Editorial: "'Immigrant rights' is a true oxymoron"

The unnamed Courier editor gives himself a star today, apparently for throwing rocks in all directions at once. Big rocks, that don't fly far before thudding into the dirt.

We have a rock aimed at immigrants, lots of rocks for illegal immigrants (the editor forgets the difference), a rock for Dems, whom he thinks want "a ready-made dependent class" that can vote but can't vote, a rock for Republican labor exploiters, a rock for amnesty, another for people who don't speak English well enough for the editor to get his lawn done properly, a rock for the Feds for failing to employ the magic alien technologies they've been keeping secret that would seal the border, and a big fat rock for Thomas Jefferson, who held certain truths to be self-evident.

Luckily, no one was harmed.

Robinson: "Traffic-stop searches follow racial lines"

Again, we suffer some arbitrary editing and introduced errors, but today's non-right-leaning Courier offering, originally headlined "Pulling Over for Prejudice," is full-length and only lightly bruised by our editors.

I should add that it's not actually today's column, but rather yesterday's. Today's Robinson column is "Lost in the Fog With Commander Guy."

Letters: Smackdown Friday

Today we have three cogent responses to various letters and opinions appearing in the Courier, including one to Terry Lovell's April 15 ToT from an actual meteorologist. Editors, maybe Dale Meyer can write the balancing opinion we've all been anticipating for most of a month, since the expert you did ask is just not getting it done.

The fourth letter, from an unhappy customer at the ZZ Top concert, I could swear I've seen before. Is this a repeat?

A1: "PV police arrest three boys for arson"

I hope we all appreciate that three little kids with a lighter accidentally setting a bush on fire rates six inches of page one in our local paper. No snark here, I mean it.

A1: "Petroglyph fence to remain in subdivision plans"

Today's page-one photobox highlights what seems a good-news story on a subject of broad concern to Prescott residents. We couldn't save the Dalke land as open space, but we can at least hold back the bulldozers and put a little fence around some of the above-ground archaeological treasure that we know about.

I'd better stop there, I'm starting to get depressed.

A1: "Springer reverses course on public transit"

Now this is news: The Queen Bee inadvertently reads the proposal and discovers she's been wrong all along. Personal growth is a wonderful thing, innit?

Good work, Cindy, including the bit at the end from Norwood, who will be the real problem child.

A1: "Hampton Inn to come to ‘downtown’ PV"

Nice of the Courier to print this little promotion for the Fains -- they need so much help to make any money, you know. I do like the quotes in the headline, indicating a downtown only so-called.

This should have been in the Business section with the other press releases, guys.

A1:"Custom car show rides into town"

Nice to see some advance coverage of an old-car charity show. I haven't been tracking this for the last couple of years, but when I was doing this regularly we could always count on the Courier ignoring us, even with events that took over the square for a weekend. It's a press release, but it's got a picture and it's placed prominently, all good.

Coming: Dems back Renzi on DOJ probe

Via AZ Congress Watch (great work over there), today the Arizona Democratic Party issued this statement:

“Rick Renzi’s assertion that the Justice Department is trying to influence elections in Arizona is extremely serious and should be investigated,” said David Waid, Chairman of the Arizona Democratic Party. “Over the last two weeks, the FBI has raided Renzi’s family business and he has been fined by the FEC for violating campaign finance laws, Arizonans deserve to know whether these are legitimate investigations.”

Coming: Simon announces

I've just heard that Ellen Simon has filed for the AZ-1 seat soon to be vacated by Richie Rich Renzi. That's two so far.

Cohen: "Dick Cheney will lie, denying that he's a liar"

The Courier editors give us a truncated version of this Cohen column, headlined at Real Clear Politics as "Kucinich's Case Against Cheney." (It's from yesterday, but for some reason has yet to appear on the WaPo site.) For you scorekeepers out there, it's 297 out of 758 words, broken mid-paragraph. So again it's liberal-opinion-as-filler, but on the upside the headline is sort of intelligible and there's no editing inside to screw it up further. A very simple slashing.

