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Monthly Archives: January 2015

Press

Ten Sound Tenets

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The post below first appeared at Daily Adams. Although the Center from Public Integrity’s Bill Buzenberg has led a journalism non-profit, many of the principles he enumerates would apply as well in for-profit journalism, or other professions by adoption. It’s astonishing how far from these standards, for example, the local press in Whitewater truly is. (That’s the local press such as it is, and such as it pretends to be.)

Below, in the original post, Bill Buzenberg describes how it should be:

Original post:

Bill+Pic.jpg

As Bill Buzenberg steps down as executive director of the Center for Public Integrity, he takes leave by offering ten tenets of his organization. A better statement of journalistic principles one is unlikely to find.

Best wishes to Mr. Buzenberg.

Here, in full, the precious gift he leaves his organization, and others by inspiration:

Ten tenets for the Center for Public Integrity

  1. We are first and foremost investigative journalists. Although we do research and we think hard about our work which can extend over many months, we are not primarily a research center or a think tank devoted to information gathering.
  2. Because public integrity is part of our name, we adhere to the highest journalistic standards of ethics, accuracy and excellence.  We principally pursue issues that have an important public integrity component. We seek to fight corruption with facts and transparency.
  3. We are editorially independent as a news organization and we stoutly resist interference of any kind, whether from funders, government, corporations or individuals. We welcome feedback and criticism from anyone, but we make our own editorial decisions about what projects to tackle and how our work is to proceed, operating with a firm firewall between editorial decision-making and financial considerations.
  4. We are a non-partisan, non-advocacy investigative organization. We seek to launch our investigative projects especially in areas where other news organizations are not looking. Although we don’t editorialize in our work, we do stand for a robust and accountable democracy.
  5. We believe investigative journalism represents the highest level of professionalism and the profession. Where other news organizations may simply pass on opinions or rumors gathered elsewhere, we know that is not investigative journalism and we will not do that. The Center for Public Integrity has tremendous credibility built on a record of 25 years of solid reporting, searching for data and documents, and then analyzing, sifting and weighing this information carefully before making it public.
  6. Content is king and we seek to be multi-platform in all of our work. Whatever platform we use, careful editing, and painstaking fact-checking are critical to our credibility and our success.
  7. We believe in the highest level of computer assisted reporting (CAR), but we also know that data alone is not sufficient for our reports. Our strongest work will consist of focused reporting AND computer generated data. Some of our reports will start with the data, or be built on data or documents, while others will start with old-fashioned shoe-leather news gathering and reporting, and data or documents will be added later.
  8. We seek multiple funding streams for our work from foundations, individuals, members, sales to other news organizations, and other appropriate earned revenue sources. We seek the widest possible dissemination for our work and where possible a return to cover the cost of production. No matter what the funding source, however, we will operate at all times in a manner consistent with these ten tenets and the firewall described above.
  9. We believe news is a public service, not a profit center. Public service is the very soul of the journalism profession. To us, news is not just a commodity or a business, it is also part citizen education, part moral enterprise. We seek to provide the kind of news people need to be informed citizens in a democracy.
  10. We believe that our long term credibility and respect are built on the value we create and the information we provide. Credibility and respect are worth more than short term popularity and glamour. We also know that the First Amendment comes with enormous responsibility to serve the public and that, not financial gain or even award recognition, is our reason for being.

See, Thank you and farewell @ PublicIntegrity.org.

Daily Bread

Daily Bread for 1.26.15

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Good morning, Whitewater.

We’ve the last week of the year’s first month before us: a day with up to an inch of snow probable, and a high of twenty-five. Sunrise is 7:14 AM and sunset 5 PM, for 9h 46m 10s of daytime. The moon is a waxing crescent with 42.5% of its visible disk illuminated.

Whitewater’s School Board meets tonight at 6 PM in closed session, opening thereafter at 7 PM into open session. A copy of the agenda as of this post is embedded below:

On this day in 1934, Samuel Goldwyn makes a shrewd purchase:

One of America’s best-loved movie projects gets underway on this day in 1934, when the producer Samuel Goldwyn buys the film rights to the children’s novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum.

