It is no secret that I am not a John Ashcroft fan, so the news that the attorney general will be leaving the Bush Administration met with my approval.
Having interviewed numerous politicians over the years, the ones that always made me suspicious of their motives were the ones who could not answer a straight question. No matter what question they were asked, these politicians would find some way to bring it back to whatever their talking point was for the day...even if the question had nothing whatsoever to do with that talking point.
In my book, John Ashcroft was the worst offender. During the times I interviewed him when he was serving in the U. S. Senate, I found these sessions to be largely a waste of time. Sometimes, if it were an election season, he would drop by The Carthage Press or Lamar Democrat office for a brief sitdown interview. Other times, I would get a few questions with him at some political function or after a parade or some other event. My time would have been better spent just having one of his aides drop off a campaign flyer. I would have received the same information in just one dose instead of having it repeated over and over to whatever question I asked.
Vice President Dick Cheney was pretty much the same way, though during my only encounter with him, he was just a former Secretary of Defense considering a run for the presidency. I could also place former Missouri Attorney General Bill Webster in that category. In fact, I would say I could get twice as much information from John Ashcroft than I could from Bill Webster.
Another one I would add to the list would be Missouri Governor Bob Holden, who was state treasurer when I interviewed him.
Thankfully, not all politicians believe they have to studiously avoid answering serious questions, even if it leads them away from their talking points.
At the top of the list of cooperative interview subjects I would put Ashcroft's long-time fellow U. S. Senator Kit Bond. Senator Bond always made every effort to answer any question I asked him. Rep. Ike Skelton is right up there with him and I never had any problems with Seventh District Congressman Roy Blunt, or any of the local state representatives such as Mark Elliott, Steve Hunter, Jerry Burch or Bubs Hohulin. Even though there were times when these gentlemen were not particularly happy with articles and columns I had written, but they always took my calls and honestly answered my questions.
I would put the late Governor Mel Carnahan somewhere in between. He always answered my questions honestly in the two or three times I interviewed him, but he sure never volunteered any information.
***
As interesting as my dealings with these elected national and state officials were, probably my most challenging run-ins with elected officials came on the local level. For the most part, city and county officials were easy to deal with, even on those occasions when I had to write something which didn't sit well with them.
One such occasion occurred in 1987, if memory serves, when Lamar contractor Steven Standley sued the Barton County Commission for not considering him for any bridge projects. During the course of the investigation, I was shown documents which indicated that Standley had fixed the wrong bridge. Well, I put that information in my article, but I also noted that the Commission had paid him $300 of taxpayer money for fixing the wrong bridge. The lawsuit was later dismissed, but what I remember most about that story was that both sides appeared to be satisfied with the way in which the stories were written. That doesn't happen often.
***
That wasn't quite the way it worked out when I was covering the Lockwood R-1 Board of Education in 1994 during a time in which Superintendent Jo Ann Berlekamp had come under siege. Her reign was so unpopular that the Community Teachers Association in Lockwood surveyed its membership and found that all except one thought she should be removed...and that one abstained from the voting.
I attended a board meeting, which was held in the library since there were too many people to fit into the superintendent's office. The open portion of the meeting lasted until about 11 p.m., then the meeting went into closed session. What the board didn't know was that the walls were paper thin and teachers (and this reporter) were leaning against the walls picking up every word of the discussion. Much of it went into the next day's Press. We ended up leaving that meeting at 3:30 a.m.
***
I had one other instance in which I extensively quoted from what an elected official said in a closed meeting. It happened at a Jasper City Council meeting during the era in which Fred Youngblood was mayor.
During a closed session, the mayor was loudly berating people and I liberally quoted from what he was saying. At the next council meeting, the mayor approached me and said, "Randy, I could sue you for writing about what goes on during a closed meeting.
I didn't get a chance to respond. City Attorney Tom Klinginsmith was standing right by the mayor and said, "No, you can't, Fred. You need to keep your voice down during those meetings."
That was the last I heard about a lawsuit.

