Fridays are usually slow days traffic wise on this blog. I usually get 1000 to 1500 visitors a day to this website with Fridays almost always being the at the low end of the number. I attribute it to a lot of people having long weekends and being away from the computer.
So I was surprised this past Friday when I checked my stats early in the afternoon and saw I was already at 1500 or so visitors. At first I couldn't figure out what was causing the spike, then later on, I learned that one of the people killed in the collision between the two TV news helicopters in Phoenix that day was named "Craig Smith."
I guess there were a lot of Google searches that day for "Craig Smith" and many of them landed on my blog.
There is a minor Santa Barbara connection to the crash story. Kaley O'Malley, who used to be a reporter here at KEYT, now works at the TV station in Phoenix where Craig Smith worked. KEYT had an interview with her about the crash.
You might recall that the News-Press is claiming that the Indy infringed its copyright by posting on their website an article by then News-Press reporter Scott Hadly about what happened on "Black Thursday" in the News-Press newsroom when Jerry Roberts was perp walked out of the building. Travis Armstrong killed the story but it turned up on the Indy's website where it stayed for a brief period of time before it was removed at the request of the News-Press.
You'd think that would have been the end of it but no. Last October the News-Press filed suit in federal court claiming copyright infringement. The case is in the "discovery" stage meaning that the parties are exchanging information between themselves as well as gathering it from other sources. Depositions, including those of Hadly and the Indy people will be taken within the next few weeks.
Believe me, those depo subpoenas are one invite you never want to receive.
The Judge to whom the case is assigned is Edward Rafeedie. He has some experience hearing these types of matters having once ordered a software company to pay Microsoft $13.7 million for misappropriating trade secrets. The News-Press vs. Indy suit is to be heard by a jury.
Word is that out at the News-Press' state of the art printing plant in Goleta morale is low. It's July and the employees are still waiting to receive their annual raises.
That cinching sound you hear is undoubtedly that of the belts being tightened out in the Mediterranean aboard Wendy's yacht.
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