Ooh, the bigtime!

I just noticed today that Courierwatch now has a link from the dCourier.com page of mostly dead pseudoblogs. Welcome to all six of you new readers who happened to be rummaging around in the basement over there. Lemme know what you think.

Older readers may recall that the Courier began linking to blogs a couple of years ago, and this one was among them. That's when they made the approximation of my mascot J Fred Muggs as a logo. They told me about it at the time and asked my permission, but that was the extent of my input. This time it was a surprise, so an apparently belated thanks to whomever at the Courier doesn't mind my twitting his/her bosses.

Editorial: Law judge decides correctly on water

The reader may notice something odd about the leader of the opinion page today: it doesn't offer an opinion.

Oh, there's an opinion of sorts in the headline, but there's no supporting argument in the text for characterizing the decision as "correct." There's only a recitation of the facts of the ruling.

The unnamed Courier editor's Barcalounger is hard at work again, turning in an echo of the front-page story, something that would better fit a breezy column on the business page. It's like he just wanted a little vacation today.

What it really means is that while the editor understands intuitively that the court result has some sort of meaning, he can't quite figure out what it is beyond an apparent win for the side he prefers in the contest. A reader would be excused for concluding that his grasp of the complexity of the pipeline issue is weak and shallow.

The facts are that this ruling was expected by everyone involved, ending a technical, preliminary bout that opens the doors for the brutal main events to come. The results there are far less clear, all we know for sure is that they'll be complex and very costly, involving many stakeholders beyond Prescott and SRP.

Challengers sweep election for Prescott City Council

These local results are in line with many other elections around the country this week. We see clearly once again that where conservatives are dogged about voting, progressives need inspiration, and our local slate was anything but inspiring. It also shows that for all the sturm und drang among those of us who pay attention, Prescott remains a sleepy place overall, and Prescott residents in general really don't think Council matters all that much. This is a self-fulfilling idea, I'm afraid, furnishing power over our lives directly into the hands of the developers and corporatists who will be most happy to exploit it to their advantage.

Okay, let's do our sums.

There were 13,093 Prescott voters this time.
Mr Hanna got 7,548 votes.
Ms Linn got 6,979.
Mr Blair, 6,708.
Mr Luzius, 5,888.
Mr Peters, 4,337.
Mr Katan, 2,104.

Notice something missing?

The total of that column is 33,564. At three votes for each of 13,093 voters, the available total for Council was 39,279, leaving 5,715 votes missing. In the vote trade we call that the undervote.

The final tallies will change slightly, but by any standard that's a big number relative to what would have been needed to alter the results substantially. Compare this to the results on the props:

400: 8,809 ayes + 3,329 nays = 12,138; undervote 955
401: 8,233 ayes + 4,183 nays = 12,416; undervote 677

It's academic to the result, of course, but it would be interesting to know how many of those undervoters were either protesting the weakness of the Council candidates or voting strategically, reducing the totals overall in favor of a single candidate. I'd bet five bucks their preferences are not evenly spread statistically.

It might also play into the idea that Prescott has grown beyond the current regime and we could be better served by a borough system, in which each Council member represents a specific area of the city.

Radio news

Regular 89.5 listeners will have already noticed our format change this week. This will be coming to 90.1 in Prescott once we jump a couple more bureaucratic hoops, bumping KJZZ off the air here.

Some listeners will not be happy about this, and I want to get the word out that it wasn't our idea. Rather, the boss tells me that KJZZ in Phoenix, our erstwhile partner for many years, unilaterally abrogated its contract with us.

Our new network partner is KAWC in Yuma, providing community-based programming as well as selections from PRI and other public media outlets. KJZA weekend programming will also start earlier on Saturday. If you're a member of KJZZ, we hope you'll also consider membership in KAWC to help support community radio here and across the state.

The new format is just the beginning, and you can expect to hear new shows and features coming online over the next few months. I hope you'll give it a try, tell your friends, and let me know what you think.

For you early birds I especially want to recommend The Takeaway weekdays 6-8am, produced and hosted live by my old school chum and bandmate John Hockenberry, who's found his way back to public radio after a long, storied career with NPR, ABC and NBC News. And on Saturday mornings we'll be hearing the familiar voice of Bob Edwards 8-10am. I hope you'll join us.

