly was driving drunk July 31 when his car left Highway 86 and struck James Dodson, 68, and his granddaughter, Jessica Mann, 7, Joplin, as they were walking in his driveway.
Meerwald is also facing wrongful death lawsuits filed by the families of Dodson and Miss Mann.
***
KOAM's website reports that funeral arrangements for Jamison Alexander, 18, the Joplin High School senior who was killed by a hit-and-run driver a week ago, will be held at 1 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 27, at the Joplin Family Worship Center. Visitation is scheduled 4 to 6 p.m. Wednesday at the Worship Center. Mr. Alexander's family removed him from life support over the weekend after doctors determined he was brain dead.
Travis Wyrick, 18, Joplin, has been charged with leaving the scene of an accident. Court records indicate that this is a second offense for him, but the only other case involving Wyrick that is listed on the court website is an amended charge of misdemeanor marijuana possession for which he pleaded guilty in May. Whether that charge was originally leaving the scene of an accident is not in the portion of the court files that are on the internet. Court records indicate the amended charge came as a result of a plea agreement.
The case will be heavily covered by the news media. Media representatives filed a motion in Jasper County Circuit Court today to have cameras in the courtroom whenever Wyrick has hearings. Wyrick's arraignment has not been scheduled.
***
Missouri school districts will have to make a stronger effort to put out information to the public if HB 297 proposed by 121st District Rep. David Pearce, R-Warrensburg makes its way through the General Assembly.
The bill, which had its first hearing today, would require school districts to provide their annual report cards to "any household with a student enrolled in the district."
The bill says the reports must be given to all media outlets serving the district, under Pearce's bill.
The annual report cards provide information about students, staff, finances, academic achievement, and other information, including enrollment, experience level of faculty, pay level of faculty and administrators.
I would strongly suggest some additions to the bill. I would like to see the public informed just how much individual administrators make in a school system, so comparisons can be made between school districts. This will help the taxpayers to determine if their elected representatives are making wise decisions regarding how much they are paying administrators.
In the past, school district report cards included information on how much money was being spent on extracurricular activities. That needs to makes a comeback, with information broken down as to how much is spent on each activity, including the amount paid to coaches. Taxpayers also need to know how much money each of these activities makes. That shouldn't be the only consideration, obviously, but it is something taxpayers need to know.
The report cards as they are currently constituted, are handy tools, but do not really let taxpayers see if their money is going toward the best education possible.
I would even add that I would have no problem with listing the annual salary of every school employee. The taxpayers of the Joplin R-8 School District have every right to know how much money I am making as a teacher or how much any other employee is making. It's their money, whether it be coming to the school district through local, state, or federal funds.
***
Reports are reaching me through some of the postings on Wildcat Central that Diamond R-4 Board of Education President Wayne Webb may be preparing to push for an extra year on the contract of Superintendent Mark Mayo, who is already under contract through June 30, 2006.
***
The Missouri Senate's Gubernatorial Appointments Committee will review the reappointment of Charles McGinty to the Missouri Southern State University Board of Governors when the committee meets 8:30 a.m. Wednesday, Jan. 26, in the Senate Lounge.
***
Echostar is continuing its nationwide protests over cable rate increases, according to Satellite Industry Daily News. The satellite company's latest target was the Time-Warner cable franchise in Syracuse, N. Y. In what is referred to as guerilla marketing, Echostar has been staging protests in locales across the country, including Joplin. In Syracuse, Time-Warner recently increased its rates 8 percent. Reportedly, Echostar's protesters have not carried signs noting that Echostar is increasing rates for its DISH Network 4.3 percent as of Feb. 1.
***
Attorneys for former Newton County Sheriff Ron Doerge have asked a federal court judge to grant a summary judgment against a former inmate who is suing because he claims he was denied proper health care.
According to documents filed today in U. S. District Court for the Southern District of Missouri, Doerge's lawyers claim Donald Allen has no legitimate claim against the former sheriff.
***
It apparently does not take much to get State Representative Kevin Wilson of Neosho excited about our new governor.
In his weekly column, which runs in The Neosho Daily News and The Newton County News, Wilson talked about the speech that Matt Blunt gave at his inauguration. Wilson wrote, "A throng of people had gathered outside of the Capitol to witness the swearing-in and a drizzle of cold rain started as the new governor began his remarks. Matt gave a great speech but in respect for those gathered he did cut it a little short."
Then Wilson gushed, "In my mind, that is a true leader- one who thinks more of others than of himself. I am excited about the next four yeas because I truly believe the greatest days of Missouri are ahead of us."
I hate to see what Rep. Wilson is going to write when our new governor actually does something.
Sunday, January 23, 2005
Corporal punishment is still administered, though sparingly, at most of the schools in this area.
Earlier this week in The Turner Report, Rep. Barbara Fraser's bill, HB 289, which would outlaw corporal punishment in Missouri, was detailed. Today's Springfield News-Leader explored the issue, with reporters taking the time to call every school district in southwest Missouri to find out what each school's spanking policy was.
Schools in this area that do not allow any kind of spanking, according to the News-Leader report, are: Carl Junction, Everton, Greenfield, and Miller.
Schools that include spanking as part of their discipline policies include: Carthage, East Newton, Joplin, Lockwood, McDonald County, Monett, Mount Vernon, Nevada, Neosho, Purdy, and Webb City.
The article indicated that Jasper and Lamar school officials ignored repeated attempts to get information for the article. No mention was made of Sarcoxie or Golden City.
One school, Webb City, seemed to be headed in a different direction. The district, which is known for strict discipline, reported paddling 345 students in the year 2000, according to the News-Leader article. The school also has most of its swats being administered to high school students, rather than elementary students, as in the case in most school districts.
Dr. Ron Lankford, superintendent, said some students even ask for swats. "I was over at the high school the other day and there were three high school kids who were in trouble," Lankford told the News-Leader. "They said they wanted to come in and take swats so they don't have to stay after." The quote referred to a student preference of swats over after-school detention.
***
CBL and Associates, the company that recently bought Northpark Mall in Joplin, is holding a fundraising collection drive for tsunami relief at all of its malls across the country, according to a company news release.
The article said representatives from local American Red Cross, Salvation Army, Habitat for Humanity, United Way and other selected charities will be invited to have collection stations at the malls.
The news release said those wishing to donate to American Red Cross can also do so by visiting the website for each CBL-owned mall or CBL's website at www.cblproperties.com
***
Nexstar CEO Perry Sook will be profiled in tomorrow's edition of Broadcasting & Cable, an industry magazine. In the article, Sook, whose company owns KSNF and is the de facto owner of KODE, claims that cable companies are mistreating his stations. The article features a lengthy biography, including the fact that his broadcasting career started in Punxatawney, Pa., home of the annual Groundhog Day celebration, and he once worked with Today Show host Matt Lauer at WOWK-TV in Charleston, W. Va.
Sook has been in the spotlight recently due to Nexstar's battles with Cable One and Cox Communications over whether those companies should pay to carry his stations. In Joplin, KODE and KSNF were removed from Cable One at midnight Dec. 31, while the two local stations are scheduled to be removed from Cox Communications franchises in Lamar and Carthage at midnight Jan. 31 if an agreement cannot be reached.
"Our goal was to have cable place a fair value on what we contribute," Sook told the magazine.
He has been Nexstar CEO since 1996.
***
The Texarkana Gazette reports that a number of Cox stations in Arkansas, Louisiana, and Texas will lose the right to carry the signals of Nexstar station KTAL in Shreveport, La., as of Jan. 31.
The cities include Magnolia, Ark., Mount Pleasant, Texas, Wright City, Okla, Valiant, Okla., Bossier City, La., and Minden, La. The article says if those stations are cut off, that will increase the number of Cox and Cable One subscribers not receiving to KTAL to 181,000.
Nexstar chief operations officer Duane Lammers told the Gazette, "We're basically saying to Cox it's time for us to figure out a long-term relationship for all of our cities. They carry us in a number of markets."
***
The city of Joplin requesting a jury trial in the case of a woman who claims she was mistreated during an incident that began at Souls Harbor Shelter.
In a document filed Jan. 18 in U. S. District Court for the Western District of Missouri, the city, through its lawyer Karl Blanchard Jr., of the firm of Blanchard, Robertson, Mitchell & Carter, asked for a jury trial in the suit, which was filed in December by Lori Bordock of Springfield.
Ms. Bordock is suing the city and Souls Harbor, seeking a million dollars from each. She was arrested by the Joplin Police Department following an incident at Souls Harbor, according to her petition.
She claims her civil rights were violated when she was handcuffed and put in a cell with "dangerous criminals." The mattress at the jail bothered her back and she said she was eventually forced to plead guilty to a crime she didn't commit in order to get out of that place."I could not take the inhuman treatment," she said, in the handwritten petition.She filed the suit on her own, she said, because "the lawyers always ask for money. Ms. Bordock said she wanted the seven-figure payout to recompense her "for this horrendous incident that happened to me, a decent American."
Earlier this week in The Turner Report, Rep. Barbara Fraser's bill, HB 289, which would outlaw corporal punishment in Missouri, was detailed. Today's Springfield News-Leader explored the issue, with reporters taking the time to call every school district in southwest Missouri to find out what each school's spanking policy was.
Schools in this area that do not allow any kind of spanking, according to the News-Leader report, are: Carl Junction, Everton, Greenfield, and Miller.
Schools that include spanking as part of their discipline policies include: Carthage, East Newton, Joplin, Lockwood, McDonald County, Monett, Mount Vernon, Nevada, Neosho, Purdy, and Webb City.
The article indicated that Jasper and Lamar school officials ignored repeated attempts to get information for the article. No mention was made of Sarcoxie or Golden City.
One school, Webb City, seemed to be headed in a different direction. The district, which is known for strict discipline, reported paddling 345 students in the year 2000, according to the News-Leader article. The school also has most of its swats being administered to high school students, rather than elementary students, as in the case in most school districts.
Dr. Ron Lankford, superintendent, said some students even ask for swats. "I was over at the high school the other day and there were three high school kids who were in trouble," Lankford told the News-Leader. "They said they wanted to come in and take swats so they don't have to stay after." The quote referred to a student preference of swats over after-school detention.
***
CBL and Associates, the company that recently bought Northpark Mall in Joplin, is holding a fundraising collection drive for tsunami relief at all of its malls across the country, according to a company news release.
The article said representatives from local American Red Cross, Salvation Army, Habitat for Humanity, United Way and other selected charities will be invited to have collection stations at the malls.
The news release said those wishing to donate to American Red Cross can also do so by visiting the website for each CBL-owned mall or CBL's website at www.cblproperties.com
***
Nexstar CEO Perry Sook will be profiled in tomorrow's edition of Broadcasting & Cable, an industry magazine. In the article, Sook, whose company owns KSNF and is the de facto owner of KODE, claims that cable companies are mistreating his stations. The article features a lengthy biography, including the fact that his broadcasting career started in Punxatawney, Pa., home of the annual Groundhog Day celebration, and he once worked with Today Show host Matt Lauer at WOWK-TV in Charleston, W. Va.
Sook has been in the spotlight recently due to Nexstar's battles with Cable One and Cox Communications over whether those companies should pay to carry his stations. In Joplin, KODE and KSNF were removed from Cable One at midnight Dec. 31, while the two local stations are scheduled to be removed from Cox Communications franchises in Lamar and Carthage at midnight Jan. 31 if an agreement cannot be reached.
"Our goal was to have cable place a fair value on what we contribute," Sook told the magazine.
He has been Nexstar CEO since 1996.
***
The Texarkana Gazette reports that a number of Cox stations in Arkansas, Louisiana, and Texas will lose the right to carry the signals of Nexstar station KTAL in Shreveport, La., as of Jan. 31.
The cities include Magnolia, Ark., Mount Pleasant, Texas, Wright City, Okla, Valiant, Okla., Bossier City, La., and Minden, La. The article says if those stations are cut off, that will increase the number of Cox and Cable One subscribers not receiving to KTAL to 181,000.
Nexstar chief operations officer Duane Lammers told the Gazette, "We're basically saying to Cox it's time for us to figure out a long-term relationship for all of our cities. They carry us in a number of markets."
***
The city of Joplin requesting a jury trial in the case of a woman who claims she was mistreated during an incident that began at Souls Harbor Shelter.
In a document filed Jan. 18 in U. S. District Court for the Western District of Missouri, the city, through its lawyer Karl Blanchard Jr., of the firm of Blanchard, Robertson, Mitchell & Carter, asked for a jury trial in the suit, which was filed in December by Lori Bordock of Springfield.
Ms. Bordock is suing the city and Souls Harbor, seeking a million dollars from each. She was arrested by the Joplin Police Department following an incident at Souls Harbor, according to her petition.
She claims her civil rights were violated when she was handcuffed and put in a cell with "dangerous criminals." The mattress at the jail bothered her back and she said she was eventually forced to plead guilty to a crime she didn't commit in order to get out of that place."I could not take the inhuman treatment," she said, in the handwritten petition.She filed the suit on her own, she said, because "the lawyers always ask for money. Ms. Bordock said she wanted the seven-figure payout to recompense her "for this horrendous incident that happened to me, a decent American."
Saturday, January 22, 2005
A young Joplin man will be taken off life support Sunday after being declared brain dead as a result of injuries suffered in a hit-and-run accident, according to local television reports.
Charges will be likely be upgraded after Jamison Alexander, 18, a senior at Joplin High School, dies. The police arrested Travis Wyrick, 18, Joplin, on Thursday night, according to the Globe.The teenager has one prior conviction. He entered a guilty plea to a misdemeanor marijuana possession charge May 6, 2004, before Judge Richard Copeland in Jasper County Circuit Court.
The court records indicate that he pleaded guilty to the marijuana charge as part of a plea agreement and that he originally had been charged with a more serious crime.
The records indicate that Wyrick received a $500 fine, was assessed $91.50 in court costs, $150 for drug testing costs, and $10 for the crime victims' compensation fund.
Wyrick's current case has also been assigned to Judge Copeland, according to court records.
Charges will be likely be upgraded after Jamison Alexander, 18, a senior at Joplin High School, dies. The police arrested Travis Wyrick, 18, Joplin, on Thursday night, according to the Globe.The teenager has one prior conviction. He entered a guilty plea to a misdemeanor marijuana possession charge May 6, 2004, before Judge Richard Copeland in Jasper County Circuit Court.
The court records indicate that he pleaded guilty to the marijuana charge as part of a plea agreement and that he originally had been charged with a more serious crime.
The records indicate that Wyrick received a $500 fine, was assessed $91.50 in court costs, $150 for drug testing costs, and $10 for the crime victims' compensation fund.
Wyrick's current case has also been assigned to Judge Copeland, according to court records.
The more things change, the more they remain the same.
Friday's Chicago Sun-Times featured an interesting column by Carol Marin on corruption in the town of Cicero, Ill., the hometown of legendary gangster Al Capone. Apparently, despite the conviction a couple of years back of town president Betty Loren-Maltese and the $1.7 million in damages awarded to the town's former police chief David Niebur, who at one time was Joplin police chief, the corruption in Cicero continues to thrive.
After Ms. Loren-Maltese was sent to prison in 2002, Ramiro Gonzalez was appointed as her successor and since then, according to Ms. Marin's column, he has appointed 18 relatives to city jobs.
Three people filed to run against Gonzalez this year. The Cicero Good Government Group, an ironically named organization led by a man named Ed Vrdolyak, who may be the big boss in Cicero, challenged the filing petitions of the three. Two of Gonzalez' challengers were removed from the ballot. Don't cry for Cicero however. Gonzalez still has one man opposing him. The only problem is Larry Dominick, the last remaining challenger, donated $2,640 to the Cicero Good Government Group over the past five years.
Not surprisingly, some Cicero residents are skeptical of his claim that he wants to put that group out of power, according to the Sun-Times column.
***
David Niebur was supposed to be the man to bring law and order to Al Capone's hometown, but he quickly discovered he was out of his league. When he tried to bring reform to the city, he quickly ran afoul of Ms. Loren-Maltese and was fired. By this time, realizing the extent of the corruption in Cicero, Niebur had gone to the FBI and started the investigation that led to Ms. Loren-Maltese's ouster.
Niebur served as police chief in the Illinois town from December 1997 through April 1998. He was hired to clean up a corrupt town, but when he left he feared for his life, according to a Chicago Tribune article. "For the first time in my life, I believe there are a number of people who would like to see me assassinated. In my career, I have had people shoot at me and I have killed people. But I have never been so scared as I am this week here. This is big-time crime. This is big-time corruption."
Niebur told federal officials and reporters that he had uncovered a seething cesspool of corruption in Cicero including police officers making thousands of dollars a years by shaking down illegal immigrants, making false arrests in order to set up bribes, letting solvable murders go for years without making arrests and the hiring of numerous police officers with long criminal records.
The biggest scandal involved a towing operation in which many city residents, especially minorities were having their cars towed for no apparent reason then having to pay exorbitant prices to get them back. Niebur and his deputy superintendent of police Phillip Bues were fired by the Cicero City Council and filed a multi-county federal civil rights lawsuit against the city officials in U. S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois. Named as defendants in the lawsuit were Town President Betty Loren-Maltese, Town Counsel Merrick Scott Rayle, the Cicero Police Board and individual police commissioners.
Niebur issued a statement the day the lawsuit was filed. "I accepted the position of police superintendent for the Town of Cicero because I wanted to make a difference. It was well known that the police department was in turmoil and 15 to 20 years behind the times in terms of management and operations. I took the position with the intention of reforming the police department and making the residents of Cicero proud of their police officers. I thought that was the reason I was hired. "During the four months I was police superintendent, I did initiate many positive changes in the department. The town president boasted about my job performance and stated that I had turned the morale of the department around in a short time. I was doing the job for which I was hired. "It was not until I began investigating Ram towing and the irregularities in the town's towing practices that I was no longer considered a reformer. I was suspended by the town president from my position as police superintendent in retribution for my cooperation with the FBI and the state police in their investigations of the town's towing practices and alleged corruption. We are filing this lawsuit today because we are being wrongfully punished for exercising our rights under the law.
"However, this lawsuit today is not just about two police executives wrongfully punished for exposing corruption and wrongdoing within government. This action is needed to let all police officers nationwide know that they cannot be fired and maliciously slandered because they did what was right. It will also provide assurance to police executives to do what is necessary in their towns, cities and counties, even when their positions are threatened. For me, the decision to report apparent wrongdoing was the only choice available and one made without hesitation. It is my sincere desire for all law enforcement officers facing a similar situation to be confident to make the same decision."
A federal jury found in Niebur's favor and he was awarded $1.7 million. Ms. Maltese, according to The Chicago Tribune, called Niebur "unprofessional" and said she appealed the jury's ruling. In addition to the $1.7 million penalty assessed against the city, the jury awarded Niebur and another officer an additional $100,000 in punitive damages from Ms. Loren-Maltese. Niebur was featured in an article in the Saturday, May 26, 2001, New York Times. He told a Times reporter, "The hell hopefully is over now. It's just like I had just taken the most wonderful hot shower and whirlpool bath. It was just a cleansing effect. It was three years of hell."
The last time I heard, Niebur had been unsuccessful in his efforts to get back into lawsuit, most prominently in this area in a candidacy for Jasper County sheriff, where he lost to incumbent Bill Pierce (who later resigned when he ran into his own problems with corruption). During that candidacy, the local media made much of Niebur's problems in Cicero and his time as Joplin police chief, but didn't look any further into Niebur's past. At that time, I was writing for the short-lived first version of The Turner Report, a regular website that normally drew about five to 10 visitors a day from summer 2000 to early in 2002 and was updated every week or two.
On that website, I wrote:
The controversy Niebur ran into in Cicero was not the first that had enveloped the veteran police officer. As reported in an earlier edition of The Turner Report, Niebur had run into controversy earlier during his brief stint in Cicero. According to a March 13, 1998, Associated Press article, Niebur supported a deal in which Cicero city officials agreed to pay $10,000 to print and distribute Ku Klux Klan literature in exchange for the Klan agreeing not to stage a rally in the city.
"I guess it could be deemed extortion in one sense," Niebur said in the AP article, "but I don't see it that way. I think this is really a sensible solution under the circumstances." The deal was struck by city officials to prevent violence. In the article, Niebur said security fences alone would have cost approximately $20,000 and the town would have had to foot the bill for state troopers for added security.
A Niebur deal with the Ku Klux Klan would not have surprised people who knew him from his days with Minnesota police departments. According to an article in the May 1, 1998, Chicago Tribune, Niebur was one of several officers named in a federal civil rights lawsuit in the 1960s in a small Minnesota town where he worked as a police supervisor. A jury found the officers and the department had harassed a black driver, the article said.
When he was with the Minneapolis, Minn., Police Department, he had a running battle with the Minneapolis Urban League over arrest rates of African-Americans, the article said. "He had a reputation for being a racist for stopping a lot of black people on the road," former Minneapolis Police Chief Tony Bouza told The Tribune. Bouza, however, did not agree with that assessment.
"I looked at the racism issue and didn't see any racism in his actions," he told The Tribune. Bouza, in fact, promoted Niebur to head of internal affairs, according to an article in the Jan 12, 1989, Minnesota Daily, despite a record that included "42 investigations into charges of brutality, harassment and assault, primarily involving minorities," the article said. The article noted that there was not enough evidence to prove wrongdoing in almost all of the charges. The Chicago Tribune article placed the number of investigations at 48 and said charges against Niebur were sustained in eight of them.
Shortly after Bouza appointed Niebur head of internal affairs, Urban League President Gleason Glover sent Bouza a letter complaining about Niebur's record for dealing with minorities. Niebur was removed from the position shortly after Bouza was replaced by John Laux as police chief. "His (Niebur's) appointment was inappropriate in the first place," Urban League Vice President Gary Sudduth told The Minnesota Daily. "I think Chief Laux realized that if there was going to be honest rebuilding of relations with the minority community, Niebur would be a glitch in that process."
Though Niebur had asked the minority community in Minneapolis to give him a chance during an interview with the Minneapolis Star-Tribune shortly after he was appointed head of internal affairs, any chance of receiving one might have ended five years earlier when he was involved in the shooting death of an unarmed black man named Sal Saran Scott, according to the article in The Minnesota Daily. Niebur also didn't help his cause when he told the Star-Tribune about his activities when he was a traffic control officer. According to the article, "He said that he unlawfully searched cars without probable cause and issued a record number of citations in one year, almost 6,000. Minority leaders complained that a disproportionate number of those citations was given to minorities. "I stopped a lot of blacks," Niebur told the Star-Tribune, "but I stopped a lot of whites. I stopped everybody, anyone that moved."
(As a last note, though I can't recall it ever being mentioned in any area newspaper, or even in the Chicago newspapers, Ms. Loren-Maltese's appeal of the award to Niebur was rejected by a federal appellate judge in 2003.
***
Major decisions are going to be made in this year's General Assembly that will affect the education of every child in this area of Missouri. This is the year in which the legislators are going to try to fix the Foundation formula, through which Missouri elementary and secondary schools are funded.
Our local legislators, at least on the House side, will be sitting this one out. While they have managed to get themselves named to every business-related committee there is, none of our area Republican legislators (there are no area Democratic legislators) Ron Richard, Steve Hunter, Marilyn Ruestman, Bryan Stevenson, Kevin Wilson, and Ed Emery, are serving on any education-related committee, with the exception of Wilson, who is on the Appropriations-Education Committee.
That means, while they will be able to represent this area by casting votes on whatever education bill is proposed, they will have no role in shaping that legislation in a way that would best serve their constituents.
These are the committees on which our local legislators will be serving, in addition to the one mentioned above:
Appropriations, Health, Mental Health, and Social Services- Stevenson
Budget- Stevenson
Financial Institutions- Hunter, Richard
Insurance Policy- Wilson, vice chairman
Job Creation and Economic Development- Richard, chairman; Emery
Judiciary- Ruestman
Local Government- Emery
Professional Registration and Licensing- Ruestman
Rules- Richard
Senior Citizen Advocacy- Ruestman, vice chairman; Wilson
Small Business- Wilson
Utilities- Emery, vice chairman
Ways and Means- Stevenson, vice chairman; Hunter
Workplace Development and Workplace Safety- Hunter, chairman
No area legislator is serving on either the Education Committee or on the Higher Education Committee, which deals with colleges and universities. Of course, there are a lot more committees that deal with various legislation that affects businesses, but this area of southwest Missouri has traditionally sent people to Jefferson City, who have voted in lockstep with what the business interests want, many times at the expense of a majority of their constituents. Of course, it is the business interests that make the donations to finance our legislators' re-election campaigns.
***
This week's search engine results, as always, show people find their way to The Turner Report looking for information on a variety of subjects.
The leader for the past several weeks, former KODE anchor Malorie Maddox, has been replaced atop the search results by Nexstar Broadcasting, followed by a tie between the Diamond R-4 School District, and Newton Learning. Also on the search list were terms as diverse as The Weather Channel, Cloyd Boyer of Alba, Audie Murphy, Edward Meerwald, and Miss Maddox.
Friday's Chicago Sun-Times featured an interesting column by Carol Marin on corruption in the town of Cicero, Ill., the hometown of legendary gangster Al Capone. Apparently, despite the conviction a couple of years back of town president Betty Loren-Maltese and the $1.7 million in damages awarded to the town's former police chief David Niebur, who at one time was Joplin police chief, the corruption in Cicero continues to thrive.
After Ms. Loren-Maltese was sent to prison in 2002, Ramiro Gonzalez was appointed as her successor and since then, according to Ms. Marin's column, he has appointed 18 relatives to city jobs.
Three people filed to run against Gonzalez this year. The Cicero Good Government Group, an ironically named organization led by a man named Ed Vrdolyak, who may be the big boss in Cicero, challenged the filing petitions of the three. Two of Gonzalez' challengers were removed from the ballot. Don't cry for Cicero however. Gonzalez still has one man opposing him. The only problem is Larry Dominick, the last remaining challenger, donated $2,640 to the Cicero Good Government Group over the past five years.
Not surprisingly, some Cicero residents are skeptical of his claim that he wants to put that group out of power, according to the Sun-Times column.
***
David Niebur was supposed to be the man to bring law and order to Al Capone's hometown, but he quickly discovered he was out of his league. When he tried to bring reform to the city, he quickly ran afoul of Ms. Loren-Maltese and was fired. By this time, realizing the extent of the corruption in Cicero, Niebur had gone to the FBI and started the investigation that led to Ms. Loren-Maltese's ouster.
Niebur served as police chief in the Illinois town from December 1997 through April 1998. He was hired to clean up a corrupt town, but when he left he feared for his life, according to a Chicago Tribune article. "For the first time in my life, I believe there are a number of people who would like to see me assassinated. In my career, I have had people shoot at me and I have killed people. But I have never been so scared as I am this week here. This is big-time crime. This is big-time corruption."
Niebur told federal officials and reporters that he had uncovered a seething cesspool of corruption in Cicero including police officers making thousands of dollars a years by shaking down illegal immigrants, making false arrests in order to set up bribes, letting solvable murders go for years without making arrests and the hiring of numerous police officers with long criminal records.
The biggest scandal involved a towing operation in which many city residents, especially minorities were having their cars towed for no apparent reason then having to pay exorbitant prices to get them back. Niebur and his deputy superintendent of police Phillip Bues were fired by the Cicero City Council and filed a multi-county federal civil rights lawsuit against the city officials in U. S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois. Named as defendants in the lawsuit were Town President Betty Loren-Maltese, Town Counsel Merrick Scott Rayle, the Cicero Police Board and individual police commissioners.
Niebur issued a statement the day the lawsuit was filed. "I accepted the position of police superintendent for the Town of Cicero because I wanted to make a difference. It was well known that the police department was in turmoil and 15 to 20 years behind the times in terms of management and operations. I took the position with the intention of reforming the police department and making the residents of Cicero proud of their police officers. I thought that was the reason I was hired. "During the four months I was police superintendent, I did initiate many positive changes in the department. The town president boasted about my job performance and stated that I had turned the morale of the department around in a short time. I was doing the job for which I was hired. "It was not until I began investigating Ram towing and the irregularities in the town's towing practices that I was no longer considered a reformer. I was suspended by the town president from my position as police superintendent in retribution for my cooperation with the FBI and the state police in their investigations of the town's towing practices and alleged corruption. We are filing this lawsuit today because we are being wrongfully punished for exercising our rights under the law.
"However, this lawsuit today is not just about two police executives wrongfully punished for exposing corruption and wrongdoing within government. This action is needed to let all police officers nationwide know that they cannot be fired and maliciously slandered because they did what was right. It will also provide assurance to police executives to do what is necessary in their towns, cities and counties, even when their positions are threatened. For me, the decision to report apparent wrongdoing was the only choice available and one made without hesitation. It is my sincere desire for all law enforcement officers facing a similar situation to be confident to make the same decision."
A federal jury found in Niebur's favor and he was awarded $1.7 million. Ms. Maltese, according to The Chicago Tribune, called Niebur "unprofessional" and said she appealed the jury's ruling. In addition to the $1.7 million penalty assessed against the city, the jury awarded Niebur and another officer an additional $100,000 in punitive damages from Ms. Loren-Maltese. Niebur was featured in an article in the Saturday, May 26, 2001, New York Times. He told a Times reporter, "The hell hopefully is over now. It's just like I had just taken the most wonderful hot shower and whirlpool bath. It was just a cleansing effect. It was three years of hell."
The last time I heard, Niebur had been unsuccessful in his efforts to get back into lawsuit, most prominently in this area in a candidacy for Jasper County sheriff, where he lost to incumbent Bill Pierce (who later resigned when he ran into his own problems with corruption). During that candidacy, the local media made much of Niebur's problems in Cicero and his time as Joplin police chief, but didn't look any further into Niebur's past. At that time, I was writing for the short-lived first version of The Turner Report, a regular website that normally drew about five to 10 visitors a day from summer 2000 to early in 2002 and was updated every week or two.
On that website, I wrote:
The controversy Niebur ran into in Cicero was not the first that had enveloped the veteran police officer. As reported in an earlier edition of The Turner Report, Niebur had run into controversy earlier during his brief stint in Cicero. According to a March 13, 1998, Associated Press article, Niebur supported a deal in which Cicero city officials agreed to pay $10,000 to print and distribute Ku Klux Klan literature in exchange for the Klan agreeing not to stage a rally in the city.
"I guess it could be deemed extortion in one sense," Niebur said in the AP article, "but I don't see it that way. I think this is really a sensible solution under the circumstances." The deal was struck by city officials to prevent violence. In the article, Niebur said security fences alone would have cost approximately $20,000 and the town would have had to foot the bill for state troopers for added security.
A Niebur deal with the Ku Klux Klan would not have surprised people who knew him from his days with Minnesota police departments. According to an article in the May 1, 1998, Chicago Tribune, Niebur was one of several officers named in a federal civil rights lawsuit in the 1960s in a small Minnesota town where he worked as a police supervisor. A jury found the officers and the department had harassed a black driver, the article said.
When he was with the Minneapolis, Minn., Police Department, he had a running battle with the Minneapolis Urban League over arrest rates of African-Americans, the article said. "He had a reputation for being a racist for stopping a lot of black people on the road," former Minneapolis Police Chief Tony Bouza told The Tribune. Bouza, however, did not agree with that assessment.
"I looked at the racism issue and didn't see any racism in his actions," he told The Tribune. Bouza, in fact, promoted Niebur to head of internal affairs, according to an article in the Jan 12, 1989, Minnesota Daily, despite a record that included "42 investigations into charges of brutality, harassment and assault, primarily involving minorities," the article said. The article noted that there was not enough evidence to prove wrongdoing in almost all of the charges. The Chicago Tribune article placed the number of investigations at 48 and said charges against Niebur were sustained in eight of them.
Shortly after Bouza appointed Niebur head of internal affairs, Urban League President Gleason Glover sent Bouza a letter complaining about Niebur's record for dealing with minorities. Niebur was removed from the position shortly after Bouza was replaced by John Laux as police chief. "His (Niebur's) appointment was inappropriate in the first place," Urban League Vice President Gary Sudduth told The Minnesota Daily. "I think Chief Laux realized that if there was going to be honest rebuilding of relations with the minority community, Niebur would be a glitch in that process."
Though Niebur had asked the minority community in Minneapolis to give him a chance during an interview with the Minneapolis Star-Tribune shortly after he was appointed head of internal affairs, any chance of receiving one might have ended five years earlier when he was involved in the shooting death of an unarmed black man named Sal Saran Scott, according to the article in The Minnesota Daily. Niebur also didn't help his cause when he told the Star-Tribune about his activities when he was a traffic control officer. According to the article, "He said that he unlawfully searched cars without probable cause and issued a record number of citations in one year, almost 6,000. Minority leaders complained that a disproportionate number of those citations was given to minorities. "I stopped a lot of blacks," Niebur told the Star-Tribune, "but I stopped a lot of whites. I stopped everybody, anyone that moved."
(As a last note, though I can't recall it ever being mentioned in any area newspaper, or even in the Chicago newspapers, Ms. Loren-Maltese's appeal of the award to Niebur was rejected by a federal appellate judge in 2003.
