Missouri Press Association's website shows a newly-posted advertisement for a reporter for The Carthage Press.
According to the advertisement, The Press is looking for someone "to write stories on city issues, local crime and various general topics of interest. Seasoned veterans and talented young reporters fresh out of college all welcome to apply."
Saturday, May 20, 2006
Weekly Standard editor praised governor
Fred Barnes, editor of The Weekly Standard and Fox News contributor praises Missouri Governor Matt Blunt in a recent column.
Interestingly, four people are quoted in the column. One is a General Motors Executive, one is an unnamed lobbyist and the other two are also registered lobbyists in the state, though neither is described as such.
Interestingly, four people are quoted in the column. One is a General Motors Executive, one is an unnamed lobbyist and the other two are also registered lobbyists in the state, though neither is described as such.
Nixon asks governor to veto campaign finance bill
Attorney General Jay Nixon is asking Governor Matt Blunt to veto the so-called campaign finance reform bill passed by the Missouri General Assembly earlier this month.
It would be a shock if the governor were to follow that advice, not only because Nixon is an opponent, but having unlimited campaign contributions is something that Blunt would prefer.
I get so tired of supporters of this bill claiming that by getting rid of the money laundering through district committees and requiring complete disclosure we are somehow cleansing the system.
Instead, we are assuring the perpetuation of a system in which not only do incumbents have an unfair advantage, but good candidates in both parties do not run because they have to indulge in the kind of prostitution that this system requires.
It would be a shock if the governor were to follow that advice, not only because Nixon is an opponent, but having unlimited campaign contributions is something that Blunt would prefer.
I get so tired of supporters of this bill claiming that by getting rid of the money laundering through district committees and requiring complete disclosure we are somehow cleansing the system.
Instead, we are assuring the perpetuation of a system in which not only do incumbents have an unfair advantage, but good candidates in both parties do not run because they have to indulge in the kind of prostitution that this system requires.
Paid obituaries: the shame of newspapers
It's not often that I read a column that expresses my exact thoughts about a subject, but that happened this morning with a column posted on the Columbia Journalism Review website.
The author talks about being charged $404 (and that was after he trimmed it somewhat) to have his mother's obituary placed in the Kansas City Star. The columnist claims that newspapers' disconnect with readers may have started the day someone figured out they could add an extra revenue stream by charging for obituaries.
He hit the nail right on the head.
As I recall, the Joplin Globe was the first newspaper in this area to charge for obituaries and there was an immediate backlash against the practice. It didn't matter. It was a corporate decision and no one in Joplin had any say about it anyway.
Now everyone gets a brief two or three line description that says nothing in the Globe's "Deaths" section, but you have to pay through the nose for anything else.
If your family has the money or the inclination to give in to these vultures who hover over the deceased's loved ones seeking to make profit from their grief, your life means something. If not, you pass from life as quietly as you entered it.
It may have helped the paper's bottom line, but don't tell me that the resentment has subsided; it hasn't, and that may have served to pare the newspaper's circulation in the long run; there is no way of telling since no surveys have ever been done on the topic, but I have heard anecdotal evidence that supports that theory.
Once one newspaper chain found extra dollars from those no longer able to object, it was not long before all of the others joined in. It is hard to find newspapers that remember a basic fact: Not only are obituaries news, but that section of the newspaper is one that has an extremely high readership.
I have written many times on this blog about the treatment of the dead by newspapers. Most of the time I have been referring to people who are prominent or who have been prominent in the community, or people who have been connected to some major news event. Area newspapers have done a much better job in recent months in that regard.
Each life, however, has touched others and the idea that someone's life has no meaning because his family does not have money or because the survivors do not want to give in to extortion goes against every value that community newspapers should represent, and at one time did.
The author talks about being charged $404 (and that was after he trimmed it somewhat) to have his mother's obituary placed in the Kansas City Star. The columnist claims that newspapers' disconnect with readers may have started the day someone figured out they could add an extra revenue stream by charging for obituaries.
