August 2007 Archives

Show of hands from all those who heard/saw that pretty insane thunder storm last night?

Maybe I was just a little groggy from waking up in the middle of the night, but I was startled from all the commotion. In fact, I listened to the rumbling for a few minutes and saw a few flashes of light, but couldn't figure out what was causing it until I heard the rain start to pour. Of course, my husband slept through all of it, and then didn't believe me when I told him this morning that it rained last night. That sneaky early morning heat dryed up the evidence. But it looks like the heat will get worse over the weekend and even brings with it a power outage alert.

I know it's been a while since my last post. I've been busy at work trying to figure things out and since we're still waiting on the Internet to be connected at home I really haven't had a lot of time to browse the Internet.

So, to keep the ball rolling I'm taking suggestions - is there anything about the newsroom that you'd like to know about?

In the meantime, I'll leave you with two things:

1) As a former Glendora resident, I'm excited about the redevelopment of the Citrus Crossing, a retail center at Citrus Avenue and Route 66 (in Azusa, across from APU). I think the area will benefit greatly from the project.

2) Is anyone as confused about this situation with Sen. Larry Craig as I am? Who knew this kind of thing went on in airport bathrooms? I listened to NPR's coverage this morning and thought that their sidebar on The Semiotics of Sexual Behavior was a pretty clever companion. Here's the teaser:

Allegations of lewd conduct in a public restroom by Sen. Larry Craig raise the question of how foot-tapping or hand-waving in a toilet stall can lead to an arrest. Dr. Michael Reece, associate professor for public health at Indiana University in Bloomington, researches sexual behavior, anonymous sexual encounters and the venues where they take place. He talks with Alex Chadwick.

Link to the audio.

Two actually*. And neither one connected to China - at least not yet.

One for consumers warning about the possible contamination of shigella in packaged baby carrots.

The other is political.

*updated by Kate at 4:46 p.m.

Just a quick post before I take off for the night. I spotted this interesting piece about the ethics of changing quotes on Poynter Online. The piece, on whether or not it is ethical to clean up quotes in stories, stemmed from two columns by (and responses to) Washington Post ombudsman Deborah Howell about the paper's policy after a Post reporter cleaned up the words from a quote that a Post columnist used verbatim. Now, I've seen quotes cleaned up a little in the past, with small grammatical slipups like "it" is changed to "its". But what I thought was really key in this debate is the way the quote was altered:

Several readers of an early edition of the July 28 Sports section noticed different versions of the same quote from Redskins running back Clinton Portis in a story by Howard Bryant and a column by Mike Wise. In Bryant's story, Portis said: "I don't know how anybody feels. I don't know how anybody's thinking. I don't know what anyone else is going through. The only thing I know is what's going on in Clinton Portis's life." Wise quoted him as saying: "I don't know how nobody feel, I don't know what nobody think, I don't know what nobody doing, the only thing I know is what's going on in Clinton Portis's life."

I was really shocked by the difference between the two. Bryant's quote not only fixes the grammar, but in my eyes changed the meaning of Portis' quote. Both writers give compelling reasons for doing what they did. What are your thoughts on the situation? And in fixing quotes in general?

Advances in technology are good, right? They can make life easier and work more efficient and productive.

I've been on the city desk for almost a month now. I'm still adjusting to the move from the copy desk, but one of the biggest differences I've noticed between the two is the number of distractions over here on the city side.

Now don't get me wrong, there were plenty of interruptions over at the copy desk - but they mostly came from editors wanting to change the placement of a story or switch out one story for another - no problem. But over here on the city side, they come from all angles: reporters, other editors, other staff, readers, news wires, PR flaks, via phone, texting, e-mail, instant message, pop-ups, television, police scanner, radio and just plain old face-to-face conversation. The chorus of phones ringing in the office makes me feel like I work in a pinball machine. It's sometimes hard to stay focused.

But the most annoying of all interuptions is the pop-ups. The pop-ups are a service of our new-ish computer program, Unisys, a program much loathed by many in our family of newspapers, though I'm secretly a fan. A window pops up on my screen to alert me every time a wire service releases info that contains words that I've pre-selected, stopping me from continuing my work until I've closed the window. I'll admit the service is necessary and actually very useful as I'm notified of breaking news as it happens. But, as technology has no brain matter, the service cannot distinguish between what of that pre-selected info might be useful to me. As I write this, the pop-up has broken through at least 5 times giving me updates on President Bush's meeting in Canada because the dateline of the story is MONTEBELLO, Quebec - one of my pre-selected words because the city of Montebello is in our coverage area. Ok, now I just got a six and seventh break-through as I'm writing this sentence.