The Neosho R-5 Board of Education's search for a new superintendent got off on the wrong foot last week by deciding in an illegal closed session to set up a community selection committee.
A careful examination of 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.
It is ironic that the board decided to open up the process during a meeting that should have been open to the public.
Also interesting was the statement of current superintendent Mark Mitchell, who is resigning at the end of the current school year. "The board wants interested members of the community to serve on this committee," Mitchell was quoted as saying in The Neosho Daily News. I should hope so. It wouldn't make much sense to try to choose a superintendent with a group of people who are not interested.
Hopefully, the board will follow the law during the remainder of its superintendent search. In this day and age, there is absolutely no excuse for school board members, city council members, or any other elected official not to know what the law is. And if you are going to err, err on the side of the right of the people to know.
The Open Meetings Law does not say you have to hold closed sessions to discuss any of the permitted exceptions. All it says that the board has the option of doing so. Unfortunately, most elected officials I have run into seem to be of the belief that what the public does not know, won't hurt it.
***
Sad childhood memories came rushing back to me Friday night at Northpark Mall. As I was talking to some current students of mine from South and some former students in my classes at Diamond, a painfully out-of-shape gentleman (using the term loosely) streaked through the mall. It appeared that all he had on was a thong, though I couldn't bring myself to actually take a good look without a lifetime supply of Pepto-Bismol.
Anyone who is nostalgic for the '70s should reconsider. Bystanders said he took a right to enter the food court and then took a right to exit the building. I don't know whether Mall Security caught up with the guy, but this obviously proves that two rights don't make a thong.

A drunk driving case from Jasper County has made it all the way to the Missouri Supreme Court.
Chad Madorie, 31, Springfield, will try to have his three-year conviction for drunk driving as a persistent offender tossed out by the high court when it hears the case Wednesday, Dec. 15. The appeal is being made by Jasper County officials since the Southern District Court of Appeals backed Madorie and sent the case back here.
According to the Southern District Court decision, Officer James Kelly of the Joplin Police Department was sent to an accident scene around 1 a.m. on Sept. 8, 2000. Kelly saw a 1994 Mazda Protege in the ditch, facing the road with its nose "kind of pointing straight up.'
Another officer was already there, talking to Kevin Dunn, who allegedly was a passenger in the car. Kelly saw Madorie standing off to the side and noticed that he was not steady of his feet and was "stumbling from time to time." Madorie told Kelly he had been driving north on Main when he saw his friend, Dunn, and tried to stop to give him a ride but ran into the ditch while doing so. Madorie said he had been drinking "a little bit" earlier.
Kelly gave Madorie three sobriety tests, all of which Madorie failed. When they reached the police station, Kelly read Madorie his Miranda rights and the implied consent law and Madorie consented to a breathalyzer test.
After the breathalyzer had been administered, Madorie told Kelly he knew he was drunk and knew he had been driving but Kelly hadn't seen the keys in the ignition so he knew he would get out of it with the help of a lawyer.
A Jasper County jury found Madorie guilty after deliberating for 14 minutes on May 13, 2003. He was sentenced to three years in prison.
Madorie, whose appeal is being funded by the taxpayers since he successfully appealed to the courts to file as a pauper, says his statements should not have been admitted since there was no evidence that any crime had been committed. No one had seen him behind the wheel, no one had seen him driving drunk, and Dunn, who was also at the scene was sober and could just as easily have been driving.
The Southern District Court of Appeals decision says, "He maintains there was insufficient evidence to find him guilty beyond a reasonable doubt of driving while intoxicated. We agree."
The judges noted that the officers never asked Dunn if he had driven the car. After the officers determined that it was Madorie's car and that he had been drinking, the investigation had totally focused on Madorie.
"There was no evidence that Officer Kelly asked Dunn if he was intoxicated or whether he had been driving the vehicle." The court said, however, that its ruling did not preclude a retrial. "Had the trial court properly ruled that (Madorie's) statements were inadmissible given the lack of independent evidence, the state might have elected to present additional testimony from Dunn or the other officer who responded to the scene to provide additional evidence." The judge at Madorie's trial was David Dally.
