November 2007 Archives

On the city of Covina's Web site is a "for the record" statement that appears to challenge reporter Dan Abendschein's story about one fund lending money to another. There was nothing wrong with the story except they didn't like the way it was written and there was no corrections made.
More odd is their correction of something we did get wrong, but they didn't get right either.
Reporters Jennifer Mclain and Tania Chatila wrote a story about travel expenses (after the jump). Despite faxing and calling the Covina's clerk's office for weeks, they weren't able to get documents showing the city's budget for expenses. Instead it was verbally told to them by the city manager. That's where it gets slightly odd. We wrote it was about $20,000, but they said was $2,160.00. McLain said the former number was the number given. After the story ran, the city finally gave us the documents. We found out we were both wrong. Documents actually show that it's $15, 600.
(Our Nov. 14 correction is on the jump).

It's a slippery slope say some to criminalize hanging nooses. I think the media should be wary of hyping these incidents as proof that racism is rampant and flourishing. You need to go no further than an incident at Claremont McKenna a few years ago as a reminder.

When Sen. Larry Craig was caught in a men's stall touching an undercover cop's foot, Republicans ran over each to say he should resign and that he was a disgrace. But whether Rep. John Doolittle, who has had a much written about and investigated career, should run for re-election?

Rep. David Dreier, R-San Dimas: "It's up to him. ... He's a good-hardworking member. ... We'll continue to have conversations. He's going through a difficult time. I have great respect for him as a public servant."

Rep. Gary Miller, R-Diamond Bar: "I support what John wants to do. John has to make that decision, whether he runs or whether he retires. That's a decision solely in his camp and whatever he chooses to do I support. I like him personally.
"We're colleagues. You don't generally turn against your colleagues. These are individuals you work with and I've always had a very good personal relationship with John Doolittle. I know nothing about what he's being accused of."

Of coure, those comments were better than Rep. Elton Gallegly, R-Simi Valley, who really went out on the limb: "I think he should absolutely make the right decision."

DA Steve Cooley finds himself in investigative reporter Jeffrey Anderson's cross hairs, and he doesn't come off well.

Jude Lopez Sr. contacted us a few months ago about his daughter's nasty custody battle with Brian Miller, son of Rep. Gary Miller, R-Brea. The letter was filled with many of the details he is now saying that forced his daughter to run with her, and Brian's, three sons. Charges of abuse against the son and interference by the congressman topped the list. When we received the letter, we quietly looked into it. But though it appeared nasty, it seemed a battle that didn't rise to the level of journalism. Now, after Jennifer DeJongh ran, and police and the Millers search for her whereabouts, all is now on the table.
While some complain about the media's intrusion into private lives, others see us as a last resort when the courts, police and maybe even their own community don't believe them. When we get it right and run with a story that does highlight an injustice, even if it is minor to the larger world, we're reminded of what we can do. And when we miss, though I still believe we did the right thing in the Miller case, we second-guess ourselves to death.

Ain't got no more time.

A woman calls and says that part of a garden hose out front disappeared into the ground. Her son and husband were unable to pull it out. She suspects a crazy groundhog. She thought it would make a good photo and story. I demurred. While getting good photo with stories can sometimes be difficult, a disappearing garden hose, I think, would be jumping the shark. Of course, our food-related photos lately are not exactly all that exciting either, but it's that time of the season. But we'll try not to gorge ourselves too much.

Editors' Corner column:

Irwindale is a perfect example.

I was talking to a reporter recently about the departure of longtime editor Phil Drake a few months ago. She asked me what the impact on the paper was.

Institutional memory was my first thought. Drake was a sounding board when it came to the history of the San Gabriel Valley and the events we had covered.

I was reminded of that after several recent Irwindale stories. I went through our archives to learn about the city's past and found its history filled with recurring themes and names.

Mining pits, recall efforts and investigations. Breceda, Miranda, Diaz, Silva and Tapia.

The Times has two stories today that hit the SGV. A Covina man was arrested and may have links to terrorism funding, and a suspected Mexican-Mafia gang member fatally shot in Pomona was apparently 'taxing' gang members in the Foothill cities.

AP: "If I have any disappointment, it's that I wish a jury was here. As always, I rely on the jury system."
- I bet he does.

Says he did nothing wrong, and won't do it again.

And this is in the Times why? Has to be a joke. Right?

Many of us in the newsroom have noticed a Pasadena-centric focus over at The Foothill Cities Blog of late.
So it was nice to see that Publius, (the guy who sparked Pomona's ire) was back posting today about some of the other foothill cities.
BTW Aaron Proctor has been absent from TFCB of late too. No I don't see a connection.
Whatever the lack of activity, I know from experience that it's a lot of hard work.

We're having technical difficulties

MinnPost:High-quality journalism is not just a consumer good; it's a community asset that contributes to the health of our democracy and the quality of our lives.
- Whenever we speculate on how we can survive the upheavel in journalism, I usually answer, 'Let's ditch print and go solely online.' It would never happen of course. First, advertisers will stay pay decent money for print, not so much web. Second, our print subsribers are older and less enthused by going online.
But eventually corporations will divest themselves of newspapers and it will be non-profits or a few hardy souls working out of their homes who will carry the torch.

Welcome to the machine.
Machine politics came to Montebello Tuesday night and took out a pair of incumbents who saw it coming too late and were swamped by better organization, more money and real ideas.
First of all I believe Robert Urteaga was the top vote getter for a variety of reasons. Yes he was backed by all the right people and got the early money. But more importantly, he has a winning personality. Utreaga went door to door, visited voiters in their homes, at community centers and reached out to the media.
On the other hand, Mayor Norma Lopez-Reid, who had the advantage of incumbency, had all the personality of Richard Nixon in the Final Days.
She didn't return calls and approached the election as though she was under seige. Not a good move. It hurt her and Bob Bagwell.
It will also hurt Jeff Siccama in the long run. A recall of Siccama will be held in December. Based on Tuesday's results, he's got a an uphill battle.

The West Covina City Council election couldn't have been more predictable. If you think Roger Hernandez was going to lose you haven't been paying close enough attention to West Covina politics. In my opinion, Hernandez represents a good chunk of voters in West Covina who are dissafected and dissatisfied with City Hall. That core group of about 20 percent did (and will continue to) back the outsider. Some of them also went with Fred Skyes, so Hernandez's margin of victory over Karin Armbrust appears to be less than it is.
That said, what if Rob Sotelo wasn't on the ballot?
Well, no doubt that would have pushed Armbrust into a seat.
But, the incumbents won thanks to the size of the field and the lack of consistent slates.
The numbers tell several other stories, Sotelo's loss was a loss for Mike Touhey. He and Sherri Lane pushed Sotelo, while Herfert and Shelley Sanderson backed Armbrust. Touhey's voters either didn't show up or there aren't enough of them to carry a candidate.

Eddie will be back from vacation and posting daily again in a day or two. In the meantime, I've been trying to get my head around this Pasadena interim city manager situation. The appointment of Pasadena Police Chief Bernard Melekian was kind of unexpected. So, how exactly is this going to work? I'd think that in a city like Pasadena, the police chief already has enough to do. Would this mean he'd split time between the two positions or would the city need to appoint an interim police chief? I guess we'll find out in the next few days.

*Reporter Todd now has part of the answer at his blog.