Production of The Wizard of Oz was plagued with problems, from numerous script rewrites to casting and directorial changes. After the original director, Richard Thorpe, was fired, Victor Fleming stepped in to take over the director’s role from George Cukor, who left to helm David O. Selznick’s Civil War epic Gone With the Wind, a job which, ironically, Fleming would later replace him in. When Fleming left, King Vidor stepped in to replace him. Despite all these changes, Fleming received the main director’s credit for the movie. Another stumbling block occurred when Buddy Ebsen, the original Tin Man, got sick from a reaction to the aluminum makeup he was forced to wear; he was replaced by Jack Haley.

In the end, the 101-minute-long film had modest success at the box office and earned several Oscar nominations–including a Best Song win for “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” and a special award for Garland as Best Juvenile Performer. In 1956, an estimated 45 million people tuned in to watch the movie debut on television as part of the Ford Star Jubilee. Countless TV showings later, The Wizard of Oz is one of the most beloved and best-known films of all time.

On this day in 1925, fire ruins:

1925 – Fire Destroys Whitewater Hospital
On this date a fire destroyed the Whitewater Hospital. Monetary losses were estimated at $20,000, but no deaths were reported. [Source: Janesville Gazette]

Google-a-Day asks a geography question:

The castle that sits on top of the volcanic mound, Beblowe Craig, was founded by what 16th century king?

Daily Bread

Daily Bread for 1.25.15

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Good morning, Whitewater.

A bit of snow overnight, and just a dusting ahead, with a high of twenty-six: that’s our Sunday weather in town. Sunrise is 7:15 AM and sunset is 4:59 PM, for 9h 43m 59s of daytime. The moon is a waxing crescent with 32% of its visible disk illuminated.

The FW poll for Friday asked if a man, who torn down house his over a supposedly bad foundation house without telling his wife was a thoughtful spouse or a soon-to-be ex-spouse. Responses to FW polls often fall heavily one way, but even so, this was one of the most lopsided responses ever, with 94.59% of respondents saying that James Rhein was a soon-to-be ex-spouse.

Embedded below is a video where Rhein talks to a local NBC New York reporter about destroying the house. His answers to the reporter’s questions are flippant; I’ll leave it to readers to decide whether he’s mentally ill or merely malicious.

On this day in 1905, an excavation superintendent finds the world’s largest diamond:

The Cullinan diamond was the largest non carbonado and largest gem-quality diamond ever found, at 3106.75 carat (621.35 g, 1.37 lb) rough weight.[1] About 10.5 cm (4.1 inches) long in its largest dimension, it was found on 26 January 1905, in the Premier No. 2 mine, near Pretoria, South Africa.

The largest polished gem from the stone is named Cullinan I or the Great Star of Africa, and at 530.4 carats (106.08 g)[2] is the largest polished white diamond in the world. It was the largest polished diamond of any colour until the 1985 discovery of the Golden Jubilee Diamond, 545.67 carats (109.134 g), also from the Premier Mine.

Cullinan I is now mounted in the head of the Sceptre with the Cross. The second largest gem from the Cullinan stone, Cullinan II or the Second Star of Africa, at 317.4 carats (63.48 g), is the fourth largest polished diamond in the world. Both gems are in the Crown Jewels of the United Kingdom.

Daily Bread

Daily Bread for 1.24.15

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Good morning, Whitewater.

Saturday in Whitewater will be mostly cloudy with a high of thirty-nine. We have a probability of about an inch of snow later this evening. Sunrise is 7:16 AM and sunset 4:58 PM, for 9h 41m 51s of daytime. The moon is a waxing crescent with 22% of its visible disk illuminated.

Here’s an apple juice bottle that sounds as it would if one were biting into a real apple:

On this day in 1965, Winston Churchill passes away. The New York Times reports his death:

London, Jan. 24 — Winston Churchill’s struggle for life ended this morning, and the people he had cherished and inspired and led through darkness mourned him as they have no other in this age.

Sir Winston died just after 8 o’clock, in the 10th day of public anxiety over his condition after a stroke. He was in his 91st year.