The case was sent back to Jasper County for a new trial.
In the appeal, Attorney General Jay Nixon, representing the state, insisted that state officials did prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Madorie had been driving while intoxicated. "(His) vehicle was in a ditch, with the nose of his car pointing up. (He) was standing beside his car when Officer Kelly arrived on the scene. (Madorie) was unstable, swayed as he walked and stumbled. (He) had a strong odor of alcohol on his breath. (His) eyes were watery and bloodshot. (He) failed several field sobriety tests. The evidence corroborated his statements that he was driving while intoxicated and provided sufficient proof of the corpus delicti."
The appeal continues, "The fact that the appellant was discovered at the accident scene, near the car registered in his name, corroborates (Madorie's) admission that he was driving the car.
"Second, the fact that the officer had been called to an accident scene and the fact that the vehicle was discovered stuck in a ditch, facing the roadway, near a college campus, with its nose pointing up into the air- obviously not a position where people would park their car- corroborates (Madorie's) admission that he had been drinking and that he had driven the car into the ditch."
Madorie is asking that he be given a new trial and that the statements he made after he took the breathalyzer test be thrown out.
***
One of the best things about reading The Neosho Daily News in recent years has been the contributions of Kay Hively. I read with interest her column last week in which she addressed Neosho Forums' revelation that Newton County Sheriff Ron Doerge is being investigated by the Missouri Ethics Commission.
"In most cases," she wrote, "websites and bloggers seem somewhat free of any responsibility toward the truth. They are, in a way, much like a group of people who gather around the water cooler at work and everyone can say what they want or what they feel. Unlike more traditional outlets such as a newspaper, radio or television which must meet certain legal and ethical standards. There are some very interesting websites and very capable bloggers, but there are many more that are not worth much. Many bloggers use their websites to strut and preen or promote themselves. Others are truly interested in presenting interesting and useful information."
I have no doubts of Mrs. Hively's sincerity. She absolutely deserves her reputation as a fair and honest journalist. I also have no doubt that her words were not directed at this website since I am one of those who established credentials through the "traditional" media. I also agree that journalists have certain legal and ethical standards, though I note just as many of those standards are being violated by the traditional media these days as by anyone practicing any of the new varieties.
"But being affiliated with a newspaper," Mrs. Hively continues, "I cannot tell you how many times a rumor or some piece of gossip has been passed along to me. I cannot write this information in the newspaper even though I may feel or even 'know' it to be true. In fact, there are many times when I hear a rumor that I already know and, in fact, know even more details than I am given,. But, until there is some 'official' documented evidence, it stays just a rumor in my head."
She continues by saying that newspapers and other traditional media outlets don't like being scooped, but it is going to happen more and more in these days of websites and bloggers. She does say that she likes the "free flow of information' and finds it "interesting."
I don't know the genesis of Mrs. Hively's column, but it is a column that could just as easily have been written by Neosho Daily News Editor Buzz Ball or someone with The Joplin Globe, The Carthage Press, the Lamar Democrat, or any other traditional newspaper in this area and perhaps across the United States.
This argument is not just one used by traditional media outlets against bloggers and website operators. I can remember hearing the same words when I was at The Carthage Press. One of my first big stories at The Press was uncovering an incredible amount of wrongdoing in the Webb City Police Department. Between October 1990 and August 1992, I ran a series of stories detailing everything from police brutality to illegal surveillance, to the illegal purchase of machine guns for recreational purposes. Everything I ran was carefully sourced, but I remember the Joplin Globe reporter continually saying, "There's no proof of that," or "my editor wouldn't let me get away with printing some of that stuff."
In late 1992, four fired police officers brought a lawsuit against Webb City officials asking to be reinstated. During the course of that two-day trial, every allegation I wrote about was sworn to under oath and documented. But why should the public have to wait two years to find out the people who are there to serve them are not doing so?