***
Major decisions are going to be made in this year's General Assembly that will affect the education of every child in this area of Missouri. This is the year in which the legislators are going to try to fix the Foundation formula, through which Missouri elementary and secondary schools are funded.
Our local legislators, at least on the House side, will be sitting this one out. While they have managed to get themselves named to every business-related committee there is, none of our area Republican legislators (there are no area Democratic legislators) Ron Richard, Steve Hunter, Marilyn Ruestman, Bryan Stevenson, Kevin Wilson, and Ed Emery, are serving on any education-related committee, with the exception of Wilson, who is on the Appropriations-Education Committee.
That means, while they will be able to represent this area by casting votes on whatever education bill is proposed, they will have no role in shaping that legislation in a way that would best serve their constituents.
These are the committees on which our local legislators will be serving, in addition to the one mentioned above:
Appropriations, Health, Mental Health, and Social Services- Stevenson
Budget- Stevenson
Financial Institutions- Hunter, Richard
Insurance Policy- Wilson, vice chairman
Job Creation and Economic Development- Richard, chairman; Emery
Judiciary- Ruestman
Local Government- Emery
Professional Registration and Licensing- Ruestman
Rules- Richard
Senior Citizen Advocacy- Ruestman, vice chairman; Wilson
Small Business- Wilson
Utilities- Emery, vice chairman
Ways and Means- Stevenson, vice chairman; Hunter
Workplace Development and Workplace Safety- Hunter, chairman
No area legislator is serving on either the Education Committee or on the Higher Education Committee, which deals with colleges and universities. Of course, there are a lot more committees that deal with various legislation that affects businesses, but this area of southwest Missouri has traditionally sent people to Jefferson City, who have voted in lockstep with what the business interests want, many times at the expense of a majority of their constituents. Of course, it is the business interests that make the donations to finance our legislators' re-election campaigns.
***
This week's search engine results, as always, show people find their way to The Turner Report looking for information on a variety of subjects.
The leader for the past several weeks, former KODE anchor Malorie Maddox, has been replaced atop the search results by Nexstar Broadcasting, followed by a tie between the Diamond R-4 School District, and Newton Learning. Also on the search list were terms as diverse as The Weather Channel, Cloyd Boyer of Alba, Audie Murphy, Edward Meerwald, and Miss Maddox.
The search for a new superintendent for the Neosho R-5 School District began under a cloud and has finished in the same way.
No one picked up on it when it was noted in the Nov. 7 Turner Report that the R-5 Board of Education began its selection process by illegally meeting in closed session to decide who would serve on the blue-ribbon screening committee chosen to review the superintendent candidates.
This week the board rejected the top two candidates submitted by the committee and decided to promote Assistant Superintendent Richard Page, a former Sarcoxie superintendent and Webb City assistant superintendent.
Neosho Daily News Editor Buzz Ball broke the story of the board's action in the Friday Daily in a strong story that didn't sugarcoat the board's cavalier rejection of its own committee's recommendations.
One of the committee's two recommendations reportedly had skeletons in his closet that disqualified him, but that information was not presented to the screening committee. Ball's article indicates that Board President Steve Marble may have already known about the candidate's problems and withheld that information from the board.
"If we had that information, our voting would have been entirely different," search committee member Danette Bowles told the Daily. "I think once he got disqualified, there should have been a delay in the decision making. If they truly wanted the committee's input, they should have contacted us to talk about the other candidates. I think we really needed to start over again."
The article also indicates that the board had already paved the way for Dr. Page's coronation by telling the committee it only wanted a superintendent who had worked in a district the size of Neosho...a qualification that only one candidate, Page, met.
Whether Dr. Page is the best candidate for the job remains to be seen, but he will be under the gun from the start because of the ham-handed in which way current superintendent Mark Mitchell and the board handled the selection process.
The process began with an ad being placed in various sources, including with the Jobs for Missouri Educators site. It read:
"Neosho R-5 School District Board of Education is announcing the opening of Superintendent of Schools. The position begins July 1, 2005. Applications will be accepted until the closing date of December 17, 2004. The R-5 District enjoys a long heritage as an educational leader and is accredited by the State Department of Education and the High School is accredited by North Central Association of Schools and Colleges. With a current enrollment of 4,266, Neosho Schools is a progressive district with numerous achievements including MSIP waivers and Distinction of Performance Awards. Certificated staff totals 291 and non-certificated staff totals 241. The R-5 District covers 223 square miles with a budget of 25.5 million dollars. Applicants must possess a commitment to superior lev (that's where the sentence ends and I don't have any idea what a superior lev is. It must be one of those educational terms.)"Candidates must submit a formal letter of application, current resume, updated credentials and a completed application. All correspondence should be directed to: Dr. Mark W. Mitchell, Superintendent of Schools, Neosho R-5 School District, 5 Neosho Blvd., Neosho, MO 64850 (417) 451-8600, Fax: (417) 451-8604 Email: mitchell@neosho.k12.mo.us."
The entire first part of the ad read more like a self-tribute to the current superintendent (since he most likely was the one who worded the ad) than an attempt to find a successor. And, of course, Mitchell was the first person who saw who the applicants were.
The next problem came with the selection of the search committee, a committee which ostensibly was designed to open the process to the community. The board immediately closed the process to the community by selecting the committee membership behind closed doors.
The Missouri Open Meetings Law shows no exception by which the board could discuss this topic in a closed session. School boards and city councils across the state use an umbrella exemption of "personnel" for these sessions, but the law clearly states that only applies to the hiring, firing, promoting, or disciplining of identifiable individuals.
This meeting topic had nothing whatsoever to do with any of those.
This was a textbook example of how not to choose a superintendent.
***
Buzz Ball is not the only person who has shed light on this flawed selection process. A poster on Neosho Forums noted that an Oct. 27 Joplin Globe article by Dena Sloan clearly indicated that Marble already favored Page for the position. The article read, "Marble said board members will have to decide on an approach to finding a replacement, but Marble said he would like to consider internal candidates, and called the two assistant superintendents, Richard Page and Gretchen Guitard, 'star performers.' "
In the article, Marble was quoted as saying, "I certainly wouldn't speak for the board, but there's no doubt in my mind that Dr. Page is my first look." Marble added that Page had been groomed for the position.
In that case, why go through the charade of opening the process to the public, then rejecting the committee's recommendations.
Marble's early endorsement of Page, then his apparent withholding of vital information from the search committee, definitely makes it appear that he was pulling strings to make sure his choice was the only one who could possibly end up with the job.
***
Monday is the deadline for the final bids for the Pulitzer Company, owner of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, according to The Wall Street Journal and if the company that appears to be the frontrunner has the winning bid, it could have a big impact on the media power structure in Missouri.
The Journal article, as well as an article in Friday's St. Louis Business Journal, indicates that Gannett is the front-runner, along with Lee Enterprises. One thing not mentioned in the article is that if Gannett takes over the Post-Dispatch, it will own two of the three most powerful newspapers in the state, since it already publishes the Springfield News-Leader. The other member of the top three, the Kansas City Star, is owned by Knight-Ridder. Gannett already owns KSDK-TV in St. Louis, so there may be a roadblock from federal regulators, but the strict attitude that used to exist toward that type of relationship has been greatly relaxed over the past few years.
No one picked up on it when it was noted in the Nov. 7 Turner Report that the R-5 Board of Education began its selection process by illegally meeting in closed session to decide who would serve on the blue-ribbon screening committee chosen to review the superintendent candidates.
This week the board rejected the top two candidates submitted by the committee and decided to promote Assistant Superintendent Richard Page, a former Sarcoxie superintendent and Webb City assistant superintendent.
Neosho Daily News Editor Buzz Ball broke the story of the board's action in the Friday Daily in a strong story that didn't sugarcoat the board's cavalier rejection of its own committee's recommendations.
One of the committee's two recommendations reportedly had skeletons in his closet that disqualified him, but that information was not presented to the screening committee. Ball's article indicates that Board President Steve Marble may have already known about the candidate's problems and withheld that information from the board.
"If we had that information, our voting would have been entirely different," search committee member Danette Bowles told the Daily. "I think once he got disqualified, there should have been a delay in the decision making. If they truly wanted the committee's input, they should have contacted us to talk about the other candidates. I think we really needed to start over again."
The article also indicates that the board had already paved the way for Dr. Page's coronation by telling the committee it only wanted a superintendent who had worked in a district the size of Neosho...a qualification that only one candidate, Page, met.
Whether Dr. Page is the best candidate for the job remains to be seen, but he will be under the gun from the start because of the ham-handed in which way current superintendent Mark Mitchell and the board handled the selection process.
The process began with an ad being placed in various sources, including with the Jobs for Missouri Educators site. It read:
"Neosho R-5 School District Board of Education is announcing the opening of Superintendent of Schools. The position begins July 1, 2005. Applications will be accepted until the closing date of December 17, 2004. The R-5 District enjoys a long heritage as an educational leader and is accredited by the State Department of Education and the High School is accredited by North Central Association of Schools and Colleges. With a current enrollment of 4,266, Neosho Schools is a progressive district with numerous achievements including MSIP waivers and Distinction of Performance Awards. Certificated staff totals 291 and non-certificated staff totals 241. The R-5 District covers 223 square miles with a budget of 25.5 million dollars. Applicants must possess a commitment to superior lev (that's where the sentence ends and I don't have any idea what a superior lev is. It must be one of those educational terms.)"Candidates must submit a formal letter of application, current resume, updated credentials and a completed application. All correspondence should be directed to: Dr. Mark W. Mitchell, Superintendent of Schools, Neosho R-5 School District, 5 Neosho Blvd., Neosho, MO 64850 (417) 451-8600, Fax: (417) 451-8604 Email: mitchell@neosho.k12.mo.us."
The entire first part of the ad read more like a self-tribute to the current superintendent (since he most likely was the one who worded the ad) than an attempt to find a successor. And, of course, Mitchell was the first person who saw who the applicants were.
The next problem came with the selection of the search committee, a committee which ostensibly was designed to open the process to the community. The board immediately closed the process to the community by selecting the committee membership behind closed doors.
The Missouri Open Meetings Law shows no exception by which the board could discuss this topic in a closed session. School boards and city councils across the state use an umbrella exemption of "personnel" for these sessions, but the law clearly states that only applies to the hiring, firing, promoting, or disciplining of identifiable individuals.
This meeting topic had nothing whatsoever to do with any of those.
This was a textbook example of how not to choose a superintendent.
***
Buzz Ball is not the only person who has shed light on this flawed selection process. A poster on Neosho Forums noted that an Oct. 27 Joplin Globe article by Dena Sloan clearly indicated that Marble already favored Page for the position. The article read, "Marble said board members will have to decide on an approach to finding a replacement, but Marble said he would like to consider internal candidates, and called the two assistant superintendents, Richard Page and Gretchen Guitard, 'star performers.' "
In the article, Marble was quoted as saying, "I certainly wouldn't speak for the board, but there's no doubt in my mind that Dr. Page is my first look." Marble added that Page had been groomed for the position.
In that case, why go through the charade of opening the process to the public, then rejecting the committee's recommendations.
Marble's early endorsement of Page, then his apparent withholding of vital information from the search committee, definitely makes it appear that he was pulling strings to make sure his choice was the only one who could possibly end up with the job.
***
Monday is the deadline for the final bids for the Pulitzer Company, owner of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, according to The Wall Street Journal and if the company that appears to be the frontrunner has the winning bid, it could have a big impact on the media power structure in Missouri.
The Journal article, as well as an article in Friday's St. Louis Business Journal, indicates that Gannett is the front-runner, along with Lee Enterprises. One thing not mentioned in the article is that if Gannett takes over the Post-Dispatch, it will own two of the three most powerful newspapers in the state, since it already publishes the Springfield News-Leader. The other member of the top three, the Kansas City Star, is owned by Knight-Ridder. Gannett already owns KSDK-TV in St. Louis, so there may be a roadblock from federal regulators, but the strict attitude that used to exist toward that type of relationship has been greatly relaxed over the past few years.
Thursday, January 20, 2005
It probably won't pass, given the Republican-controlled nature of the current Missouri General Assembly, but 83rd District Rep. Barbara Fraser- D-St. Louis, has filed a bill that would prohibit spanking in Missouri public schools.
The practice is already out of favor in some public schools and is a last resort in others so it would not have much of an effect in that regard, but some other portions of the bill are far more interesting.
The bill would require acts of student violence or violent behavior on school property, including school buses, or while involved in school activities, to be reported to the police.
School officials would have to report the following types of activities:
-First degree murder
-Second degree murder
-Kidnapping
-First degree assault
-Forcible rape
-Forcible sodomy
-Burglary in the first degree
-Burglary in the second degree
-Robbery in the first degree
-Distribution of drugs
-Distribution of drugs to a minor
-Arson
-Voluntary manslaughter
-Involuntary manslaughter
-Second degree assault
-Sexual assault
-Felonious restraint
-Property damage in the first degree
-Possession of a weapon
-Child molestation in the first degree
-Deviate sexual assault
-Sexual misconduct involving a child
-Sexual abuse
The law would require that information about any student with a history of violent behavior will be given to the teachers who deal with those students.
Any student who is under suspension for any violent act will not be allowed to be within 1,000 feet of any school building in the district from which he was suspended, unless he or she is attending an alternative school within 1,000 feet or lives within 1,000 feet of the school.
My earlier comment about the bill not standing much of a chance in a Republican-controlled legislature was only meant to indicate that the bill stands less of a chance because it is being submitted by a Democrat.
***
The judge in the civil suit filed by former Newton County prisoner Oscar Alvarez against former Newton County Sheriff Ron Doerge and Newton County has ordered the two sides to submit a schedule and discovery plan by March 30, according to a notice filed today in U. S. District Court for the Western District of Missouri. The discovery segment should be completed within 180 days of the day the last defendant is served, the notice said. Alvarez claims that two deputies opened his cell door while he was in jail on a misdemeanor non-support charge and allowed two prisoners to administer a beating to him. He is suing Doerge because the former sheriff was in charge of the two men, the lawsuit said. More information on the lawsuit is included in earlier editions of The Turner Report.
***
A personal note: One of the students in my fifth hour eighth grade communication arts class, Jee Choi, placed third in the annual Joplin Elks Lodge Essay Contest open to all middle school students in area public and private schools.
This year's topic, "What Old Glory Means to Me" was not an easy one to express in words, but the perspective of Jee, a Vietnamese- American, is a particularly interesting one. Anyone interested in reading what Jee and some of my other students had to say about the flag can find the essays on the Wall of Fame page on www.room210.com
***
A reader was curious about why I haven't remarked about the fact that the news programming arrangement between KOAM and Joplin's Fox station, KFJX, hasn't been mentioned in this blog, since I have been particularly critical of the similar arrangement between Nexstar's stations, KODE and KSNF.
That's a fair question.
Yes, it does bother me that we have only two local television news voices in this area when we have an opportunity to have four, but there are reasons why I have been more critical of the Nexstar stations.
1. To me, the KFJX 9 p.m. news is mainly an opportunity to see the news at an earlier time and it is mainly competing with entertainment alternatives.
2. I have not seen any effort by management at KOAM and KFJX to try to manipulate the public by disguising self-serving advertisements as news or by presenting only one side of a news story that involves them.
3. KOAM appears to be putting some money into its news operation while it's no secret (I hear it from people from all four Joplin stations) that Nexstar is doing things on the cheap as much as possible.
***
Cox Communications filed the complaint with the FCC that I mentioned earlier in The Turner Report, even though it was filed today rather than yesterday as had been anticipated.
In the 43-page complaint, Cox alleges that Nexstar Broadcasting and Mission Broadcasting "are violating their legal duty to engage in 'good faith' efforts to reach retransmission-consent deals for several stations that the broadcasters have pulled from the cable operator," Multichannel News reported today.
The complaint says, "If the commission condones the tactics and collective demands of Nexstar and Mission, acting together, then Nexstar has made it clear through its words and actions that this dispute will spread to all Nexstar and Mission television stations in markets where Cox operates cable systems, which would encompass a total of 19 stations and over 595,000 Cox subscribers."
The article also says Cox is claiming that Nexstar wants the cable company to buy $75,000 in advertising on all 19 Nexstar and Mission stations it carries. "In short," the complaint reads, "Nexstar and Mission have demanded that Cox pay in excess of $8.9 million for the privilege of continuing to retransmit the broadcast signals of five television stations that are free over-the-air in these communities."
The complaint accuses Nexstar and Mission of being involved in collusion and a conspiracy.
Nexstar COO Duane Lammers told Multichannel News he had not read the complaint but that Nexstar was complying with all FCC regulations.
In a humorous conclusion to the article, Multichannel News reported that it could not reach officials at Mission Broadcasting for comment.
If an agreement is not reached between Cox and Nexstar by Jan. 31, KODE and KSNF will be removed from Cox's cable franchises in Lamar and Carthage.
***
Nexstar's ideas of the relationship between broadcast and cable TV had changed considerably over the past six and a half years.
An FCC document, dated Sept. 25, 1998, shows Nexstar trying to convince the regulatory agency to force River Valley Cable TV, Inc., in the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton area of Pennsylvania to carry Nexstar's WYOU-TV, a CBS affiliate. Initially, FCC officials ordered the cable company to carry WYOU because of federal requirements that cable companies must carry local TV channels if the channels want to have their signals carried.
River Valley appealed, noting that the illness of an employee who would have filed the response to Nexstar's request had kept the company from doing so. In its appeal, River Valley officials noted that they already carried a CBS station which was right in the center of their operating area, while Nexstar's station was on the periphery. The FCC reversed its decision.
In 1998, Nexstar was trying to force a cable station to carry it, even though it wasn't really in much of the cable system's territory. In 2005, Nexstar wants to charge cable companies that directly serve their viewing area.
The times are definitely a-changin'.
***
As for tonight's local TV news:
-As far as I could tell, switching between the three channels during their 10 p.m. telecasts, KSNF was the only one to report on a decision that could make a huge difference in the speed with which the evidence from area crime scenes is processed. The station carried the information that the governor will be here tomorrow and an announcement will be made concerning the city of Joplin returning its business from the Highway Patrol lab to Missouri Southern.
-KOAM offered the best coverage of the sad story of a Joplin teenager who will be taken of life support this weekend after his father gets a chance to see him for a final time. The youth was a victim of a hit-and-run. The other stations also had good coverage.
-KOAM was the only station to offer coverage of the meeting at Diamond, in which the high school there continues to explore the possibility of setting up drug testing for students who participate in extracurricular activities. As serious as the drug problem is this area, though, I would love to see one of the TV stations or The Globe explore the constitutional issues involved in drug testing.
-KSNF also carried a feature on some Minnesota residents who came to Carl Junction to help families rebuild houses as the city continues to struggle with the aftermath of the tornadoes that hit there several months ago.
This was a night where you couldn't go wrong no matter which station you were watching.
The practice is already out of favor in some public schools and is a last resort in others so it would not have much of an effect in that regard, but some other portions of the bill are far more interesting.
The bill would require acts of student violence or violent behavior on school property, including school buses, or while involved in school activities, to be reported to the police.
School officials would have to report the following types of activities:
-First degree murder
-Second degree murder
-Kidnapping
-First degree assault
-Forcible rape
-Forcible sodomy
-Burglary in the first degree
-Burglary in the second degree
-Robbery in the first degree
-Distribution of drugs
-Distribution of drugs to a minor
-Arson
-Voluntary manslaughter
-Involuntary manslaughter
-Second degree assault
-Sexual assault
-Felonious restraint
-Property damage in the first degree
-Possession of a weapon
-Child molestation in the first degree
-Deviate sexual assault
-Sexual misconduct involving a child
-Sexual abuse
The law would require that information about any student with a history of violent behavior will be given to the teachers who deal with those students.
Any student who is under suspension for any violent act will not be allowed to be within 1,000 feet of any school building in the district from which he was suspended, unless he or she is attending an alternative school within 1,000 feet or lives within 1,000 feet of the school.
My earlier comment about the bill not standing much of a chance in a Republican-controlled legislature was only meant to indicate that the bill stands less of a chance because it is being submitted by a Democrat.
***
The judge in the civil suit filed by former Newton County prisoner Oscar Alvarez against former Newton County Sheriff Ron Doerge and Newton County has ordered the two sides to submit a schedule and discovery plan by March 30, according to a notice filed today in U. S. District Court for the Western District of Missouri. The discovery segment should be completed within 180 days of the day the last defendant is served, the notice said. Alvarez claims that two deputies opened his cell door while he was in jail on a misdemeanor non-support charge and allowed two prisoners to administer a beating to him. He is suing Doerge because the former sheriff was in charge of the two men, the lawsuit said. More information on the lawsuit is included in earlier editions of The Turner Report.
***
A personal note: One of the students in my fifth hour eighth grade communication arts class, Jee Choi, placed third in the annual Joplin Elks Lodge Essay Contest open to all middle school students in area public and private schools.
This year's topic, "What Old Glory Means to Me" was not an easy one to express in words, but the perspective of Jee, a Vietnamese- American, is a particularly interesting one. Anyone interested in reading what Jee and some of my other students had to say about the flag can find the essays on the Wall of Fame page on www.room210.com
***
A reader was curious about why I haven't remarked about the fact that the news programming arrangement between KOAM and Joplin's Fox station, KFJX, hasn't been mentioned in this blog, since I have been particularly critical of the similar arrangement between Nexstar's stations, KODE and KSNF.
That's a fair question.
Yes, it does bother me that we have only two local television news voices in this area when we have an opportunity to have four, but there are reasons why I have been more critical of the Nexstar stations.
1. To me, the KFJX 9 p.m. news is mainly an opportunity to see the news at an earlier time and it is mainly competing with entertainment alternatives.
2. I have not seen any effort by management at KOAM and KFJX to try to manipulate the public by disguising self-serving advertisements as news or by presenting only one side of a news story that involves them.
3. KOAM appears to be putting some money into its news operation while it's no secret (I hear it from people from all four Joplin stations) that Nexstar is doing things on the cheap as much as possible.
***
Cox Communications filed the complaint with the FCC that I mentioned earlier in The Turner Report, even though it was filed today rather than yesterday as had been anticipated.
In the 43-page complaint, Cox alleges that Nexstar Broadcasting and Mission Broadcasting "are violating their legal duty to engage in 'good faith' efforts to reach retransmission-consent deals for several stations that the broadcasters have pulled from the cable operator," Multichannel News reported today.
The complaint says, "If the commission condones the tactics and collective demands of Nexstar and Mission, acting together, then Nexstar has made it clear through its words and actions that this dispute will spread to all Nexstar and Mission television stations in markets where Cox operates cable systems, which would encompass a total of 19 stations and over 595,000 Cox subscribers."
The article also says Cox is claiming that Nexstar wants the cable company to buy $75,000 in advertising on all 19 Nexstar and Mission stations it carries. "In short," the complaint reads, "Nexstar and Mission have demanded that Cox pay in excess of $8.9 million for the privilege of continuing to retransmit the broadcast signals of five television stations that are free over-the-air in these communities."
The complaint accuses Nexstar and Mission of being involved in collusion and a conspiracy.
Nexstar COO Duane Lammers told Multichannel News he had not read the complaint but that Nexstar was complying with all FCC regulations.
In a humorous conclusion to the article, Multichannel News reported that it could not reach officials at Mission Broadcasting for comment.
If an agreement is not reached between Cox and Nexstar by Jan. 31, KODE and KSNF will be removed from Cox's cable franchises in Lamar and Carthage.
***
Nexstar's ideas of the relationship between broadcast and cable TV had changed considerably over the past six and a half years.
An FCC document, dated Sept. 25, 1998, shows Nexstar trying to convince the regulatory agency to force River Valley Cable TV, Inc., in the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton area of Pennsylvania to carry Nexstar's WYOU-TV, a CBS affiliate. Initially, FCC officials ordered the cable company to carry WYOU because of federal requirements that cable companies must carry local TV channels if the channels want to have their signals carried.
River Valley appealed, noting that the illness of an employee who would have filed the response to Nexstar's request had kept the company from doing so. In its appeal, River Valley officials noted that they already carried a CBS station which was right in the center of their operating area, while Nexstar's station was on the periphery. The FCC reversed its decision.
In 1998, Nexstar was trying to force a cable station to carry it, even though it wasn't really in much of the cable system's territory. In 2005, Nexstar wants to charge cable companies that directly serve their viewing area.
The times are definitely a-changin'.
***
As for tonight's local TV news:
-As far as I could tell, switching between the three channels during their 10 p.m. telecasts, KSNF was the only one to report on a decision that could make a huge difference in the speed with which the evidence from area crime scenes is processed. The station carried the information that the governor will be here tomorrow and an announcement will be made concerning the city of Joplin returning its business from the Highway Patrol lab to Missouri Southern.
-KOAM offered the best coverage of the sad story of a Joplin teenager who will be taken of life support this weekend after his father gets a chance to see him for a final time. The youth was a victim of a hit-and-run. The other stations also had good coverage.
-KOAM was the only station to offer coverage of the meeting at Diamond, in which the high school there continues to explore the possibility of setting up drug testing for students who participate in extracurricular activities. As serious as the drug problem is this area, though, I would love to see one of the TV stations or The Globe explore the constitutional issues involved in drug testing.
-KSNF also carried a feature on some Minnesota residents who came to Carl Junction to help families rebuild houses as the city continues to struggle with the aftermath of the tornadoes that hit there several months ago.
This was a night where you couldn't go wrong no matter which station you were watching.
Wednesday, January 19, 2005
Two Joplin area state representatives have been assigned committee chairmanships by Speaker of the House Rod Jetton. Rep. Steve Hunter, R-Carl Junction, will be chairman of the Workforce Development and Workplace Safety Committee, and Rep. Ron Richard, R-Joplin, will head the Job Creation and Economic Development Committee.
***
More information about the complaint filed with the Missouri Ethics Commission about former Missouri State Representative and Enron lobbyist Roy Cagle, first mentioned in The Turner Report, will run in an article in tomorrow's Joplin Globe.
Cagle reportedly says the complaint has no merit and involves a bureaucratic snafu. The complaint alleges that Cagle did not register as a lobbyist for all of the companies he represented. Cagle says he did, but that he no longer serves as a lobbyist for the organization in question.
***
Nothing used to irritate me more than the annual press release sent out by Missouri Southern State College (it was college at the time) announcing that tuition rates were going up. Each year, year after year, the news release would come, always accompanied by the announcement that the college's tuition rates were still the lowest in the state of Missouri.
The good news is that MSSU did not raise its tuition rates this year. The better news is that college students may receive some added protection against this insidious practice of annual tuition increases that far surpass the rate of inflation.
The first reading of a bill submitted by 14th District Missouri State Representative Joe Smith, R-St. Charles was held today. Smith's bill would freeze tuition rates for state undergraduates from the time they enter college until they graduate.
***
An April 24, 2006, trial date has been set for the Diamond R-4 School District's lawsuit against Edison Schools, according to documents filed today in U. S. District Court for the Western District of Missouri.
The two sides in the dispute have a July 15 deadline for discovery, the documents said.
School district officials claim they should not have to pay Edison $88,000 of the fee the company is charging for operating Diamond's summer school in 2002. This apparently is the only time a school district has gone to court to question Edison's bills. The company, under its summer school unit Newton Learning, operates summer school for the Sarcoxie, East Newton, and McDonald County school districts in southwest Missouri and have made considerable money for those districts.
Newton Learning provides the curriculum and hires the teachers, usually from within the district, and pays them. Newton also provides materials, which the school districts are allowed to keep.
***
The man with the $10 million dollar teeth, Martin Anthony Eck, will be questioned Friday, Jan. 28, by lawyers representing Jasper County Sheriff Archie Dunn and the Jasper County Commission, according to a document filed today in U. S. District Court for the Western District of Missouri. Eck brought a $10 million lawsuit against the county claiming he was deprived of his dental care while he was in the Jasper County Jail. The questioning will take place at the Jefferson City Correctional Center, where Eck is serving time after pleading guilty to child molestation.
***
The promotion of an inexperienced reporter to an anchor position at Nexstar's KSFX-TV (formerly KDEB) in Springfield continues to be the subject of much speculation in the Ron Davis blog out of Springfield. Rachel Aram had her first night at the anchor desk at KSFX after spending only three months at KSFX's partner station, KOLR of Mission Broadcasting (the two stations have the same arrangement as KODE and KSNF have in the Joplin market. Other, more experienced KOLR personnel were bypassed to promote Ms. Aram, posters on the Davis blog said.
Apparently, she has interesting eating habits. According to her bio on the KOLR website, Ms. Aram, who grew up in Springfield, is proud of the fact that she has "two motivating, nourishing parents."
I hope she meant nurturing.
***
A celebration of the publication of Carthage native John Hall's book, "Mickey Mantle: Before the Glory," was planned during a meeting earlier this week at Missouri Southern State University. Members of the old minor league teams, the Baxter Springs Whiz Kids, Joplin Miners, and Independence Yankees will be recognized during the festivities.
After a meeting attended by Hall, Judy Stiles and Bill Hunt of MSSU's KGCS-TV, Mike McAfee, director of the Joplin Convention and Visitors Bureau, and Mike Greninger, executive director of the Joplin Sports Authority, the dates of April 15 and 16 were selected and a preliminary agenda was announced.
A mixer will be held 6 p.m. April 15, at the host motel, which will be announced later. Lunch is tentatively planned for 12 noon April 16 at Joe Becker Stadium. Former area minor league baseball players, many of whom played with Mickey Mantle, will be announced during the Missouri Southern-Missouri Western doubleheader that afternoon.
A catered banquet will be held at 6 p.m. at the Joplin Sports Hall of Fame in Schifferdecker Park. Hall says a "special speaker" will be at the event and notes "the speaker will be special."
Exact figures will be announced later, but Hall says the registration fee will likely be in the $25 to $30 range.
More information later.
***
The industry magazine TV Business Review has come down squarely on Nexstar's side in its continuing battle with Cox and Cable One over payment for airing the programming of Nexstar stations.
In today's edition, the magazine editors noted, "TVBR stands with Nexstar to help educate television executives on the high importance of fighting now for this financial improvement by the cable MSOs or by 2006 it will be too late and the winds of Naples, Fla., will be at your back."
Nexstar COO Duane Lammers told the magazine he was not surprised by the negative public reaction against his company, but he said he and other Nexstar executives have spent "long hours" talking to customers by telephone and explaining their position and he thinks the conversations are beginning to have a positive effect.
The San Angelo Texas Standard-Times supported Cox Communications against Nexstar, in an editorial accusing Nexstar of being greedy. "Nexstar's demands aren't reasonable," the Standard-Times editorial said. The newspaper criticized the San Angelo stations for their out-of-town ownership, which struck some as odd since Cox Communications is also an out-of-town business and the Standard-Times itself is run by an out-of-town company, E. W. Scripps.
The next big deadline locally comes a week from Monday when Nexstar plans to order Cox to take KODE and KSNF off its cable franchises in Lamar and Carthage.
***
Former Lamar High School Principal John Garton will retire from education at the end of the current school year. Garton has been serving as part-time superintendent in the Miller R-2 School District while that district hires a new leader.
Tonight's Carthage Press article by Kaylea Hutson indicates Anthony Rossetti, currently principal at Columbian Elementary School in Carthage will be the new superintendent.
Garton, a Miller native, also served time as an interim superintendent in the Jasper R-5 School District.
***
More information about the complaint filed with the Missouri Ethics Commission about former Missouri State Representative and Enron lobbyist Roy Cagle, first mentioned in The Turner Report, will run in an article in tomorrow's Joplin Globe.
Cagle reportedly says the complaint has no merit and involves a bureaucratic snafu. The complaint alleges that Cagle did not register as a lobbyist for all of the companies he represented. Cagle says he did, but that he no longer serves as a lobbyist for the organization in question.
***
Nothing used to irritate me more than the annual press release sent out by Missouri Southern State College (it was college at the time) announcing that tuition rates were going up. Each year, year after year, the news release would come, always accompanied by the announcement that the college's tuition rates were still the lowest in the state of Missouri.
The good news is that MSSU did not raise its tuition rates this year. The better news is that college students may receive some added protection against this insidious practice of annual tuition increases that far surpass the rate of inflation.
The first reading of a bill submitted by 14th District Missouri State Representative Joe Smith, R-St. Charles was held today. Smith's bill would freeze tuition rates for state undergraduates from the time they enter college until they graduate.
***
An April 24, 2006, trial date has been set for the Diamond R-4 School District's lawsuit against Edison Schools, according to documents filed today in U. S. District Court for the Western District of Missouri.
The two sides in the dispute have a July 15 deadline for discovery, the documents said.
School district officials claim they should not have to pay Edison $88,000 of the fee the company is charging for operating Diamond's summer school in 2002. This apparently is the only time a school district has gone to court to question Edison's bills. The company, under its summer school unit Newton Learning, operates summer school for the Sarcoxie, East Newton, and McDonald County school districts in southwest Missouri and have made considerable money for those districts.
