Congratulations to Doreen Scanlon

The Sunday Globe featured a small item in the business section noting that KOAM has promoted Doreen Scanlon to the anchor position on the morning news.
The northeast Kansas native has eased smoothly into the position vacated by Sarah Pierik, who took a position with KWCH in Wichita. According to KOAM's bio of Miss Scanlon, she received her bachelor's degree from Boston College and her master's degree from Emerson. She previously worked as a production assistant for Fox News in New York.

KSN gets the beat on foster parent story

It appears KSN had the story on Jasper County Prosecuting Attorney Dean Dankelson's decision not to prosecute foster parents Mark and Treva Gordon for the murder of eight-year-old Braxton Wooden.
KSN led its 6 p.m. newscast Friday with the story and has generally been on top of this sad story from the onset.
Somewhat disappointing was the Joplin Globe, which did not have anything on the story until its Sunday edition, a full two days later

Ruestman explanation seems a bit strange

I am curious about Rep. Marilyn Ruestman's explanation for HB 1461, another of those feel-good bills that surface every election year.
The bill would permit victims of attacks to protect themselves with deadly force if necessary. "It seemed kind of ridiculous to tell a woman to stop and determine if the assault could be deadly," she told Neosho Daily News reporter Wes Franklin. "That's something men don't think about. I mean, for me, a man's hands could be considered deadly force. When you're being attacked, you don't have time to decide if your attacker will kill you or not and you have the right to defend yourself. You have the right to fight force with force."
I am not certain I like the idea of telling people they don't have to think, just shoot, and of course, there are occasions when that may be the only recourse. I am sure HB 1461 will have supporters and detractors.
What bothered me most was Ms. Ruestman's explanation of how this bill came about. "I had several ladies come up and ask me, 'is is true you have to run away if attacked?'"
If that many people are asking Ms. Ruestman that question, I definitely don't like the idea of telling all of them it's o. k. to shoot first and ask questions later. I find it hard to believe that many people have been asking about this."
Maybe there is a crying need for this legislation, but the explanation definitely seems strange.

Quick study offered of newspaper battle

Area viewers received a quick primer Thursday on the changing state of the newspaper world Thursday night as KOAM anchor Dowe Quick explored the viability of newspapers in the age of the Internet.
It was revealing, but not surprising, to see that Joplin Daily editor John Hacker had faith in the future of paper-and-ink newspapers, while Joplin Globe editor Edgar Simpson seemed to indicate that newspapers are going to go the way of the passenger pigeon.
Hacker is an old-fashioned newspaper type who is smart enough to see the value of the newspaper, and who is trying, with some success, to combine that sensibility with today's news consumers' desire for up-to-the-minute news. He has been hampered by a poorly designed website with limited reader interaction and an undermanned news staff. Still, he has one thing going for him- people root for the underdog, especially when they have seen the Globe's arrogance growing over the past decade.
Simpson, on the other hand, does not appear to be comfortable on either the print or the Internet side of the operation. The Globe has continued to follow a philosophy of keep trying everything and hope something sticks. The Globe has increased its Internet content and made it more timely in an effort to combat the Daily, but it is still so protective of the bread-and-butter print edition that it does not give enough content for readers who do not want to wait until the following morning to find out what really happened. This is a big predicament for the Globe.
These are some of the things the Globe has tried over the past several months:
-Posting reader reaction to Internet stories- This was a great move and has helped the Globe to rapidly increase its Internet readership.
-Starting a weekly Joplin-based newspaper to blunt the beginning of the Daily. This has been a miserable failure. Not only does the weekly have no discernible identity, no buzz, and little original in the way of content, but in launching it, Globe Publisher Dan Chiodo let readers know it was being started because there was not enough room in the daily newspaper for Joplin news- not the greatest public relations move.
-Starting a series of blogs. I don't have any way of knowing how much traffic these are receiving, and the effort is laudable, but I haven't seen any of them that have the ability to generate water cooler buzz. I would like to see Carol Stark combine the coping with cancer portion of her blog, which is fascinating and well done, with more insight into her Globe duties. Take the reader into the Globe newsroom. Jeremiah Tucker's blog has limited interest, primarily for younger readers, and how many of them are going to go to the Globe just to read his entries? The Globe intern blog promised to be one that would offer insight into the inner workings of the newspaper. Instead, it has been another daily offering of me, me, me. The intern's column offers an opportunity to examine the inner workings of the newspaper; instead it has been wasted on overpersonalized college commentary. The blogs of the minister and the military wife are fine additions, but again, so far nothing has really stood out.
-Daily e-mail bulletins on important events and previews of the Saturday Globe. I like the previews and I appreciate the bulletins, but some of the items that have been sent out, such as one last week on the arrest of some thieves while they were breaking into a business, marginalize the value of the service.
-The meth series- This was well done and finally, good use was made of Max McCoy's investigative abilities. At the same time, there has been nothing to create buzz during the two weeks since the series ended, except for one of the subjects of the meth series losing her job.
-The Sunday changes. What's the big deal? Now there is a section devoted to Joplin/area news and it has the opinion pages in it. There do not appear to be any significant changes in content. And now there is a real estate section. The Sunday redesign was unveiled like it was the second coming. It appears to be more of a sleight-of-hand effort to throw off the Daily's momentum by making it appear that the Globe is actually improving its local and area news coverage.
***
The Joplin Daily, on the other hand, may be achieving its goals (whatever those may be) but it has not made much inroads in the hard news category or in the opinion category. When your opinion section is jam-packed with the writings of Gary Nodler, Marilyn Ruestman, Ron Richard, and Bryan Stevenson, you are not giving the readers much reason to return. Other columns have smacked of the me, me, me syndrome described above.
The sports section has improved and former KODE sports anchor, now Joplin High School media instructor Bruce Vonder Haar's columns have centered around Joplin sports teams and issues and have been thought-provoking. The game coverage suffers from the same predictability that hampers the Globe's.
The center point of the Daily is not its weekly Sunday edition, but its Internet edition and that has had problems from the beginning. It does not provide the easy interactive features that the Globe website has, and if it plans to beat the Globe by being up to date technologically, that is a must.
The Daily has landed stories that do not show up in the Globe, and it has proven itself to be a worthy competitor for the Globe on many local stories. It still has a long way to go, but then again, the competition has barely begun.