The same thing happened in 1994 when eight employees of Barton County Memorial Hospital filed a sexual harassment lawsuit against Hospital Administrator Dewey Smith. The Globe was not interested. It was not the kind of thing the Lamar Democrat wanted to touch (pardon the phrasing), so I was on my own. I printed the information about the lawsuit, then continued to track down information about Smith's long record of sexual harassment during his time at hospitals in Ottawa, Kan., Aurora, Mo., and other places. Even though I was able to uncover some affidavits, most of my information came from people who were willing to go on the record to tell what Smith had done to them. The more information I ran, the more people who were willing to come forward.
Eventually, the Barton County Memorial Hospital Board of Trustees asked for Smith's resignation and settled with the employees for $369,000, none of which would have been possible if I had followed the lead of the other "traditional" media outlets. The Lamar Democrat barely wrote about the issue and Democrat bigwigs were heard around the city of Lamar saying I was just causing trouble for the city. If so, maybe more people need to be out there causing trouble.
Part of the problem with the traditional media outlets, is that they are either not willing to dig or don't know how to go about it. When I first became managing editor at Carthage, I had a staff that completely consisted of University of Missouri School of Journalism graduates. They were excellent reporters, from what I gathered, not one of them had ever taken a course in how to use documents for research purposes. One of them, Amy Lamb Campbell, had learned to do so when she was in high school, working for me at The Lamar Democrat. The others had to learn on the job at Carthage.
And, as everyone who reads The Turner Report knows, I never went to journalism school. I am a graduate of the Missouri Southern State College School of Education. I learned how to research while on the job.
Young reporters today are not given the essentials. They are told to get both sides and don't know what to do when someone won't talk or doesn't tell them the truth. They either don't know how to keep contacting one person after another until you find what you are looking for (or find out there is nothing to whatever the story is that you are working on) or they are not given the time to do any digging whatsoever because they are being kept too busy writing articles for the never-ending special sections and niche fluff magazines that small newspapers have in abundance
Small newspapers have the money to provide training for these young people and owe it to them to do so. They also owe it to their communities. If someone had conducted a thorough investigation of Ron Doerge years ago, the situation may never have reached the point where the administrator of Neosho Forums felt the necessity of putting himself on the line to get the information out to at least a segment of the public.
If someone had investigated the allegations against members of the Newton County Commission several years ago instead of waiting for the Missouri State Auditor's office to do the heavy lifting, a considerable amount of taxpayer money might have been saved.
It is not always possible to come up with the story, but the effort must be made. That is the obligation the traditional media outlets have to the public.
If everyone who worked at the local newspapers had the writing ability and knowledge of Kay Hively, we would no doubt have better, much more readable newspapers. Unfortunately, that is not the case and until these traditional media outlets invest more time and money into hiring and training young reporters and paying them what they are worth, and more time and money into public service investigative journalism, then they should not be surprised when other outlets step up to take up the slack.

Child molester Martin Anthony Eck will be behind bars for 20 years, according to this morning's Joplin Globe.
Eck pleaded guilty to two counts of statutory sodomy in connection with incidents involving a 12-year-old girl. The Globe also 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.
What the Globe's story did not mention, is that even though Eck will remain behind bars, he is nowhere near done causing problems. In August, The Turner Report detailed how he was suing Jasper County Sheriff Archie Dunn and the Jasper County Commission among others because of the poor dental care he has received while in custody here.
Here was what was written on this site at that time:
"In a case that might be deemed laughable if it weren't so pathetic, a Jasper County Jail inmate awaiting trial on child molestation charges is suing Sheriff Archie Dunn for denying him dental care. According to the petition, which was filed Thursday in the U. S. District Court for the Western District of Missouri, Martin Anthony Eck, 41, Joplin, is asking for $100 million. Those must be some teeth he has.
"Eck has been in jail in lieu of $25,000 bond since he was arrested in April. According to Jasper County court records, he is charged with four felony counts: two counts of statutory sodomy in the first degree and two counts of child molestation in the first degree. His bond was initially set at $100,000, but was reduced.