Newton Learning provides the curriculum and hires the teachers, usually from within the district, and pays them. Newton also provides materials, which the school districts are allowed to keep.
***
The man with the $10 million dollar teeth, Martin Anthony Eck, will be questioned Friday, Jan. 28, by lawyers representing Jasper County Sheriff Archie Dunn and the Jasper County Commission, according to a document filed today in U. S. District Court for the Western District of Missouri. Eck brought a $10 million lawsuit against the county claiming he was deprived of his dental care while he was in the Jasper County Jail. The questioning will take place at the Jefferson City Correctional Center, where Eck is serving time after pleading guilty to child molestation.
***
The promotion of an inexperienced reporter to an anchor position at Nexstar's KSFX-TV (formerly KDEB) in Springfield continues to be the subject of much speculation in the Ron Davis blog out of Springfield. Rachel Aram had her first night at the anchor desk at KSFX after spending only three months at KSFX's partner station, KOLR of Mission Broadcasting (the two stations have the same arrangement as KODE and KSNF have in the Joplin market. Other, more experienced KOLR personnel were bypassed to promote Ms. Aram, posters on the Davis blog said.
Apparently, she has interesting eating habits. According to her bio on the KOLR website, Ms. Aram, who grew up in Springfield, is proud of the fact that she has "two motivating, nourishing parents."
I hope she meant nurturing.
***
A celebration of the publication of Carthage native John Hall's book, "Mickey Mantle: Before the Glory," was planned during a meeting earlier this week at Missouri Southern State University. Members of the old minor league teams, the Baxter Springs Whiz Kids, Joplin Miners, and Independence Yankees will be recognized during the festivities.
After a meeting attended by Hall, Judy Stiles and Bill Hunt of MSSU's KGCS-TV, Mike McAfee, director of the Joplin Convention and Visitors Bureau, and Mike Greninger, executive director of the Joplin Sports Authority, the dates of April 15 and 16 were selected and a preliminary agenda was announced.
A mixer will be held 6 p.m. April 15, at the host motel, which will be announced later. Lunch is tentatively planned for 12 noon April 16 at Joe Becker Stadium. Former area minor league baseball players, many of whom played with Mickey Mantle, will be announced during the Missouri Southern-Missouri Western doubleheader that afternoon.
A catered banquet will be held at 6 p.m. at the Joplin Sports Hall of Fame in Schifferdecker Park. Hall says a "special speaker" will be at the event and notes "the speaker will be special."
Exact figures will be announced later, but Hall says the registration fee will likely be in the $25 to $30 range.
More information later.
***
The industry magazine TV Business Review has come down squarely on Nexstar's side in its continuing battle with Cox and Cable One over payment for airing the programming of Nexstar stations.
In today's edition, the magazine editors noted, "TVBR stands with Nexstar to help educate television executives on the high importance of fighting now for this financial improvement by the cable MSOs or by 2006 it will be too late and the winds of Naples, Fla., will be at your back."
Nexstar COO Duane Lammers told the magazine he was not surprised by the negative public reaction against his company, but he said he and other Nexstar executives have spent "long hours" talking to customers by telephone and explaining their position and he thinks the conversations are beginning to have a positive effect.
The San Angelo Texas Standard-Times supported Cox Communications against Nexstar, in an editorial accusing Nexstar of being greedy. "Nexstar's demands aren't reasonable," the Standard-Times editorial said. The newspaper criticized the San Angelo stations for their out-of-town ownership, which struck some as odd since Cox Communications is also an out-of-town business and the Standard-Times itself is run by an out-of-town company, E. W. Scripps.
The next big deadline locally comes a week from Monday when Nexstar plans to order Cox to take KODE and KSNF off its cable franchises in Lamar and Carthage.
***
Former Lamar High School Principal John Garton will retire from education at the end of the current school year. Garton has been serving as part-time superintendent in the Miller R-2 School District while that district hires a new leader.
Tonight's Carthage Press article by Kaylea Hutson indicates Anthony Rossetti, currently principal at Columbian Elementary School in Carthage will be the new superintendent.
Garton, a Miller native, also served time as an interim superintendent in the Jasper R-5 School District.
Tuesday, January 18, 2005
Cox Communications will file a complaint to the FCC against Nexstar Broadcasting Wednesday, according to Multichannel News.
Cox, which operates cable franchises in Carthage and Lamar, claims Nexstar has not been negotiating in good faith and has refused to even meet with Cox officials. Cox is scheduled to lose Nexstar's stations, KSNF and KODE, on Jan. 30. "Hopefully, the FCC will succeed where we've failed," Cox spokesman David Grabert told Multichannel News.
Nexstar COO Duane Lammers indicated he was not concerned and that Cox is the company that has not negotiated in good faith.
As mentioned earlier in The Turner Report, Lammers will be featured in an interview in the Wednesday edition of TV Business Review.
Cox, which operates cable franchises in Carthage and Lamar, claims Nexstar has not been negotiating in good faith and has refused to even meet with Cox officials. Cox is scheduled to lose Nexstar's stations, KSNF and KODE, on Jan. 30. "Hopefully, the FCC will succeed where we've failed," Cox spokesman David Grabert told Multichannel News.
Nexstar COO Duane Lammers indicated he was not concerned and that Cox is the company that has not negotiated in good faith.
As mentioned earlier in The Turner Report, Lammers will be featured in an interview in the Wednesday edition of TV Business Review.
One of the biggest problems facing Liberty Group Publishing since its formation in 1998 has been its high rate of indebtedness.
The company, which owns The Neosho Daily News, The Carthage Press, The Neosho Post, and The Big Nickel, as well as more than 300 other publications in the United States, has made an arrangement that will put it further in debt...by approximately $330 million.
A confidential letter sent earlier this month from Wells Fargo Bank officials to Ken Serota, Liberty CEO, confirmed a deal through which Wells Fargo will make available $330 million to Liberty to "refinance existing indebtedness of (Liberty Group Operating) and Liberty Group Publishing, Inc."
Not only was the money needed to refinance the debt, according to the letter, but also to retire preferred stock, make fee and expense payments, and "provide for its ongoing working capital and letter of credit needs."
The letter says Well Fargo proposed to give a $50 million senior secured revolving credit facility and a $280 million senior secured term loan. The banking institution will try to come up with a syndicate of lenders for the $280 million, the letter said.
The funding will be pulled if the company takes a downturn, the letter said. The deal will go down as of Feb. 28, if all conditions are met.
One condition is that Liberty officials will be the beck and call of Wells Fargo, ready to drop everything to make presentations to potential lenders or to participate in conference calls, the letter said.
A large amount of money has gone into paying off Liberty's debt each year in the seven years since the company was formed out of the smaller newspapers in Hollinger International. Documents filed with the federal Securities and Exchange Commission indicate Liberty paid $40.7 million in interest expense in 2001 and $35.5 million in 2002. During those two years, Liberty was in the red more than $22 million, the SEC documents said. The company has been highly leveraged since its formation and appears to be destined to continue along that path.
***
Things haven't been any easier for Hollinger International, former owners of The Daily and The Press.
A company SEC filing indicated indicated that former CEO Conrad Black's alleged looting of the company cost it more than $57 million in legal fees
***
A March 2006 jury trial is expected in the lawsuit filed by former Southwest City Police Chief Ron Beaudry against that city's mayor and city council. According to documents filed today with the U. S. District Court for the Western District of Missouri, the two sides met Jan. 6 and arranged a tentative schedule for proceedings.
All discovery should be completed by Aug. 26 with the deadline for filing of discovery motions set for Aug. 12.
A three-day trial is expected, according to the court documents.
Beaudry claims that current chief Toi Canada was convicted of a "driving-related alcohol offense" on July 21, 1994, in Webb City, and on July 13, 2001, in Callaway County.
Named as defendants in the lawsuit are the city of Southwest City, Mayor Al Dixon, and council members Farley Martin and Mildred Weaver. Beaudry noted in his petition that Ms. Canada is Martin's stepdaughter. Beaudry was hired as police chief in June 2003, according to the petition. Ms. Canada was hired on a part-time basis last November.She was promoted to full-time status after a closed council meeting in March 2004, the petition says. At that point, Beaudry conducted a background check and uncovered the alcohol-related offenses, he said. "On March 12, 2004," the petition says, "(Beaudry) received a fax from Angela Heckart, a representative with Beimdiek Insurance Agency, regarding the insurability of Ms. Canada." Ms. Heckart said Ms. Canada could not be insured because she had an alcohol-related driving offense in the three years before she was hired.On March 30, the city received a fax saying that Ms. Canada was prohibited from using any city vehicle. At that point, Beaudry fired her. "On or about April 13, 2004," the petition said, "the city council refused to fire Canada, rehired her, and allowed her to operate her own vehicle to conduct police business."
On May 14, the council suspended Beaudry after he went public about his concerns about Ms. Canada, the petition said. On June 2, he was fired.
In the petition, Beaudry claims his First Amendment free speech rights were violated by the city officials. He is asking to be reinstated as police chief, to have all references to his suspension and firing removed from city files, and for damages and punitive damages.
***
The door has officially closed on former Webb City High School student Brad Mathewson's civil rights lawsuit against the R-7 School District and Principal Stephen Gollhofer. Judge Ortrie D. Smith issued the dismissal order today. The case was dismissed without prejudice leaving the door slightly open for refiling at a later date.
***
Former Springfield News-Leader investigative reporter Ron Davis' blog site, Chatter at http://homepage.mac.com/rondavis/iblog/index.html features a scathing critique of the first day of the newly-minted KSFX-TV, formerly KDEB, the Fox station in Springfield. Davis points out that the station's owner, Nexstar, which also owns KSNF and is the de facto owner of KODE, has promoted a young woman named Rachel Aram with little previous experience to its lead anchor position. "Aram has been on the air for three months total and she has NEVER anchored a newscast," One of Davis' readers wrote, "This was also upsetting to certain other female employees at KOLR (Mission Broadcasting's tag-team partner with Nexstar in Springfield) who have much more experience and tried for the job."
***
Speaking of Nexstar, an article scheduled to run tomorrow morning in the Television Business Review E-Paper, will feature more inflammatory quotes from the company's COO Duane Lammers.
Lammers, who has certainly earned a reputation for speaking his mind during Nexstar's battles with Cox and Cable One, told the magazine he never expected to win any popularity contests with the public by taking the stance that his stations will not be on the cable systems unless they pay Nexstar.
The company, which owns The Neosho Daily News, The Carthage Press, The Neosho Post, and The Big Nickel, as well as more than 300 other publications in the United States, has made an arrangement that will put it further in debt...by approximately $330 million.
A confidential letter sent earlier this month from Wells Fargo Bank officials to Ken Serota, Liberty CEO, confirmed a deal through which Wells Fargo will make available $330 million to Liberty to "refinance existing indebtedness of (Liberty Group Operating) and Liberty Group Publishing, Inc."
Not only was the money needed to refinance the debt, according to the letter, but also to retire preferred stock, make fee and expense payments, and "provide for its ongoing working capital and letter of credit needs."
The letter says Well Fargo proposed to give a $50 million senior secured revolving credit facility and a $280 million senior secured term loan. The banking institution will try to come up with a syndicate of lenders for the $280 million, the letter said.
The funding will be pulled if the company takes a downturn, the letter said. The deal will go down as of Feb. 28, if all conditions are met.
One condition is that Liberty officials will be the beck and call of Wells Fargo, ready to drop everything to make presentations to potential lenders or to participate in conference calls, the letter said.
A large amount of money has gone into paying off Liberty's debt each year in the seven years since the company was formed out of the smaller newspapers in Hollinger International. Documents filed with the federal Securities and Exchange Commission indicate Liberty paid $40.7 million in interest expense in 2001 and $35.5 million in 2002. During those two years, Liberty was in the red more than $22 million, the SEC documents said. The company has been highly leveraged since its formation and appears to be destined to continue along that path.
***
Things haven't been any easier for Hollinger International, former owners of The Daily and The Press.
A company SEC filing indicated indicated that former CEO Conrad Black's alleged looting of the company cost it more than $57 million in legal fees
***
A March 2006 jury trial is expected in the lawsuit filed by former Southwest City Police Chief Ron Beaudry against that city's mayor and city council. According to documents filed today with the U. S. District Court for the Western District of Missouri, the two sides met Jan. 6 and arranged a tentative schedule for proceedings.
All discovery should be completed by Aug. 26 with the deadline for filing of discovery motions set for Aug. 12.
A three-day trial is expected, according to the court documents.
Beaudry claims that current chief Toi Canada was convicted of a "driving-related alcohol offense" on July 21, 1994, in Webb City, and on July 13, 2001, in Callaway County.
Named as defendants in the lawsuit are the city of Southwest City, Mayor Al Dixon, and council members Farley Martin and Mildred Weaver. Beaudry noted in his petition that Ms. Canada is Martin's stepdaughter. Beaudry was hired as police chief in June 2003, according to the petition. Ms. Canada was hired on a part-time basis last November.She was promoted to full-time status after a closed council meeting in March 2004, the petition says. At that point, Beaudry conducted a background check and uncovered the alcohol-related offenses, he said. "On March 12, 2004," the petition says, "(Beaudry) received a fax from Angela Heckart, a representative with Beimdiek Insurance Agency, regarding the insurability of Ms. Canada." Ms. Heckart said Ms. Canada could not be insured because she had an alcohol-related driving offense in the three years before she was hired.On March 30, the city received a fax saying that Ms. Canada was prohibited from using any city vehicle. At that point, Beaudry fired her. "On or about April 13, 2004," the petition said, "the city council refused to fire Canada, rehired her, and allowed her to operate her own vehicle to conduct police business."
On May 14, the council suspended Beaudry after he went public about his concerns about Ms. Canada, the petition said. On June 2, he was fired.
In the petition, Beaudry claims his First Amendment free speech rights were violated by the city officials. He is asking to be reinstated as police chief, to have all references to his suspension and firing removed from city files, and for damages and punitive damages.
***
The door has officially closed on former Webb City High School student Brad Mathewson's civil rights lawsuit against the R-7 School District and Principal Stephen Gollhofer. Judge Ortrie D. Smith issued the dismissal order today. The case was dismissed without prejudice leaving the door slightly open for refiling at a later date.
***
Former Springfield News-Leader investigative reporter Ron Davis' blog site, Chatter at http://homepage.mac.com/rondavis/iblog/index.html features a scathing critique of the first day of the newly-minted KSFX-TV, formerly KDEB, the Fox station in Springfield. Davis points out that the station's owner, Nexstar, which also owns KSNF and is the de facto owner of KODE, has promoted a young woman named Rachel Aram with little previous experience to its lead anchor position. "Aram has been on the air for three months total and she has NEVER anchored a newscast," One of Davis' readers wrote, "This was also upsetting to certain other female employees at KOLR (Mission Broadcasting's tag-team partner with Nexstar in Springfield) who have much more experience and tried for the job."
***
Speaking of Nexstar, an article scheduled to run tomorrow morning in the Television Business Review E-Paper, will feature more inflammatory quotes from the company's COO Duane Lammers.
Lammers, who has certainly earned a reputation for speaking his mind during Nexstar's battles with Cox and Cable One, told the magazine he never expected to win any popularity contests with the public by taking the stance that his stations will not be on the cable systems unless they pay Nexstar.
When Oscar Alvarez was arrested by the Newton County Sheriff's Department in December 2003 on a misdemeanor child support charge, he never expected to receive the kind of treatment reserved for murderers and child molesters in bad B movies.
That is exactly what he claims took place.
In a lawsuit filed Nov. 22 in Newton County Circuit Court, Alvarez claims that on Feb. 22, 2004, jailers Adam Brandon Babbitt and Shane Steven Smith, arranged for his brutal beating at the hands of another prisoner.
The complaint and the response to it were filed today in U. S. District Court for the Western District of Missouri. In the response, Kristen Baird Roubal, attorney for former Newton County Sheriff Ron Doerge and the Sheriff's Department, claimed it did not happen and, if it did, it was against Sheriff Doerge's policy.
The claim that it did not happen comes despite Doerge's firing of the the two deputies because of their involvement in the incident. According to an article written by former Joplin Globe reporter Dena Sloan in that newspaper's March 19, 2004, edition, Doerge said he called Babbitt and Smith into his office at 4:30 p.m. March 18 and fired them. The article reads, "He said the Sheriff's Department investigation had linked the men with a Feb. 22 incident in which two male inmates allegedly were attacked by two other inmates."
The two former deputies were charged with misdemeanor third degree assault, then later the charges were amended to felonies. Though Alvarez was not named by Doerge, the sheriff said the victim of the beating had a black eye and bruises, according to the Globe article.
Though Doerge and his attorney dispute the allegation that the cameras were turned off saying they are "without adequate knowledge or information sufficient to form a belief as to the truth of the factual allegations," Doerge's own investigation into the beating showed that the cameras had been deliberately turned off, he told The Globe. The article reads, "After reviewing jail security tapes and interviewing inmates, investigators determined that the security camera pointed at the alleged victims' cell had been turned off for a few minutes during the time of the attack, Doerge said. Investigators also believe that the cell door was unlocked when it should have been secured.
In a direct quote in the Globe article, Doerge said, "One of the officers talked to the inmates about what he wanted to occur, and the second turned off the tape and opened the door."
In the official response to the lawsuit, Doerge claimed that he was "without adequate knowledge or information sufficient to form a belief as to the truth of the factual allegations" in regard to that, as well.
The claim that Doerge did not have adequate knowledge comes despite the fact that both Babbitt and Smith entered Alford pleas, which are not guilty pleas, but act in the same fashion. Alford pleas are not an admission of guilt, but an acknowledgment that there is enough evidence to convict if the case went to trial.
Whereas most prisoner lawsuits are filed pro se, or by the prisoners themselves, the Alvarez case, despite the fact that he was sentenced to jail time served due to lack of funds, is being handled by Steven J. Blair of the high-powered Springfield litigation firm of Hall, Ansley, Rodgers & Condry, P. C.
In the petition, Blair claims that Babbitt and Smith unlocked Alvarez' cell door, turned off the video surveillance cameras monitoring his cell or arranged for them to be turned off, then "unlocked the cell doors of two other inmates or arranged for their cell doors to be unlocked: and allowed one of the inmates to stand watch while another inmate entered Mr. Alvarez's cell and attacked (him) causing him serious bodily injury."
Blair claims that the jailers were acting in their capacity as Sheriff's Department employees, making the sheriff "vicariously liable for their actions."
As a result of the attack, the petition said, Alvarez received injuries to his head and face "and has suffered and will continue to suffer from severe headaches, back injuries and brain damage."
Blair also claims that Alvarez has suffered "emotional distress, inasmuch as he was caused to fear for his life following the attack."
The attack constituted cruel and unusual punishment, Blair said.
Alvarez did not file a grievance through the sheriff's department, the complaint says, "for the reason that the grievance form would be received by the same people allowing Mr. Alvarez to be assaulted, and that Mr. Alvarez feared for his life," the petition said.
In the second count of the complaint, Blair says Doerge and the other top officials at the Sheriff's Department should have known "of the dangerous proclivities of Mr. Babbitt and/or Mr. Smith," yet nothing was done.
On both counts, Alvarez is asking for "fair and reasonable" damages, and interest "at the highest legal rate permitted by law." He is asking for a jury trial.
Doerge's lawyer, Ms. Roubal, says that the lawsuit against the former sheriff is barred because of his official immunity, qualified immunity, and sovereign immunity and that even if the allegations about Babbitt and Smith are accurate "then such conduct would not be consistent with the policies of the county and the sheriff."
She also claims that the Sheriff's Department cannot be sued because it is not a separate entity and that it is part of Newton County.
Otherwise, Doerge denied every item alleged in the Alvarez complaint.
That is exactly what he claims took place.
In a lawsuit filed Nov. 22 in Newton County Circuit Court, Alvarez claims that on Feb. 22, 2004, jailers Adam Brandon Babbitt and Shane Steven Smith, arranged for his brutal beating at the hands of another prisoner.
The complaint and the response to it were filed today in U. S. District Court for the Western District of Missouri. In the response, Kristen Baird Roubal, attorney for former Newton County Sheriff Ron Doerge and the Sheriff's Department, claimed it did not happen and, if it did, it was against Sheriff Doerge's policy.
The claim that it did not happen comes despite Doerge's firing of the the two deputies because of their involvement in the incident. According to an article written by former Joplin Globe reporter Dena Sloan in that newspaper's March 19, 2004, edition, Doerge said he called Babbitt and Smith into his office at 4:30 p.m. March 18 and fired them. The article reads, "He said the Sheriff's Department investigation had linked the men with a Feb. 22 incident in which two male inmates allegedly were attacked by two other inmates."
The two former deputies were charged with misdemeanor third degree assault, then later the charges were amended to felonies. Though Alvarez was not named by Doerge, the sheriff said the victim of the beating had a black eye and bruises, according to the Globe article.
Though Doerge and his attorney dispute the allegation that the cameras were turned off saying they are "without adequate knowledge or information sufficient to form a belief as to the truth of the factual allegations," Doerge's own investigation into the beating showed that the cameras had been deliberately turned off, he told The Globe. The article reads, "After reviewing jail security tapes and interviewing inmates, investigators determined that the security camera pointed at the alleged victims' cell had been turned off for a few minutes during the time of the attack, Doerge said. Investigators also believe that the cell door was unlocked when it should have been secured.
In a direct quote in the Globe article, Doerge said, "One of the officers talked to the inmates about what he wanted to occur, and the second turned off the tape and opened the door."
In the official response to the lawsuit, Doerge claimed that he was "without adequate knowledge or information sufficient to form a belief as to the truth of the factual allegations" in regard to that, as well.
The claim that Doerge did not have adequate knowledge comes despite the fact that both Babbitt and Smith entered Alford pleas, which are not guilty pleas, but act in the same fashion. Alford pleas are not an admission of guilt, but an acknowledgment that there is enough evidence to convict if the case went to trial.
Whereas most prisoner lawsuits are filed pro se, or by the prisoners themselves, the Alvarez case, despite the fact that he was sentenced to jail time served due to lack of funds, is being handled by Steven J. Blair of the high-powered Springfield litigation firm of Hall, Ansley, Rodgers & Condry, P. C.
In the petition, Blair claims that Babbitt and Smith unlocked Alvarez' cell door, turned off the video surveillance cameras monitoring his cell or arranged for them to be turned off, then "unlocked the cell doors of two other inmates or arranged for their cell doors to be unlocked: and allowed one of the inmates to stand watch while another inmate entered Mr. Alvarez's cell and attacked (him) causing him serious bodily injury."
Blair claims that the jailers were acting in their capacity as Sheriff's Department employees, making the sheriff "vicariously liable for their actions."
As a result of the attack, the petition said, Alvarez received injuries to his head and face "and has suffered and will continue to suffer from severe headaches, back injuries and brain damage."
Blair also claims that Alvarez has suffered "emotional distress, inasmuch as he was caused to fear for his life following the attack."
The attack constituted cruel and unusual punishment, Blair said.
Alvarez did not file a grievance through the sheriff's department, the complaint says, "for the reason that the grievance form would be received by the same people allowing Mr. Alvarez to be assaulted, and that Mr. Alvarez feared for his life," the petition said.
In the second count of the complaint, Blair says Doerge and the other top officials at the Sheriff's Department should have known "of the dangerous proclivities of Mr. Babbitt and/or Mr. Smith," yet nothing was done.
On both counts, Alvarez is asking for "fair and reasonable" damages, and interest "at the highest legal rate permitted by law." He is asking for a jury trial.
Doerge's lawyer, Ms. Roubal, says that the lawsuit against the former sheriff is barred because of his official immunity, qualified immunity, and sovereign immunity and that even if the allegations about Babbitt and Smith are accurate "then such conduct would not be consistent with the policies of the county and the sheriff."
She also claims that the Sheriff's Department cannot be sued because it is not a separate entity and that it is part of Newton County.
Otherwise, Doerge denied every item alleged in the Alvarez complaint.
Local broadcast stations are sticking together in the feud between Nexstar Broadcasting and cable companies Cox Communications and Cable One.
Ed Christian, CEO of Saga Communications, owner of KOAM-TV told TV Business Report, a national publication, "We are supporting KSNF/KODE and their endeavors." Christian said KOAM is not going after the Nexstar stations' advertisers, but will accept advertising if their clients need to reach customers who do not have antennas or dish systems.
Danny Thomas, KOAM general manager, told the publication there has not been much change as far as advertising, for his station, though national and regional advertisers are showing concern. Thomas is quoted as saying, "From the local side, we're hearing a lot of talk, but we're not seeing much in the way of any movement."
Both Thomas and Christian noted that a victory by Nexstar would be a victory for all broadcast stations since it will set a precedent for cable companies having to pay local stations to show their content.
The Joplin area, as well as areas in Texas where Nexstar has pulled its programming off local cable, has become a center of interest for the entire television industry.
***
Newspaper industry reports are that no movement has been made in the auction for Liberty Group Publishing, owner of the Neosho Daily News, Carthage Press, Neosho Post, and The Big Nickel, as well as more than 300 other publications.
The last report on the proposed sale indicated that newspaper companies are out of the running and the remaining potential suitors are investment firms, similar to the Leonard Green company that now owns Liberty.
The first bids in the auction were collected by Oct. 25. The expected sale price is $500 million.
***
A New Jersey man has been named to a major, newly-created position with La-Z-Boy Inc., according to the Business Journal in Raleigh, N. C.
Roger Miller has been named vice president of process improvement. He will report directly to CEO Kurt Darrow. His job will be to improve efficiency and make sure the company is using the best production practices, the article said. Before coming to La-Z-Boy, which is the major employer in Neosho, Miller was a partner in the management consulting firm Kepner-Tregoe, Inc., in Skillman, N. J. Previously, he was an engineer for Ford Motor Company and he later worked for Allied Signal, Inc.
***
Business Wire reports that Fortune 500 company Leggett & Platt will announce its fourth quarter results 9 a.m. Tuesday, Feb. 1.
***
The Neosho R-5 Board of Education meeting will be the center of attention tonight as the board discusses whether to allow a donated test for the Bible to be used as part of the district's Accelerated Reader program. The case brings up a number of First Amendment questions.
Ed Christian, CEO of Saga Communications, owner of KOAM-TV told TV Business Report, a national publication, "We are supporting KSNF/KODE and their endeavors." Christian said KOAM is not going after the Nexstar stations' advertisers, but will accept advertising if their clients need to reach customers who do not have antennas or dish systems.
Danny Thomas, KOAM general manager, told the publication there has not been much change as far as advertising, for his station, though national and regional advertisers are showing concern. Thomas is quoted as saying, "From the local side, we're hearing a lot of talk, but we're not seeing much in the way of any movement."
Both Thomas and Christian noted that a victory by Nexstar would be a victory for all broadcast stations since it will set a precedent for cable companies having to pay local stations to show their content.
The Joplin area, as well as areas in Texas where Nexstar has pulled its programming off local cable, has become a center of interest for the entire television industry.
***
Newspaper industry reports are that no movement has been made in the auction for Liberty Group Publishing, owner of the Neosho Daily News, Carthage Press, Neosho Post, and The Big Nickel, as well as more than 300 other publications.
The last report on the proposed sale indicated that newspaper companies are out of the running and the remaining potential suitors are investment firms, similar to the Leonard Green company that now owns Liberty.
The first bids in the auction were collected by Oct. 25. The expected sale price is $500 million.
***
A New Jersey man has been named to a major, newly-created position with La-Z-Boy Inc., according to the Business Journal in Raleigh, N. C.
Roger Miller has been named vice president of process improvement. He will report directly to CEO Kurt Darrow. His job will be to improve efficiency and make sure the company is using the best production practices, the article said. Before coming to La-Z-Boy, which is the major employer in Neosho, Miller was a partner in the management consulting firm Kepner-Tregoe, Inc., in Skillman, N. J. Previously, he was an engineer for Ford Motor Company and he later worked for Allied Signal, Inc.
***
Business Wire reports that Fortune 500 company Leggett & Platt will announce its fourth quarter results 9 a.m. Tuesday, Feb. 1.
***
The Neosho R-5 Board of Education meeting will be the center of attention tonight as the board discusses whether to allow a donated test for the Bible to be used as part of the district's Accelerated Reader program. The case brings up a number of First Amendment questions.
Monday, January 17, 2005
The Nexstar TV stations, KSNF and KODE, were quick to jump on a news story that happened in Joplin a few weeks ago.
Many of you will remember the coverage of a band of hardy protesters who picketed against evil Cable One for taking a chance on losing its beloved local stations.
From the coverage, it appeared that the protest was a grass roots effort to support the local stations...something which, even though it would be a tad self-serving, would be a legitimate news story.
The only thing that was left somewhat obscured in the coverage was the source of the protest, and that source appears to be EchoStar, owner of Dish Network and a competitor of Cable One's in the race to land local television customers. Also left unmentioned was the fact that every customer who leaves Cable One and goes to Dish Network puts more money into the pockets of Nexstar Broadcasting.
Echostar has targeted rival cable companies across the United States in what is called "guerilla marketing."
One such protest was held Jan. 13 in Seattle, Wash., according to the Jan. 14 edition of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. The article began, "Yesterday, a small group of people paraded in front of Comcast and City Hall, protesting Comcast's recent 7.1 percent rate increase. The only thing is, they weren't customers. They were competitors---DISH Network employees and some of its vendors, to be precise."
Kelley Baca, a DISH Network spokeswoman, told the Post-Intelligencer, "The reason why we demonstrate is to bring awareness that customers can count on a cable rate increase every year."
The Post-Intelligencer didn't let that answer go unchallenged, noting that DISH Network is increasing its own prices as of Feb. 1. Ms. Baca admitted that was the case but termed it a "one-time thing based on a one-time cost."
Good reporters don't let self-serving answers like that go unchallenged. The Post-Intelligencer finally got Ms. Baca to confirm that DISH Network has increased its prices five times in the past five years
DISH Network also staged a protest across from Time-Warner Cable in Raleigh, N. C. recently, to protest that company's rate increases, according to the Raleigh newspaper. The protesters at that rally were employees of DISH Network and one of its local retailers.
Another protest was held in Oklahoma City. I would guess there have been others that did not receive the publicity DISH Network had hoped for.
An article in Satellite Industry Daily News said, "Using its DISH Network service and brand, EchoStar has launched a nationwide advertising campaign that prompts consumers to ask why digital cable TV prices have gone up while prices for many other digital electronic goods, like digital watches, cameras or digital video recorders, continue to fall."
As part of the campaign, the article said, DISH Network retailers and sometimes customers are asked to join together to protest high cable prices.
This is not a knock at the satellite dish industry or at Echostar. The company has the right to fight for a larger share of the market and there is nothing illegal about these tactics. The problem surfaced when one of these staged protests was treated like legitimate news by two TV stations with a vested financial interest in the outcome.
Even that can be forgiven...if the newscast features a statement detailing that financial interest and lets the viewers make their own judgment about the validity of the news.
Many of you will remember the coverage of a band of hardy protesters who picketed against evil Cable One for taking a chance on losing its beloved local stations.
From the coverage, it appeared that the protest was a grass roots effort to support the local stations...something which, even though it would be a tad self-serving, would be a legitimate news story.
The only thing that was left somewhat obscured in the coverage was the source of the protest, and that source appears to be EchoStar, owner of Dish Network and a competitor of Cable One's in the race to land local television customers. Also left unmentioned was the fact that every customer who leaves Cable One and goes to Dish Network puts more money into the pockets of Nexstar Broadcasting.
Echostar has targeted rival cable companies across the United States in what is called "guerilla marketing."
One such protest was held Jan. 13 in Seattle, Wash., according to the Jan. 14 edition of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. The article began, "Yesterday, a small group of people paraded in front of Comcast and City Hall, protesting Comcast's recent 7.1 percent rate increase. The only thing is, they weren't customers. They were competitors---DISH Network employees and some of its vendors, to be precise."
Kelley Baca, a DISH Network spokeswoman, told the Post-Intelligencer, "The reason why we demonstrate is to bring awareness that customers can count on a cable rate increase every year."
The Post-Intelligencer didn't let that answer go unchallenged, noting that DISH Network is increasing its own prices as of Feb. 1. Ms. Baca admitted that was the case but termed it a "one-time thing based on a one-time cost."
Good reporters don't let self-serving answers like that go unchallenged. The Post-Intelligencer finally got Ms. Baca to confirm that DISH Network has increased its prices five times in the past five years
DISH Network also staged a protest across from Time-Warner Cable in Raleigh, N. C. recently, to protest that company's rate increases, according to the Raleigh newspaper. The protesters at that rally were employees of DISH Network and one of its local retailers.
Another protest was held in Oklahoma City. I would guess there have been others that did not receive the publicity DISH Network had hoped for.
An article in Satellite Industry Daily News said, "Using its DISH Network service and brand, EchoStar has launched a nationwide advertising campaign that prompts consumers to ask why digital cable TV prices have gone up while prices for many other digital electronic goods, like digital watches, cameras or digital video recorders, continue to fall."
As part of the campaign, the article said, DISH Network retailers and sometimes customers are asked to join together to protest high cable prices.