Trial set in Boys and Girls Club embezzling case

A Wednesday, Feb. 22, jury trial is scheduled for former Joplin Boys and Girls Club Director Rob Clay, who is charged with embezzling at least $50,000 and possibly as much as $200,000 from the not-for-profit organization. He was its director for 15 years.
At Clay's preliminary hearing, a Joplin police detective testified that Clay had written checks totaling $41,080 on the club's account to his own bank accounts and wrote an additional $9,000 worth of checks for cash.

Nepotism allegation made against Jasper mayor

The war between Jasper Mayor John Rodebush and former mayor Jim McCorkle continues and once again, law enforcement is being asked to intervene.
McCorkle has leveled nepotism charges against Rodebush and has turned over documents to the Jasper County prosecuting attorney's office indicating the mayor hired his brother, Bill Rodebush, to work on the city's water and sewer system, paying him $81 or $18 per hour for 4.5 hours of work. The following letter was sent to the prosecuting attorney's office by McCorkle:

"TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN:
"Attached you will find a blatant example of the Jasper mayor's belief that he can do what he wants without respect for state laws. Nepotism is a serious infraction for an elected official. Mayor John Rodebush hired his brother, Bill Rodebush, to work on Jasper water/sewer, according to the attached city of Jasper bills for January 2006.
"As a citizen of the city of Jasper, I request that the Jasper County Prosecuting Attorney take whatever action is appropriate with respect to the Missouri Constitution or Missouri Statutes. Bill Rodebush is related to an elected official, the mayor of Jasper, within the third degree by consanguinity."

The letter was signed by McCorkle and copies were sent to The Joplin Globe and The Carthage Press.

The nepotism charge is the latest in a series of actions taken by Rodebush and McCorkle that have Jasper residents wondering when it is all going to end.
The Turner Report was the first to reveal that Rodebush filed for a restraining order, which was later granted, against McCorkle.
Rodebush, who was elected earlier this year, has been a lightning rod for controversy, with more than 30 city workers leaving their positions during the past few months, either on their own or at the request of the city council, usually by 2-2 votes, with the mayor casting the deciding vote.
McCorkle, who served as mayor between 1999 and 2001, has been outspoken in his criticism of Rodebush. According to reporter Derek Spellman's article in the June 2 Joplin Globe, McCorkle was removed from two city council meetings after trying to address the council and mayor.
"For those of you who do not go to the council meetings, you missed a good lesson in dictatorship," McCorkle wrote in one of the letters that he has distributed through Jasper, according to the Globe article.
The two men could both be representing the city of Jasper at council meetings after April if McCorkle is successful in his write-in bid for the East Ward council seat.