"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.' "
According to records for the U. S. District Court for the Western District of Missouri, Eck's lawsuit is ongoing. He 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.

Budget reasons were claimed by Diamond R-4 Superintendent Mark Mayo when Middle School Principal Denise Mounts was fired last spring.
Apparently, those budget problems must have been resolved. According to the preliminary school district report card filed Oct. 26 with the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, the district spent $48,200 for the middle school administrator's salary last year...and is spending $48,200 for the middle school administrator's salary this year.
That was just one of many interesting items included in the annual report.
Among others:
-Even though the school district is considering putting in drug testing, there apparently is no problem with drugs at the school, according to the report. Only one incident involving drugs was reported this year, no incidents involving alcohol, none involving tobacco, no acts of violence and no weapons on campus. No students have been given in-school suspension, of course, since that program was a victim of budget cuts, and two have received out-of-school suspensions, according to the report.
-School officials made sure the district's teachers had regular certificates when Missouri School Improvement Program inspectors were in Diamond three years ago. That 100 percent figure has dwindled to 97.2 teachers with regular certificates, according to the report. The percentage of "highly qualified" teachers in the classroom has dropped from 97.2 to 95.5.
-Surprisingly, school officials have not trumpeted the fact that 100 percent of students passed the social studies MAP tests last year, according to the report submitted by school officials. Or maybe not so surprisingly since students did not take the social studies MAP tests last year.
-A number of experienced teachers have either left the district voluntarily or been forced out. The average teacher in 2002 had been in the district 13 years. That number dropped to 10.4 years this year, the report said.
-The average teacher's salary in Diamond has dropped from $28,594 to $26,641, while the average administrator's salary increased from $50,810 to $54,496. Much of that, of course, is in the approximately $70,000 paid to Superintendent Mark Mayo.
***
As hard as it is for me to believe, Nicole Lehman of Lamar will be a senior at Southwest Missouri State University this year. If you didn't get to see it, she was featured Sunday in an article in the Springfield News-Leader.
Nicole, who was an all-state selection during her years playing for Coach Richard Marti's Lamar Tigers, is counted on to be a leader for this year's Lady Bears squad.
***
The Joplin Globe is looking for a new reporter, according to an industry website.
"This is a job that requires enthusiasm, professionalism and the ability to provide readers with compelling daily coverage of the news that most affects their lives," according to the ad. "If you have those qualities and the desire to work as a news reporter for an award-winning Southwest Missouri newspaper...' well, you get the picture. It says for applicants to get in touch with Carol Stark.
***

The news was buried deep in its filing to the SEC, the way those Fortune 500 companies generally do it.
Leggett & Platt, which has its headquarters in Carthage, is looking to ship more and more of its production overseas.
In a filing today with the federal Securities and Exchange Commission, Leggett officials said, "In a recent and continuing trend, some of our customers have been moving a portion of their production from the U. S. to other countries. In order to remain a reliable and cost competitive supplier, we have and we expect to continue to establish operations in new regions of the world.
"Generally, we can produce components at a lower cost in the U. S. However, transportation and other logistical benefits of being in-country with our customers often more than offset the production cost differences." In other words, Leggett has to move a portion of its production overseas because everyone else is doing it.
The report continues, "Currently, the largest international influence on our business is China. As of September 30, 2004, Leggett operated eight Chinese facilities. In addition to our own facilities in China, we have strong relationships with many Asian suppliers."
Company officials gave every indication that Leggett's international expansion will continue. What they did not say, but hinted at, is that the expansion could come at a cost to workers in this country.
***
O'Sullivan Industries' move to its new corporate headquarters in Atlanta should be completed sometime this month, according to documents filed today with the federal Securities and Exchange Commission.
The company's first million-dollar CEO, Bob Parker, outlined his plans in the filing.