This is not a knock at the satellite dish industry or at Echostar. The company has the right to fight for a larger share of the market and there is nothing illegal about these tactics. The problem surfaced when one of these staged protests was treated like legitimate news by two TV stations with a vested financial interest in the outcome.
Even that can be forgiven...if the newscast features a statement detailing that financial interest and lets the viewers make their own judgment about the validity of the news.
The Friends of the Library in Carthage hold a used book sale 8 a.m. to 12 noon each Saturday. I picked up many a book at those sales and occasionally an album or even a 45. On one particular Saturday I picked up a videocassette that purported to have a couple of old Audie Murphy westerns on it.
For those unfamiliar with Audie Murphy, he was the most decorated veteran of World War II and starred in numerous movies during the 1950s and 1960s, including "To Hell and Back" the story of his World War II heroism and director John Huston's "The Red Badge of Courage" which Turner Classic Movies ran last Saturday night as one of its "Essentials" series.
As I put the videocassette in my machine, it was quickly obvious it was of poor quality, but since it had been more than 20 years since the last time I saw the movies, I kept watching. It had obviously been taped nearly 20 years ago, from KODE-TV, during the days when Tracy Stark was one of the anchors and Bob Phillips was still producing his segments on area history. The movies were complete with commercial after commercial, most of them promotions of the station's newscast.
Anyone who doubts that today's newscasts are superior to those days should watch that video. (I would loan it to you, but I donated it back to the Friends of the Library.) News coverage is better, graphics are better, and it is much easier to do live reports than it was in those days.
But at least we had three local stations competing with each other for news stories. The consolidation of the operations of KODE and KSNF does not necessarily have to be a bad thing. If Nexstar, the owner of KSNF and de facto owner of KODE, were to take the money it saves by combining news and sales teams and put that back into its local broadcasts, you could make a good argument in favor of it.
If Nexstar were to put it in writing that it would pour even half of the $1.3 million is asking from Cable One back into its local news programming, it would put itself back in the driver's seat as far as public opinion is concerned.
Tell us that salaries will be increased, efforts will be made to retain good news personnel instead of letting them drift off to other stations. Tell us reporters will be sent to seminars to help them learn their craft and pick up other useful skills, such as investigative reporting.
And for that matter, do some investigative reporting. Hire enough reporters that they have time to really dig into a story and provide the public with the information it needs to know.
If you have stations all over the country, then why not set up a small office in Washington. D. C. and have a reporter cover stories that are of particular interest to your affiliates?
Those things would be great, but they are never going to happen. If Cable One were to cave all of a sudden and give Nexstar everything it wants, it would be unlikely you would see anything different in the programming.
That, in a nutshell, is the danger of reducing the number of news voices in a community.
***
A quick examination of the websites for KSNF and KODE also gives an idea where Nexstar's priorities lie. When I checked this morning, the top two "news" stories on KODE's site, were Nexstar's open letter to its readers (again with no effort made to provide a balanced news report) and the story of the scam being pulled by people claiming to be selling satellite systems. KSNF' site leads its news area with the letter, then has another story, then uses the satellite scam as its third story.
Nexstar does not seem to recognize the value of an uncorrupted news department. When it uses its news department to shill for the business side it gives its credibility a black mark which will take a long time to be erased, if ever.
The viewer suffers, but so do the hard-working news people at KODE and KSNF, who do not deserve this shabby treatment.
Nexstar is banking on Cable One and Cox backing down and paying to carry the stations. In the meantime, advertisers are starting to pull away and are beginning to shift their affections to KOAM. It has already been guaranteed that the Nexstar stations will lose viewers since Cable One has made it clear they will not be returned to its cable systems in Independence, Kan., and Vinita, Okla. If FCC rules allowed, we would already be seeing alternate NBC and ABC stations on Joplin's Cable One, too.
If Nexstar's policies cost it advertising and viewers, it won't be long before more cuts are made at the local stations. I can guarantee you it won't be Nexstar Chairman Perry Sook giving up his $4.5 million bonus or COO Duane Lammers sacrificing any of his half million a year paycheck.
***
Of course, having television stations with distinctive news operations does not guarantee you will get different angles on local stories. Take the night of Jan. 29, 1988, for example. I was managing editor of The Lamar Democrat at the time and was sitting through an interminably long Lamar Chamber of Commerce annual dinner.
I was there long enough to see Tom O'Sullivan receive a plaque as Man of the Year and see veteran attorney Gordon Boyer receive a lifetime achievement award, but the event just dragged on and on, until suddenly a Lamar fireman burst through the doors of the Horton Building and said Liberal Elementary School was on fire.
I quickly jumped up and left, feeling slightly guilty that I was pleased to have a reason to leave the banquet. I followed the fire trucks to Liberal, arriving at the elementary school just before reporters from KOAM and KODE arrived.
I got my interviews with school officials and took my photos while the TV photographers were getting their footage. It was interesting to see how the reporter/photographers from KODE and KOAM worked. It was as if they were joined at the hip. Neither took a shot that the other didn't take, too.
Finally, the KOAM reporter asked me which one was the superintendent. I pointed out Dr. Garold Barney to him. I was amused by the reporter's question since he lived in Liberal, graduated from school there, and didn't even know who the superintendent was. As the reporters continued their Siamese twin act, I walked around the building where I found my story.
This was how I started my article in the Feb. 4, 1988 Democrat:
A cool breeze brushed across Karen Evans' face as she stood by the Liberal Elementary School building. A tear fell silently down her face as she stared at the kindergarten classroom where she had taught every weekday for the past six years. Her eyes were glued to the walls.
"The kids are going to be sick. They worked so hard to make those valentines."
Now there is no guarantee that either television reporter would have ever gone around to the back side of the building if they hadn't stayed so close to each other, but what a visual that would have been: two kindergarten teachers staring at their students' melted work.
I stayed at the scene for a little over an hour, then drove to Casey's General Store to grab a Doctor Pepper. As I was paying, a reporter from KSN pulled into the parking lot and ran into the store and breathlessly said, "Can you tell me where the elementary school is?"
***
I have written so many times about frivolous lawsuits filed by inmates that I failed to look at stories other than waste of taxpayers' money that might be presented by these lawsuits. A case in point is Martin Eck's $10 million lawsuit against Jasper County Sheriff Archie Dunn and the Sheriffs' Department for not providing him with proper dental care. While I took the easy route and wrote one of my typical sarcastic articles, KOAM did a solid story on the real problem faced by officials due to the large number of prisoners who come to jail with dental problems caused by use of methamphetamine. I can't remember having seen any stories on this problem in the electronic or print media, so once again, KOAM was ahead of the curve.
***
Speaking of Chamber of Commerce banquets, the annual Carthage Chamber of Commerce Banquet is scheduled for 7 p.m. Friday, Jan. 21, at Memorial Hall. The agenda will include honoring the recipient of the annual Richard M. Webster Memorial Citizen of the Year award, and the presentation of Golden Apple awards to top Carthage teachers.
***
Parents in the Diamond R-4 School District who want to find out more about how drug testing for students would work will have an opportunity to listen to presentations by representatives of drug testing companies during a public comment hearing 7:30 p.m. Thursday according to Superintendent Mark Mayo's weekly newsletter.
For those unfamiliar with Audie Murphy, he was the most decorated veteran of World War II and starred in numerous movies during the 1950s and 1960s, including "To Hell and Back" the story of his World War II heroism and director John Huston's "The Red Badge of Courage" which Turner Classic Movies ran last Saturday night as one of its "Essentials" series.
As I put the videocassette in my machine, it was quickly obvious it was of poor quality, but since it had been more than 20 years since the last time I saw the movies, I kept watching. It had obviously been taped nearly 20 years ago, from KODE-TV, during the days when Tracy Stark was one of the anchors and Bob Phillips was still producing his segments on area history. The movies were complete with commercial after commercial, most of them promotions of the station's newscast.
Anyone who doubts that today's newscasts are superior to those days should watch that video. (I would loan it to you, but I donated it back to the Friends of the Library.) News coverage is better, graphics are better, and it is much easier to do live reports than it was in those days.
But at least we had three local stations competing with each other for news stories. The consolidation of the operations of KODE and KSNF does not necessarily have to be a bad thing. If Nexstar, the owner of KSNF and de facto owner of KODE, were to take the money it saves by combining news and sales teams and put that back into its local broadcasts, you could make a good argument in favor of it.
If Nexstar were to put it in writing that it would pour even half of the $1.3 million is asking from Cable One back into its local news programming, it would put itself back in the driver's seat as far as public opinion is concerned.
Tell us that salaries will be increased, efforts will be made to retain good news personnel instead of letting them drift off to other stations. Tell us reporters will be sent to seminars to help them learn their craft and pick up other useful skills, such as investigative reporting.
And for that matter, do some investigative reporting. Hire enough reporters that they have time to really dig into a story and provide the public with the information it needs to know.
If you have stations all over the country, then why not set up a small office in Washington. D. C. and have a reporter cover stories that are of particular interest to your affiliates?
Those things would be great, but they are never going to happen. If Cable One were to cave all of a sudden and give Nexstar everything it wants, it would be unlikely you would see anything different in the programming.
That, in a nutshell, is the danger of reducing the number of news voices in a community.
***
A quick examination of the websites for KSNF and KODE also gives an idea where Nexstar's priorities lie. When I checked this morning, the top two "news" stories on KODE's site, were Nexstar's open letter to its readers (again with no effort made to provide a balanced news report) and the story of the scam being pulled by people claiming to be selling satellite systems. KSNF' site leads its news area with the letter, then has another story, then uses the satellite scam as its third story.
Nexstar does not seem to recognize the value of an uncorrupted news department. When it uses its news department to shill for the business side it gives its credibility a black mark which will take a long time to be erased, if ever.
The viewer suffers, but so do the hard-working news people at KODE and KSNF, who do not deserve this shabby treatment.
Nexstar is banking on Cable One and Cox backing down and paying to carry the stations. In the meantime, advertisers are starting to pull away and are beginning to shift their affections to KOAM. It has already been guaranteed that the Nexstar stations will lose viewers since Cable One has made it clear they will not be returned to its cable systems in Independence, Kan., and Vinita, Okla. If FCC rules allowed, we would already be seeing alternate NBC and ABC stations on Joplin's Cable One, too.
If Nexstar's policies cost it advertising and viewers, it won't be long before more cuts are made at the local stations. I can guarantee you it won't be Nexstar Chairman Perry Sook giving up his $4.5 million bonus or COO Duane Lammers sacrificing any of his half million a year paycheck.
***
Of course, having television stations with distinctive news operations does not guarantee you will get different angles on local stories. Take the night of Jan. 29, 1988, for example. I was managing editor of The Lamar Democrat at the time and was sitting through an interminably long Lamar Chamber of Commerce annual dinner.
I was there long enough to see Tom O'Sullivan receive a plaque as Man of the Year and see veteran attorney Gordon Boyer receive a lifetime achievement award, but the event just dragged on and on, until suddenly a Lamar fireman burst through the doors of the Horton Building and said Liberal Elementary School was on fire.
I quickly jumped up and left, feeling slightly guilty that I was pleased to have a reason to leave the banquet. I followed the fire trucks to Liberal, arriving at the elementary school just before reporters from KOAM and KODE arrived.
I got my interviews with school officials and took my photos while the TV photographers were getting their footage. It was interesting to see how the reporter/photographers from KODE and KOAM worked. It was as if they were joined at the hip. Neither took a shot that the other didn't take, too.
Finally, the KOAM reporter asked me which one was the superintendent. I pointed out Dr. Garold Barney to him. I was amused by the reporter's question since he lived in Liberal, graduated from school there, and didn't even know who the superintendent was. As the reporters continued their Siamese twin act, I walked around the building where I found my story.
This was how I started my article in the Feb. 4, 1988 Democrat:
A cool breeze brushed across Karen Evans' face as she stood by the Liberal Elementary School building. A tear fell silently down her face as she stared at the kindergarten classroom where she had taught every weekday for the past six years. Her eyes were glued to the walls.
"The kids are going to be sick. They worked so hard to make those valentines."
Now there is no guarantee that either television reporter would have ever gone around to the back side of the building if they hadn't stayed so close to each other, but what a visual that would have been: two kindergarten teachers staring at their students' melted work.
I stayed at the scene for a little over an hour, then drove to Casey's General Store to grab a Doctor Pepper. As I was paying, a reporter from KSN pulled into the parking lot and ran into the store and breathlessly said, "Can you tell me where the elementary school is?"
***
I have written so many times about frivolous lawsuits filed by inmates that I failed to look at stories other than waste of taxpayers' money that might be presented by these lawsuits. A case in point is Martin Eck's $10 million lawsuit against Jasper County Sheriff Archie Dunn and the Sheriffs' Department for not providing him with proper dental care. While I took the easy route and wrote one of my typical sarcastic articles, KOAM did a solid story on the real problem faced by officials due to the large number of prisoners who come to jail with dental problems caused by use of methamphetamine. I can't remember having seen any stories on this problem in the electronic or print media, so once again, KOAM was ahead of the curve.
***
Speaking of Chamber of Commerce banquets, the annual Carthage Chamber of Commerce Banquet is scheduled for 7 p.m. Friday, Jan. 21, at Memorial Hall. The agenda will include honoring the recipient of the annual Richard M. Webster Memorial Citizen of the Year award, and the presentation of Golden Apple awards to top Carthage teachers.
***
Parents in the Diamond R-4 School District who want to find out more about how drug testing for students would work will have an opportunity to listen to presentations by representatives of drug testing companies during a public comment hearing 7:30 p.m. Thursday according to Superintendent Mark Mayo's weekly newsletter.
Saturday, January 15, 2005
It appears that former State Representative Roy Cagle is being investigated by the Missouri Attorney General's office.
According to the results of its Jan. 6 meeting posted on its website, the Missouri Ethics Commission passed along information about Cagle to the attorney general for further investigation. As usual, the Ethics Commission website provided no information of the nature of the complaint against Cagle, who now serves as a lobbyist for the Missouri Finance Association and in the past has been the Missouri lobbyist for Enron.
Cagle's last attempt at elected office came in 1996 when he lost a bid to unseat incumbent State Senator Marvin Singleton, despite endorsements from area state representatives Gary Burton, Mark Elliott, and Chuck Surface, and the powerful Missouri Right to Life organization.
The Ethics Commission passes along complaints to the attorney general's office when serious violations are alleged to have occurred.
***
A First Amendment controversy will continue at the Neosho R-5 Board of Education meeting Monday when a final decision is expected on whether to include a test for the Bible in the district's Accelerated Reader program.
The first thing the board should probably do is pray (sorry about that) that Superintendent Mark Mitchell will keep his mouth shut and not create any more problems.
An article which will be published Sunday morning in The Globe quotes the superintendent as saying, "We don't discourage kids from reading the Bible. We use it everywhere we can." That makes it appear as if school officials are doing their best to find ways to work the Bible into the curriculum. Mitchell already created a stir recently when he issued a statement to the Globe and to the Neosho Daily News saying that every kid should read the Bible. That's a nice sentiment and I don't have any problem with it. If Mark Mitchell had made the statement as a private citizen exercising his First Amendment rights, then there would be no problem. Unfortunately, the statement was clearly made in his capacity as superintendent of a public school system...a public school system that is smack in the middle of a budding dispute over the Bible and the First Amendment.
All school officials had to do to prevent this nonsense was to review the testing materials for the Bible, see if they had the same degree of difficulty as the normal Accelerated Reader tests. If not, then they should have revised them so they would work and avoid making Neosho the center of the latest freedom of religion controversy.
There has never been any doubt that the Bible has a place in public school systems. In this case, it was not a question of whether the Bible would remain in the library, but whether it could be included in a reading program. If Mitchell and the school officials had not panicked, this would not be dividing the community. Hopefully, when the R-5 Board of Education finishes its selection process for a superintendent to replace Mitchell, who is retiring at the end of the current school year, it will find someone who can do a better job of communicating with both the public and the media.
***
A reader pointed out that KOAM was first to report that former Webb City High School student Brad Mathewson dropped his lawsuit against the R-7 School District and High School Principal Stephen Gollhofer. KOAM ran the first story on its 5 p.m. newscast, while KODE and KSNF ran the item for the first time on their 6 p.m. newscast after the story had hit the wires.
***
While the Brad Mathewson lawsuit posed some interesting First Amendment issues, the more important issue to most R-7 patrons has been the availability of money for the schools. No one does a better job of reporting on school district operations than the Webb City Sentinel and its editor and education reporter Bob Foos.
In the Friday Sentinel, Foos's coverage of the Jan. 11 R-7 Board of Education meeting noted that the financial situation for the school is far better than it was one year ago. Interviews for open teaching positions are being held, something that was not done last year when district officials were unsure how much money they would have. Superintendent Ron Lankford said his goals included a reasonable pay increase for staff members and adding five positions, an elementary counselor, an elementary librarian, a junior high reading specialist, and teachers for second and fourth grades.
Lankford had his contract extended through the 2007-2008 school year during that meeting.
According to the results of its Jan. 6 meeting posted on its website, the Missouri Ethics Commission passed along information about Cagle to the attorney general for further investigation. As usual, the Ethics Commission website provided no information of the nature of the complaint against Cagle, who now serves as a lobbyist for the Missouri Finance Association and in the past has been the Missouri lobbyist for Enron.
Cagle's last attempt at elected office came in 1996 when he lost a bid to unseat incumbent State Senator Marvin Singleton, despite endorsements from area state representatives Gary Burton, Mark Elliott, and Chuck Surface, and the powerful Missouri Right to Life organization.
The Ethics Commission passes along complaints to the attorney general's office when serious violations are alleged to have occurred.
***
A First Amendment controversy will continue at the Neosho R-5 Board of Education meeting Monday when a final decision is expected on whether to include a test for the Bible in the district's Accelerated Reader program.
The first thing the board should probably do is pray (sorry about that) that Superintendent Mark Mitchell will keep his mouth shut and not create any more problems.
An article which will be published Sunday morning in The Globe quotes the superintendent as saying, "We don't discourage kids from reading the Bible. We use it everywhere we can." That makes it appear as if school officials are doing their best to find ways to work the Bible into the curriculum. Mitchell already created a stir recently when he issued a statement to the Globe and to the Neosho Daily News saying that every kid should read the Bible. That's a nice sentiment and I don't have any problem with it. If Mark Mitchell had made the statement as a private citizen exercising his First Amendment rights, then there would be no problem. Unfortunately, the statement was clearly made in his capacity as superintendent of a public school system...a public school system that is smack in the middle of a budding dispute over the Bible and the First Amendment.
All school officials had to do to prevent this nonsense was to review the testing materials for the Bible, see if they had the same degree of difficulty as the normal Accelerated Reader tests. If not, then they should have revised them so they would work and avoid making Neosho the center of the latest freedom of religion controversy.
There has never been any doubt that the Bible has a place in public school systems. In this case, it was not a question of whether the Bible would remain in the library, but whether it could be included in a reading program. If Mitchell and the school officials had not panicked, this would not be dividing the community. Hopefully, when the R-5 Board of Education finishes its selection process for a superintendent to replace Mitchell, who is retiring at the end of the current school year, it will find someone who can do a better job of communicating with both the public and the media.
***
A reader pointed out that KOAM was first to report that former Webb City High School student Brad Mathewson dropped his lawsuit against the R-7 School District and High School Principal Stephen Gollhofer. KOAM ran the first story on its 5 p.m. newscast, while KODE and KSNF ran the item for the first time on their 6 p.m. newscast after the story had hit the wires.
***
While the Brad Mathewson lawsuit posed some interesting First Amendment issues, the more important issue to most R-7 patrons has been the availability of money for the schools. No one does a better job of reporting on school district operations than the Webb City Sentinel and its editor and education reporter Bob Foos.
In the Friday Sentinel, Foos's coverage of the Jan. 11 R-7 Board of Education meeting noted that the financial situation for the school is far better than it was one year ago. Interviews for open teaching positions are being held, something that was not done last year when district officials were unsure how much money they would have. Superintendent Ron Lankford said his goals included a reasonable pay increase for staff members and adding five positions, an elementary counselor, an elementary librarian, a junior high reading specialist, and teachers for second and fourth grades.
Lankford had his contract extended through the 2007-2008 school year during that meeting.
Friday, January 14, 2005
The biggest obstacle in the American Civil Liberties Union's efforts to make Brad Mathewson into a First Amendment martyr turned out to be the former Webb City High School student himself.
According to documents filed today in U. S. District Court for the Western District of Missouri, Mathewson's lawyers tried unsuccessfully for more than a month to contact him to see how he wanted to proceed.
"Since December 9, 2004, Plaintiff's counsel have made repeated efforts to communicate with (him) regarding how to proceed in this matter, all to no avail," a court filing by Mathewson's attorneys said. " When they weren't able to get hold of Mathewson, the lawyers asked for an extension to the Jan. 6 deadline to file a response to the school district's motion to dismiss the case.
When the attorneys missed a deadline because one had an illness in his family, the order to show cause why the case should not be dismissed was filed Jan. 7 with a Jan. 19 deadline scheduled for a response. It didn't take that long.
After the lawyers received the show cause order, lawyer Terrence J. Sexton, of the Kansas City firm of Shook, Hardy and Bacon took steps to have the case dismissed, according to the filing.
When he was finally able to talk to Mathewson earlier today, the 17-year-old agreed to drop his case. Sexton said that Mathewson's decision to drop out of Webb City High School left his request for an injunction to allow him to wear gay pride t-shirts to school a moot point. "Not surprisingly," Sexton wrote, "this factual change has transformed the nature of the case."
Mathewson filed the lawsuit against the school district and High School Principal Stephen Gollhofer after he was required to either change his gay pride t-shirts or go home.
Sexton asked that the case be dismissed voluntarily without prejudice, meaning that it could be refiled if circumstances change.
***
The Mathewson motion led the 10 p.m. news on KOAM, but was the second item on the twin towers of local broadcasting, KODE and KSNF. The lead story was a scam being perpetrated on local consumers by fake satellite dish salesmen. Who can blame the stations for leading with that news item since every actual dish sale is a few more cents in the pocket for Nexstar Broadcasting, the company that owns KSNF and operates KODE. Another example of Nexstar's willingness to sacrifice the integrity of its local newscasts to further its business interests.
The longest item on the satellite dish fraud ran on KSNF. During the time, Channel 16 was through with its elongated tribute to those hard-working legitimate dish companies, KOAM had already run an in-depth report on Mathewson's decision, and a report on earlier than expected completion times for the Rangeline Bypass and for construction on Highway 71 to the Arkansas line.
The only thing I can think of that would be more ludicrous would be to devote the first couple of minutes of a newscast to an editorial ripping into Cable One...oh, wait a minute, they already did that.
***
Cable One has permanently removed KODE and KSNF from two of its franchises.
"In Vinita, Okla., and Independence, Kan., the Nexstar stations will never come back," Tom Basinger, vice president of Cable One's central division, told Multichannel News. The stations will be replaced by WB and UPN stations, according to the article.
Those two franchises are considered to be in the Tulsa market, so Cable One was already carrying NBC and ABC programming from Tulsa stations.
Cable One doesn't have that option in Joplin due to FCC regulations.
***
Nexstar will change the call letters of another station it owns in Springfield. Beginning Monday, KDEB, Fox 27, the Springfield Fox affiliate, will become KSFX, Ozark Fox, according to a news release from the station.
KDEB was carried on the Cox Communications Cable franchises in Carthage and Lamar before the Joplin Fox station went on the air. Surprisingly, Nexstar actually handles operations for KOLR, the CBS affiliate, which is allegedly owned by Mission Broadcasting, the same company that allegedly owns KODE.
***
As usual, H. J. Johnson, the famed Just Jake of Carthage's Mornin' Mail brought a little perspective to everything, noting "The first TV I had used a coat hanger for an antenna." The Mornin' Mail link is featured on this page.
***
Kansas City Business Journal reports that Joplin-based Empire District Electric Company has shown interest in joining with Kansas City Power & Light to buy an 800 to 900 megawatt regulated coal-fired plant near Iatan, Mo, 38 miles from Kansas City. The KC company would own about 500 megawatts with Empire owning the rest, the article said.
***
Lamar High School graduate Nicole Lehman missed her first collegiate double-double by one rebound during a Southwest Missouri State University Lady Bears win. Lehman, a former two-time all-state player for Coach Richard Marti's Tigers, had 18 points and nine rebounds.
***
Another Lamar High School graduate has been doing rather well for herself. Jennifer Lenz, daughter of Andre and Vicki Lenz, has picked up a bachelor's degree, a master's degree...and it seems like there was something else.
Oh, yes, she was crowned Miss Arizona USA in 2002, winning the interview, evening gown, and swimsuit competition, and competed in the Miss USA Pageant. She now lives in Dallas, Texas, where she works in banking and has begun a thriving consulting business designed to help young women who want to compete in pageants. You can check out Jennifer's website at http://www.jennlenz.com/index.html
Jennifer is also active in charity work to combat breast cancer.
***
Associated Press reports that Hollinger Inc., the company that used to own The Neosho Daily News and The Carthage Press, will place the money from its sale of The London Telegraph into escrow while it is being investigated by the federal Securities and Exchange Commission.
The federal agency is investigating accusations that Hollinger's former CEO, Lord Conrad Black and his chief deputy, David Radler, defrauded the company of millions of dollars.
The AP article said the company could use the money for limited purposes, including interest and dividend payments.
According to documents filed today in U. S. District Court for the Western District of Missouri, Mathewson's lawyers tried unsuccessfully for more than a month to contact him to see how he wanted to proceed.
"Since December 9, 2004, Plaintiff's counsel have made repeated efforts to communicate with (him) regarding how to proceed in this matter, all to no avail," a court filing by Mathewson's attorneys said. " When they weren't able to get hold of Mathewson, the lawyers asked for an extension to the Jan. 6 deadline to file a response to the school district's motion to dismiss the case.
When the attorneys missed a deadline because one had an illness in his family, the order to show cause why the case should not be dismissed was filed Jan. 7 with a Jan. 19 deadline scheduled for a response. It didn't take that long.
After the lawyers received the show cause order, lawyer Terrence J. Sexton, of the Kansas City firm of Shook, Hardy and Bacon took steps to have the case dismissed, according to the filing.
When he was finally able to talk to Mathewson earlier today, the 17-year-old agreed to drop his case. Sexton said that Mathewson's decision to drop out of Webb City High School left his request for an injunction to allow him to wear gay pride t-shirts to school a moot point. "Not surprisingly," Sexton wrote, "this factual change has transformed the nature of the case."
Mathewson filed the lawsuit against the school district and High School Principal Stephen Gollhofer after he was required to either change his gay pride t-shirts or go home.
Sexton asked that the case be dismissed voluntarily without prejudice, meaning that it could be refiled if circumstances change.
***
The Mathewson motion led the 10 p.m. news on KOAM, but was the second item on the twin towers of local broadcasting, KODE and KSNF. The lead story was a scam being perpetrated on local consumers by fake satellite dish salesmen. Who can blame the stations for leading with that news item since every actual dish sale is a few more cents in the pocket for Nexstar Broadcasting, the company that owns KSNF and operates KODE. Another example of Nexstar's willingness to sacrifice the integrity of its local newscasts to further its business interests.
The longest item on the satellite dish fraud ran on KSNF. During the time, Channel 16 was through with its elongated tribute to those hard-working legitimate dish companies, KOAM had already run an in-depth report on Mathewson's decision, and a report on earlier than expected completion times for the Rangeline Bypass and for construction on Highway 71 to the Arkansas line.
The only thing I can think of that would be more ludicrous would be to devote the first couple of minutes of a newscast to an editorial ripping into Cable One...oh, wait a minute, they already did that.
***
Cable One has permanently removed KODE and KSNF from two of its franchises.
"In Vinita, Okla., and Independence, Kan., the Nexstar stations will never come back," Tom Basinger, vice president of Cable One's central division, told Multichannel News. The stations will be replaced by WB and UPN stations, according to the article.
Those two franchises are considered to be in the Tulsa market, so Cable One was already carrying NBC and ABC programming from Tulsa stations.
Cable One doesn't have that option in Joplin due to FCC regulations.
***
Nexstar will change the call letters of another station it owns in Springfield. Beginning Monday, KDEB, Fox 27, the Springfield Fox affiliate, will become KSFX, Ozark Fox, according to a news release from the station.
KDEB was carried on the Cox Communications Cable franchises in Carthage and Lamar before the Joplin Fox station went on the air. Surprisingly, Nexstar actually handles operations for KOLR, the CBS affiliate, which is allegedly owned by Mission Broadcasting, the same company that allegedly owns KODE.
***
As usual, H. J. Johnson, the famed Just Jake of Carthage's Mornin' Mail brought a little perspective to everything, noting "The first TV I had used a coat hanger for an antenna." The Mornin' Mail link is featured on this page.
***
Kansas City Business Journal reports that Joplin-based Empire District Electric Company has shown interest in joining with Kansas City Power & Light to buy an 800 to 900 megawatt regulated coal-fired plant near Iatan, Mo, 38 miles from Kansas City. The KC company would own about 500 megawatts with Empire owning the rest, the article said.
***
Lamar High School graduate Nicole Lehman missed her first collegiate double-double by one rebound during a Southwest Missouri State University Lady Bears win. Lehman, a former two-time all-state player for Coach Richard Marti's Tigers, had 18 points and nine rebounds.
***
Another Lamar High School graduate has been doing rather well for herself. Jennifer Lenz, daughter of Andre and Vicki Lenz, has picked up a bachelor's degree, a master's degree...and it seems like there was something else.
Oh, yes, she was crowned Miss Arizona USA in 2002, winning the interview, evening gown, and swimsuit competition, and competed in the Miss USA Pageant. She now lives in Dallas, Texas, where she works in banking and has begun a thriving consulting business designed to help young women who want to compete in pageants. You can check out Jennifer's website at http://www.jennlenz.com/index.html
Jennifer is also active in charity work to combat breast cancer.
***
Associated Press reports that Hollinger Inc., the company that used to own The Neosho Daily News and The Carthage Press, will place the money from its sale of The London Telegraph into escrow while it is being investigated by the federal Securities and Exchange Commission.
The federal agency is investigating accusations that Hollinger's former CEO, Lord Conrad Black and his chief deputy, David Radler, defrauded the company of millions of dollars.
The AP article said the company could use the money for limited purposes, including interest and dividend payments.
Thursday, January 13, 2005
Everybody's doing it.
The Belleville, Ill. News-Democrat reports that tax increment financing is being considered for a prime business area in Fairview Heights, Ill. to entice CBL and Associates Properties of Chattanooga, Tenn., to build a 9.96 acre shopping center.
CBL and Associates recently made its entry into the Joplin area as the new owner of Northpark Mall.
According to the News-Democrat article, the Fairview Heights City Council reduced its normal 15-percent application fee for such a project. The fee, which normally would have been $750,000 was reduced to $7,500.
One difference between the way Joplin set up its recent TIF district and the way it is being done in Fairview Heights is the time factor. CBL is months away from getting final approval, the article said.
Illinois law requires a review by all taxing districts in the area, including schools, and a public hearing.
The article said the shopping center has the kind of upscale trendy shops that cities which employ these TIF districts seem to cherish. "It is expected to employ 226 full-time equivalent jobs and generate about $2.2 million a year in anticipated sales tax revenue." Of course. those figures come from CBL officials.
As always, the city officials said they offered the tax incentives so they would not lose CBL's business.
When will city council members realize that they do not have to give away the store in order to attract business?
***
The former McDonald County sheriff candidate who is facing federal weapons charges has asked for a continuance of his Jan. 25 pretrial conference. According to a motion filed today in U. S. District Court for the Western District of Missouri, Randy Alan Hance has executed a waiver of his constitutional right to a speedy trial and is asking that the pretrial conference be moved to sometime after March.
***
A proposal for a Jasper County law enforcement sales tax could pose problems for the Joplin R-8 School District's tax levy proposal. Tonight's Carthage Press featured a solid story from editor Ron Graber examining the sales tax, which has been requested by Sheriff Archie Dunn. Hitting taxpayers with too many proposals at one time could result in the defeat of all of them. County commissioners are considering putting the proposal on the ballot either in April or June.
Another factor to be considered is that law enforcement for municipalities such as Joplin, Webb City, Carl Junction, and Carthage, is handled by local police departments, which would not be receiving any 0f the money.
***
Though it wasn't listed anywhere on the preliminary agenda on the school's website, the Diamond R-4 Board of Education, during its meeting tonight, discussed requiring drug tests for students who participate in extracurricular activities. A majority of district patrons seem to favor the move, which any regular reader of The Turner Report knows that I do not favor drug testing for students. Does the Diamond R-4 School District have a drug problem? Certainly, all school districts have that problem these days, and some of those who are using drugs are athletes or band members, or students who participate in some other school activity, but the biggest problem is with students who are not involved in any activity and, by law, those students cannot be subjected to drug tests.
This is an unfair intrusion on student privacy. And since other schools are doing it, naturally there will be more and more, including Diamond, who jump on the bandwagon.