Free on appeal bond, Internet pervert arrested again

During the time he was on trial in Jasper County on seven counts of enticement of a child, Donal Wadsworth, 46, Fayetteville, Ark., was prowling the Internet, continuing his search for underage girls.
At least that's what the Fayetteville Police Department is saying. Wadsworth, after being sentenced to two years in the Jasper County Jail and fined $25,000, was arrested Jan. 26, according to KHOG-TV in Fayetteville. "Wadsworth's arrest stemmed from an investigation Fayetteville authorities had been conducting to track down adults who prey on children." Wadsworth was free on $20,000 bond while awaiting his appeal.
"The investigation was primarily done online, and officials said that Wadsworth engaged the undercover officer in sexual conversations several times over the past two months," the KHOG report said.
The station quoted Fayetteville Police Sgt. Bill Phelan as saying, "He showed up at 12:30 a.m. to meet who he thought was a 13-year-old girl, and was taken into custody by an officer."
Wadsworth was nailed in Missouri on April 26, 2004, as another one of Diamond Police officer Jim Murray's Internet stings. Newton County prosecutors indicated Murray and Wadsworth had more than 50 Internet communications, according to print reports.
A Jasper County jury convicted Wadsworth after hearing evidence that he had spoken graphically about girls with whom he had sex and told Murray's teen alter ego "Cindy" what he would do to her if they ever met.
According to a Neosho Daily News account, Murray testified that the discussions continued even though Wadsworth knew "Cindy" was supposed to be 13 years old. The two arranged a meeting at the George Washington Carver National Monument. When he arrived, Wadsworth was arrested by the Diamond Police Department.

RegionsAir settles wrongful death lawsuit for $12.5 million

On the same day that Trans State Airlines officials said they would pull out of Joplin and were working with RegionsAir to provide service for Joplin, RegionsAir and American Airlines agreed to pay nearly $12.5 million to settle a wrongful death lawsuit filed following a 2004 crash that killed 11 in Kirksville.
According to documents filed in U. S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, $12,475,000 will be paid to the widow and three children of Dr. Steven Zane Miller, who was killed Oct. 19, 2004, in the crash of a RegionsAir flight as it was approaching the Kirksville Regional Airport. The documents do not specify which company will be paying how much money to the Millers.
The settlement agreement came less than two weeks after a report was issued by the National Transportation Safety Board blaming pilot error for the crash. Though RegionsAir was absolved of any blame, the report indicated that fatigue may have played a major factor in the accident. The report has renewed scrutiny of federal regulations that permit pilots to fly up to 16 hours a day, far more than in some other countries, including the United Kingdom, which limits pilots to nine hours.
RegionsAir and American Airlines, which arranged the flight under its AmericanConnection program, stand to pay out a lot more money in coming months since lawsuits have also been filed in U. S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri and in Dallas County Circuit Court in Texas in connection with the crash.
In that Jan. 26 report, the NTSB says the flight "struck trees on final approach and crashed short of runway 36 at the Kirksville Regional Airport." Eleven of the 13 passengers were killed with the other two receiving serious injuries.
"The airplane was destroyed by impact and a post-impact fire," the report said. The pilots failed to follow established procedure and were cited for "unprofessional behavior during the flight." The report noted, "Their fatigue likely contributed to their degraded performance."
The report cited "nonessential conversation," and said the pilot did not continue getting readings from his instruments to try to deal with low visibility. Instead, he was trying to look out the window, a task which should have been left to the co-pilot.
The Dallas County lawsuit alleges, "As evidenced by cockpit voice recordings and the recorded flight data, the flight crew demonstrated carelessness, recklessness, and utter disregard for the safety of the passengers during the conduct of the flight."
The lawsuit also says, "The flight crew was flippant and failed to follow proper cockpit procedures during all phases of the flight and was completely unprepared for the difficult approach which they knew awaited them in Kirksville. Their conduct was especially irresponsible and reckless given the low visibility and low ceilings prevailing at Kirksville.
The "unprofessional" conversations were explained more fully in an article in the Jan. 25 Washington Post. The article begins, "Shortly before the aircraft crashed into trees, the two crew members on Corporate Airlines Flight 5966 (the crash occurred before the company changed its name to RegionsAir) were joking with each other, discussing co-workers they didn't like and how it would be nice to eat a Philly cheese steak."
Just as disturbing as the non-essential conversation was the amount of air time logged by the crew. The Post article says pilot Kim Sasse, 48, and co-pilot Jonathan Palmer, 29, "were trying to land their sixth flight of the day after more than 14 hours on the job."
This is not an uncommon occurrence with many airlines, not just RegionsAir, the Post article indicated. "As major airlines struggle," Duane Woerth, president of the Air Line Pilots Association told the newspaper, "they are squeezing more hours out of pilots to contain costs. Pilots used to be able to negotiate shorter shifts as part of their labor agreements, but as several major carriers, including United Airlines, Delta Air Lines, Northwest Air Lines and US Airways have filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, the agreements are being thrown out and more pilots are being scheduled for the maximum 16-hour days."