"Our new management team is excited about the future," Parker said. "We believe our strategic efforts will begin to show a slight improvement in results by the end of fiscal 2005. However, we anticipate the second quarter will be a challenge. While sales will be flat to slightly down in comparison to the prior year second quarter, our earnings will be challenged by several factors including:
"A reduction in gross margin from unabsorbed manufacturing overhead due to lowering planned production levels." That doesn't sound like good news to Lamar people who would like to have steady work.
Parker continued, "Most of this inventory correction will be completed in the second quarter and when completed will allow us to efficiently balance production and sales levels going forward."
O'Sullivan's earnings will also be hurt by the high price of particleboard and an increase of "promotionally-priced lower margin units," Parker said.
Parker tried to lower expectations for the company by saying, "Through our new strategic planning process, we have identified numerous areas requiring improvement at O'Sullivan. However, these fundamental changes will take time to implement. Looking to the future, we feel our strategic initiatives are in the process of building a new and stronger foundation at O'Sullivan that we think will provide improved and sustainable long-term results."
Parker said the company has completed a "comprehensive strategic planning process that has resulted in a strategy that will guide O'Sullivan for the next several years." The plan is a "dynamic" one, he added, but if it doesn't work, apparently he and the other new top officials will try something else since he indicated the plan will be "updated periodically as our organization evolves."
The company, which recently shed itself of many of the officials who helped put it on the map will "continue to evaluate our organizational capabilities and recruit new talent to O'Sullivan. These new employees, along with our existing associates, will facilitate our efforts to transform O'Sullivan into a consumer-oriented, results-driven organization," Parker said.
The report said net sales for the first quarter of 2005 were $62.7 million, a decrease of 12.3 percent from the first quarter of 2004. Operating income was $245,000, down from $3.8 million last year.
Company officials blamed the losses on the following reasons:
-"Lower sales levels
-"A reduction in gross margin due to unabsorbed manufacturing overhead." They bragged about working on this problem through the use of "aggressively lowered production levels," or sending a bunch of workers home.
The net loss for the first quarter of 2005, just about the first with the multi-million dollar management team in place, stood at $8.6 million, compared to $7.3 million reported in the first quarter of 2004.
As former NBC reporter Linda Ellerbee always said, "And so it goes."
***

I don't remember the entire poem, but John Greenleaf Whittier wrote in the 19th Century about "the power of my right hand," referring to the strength every voter has when he or she casts a ballot.
Those words popped into my mind as I walked into McKinley Elementary this morning to cast my first ballot as a Joplin resident. I am always angered when I hear people talking about how they are not going to vote because their votes don't matter. "I'm just one person. My vote isn't going to make a difference."
It's the fact that you participate that does make a difference.
When you consider that many school board or city council races are decided by less than 10 percent of registered voters, it makes you wonder how our system continues to operate.
The power sometimes goes to the minorities (such as millionaire businessmen) who know how to organize, spread money around, and get the candidates they want in the offices where they want them.
At the same time, I agree with what Andy Rooney said a few weeks ago on "60 Minutes." If people haven't bothered to take at least a few minutes to find out about the candidates and the issues, then they should stay at home. If people make their decisions based on ridiculous 30-second advertisements, then I would prefer they stay at home. Our form of government suffers when the people are not well informed.
Unfortunately, school systems across the United States have come to the conclusion that their sole purpose is to prepare our young people for the work world. That was never the most important reason why our system of public schools was etablished.
The public schools were established so our citizens would be knowledgeable about the way our government works, the history of our country, and be prepared to play their role when the time comes, whether it be as a city council member, a school board member, an elected state or federal representative, or simply exercising that most powerful of roles in a democratic society...that of the educated voter.

The Carthage Press website reports that the Press will be closed Wednesday as it completes its move to its new location on Central Avenue.
I've already spent a considerable amount of space talking about this move. It's sad that a newspaper that has used its editorial page in years past to promote Carthage downtown and city business interests is moving its headquarters to the land of the fast food restaurants.