Talk of the Town: Teachers take multiple hits on pay

Barring unforeseen circumstances, along with an update on the deal to open a special legislative session, I'll be discussing Victoria Kendall's letter with Rep Mason this weekend on The People's Business (KJZA 89.5FM, Sat and Sun at 2pm).

Talk of the Town: Global warming data not current

Actual scientist and ecologist Tim Crews gives us a sparkling smackdown of climate-change denier, corporatist tool and non-scientist Terry Lovell. I'm sure we'll see a long list of comments to say that Crews can't possibly know anything because he teaches at Prescott College. Logic like that is what's giving the blockhead right* such stunning electoral victories lately.

* VP George HW Bush, speaking privately to Soviet Premiere Gorbachev in '87: "Reagan is a conservative. An extreme conservative. All the blockheads and dummies are for him, and when he says that something is necessary, they trust him."

Letter: Mother seeks help for late son's unit

Maybe one of my anonymous Courier employees will pipe up here. In Jasmine Crowl's letter seeking donations, she thanks "the following originations for their support ...." The editors spend untold hours screwing around with people's letters to control the message, but they couldn't be bothered to fix this obvious spell-check error for a Gold-Star mother? You guys kill me.

Deputies arrest man after chase in Dewey-Humboldt

Gad the paper is full of editorial mistakes today. In this entertaining little chasing-the-nutbar story, Ken manages to omit the first reference to a witness only called "Grugel," who might have been the bad guy's target, but the story's so deeply muddled I can't really tell.

Today's Chuckle

Or maybe Today's Wince -- this headline: "Small swine flu vaccine shipment lets county give doctors some."

In the lead, Jerry describes "5,000 doses of H1N1 (swine) flu vaccination." That should be vaccine, of course. The story is riddled with errors that any freshman copy editor could have handled. Ack.

Further down, we see in Bruce's story on the Supes meeting that the Centennial Committee wants to issue a "cache" and commemorative stamps. It's "cachet," of course. I'm sure there's a dictionary in the office somewhere. Check under the dust in the broom closet.

Broken limbs and relationships: Property owner, APS at odds over tree trimming

A rich white lady is mad at APS for trimming trees in her rental yard that she should have pruned back years ago. Why in the world is this a news story, leave alone on the front page? Electric utilities are constantly pissing people off by taking liberties with the trees. Should we expect a front-page story next week on how the credit-card company raised the interest rate on some nice grandma?

By the way, Jason, that quote should have been "... we couldn't in good conscience re-energize that line ..." rather than "conscious." Really basic.

Amster: 'Call to service' worth encouraging

Today Randall turns in what I think may be the best-written piece I've seen from him. Good show, Randall!

Editorial: Progress is fine, but let's be open with it

In his Sunday editorial, the unnamed Courier editor complains that "The Republicans were left knocking on the door" to be involved in health-care reform. Anyone with half an eye open can see that the Rs have not only refused to contribute positively despite a huge and politically costly effort to get them in the room, they've proven repeatedly that they will do all they can to derail even the mildest reform.

The editor can go on like this without a hint of irony, having consistently applauded the Rs for keeping the Ds out in the cold through the eight Bush years and decades in the Arizona legislature, today's slap on the wrist notwithstanding.

An honest negotiation needs two honest negotiators. Since the Gingrich years the radical authoritarians, religionists and corporatists running the Republican party have demonstrated that they are interested only in power and gamesmanship. Statesmanship and citizenship have fallen by the boards. It's past time that we all clearly understand that, the editor included, and play the hand we're dealt.

Dems need to grow a spine and stop pretending that Reps are negotiating in good faith. Reps who truly want to act in good faith, and there are a lot of them, must disavow those who don't, separate themselves from the radicals and take back their party.

Elks renovation gets boost

Cindy's nice little update piece on the Elks Theatre is notable for the first mention I've seen or heard of any interest in replacing the stage draperies. These are not "decorative," as the story would have it, but rather are essential stage equipment in dire shape, ready to explode in flame with just the right spark. It's this sort of upgrade and maintenance of equipment and facilities, neglected in all talk I've heard about the project, that I've been harping on for years,

By the way, Cindy, what you're groping to call a "stage archway" is what's known as the proscenium. This indicates to me that you're still talking to people who know nothing about theatre.

Letter: Election snafus frustrate council member

There are a couple of interesting inside-baseball aspects to this letter from Councilwoman Lopas.