The interruptions are all-consuming but all totally necessary. I especially value the interactions with reporters and other editors right now as I get to know them and the stories they are working on.

And as easy as it would be to go on with the same story lineup we started with at the beginning of the day, life changes - on a minute by minute basis - and I need to be prepared to change course if I'm interrupted because something breaks. If we can take an extra second to make the paper better - I'm up for it everytime. So let the pop-ups continue.

Oh, wow. I couldn't continue with the rest of my day without taking a quick minute to post this. I was really surprised this morning to scroll down on NY Times' Web site after reading up on the Leona Helmsley obit to find this story on R. Kelly's "Trapped in the Closet" series. If you haven't seen or heard of R&B singer R. Kelly's musical soap opera sex-farce, the story breaks it down pretty well. What started as a soap opera set to music - complete with cheating spouses, clergymen and midgets - and stuffed into a 5-part music video has spawned several more volumes and ballooned into one of the most lampooned videos in recent years. Many, like me, love it for its so-out-there-it's-laughable quality. Watching it almost leaves you speechless. The NYT story, which discusses the popularity of Closet opus also has a great analysis of R.Kelly as mad genius-type, coincides with the release of parts 13-22 on DVD.

Who knew so much trouble came from just a few little letters? There are dozens, dare I say hundreds, of guides on how to plan a wedding, hundreds more on how to manage the home. But if there is a guide on overcoming the obstacles of changing your name I have yet to hear of it. I certainly underestimated the task.

First there's Social Security, then the financial accounts, work, insurance companies, credit cards and cell phone bills. And then there's fixing the mistakes - a new check card came back for "Kate Reyes" - a pet peeve of mine that occurs often. I'm trying to stay organized and aggressive in the quest for surname switcheroo. But today ..... ohhhh today ... there was the DMV.

I don't think anyone likes going to the DMV - except for maybe 16-year-olds going in for the first time to get their license, but then the novelty wears off. My husband drove me - as we discovered late last night that my car battery had died. I'll spare you the details and just let you know that I was denied the name change since I only have a copy of the marriage license (the official hasn't arrived yet). Apparently, the copy was sufficient for the Social Security Office, but not good enough for the DMV.

But there was one obstacle to moniker modification I didn't expect - the amount of resistance I received by making the decision. Numerous people have teased me - saying that they thought I was a "modern woman". Quite a few others expressed shock. Still others have complained at the confusion it has caused. My husband, by the way had no choice in the matter - he didn't ever bring it up. And when I told him that I was going to take his name he said "thank you."

Don't get me wrong, I think it's perfectly acceptable for a woman to keep her maiden name for whatever reason - but when did it become so out-moded to take the husband's name? I considered keeping it, although I'll admit it would have been for selfish reasons on my part. After all, I do feel like there's a small loss in my identity. The Kate Keyes that friends and family watched grow up is no more - wiped off the map, doesn't exist. But in the end it all came down to the fact that I have a brother and as long as he's around to carry on the family name, I'll take the switch. My vain attempt to hold on to my past will just have to be supressed.

My husband picked me up a little after noon for lunch today. It's his day off. He got me lunch and drove me home to pick up my car, which he had spent the morning fixing. And when we got home, I noticed that he had also washed my car. And then I remembered why I'm changing my name.

My new married name isn't even that different - from Keyes to Kealey - see they even share the same letters.

Working at a newspaper that covers the area I grew up in means that familiar faces pop up every now and then. On Monday, a Temple City woman was arrested for driving a truck that fatally injured a man in West Hollywood - turns out I know the woman. Reporter Molly Okeon at the Star-News is on the story, and called me yesterday to ask about her. Can't say that I was much help, though. Lindsay and I went to some of the same schools and I played youth softball and soccer with one of her sisters, but we didn't hang out in the same crowd and I hadn't seen anyone from the family in almost a decade.

Perhaps we should change our paper's name from the Tribune to something a little more fitting for the kinds of stories we've been covering in recent weeks. OK, so maybe the above title is a little dramatic, but it seems to me that there have been more slayings in the last few weeks than in recent months or even compared to the last few years. There's no numbers to compare yet, but the perceived uptick in crime of all types has been a hot topic around the newsroom.