The reason given- quite simply, the Press operation is no longer large enough to merit operating out of a three-story building. The printing press was shut down and sold for parts so the Press could be printed at Neosho. The composing room was shut down (though as far as I know, none of the workers were sold for parts) and that is now also being done at Neosho. The area where workers once placed inserts into The Press is no longer necessary since that job is being done at Neosho. You get the picture.
During the same time in which its editorial page has continued to extoll the virtues of home shopping and the home economy, the Press employees (what remains of them) have had to watch as nearly every aspect of their business has been outsourced to Neosho, where the regional manager for Liberty Group Publishing, Neosho Daily News Publisher Randy Cope, has his home and office.
As a person who spent nearly 10 years as a reporter and editor at The Press, I remember vividly how important its location was to my work. I was only a couple of blocks from the square, City Hall, the courthouse, the Chamber of Commerce office, and the police station. The Sheriff's Department was only a little further away. The high school and the superintendent's office were even closer.
When I walked to and from these locations, it gave The Press more visibility and reinforced its image as part of the community, something this recent move will no doubt damage. With this change of location, The Carthage Press, thanks to Liberty Group Publishing, has completed its move away from being a vital part of the community. I am sure we will see more efforts by the Press officials (the ones who are based in Carthage) to be included in the fabric of Carthage. I wish the people success, though I don't know very many of them any more.
It's a sad day for community journalism.
***
My first Halloween in Joplin was an interesting one. I wasn't sure which night the kids would trick or treat and I forgot about it until late Saturday afternoon, so I turned off the lights and worked on my computer in the dark Saturday. It didn't matter. As far as I could tell, the kids were not coming to the apartment complex where I live.
On Sunday, I visited my parents in Newtonia and I didn't get back to Joplin until about 8 p.m. so I figured I was safe from trick-or-treaters.
I was wrong.
The knock came on my door shortly after 8:30. Five people were standing there, four of them with their bags filled with candy, expecting more. I felt bad, telling them I didn't have any. I told them and then waited for that inevitable retribution...the trick.
Instead, the kids began reaching into their bags and gave me candy. I didn't quite know what to say. Of course, two of the kids were in my eighth grade English classes at South. Another one, the one without the bag, was in my class last year. The other two were smaller.
I almost went to the refrigerator to get them some cole slaw and potato salad. (Just kidding.)
Please don't tell me about the evils of the younger generation. I see evidence to the contrary nearly every day.

Three little points.
Those three points were all that stood between the Diamond High School volleyball team and the 1994 Class 2A District championship. Coach Bill Presley's Wildcats were the top seed in the district tournament at East Newton High School and received a first-round bye. In the semi-final round, the Wildcats played unheralded Marionville. After splitting the first two games, Diamond took a 12-7 lead in game three. The 12th point came on a sight Wildcat fans had grown accustomed to that season...a pinpoint LeAnn Hottel set and a soaring Kelli Dorsey spike.
Three more points and the team that everyone expected to go to state would be well on its way.
The three points never came. Marionville scored the final eight points and Diamond's dreams...maybe even expectations... of a state volleyball championship came to an end.
Diamond had a good team, a championship-caliber team, even before Kelli Dorsey transferred to Diamond from Webb City for her senior year, but she was the final piece, a near six-footer with magnificent athletic ability and strong leadership skills. With Kelli on the team, Diamond breezed through its regular season and appeared unstoppable.
I remember watching Kelli Dorsey that night in October 1994. I had seen that anguished look on her face a few months earlier when her Webb City High School basketball team was beaten in the district championship game at Aurora on a fluke shot by Monett with six seconds left. I can still picture her standing in the middle of the court, looking toward the ceiling.
Kelli had one more opportunity for a high school championship. Basketball would begin the next week and maybe she would finally claim the gold. And there were college scouts salivating to add Kelli to their teams.
While Kelli was adjusting to the premature end of a special volleyball season, the Sarcoxie volleyball team beat host East Newton in the other semi-final, then beat Marionville for the championship. Many of those Sarcoxie players were friends of Kelli's. She was happy for them, but she still wished that it was her who was going to be heading for state.