He hit the nail right on the head.
As I recall, the Joplin Globe was the first newspaper in this area to charge for obituaries and there was an immediate backlash against the practice. It didn't matter. It was a corporate decision and no one in Joplin had any say about it anyway.
Now everyone gets a brief two or three line description that says nothing in the Globe's "Deaths" section, but you have to pay through the nose for anything else.
If your family has the money or the inclination to give in to these vultures who hover over the deceased's loved ones seeking to make profit from their grief, your life means something. If not, you pass from life as quietly as you entered it.
It may have helped the paper's bottom line, but don't tell me that the resentment has subsided; it hasn't, and that may have served to pare the newspaper's circulation in the long run; there is no way of telling since no surveys have ever been done on the topic, but I have heard anecdotal evidence that supports that theory.
Once one newspaper chain found extra dollars from those no longer able to object, it was not long before all of the others joined in. It is hard to find newspapers that remember a basic fact: Not only are obituaries news, but that section of the newspaper is one that has an extremely high readership.
I have written many times on this blog about the treatment of the dead by newspapers. Most of the time I have been referring to people who are prominent or who have been prominent in the community, or people who have been connected to some major news event. Area newspapers have done a much better job in recent months in that regard.
Each life, however, has touched others and the idea that someone's life has no meaning because his family does not have money or because the survivors do not want to give in to extortion goes against every value that community newspapers should represent, and at one time did.
Friday, May 19, 2006
White supremacist asks for immediate ruling
Noting "time is running out," avowed white supremacist Frazier Glenn Miller is asking a federal court to rule on his request that he placed on the Democratic ballot for the Seventh District Congressional seat for the August primary.
In documents filed Thursday in U. S. District Court for the Western District of Missouri, Miller said, "The Missouri primary elections are held on Aug. 8, 2006, less than three months away. With all due respect to the defendant (Secretary of State Robin Carnahan), I honestly believe she's stalling in order to ensure ballots will be printed prior to a ruling by this court in this matter, thus denying me equal opportunity to that of other candidates whose names have been accepted by (her) for ballot inclusion."
Miller noted he has paid the $100 filing fee, and asks the secretary of state to show the law which backs up her claim that "officially established political parties have a right to reject applicants who may seek to exploit a party's structure to promote their own personal political agendas."
Miller, who was also turned away by the Republican and Libertarian parties, is asking the judge to make a decision by June 10.
In documents filed Thursday in U. S. District Court for the Western District of Missouri, Miller said, "The Missouri primary elections are held on Aug. 8, 2006, less than three months away. With all due respect to the defendant (Secretary of State Robin Carnahan), I honestly believe she's stalling in order to ensure ballots will be printed prior to a ruling by this court in this matter, thus denying me equal opportunity to that of other candidates whose names have been accepted by (her) for ballot inclusion."
Miller noted he has paid the $100 filing fee, and asks the secretary of state to show the law which backs up her claim that "officially established political parties have a right to reject applicants who may seek to exploit a party's structure to promote their own personal political agendas."
Miller, who was also turned away by the Republican and Libertarian parties, is asking the judge to make a decision by June 10.
Empire District Electric's credit rating downgraded
Rising power costs have caused Standard & Poor to downgrade Joplin-based Empire District Electric Company's credit rating according to a Business Wire article.
Former Joplin police officer retires
Former Joplin police officer Ed Dennis is retiring from a police chief post at West Dundee, Ill. His career is profiled in an article from Suburban Chicago News.
Civil suit delayed as Cox investigation continues
A federal court ruled Thursday that all actions in a civil lawsuit against CoxHealth in Springfield must come to a halt until a Medicare fraud investigation is completed.
The lawsuit, first revealed in the June 8, 2005, Turner Report, was filed by two former workers who claim they were wrongfully dismissed because they cooperated with the federal officials who were conducting the investigation.