Britons small and great village curate, Prime Minister and Queen paid him tribute through the day and this evening. Statesmen around the world joined in homage to the statesman they acknowledge as the greatest of the age.

Londoners, during the last struggle, had come to accept Sir Winston’s death as inevitable. There was little of the shock and horror seen in the reaction to President Kennedy’s death.

Many Difficult Moments

Nevertheless, even those who consider themselves unsentimental found that they had difficult moments as they were reminded of the great Churchillian days.

The radio followed the announcement of the death with Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5. The opening theme symbolizing the knock of victory- three short notes and a long note evoked memories of Churchill’s wartime gesture, two fingers held aloft, in a “V for Victory.”

Parliament will meet tomorrow to authorize a state funeral, the first held for a commoner in this century. For the rest of the week public affairs will be slowed almost to a stop.

The body will lie in state Wednesday, Thursday and Friday in Westminster Hall, the lofty medieval chamber adjoining Sir Winston’s real home, the House of Commons.

On Saturday a state funeral service will be held at St. Paul’s Cathedral. Burial will be in the country churchyard at Bladon village, near Blenheim Palace, the ancestral castle where Sir Winston was born. Queen Elizabeth will attend the state funeral.

City, Good Ideas, Government Spending, Health, Hip & Prosperous, Planning

Arguments on Cost & Flexibility Under a Complete Streets Ordinance

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There are two questions that I promised yesterday that I would take up today about the Complete Streets ordinance recently passed at Council on 1.20.15.

The first is whether the draft ordinance was flexible enough, and the second about the costs of new roads or reconstruction that would include sidewalks or bike paths.

I read the draft that Council saw before the Tuesday vote, and I’m unpersuaded that the draft was lacking in flexibility for future planners. The 1.20.15 draft (before amendments) is embedded below.

One could argue over should or shall, but 11.51.040 E as drafted offers ample grounds to reject a bike path or sidewalk project if Council or a future one wished to do so.

More generally, I’ve contended time and again that thousands upon thousands of Whitewater residents are sharp and capable. One doesn’t need to have been a legislative aide to read or draft an ordinance for the city. There are myriad paths to an equal comprehension, to say the least.

Libertarians don’t contend it’s true that most people are smart and capable because we say so; we say that most people are smart and capable because it’s true.

On the cost side, I’m sensitive to how much this city spends, and goodness knows sidewalks are expensive.

I’d be more persuaded that the Greater Whitewater Committee (GWC), a business-advocacy 501(c)(6) organization, had lower costs in mind if they’d argued more often to keep costs lower.

I don’t recall, for example, that they argued against the approximately $2.3 million dollar East Gateway Project. (In fact, one of their members, now on Council, unsuccessfully asked for another $500,000 or so for placement of underground wiring.)

I argued against that funding, and confidently so. How is our city $2.3 million richer for that roadwork?

The GWC is free to advocate as it wishes – I’m for more, not less, speech. Let’s be clear, though. Like trade unions, business-advocacy groups, etc., represent one special-interest point of view among many others. By their very federal tax designation, they’ve a necessarily limited point of view.

Public Choice Theory properly recognizes these groups as just one more special interest among many.

Individuals at the Community Development Authority who have been for hundreds of thousands in public handouts to white-collar startups, and are now looking for yet another round of the same on the public tab, don’t seem like cost-savers.

Millions on an Innovation Center, or failed tax-incremental spending, or the endless effort to write sugary press-releases boosting these wasteful things, belie a professed commitment to smaller government.

That doesn’t mean one shouldn’t, let alone can’t, advocate for businesses (even white collar ones that help few in town). Trade unions, the business lobby, etc., all play a role in a society that recognizes rights of association.

They’re not, however, something like the Roman Curia, assisting in the work of the universal Church, so to speak.

These local groups are all just special interests, sometimes arguing for better, sometimes for worse.

The best way to show one’s genuine and convincing commitment to less spending and smaller government would be for some of these gentlemen to reject the white-collar welfare and crony capitalism of the WEDC, for example.