Lora sent this to Courierwatch as a comment on The Katan Saga on Oct 17, so I have a clear comparison. I presume that she sent it to the Courier on the same day, and, since the text is the same but for editorial changes, that she sent it electronically, so there was no mail delay or typing time involved.

Despite the high profile of Ms Lopas, the timely nature of what she had to say and the importance of the issue, it took the editors fully two weeks to get her letter into print, and then not as a Talk of the Town or other column, but as a simple letter. That looks a lot like disrespect to me.

I also notice that the editor knocked down Lora's consistent (and perfectly correct) capitalization of "Council," "Charter," "City" and "Mayor," but left "City Manager" and "City Attorney" capitalized. Even if the editor chooses to argue this on the basis of house style, it was clearly applied inconsistently, and in a way that favors the staff with more respect.

Once again, my position on this is that editors can and should maintain a hands-off policy regarding letters, comments and bylined outside columns wherever possible. If it has someone's name on it, the reader should be able to trust that the person wrote it. Fiddling around of this sort is nothing short of arbitrary control of the message, and must not be tolerated.

Friday came quicker than usual this week, and brought some cold air with it. In honor of that, some basics on temperature and how we can make things really cold.

A Day Late and a Dollar Short

Today, the Friday before Election Day, the unnamed Courier editor awards his endorsements for candidates to City Council. I expect the timing of this event is something of a tradition in the Courier editorial suite. Too bad the election is not so traditional, and most of the ballots have already been turned in. The editor has apparently failed to account for the change to a mail-only election and so pretty well completely undercut any clout he might still have with the voters. Pity.

Younger readers may not remember when local newspapers kept a sharp eye on the people's business, a finger on the pulse of public opinion and a full reporter's notebook on every candidate for public office. In those days we could rely on managing editors to have a comprehensive view and access to information forming a perspective that we readers couldn't hope to gain in the course of a campaign. An editorial endorsement meant something, even when you could also count on a paper to be clear and unashamed of its political bias.

Today in Everybody's Hometown it seems that the editor is just going through the motions and his Barcalounger is once again doing all the work. I suppose it's just as well. But he'd be wise to reflect on whether the negligible credibility of his opinion page has anything to do with his plummeting ad sales.

The Mystery Deepens

In today's installment on the DeMocker murder trial, Bruce Colbert uses and defines the term "Chronis hearing." I'm completely baffled about what he's referring to, all I can be sure of is that 'chronis' not an English word and does not appear on the web in any context other than as a person's name. I suspect it's a misspelling, but I haven't found the right word. Can anyone help?

Today's Chuckle

A lobbying group gives Rep Tobin one of a pile of cheapo plaques (I've seen this sort of thing littering the walls and furniture of many legislative offices), he thinks that's special enough to write a press release about it, and the Courier editors think it's so newsworthy that they print it verbatim (hint: that's what "Special to the Courier" means).

The reader should ask: is this the best the Representative can show us? Is this the best good-news story the Courier can come up with about the district's junior representative, who's also in leadership?

Finally: Why does Mr Tobin insist on labeling himself "R-Paulden" rather than just "AZ District 1 Representative" or "Majority Whip"? Would he maybe prefer to distance himself from the voters in Prescott and Cottonwood who elected him?

Today's Chuckle

"Community activist" Paul Baskin recommends that we bring back the King.

Editorial: Others should follow CV course

The unnamed Courier editor comes out in favor of a small energy project in Chino Valley that will save the town a ton of money pretty quick. The numbers make it a dead obvious choice, so obvious that it should be unremarkable. But to the editor, and to an unaccountably large number of our fellow citizens, solar energy projects are still thought of as exotic and experimental.

After the reader slogs through his customary cut-and-paste from the front-page story a couple of days ago, the editor whacks out, "one of the nation's most pressing imperatives is to adopt a program on the order of President John F. Kennedy's effort to reach the moon before 1970 to achieve independence from foreign energy, especially oil." This sort of rhetoric was inspiring when Jimmy Carter presented it to us in the '70s. Now it seems more than a little antique.

The challenges we face with climate change and dwindling petroleum resources should be carrying us to a vision of not just independence from foreign oil, but total independence from fossil carbon as an energy source. As the Chino Valley project and a vast number of other more ambitious plans and projects are proving every day, we have the economically obvious technology in hand. What we don't have is the political will to reduce the market incentives favoring petro energy and big corporations, or to level the playing field for clean energy and smaller-scale production. That's the sort of vision that the editor could be offering, and, for the good of us all, should be offering.