| Intractable, implacable, unavoidable change
I had a great visit today with an undergraduate journalism class at Washington State. The "professor" was former SR reporter Ben Shors who took a voluntary buyout last year. Ben is now teaching at WSU as an adjunct faculty member and also is on staff as advisor to The Evergreen, the student newspaper. Ben's class was as well prepared for our discussion as any class I've visited in recent years. It was an exhilarating visit. After the class I met with The Evergeen staff and other student journalists for a wide-ranging brown bag session that kept coming back to what these students need to do to prepare for careers in journalism. Inevitably, I fall back on some of my own "war" stories to illustrate my views. So I talked a bit about the changes I've experienced since becoming a professional journalist in 1973.
Brent Batten: One man, two votes in school debate
Withers, back on the job Monday, said Calabrese's vote is final. Superintendent Dennis Thompson has been given direction by the board to devise a seven-period schedule to replace the block schedule and it will be up to Thompson whether he wants to bring the board back into the discussion. Under state law, “(Thompson) has a lot of authority at this point in terms of the schedule. The question of the schedule is really the superintendent's bailiwick," Withers said. Abbott, like Calabrese, doesn't support the block schedule in the long term. But she says the school system did a poor job of communicating and wants more time to inform the public about the benefits of a change. She says alternatives, including ones that fall outside the traditional seven-period schedule, should be presented during a public information campaign over the next several months with a decision ideally made before the end of the year.
Big Sky Pull Out Sparks Scramble
The airport at Lake Clear serves Saranac Lake, Lake Placid and Tupper Lake. Big Sky claims bad weather and too few passengers are causing it to pull out of the airport by January 7. Local airports across northern New York are all served by the Montana airline. Officials of those airports say the airline had too few planes and was not well organized to deliver good service. At Lake Clear, they were late or canceled flights 80 percent of the time. Big Sky also ran up a gas bill of $51,000. The airport has now cut off gas and other services. "Since then we've worked out a deal with Big Sky if they show good faith and pay a majority of their bill we would release some of that credit again. But as of right now they pay cash or have a valid credit card," said Larry Miller, R-Harrietstown Supervisor.
Clinton, Obama clash over NAFTA, Iraq
The two square off next Tuesday in primaries in Ohio, Texas, Rhode Island and Vermont, with 370 delegates at stake. Both Obama and Clinton were on the receiving end of pointed questions from Tim Russert of NBC News, one of two moderators for the event. Asked whether he was waffling on his pledge of agreeing to take federal funds for the fall campaign, Obama said he was still contesting the primaries. "If I am the nominee I will sit down with John McCain and make sure we come up with a system that is fair to both sides," he said. Obama could presumably raise far more money than the federal system provides, but accepting government money precludes that. .
Microsoft expands online software services
Microsoft Corp. is expanding its business software offerings over the internet. The new services include e-mail, calendars, contact lists, webconferencing and videoconferencing. They are online versions of features in Microsoft Exchange and SharePoint software. Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) launched the web services in September for businesses with more than 5,000 users. The company is now expanding the services to all companies, with a limited test run starting Monday and a broader rollout planned for the second half of 2008. Microsoft's core business is still traditional licensed software. But under pressure from companies like Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) and Salesforce.com Inc. (NYSE: CRM) that are making software programs available online, Microsoft is shifting some of its software offerings to the web.
Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Vista, left, and Rep. Brian Bilbray, R-Solana ...
I'll calling for a public debate on illegal immigration, and want to invite Ed Sifuentes, Bill Flores from El Grupo, Ruben Navarrette Jr., Ed Morones, and leaders of the local chapters of MEChA and NCLR. I would also like to invite Duncan Hunter, Brian Bilbray, and other media representative as well. In fact I challenge the NCT to put this together for the next Latino Roundtable, so that me and many other concerned Americans can confront this issue. How about it Ed, are you game? This is a joke right? wrote on Feb 16, 2008 12:06 AM:They say it will only be a 'few bad apples?' This is a joke, right? Of course the aliens are complaining about a six month wait (while they collect welfare albeit), cause they don't want their criminal record to pop up before they get their GET IN FREE CARD! Instead, give them a get outta dodge card, don't pass go, don't collect another $200 in this further downgrading of "America".
LeBron isn't a sure thing for MVP
He leads the NBA in scoring and, more importantly, in fourth-quarter scoring. He's averaging career highs in assists, rebounds and field goal percentage. He's developing a killer instinct — his supposed biggest flaw, listening to national pundits — and doing it right before everyone's eyes as he's led the Cavs to 18 fourth-quarter comeback wins so far this season. Not to mention, in a departure from seasons past, he and the Cavs have been dynamite when they've been on national television. They've won the last six games they've played on TNT, ESPN or ABC. Those performances have featured James flatly outplaying competitors like Kobe Bryant, Dirk Nowitzki and Tim Duncan, to name a few. So this very well could be the year that James gets his first Most Valuable Player Award, right? After all, no one can compete with his stats and his profile has never been higher.
|