I’ll be waiting.

Cats

Friday Catblogging: Iona Adopts Edward the Cat

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Perhaps the best story one will read this week —

Barbara Bates, the adoption coordinator for a Texas animal shelter, was there with her camera when 102-year-old Iona L. and 2-year-old Edward discovered each other.

“It just filled my heart,” Bates says about the scene in the shelter lobby. “The kitty just snuggled right up to her. Matched her outfit she had on.

“I said, ‘Iona, do you mind if I take your picture?’ And she said, ‘Honey, I sure hope I don’t break your camera.'”

Iona’s cat had recently died, so last week, she and her son took a trip to the Montgomery County Animal Shelter in Conroe, Texas….

Edward won her over right away.

“The way he cuddled upon my shoulder reminded me of the cat I’d just lost,” she says.

Iona’s had cats her whole life. In fact, she says one of her favorite pictures is of herself as a teenager with a cat on the family farm. She’d been milking cows, but a bucket tipped over, and the photo captured a lucky kitten reaping the delicious spillage….

For her part, Bates says she had “no hesitancy” about Iona adopting Edward. To start, Iona’s son promised that should anything happen to his mother, Edward would remain in the family. But also, Bates believes that Edward is good for Iona, and she for him.

“My photo tells me Edward immediately sensed that Iona had lots of love and security to offer him,” she says.

Via Huffington Post.

Poll

Friday Poll: House-Demolishing Husband

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James Rhein


In Middleton, New York, James Rhein decided to tear down his home, and he did so without telling his wife:

The Middletown Police Department says that when officers arrived Monday at the property owned by 48-year-old James Rhein’s (rynz) wife they found him using an excavator to knock down the house. Officers say he didn’t remove any household items, such as furniture, food and belongings. Instead, he dumped everything into large construction debris bins.

Police say Rhein didn’t call local utility companies to cancel gas, electric and water services, which were cut off by crews after officers alerted them.

Rhein told police he was demolishing the house because it had a bad foundation.

He was charged with criminal mischief and was released on bail. Police didn’t know if he had a lawyer.

What can one say about this gentleman: thoughtful spouse or soon-to-be an ex-spouse?

Daily Bread

Daily Bread for 1.23.15

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Good morning, Whitewater.

We’ll have a high of thirty-five in town today, with a one-in-five chance of rain or snow showers in the later afternoon. Sunrise is 7:16 AM and sunset 4:56 PM, for 9h 39m 44s of daytime. The moon is a waxing crescent with 12.6% of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1957, Wham-O begins producing a new toy:

…machines at the Wham-O toy company roll out the first batch of their aerodynamic plastic discs–now known to millions of fans all over the world as Frisbees.

The story of the Frisbee began in Bridgeport, Connecticut, where William Frisbie opened the Frisbie Pie Company in 1871. Students from nearby universities would throw the empty pie tins to each other, yelling “Frisbie!” as they let go. In 1948, Walter Frederick Morrison and his partner Warren Franscioni invented a plastic version of the disc called the “Flying Saucer” that could fly further and more accurately than the tin pie plates. After splitting with Franscioni, Morrison made an improved model in 1955 and sold it to the new toy company Wham-O as the “Pluto Platter”–an attempt to cash in on the public craze over space and Unidentified Flying Objects (UFOs).

In 1958, a year after the toy’s first release, Wham-O–the company behind such top-sellers as the Hula-Hoop, the Super Ball and the Water Wiggle–changed its name to the Frisbee disc, misspelling the name of the historic pie company. A company designer, Ed Headrick, patented the design for the modern Frisbee in December 1967, adding a band of raised ridges on the disc’s surface–called the Rings–to stabilize flight. By aggressively marketing Frisbee-playing as a new sport, Wham-O sold over 100 million units of its famous toy by 1977….

It was an accomplishment, perhaps, that started like this:

Google-a-Day asks a history question:

When the president of Haiti fled the country following a 1991 coup, in what country did he first find asylum?