The following weekend, Coach Dennis Drumm's Sarcoxie squad won two more matches to reach the Final Four. A special sendoff was planned for the team the following Thursday. A pep rally was held in the school gymnasium and the team received a police escort out of the city.
But it was a strangely subdued pep rally. Early that morning, the word had spread like wildfire around Sarcoxie High School. Kelli Dorsey had died the night before in a car accident, just 11 days short of her 18th birthday.
The atmosphere was even more subdued at Diamond High School and Webb City High School.
I talked with Tim Doss, her Webb City basketball coach the day after Kelli's death. "She was a great kid to be around," he said. "She had a lot of athletic ability and she always did what you asked her to do. She had a lot of things going for her. She was always a joy to be around. This is just a sad thing to have happen."
Tomorrow (Nov. 2) will mark 10 years since Kelli Dorsey's death. I was lucky enough to have had the opportunity to interview her a number of times, both at Webb City and at Diamond. I can also remember a few times after Webb City basketball games, I would talk to Coach Doss and his assistant, Elaine Shewmake, then head to McDonald's for a Coke. Usually Kelli was already there with some teammates. She would always wave me over, whether the team had won or lost and start telling me about the things she didn't do right. She wasn't berating herself. She would always tell me exactly what she was going to do the next time to get things right. Her teammates thought it was funny because she had nearly always outplayed most of the players on the court. She was always looking to improve herself.
I wonder what Kelli would be doing today if not for that untimely accident. Whatever it is, I know she would have been successful. She would never have settled for anything less.
***

I had some time today to re-examine the media coverage of the Ron Doerge investigation and I am still perplexed about the initial article in The Neosho Daily News.
The lead of the story made it appear as if some mysterious, malevolent force was trying to create a problem in Newton County. "Someone identified only as 'administrator' has posted a copy of a complaint allegedly filed with the Missouri Ethics Commission on the website www.neoshoforums.com " That was how Michelle Pippin's article began.
The problems with the article are not with Michelle, but with the editing. With an inexperienced staff like the one Buzz Ball has in Neosho (with the exception of John Ford), it is important for the editor to help guide his reporters in the right direction.
Instead, Michelle was left wide open to ridicule with her last paragraph. "Although the identity of the 'administrator" is not revealed on the Neosho Forums website, the Neosho Daily News has learned who this individual is, and he, too, could not be reached by press time."
In the first place, the name of the administrator is very definitely listed on the Neosho Forums site. Even though I am fully aware of the administrator's real name, I decided to see just how long it would take me to find out who he is through some simple research.
First, I checked out the Site News on the Forums site and quickly found his name on an item posted Oct. 8, 17 days before the Daily article ran.
I decided to throw that one out since not everyone is as familiar with how to navigate Neosho Forums as I am. It took only a few seconds on the Google search engine to find a July 21, 2003, "Ozarks Connection' column from the Springfield News-Leader, which featured the administrator's vision for Neosho Forums and similar sites he was setting up across southwest Missouri.
It took less than five minutes to find two sources with his name, which I am not printing because I don't want to make things too easy for the traditional media. The Joplin Globe must not have had any problems since the name was featured in its Tuesday, Oct. 26, edition. Many times hard-working young reporters can work miracles if they are given a little advice, a little encouragement, and pointed in the right direction. In these days of the Internet, e-mail, cell phones, etc., there is no reason why reporters can't come up with the information they need most of the time. But they have to know where to look and sometimes it takes an experienced hand to show them.
I can remember three or fours years ago when I lectured to journalism classes at Missouri Southern about the ways in which the Internet can be used for investigative journalism. Many of them were amazed at what could be found out by surfing the net. There are ways of finding out many things that were not available to reporters only a decade ago.
Unfortunately, many times young reporters are not exposed to that kind of training. It's not their fault. They are doing the best they can. The inability to verify the administrator's name is a minor problem. The stories that aren't being done because reporters don't know where to look for information is a major problem. As long as we have editors and reporters who don't know how to dig or who are not given the time to do so, it is the reading public that will suffer.