***
KOAM's report on the Diamond School Board meeting featured an interview with the school superintendent. I looked up to see who was being interviewed and from the way he appeared,I was expecting the man to break into a chorus of "Have a Holly, Jolly Christmas!"
***
Speaking of Diamond, Diamond High School and MSSU graduate Kaylea Hutson continues to do strong work as lifestyles editor at The Carthage Press. Today's Press featured an informative look at the battle between Nexstar Broadcasting, owner of KSNF and owner in everything but name of KODE, and Cox Communications.
Nexstar has threatened to pull its stations from Cox's cable systems in Carthage and Lamar if it doesn't receive 30 cents per customer per month from Cox. The same ultimatum was rejected by Cable One in Joplin, which no longer carries the two Joplin stations.
***
Associated Press carried a story on Nexstar today. A media analyst said most confrontations, such as the ones going on between Nexstar and Cox, and Nexstar and Cable One end with the TV station backing down. "If they withhold their signal from cable, their ad revenue falls by 75 percent or so," Craig Moffett, a media analyst with Sanford Bernstein, told AP, noting that only viewers with satellite dishes or antennas can get the local stations
Advertisers have already been expressing their concerns to the Nexstar stations in Joplin and have been asking for deep discounts. Some have taken the lion's share of their business to KOAM, while others continue to put their ads on cable, where they are distributed to the local cable provider's time on all of its stations.
***
State Senator Gary Nodler's Education Committee hold its first meeting 2 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 18, in Senate Committee Room 1. It will be a while before the committee addresses the Foundation Formula, through which Missouri public schools are funded. The first meeting addresses issues facing higher education, including Nodler's bill to add two voting members to the Missouri Southern State University Board of Regents and a bill submitted by Rep. Norma Champion, R-Springfield, to rename Southwest Missouri State University to Missouri State University. The latter proposal has been strongly opposed by legislators in the Columbia area, who fear the name change would increase the Springfield university's prestige at the expense of the University of Missouri-Columbia.
***
The first Senate committee to deal with public elementary and secondary education will be the Appropriations Committee when it meets 8 a.m. Wednesday, Jan. 19, in Senate Committee Room 2. Testimony will be given by officials from the State Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE). The committee will hold hearings for budget requests from the Department of Higher Education the following day.
The Belleville, Ill. News-Democrat reports that tax increment financing is being considered for a prime business area in Fairview Heights, Ill. to entice CBL and Associates Properties of Chattanooga, Tenn., to build a 9.96 acre shopping center.
CBL and Associates recently made its entry into the Joplin area as the new owner of Northpark Mall.
According to the News-Democrat article, the Fairview Heights City Council reduced its normal 15-percent application fee for such a project. The fee, which normally would have been $750,000 was reduced to $7,500.
One difference between the way Joplin set up its recent TIF district and the way it is being done in Fairview Heights is the time factor. CBL is months away from getting final approval, the article said.
Illinois law requires a review by all taxing districts in the area, including schools, and a public hearing.
The article said the shopping center has the kind of upscale trendy shops that cities which employ these TIF districts seem to cherish. "It is expected to employ 226 full-time equivalent jobs and generate about $2.2 million a year in anticipated sales tax revenue." Of course. those figures come from CBL officials.
As always, the city officials said they offered the tax incentives so they would not lose CBL's business.
When will city council members realize that they do not have to give away the store in order to attract business?
***
The former McDonald County sheriff candidate who is facing federal weapons charges has asked for a continuance of his Jan. 25 pretrial conference. According to a motion filed today in U. S. District Court for the Western District of Missouri, Randy Alan Hance has executed a waiver of his constitutional right to a speedy trial and is asking that the pretrial conference be moved to sometime after March.
***
A proposal for a Jasper County law enforcement sales tax could pose problems for the Joplin R-8 School District's tax levy proposal. Tonight's Carthage Press featured a solid story from editor Ron Graber examining the sales tax, which has been requested by Sheriff Archie Dunn. Hitting taxpayers with too many proposals at one time could result in the defeat of all of them. County commissioners are considering putting the proposal on the ballot either in April or June.
Another factor to be considered is that law enforcement for municipalities such as Joplin, Webb City, Carl Junction, and Carthage, is handled by local police departments, which would not be receiving any 0f the money.
***
Though it wasn't listed anywhere on the preliminary agenda on the school's website, the Diamond R-4 Board of Education, during its meeting tonight, discussed requiring drug tests for students who participate in extracurricular activities. A majority of district patrons seem to favor the move, which any regular reader of The Turner Report knows that I do not favor drug testing for students. Does the Diamond R-4 School District have a drug problem? Certainly, all school districts have that problem these days, and some of those who are using drugs are athletes or band members, or students who participate in some other school activity, but the biggest problem is with students who are not involved in any activity and, by law, those students cannot be subjected to drug tests.
This is an unfair intrusion on student privacy. And since other schools are doing it, naturally there will be more and more, including Diamond, who jump on the bandwagon.
***
KOAM's report on the Diamond School Board meeting featured an interview with the school superintendent. I looked up to see who was being interviewed and from the way he appeared,I was expecting the man to break into a chorus of "Have a Holly, Jolly Christmas!"
***
Speaking of Diamond, Diamond High School and MSSU graduate Kaylea Hutson continues to do strong work as lifestyles editor at The Carthage Press. Today's Press featured an informative look at the battle between Nexstar Broadcasting, owner of KSNF and owner in everything but name of KODE, and Cox Communications.
Nexstar has threatened to pull its stations from Cox's cable systems in Carthage and Lamar if it doesn't receive 30 cents per customer per month from Cox. The same ultimatum was rejected by Cable One in Joplin, which no longer carries the two Joplin stations.
***
Associated Press carried a story on Nexstar today. A media analyst said most confrontations, such as the ones going on between Nexstar and Cox, and Nexstar and Cable One end with the TV station backing down. "If they withhold their signal from cable, their ad revenue falls by 75 percent or so," Craig Moffett, a media analyst with Sanford Bernstein, told AP, noting that only viewers with satellite dishes or antennas can get the local stations
Advertisers have already been expressing their concerns to the Nexstar stations in Joplin and have been asking for deep discounts. Some have taken the lion's share of their business to KOAM, while others continue to put their ads on cable, where they are distributed to the local cable provider's time on all of its stations.
***
State Senator Gary Nodler's Education Committee hold its first meeting 2 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 18, in Senate Committee Room 1. It will be a while before the committee addresses the Foundation Formula, through which Missouri public schools are funded. The first meeting addresses issues facing higher education, including Nodler's bill to add two voting members to the Missouri Southern State University Board of Regents and a bill submitted by Rep. Norma Champion, R-Springfield, to rename Southwest Missouri State University to Missouri State University. The latter proposal has been strongly opposed by legislators in the Columbia area, who fear the name change would increase the Springfield university's prestige at the expense of the University of Missouri-Columbia.
***
The first Senate committee to deal with public elementary and secondary education will be the Appropriations Committee when it meets 8 a.m. Wednesday, Jan. 19, in Senate Committee Room 2. Testimony will be given by officials from the State Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE). The committee will hold hearings for budget requests from the Department of Higher Education the following day.
Wednesday, January 12, 2005
A two million dollar lawsuit against former Newton County Sheriff Ron Doerge has been pushed back a week.
Documents filed today in U. S. District Court for the Western District of Missouri indicate the trial for former inmate Donald R. Allen's lawsuit against Doerge will begin June 27 and continue through July 5 at the U. S. District Courthouse, 222 N. John Q. Hammons Parkway, Springfield.
Each party will be required to have all exhibits, motions, and a list of all witnesses ready by May 16, according to the court document.
Though many lawsuits against Doerge based on conditions in the jail have been dismissed over the years, Donald Richard Allen's suit has been winding its way through the federal court system since June 2, 2000. Allen's complaint stems from the way Doerge, head jailer Bob Sullivan and others responded to his request for medical treatment, according to the lawsuit. Allen's stay in the Newton County Jail began on Jan. 19, 2000. "I stated that I had emphysema and I need medication for this condition," he said. "I had my wife provide them with my medication and they refused to allow me access to it or refused to give it to me during med calls."Allen said I was not given access to grievance forms to lodge his complaints.He said he wants to see "a policy change within the Newton County Jail to insure no one else is treated in this manner."
Allen is asking for $1 million in damages and an additional $1 million in punitive damages.
***
Diamond R-4 Board of Education members are scheduled to review the results of the 2003-2004 audit when they meet 7 p.m. today in the high school hospitality room. No mention was made on the agenda if any decision will be made on a proposal to require drug testing of student athletes, but that doesn't mean it won't be discussed. Diamond school officials make a habit of providing only a barebones agenda and only listing the people who will make presentations and not any of what they will be talking about. High School Principal Jim Cummins, who has been researching the topic, is listed on the agenda.
***
A McDonald County inmate has been given until Feb. 4 to return civil right complaint forms against the sheriff's department to U. S. District Court Judge Gary A. Fenner. William Shayne Poole is suing former McDonald County Sheriff Robert Evenson, who was defeated in his re-election attempt and one of his deputies who apparently has a penchant for correcting the grammar and spelling on prisoners' grievance forms.
In his lawsuit, Poole asks for an audit of the prison commissary, claiming money is missing from inmate accounts. He claims prison officials did not allow him to receive medication, causing him to have seizures and forcing his hospitalization.
As reported last month in The Turner Report, Poole said he filled out a postage request form to send a letter to the circuit clerk, but it was "brought back and torn up in front of me by Michelle Amos."Lt. Amos also ignored staff memos to provide Poole with his medication, he claimed.Poole also sent in grievance forms filled out by him and two other prisoners, all of which he indicates were corrected by Lt. Amos, though the deputy's signature on the forms is virtually illegible. In one dated Dec. 12, 2003, she denied a request by Poole to use the canteen and to see the sheriff, scolding him for not spelling using and sheriff correctly. Someone should have gone over her work since she wrote, "periods and commas need to correctly," then with a flourish, added, "Denied- ask your lawyer."Another Poole grievance, dated Dec. 4, was returned with an "F" grade and "-50" written on it. Poole was complaining about a deputy not giving him soap to shower with and being disrespectful toward him, even though Poole was told if he wouldn't play with the soap he could probably have some.On the same day, inmate Don Barkfelt also received an F, according to a copy of a grievance form entered into Poole's petition. Barkfelt wrote, "Was refused soap to take a shower and was very out of line with his language with us this morning." Lt. Amos replied, "Great story and introduction, but need and ending to this story.The third grievance filed over the soap situation, submitted by Joe Darryl Andrews, was also graded F. "English helps" and "sentence doesn't make sense" were written on the grievance form. "Please rewrite the request so it can be read and written correctly."Poole claims that when he filled out a form to file his lawsuit, it was torn to pieces in front of him by Lt. Amos.
***
Former Hollinger Inc. CEO Lord Conrad Black will be interviewed as part of an investigation into financial wrongdoing at the company, according to an Associated Press article. Hollinger at one time owned The Neosho Daily News and The Carthage Press.
The article said investigators will spend about four months reviewing files before interviewing Black. Company officials claimed in SEC filings that Black systematically looted his company of millions and millions of dollars, including requiring newspaper companies that bought the small newspapers he sold in the 1990s to sign non-compete clauses that were totally unnecessary.
A report filed by the company to the SEC indicates that the sale terms when The Daily News and The Press were sold in 1998, during the creation of Liberty Group Publishing, also required Liberty officials to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars for non-compete clauses.
***
One of the best feature writers on any Missouri newspaper is Michelle Reagan who got her start when she attended Lockwood High School working for me at The Carthage Press. If you get a chance, check out the Features section on the Jefferson City News-Tribune website link, featured elsewhere on this page. Michelle wrote an excellent little profile of the family of former Missouri Governor Bob Holden as it prepared to leave the governor's mansion.
***
I received quite a few comments when I ran a few items on people who left the local television markets and have gone on to other venues. I still have as many people coming to this site to find out about Malorie Maddox as I do about the other three hot topics, Ron Doerge, O'Sullivan Industries and the Nexstar-Cable One feud.
Of course, the names that have been most prominent have been former KOAM reporter Brian Williams, who recently replaced Tom Brokaw as anchor of the NBC Nightly News, and former KODE weather reporter Marny Stanier who has filed an age discrimination lawsuit after being fired by The Weather Channel after 15 years.
Another former local who has gone on to bigger things is former KSN sports reporter John Boruk, who is now a sports anchor and reporter at WDIV-4, the NBC affiliate in Detroit. Boruk was in the Joplin area close to 10 years ago, then spent time at KOLR in Springfield and about five years at Nashville, winning three local Emmys and was nominated for eight others in the process.
***
The simultaneous editorials ran by Nexstar Broadcasting on KODE and KSNF at the beginning of the 6 and 10 p.m. newscasts Tuesday night was just another example of the nonsense of claiming that the two stations have different owners.
The simple fact is all of Mission Broadcasting's stations, including KODE, are operated by Nexstar and the lunacy of calling Mission Broadcasting an actual business instead of a thinly-disguised method of getting around Federal Communications Commission rules was spelled out thoroughly in an article in the Jan. 11, 2004, edition of the Akron, Ohio, Beacon Journal.
Mission Broadcasting is run out of the home of Rev. David Smith, pastor of the St. Paul Lutheran Center in Akron, according to the article, which describes the home of Mission Broadcasting as "the tidy white house on a quiet street."
To quote from the article, "Mission Broadcasting, despite its biblical-sounding name, is not a religious broadcaster. It owns an assortment of CBS, ABC, NBC and Fox affiliates. Its stations run the normal fare of college football games, reality shows, Seinfeld reruns and local news.
"The Smiths' house is not a television nerve center like CNN's headquarters in Atlanta. And it doesn't have transmission towers in the back yard. From the sidewalk, it looks like an ordinary house."
That's because, as the article points out, it is an ordinary house. Mission doesn't run TV stations, it holds station licenses and enters into agreements with Nexstar to run those stations, including KODE in Joplin and KOLR in Springfield.
The article describes the operation of the Nexstar-operated stations in Wilkes-Barre, Pa., which are similar to the way the Joplin stations are run. "The two stations have separate news anchors and reporters, but they share camera operators, live-satellite trucks, editors and engineers, and sometimes producers and directors."
This system has enabled Nexstar to dominate smaller markets, where owners are only allowed one station according to FCC rules. Even though the FCC treats Nexstar and Mission as two companies, Nexstar makes no efforts in its federal Securities and Exchange Commission filings to hide the fact that it is actually one. Nexstar guarantees Mission's debt, has options to buy all Mission stations at below-market rates if FCC rules are ever relaxed and receives virtually "all of the available cash generated by Mission's stations."
In the SEC documents, as noted earlier in The Turner Report, Nexstar officials claim to have a "controlling financial interest" in Mission.
This arrangement has not gone unnoticed by consumer advocates. In the Beacon Journal article, Liz Rose, a former FCC spokesman during the Clinton administration, gave her assessment of the Nexstar-Mission arrangement. "It sounds like a big loophole that hits a community exactly where it hurts," she said. "Companies that consolidate local TV business, in the face of rules that clearly prohibit it, have developed these clever, and I think, highly suspect legal fig leaves to defeat the obvious intent of the law. The losers are the citizens in those towns. The companies, to save money, are cutting back on local news, weather, and sports...the things that people really care about."
The article quotes Nexstar CEO Perry Sook as saying that David Smith "and his people" make all of the programming decisions for Mission and that he and other Nexstar officials have nothing whatsoever to do with it.
SEC documents indicate that Smith makes $200,000 a year as CEO of Mission. His wife also receives a salary, but Smith told the Beacon Journal that he has "no day-to-day responsibilities" with Mission. He did not know how many employees Mission had and couldn't explain his own company's business plan.
The Turner Report has learned that KODE employees are told to stick with the company line that Mission is actually in control of the station, but the company line is hard to accept since one year ago Mission Broadcasting had 65 employees at 12 stations, an average of 5.4 employees per station. It is hard to run a TV station with 5.4 employees.
Documents filed today in U. S. District Court for the Western District of Missouri indicate the trial for former inmate Donald R. Allen's lawsuit against Doerge will begin June 27 and continue through July 5 at the U. S. District Courthouse, 222 N. John Q. Hammons Parkway, Springfield.
Each party will be required to have all exhibits, motions, and a list of all witnesses ready by May 16, according to the court document.
Though many lawsuits against Doerge based on conditions in the jail have been dismissed over the years, Donald Richard Allen's suit has been winding its way through the federal court system since June 2, 2000. Allen's complaint stems from the way Doerge, head jailer Bob Sullivan and others responded to his request for medical treatment, according to the lawsuit. Allen's stay in the Newton County Jail began on Jan. 19, 2000. "I stated that I had emphysema and I need medication for this condition," he said. "I had my wife provide them with my medication and they refused to allow me access to it or refused to give it to me during med calls."Allen said I was not given access to grievance forms to lodge his complaints.He said he wants to see "a policy change within the Newton County Jail to insure no one else is treated in this manner."
Allen is asking for $1 million in damages and an additional $1 million in punitive damages.
***
Diamond R-4 Board of Education members are scheduled to review the results of the 2003-2004 audit when they meet 7 p.m. today in the high school hospitality room. No mention was made on the agenda if any decision will be made on a proposal to require drug testing of student athletes, but that doesn't mean it won't be discussed. Diamond school officials make a habit of providing only a barebones agenda and only listing the people who will make presentations and not any of what they will be talking about. High School Principal Jim Cummins, who has been researching the topic, is listed on the agenda.
***
A McDonald County inmate has been given until Feb. 4 to return civil right complaint forms against the sheriff's department to U. S. District Court Judge Gary A. Fenner. William Shayne Poole is suing former McDonald County Sheriff Robert Evenson, who was defeated in his re-election attempt and one of his deputies who apparently has a penchant for correcting the grammar and spelling on prisoners' grievance forms.
In his lawsuit, Poole asks for an audit of the prison commissary, claiming money is missing from inmate accounts. He claims prison officials did not allow him to receive medication, causing him to have seizures and forcing his hospitalization.
As reported last month in The Turner Report, Poole said he filled out a postage request form to send a letter to the circuit clerk, but it was "brought back and torn up in front of me by Michelle Amos."Lt. Amos also ignored staff memos to provide Poole with his medication, he claimed.Poole also sent in grievance forms filled out by him and two other prisoners, all of which he indicates were corrected by Lt. Amos, though the deputy's signature on the forms is virtually illegible. In one dated Dec. 12, 2003, she denied a request by Poole to use the canteen and to see the sheriff, scolding him for not spelling using and sheriff correctly. Someone should have gone over her work since she wrote, "periods and commas need to correctly," then with a flourish, added, "Denied- ask your lawyer."Another Poole grievance, dated Dec. 4, was returned with an "F" grade and "-50" written on it. Poole was complaining about a deputy not giving him soap to shower with and being disrespectful toward him, even though Poole was told if he wouldn't play with the soap he could probably have some.On the same day, inmate Don Barkfelt also received an F, according to a copy of a grievance form entered into Poole's petition. Barkfelt wrote, "Was refused soap to take a shower and was very out of line with his language with us this morning." Lt. Amos replied, "Great story and introduction, but need and ending to this story.The third grievance filed over the soap situation, submitted by Joe Darryl Andrews, was also graded F. "English helps" and "sentence doesn't make sense" were written on the grievance form. "Please rewrite the request so it can be read and written correctly."Poole claims that when he filled out a form to file his lawsuit, it was torn to pieces in front of him by Lt. Amos.
***
Former Hollinger Inc. CEO Lord Conrad Black will be interviewed as part of an investigation into financial wrongdoing at the company, according to an Associated Press article. Hollinger at one time owned The Neosho Daily News and The Carthage Press.
The article said investigators will spend about four months reviewing files before interviewing Black. Company officials claimed in SEC filings that Black systematically looted his company of millions and millions of dollars, including requiring newspaper companies that bought the small newspapers he sold in the 1990s to sign non-compete clauses that were totally unnecessary.
A report filed by the company to the SEC indicates that the sale terms when The Daily News and The Press were sold in 1998, during the creation of Liberty Group Publishing, also required Liberty officials to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars for non-compete clauses.
***
One of the best feature writers on any Missouri newspaper is Michelle Reagan who got her start when she attended Lockwood High School working for me at The Carthage Press. If you get a chance, check out the Features section on the Jefferson City News-Tribune website link, featured elsewhere on this page. Michelle wrote an excellent little profile of the family of former Missouri Governor Bob Holden as it prepared to leave the governor's mansion.
***
I received quite a few comments when I ran a few items on people who left the local television markets and have gone on to other venues. I still have as many people coming to this site to find out about Malorie Maddox as I do about the other three hot topics, Ron Doerge, O'Sullivan Industries and the Nexstar-Cable One feud.
Of course, the names that have been most prominent have been former KOAM reporter Brian Williams, who recently replaced Tom Brokaw as anchor of the NBC Nightly News, and former KODE weather reporter Marny Stanier who has filed an age discrimination lawsuit after being fired by The Weather Channel after 15 years.
Another former local who has gone on to bigger things is former KSN sports reporter John Boruk, who is now a sports anchor and reporter at WDIV-4, the NBC affiliate in Detroit. Boruk was in the Joplin area close to 10 years ago, then spent time at KOLR in Springfield and about five years at Nashville, winning three local Emmys and was nominated for eight others in the process.
***
The simultaneous editorials ran by Nexstar Broadcasting on KODE and KSNF at the beginning of the 6 and 10 p.m. newscasts Tuesday night was just another example of the nonsense of claiming that the two stations have different owners.
The simple fact is all of Mission Broadcasting's stations, including KODE, are operated by Nexstar and the lunacy of calling Mission Broadcasting an actual business instead of a thinly-disguised method of getting around Federal Communications Commission rules was spelled out thoroughly in an article in the Jan. 11, 2004, edition of the Akron, Ohio, Beacon Journal.
Mission Broadcasting is run out of the home of Rev. David Smith, pastor of the St. Paul Lutheran Center in Akron, according to the article, which describes the home of Mission Broadcasting as "the tidy white house on a quiet street."
To quote from the article, "Mission Broadcasting, despite its biblical-sounding name, is not a religious broadcaster. It owns an assortment of CBS, ABC, NBC and Fox affiliates. Its stations run the normal fare of college football games, reality shows, Seinfeld reruns and local news.
"The Smiths' house is not a television nerve center like CNN's headquarters in Atlanta. And it doesn't have transmission towers in the back yard. From the sidewalk, it looks like an ordinary house."
That's because, as the article points out, it is an ordinary house. Mission doesn't run TV stations, it holds station licenses and enters into agreements with Nexstar to run those stations, including KODE in Joplin and KOLR in Springfield.
The article describes the operation of the Nexstar-operated stations in Wilkes-Barre, Pa., which are similar to the way the Joplin stations are run. "The two stations have separate news anchors and reporters, but they share camera operators, live-satellite trucks, editors and engineers, and sometimes producers and directors."
This system has enabled Nexstar to dominate smaller markets, where owners are only allowed one station according to FCC rules. Even though the FCC treats Nexstar and Mission as two companies, Nexstar makes no efforts in its federal Securities and Exchange Commission filings to hide the fact that it is actually one. Nexstar guarantees Mission's debt, has options to buy all Mission stations at below-market rates if FCC rules are ever relaxed and receives virtually "all of the available cash generated by Mission's stations."
In the SEC documents, as noted earlier in The Turner Report, Nexstar officials claim to have a "controlling financial interest" in Mission.
This arrangement has not gone unnoticed by consumer advocates. In the Beacon Journal article, Liz Rose, a former FCC spokesman during the Clinton administration, gave her assessment of the Nexstar-Mission arrangement. "It sounds like a big loophole that hits a community exactly where it hurts," she said. "Companies that consolidate local TV business, in the face of rules that clearly prohibit it, have developed these clever, and I think, highly suspect legal fig leaves to defeat the obvious intent of the law. The losers are the citizens in those towns. The companies, to save money, are cutting back on local news, weather, and sports...the things that people really care about."
The article quotes Nexstar CEO Perry Sook as saying that David Smith "and his people" make all of the programming decisions for Mission and that he and other Nexstar officials have nothing whatsoever to do with it.
SEC documents indicate that Smith makes $200,000 a year as CEO of Mission. His wife also receives a salary, but Smith told the Beacon Journal that he has "no day-to-day responsibilities" with Mission. He did not know how many employees Mission had and couldn't explain his own company's business plan.
The Turner Report has learned that KODE employees are told to stick with the company line that Mission is actually in control of the station, but the company line is hard to accept since one year ago Mission Broadcasting had 65 employees at 12 stations, an average of 5.4 employees per station. It is hard to run a TV station with 5.4 employees.
Longtime Carthage Press employee Ron Graber continued his climb up the corporate ladder yesterday, I have been told. It was announced in the Tuesday Press that Ron, who has been with the newspaper since August 1992, has been promoted to general manager.
I have not seen the article, but I assume that he will continue to serve as the Press managing editor, similar to the dual position that Buzz Ball holds at the Neosho Daily News, another Liberty Group Publishing newspaper.
I had the pleasure of working with Ron for nearly seven years and watched him grow, through hard work, from a staff photographer (who won two of the three Missouri Press Association categories in his first year out of MU School of Journalism) to an award-winning investigative reporter (for his work on uncovering the sordid history of Lamar con artist Patrick Graham.
Ron's connection with the Graham story was interesting, in that before Graham brought his shell game to Lamar and ripped off hundreds of investors, including singer Pat Boone, and the owner of Silver Dollar City, in a fake AIDS vaccine scam, he fleeced investors in the small town of Freeman, S. D....Ron Graber's home town. Ron had the rare opportunity to become a hometown hero while working for a newspaper hundreds of miles away.
One underappreciated quality of Ron's has been the literate style he brought to the writing of headlines, an important, but mostly overlooked part of newspaper journalism. My favorite was an ice storm hit the Carthage area a few years back. Only Ron Grober could harken back to the late, great playwright Eugene O'Neill and come up with the headline, "Man, the ice cometh."
Congratulations, Ron.
***
The Globe this morning reported on Cable One's move to put two new stations in the spots previously held by KODE and KSNF. Soapnet and the Hallmark Channel are on this week, to be followed by previews of other stations on Cable One's digital network.
If Cable One is smart, it will continue to keep the two that are presently on. One of the biggest groups affected by the removal of the Joplin stations from Cable One has been soap opera watchers. A quick check of Soapnet's schedule shows that the network shows same-day viewings of all three soop operas that KODE has, "All My Children," "One Life to Live," and "General Hospital," as well as the top-rated soap opera "Days of Our Lives" from NBC. This network would offer one more weapon in Cable One's arsenal.
In addition, the Hallmark Channel is a far more family-friendly station than ABC Family, which is offered on Cable One's programming list.
The Globe indicated that The Golf Channel will be given a preview. Maybe I am wrong, but I don't expect that to make much of a difference.
***
Enesco Group has named a new CEO Cynthia Passmore-McLaughlin to try to get the company back on track. As reported this week in The Turner Report, sales of Enesco's top-brand, the Precious Moments collectibles has dropped 14 percent in the past three years. The collectibles have played a big part in the increase of tourism to the Carthage area, thanks to former Carthage resident Sam Butcher's creation of the Precious Moments Chapel and complex.
***
State Representative Kevin Wilson, R-Neosho's latest article gives an idea of where his priorities lie. This quote was taken from the article:
"The key agenda items that are facing us immediately are tort teform, Worker’s Comp reform and coming up with a new formula for funding of our public schools. These are huge issues with far-reaching effects and it is vital that we attack these problems with a spirit of cooperation and bi-partisanship that must transcend party lines and geographical differences."
I would hope that Rep. Wilson would place education first, but it looks like Wilson, like many of his Republican colleagues, wants to put the interests of wealthy business owners first.
***
A proposal for a new junior high will be on the agenda when the Carthage R-9 Board of Education meets 7 p.m. Monday, Jan. 17, at the Fairview Elementary School multi-purpose room. The board is also scheduled to discuss the capital improvement five-year plan.
***
Lamarmo.com features information that several more O'Sullivan Industries employees with local connections have lost their jobs.
Posters on the website are saying that Stuart Schotte, Cindy Clements, David Pittman & Tom Tirdil were fired, while Tim Riegel and Jason Stansberry have resigned.
Every last vestige of Lamar is being removed from the company's upper echelon. It would be nice if The Lamar Democrat would recognize this and write about what has been the most important news story in the Lamar area for the past year. A great disservice has been done to the memory of O'Sullivan Industries founder Tom O'Sullivan, not only by the new management of O'Sullivan from its plush new corporate offices in Atlanta, but also by the local Lamar newspaper.
I have not seen the article, but I assume that he will continue to serve as the Press managing editor, similar to the dual position that Buzz Ball holds at the Neosho Daily News, another Liberty Group Publishing newspaper.
I had the pleasure of working with Ron for nearly seven years and watched him grow, through hard work, from a staff photographer (who won two of the three Missouri Press Association categories in his first year out of MU School of Journalism) to an award-winning investigative reporter (for his work on uncovering the sordid history of Lamar con artist Patrick Graham.
Ron's connection with the Graham story was interesting, in that before Graham brought his shell game to Lamar and ripped off hundreds of investors, including singer Pat Boone, and the owner of Silver Dollar City, in a fake AIDS vaccine scam, he fleeced investors in the small town of Freeman, S. D....Ron Graber's home town. Ron had the rare opportunity to become a hometown hero while working for a newspaper hundreds of miles away.
One underappreciated quality of Ron's has been the literate style he brought to the writing of headlines, an important, but mostly overlooked part of newspaper journalism. My favorite was an ice storm hit the Carthage area a few years back. Only Ron Grober could harken back to the late, great playwright Eugene O'Neill and come up with the headline, "Man, the ice cometh."
Congratulations, Ron.
***
The Globe this morning reported on Cable One's move to put two new stations in the spots previously held by KODE and KSNF. Soapnet and the Hallmark Channel are on this week, to be followed by previews of other stations on Cable One's digital network.
If Cable One is smart, it will continue to keep the two that are presently on. One of the biggest groups affected by the removal of the Joplin stations from Cable One has been soap opera watchers. A quick check of Soapnet's schedule shows that the network shows same-day viewings of all three soop operas that KODE has, "All My Children," "One Life to Live," and "General Hospital," as well as the top-rated soap opera "Days of Our Lives" from NBC. This network would offer one more weapon in Cable One's arsenal.
In addition, the Hallmark Channel is a far more family-friendly station than ABC Family, which is offered on Cable One's programming list.
The Globe indicated that The Golf Channel will be given a preview. Maybe I am wrong, but I don't expect that to make much of a difference.
***
Enesco Group has named a new CEO Cynthia Passmore-McLaughlin to try to get the company back on track. As reported this week in The Turner Report, sales of Enesco's top-brand, the Precious Moments collectibles has dropped 14 percent in the past three years. The collectibles have played a big part in the increase of tourism to the Carthage area, thanks to former Carthage resident Sam Butcher's creation of the Precious Moments Chapel and complex.
***
State Representative Kevin Wilson, R-Neosho's latest article gives an idea of where his priorities lie. This quote was taken from the article:
"The key agenda items that are facing us immediately are tort teform, Worker’s Comp reform and coming up with a new formula for funding of our public schools. These are huge issues with far-reaching effects and it is vital that we attack these problems with a spirit of cooperation and bi-partisanship that must transcend party lines and geographical differences."
I would hope that Rep. Wilson would place education first, but it looks like Wilson, like many of his Republican colleagues, wants to put the interests of wealthy business owners first.
***
A proposal for a new junior high will be on the agenda when the Carthage R-9 Board of Education meets 7 p.m. Monday, Jan. 17, at the Fairview Elementary School multi-purpose room. The board is also scheduled to discuss the capital improvement five-year plan.
***
Lamarmo.com features information that several more O'Sullivan Industries employees with local connections have lost their jobs.
Posters on the website are saying that Stuart Schotte, Cindy Clements, David Pittman & Tom Tirdil were fired, while Tim Riegel and Jason Stansberry have resigned.
Every last vestige of Lamar is being removed from the company's upper echelon. It would be nice if The Lamar Democrat would recognize this and write about what has been the most important news story in the Lamar area for the past year. A great disservice has been done to the memory of O'Sullivan Industries founder Tom O'Sullivan, not only by the new management of O'Sullivan from its plush new corporate offices in Atlanta, but also by the local Lamar newspaper.
Tuesday, January 11, 2005
The prostitution of two Joplin television stations continued tonight as Nexstar continued its effort to obliterate every last bit of dignity its newscasts at KODE and KSNF possess.
While KOAM was beginning its newscasts with hard-hitting stories about events that actually mean something to people in the four states, Nexstar elected to sacrifice the first two minutes of its newscasts on KODE and KSNF at both 6 and 10 p.m. for a self-serving editorial by Larry Young, news director for both stations.
The two minutes were devoted to a defense of Nexstar's stand depriving Joplin's Cable One and soon the Cox cable systems in Carthage and Lamar. People who tuned in to KODE or KSNF hoping to see news, instead saw a rehash of the critical advertising Nexstar has been running since this mess started.