Business, City, Cycling, Gov. Walker, Government Spending, Health, Hip & Prosperous, Local Government, Planning

The Common Council Session for 1.20.15: Complete Streets

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I posted briefly yesterday on Tuesday’s Common Council meeting, and in that post mentioned that I would look a bit more at some of the remarks for, or against, the Complete Streets ordinance that passed Tuesday night.  (I supported the ordinance.)

Council discussed this issue previously, on December 16th.  See, Common Council 12/16/2014.

I’ve included only some of the speakers from the January 20th discussion, for particular points.  Readers interested in the full discussion – always worth watching – can find it online at Common Council Meeting 01/20/2015. 

For now, I’ll consider the comments of these speakers: Ken Kienbaum, David Yochum, Larry Kachel, and Chris Grady.

Ken Kienbaum, 3rd District Candidate


WhitewaterCouncil012015A from John Adams on Vimeo.

Mr. Kienbaum makes, I’d say, two principal arguments, one of which I’ll consider here, and the other of which I’ll consider tomorrow. 

For today, I’ll address his remarks about cyclists riding on the sidewalks.  Mr. Kienbaum made similar remarks at a council meeting over thirty days before, on 12.16.14.  (See, Common Council 12/16/2014 @ 38:30). 

His contention is that cyclists can ride on our sidewalks, without the need for added bike lanes. 

It surprised me when he first made this argument in December, as someone seeking office or following city policy should know that it’s a violation of our ordinances to ride one’s bike on many of our sidewalks.  (See, 11.40.070 – Obedience to vehicle or traffic regulations and riding regulations.)

When I wrote in support of the Complete Streets ordinance, I omitted mention of the existing limitations against riding on sidewalks, as I assumed that as Mr. Kienbaum was likely to speak again this January, he would take the opportunity to correct his prior misunderstanding.

He made no correction, but instead repeated his prior error.  That’s hardly a good sign.  It suggests to me that either no one in Mr. Kienbaum’s circle was aware of the ban on bikes on sidewalks, or no one bothered to tell him about it. 

On Mr. Kienbaum’s second point, about costs, I’ll have more tomorrow. 

David Yochum, Resident


WhitewaterCouncil012015B from John Adams on Vimeo.

Watch this presentation, and I think you’ll see what I see: a strong, conversational speaker, who speaks extemporaneously about his own observations on cycling in town.  It’s persuasive, I think, about what it’s like to bike in town (I do so, too).  It’s persuasive, also, for the quality of delivery. 

Larry Kachel, Great Whitewater Committee, a 501(c)(6) business advocacy organization


WhitewaterCouncil012015C from John Adams on Vimeo.

Mr. Kachel leads with an unexpected opening:

I’m Larry Kachel, I feel the need to speak due to some disparaging remarks I believe have been made by a certain city official which I will deal with tomorrow morning.

I’m not sure what to make of this.  It’s among the most counter-productive openings that an advocate could offer – it scuttles just about everything thereafter. 

Mr. Kachel is a leading member of the Greater Whitewater Committee, a 501(c)(6) business advocacy organization.  He’s speaking on a public issue, and he’s a public figure by virtue of his organizational role.  (The organization’s been around for a few years.)

There are two kinds of speech, from the point of view of public advocacy: speech actionable at law (defamatory speech) and everything else.  Disparaging speech, acerbic speech, polemical speech, etc., all fall in the latter, everything-else category.

It’s a mistake to react to disparaging speech when – as here – that reaction so obviously ruins the tone for successful persuasion.  

I’m quite sure there have been, and may be yet more, many disparaging remarks directed my way from city hall, etc. 

That is for me – and should be properly for anyone – just water off a duck’s back.  To borrow a question from Hillary Clinton: what difference does it make?

The residents of this city – including city officials – have a free-speech right that will sometimes include sharp remarks.  Neither the residents of this city nor her officials are employees of the Greater Whitewater Committee. 

Members of the GWC are free to complain, surely.  When delivering those complaints, they’re no less – but no more – important than any other citizen. 

In any event, it does no good for the Greater Whitewater Committee to advance a literacy program earlier in the evening, only to mute a positive tone with an opening like this.  One doesn’t follow champagne with a chaser of brine. 