Today, reporter Frank Girardot, who also runs the increasingly popular Crime Scene blog, is working on the recent developments of a triple homicide in Rowland Heights yesterday. And just now, reporter Dan Abendschein is on his way back from the scene where two men were found dead in El Monte. We'll be updating both as the stories progress throughout the day.

I've always been told that the crime rate increases during summer, but is the weather to blame? Or is there a better explanation for the alleged recent uptick in crime? Or is it just our little nook of the Valley? I'm going to keep an eye out for crime stories in other newspapers to see if this is just a Valley thing or all over. Feel free to comment any findings of your own.

Eddie and I were talking about this headline in the L.A. Times earlier today.

Not quite sure if this is appropriate given the circumstances of the double tragedy the mother is experiencing.

Even worse - the teaser headline on Times' homepage is a variation for the same story. Thoughts?

Looks like we've got a local in the shuttle launch today:

Tracy Caldwell, who was born in the San Gabriel Valley, is poised to blast off into space at 3:36 p.m. today with the crew of the space shuttle Endeavor.

Caldwell is a mission specialist who will operate the shuttle robotic arm to add another piece to the International Space Station during the 11-day mission. It will be the shuttle program's 119th flight.

She was born in Arcadia and lived in Pomona, El Monte and Glendora until moving to Beaumont. There's a brief up on our Web site now but we'll be updating as the shuttle launches later today.

I was really disheartened Friday when Hal Fishman was hospitalized, and was even more crushed to find out that he died early this morning. This was the anchorman that my little sister and I grew up watching before going to sleep. We loved his comforting, trustworthy voice (like a grandpa) and we especially loved his commentaries. We even swore that someday we would make T-shirts that say "Hal Fishman for President". Little did I know that he had such a background in poltics, starting his career as a college professor teaching about politics on the TV in the 1960s. In fact, Fishman had quite a remarkable career as a TV news anchor as I found out while watching the coverage on KTLA this morning. And he was quite the accomplished pilot, too, holding 12 offical world aviation records. There's a spot on the KTLA News Web site to leave comments or share memories about Fishman.

I am now the proud owner of a slightly used (or is it certified pre-owned?) editor's blog. So I thought I'd take it for a test drive. It's kind of a slow day at the office. Hoping things will pick up soon. But I figured I'd take this time to introduce myself. You already know my name, Kate Kealey. I'm still getting used to it myself. As Eddie mentioned before, I just came back from my honeymoon in Ireland. I've been married four weeks and been in this business a little over two years. I've lived in the San Gabriel Valley since I was 7. Went to Temple City High School and graduated with my bachelor's from Cal Poly Pomona.

I'm a media junkie with a few Web sites I visit religiously, but mostly I like to just go where the links take me. I just finished reading Salty, by Mark Haskell Smith, an author I met while working at Vroman's Bookstore in college. So I'm in search of a new read if you have suggestions (I think maybe a classic this time). In the meantime, I've been checking out this article by New York Magazine on the only reality shows I prefer to watch - the kind where contestants progress on skill and talent rather than tawdry behavior.

Assistant City Editor Kate Kealey has decided to take up the Corner's blog torch. (She was gone - on a honeymoon - at the same time as Centinel, which prompted a thorough interrogation.) I'll let her tell you about herself. The mood of the blog will most probably change. Whereas I'm an angry middle-aged Latino from NYC with a short temper, she is calm, always questioning Anglo-Saxon, *raised in the San Gabriel Valley.

-Edward

*updated by Kate

I've decided that my time on this blog has been played out for now. I started this, in part, because the editorial side had no blogs. Now we have Under the Dome, Crime Scene and School Session, with more to come.
While I have met some interesting people online, I want to get out more often. Maybe even do a little reporting (gasp). I'll still be scanning the blogs out there, leaving comments.
I'm talking with another editor to see if she wants to pick things up for awhile; I'll know by tomorrow.
In the meantime, don't forget to check out our other blogs, and I'll see you on the print side.
Edward
p.s. if you want to send me something, a complaint, a compliment or even a tip, you can always e-mail me at edward.barrera@sgvn.com.

Sierra Madre had the news early this morning that Elaine Aguilar will be the new city manager. Molly Okeon will have the story in the Pasadena Star News tomorrow.