The only difference is, this time Nexstar trotted out the head of its news division, not the head of the business side, to make the point. So long, credibility. It was nice to know you.
There is nothing inherently wrong with television stations running editorials though not many do it any more. Perhaps even an editorial on this topic would be permissible...if the news department had been allowed to fairly cover the story instead of being ordered to act like trained monkeys playing to the tune played by Nexstar's COO and organ grinder Duane Lammers.
Instead, we saw crawls running at the bottom of the screen during the newscasts, drawing no distinction between the two stations' business interests and their journalistic professionalism. We saw a clearly staged protest being covered as if it were legitimate news, with no information given on its origins. We heard testimonials to satellite dish companies being given as part of the news and not just during the commercials.
The simultaneous editorials clearly pointed out the dangers in having one company in charge of two TV stations in a small market. They clearly pointed out to us that one man, Larry Young, is the news director, for both stations. If FCC rules allowed it, it is obvious Nexstar would be happy just to cut half of its staff and run the same news on both stations with the same on-air personnel. It would save a lot of money and, as events have shown, money is the name of the game.
The editorial would have been better had it not been placed at the beginning of the newscast. That showed viewers that Nexstar was placing its business needs ahead of its viewers' needs. Consider how many important news stories for this area have not been accompanied by editorials. Correct me if I am wrong, but I recall no editorials from KODE or KSNF when our local soldiers were sent to Iraq. I recall no editorials from either station when the World Trade Center and the Pentagon were attacked on Sept. 11. I recall no editorials when Congressman Gene Taylor died in August 1998. The list goes on and on.
The only thing that brought about an editorial from Nexstar was when its own bottom line was damaged by the loss of Cable One customers and the potential loss of cable customers from Carthage and Lamar.
What Nexstar has done is something that people, including me, would have thought impossible just a few weeks ago. It is easy to feel some sympathy for the cable companies. If it's not Duane Lammers making veiled (and direct) threats to cable companies, it's overbearing advertising, and revisionist history that makes it sound like the only reason people ever bought cable TV was to get local stations. We're not stupid. Those stations were free. We wanted them on our cable service and they were important, but we were already getting those stations for free, so we bought cable service to be able to see stations such as CNN, ESPN, Weather Channel, C-SPAN, USA Network, country music channels, movie channels, MTV, and so many others that we could not get any other way. We do have a choice now for those stations, satellite or cable, but people resent having this choice shoved down their throats.
I feel bad for the professionals on the news teams as KODE and KSNF. I have known Jim Jackson, KSN's anchor for a long time. He was kind enough to speak to my classes when I was teaching at Diamond Middle School. I have always admired the professional work he has done in this area, including a stretch of years two decades ago when he was the only saving grace of an overall weak telecast. He has been kind enough to say a nice word or two about me over the years and those words were much appreciated.
What Duane Lammers and the people at Nexstar have done to Jim Jackson and the rest of the highly capable news teams at KSNF and KODE has been detestable. They deserve better.
So do we.
***
Now that I have led off my report with an editorial (you may call it hypocrisy, I call it poetic justice), let's move on to some other things. One of the professionals whose work has been overshadowed by the High Noon antics between the cable companies and Nexstar is KSNF's Courtney Cullor, whose solid coverage of tonight's Joplin R-8 Board of Education meeting, covered succinctly and effectively the highlights of the meeting.
I apologize for missing the name of the reporter but KOAM's sports staff turned out a fine feature on a 26-year-old MSSU basketball player who is living up to his promise to his mother to graduate from college. It was great television. And it wasn't a flash in the pan either. Yesterday, KOAM had an excellent feature about a girl wrestler competing against boys.
***
Lamar Heights voters will decide on a motel tax issue if a bill submitted by Rep. Ed Emery works its way through the Missouri Legislature. HB 186 allows a city with a population of more than 200 and less than 300 (Lamar Heights) to impose a room tax of not more than six percent and a food tax of not more than two percent, with all of the money going toward construction, materials, and/or capital improvements. The issue would require a simple majority to pass. The first reading of the bill was held today. No hearings have been scheduled.
***
Among those attending the inauguration of Missouri Governor Matt Blunt Monday, no surprise here, was his father, Seventh District Congressman Roy Blunt. One of the younger Blunt's first acts as governor was to rescind dozens of appointments made by the outgoing governor, Bob Holden, on Jan. 5. Holden knew those appointments would never go through. He ended his term as governor the same one he spent the greatest part of it...wasting the taxpayers' time and money.
While KOAM was beginning its newscasts with hard-hitting stories about events that actually mean something to people in the four states, Nexstar elected to sacrifice the first two minutes of its newscasts on KODE and KSNF at both 6 and 10 p.m. for a self-serving editorial by Larry Young, news director for both stations.
The two minutes were devoted to a defense of Nexstar's stand depriving Joplin's Cable One and soon the Cox cable systems in Carthage and Lamar. People who tuned in to KODE or KSNF hoping to see news, instead saw a rehash of the critical advertising Nexstar has been running since this mess started.
The only difference is, this time Nexstar trotted out the head of its news division, not the head of the business side, to make the point. So long, credibility. It was nice to know you.
There is nothing inherently wrong with television stations running editorials though not many do it any more. Perhaps even an editorial on this topic would be permissible...if the news department had been allowed to fairly cover the story instead of being ordered to act like trained monkeys playing to the tune played by Nexstar's COO and organ grinder Duane Lammers.
Instead, we saw crawls running at the bottom of the screen during the newscasts, drawing no distinction between the two stations' business interests and their journalistic professionalism. We saw a clearly staged protest being covered as if it were legitimate news, with no information given on its origins. We heard testimonials to satellite dish companies being given as part of the news and not just during the commercials.
The simultaneous editorials clearly pointed out the dangers in having one company in charge of two TV stations in a small market. They clearly pointed out to us that one man, Larry Young, is the news director, for both stations. If FCC rules allowed it, it is obvious Nexstar would be happy just to cut half of its staff and run the same news on both stations with the same on-air personnel. It would save a lot of money and, as events have shown, money is the name of the game.
The editorial would have been better had it not been placed at the beginning of the newscast. That showed viewers that Nexstar was placing its business needs ahead of its viewers' needs. Consider how many important news stories for this area have not been accompanied by editorials. Correct me if I am wrong, but I recall no editorials from KODE or KSNF when our local soldiers were sent to Iraq. I recall no editorials from either station when the World Trade Center and the Pentagon were attacked on Sept. 11. I recall no editorials when Congressman Gene Taylor died in August 1998. The list goes on and on.
The only thing that brought about an editorial from Nexstar was when its own bottom line was damaged by the loss of Cable One customers and the potential loss of cable customers from Carthage and Lamar.
What Nexstar has done is something that people, including me, would have thought impossible just a few weeks ago. It is easy to feel some sympathy for the cable companies. If it's not Duane Lammers making veiled (and direct) threats to cable companies, it's overbearing advertising, and revisionist history that makes it sound like the only reason people ever bought cable TV was to get local stations. We're not stupid. Those stations were free. We wanted them on our cable service and they were important, but we were already getting those stations for free, so we bought cable service to be able to see stations such as CNN, ESPN, Weather Channel, C-SPAN, USA Network, country music channels, movie channels, MTV, and so many others that we could not get any other way. We do have a choice now for those stations, satellite or cable, but people resent having this choice shoved down their throats.
I feel bad for the professionals on the news teams as KODE and KSNF. I have known Jim Jackson, KSN's anchor for a long time. He was kind enough to speak to my classes when I was teaching at Diamond Middle School. I have always admired the professional work he has done in this area, including a stretch of years two decades ago when he was the only saving grace of an overall weak telecast. He has been kind enough to say a nice word or two about me over the years and those words were much appreciated.
What Duane Lammers and the people at Nexstar have done to Jim Jackson and the rest of the highly capable news teams at KSNF and KODE has been detestable. They deserve better.
So do we.
***
Now that I have led off my report with an editorial (you may call it hypocrisy, I call it poetic justice), let's move on to some other things. One of the professionals whose work has been overshadowed by the High Noon antics between the cable companies and Nexstar is KSNF's Courtney Cullor, whose solid coverage of tonight's Joplin R-8 Board of Education meeting, covered succinctly and effectively the highlights of the meeting.
I apologize for missing the name of the reporter but KOAM's sports staff turned out a fine feature on a 26-year-old MSSU basketball player who is living up to his promise to his mother to graduate from college. It was great television. And it wasn't a flash in the pan either. Yesterday, KOAM had an excellent feature about a girl wrestler competing against boys.
***
Lamar Heights voters will decide on a motel tax issue if a bill submitted by Rep. Ed Emery works its way through the Missouri Legislature. HB 186 allows a city with a population of more than 200 and less than 300 (Lamar Heights) to impose a room tax of not more than six percent and a food tax of not more than two percent, with all of the money going toward construction, materials, and/or capital improvements. The issue would require a simple majority to pass. The first reading of the bill was held today. No hearings have been scheduled.
***
Among those attending the inauguration of Missouri Governor Matt Blunt Monday, no surprise here, was his father, Seventh District Congressman Roy Blunt. One of the younger Blunt's first acts as governor was to rescind dozens of appointments made by the outgoing governor, Bob Holden, on Jan. 5. Holden knew those appointments would never go through. He ended his term as governor the same one he spent the greatest part of it...wasting the taxpayers' time and money.
I have never been a big fan of the death penalty.
If you recall, a couple of years ago the governor of Illinois declared a moratorium on executions in that state after a study showed that a number of people on death row had been found innocent thanks to DNA evidence.
A bill authorizing a similar moratorium has been filed in the Missouri House of Representatives. The logic is simple. Once you make a mistake and hand out the death penalty to the wrong person, you can't just shake your head and say, "I'm sorry."
The possibility of being wrong is not the only problem with the death penalty. The U. S. is one of the few civilized nations that still uses the ultimate form of punishment.
Plus, it is administered unfairly. Study after study has shown that the majority of people in death rows across the United States are members of minority groups.
But the biggest difference in whether or not you are going to receive the death penalty is an economic one. If you have the money, you generally are not going to get the needle.
A case in point recently happened in southwest Missouri and has been mostly overlooked.
A Mount Vernon man who was sentenced to death in connection with the a New Year's Day 1996 murder in Lawrence County had his case sent back there for another sentencing hearing.
In its Dec. 7 ruling, the Missouri Supreme Court said Brandon Hutchinson's lawyers should have presented evidence that their client had mental health problems, had been sexually abused, and had a long history of drug and alcohol abuse and emotional problems.
Hutchison was convicted in October 1996 of two counts of first-degree murder in connection with the deaths of Ronald Yates, 35, and Brian Yates, 30, both of Aurora. The brothers` bodies were found along a road in Freistatt.
Two others, Freddy Lopez and Michael Salazar, both of Verona, also were charged in the case. Court documents indicate that Salazar took the first shots at the brothers, but are unclear as to who fired the fatal shots.
Salazar admitted to the shootings and was sentenced to life in prison, but during Hutchinson's trial, Lopez, who had struck a deal with the prosecutors, testified that Hutchinson fired the fatal shots.
No one appears to be sure who really did it. Salazar may have admitted to the crime to keep from getting the death penalty. What is sure is that economic circumstances are what put Brandon Hutchinson on death row and gave Freddy Lopez a much shorter sentence.
According to the Supreme Court decision, Lopez initially was in the same boat as the other two, but he was able to hire a high-priced defense attorney "after his sister won a large cash prize in the California lottery."
Armed with the sister's money, Lopez's new lawyer negotiated a $230,000 settlement in a wrongful death lawsuit filed by the murder victims' family against Lopez. In exchange for the money, the court decision said, the family recommended that Lopez be sentenced to no more than 10 years in prison.
At the plea hearing, the decision said, a continuance was granted to make sure that the money was deposited in the victims' family's account before the sentence became final.
Hutchinson was not allowed to present evidence about the plea bargain agreement at his trial.
The arrangement led to cries of justice for sale. "The prosecutor testified that he did not believe 10 years was a just sentence, but he made the recommendation at the family's request, so that they could get the money. The sentencing judge testified that he did not know the specifics of the agreement, but he was aware that there was an agreement that involved a payment to the family."
Freddy Lopez was able to buy his way out of a major sentence for two murders while a young man with a long history of instability was sentenced to death.
If that were an isolated incident, the death penalty might still be effective. Unfortunately, it isn't.
***
More fun comments from Duane Lammers, COO of Nexstar Broadcasting, owner of KSNF-TV and de facto owner of KODE. Lammers told Morris Wilkes, Cox Communications vice president of public affairs, that "we are going to pound you on KSAN' referring to negative advertising against the cable company if it did not pay the money Nexstar is asking to continue to carry that station in San Angelo, Texas. The quote was featured in a recent edition of the San Angelo Times.
***
The Joplin Globe is advertising for a photographer. Applicants should have a "solid news background, an innate ability to tell stories visually and be proficient in Photoshop," according to its ad. The position will pay $20,000 to $25,000 a year.
If you recall, a couple of years ago the governor of Illinois declared a moratorium on executions in that state after a study showed that a number of people on death row had been found innocent thanks to DNA evidence.
A bill authorizing a similar moratorium has been filed in the Missouri House of Representatives. The logic is simple. Once you make a mistake and hand out the death penalty to the wrong person, you can't just shake your head and say, "I'm sorry."
The possibility of being wrong is not the only problem with the death penalty. The U. S. is one of the few civilized nations that still uses the ultimate form of punishment.
Plus, it is administered unfairly. Study after study has shown that the majority of people in death rows across the United States are members of minority groups.
But the biggest difference in whether or not you are going to receive the death penalty is an economic one. If you have the money, you generally are not going to get the needle.
A case in point recently happened in southwest Missouri and has been mostly overlooked.
A Mount Vernon man who was sentenced to death in connection with the a New Year's Day 1996 murder in Lawrence County had his case sent back there for another sentencing hearing.
In its Dec. 7 ruling, the Missouri Supreme Court said Brandon Hutchinson's lawyers should have presented evidence that their client had mental health problems, had been sexually abused, and had a long history of drug and alcohol abuse and emotional problems.
Hutchison was convicted in October 1996 of two counts of first-degree murder in connection with the deaths of Ronald Yates, 35, and Brian Yates, 30, both of Aurora. The brothers` bodies were found along a road in Freistatt.
Two others, Freddy Lopez and Michael Salazar, both of Verona, also were charged in the case. Court documents indicate that Salazar took the first shots at the brothers, but are unclear as to who fired the fatal shots.
Salazar admitted to the shootings and was sentenced to life in prison, but during Hutchinson's trial, Lopez, who had struck a deal with the prosecutors, testified that Hutchinson fired the fatal shots.
No one appears to be sure who really did it. Salazar may have admitted to the crime to keep from getting the death penalty. What is sure is that economic circumstances are what put Brandon Hutchinson on death row and gave Freddy Lopez a much shorter sentence.
According to the Supreme Court decision, Lopez initially was in the same boat as the other two, but he was able to hire a high-priced defense attorney "after his sister won a large cash prize in the California lottery."
Armed with the sister's money, Lopez's new lawyer negotiated a $230,000 settlement in a wrongful death lawsuit filed by the murder victims' family against Lopez. In exchange for the money, the court decision said, the family recommended that Lopez be sentenced to no more than 10 years in prison.
At the plea hearing, the decision said, a continuance was granted to make sure that the money was deposited in the victims' family's account before the sentence became final.
Hutchinson was not allowed to present evidence about the plea bargain agreement at his trial.
The arrangement led to cries of justice for sale. "The prosecutor testified that he did not believe 10 years was a just sentence, but he made the recommendation at the family's request, so that they could get the money. The sentencing judge testified that he did not know the specifics of the agreement, but he was aware that there was an agreement that involved a payment to the family."
Freddy Lopez was able to buy his way out of a major sentence for two murders while a young man with a long history of instability was sentenced to death.
If that were an isolated incident, the death penalty might still be effective. Unfortunately, it isn't.
***
More fun comments from Duane Lammers, COO of Nexstar Broadcasting, owner of KSNF-TV and de facto owner of KODE. Lammers told Morris Wilkes, Cox Communications vice president of public affairs, that "we are going to pound you on KSAN' referring to negative advertising against the cable company if it did not pay the money Nexstar is asking to continue to carry that station in San Angelo, Texas. The quote was featured in a recent edition of the San Angelo Times.
***
The Joplin Globe is advertising for a photographer. Applicants should have a "solid news background, an innate ability to tell stories visually and be proficient in Photoshop," according to its ad. The position will pay $20,000 to $25,000 a year.
Monday, January 10, 2005
Interagency squabbling may open the door for more terrorist attacks on United States embassies overseas.
A government report issued Nov. 16 by the General Accounting Office (GAO), the investigative arm of Congress, features letters from officials at a number of federal agencies who are protesting a plan to have them put money into construction of safer embassies. By having the State Department, which normally foots the entire bill for these projects, joined by the other agencies, stronger, safer embassies could be built in less time and provide more safety for the U. S. diplomatic corps.
The plan was suggested by the GAO in a report filed in October, which was featured in the Oct. 2 Turner Report. That report suggested that wasteful construction policies being followed by the U. S. Agency for International Development and the U. S. State Department are increasing the chances that other U. S. embassy employees may meet the same fate as Lamar's Kenneth Hobson who died as as result of an Al Qaeda attack on an embassy in Kenya in 1998.
The GAO report indicated that a construction policy is increasing not only the danger, but the cost of building embassies.It was Aug. 19, 1998, that more than 500 people crowded into the Thiebaud Auditorium in Lamar to say their goodbyes to Staff Sgt. Hobson, who was killed 12 days earlier. Hobson was only 27 years old, had a wife and daughter.
The attacks on the embassies were precursors to the Sept. 11 assault on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.
After the bombing of that embassy in Kenya that the U. S. began a multibillion-dollar, multiyear program to "build new, secure facilities on compounds at posts around the world," according to the GAO report. The Secure Embassy Construction and Counterterrorism Act of 1999 requires that all offices for the embassies be located in the compounds. The embassy compounds have been built in stages, the report said, with the primary portion of the embassy being built, then later an annex for the officeworkers.
During the time the annex is being built, the officeworkers are being house in temporary quarters."Staff who remain in a temporary facility after other U. S. government personnel move into a new embassy compound may be more vulnerable to terrorist attack because the temporary facility does not meet security standards for new buildings and may be perceived to be a 'softer' target relative to the new, more secure embassy compound," the report said.Current plans call for this approach to be followed through the year 2009.
The GAO recommended concurrent construction and suggested building the offices within the compound instead of in annexes. "Concurrent construction would eliminate the second expensive mobilization of contractor staff and equipment and added supervision, security, and procurement support expenses that result from nonconcurrent construction," the report said.
Building the office quarters concurrently with the compounds at the next nine embassy construction sites could save taxpayers $35 million, the report said.
After the release of the initial GAO report, government agencies responded overwhelmingly in a negative fashion, according to the follow-up report. Comments opposing the cost-sharing proposal came from the departments of Agriculture, Commerce, Health and Human Services, Homeland Security, Justice, Treasury, and the U. S. Agency for International Development. The State Department was the only department that approved of the plan.
The Capital Security Cost-Sharing Program was developed to accelerate construction of 150 new secure embassies around the world. By using the cost-share program, the report indicated, the construction could be completed by the year 2018 rather than the originally estimated 2030.
The 1998 attacks on embassies in Kenya and Tanzania led to the creation of an Overseas Presence Advisory Panel to review the condition, management, organization, and other aspects of the U. S. embassies.
In 1999, the panel issued a report saying that the U. S. overseas presence "was near a state of crisis and that the condition of U. S. posts and missions abroad was unacceptable."
The panel recommended the construction of the new, safer embassies.
If the recommendations of the initial GAO report are not implemented it could take an extra dozen years for American personnel overseas to be safe. The territorial reaction of these government agencies is not presenting a united front against terrorism.
***
And where have the major news organizations been while this has been going on? A Lexis-Nexis search of major news organizations indicate that no stories have written about the GAO embassy construction reports during the past three months.
***
A spokesman for Cox Communications, the company that owns and operates the cable systems in Carthage and Lamar, is accusing Nexstar officials of violating FCC guidelines. The accusation came as Nexstar is preparing to pull the plug on KSNF and KODE-TV in both communities in 24 days.
"The FCC does require broadcasters to participate in good-faith negotiations," Cox spokesman Dave Graubert told Multichannel News. "I don't think Nexstar has really lived up to that."
***
A federal court judge signed an order earlier today allowing lawyers for Jasper County officials to question a convicted child molester who filed a multi-million dollar lawsuit against the county. An interview with Martin Anthony Eck will be set up when it is convenient for prison officials, according to the order.
Eck is suing Jasper County Sheriff Archie Dunn, Presiding Commissioner Chuck Surface, Associate Commissioner Jim Honey, and former Associate Commissioner Anna Ruth Crampton, among others, for $100 million, claiming he did not receive proper dental care while he was in the jail awaiting trial on the child molestation charges.
Eck pleaded guilty in Jasper County Circuit Court in November to two counts of statutory sodomy in connection with incidents involving a 12-year-old girl. The Joplin Globe reported that Eck had been convicted of child molestation 11 years ago in Gordon County, GA. He was sentenced to 20 years, but the sentence was suspended and he was allowed to move to Joplin a few years later, where he was under the supervision of the probation office here, according to the article.
A government report issued Nov. 16 by the General Accounting Office (GAO), the investigative arm of Congress, features letters from officials at a number of federal agencies who are protesting a plan to have them put money into construction of safer embassies. By having the State Department, which normally foots the entire bill for these projects, joined by the other agencies, stronger, safer embassies could be built in less time and provide more safety for the U. S. diplomatic corps.
The plan was suggested by the GAO in a report filed in October, which was featured in the Oct. 2 Turner Report. That report suggested that wasteful construction policies being followed by the U. S. Agency for International Development and the U. S. State Department are increasing the chances that other U. S. embassy employees may meet the same fate as Lamar's Kenneth Hobson who died as as result of an Al Qaeda attack on an embassy in Kenya in 1998.
The GAO report indicated that a construction policy is increasing not only the danger, but the cost of building embassies.It was Aug. 19, 1998, that more than 500 people crowded into the Thiebaud Auditorium in Lamar to say their goodbyes to Staff Sgt. Hobson, who was killed 12 days earlier. Hobson was only 27 years old, had a wife and daughter.
The attacks on the embassies were precursors to the Sept. 11 assault on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.
After the bombing of that embassy in Kenya that the U. S. began a multibillion-dollar, multiyear program to "build new, secure facilities on compounds at posts around the world," according to the GAO report. The Secure Embassy Construction and Counterterrorism Act of 1999 requires that all offices for the embassies be located in the compounds. The embassy compounds have been built in stages, the report said, with the primary portion of the embassy being built, then later an annex for the officeworkers.
During the time the annex is being built, the officeworkers are being house in temporary quarters."Staff who remain in a temporary facility after other U. S. government personnel move into a new embassy compound may be more vulnerable to terrorist attack because the temporary facility does not meet security standards for new buildings and may be perceived to be a 'softer' target relative to the new, more secure embassy compound," the report said.Current plans call for this approach to be followed through the year 2009.
The GAO recommended concurrent construction and suggested building the offices within the compound instead of in annexes. "Concurrent construction would eliminate the second expensive mobilization of contractor staff and equipment and added supervision, security, and procurement support expenses that result from nonconcurrent construction," the report said.
Building the office quarters concurrently with the compounds at the next nine embassy construction sites could save taxpayers $35 million, the report said.
After the release of the initial GAO report, government agencies responded overwhelmingly in a negative fashion, according to the follow-up report. Comments opposing the cost-sharing proposal came from the departments of Agriculture, Commerce, Health and Human Services, Homeland Security, Justice, Treasury, and the U. S. Agency for International Development. The State Department was the only department that approved of the plan.
The Capital Security Cost-Sharing Program was developed to accelerate construction of 150 new secure embassies around the world. By using the cost-share program, the report indicated, the construction could be completed by the year 2018 rather than the originally estimated 2030.
The 1998 attacks on embassies in Kenya and Tanzania led to the creation of an Overseas Presence Advisory Panel to review the condition, management, organization, and other aspects of the U. S. embassies.
In 1999, the panel issued a report saying that the U. S. overseas presence "was near a state of crisis and that the condition of U. S. posts and missions abroad was unacceptable."
The panel recommended the construction of the new, safer embassies.
If the recommendations of the initial GAO report are not implemented it could take an extra dozen years for American personnel overseas to be safe. The territorial reaction of these government agencies is not presenting a united front against terrorism.
***
And where have the major news organizations been while this has been going on? A Lexis-Nexis search of major news organizations indicate that no stories have written about the GAO embassy construction reports during the past three months.
***
A spokesman for Cox Communications, the company that owns and operates the cable systems in Carthage and Lamar, is accusing Nexstar officials of violating FCC guidelines. The accusation came as Nexstar is preparing to pull the plug on KSNF and KODE-TV in both communities in 24 days.
"The FCC does require broadcasters to participate in good-faith negotiations," Cox spokesman Dave Graubert told Multichannel News. "I don't think Nexstar has really lived up to that."
***
A federal court judge signed an order earlier today allowing lawyers for Jasper County officials to question a convicted child molester who filed a multi-million dollar lawsuit against the county. An interview with Martin Anthony Eck will be set up when it is convenient for prison officials, according to the order.
Eck is suing Jasper County Sheriff Archie Dunn, Presiding Commissioner Chuck Surface, Associate Commissioner Jim Honey, and former Associate Commissioner Anna Ruth Crampton, among others, for $100 million, claiming he did not receive proper dental care while he was in the jail awaiting trial on the child molestation charges.
Eck pleaded guilty in Jasper County Circuit Court in November to two counts of statutory sodomy in connection with incidents involving a 12-year-old girl. The Joplin Globe reported that Eck had been convicted of child molestation 11 years ago in Gordon County, GA. He was sentenced to 20 years, but the sentence was suspended and he was allowed to move to Joplin a few years later, where he was under the supervision of the probation office here, according to the article.
It's not often that I get to drive through a blighted area of Joplin, but I did stop by the Wal-Mart Supercenter Saturday night to pick up a few groceries.
Most of the time, I try to shop at Dillon's or Smitty's. After all, who wants to drive alone at night in an area that the local TIF Commission and apparently, the Joplin City Council, consider blighted.
I haven't seen any statistics on how much crime occurs at the Supercenter. I know it's a jungle in its parking lot. No wonder the city council is anxious to give all of those tax advantages to rich developers so the Wal-Mart Supercenter can continue to be a shining example of the powers of urban renewal.
Seriously, tonight is the night the City Council will make its final decision on whether to declare the area a TIF zone and provide tax breaks to a company that wants to put a shopping center on the old K-Mart property. The whole idea of tax increment financing is flawed and it's even more flawed in cases like this. Why take away from our tax base to bring in businesses that will take away business from the ones already here. On top of that, you are giving these new businesses tax breaks that are not available to the already-existing businesses.
It's bad policy and I am not just saying that because I work for a taxpayer-supported entity, the Joplin R-8 School District, that will lose funding because of this.
The basic concept of TIF, to improve property that is actually blighted, is an admirable goal. This property is among the most valuable in the city of Joplin. It will be developed and can be done without harming the taxpayers in the process.
***
It is amazing how selective the memory can be. The latest fiction to spread in the war between Nexstar, owner of KSNF and operator (and de facto owner) of KODE is that cable originally came into being to carry local stations.
If I recall correctly, no cable company ever came into this area, selling KODE, KSN and KOAM. It has always been the stations like CNN, ESPN, the Weather Channel, C-SPAN, TBS, TNT, and USA Network have spurred cable hookups.
Local stations had to go to the federal government 12 years ago to make sure that cable companies carried the local stations, even though most of them were. The thought then was that the local stations needed cable to ensure that they reach as many customers as possible.
The more pressing need now appears to be for another source of revenue flow. In the past, the networks paid local stations for carrying their programming. That is now a thing of the past. Plus, the added competition for the advertising dollar has hurt the bottom line at local TV stations. In the past, the stations competed against each other and newspapers and radio stations for the advertising dollar. Now the cable stations and the Internet have come into play.
That could be one reason why you see the constant flow of infomercials, many in prominent time periods (not just the wee hours of the morning) on channels 12 and 16. KODE used to carry the Andy Griffith Show at 11 a.m. Now it offers infomercials, KSNF used to carry Frasier at 12:30 p.m. Now it has a different infomercial every day, a surefire lead-in for NBC's afternoon soap operas.
Plus, you now have KODE and KSNF sharing ad sales, enabling the companies to offer better deals to advertisers.
If Nexstar can get one of the local cable outfits to cave in, it won't be long before the others are forced to follow suit. In this area, Cox would appear to be the weak link since its multi-tiered setup has already been much criticized.
***
The Joplin Globe is continuing to rake in big bucks from the controversy. KSN and KODE ran full-page advertisements in the Sunday and Monday Globe while Dish Network had a full-page ad in the Sunday edition.
***
The Newton County Sheriff's race was selected as the top news story of 2004 by the Neosho Daily News. And it was a major story that the Daily did its best to jump on. The biggest problem the Daily and other media sources have had with the controversies surrounding Ron Doerge is that it is hard to cover the story thoroughly when your main (and only) source is Doerge himself.
The story will continue in 2005 since reports are that Doerge received a deputy's commission and will remain an integral part of the Newton County Sheriff's Department.
That is not going to make things easy on his successor, Ken Copeland.
***
For those of you who have Cable One and have not receieved an antenna, check out Channel 67 (which is not provided by the cable company). KSNF is available on that channel.
I finally broke down ond bought an antenna (I didn't want to get one of the freebies since I write about Cable One in this blog.) just in time to see Marty Schottenheimer's latest playoff adventure. I left at halftime of the San Diego-New York Jets game Saturday night and bought an antenna at a store in the middle of a blighted area of Joplin.
***
All right. I know I have talked about this time and time again, but why do the local newspapers (primarily the Neosho Daily News and The Carthage Press) insist on putting the phrase "From staff reports" on articles that staff members contributed nothing to?
The latest example came on page one of the Sunday Neosho Daily News, which featured a press release on State Senator Gary Nodler's appointment as chairman of the Education Committee. No one is going to think less of the Daily if it simply says that it is a press release and tells where it came from. Or get on the phone, find some more information and make it into your own story. Then any information from the press release can be labeled, "according to the press release," or "the press release said."
***
Two Southeast Kansas radio stations have been sold to Southeast Kansas Independent Living (SKIL), according to the Pittsburg Morning Sun. KSEK, 1340 AM and 99.1 FM, is expected to keep the same format on both of its stations, though all sports activities will now be on the AM side, according to the Morning Sun article.
Most of the time, I try to shop at Dillon's or Smitty's. After all, who wants to drive alone at night in an area that the local TIF Commission and apparently, the Joplin City Council, consider blighted.
I haven't seen any statistics on how much crime occurs at the Supercenter. I know it's a jungle in its parking lot. No wonder the city council is anxious to give all of those tax advantages to rich developers so the Wal-Mart Supercenter can continue to be a shining example of the powers of urban renewal.
Seriously, tonight is the night the City Council will make its final decision on whether to declare the area a TIF zone and provide tax breaks to a company that wants to put a shopping center on the old K-Mart property. The whole idea of tax increment financing is flawed and it's even more flawed in cases like this. Why take away from our tax base to bring in businesses that will take away business from the ones already here. On top of that, you are giving these new businesses tax breaks that are not available to the already-existing businesses.
It's bad policy and I am not just saying that because I work for a taxpayer-supported entity, the Joplin R-8 School District, that will lose funding because of this.
The basic concept of TIF, to improve property that is actually blighted, is an admirable goal. This property is among the most valuable in the city of Joplin. It will be developed and can be done without harming the taxpayers in the process.
***
It is amazing how selective the memory can be. The latest fiction to spread in the war between Nexstar, owner of KSNF and operator (and de facto owner) of KODE is that cable originally came into being to carry local stations.
If I recall correctly, no cable company ever came into this area, selling KODE, KSN and KOAM. It has always been the stations like CNN, ESPN, the Weather Channel, C-SPAN, TBS, TNT, and USA Network have spurred cable hookups.
Local stations had to go to the federal government 12 years ago to make sure that cable companies carried the local stations, even though most of them were. The thought then was that the local stations needed cable to ensure that they reach as many customers as possible.
The more pressing need now appears to be for another source of revenue flow. In the past, the networks paid local stations for carrying their programming. That is now a thing of the past. Plus, the added competition for the advertising dollar has hurt the bottom line at local TV stations. In the past, the stations competed against each other and newspapers and radio stations for the advertising dollar. Now the cable stations and the Internet have come into play.
That could be one reason why you see the constant flow of infomercials, many in prominent time periods (not just the wee hours of the morning) on channels 12 and 16. KODE used to carry the Andy Griffith Show at 11 a.m. Now it offers infomercials, KSNF used to carry Frasier at 12:30 p.m. Now it has a different infomercial every day, a surefire lead-in for NBC's afternoon soap operas.