Stevenson bill sets dangerous precedent

A hearing for HB 1539, the Health Care Rights of Conscience Act, sponsored by Bryan Stevenson, R-Webb City, will be held 8 a.m. Wednesday, Feb. 15 in a meeting of the Children and Families Committee, to be held in Hearing Room 7.
Stevenson's bill would allow health care professionals to not participate in a health care service that violates his or her conscience.
Without getting into the politics of abortion (and I have always been a staunch pro-lifer), it is still easy to see this as dangerous legislation. What if the same type of bill would be proposed for police officers allowing them to pick and choose what kind of people will receive protection and which will be thrown to the wolves.

The best task force money can buy

The stunning array of civic-minded individuals appointed this week by Governor Matt Blunt to form a Healthcare Information Technology Task Force has two things in common- all are connected to the medical community and most donated to the governor's campaign or are connected to firms that donated.
A quick review of Missouri Ethics Commission documents show that at least 10 of the 12 committee members contributed to Missourians for Matt Blunt, the governor's campaign organization.
Blunt announced the formation of the committee in a news release issued Thursday. In that release, he said,"In order to improve the delivery of quality health care in Missouri, we must seek new and more efficient ways to serve both patients and providers. I have charged this task force with seeking out ways to use technology to improve Missourians' access to health care and firmly believe that we can help set a national model for other states to follow."
The release says the governor created the task force to "ensure that healthcare information can be readily available to health care providers, consumers, and public health agencies in order to make the best healthcare decisions and to improve patient safety by reducing medical errors." The idea was mentioned in the governor's State of the State address.
The news release continues, "The group is charged with reviewing the status of healthcare information technology adoption by the state, addressing issues related to the delivery of healthcare information, identifying private resources and public/private partnerships to fund efforts to adopt interoperable health information technology, exploring the use of telemedicine and making recommendations for implementation." You can read into that anything you want...if you can understand it.
Committee members with financial connections to Blunt include all three from southwest Missouri.
Freeman Health System CEO Gary Duncan and his wife, Suzanne, each donated the maximum $1,200 to the governor's re-election campaign on May 5, 2005. An additional $3,600 has been donated by others connected with Freeman, according to Ethics Commission documents. And that's just for the current election cycle. During the 2004 cycle, Duncan contributed $1,200 on Sept. 24, 2004, and his wife donated $100 on Dec. 29, 2003.
Randy Meents, owner of Greenfield Pharmacy, donated $250 on March 31 while Greenfield Pharmacy contributed $1,200. During the previous election cycle, Greenfield Pharmacy donated $1,175 on Nov. 29, 2003, $25 on April 12, 2004, and $1,200 on Nov. 2, 2004, according to Ethics Commission documents.
No contributions are listed for the third southwest Missourian, Gordon Kinne, Springfield, owner of Med Pay, during this election cycle, but Blunt received a $1,200 contribution from Marshall Kinne, whose occupation is listed as student and who has the same home address as Gordon Kinne. However, Gordon Kinne contributed the maximum $1,200 to Blunt on Aug. 20, 2004 and Laura Kinne, same address as Kinne, contributed $1,100. Kinne also donated $1,200 to Lieutenant Governor Peter Kinder's campaign.
Five other task force members can be tied to Blunt contributions, either directly or indirectly:
-Douglas Anning, Kansas City, is a shareholder in the Business Law Department of Polsinelli Shalton Welte Suelthaus. Though Anning is not listed a contributor, Blunt has picked up at least $2,900 in contributions from the law firm. Anning is the only task force member to have contributed to any of Blunt's opponents, Ethics Commission documents show he contributed to the campaigns of Bob Holden and Claire McCaskill in 2004, giving $400 to Holden and $250 to McCaskill.
-John McClellan, CEO of Twin Rivers Medical Center, Kennett, contributed $250 June 25.
-Dr. Stephen Reintjes, Kansas City, a neurosurgeon with the Kansas City Neurosurgery Group, contributed the maximum $1,200. For the 2004 election, he gave $500 on Dec. 5, 2003, and his Kansas City Neurosurgery Group gave $1,200 in March 2004.
-Dr. Chad Shaffer is chief medical information officer at Truman Medical Center, which is connected to $7,500 in contributions during the current election cycle.
-Michael Murphy, CEO of Mercy Health Care, Chesterfield, donated $300 on Feb. 19, 2005. He contributed $250 to the Blunt campaign on March 30, 2004, and another $250 on Sept. 30, 2004.
-Joel Hassien, Hannibal, who operates a private practice, contributed $1,200 to Blunt in 2004, and another $1,200 to Lt. Gov. Kinder.
-Rebecca Foudree, Independence, is listed as co-owner of Grain Valley Pharmacy in the governor's news release. Not mentioned is her position as secretary of the Missouri Pharmacy Association, an organization whose political action committee donated $1,200 to Blunt in 2004.
Of the other two Task Force members, one, chairman Julie Eckstein, is director of the Department of Health and Human Services, a position to which she was appointed by the governor. The other is Richard Royer, Columbia, CEO of Primaris and owner of Avalon Development, Inc.