One should be careful, too, about declaring a need to speak after supposedly disparaging remarks.  If critical remarks compelled an advocate to appear, city officials might hit upon the opposite idea of sending valentines to keep him away in the future. 

Some of the arguments on flexibility – like Mr. Kienbaum’s on cost – are ones that I’ll consider tomorrow.  (I’m particularly sympathetic to cost arguments.)

Chris Grady, 3rd District Candidate


WhitewaterCouncil012015D1 from John Adams on Vimeo.

Mr. Grady begins with a solid opening, and a gentle rebuke to his Third District opponent, Ken Kienbaum:

I want to start out with a question: Is it legal to ride a bike on the sidewalk?

(Answer from council: no, it is not.)

That’s perfect, just perfect: simple, direct, clear. 

There are times when a single question does the trick.  This was one of those times. 

Cameron Clapper, City Manager

Here, I’m referring to Mr. Clapper’s demeanor throughout the night, rather than a particular point (as with those above). 

Now I have agreed and also disagreed with policies during City Manager Clapper’s tenure. (We may yet have ahead a strong disagreement over a commercial digester for the importation of waste into this city from other places.)    

And yet, and yet, I’ll not underestimate his strengths, nor the evident, widespread hope in this city that his administration succeeds.  (I hope for that success, too, disagreements notwithstanding.)

He kept his cool, all evening, and came out looking stronger for it.

Well-played.

Tomorrow: Arguments on Cost & Flexibility Under a Complete Streets Ordinance.

Daily Bread

Daily Bread for 1.22.15

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Good morning, Whitewater.

Thursday in town will be mostly cloudy with a high of thirty-one. Sunrise is 7:17 AM and sunset 4:55 PM, for 9h 37m 41s of daytime. The moon is a waxing crescent with 5.6% of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1970, the first jumbo jet enters commercial service:

….On January 15, 1970, First Lady of the United States Pat Nixon christened Pan Am’s first 747, at Dulles International Airport (later Washington Dulles International Airport) in the presence of Pan Am chairman Najeeb Halaby. Instead of champagne, red, white, and blue water was sprayed on the aircraft. The 747 entered service on January 22, 1970, on Pan Am’s New York–London route;[61] the flight had been planned for the evening of January 21, but engine overheating made the original aircraft unusable. Finding a substitute delayed the flight by more than six hours to the following day.[2]

On the 747-100 and 747-200, a spiral staircase connected the main and upper decks. Previously, Boeing used a spiral staircase in its Model 377 Stratocruiser back in 1946.

The 747 enjoyed a fairly smooth introduction into service, overcoming concerns that some airports would not be able to accommodate an aircraft that large.[62] Although technical problems occurred, they were relatively minor and quickly solved.[63] After the aircraft’s introduction with Pan Am, other airlines that had bought the 747 to stay competitive began to put their own 747s into service.[64] Boeing estimated that half of the early 747 sales were to airlines desiring the aircraft’s long range rather than its payload capacity.[65][66] While the 747 had the lowest potential operating cost per seat, this could only be achieved when the aircraft was fully loaded; costs per seat increased rapidly as occupancy declined. A moderately loaded 747, one with only 70 percent of its seats occupied, used more than 95 percent of the fuel needed by a fully occupied 747.[67]….

On this day in 1964, Wisconsin produces a really big piece of cheese:

1964 – World’s Largest Block of Cheese Produced
On this date The world’s largest cheese of the time was manufactured in Wisconsin. The block of cheddar was produced from 170,000 quarts of milk by the Wisconsin Cheese Foundation specifically for the 1964 New York World’s Fair. It weighed 34,665 pounds (17.4 tons). The cheese was consumed in 1965 at the annual meeting of the Wisconsin Cheesemakers Association at Eau Claire. A replica is displayed in Neilsville in the specially designed “Cheesemobile”, a semi-tractor trailer in which the original cheese toured. [Source: American Profile, December 16, 2001]

Google-a-Day asks a question about American history:

Who is generally regarded as one of the very first Americans to die in the struggle for liberty from British Rule?