Plus, you now have KODE and KSNF sharing ad sales, enabling the companies to offer better deals to advertisers.
If Nexstar can get one of the local cable outfits to cave in, it won't be long before the others are forced to follow suit. In this area, Cox would appear to be the weak link since its multi-tiered setup has already been much criticized.
***
The Joplin Globe is continuing to rake in big bucks from the controversy. KSN and KODE ran full-page advertisements in the Sunday and Monday Globe while Dish Network had a full-page ad in the Sunday edition.
***
The Newton County Sheriff's race was selected as the top news story of 2004 by the Neosho Daily News. And it was a major story that the Daily did its best to jump on. The biggest problem the Daily and other media sources have had with the controversies surrounding Ron Doerge is that it is hard to cover the story thoroughly when your main (and only) source is Doerge himself.
The story will continue in 2005 since reports are that Doerge received a deputy's commission and will remain an integral part of the Newton County Sheriff's Department.
That is not going to make things easy on his successor, Ken Copeland.
***
For those of you who have Cable One and have not receieved an antenna, check out Channel 67 (which is not provided by the cable company). KSNF is available on that channel.
I finally broke down ond bought an antenna (I didn't want to get one of the freebies since I write about Cable One in this blog.) just in time to see Marty Schottenheimer's latest playoff adventure. I left at halftime of the San Diego-New York Jets game Saturday night and bought an antenna at a store in the middle of a blighted area of Joplin.
***
All right. I know I have talked about this time and time again, but why do the local newspapers (primarily the Neosho Daily News and The Carthage Press) insist on putting the phrase "From staff reports" on articles that staff members contributed nothing to?
The latest example came on page one of the Sunday Neosho Daily News, which featured a press release on State Senator Gary Nodler's appointment as chairman of the Education Committee. No one is going to think less of the Daily if it simply says that it is a press release and tells where it came from. Or get on the phone, find some more information and make it into your own story. Then any information from the press release can be labeled, "according to the press release," or "the press release said."
***
Two Southeast Kansas radio stations have been sold to Southeast Kansas Independent Living (SKIL), according to the Pittsburg Morning Sun. KSEK, 1340 AM and 99.1 FM, is expected to keep the same format on both of its stations, though all sports activities will now be on the AM side, according to the Morning Sun article.
Sunday, January 09, 2005
Today's Joplin Globe featured the news that former Jasper County Circuit Court Judge Charles Teel had died. I really didn't know Judge Teel at all.
I only covered one case in Judge Teel's courtroom, but that turned out to be the right one. I've told the story in a previous edition of The Turner Report of how I happened to be assigned to be The Carthage Press reporter at the hearing to determine whether Nancy Cruzan should have her feeding tubes removed. Nancy, whom I had known slightly as a teenager, had been in a car accident near Carthage in 1982 and had been in a persistent vegetative state since that time.
It was October 1990 and I had only been a general assignment reporter at The Press for six months. The courts were generally the province of reporter Pat Halvorson, but the hearing was on a Thursday, her day off was Thursday, and she had things she needed to do. Managing Editor Neil Campbell asked me if I could cover the hearing and I jumped at the opportunity. After all, this was a case that had gone all the way to the U. S. Supreme Court before being returned to the Jasper County Courthouse.
I was a little overwhelmed by the amount (and caliber) of the media that filled up most of the seats in the small upstairs courtroom. Since there were so many people shoehorned into the room and since it was a hearing with no jury, media were allowed to sit in the jury box. I was there with reporters for The New York Times, Associated Press, Kansas City Star and St. Louis Post-Dispatch, as well as two sketch artists for major newspapers and some four-states TV reporters.
Had I have been a bit more intelligent, I probably would have followed the lead of Globe reporter Jo Ellis, who was smart enough to distance herself from the media and took a seat in the middle of the courtroom, but I was too dazzled by being a part, if just a minor one, in such a major story.
The U. S. Supreme Court, a few months earlier, had ruled that people had a "right-to-die" in situations similar to Nancy's if they had clearly expressed their desire beforehand. The hearing in Jasper County was to determine if she had expressed that desire.
The morning testimony featured former co-workers of Nancy's who indicated she had said she would not want to be kept alive by artificial means if she were in that type of situation. As the testimony continued, I sat in the jury box, jotting down the same notes, seeing things in the same way as every other reporter sitting there with me.
The best thing that ever happened to me was when Judge Teel declared a noon recess. We were told to return to court at 1:30. Realizing that seating would once again be at a premium, I entered the courtroom at 10 minutes past one.
The jury box was already filled.
After silently cursing my fate (I could no longer be one of the big boys), I grabbed a seat two rows behind where Joe and Joyce Cruzan. Nancy's parents, and Chris White, Nancy's sister, were sitting with their attorney, William Colby.
Seated in the row directly in front of me were Chris's daughters, Angie and Miranda Yocum, the nieces that Nancy had adored. If memory serves me correctly, at that time Angie was a sophomore at Webb City High School and Miranda was a freshman. I noticed that Miranda had a sketch pad in her lap and was drawing a highly-detailed rendition of what was going on in the courtroom.
At that point, I made the decision to write two stories about this hearing, the official one over the testimony, and a sidebar about the nieces, focusing primarily on the little sketch artist. If I had stayed in that jury box, I would have missed out on a story that changed my journalism career.
I continued taking down the testimony at the same time I was jotting down details about Miranda and Angie. When one of Nancy's former bosses testified that Nancy said she wouldn't want to be kept alive by artificial means because "vegetables couldn't hug their nieces" I watched the girls' reaction. Angie began crying. Miranda's face was reddening, but she put her arm around her older sister and began patting her shoulder.
As the testimony wore on, Joe Cruzan left the courtroom and headed toward the bathroom. I followed, something that I normally would never have done, but I was going after the story even it meant being just one more person to invade this man's privacy.
After he finished with the purpose for which he had left the courtroom, I identified myself and asked if I could ask him a couple of questions. He sighed and said, "All right."
I told him I had been watching his granddaughter and she appeared to be quite the little artist. For a brief second, Joe Cruzan's face brightened and it appeared that some of the burden he had been carrying for years had been lifted. A smile crossed his face and he began talking about how talented Miranda was and how the family hoped she would become an artist. It was nearly 20 minutes before we returned to the courtroom. I didn't ask him any questions about his daughter. He didn't need any reporters asking him how he felt or asking him to relive the ordeal he and his family had gone through since Nancy's accident, but I definitely was not going to miss the chance to get information about Miranda.
At the end of the day, when the hearing concluded, Miranda presented her sketch to Colby, who was clearly touched. I am sure it remains one of his most cherished possessions.
It was another six weeks before Judge Teel made his decision. On Dec. 12, 1990, one of Judge Teel's secretaries called the media to let us know that the decision would be announced at 2 p.m. that afternoon. I didn't see Judge Teel that day. We were each given a copy of his decision which granted the Cruzans permission to remove the feeding tubes. Nancy died, some say for a second time, on Dec. 26, 1990.
That was the only time I ever stepped foot in Judge Teel's courtroom. It was definitely the right time to do so.
***
Anyone with tips on stories for The Turner Report should write to rturner229@hotmail.com , mail them to me at 2306 E. 8th, Apt. G, Joplin, MO 64801, or call me at 417-206-0585.
I only covered one case in Judge Teel's courtroom, but that turned out to be the right one. I've told the story in a previous edition of The Turner Report of how I happened to be assigned to be The Carthage Press reporter at the hearing to determine whether Nancy Cruzan should have her feeding tubes removed. Nancy, whom I had known slightly as a teenager, had been in a car accident near Carthage in 1982 and had been in a persistent vegetative state since that time.
It was October 1990 and I had only been a general assignment reporter at The Press for six months. The courts were generally the province of reporter Pat Halvorson, but the hearing was on a Thursday, her day off was Thursday, and she had things she needed to do. Managing Editor Neil Campbell asked me if I could cover the hearing and I jumped at the opportunity. After all, this was a case that had gone all the way to the U. S. Supreme Court before being returned to the Jasper County Courthouse.
I was a little overwhelmed by the amount (and caliber) of the media that filled up most of the seats in the small upstairs courtroom. Since there were so many people shoehorned into the room and since it was a hearing with no jury, media were allowed to sit in the jury box. I was there with reporters for The New York Times, Associated Press, Kansas City Star and St. Louis Post-Dispatch, as well as two sketch artists for major newspapers and some four-states TV reporters.
Had I have been a bit more intelligent, I probably would have followed the lead of Globe reporter Jo Ellis, who was smart enough to distance herself from the media and took a seat in the middle of the courtroom, but I was too dazzled by being a part, if just a minor one, in such a major story.
The U. S. Supreme Court, a few months earlier, had ruled that people had a "right-to-die" in situations similar to Nancy's if they had clearly expressed their desire beforehand. The hearing in Jasper County was to determine if she had expressed that desire.
The morning testimony featured former co-workers of Nancy's who indicated she had said she would not want to be kept alive by artificial means if she were in that type of situation. As the testimony continued, I sat in the jury box, jotting down the same notes, seeing things in the same way as every other reporter sitting there with me.
The best thing that ever happened to me was when Judge Teel declared a noon recess. We were told to return to court at 1:30. Realizing that seating would once again be at a premium, I entered the courtroom at 10 minutes past one.
The jury box was already filled.
After silently cursing my fate (I could no longer be one of the big boys), I grabbed a seat two rows behind where Joe and Joyce Cruzan. Nancy's parents, and Chris White, Nancy's sister, were sitting with their attorney, William Colby.
Seated in the row directly in front of me were Chris's daughters, Angie and Miranda Yocum, the nieces that Nancy had adored. If memory serves me correctly, at that time Angie was a sophomore at Webb City High School and Miranda was a freshman. I noticed that Miranda had a sketch pad in her lap and was drawing a highly-detailed rendition of what was going on in the courtroom.
At that point, I made the decision to write two stories about this hearing, the official one over the testimony, and a sidebar about the nieces, focusing primarily on the little sketch artist. If I had stayed in that jury box, I would have missed out on a story that changed my journalism career.
I continued taking down the testimony at the same time I was jotting down details about Miranda and Angie. When one of Nancy's former bosses testified that Nancy said she wouldn't want to be kept alive by artificial means because "vegetables couldn't hug their nieces" I watched the girls' reaction. Angie began crying. Miranda's face was reddening, but she put her arm around her older sister and began patting her shoulder.
As the testimony wore on, Joe Cruzan left the courtroom and headed toward the bathroom. I followed, something that I normally would never have done, but I was going after the story even it meant being just one more person to invade this man's privacy.
After he finished with the purpose for which he had left the courtroom, I identified myself and asked if I could ask him a couple of questions. He sighed and said, "All right."
I told him I had been watching his granddaughter and she appeared to be quite the little artist. For a brief second, Joe Cruzan's face brightened and it appeared that some of the burden he had been carrying for years had been lifted. A smile crossed his face and he began talking about how talented Miranda was and how the family hoped she would become an artist. It was nearly 20 minutes before we returned to the courtroom. I didn't ask him any questions about his daughter. He didn't need any reporters asking him how he felt or asking him to relive the ordeal he and his family had gone through since Nancy's accident, but I definitely was not going to miss the chance to get information about Miranda.
At the end of the day, when the hearing concluded, Miranda presented her sketch to Colby, who was clearly touched. I am sure it remains one of his most cherished possessions.
It was another six weeks before Judge Teel made his decision. On Dec. 12, 1990, one of Judge Teel's secretaries called the media to let us know that the decision would be announced at 2 p.m. that afternoon. I didn't see Judge Teel that day. We were each given a copy of his decision which granted the Cruzans permission to remove the feeding tubes. Nancy died, some say for a second time, on Dec. 26, 1990.
That was the only time I ever stepped foot in Judge Teel's courtroom. It was definitely the right time to do so.
***
Anyone with tips on stories for The Turner Report should write to rturner229@hotmail.com , mail them to me at 2306 E. 8th, Apt. G, Joplin, MO 64801, or call me at 417-206-0585.
Friday, January 07, 2005
The first reading of a bill inspired by the death of a Neosho man and his granddaughter was held during the opening session of the 2005 Missouri State Senate Wednesday.
State Senator Gary Nodler, R-Joplin's bill would increase the penalty for involuntary manslaughter if a person has a blood alcohol level that is one and half times the legal limit or if a fatality occurs when the person's vehicle leaves a public thoroughfare. That's what prosecutors alleged happened on July 31 when a car driven by Edward Meerwald, 50, Noel, left Highway 86 and struck James Dodson, 71, Neosho, and his seven-year-old granddaughter, Jessica Mann, killing them.
Meerwald faces involuntary manslaughter charges in connection with the deaths. He is scheduled to stand trial Feb. 23, in Jasper County Circuit Court, where the case was sent on a change of venue. Motions are scheduled to be heard Feb. 1. Court officials are expecting a three-day trial.
***
Sen. Nodler will be at the center of the biggest issue facing Missouri legislators this year...the restructuring of the Foundation formula, through which Missouri public schools are funded. Nodler will serve as Chairman of the Senate's Education Committee.
***
A U. S. District Judge has given lawyers for former Webb City High School student Brad Mathewson 12 days to show why his civil rights lawsuit against the school district and High School Principal Steven Gollhofer shouldn't be dismissed.
According to the show cause order, which was filed in U. S. District Court for the Western District of Missouri today, Judge Ortrie D. Smith said the time has already expired for Mathewson or his attorneys to file a response to the school district's Dec. 22 motion to dismiss the lawsuit.
"Plaintiff is directed to show cause on or before Jan. 19, 2005, why his claims and motion for preliminary injunction are not moot." The school district claimed that Mathewson no longer has any standing to sue since he dropped out of school in early December.
In the school district's motion, first published on The Turner Report, school officials claimed Mathewson, who sued the school after he was not allowed to wear gay pride t-shirts, had created numerous disruptions on school property.
In their complaint, district officials said another Webb City High School student filed a report with the Webb City Police after Mathewson "grabbed his groin area while researching in the library and frequently 'hit on' or 'flirted' with him."That wasn't the only reason district officials say Mathewson's behavior, as well as his selection of clothing, was creating a disruption at the school.The filing included a signed affidavit from Gollhofer saying that Mathewson had been flaunting his sexual preference in other ways. "Specifically, students complained that (Mathewson) was showing, and forcing in some instances, inappropriate photographs to students which depicted (Mathewson) and another male lying on top of one another, and the other male kissing (Mathewson's) neck." Mathewson has disputed these contentions in an interview with The Joplin Globe.
Mathewson's claims that his t-shirts had not caused a disruption at the school were also disputed in the motion. "Students also complained about (his) t-shirts, and informed the administration that the t-shirts were inappropriate, as well as distracting."The motion also says that district officials had genuine fears for Mathewson's safety.
"The district had already handled and addressed threats of violence against (Mathewson)." Webb City High School's educational environment was "permeated with tension," the motion said.
American Civil Liberties Union officials have acknowledged in media interviews that it will be difficult to pursue the case since Mathewson dropped out of school. Their hope seems to lie with a group of students who wore t-shirts to support Mathewson the week after he filed his lawsuit. Reportedly, 11 students wore such shirts. Four followed administrators' requests to change the shirts. Seven others were sent home after refusing to do so. ACLU officials indicated they would try to get one of those students to continue the case.
***
One week has passed since Nexstar Broadcasting pulled KSNF and KODE off Cable One and neither side has shown any signs of backing down. On the contrary, Nexstar has broadened its battle against cable and has given a Jan. 31 deadline for Cox Communications, Inc., to begin paying for the two Joplin stations or have to remove them from their cable systems in Carthage and Lamar.
The company is also planning to pull its station in KTAL, Texarkana, Texas, from several Cox systems in the Texarkana-Shreveport, La., area. It has already pulled KTAL from Cable One in Texarkana.
Cox officials told Multichannel News that they are considering going to the Federal Communications Commission for help in resolving the dispute.
Nexstar is gambling that one of the cable companies will give in and that will create a domino effect and bring in millions of dollars in extra revenue. So far in the Joplin area the bet has not paid off. Reportedly, Cable One has only lost about 80 customers, a figure not much different from what it would lose at this time of the year anyway, while Cable One customers who have not bothered to mess with cumbersome antennas have been sampling KOAM's local news and its network programming and are liking what they see.
The Joplin stations are also running into problems with their main source of revenue, advertising, since local advertisers have been asking for discounts since KODE and KSNF are now reaching considerably fewer viewers. Some of those advertisers have also been making their way to KOAM.
Nexstar has been willing to take this chance with the stations in Joplin and Texarkana because these are stations in their smallest markets and they believe a short-term loss is merely an investment if they can rake in millions from the cable companies. It remains to be seen whether the gamble will pay off.
Even if Nexstar wins, it has caused damage to its Joplin stations' credibility and reputation that will take a long time to repair.
State Senator Gary Nodler, R-Joplin's bill would increase the penalty for involuntary manslaughter if a person has a blood alcohol level that is one and half times the legal limit or if a fatality occurs when the person's vehicle leaves a public thoroughfare. That's what prosecutors alleged happened on July 31 when a car driven by Edward Meerwald, 50, Noel, left Highway 86 and struck James Dodson, 71, Neosho, and his seven-year-old granddaughter, Jessica Mann, killing them.
Meerwald faces involuntary manslaughter charges in connection with the deaths. He is scheduled to stand trial Feb. 23, in Jasper County Circuit Court, where the case was sent on a change of venue. Motions are scheduled to be heard Feb. 1. Court officials are expecting a three-day trial.
***
Sen. Nodler will be at the center of the biggest issue facing Missouri legislators this year...the restructuring of the Foundation formula, through which Missouri public schools are funded. Nodler will serve as Chairman of the Senate's Education Committee.
***
A U. S. District Judge has given lawyers for former Webb City High School student Brad Mathewson 12 days to show why his civil rights lawsuit against the school district and High School Principal Steven Gollhofer shouldn't be dismissed.
According to the show cause order, which was filed in U. S. District Court for the Western District of Missouri today, Judge Ortrie D. Smith said the time has already expired for Mathewson or his attorneys to file a response to the school district's Dec. 22 motion to dismiss the lawsuit.
"Plaintiff is directed to show cause on or before Jan. 19, 2005, why his claims and motion for preliminary injunction are not moot." The school district claimed that Mathewson no longer has any standing to sue since he dropped out of school in early December.
In the school district's motion, first published on The Turner Report, school officials claimed Mathewson, who sued the school after he was not allowed to wear gay pride t-shirts, had created numerous disruptions on school property.
In their complaint, district officials said another Webb City High School student filed a report with the Webb City Police after Mathewson "grabbed his groin area while researching in the library and frequently 'hit on' or 'flirted' with him."That wasn't the only reason district officials say Mathewson's behavior, as well as his selection of clothing, was creating a disruption at the school.The filing included a signed affidavit from Gollhofer saying that Mathewson had been flaunting his sexual preference in other ways. "Specifically, students complained that (Mathewson) was showing, and forcing in some instances, inappropriate photographs to students which depicted (Mathewson) and another male lying on top of one another, and the other male kissing (Mathewson's) neck." Mathewson has disputed these contentions in an interview with The Joplin Globe.
Mathewson's claims that his t-shirts had not caused a disruption at the school were also disputed in the motion. "Students also complained about (his) t-shirts, and informed the administration that the t-shirts were inappropriate, as well as distracting."The motion also says that district officials had genuine fears for Mathewson's safety.
"The district had already handled and addressed threats of violence against (Mathewson)." Webb City High School's educational environment was "permeated with tension," the motion said.
American Civil Liberties Union officials have acknowledged in media interviews that it will be difficult to pursue the case since Mathewson dropped out of school. Their hope seems to lie with a group of students who wore t-shirts to support Mathewson the week after he filed his lawsuit. Reportedly, 11 students wore such shirts. Four followed administrators' requests to change the shirts. Seven others were sent home after refusing to do so. ACLU officials indicated they would try to get one of those students to continue the case.
***
One week has passed since Nexstar Broadcasting pulled KSNF and KODE off Cable One and neither side has shown any signs of backing down. On the contrary, Nexstar has broadened its battle against cable and has given a Jan. 31 deadline for Cox Communications, Inc., to begin paying for the two Joplin stations or have to remove them from their cable systems in Carthage and Lamar.
The company is also planning to pull its station in KTAL, Texarkana, Texas, from several Cox systems in the Texarkana-Shreveport, La., area. It has already pulled KTAL from Cable One in Texarkana.
Cox officials told Multichannel News that they are considering going to the Federal Communications Commission for help in resolving the dispute.
Nexstar is gambling that one of the cable companies will give in and that will create a domino effect and bring in millions of dollars in extra revenue. So far in the Joplin area the bet has not paid off. Reportedly, Cable One has only lost about 80 customers, a figure not much different from what it would lose at this time of the year anyway, while Cable One customers who have not bothered to mess with cumbersome antennas have been sampling KOAM's local news and its network programming and are liking what they see.
The Joplin stations are also running into problems with their main source of revenue, advertising, since local advertisers have been asking for discounts since KODE and KSNF are now reaching considerably fewer viewers. Some of those advertisers have also been making their way to KOAM.
Nexstar has been willing to take this chance with the stations in Joplin and Texarkana because these are stations in their smallest markets and they believe a short-term loss is merely an investment if they can rake in millions from the cable companies. It remains to be seen whether the gamble will pay off.
Even if Nexstar wins, it has caused damage to its Joplin stations' credibility and reputation that will take a long time to repair.
Thursday, January 06, 2005
Offers by Joplin city officials to serve as mediators in the showdown between Nexstar Broadcasting, owner of KSNF and operator of KODE (and de facto owner of both) and Cable One have been rejected, at least at this point.
The city news section of www.joplin.org , the city's website, said, "The city is concerned about this issue and has made a standing offer to both companies to assist in this situation as a facilitator and/or provide a neutral environment in which to meet for discussions. The two parties have not accepted the city's offer at this time."
The website indicates that Cable One has a 10-year permit to operate a cable service in Joplin, which was renewed in March 2004. The city can review "signal quality, customer service and general operations of the cable company," the website says, "but does not have authority to require specific programming or channels."
Other companies are not excluded from establishing cable franchises in Joplin, the website said.
"The city finds this situation unfortunate, and hopes that this issue can be resolved to provide the citizens of Joplin a quality service from both companies," the website release concluded.
KODE and KSNF were removed from Cable One at midnight Dec. 31 at the request of Nexstar after the cable company refused Nexstar's demand to pay 30 cents per month per customer to carry the two local stations.
***
In a situation that may already be having ramifications for area tourism, Chicago Business is reporting that sales of the Precious Moments line of collectibles have dropped significantly over the past three years.
In 2001, Precious Moments accounted for 39 percent of the sales of its parent company Enesco. That figure had fallen to 25 percent by the end of 2004, and was a major reason for the financial problems Enesco has been facing.
Paula Manley, formerly chief financial officer at Follett Higher Education Group, a supplier to college bookstores, will take over as Enesco's CFO as of Jan. 24, the Chicago business article said.
The article indicates her job will be cut out for her. It quotes Pam Danziger, president of market research consultant Unity Marketing, Inc., as saying, "The whole bottom has dropped out of their core business. People don't want clutter anymore and what is Precious Moments but clutter?"
Enesco posted a net loss of $4.5 million during the nine months ending Sept. 30, 2004, according to the article.
The article also indicates Enesco has been impacted negatively by a drop in the sales of its Cherished Teddies line and by the increasing popularity of on-line buying of collectibles from eBay.
The Precious Moments line of collectibles was created by artist and former Carthage resident Sam Butcher. His Precious Moments Chapel has been a tourism attraction for this area for the past two decades. It remains to be seen how or if the drop in figurine sales will affect attendance.
***
Thanks to you readers, The Turner Report has set records the past three days for visitors with today ranking as the biggest day ever (and there is still some time left as I write this).
Many people are reaching this blog through bookmarks or by typing in the address, but as always many reach it through search engine results when they are looking for information on one particular subject or another.
It probably won't surprise you to know that many people have come to The Turner Report while researching the standoff between Cable One and Nexstar. That, however, is only the number two attraction. More people are still coming to this site to find out more about former KODE anchor Malorie Maddox, who appears to be quite popular. I have no idea whether those people are from this area trying to find out where she is now or if they are from her new home in Omaha, Neb., trying to find out about what she did in the past, but they are finding this site.
Other people have reached this site during the past week by typing in the following words in the search field:
-Edward Meerwald
-KOAM TV school closings
-Dr. Mark Mitchell, Neosho superintendent
-Large meth bust in Springfield
The city news section of www.joplin.org , the city's website, said, "The city is concerned about this issue and has made a standing offer to both companies to assist in this situation as a facilitator and/or provide a neutral environment in which to meet for discussions. The two parties have not accepted the city's offer at this time."
The website indicates that Cable One has a 10-year permit to operate a cable service in Joplin, which was renewed in March 2004. The city can review "signal quality, customer service and general operations of the cable company," the website says, "but does not have authority to require specific programming or channels."
Other companies are not excluded from establishing cable franchises in Joplin, the website said.
"The city finds this situation unfortunate, and hopes that this issue can be resolved to provide the citizens of Joplin a quality service from both companies," the website release concluded.
KODE and KSNF were removed from Cable One at midnight Dec. 31 at the request of Nexstar after the cable company refused Nexstar's demand to pay 30 cents per month per customer to carry the two local stations.
***
In a situation that may already be having ramifications for area tourism, Chicago Business is reporting that sales of the Precious Moments line of collectibles have dropped significantly over the past three years.
In 2001, Precious Moments accounted for 39 percent of the sales of its parent company Enesco. That figure had fallen to 25 percent by the end of 2004, and was a major reason for the financial problems Enesco has been facing.
Paula Manley, formerly chief financial officer at Follett Higher Education Group, a supplier to college bookstores, will take over as Enesco's CFO as of Jan. 24, the Chicago business article said.
The article indicates her job will be cut out for her. It quotes Pam Danziger, president of market research consultant Unity Marketing, Inc., as saying, "The whole bottom has dropped out of their core business. People don't want clutter anymore and what is Precious Moments but clutter?"
Enesco posted a net loss of $4.5 million during the nine months ending Sept. 30, 2004, according to the article.
The article also indicates Enesco has been impacted negatively by a drop in the sales of its Cherished Teddies line and by the increasing popularity of on-line buying of collectibles from eBay.
The Precious Moments line of collectibles was created by artist and former Carthage resident Sam Butcher. His Precious Moments Chapel has been a tourism attraction for this area for the past two decades. It remains to be seen how or if the drop in figurine sales will affect attendance.
***
Thanks to you readers, The Turner Report has set records the past three days for visitors with today ranking as the biggest day ever (and there is still some time left as I write this).
Many people are reaching this blog through bookmarks or by typing in the address, but as always many reach it through search engine results when they are looking for information on one particular subject or another.
It probably won't surprise you to know that many people have come to The Turner Report while researching the standoff between Cable One and Nexstar. That, however, is only the number two attraction. More people are still coming to this site to find out more about former KODE anchor Malorie Maddox, who appears to be quite popular. I have no idea whether those people are from this area trying to find out where she is now or if they are from her new home in Omaha, Neb., trying to find out about what she did in the past, but they are finding this site.
Other people have reached this site during the past week by typing in the following words in the search field:
-Edward Meerwald
-KOAM TV school closings
-Dr. Mark Mitchell, Neosho superintendent
-Large meth bust in Springfield
Wednesday, January 05, 2005
The final figures are in for 2004 and 127th District Representative Steve Hunter completed his meteoric rise at the top of the state's Republican party.
According to statistics available from the Missouri Ethics Commission, no Republican accepted more gifts from lobbyists than Hunter during the past calendar year. Hunter's reports indicate that he accepted $3,322.14 worth of meals, travel expenses, and other considerations from lobbyists, with most of the gifts being connected to lobbyists representing Ameristar Casinos.
The gifts didn't stop coming when the legislative session ended in May, according to reports filed by Hunter with the commission. He received $982.96 worth of gifts since June 1.
Two Democratic representatives, Rodney Hubbard of St. Louis with $4,119.29, and Connie Johnson of Jefferson City with $3,468.53, were the only ones to top Hunter's figures. The Carl Junction Republican barely edged out new Speaker of the House Rod Jetton of Marble Hill, who received $3,096.06.
Hunter received more gifts from lobbyists than Kevin Wilson, Marilyn Ruestman, and Ed Emery combined, though Ron Richard of Joplin with $1,752.48, and Bryan Stevenson of Webb City with $1,770.14 also did well.
Ms. Ruestman received $229.09, Wilson $871.69, and Emery $583.52.
While Hunter received a great deal from lobbyists after the legislative session ended, Richard has received nothing, Wilson $21.87 worth of gifts, Ms. Ruestman $61.50 and Emery $196.74.
The influence of the casino lobbyists on both Democrats and Republicans was obvious from the reports filed by the legislators. Nearly every representative who received more than $1,000 worth of gifts from lobbyists, received a sizable portion of that money from Ameristar lobbyists.
Hunter accepted travel expenses from lobbyist Sarah Topp on three occasions in 2004. He accepted travel expenses from lobbyist William Gamble one other time.Though Ms. Topp and Gamble represent a number of clients, including the Missouri Sheriffs Association, the Ethics Commission records indicate the travel money to Hunter came courtesy of the Ameristar Casino Hotel in Kansas City. Ms. Topp and Gamble also represent all of the interests of Ameristar Casinos, a Las Vegas-based company which only recently moved its operations into this state.On Jan. 22, Hunter accepted $91.32 in travel expenses, according to Ethics Commission records. He also accepted $91.32 in travel expenses, indicating he most likely went to the same place, as well as $125 for meals, food, and beverage from Ms. Topp on Feb. 20, $138 in travel expenses from her on March 8, and $455 for meals, food and beverage on March 20.Hunter accepted an additional $250 in travel expenses from Gamble on Aug. 28, according to the Ethics Commission records. Legislators are allowed to amend the records if they pay the lobbyists back, though the original expenditure remains. The Ethics Commission records show that none of Ameristar Casinos' gifts to Hunter have been paid back.
Hunter was the only legislator to receive gifts from Ms. Topp in February and the only representative (there were three senators) who received gifts in March, records indicate.The $1,150.64 Hunter received from the gambling interest was more money than any other area legislator, except Richard, received from all lobbyists' gifts combined.
Former House Speaker Catherine Hanaway received $1,464.85 worth of gifts from lobbyists, including travel expenses of $142.54 on March 29 and $168.50 on March 23, both from Jorgen Schlemeier, an Ameristar lobbyist. On June 12, she received $219.68 for travel from Sarah Topp, the same lobbyist who provided Hunter with most of his gifts.
Current House Speaker Jetton had his travel expenses covered by seven lobbyists on July 13, with each contributing $34.33, or close to $250 total, according to the Ethics Commission records. All seven lobbyists are registered as working for Ameristar. Apparently, Jetton believes taking one-seventh of the amount from seven different lobbyists looks better than receiving a large outlay from one lobbyist.
Jetton also received $124.04 for travel from the appropriately-named Ameristar lobbyist William Gamble on Nov. 18, $117.17 from Miss Topp for travel on Aug. 24, $116.87 for travel from Gamble on July 22.
Rodney Hubbard of St. Louis accepted $709.90 in travel expenses from Gamble on Aug. 9. Hubbard was an equal-opportunity proponent, also taking travel expenses three times from lobbyists from Harrah's Entertainment, another casino interest.
Connie Johnson of St. Louis apparently has a great appetite for lobbyists' gifts. Ms. Johnson received $627.35 for meals, food, and beverage, from Jorgen Schlieman on May 28.
Other legislators receiving large amounts from Ameristar included:
-Tom Dempsey, Republican Majority Floor Leader, St. Charles- $3,026.89 from all lobbyists, including $113.71 for travel from Gamble on Oct. 13, $250 for travel from Ms. Topp on June 7, $274.50 for travel from Gamble on May 18, and $135 for travel from Ms. Topp in January.
-Esther Haywood, Democrat, St. Louis- $1,356.08 from all lobbyists, $200 for travel from Jorgen Schlemeier on June 10.
-Robin Wright Jones, Democrat, St. Louis- $1,532.94 from all lobbyists, $200 for travel from Schlemeier on June 10.
-Joe Smith, Republican, St. Charles- $2,453.06 from all lobbyists, including $275.82 for travel from Ms. Topp, June 27, $101 for meals from Gamble on April 27, $327.14 for travel and $117.16 for meals from Schlemeier on March 27 and March 30, respectively, and $135 for travel from Ms. Topp on Jan. 10.
-Brian Yates, Republican, Lee's Summit- $2,228.94 from all lobbyists, including $125.58 from Ms. Topp for meals on Aug. 31.
***
I reported in the Jan. 4 Turner Report that Dish Network would be raising its prices as of Feb. 1 and noted the hypocrisy of the company that has been jumping all over cable for its annual rate hikes, raising its own prices after just 12 months. An Associated Press article indicates that the situation is much worse than that. Apparently, Dish Network has had five rate hikes in the past five years, according to the article.