The lawsuit, first revealed in the June 8, 2005, Turner Report, was filed by two former workers who claim they were wrongfully dismissed because they cooperated with the federal officials who were conducting the investigation.
Tuesday, May 16, 2006
Business Journal jumps into fee office investigation
Lobbyist and former state representative Jewell Patek, whose connections with Governor Matt Blunt are no secret, allegedly contacted a St. Louis-area fee office manager with an offer to have a management company take over the operation, according to an article in this week's Springfield Business Journal.
These third-party management companies are allegedly the target of an FBI investigation into the operation of the license fee offices since the Blunt administration took office in 2005.
Post-Dispatch editorial rips GOP bills
The two supposed reform bills passed by the Republican-dominated Missouri legislature last week, the voter identification bill and the so-called campaign finance reform bill, are ripped to shreds in an editorial in today's St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
"Perhaps the two worst bills the legislators passed this year had to do with keeping themselves and their cronies in power. The first is the Voter ID Bill. Beginning in November, it will require all voters to present a government-issued photo ID before they can receive a ballot. This will effectively disenfranchise some 190,000 Missourians of voting age who don't have drivers' licenses. Not coincidentally, most of them are poor, elderly or handicapped, groups most likely to be upset with Republican policies, particularly cuts to Medicaid and other social programs.
"The second self-dealing bill came packaged as campaign 'reform.' It is reform in the sense that burning down your house is a way to reform a leaky roof. A loophole in state law allows donors to bypass limits on how much can be contributed to state candidates by giving money to party committees. Instead of closing the loophole, the Legislature abolished the limits.
"The fig leaf over this money-grab is the claim of 'transparency.' The bill's backers say it will be easier to link each candidate to the appropriate fat cats through campaign finance reports. This isn't a good trade-off; few Missourians read campaign finance reports. But everyone with a TV set sees the campaign ads that donations buy. They might as well have hung a For Sale sign on the state Capitol."
While I am not as gung ho against the voter identification bill as the Post-Dispatch (though I do believe it is unnecessary), the campaign finance bill, as the editorial pointed out, is a joke. If the money laundering both parties have been doing through legislative committees was obscuring who was donating money to whom, then would it not have been simpler to close the loopholes. Missourians made it clear 12 years ago that we wanted campaign finance limits. Fortunately for us, we have legislators who understand that their constituents don't know what they're talking about and can't be trusted to make any decisions.
"Perhaps the two worst bills the legislators passed this year had to do with keeping themselves and their cronies in power. The first is the Voter ID Bill. Beginning in November, it will require all voters to present a government-issued photo ID before they can receive a ballot. This will effectively disenfranchise some 190,000 Missourians of voting age who don't have drivers' licenses. Not coincidentally, most of them are poor, elderly or handicapped, groups most likely to be upset with Republican policies, particularly cuts to Medicaid and other social programs.
"The second self-dealing bill came packaged as campaign 'reform.' It is reform in the sense that burning down your house is a way to reform a leaky roof. A loophole in state law allows donors to bypass limits on how much can be contributed to state candidates by giving money to party committees. Instead of closing the loophole, the Legislature abolished the limits.
"The fig leaf over this money-grab is the claim of 'transparency.' The bill's backers say it will be easier to link each candidate to the appropriate fat cats through campaign finance reports. This isn't a good trade-off; few Missourians read campaign finance reports. But everyone with a TV set sees the campaign ads that donations buy. They might as well have hung a For Sale sign on the state Capitol."
While I am not as gung ho against the voter identification bill as the Post-Dispatch (though I do believe it is unnecessary), the campaign finance bill, as the editorial pointed out, is a joke. If the money laundering both parties have been doing through legislative committees was obscuring who was donating money to whom, then would it not have been simpler to close the loopholes. Missourians made it clear 12 years ago that we wanted campaign finance limits. Fortunately for us, we have legislators who understand that their constituents don't know what they're talking about and can't be trusted to make any decisions.
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