Editorial: "Anti-day labor bill’s veto was political"

The unnamed Courier editor concludes that the Governor's intention is political. Apparently he has a stringer inside her head.

I'll give you what the Courier hasn't: the bill, which makes it a crime to stand in certain places with an intention. It does not, of course, provide any criterion for determining a person's intention in the absence of doing anything other than stand. Or maybe stop to light a cigarette. I'm not the lawyer Janet is, but this bothers even lowly old me.

The Courier editor likes this bill. I wonder whether he's actually read it. Perhaps he likes it because he can always tell what a person's intention is.

Talk of the Town: "Gun control proponents turning us into cowards"

Bob Shimizu, whom I know as a fellow jazz musician, runs down the standard talking points at length and with gusto, offering nothing you haven't read before on the Courier editorial page. His big idea: to address the big problem of mass killings by psychopaths, an event less likely to kill you than a lightning strike on a clear day, we should allow permit holders to carry their guns on campus. Presumably no permit holder would ever use it to hurt anyone.

More gunfights! That's what we need.

Letters: Twin rants

James Baker can't figure out why local lawnforcement can't enforce laws over which it has no jurisdiction, and Susan Patricks wants to give Elise Townsend a punch in the nose. The interesting bit is the correction related to yesterday's letter from Amy Reyes, citing an "editing error" -- was it Amy's error, or the editor's?

Cartoon: Absolut Yeltsin

I expect the Courier editors celebrate the demise of the Soviet Union, yet in a tawdry example of doublethink, they present the man who actually led that action, on the occasion of his death, as a bad pun on a commercial. Classy, guys. Knock a guy when he's dead.

A1: "April offers no relief as fire season approaches"

There's blessed relief from the usual fluff in today's page-one photobox, as Joanna Dodder provides an actual news story that should matter to everyone living here. Clear writing, good detail, Joanna gets a cookie.

A1: "Lowe's construction site raises concerns"

Cindy Barks paints us a picture of discomfited Councilcritters grilling the Lowe's representatives over the mess they're making. What I'm not seeing is any indication of whether the construction crews are doing anything that Council didn't approve. It reads a bit like a show for the complainers, but without that crucial bit of information, we can't draw a conclusion.

A1: "Two teens prompt two pursuits in stolen jeep incident"

As I hoped, Mirsada Buric turns in a followup on the pursuit story from May 1. Together the stories present an object lesson in reporting.

Both rely heavily on police reports, including raw tips from witnesses. I'll focus on just one example. One of those tips in the preliminary report describes the perps as men in their 20s. Once they're in cuffs we learn that they were both 15.

This detail colors each story for the reader. In the first we learn that adult criminals are lurking in wait to steal cars. In the second they are bored teenagers hanging around looking for a thrill. These are very different lessons.

This is why I characterized this and other details in the first story as 'clutter' -- not because I knew the story better than the reporter, but because they didn't tell the reader anything useful, and we could expect that most of them were junk.

A11: "Council tables vote on Monogram’s plans for Young’s Farm"

Doug Cook pulls together the relevant facts, but someone buried the lead.* The D-H Council tabled the decision, true enough: to the next council, essentially passing the hot potato. Maybe that's the smart thing to do, but I think it's an important angle, perhaps indicating just how controversial this development is. Since the Courier has taken an editorial position on this decision, it should be more circumspect in its news coverage of the topic.

* Yes, I know that journos love to spell this as 'lede.' All editors make style decisions, and this is mine, for me: 'lede' is elitist insider jargon, as yet unaccepted in standard dictionaries.

Coming?: Renzi speaks a puzzle

Found on Think Progress:

Yesterday in an interview with Phoenix’s KPNX, Renzi spoke for the first time since the FBI raid and said that he believes he is being smeared by the Justice Department. He refused to take any responsibility for the land deal, instead charging — without any evidence — that the leaks on the investigation were “lies.” He added that “to make that up and put that out means the Department of Justice was engaged in electioneering and that needs to be investigated.”

Does he believe it, or is he just flailing?