***
Two prominent southwest Missourians have been proposed for honors by State Representative Marilyn Ruestman. Ms. Ruestman has submitted bills which would honor the late songwriter Albert Brumley of Powell, writer of the classic "I'll Fly Away," and Ms. Ruestman's mentor, former Seventh District Congressman Mel Hancock.
House Bill 154 would designate a portion of I-44 in Greene County from state route MM, exit 70, east to state route 286, exit 72, as the "Congressman Mel Hancock Freeway."
House Bill 155 would designate a portion of Highway E in McDonald County from the Arkansas state line north to Highway 76 as "Albert Brumley Memorial Highway.' The bill stipulates that all signs would be paid for, put up and maintained by Albert E. Brumley and Sons, Inc.
***
The Missouri Department of Natural Resources announced today (Jan. 5) that the Golden City R-3 School District in Barton County will receive a $71,700 low-interest loan for lighting upgrades. The loan and six others which were announced, is administered by the MDNR's Energy Loan Program.
***
Attorneys representing Jasper County Sheriff Archie Dunn, Presiding Commissioner Chuck Surface, Associate Commissioner Jim Honey, and former Associate Commissioner Anna Ruth Crampton have filed a motion in U. S. District Court for the Western District of Missouri asking to be allowed to question convicted child molester Martin Anthony Eck.
Eck is suing the county officials claiming he didn't receive proper dental care while he was in the county jail.
Eck pleaded guilty in Jasper County Circuit Court in November to two counts of statutory sodomy in connection with incidents involving a 12-year-old girl. The Joplin Globe reported that Eck had been convicted of child molestation 11 years ago in Gordon County, GA. He was sentenced to 20 years, but the sentence was suspended and he was allowed to move to Joplin a few years later, where he was under the supervision of the probation office here, according to the article. Eck, 41, Joplin, is asking for $100 million. Eck told what happened to him in his petition. 'I arrived at Jasper County Jail on April 2, 2004,' he wrote. 'I told the booking officer that I had bad teeth that needed taken care of. I was told at that time Jasper County Jail did not have a dentist. I filed a grievance on May 12, 2004, and got no response. I told the nurse numerous times and have written the sheriff on July 15, 2004." 'I still have not seen a dentist. As I understand it, it is the County Commission's job to make sure health care is available. It's been four months, still no dentist.' " Eck has been allowed to filed as a pauper, meaning that his effort to seek compensation for his dental problems will be funded by Missouri taxpayers.
The attorneys for the county officials have asked to interview Eck, according to their motion, because "it is vital to the defense of this litigation that defendants understand specifically what the plaintiff contends transpired during his incarceration in 2004 at the Jasper County Jail."
According to statistics available from the Missouri Ethics Commission, no Republican accepted more gifts from lobbyists than Hunter during the past calendar year. Hunter's reports indicate that he accepted $3,322.14 worth of meals, travel expenses, and other considerations from lobbyists, with most of the gifts being connected to lobbyists representing Ameristar Casinos.
The gifts didn't stop coming when the legislative session ended in May, according to reports filed by Hunter with the commission. He received $982.96 worth of gifts since June 1.
Two Democratic representatives, Rodney Hubbard of St. Louis with $4,119.29, and Connie Johnson of Jefferson City with $3,468.53, were the only ones to top Hunter's figures. The Carl Junction Republican barely edged out new Speaker of the House Rod Jetton of Marble Hill, who received $3,096.06.
Hunter received more gifts from lobbyists than Kevin Wilson, Marilyn Ruestman, and Ed Emery combined, though Ron Richard of Joplin with $1,752.48, and Bryan Stevenson of Webb City with $1,770.14 also did well.
Ms. Ruestman received $229.09, Wilson $871.69, and Emery $583.52.
While Hunter received a great deal from lobbyists after the legislative session ended, Richard has received nothing, Wilson $21.87 worth of gifts, Ms. Ruestman $61.50 and Emery $196.74.
The influence of the casino lobbyists on both Democrats and Republicans was obvious from the reports filed by the legislators. Nearly every representative who received more than $1,000 worth of gifts from lobbyists, received a sizable portion of that money from Ameristar lobbyists.
Hunter accepted travel expenses from lobbyist Sarah Topp on three occasions in 2004. He accepted travel expenses from lobbyist William Gamble one other time.Though Ms. Topp and Gamble represent a number of clients, including the Missouri Sheriffs Association, the Ethics Commission records indicate the travel money to Hunter came courtesy of the Ameristar Casino Hotel in Kansas City. Ms. Topp and Gamble also represent all of the interests of Ameristar Casinos, a Las Vegas-based company which only recently moved its operations into this state.On Jan. 22, Hunter accepted $91.32 in travel expenses, according to Ethics Commission records. He also accepted $91.32 in travel expenses, indicating he most likely went to the same place, as well as $125 for meals, food, and beverage from Ms. Topp on Feb. 20, $138 in travel expenses from her on March 8, and $455 for meals, food and beverage on March 20.Hunter accepted an additional $250 in travel expenses from Gamble on Aug. 28, according to the Ethics Commission records. Legislators are allowed to amend the records if they pay the lobbyists back, though the original expenditure remains. The Ethics Commission records show that none of Ameristar Casinos' gifts to Hunter have been paid back.
Hunter was the only legislator to receive gifts from Ms. Topp in February and the only representative (there were three senators) who received gifts in March, records indicate.The $1,150.64 Hunter received from the gambling interest was more money than any other area legislator, except Richard, received from all lobbyists' gifts combined.
Former House Speaker Catherine Hanaway received $1,464.85 worth of gifts from lobbyists, including travel expenses of $142.54 on March 29 and $168.50 on March 23, both from Jorgen Schlemeier, an Ameristar lobbyist. On June 12, she received $219.68 for travel from Sarah Topp, the same lobbyist who provided Hunter with most of his gifts.
Current House Speaker Jetton had his travel expenses covered by seven lobbyists on July 13, with each contributing $34.33, or close to $250 total, according to the Ethics Commission records. All seven lobbyists are registered as working for Ameristar. Apparently, Jetton believes taking one-seventh of the amount from seven different lobbyists looks better than receiving a large outlay from one lobbyist.
Jetton also received $124.04 for travel from the appropriately-named Ameristar lobbyist William Gamble on Nov. 18, $117.17 from Miss Topp for travel on Aug. 24, $116.87 for travel from Gamble on July 22.
Rodney Hubbard of St. Louis accepted $709.90 in travel expenses from Gamble on Aug. 9. Hubbard was an equal-opportunity proponent, also taking travel expenses three times from lobbyists from Harrah's Entertainment, another casino interest.
Connie Johnson of St. Louis apparently has a great appetite for lobbyists' gifts. Ms. Johnson received $627.35 for meals, food, and beverage, from Jorgen Schlieman on May 28.
Other legislators receiving large amounts from Ameristar included:
-Tom Dempsey, Republican Majority Floor Leader, St. Charles- $3,026.89 from all lobbyists, including $113.71 for travel from Gamble on Oct. 13, $250 for travel from Ms. Topp on June 7, $274.50 for travel from Gamble on May 18, and $135 for travel from Ms. Topp in January.
-Esther Haywood, Democrat, St. Louis- $1,356.08 from all lobbyists, $200 for travel from Jorgen Schlemeier on June 10.
-Robin Wright Jones, Democrat, St. Louis- $1,532.94 from all lobbyists, $200 for travel from Schlemeier on June 10.
-Joe Smith, Republican, St. Charles- $2,453.06 from all lobbyists, including $275.82 for travel from Ms. Topp, June 27, $101 for meals from Gamble on April 27, $327.14 for travel and $117.16 for meals from Schlemeier on March 27 and March 30, respectively, and $135 for travel from Ms. Topp on Jan. 10.
-Brian Yates, Republican, Lee's Summit- $2,228.94 from all lobbyists, including $125.58 from Ms. Topp for meals on Aug. 31.
***
I reported in the Jan. 4 Turner Report that Dish Network would be raising its prices as of Feb. 1 and noted the hypocrisy of the company that has been jumping all over cable for its annual rate hikes, raising its own prices after just 12 months. An Associated Press article indicates that the situation is much worse than that. Apparently, Dish Network has had five rate hikes in the past five years, according to the article.
***
Two prominent southwest Missourians have been proposed for honors by State Representative Marilyn Ruestman. Ms. Ruestman has submitted bills which would honor the late songwriter Albert Brumley of Powell, writer of the classic "I'll Fly Away," and Ms. Ruestman's mentor, former Seventh District Congressman Mel Hancock.
House Bill 154 would designate a portion of I-44 in Greene County from state route MM, exit 70, east to state route 286, exit 72, as the "Congressman Mel Hancock Freeway."
House Bill 155 would designate a portion of Highway E in McDonald County from the Arkansas state line north to Highway 76 as "Albert Brumley Memorial Highway.' The bill stipulates that all signs would be paid for, put up and maintained by Albert E. Brumley and Sons, Inc.
***
The Missouri Department of Natural Resources announced today (Jan. 5) that the Golden City R-3 School District in Barton County will receive a $71,700 low-interest loan for lighting upgrades. The loan and six others which were announced, is administered by the MDNR's Energy Loan Program.
***
Attorneys representing Jasper County Sheriff Archie Dunn, Presiding Commissioner Chuck Surface, Associate Commissioner Jim Honey, and former Associate Commissioner Anna Ruth Crampton have filed a motion in U. S. District Court for the Western District of Missouri asking to be allowed to question convicted child molester Martin Anthony Eck.
Eck is suing the county officials claiming he didn't receive proper dental care while he was in the county jail.
Eck pleaded guilty in Jasper County Circuit Court in November to two counts of statutory sodomy in connection with incidents involving a 12-year-old girl. The Joplin Globe reported that Eck had been convicted of child molestation 11 years ago in Gordon County, GA. He was sentenced to 20 years, but the sentence was suspended and he was allowed to move to Joplin a few years later, where he was under the supervision of the probation office here, according to the article. Eck, 41, Joplin, is asking for $100 million. Eck told what happened to him in his petition. 'I arrived at Jasper County Jail on April 2, 2004,' he wrote. 'I told the booking officer that I had bad teeth that needed taken care of. I was told at that time Jasper County Jail did not have a dentist. I filed a grievance on May 12, 2004, and got no response. I told the nurse numerous times and have written the sheriff on July 15, 2004." 'I still have not seen a dentist. As I understand it, it is the County Commission's job to make sure health care is available. It's been four months, still no dentist.' " Eck has been allowed to filed as a pauper, meaning that his effort to seek compensation for his dental problems will be funded by Missouri taxpayers.
The attorneys for the county officials have asked to interview Eck, according to their motion, because "it is vital to the defense of this litigation that defendants understand specifically what the plaintiff contends transpired during his incarceration in 2004 at the Jasper County Jail."
Tuesday, January 04, 2005
It shouldn't surprise anyone who reads The Turner Report on a regular basis to realize that there is a systematic, coordinated effort going on between Nexstar Broadcasting and the local satellite dish provider to break the back of the local cable company.
Take the recent anti-cable demonstration, covered by Nexstar's stations, and reportedly staged by sources connected with the satellite dish company. Or take the advertisements that are being placed regularly by the company, many times on KODE and KSNF's newscasts, encouraging viewers to continue to get their local stations by switching to satellite.
Multichannel News reports that Dish Network "has been especially aggressive in attacking cable operators over annual rate increases. In November, Dish invited reporters to call when writing stories about cable-rate increases, promising to offer up local customers who've switched to Dish from cable."
It was on June 29, 2004, that EchoStar Communications, owner of Dish network, announced that the network would offer local TV channels to Joplin and Pittsburg. In that announcement, EchoStar said, "Dish Network has frozen the lowest all-digital TV price through January 2005."
And that is exactly what Dish Network has done. During all of its promotions, the company has failed to mention that as of Feb. 1 it will be increasing its prices. The same company that has been lambasting cable for annual rate increases, will make its first rate increase since...February 2004.
Multichannel News reports "Dish Network is raising the price of its programming packages by $2 to $4 per month as of Feb. 1, citing rising programming costs and other expenses."
The letters announcing the rate increases are scheduled to go out this week, the article said. That "lowest all-digital TV price" will increase from $29.99 per month to $31.99 a 6.7 percent increase.
The Top 120 package is scheduled to increase from $39.99 to $42.99, up 7.5 percent. The Top 180 will increase from $49.99 to $52.99 and the "America's Everything" package will be $86.99, up from $82.99.
Take the recent anti-cable demonstration, covered by Nexstar's stations, and reportedly staged by sources connected with the satellite dish company. Or take the advertisements that are being placed regularly by the company, many times on KODE and KSNF's newscasts, encouraging viewers to continue to get their local stations by switching to satellite.
Multichannel News reports that Dish Network "has been especially aggressive in attacking cable operators over annual rate increases. In November, Dish invited reporters to call when writing stories about cable-rate increases, promising to offer up local customers who've switched to Dish from cable."
It was on June 29, 2004, that EchoStar Communications, owner of Dish network, announced that the network would offer local TV channels to Joplin and Pittsburg. In that announcement, EchoStar said, "Dish Network has frozen the lowest all-digital TV price through January 2005."
And that is exactly what Dish Network has done. During all of its promotions, the company has failed to mention that as of Feb. 1 it will be increasing its prices. The same company that has been lambasting cable for annual rate increases, will make its first rate increase since...February 2004.
Multichannel News reports "Dish Network is raising the price of its programming packages by $2 to $4 per month as of Feb. 1, citing rising programming costs and other expenses."
The letters announcing the rate increases are scheduled to go out this week, the article said. That "lowest all-digital TV price" will increase from $29.99 per month to $31.99 a 6.7 percent increase.
The Top 120 package is scheduled to increase from $39.99 to $42.99, up 7.5 percent. The Top 180 will increase from $49.99 to $52.99 and the "America's Everything" package will be $86.99, up from $82.99.
Being an old-fashioned newspaper guy, I deplore the recent trend toward smaller newspaper companies starting niche free publications full of fluffy features signifying nothing.
Liberty Group Publishing has started a few of these to boost its revenue over the past few years. It's not that there's anything inherently wrong with fluffy magazines, but they have a tendency to divert the company away from what should be its primary goal...to find a way to serve its community with solid, hard-hitting journalism and increase its revenue flow by doing so.
That's why the announcement seven days ago in the Neosho Daily News that staff writer Michelle Pippin is moving to the magazine side of Liberty was so disheartening. Ms. Pippin has worked hard over the past few years and has served the Daily's readers well. I am sure she will thrive working for the magazines, but I personally would like to see some of that magazine-style writing included in Liberty's local newspapers...and not just the fluffy kind, but the hard-hitting investigative kind. I don't know what the Daily's plans are for replacing Ms. Pippin, but it would be nice if the Daily would spend some money and bring in someone with experience.
***
Sticking with the small, local newspapers, the Jan. 1 issue of The Lamar Democrat featured editor Rayma Bekebrock Davis' look at the events that took place in the year 2004. And there were definitely a number of big ticket items featured, including the decision of long-time sheriff Bill Griffitt not to run for re-election, the death of O'Sullivan Industries' founder Tom O'Sullivan, the purchase of Lamar Supermarket by Summer Fresh, and the destruction of the historic Earp Building in an Aug. 28 fire.
A number of news items concerning O'Sullivan Industries, the city's largest employer, were featured...all of them came from news releases issued by the company. Yes, those releases were important news, but this situation called for journalistic leadership and that was not in evidence in Lamar.
The following items were included in the year- end wrapup:
-MoDOT confirmed installation of rumble strips on Highway 43 to begin on July 26.
-Lamar Rotary explained its centennial project to the district governor, Gerald Harp, on Oct. 5. The project is headed by Doug Davis. (Democrat publisher)
-Allen and Edith Walters donated the Lamar Fair queen portraits to Rotary officially in September. The framing project for those portraits was spearheaded by Rayma Bekebrock Davis (Democrat editor).
-The Lamar Democrat went to full pagination.
-In November, the Lamar Fair queen framing project was complete.
The article concluded with Mrs. Bekebrock-Davis writing, "Our hope is to publish more good news than bad and to continue to be your record of life in Barton, Jasper and Dade counties."
Apparently, the "record of life in Barton County" for the year 2004 did not include the resignation of Daniel O'Sullivan, chairman of the board of O'Sullivan Industries, and the later resignation of marketing chief Michael O'Sullivan, the last of the O'Sullivans to hold leadership positions in the company brought to Lamar by Tom O'Sullivan 40 years ago.
The "record of life in Barton County" also did not include the forced departures of longtime O'Sullivan officials, some of whom had been with the company for more than three decades.
Those items were never featured in the newspaper.
Items that ran in the newspaper, but did not make the year-end wrapup story, included the appointment of million-dollar CEO Bob Parker at O'Sullivan Industries and the decision to move the company's corporate headquarters from Lamar to Atlanta.
If that is the paper of record, my guess is that Arthur Aull and Madeleine Aull VanHafften are rolling over in their graves.
***
Let's stick with the newspapers. The Joplin Globe had the misfortune this morning to run a number of man-on-the-street quotes about the Cable One-Nexstar battle that heavily leaned toward Nexstar. A suspicious mind might question the timing of that page-one story on the same day that the Globe's A section featured a full-page ad from a satellite dish company..and those full-page ads bring in big bucks. The man-on-the-street thing is a relic of the past and needs to be discarded. In this case, I have talked to as many people, maybe more, who agree with Cable One or who curse both of the companies. But when you tell a reporter or photographer to come back with five or six photos to use as a man-on-the-street feature, that reporter is going to come back with five or six usable photos, not 10 or 12 so you can get a better choice and who can blame him? The Globe editors' lack of imagination opened the paper to charges of bias with this story.
***
KOAM-TV's Lisa Olliges' hard-hitting story on a Montgomery County, Kansas, judge who appears to be running a dictatorship, is unusual in more ways than one.
First off, it is a hard-hitting investigative story that took on a solidly-entrenched public figure, something you don't see much of in television or newspapers.
Second, it is being run in January which, unless I am unaware of some big change, is not a sweeps month. In television, sweeps periods, which I believe are February, May, and November, are used to determine the rates stations can get away with charging their advertisers. The more viewers they draw, the more consumers they reach, so companies are willing to pay more to place their advertising with the top-drawing stations. Usually, big week-long investigative pieces are reserved for sweeps month. That's when you see pieces like "Sex in Joplin" "Drug Use: A Teen Epidemic?" on the local news.
Ms. Olliges' series is part of what appears to be a commitment to hard-hitting investigative reporting by the station. That was definitely reflected in the hiring of the new co-anchor for veteran Dowe Quick. Rhonda Justice has a distinguished record of investigative reporting during the past decade in northwest Arkansas.
KOAM is investing some money in improving its news product and it shows.
I can't say for sure if Nexstar is putting any money into its news product, as I currently don't receive either KSNF or KODE.
***
A 1 p.m. Friday, Jan. 14, hearing is scheduled in Jasper County Circuit Court for former Carthage R-9 Board of Education member Michael Lloyd Wells' incest case. The judge will decide on a motion by Wells' attorney to suppress evidence found in Wells' computer. Wells is a former Carthage Police officer.
Liberty Group Publishing has started a few of these to boost its revenue over the past few years. It's not that there's anything inherently wrong with fluffy magazines, but they have a tendency to divert the company away from what should be its primary goal...to find a way to serve its community with solid, hard-hitting journalism and increase its revenue flow by doing so.
That's why the announcement seven days ago in the Neosho Daily News that staff writer Michelle Pippin is moving to the magazine side of Liberty was so disheartening. Ms. Pippin has worked hard over the past few years and has served the Daily's readers well. I am sure she will thrive working for the magazines, but I personally would like to see some of that magazine-style writing included in Liberty's local newspapers...and not just the fluffy kind, but the hard-hitting investigative kind. I don't know what the Daily's plans are for replacing Ms. Pippin, but it would be nice if the Daily would spend some money and bring in someone with experience.
***
Sticking with the small, local newspapers, the Jan. 1 issue of The Lamar Democrat featured editor Rayma Bekebrock Davis' look at the events that took place in the year 2004. And there were definitely a number of big ticket items featured, including the decision of long-time sheriff Bill Griffitt not to run for re-election, the death of O'Sullivan Industries' founder Tom O'Sullivan, the purchase of Lamar Supermarket by Summer Fresh, and the destruction of the historic Earp Building in an Aug. 28 fire.
A number of news items concerning O'Sullivan Industries, the city's largest employer, were featured...all of them came from news releases issued by the company. Yes, those releases were important news, but this situation called for journalistic leadership and that was not in evidence in Lamar.
The following items were included in the year- end wrapup:
-MoDOT confirmed installation of rumble strips on Highway 43 to begin on July 26.
-Lamar Rotary explained its centennial project to the district governor, Gerald Harp, on Oct. 5. The project is headed by Doug Davis. (Democrat publisher)
-Allen and Edith Walters donated the Lamar Fair queen portraits to Rotary officially in September. The framing project for those portraits was spearheaded by Rayma Bekebrock Davis (Democrat editor).
-The Lamar Democrat went to full pagination.
-In November, the Lamar Fair queen framing project was complete.
The article concluded with Mrs. Bekebrock-Davis writing, "Our hope is to publish more good news than bad and to continue to be your record of life in Barton, Jasper and Dade counties."
Apparently, the "record of life in Barton County" for the year 2004 did not include the resignation of Daniel O'Sullivan, chairman of the board of O'Sullivan Industries, and the later resignation of marketing chief Michael O'Sullivan, the last of the O'Sullivans to hold leadership positions in the company brought to Lamar by Tom O'Sullivan 40 years ago.
The "record of life in Barton County" also did not include the forced departures of longtime O'Sullivan officials, some of whom had been with the company for more than three decades.
Those items were never featured in the newspaper.
Items that ran in the newspaper, but did not make the year-end wrapup story, included the appointment of million-dollar CEO Bob Parker at O'Sullivan Industries and the decision to move the company's corporate headquarters from Lamar to Atlanta.
If that is the paper of record, my guess is that Arthur Aull and Madeleine Aull VanHafften are rolling over in their graves.
***
Let's stick with the newspapers. The Joplin Globe had the misfortune this morning to run a number of man-on-the-street quotes about the Cable One-Nexstar battle that heavily leaned toward Nexstar. A suspicious mind might question the timing of that page-one story on the same day that the Globe's A section featured a full-page ad from a satellite dish company..and those full-page ads bring in big bucks. The man-on-the-street thing is a relic of the past and needs to be discarded. In this case, I have talked to as many people, maybe more, who agree with Cable One or who curse both of the companies. But when you tell a reporter or photographer to come back with five or six photos to use as a man-on-the-street feature, that reporter is going to come back with five or six usable photos, not 10 or 12 so you can get a better choice and who can blame him? The Globe editors' lack of imagination opened the paper to charges of bias with this story.
***
KOAM-TV's Lisa Olliges' hard-hitting story on a Montgomery County, Kansas, judge who appears to be running a dictatorship, is unusual in more ways than one.
First off, it is a hard-hitting investigative story that took on a solidly-entrenched public figure, something you don't see much of in television or newspapers.
Second, it is being run in January which, unless I am unaware of some big change, is not a sweeps month. In television, sweeps periods, which I believe are February, May, and November, are used to determine the rates stations can get away with charging their advertisers. The more viewers they draw, the more consumers they reach, so companies are willing to pay more to place their advertising with the top-drawing stations. Usually, big week-long investigative pieces are reserved for sweeps month. That's when you see pieces like "Sex in Joplin" "Drug Use: A Teen Epidemic?" on the local news.
Ms. Olliges' series is part of what appears to be a commitment to hard-hitting investigative reporting by the station. That was definitely reflected in the hiring of the new co-anchor for veteran Dowe Quick. Rhonda Justice has a distinguished record of investigative reporting during the past decade in northwest Arkansas.
KOAM is investing some money in improving its news product and it shows.
I can't say for sure if Nexstar is putting any money into its news product, as I currently don't receive either KSNF or KODE.
***
A 1 p.m. Friday, Jan. 14, hearing is scheduled in Jasper County Circuit Court for former Carthage R-9 Board of Education member Michael Lloyd Wells' incest case. The judge will decide on a motion by Wells' attorney to suppress evidence found in Wells' computer. Wells is a former Carthage Police officer.
Former McDonald County sheriff candidate Randy Hance has retained the services of one of southwest Missouri's top criminal lawyers to defend him against federal weapons charges.
According to a document from the U. S. District Court for the Western District of Missouri, Hance will be represented by Shawn Askinosie of Springfield, who has been the lawyer in many of the biggest criminal cases in this region over the past few years.
Hance was arraigned Dec. 30 in Springfield before Judge James C. England.
***
Today's Globe indicates that Cox Cable viewers are about to go through the same extortion techniques employed by Nexstar, owner of KSNF and operator of KODE (but de facto owner of both) during its battle with Cable One. Nexstar claims the cable company should not be allowed to carry the two local stations, while Cox claims it has another 30 days. Maybe I will be proven wrong, but I thoroughly expect KODE and KSNF to suffer from these tactics. I don't expect to see a massive turn toward satellite dishes in this area. Nexstar has already lost the public relations battle. Of course, it is the poor receptionists at the local stations who are suffering for Nexstar's tactics. I am sure they are receiving one phone call after another. It won't do any good to call Nexstar COO Duane Lammers on the number being shown on Cable One Channel 6. It's easy to hold your position when you don't bother to answer your own phone and I would be very surprised if Mr. Lammers is personally fielding any of the complaint calls.
According to a document from the U. S. District Court for the Western District of Missouri, Hance will be represented by Shawn Askinosie of Springfield, who has been the lawyer in many of the biggest criminal cases in this region over the past few years.
Hance was arraigned Dec. 30 in Springfield before Judge James C. England.
***
Today's Globe indicates that Cox Cable viewers are about to go through the same extortion techniques employed by Nexstar, owner of KSNF and operator of KODE (but de facto owner of both) during its battle with Cable One. Nexstar claims the cable company should not be allowed to carry the two local stations, while Cox claims it has another 30 days. Maybe I will be proven wrong, but I thoroughly expect KODE and KSNF to suffer from these tactics. I don't expect to see a massive turn toward satellite dishes in this area. Nexstar has already lost the public relations battle. Of course, it is the poor receptionists at the local stations who are suffering for Nexstar's tactics. I am sure they are receiving one phone call after another. It won't do any good to call Nexstar COO Duane Lammers on the number being shown on Cable One Channel 6. It's easy to hold your position when you don't bother to answer your own phone and I would be very surprised if Mr. Lammers is personally fielding any of the complaint calls.
Sunday, January 02, 2005
Just a little over two months ago, former Sarcoxie minister Donald Peckham pleaded guilty to two counts of statutory sodomy in connection with sexual activity with underaged boys. Peckham stood in a Jasper County courtroom and admitted his crimes. Peckham was sentenced to seven years on second degree sodomy count and 15 years on the first degree sodomy count, with the sentences to run concurrently.
Apparently, a little time behind bars has made Peckham reconsider that plea. On Dec. 22, Peckham filed a motion in Jasper County Circuit Court to have his sentence thrown out. Five days later, one day before Peckham's 72nd birthday, the court ruled that the taxpayers will fund his efforts by allowing Peckham to file as a pauper, meaning that a public defender will help him prepare his case.
This means I owe the Joplin Globe an apology since I criticized the newspaper a few days ago for mentioning Peckham in its page-one feature on ongoing stories that are continuing into the new year. The Globe story indicated the effect of Peckham's illegal activities on his church, the Jubilee Christian Fellowship Church in Sarcoxie. would be a story it would be watching in 2005. I suggested the church should be left alone.
It appears that it is Don Peckham who wants to continue the process of dragging his former church through the mud. The Globe's extensive research into the story showed that this is not the first time the former minister has put his own needs before the needs of others. Globe reporting uncovered allegations of similar problems at several Methodist churches in Kansas dating back three decades.
Jasper County Prosecuting Attorney Dean Dankelson told The Globe his office was investigating 12 possible sexual abuse victims.
***
The Globe broke with its usual pattern and posted the news just after midnight Friday that KODE and KSNF had been removed from Cable One. Oddly enough, the information was available from a Google News search, but not on the Globe's website. I don't know enough about the technical ins and outs to know if that had anything to do with the fact that the story was posted on Dec. 32nd, according to its original incarnation on the web.
That being the case, perhaps the Globe overlooked a bigger story since these cable TV flaps come and go, but this appeared to be the first recorded instance of a December 32nd.
The mistake was corrected by the time the story actually appeared on the Globe website.
***
Despite the many antennas Cable One gave out so viewers would not be deprived of KODE and KSNF, I would imagine that a substantial majority of viewers are no longer receiving those two stations. I briefly considered stopping at the cable office last week and standing in line, but after considerable reflection, I started wondering why I should put myself out for these two stations.
Yes, I will miss "Law and Order" on NBC (the other two Law and Order shows, which I also watch on a regular basis, are rerun a few days later on the USA Network) and "Boston Legal." I wouldn't mind watching the college football championship game in a few days and it will be hard to do without "Nightline." I have been in the habit of turning on the TV in the morning to KODE's morning show, though I recently turned to KSNF, but I will have no problems whatsoever watching KOAM' s morning program.
I wonder how many other viewers will also sample KOAM's local programming. I am sure viewers who did not get an antenna or a satellite system will not miss the middle-of-the-day infomercials that have become so prevalent on KODE and KSNF since Nexstar began running both companies.
***
Since I am apologizing to the Globe today, I might as well add KSNF to the list, at least I believe this was on KSNF. A few days ago, I wrote about KOAM's superior coverage of the incident at the Barry County Courthouse in Cassville, in which a man ran over a deputy, then was shot. KOAM had a camera crew and reporter there and offered excellent coverage of the event. The Nexstar management saved money by not sending a crew there, meaning that neither KSNF or KODE would have coverage of the event. But why do you need to have in-person coverage (which is so highly overrated) when you can do what KSNF (or KODE, I get them mixed up these days) did and run a picture of a gun overlaid on a map of Missouri with Cassville highlighted.
Now that's gripping television!
Apparently, a little time behind bars has made Peckham reconsider that plea. On Dec. 22, Peckham filed a motion in Jasper County Circuit Court to have his sentence thrown out. Five days later, one day before Peckham's 72nd birthday, the court ruled that the taxpayers will fund his efforts by allowing Peckham to file as a pauper, meaning that a public defender will help him prepare his case.
This means I owe the Joplin Globe an apology since I criticized the newspaper a few days ago for mentioning Peckham in its page-one feature on ongoing stories that are continuing into the new year. The Globe story indicated the effect of Peckham's illegal activities on his church, the Jubilee Christian Fellowship Church in Sarcoxie. would be a story it would be watching in 2005. I suggested the church should be left alone.
It appears that it is Don Peckham who wants to continue the process of dragging his former church through the mud. The Globe's extensive research into the story showed that this is not the first time the former minister has put his own needs before the needs of others. Globe reporting uncovered allegations of similar problems at several Methodist churches in Kansas dating back three decades.
Jasper County Prosecuting Attorney Dean Dankelson told The Globe his office was investigating 12 possible sexual abuse victims.
***
The Globe broke with its usual pattern and posted the news just after midnight Friday that KODE and KSNF had been removed from Cable One. Oddly enough, the information was available from a Google News search, but not on the Globe's website. I don't know enough about the technical ins and outs to know if that had anything to do with the fact that the story was posted on Dec. 32nd, according to its original incarnation on the web.
That being the case, perhaps the Globe overlooked a bigger story since these cable TV flaps come and go, but this appeared to be the first recorded instance of a December 32nd.
The mistake was corrected by the time the story actually appeared on the Globe website.
***
Despite the many antennas Cable One gave out so viewers would not be deprived of KODE and KSNF, I would imagine that a substantial majority of viewers are no longer receiving those two stations. I briefly considered stopping at the cable office last week and standing in line, but after considerable reflection, I started wondering why I should put myself out for these two stations.
Yes, I will miss "Law and Order" on NBC (the other two Law and Order shows, which I also watch on a regular basis, are rerun a few days later on the USA Network) and "Boston Legal." I wouldn't mind watching the college football championship game in a few days and it will be hard to do without "Nightline." I have been in the habit of turning on the TV in the morning to KODE's morning show, though I recently turned to KSNF, but I will have no problems whatsoever watching KOAM' s morning program.
I wonder how many other viewers will also sample KOAM's local programming. I am sure viewers who did not get an antenna or a satellite system will not miss the middle-of-the-day infomercials that have become so prevalent on KODE and KSNF since Nexstar began running both companies.
***
Since I am apologizing to the Globe today, I might as well add KSNF to the list, at least I believe this was on KSNF. A few days ago, I wrote about KOAM's superior coverage of the incident at the Barry County Courthouse in Cassville, in which a man ran over a deputy, then was shot. KOAM had a camera crew and reporter there and offered excellent coverage of the event. The Nexstar management saved money by not sending a crew there, meaning that neither KSNF or KODE would have coverage of the event. But why do you need to have in-person coverage (which is so highly overrated) when you can do what KSNF (or KODE, I get them mixed up these days) did and run a picture of a gun overlaid on a map of Missouri with Cassville highlighted.
Now that's gripping television!
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