My extended weekend of heavy vacationing and light blogging is over. It's time to dive into what's been going on around town and in the local media the past few days.
Yesterday's edition of Wendy McCaw's News-Press had an editorial that tried to lay the blame for the fatal July 4th stabbing that allegedly arose out of a gang conflict squarely on Mayor Marty Blum.
It also questions the wisdom of the city going ahead with the Fourth of July fireworks display even though the Gap Fire was burning in the foothills of adjoining Goleta. (The City of Goleta canceled its fireworks display.)
Two things are clear: Mayor Blum will never please all of the people all of the time. And no matter what she does, with the possible exception of resigning from office before the end of her term, there is nothing that she could ever do that would please the News-Press.
On Saturday, the News-Press "Investigative Reporter," Robert Eringer asked the question, "How safe is City Hall tap water?"
Probably safer and more secure than anyone's prospects for long-term employment at the News-Press these days.He quotes one of the people he interviewed as saying, "Thousands of studies have shown that tap water is contaminated with many pollutants. Bottled water is not necessarily a better option, because the bottled water industry is unregulated – and sometimes bottled water is tap water."
I knew there was a reason that "Evian," when read backwards, spells "naive."
On Friday, Travis Armstrong wrote about how a power outage that delayed the printing of the paper made it necessary for News-Press employees to drop their regular duties and pitch in to fold, sort, and then actually deliver papers to subscriber's homes.
"From office administrative assistants to classified advertising sales representatives, from editors to those in the human resources department, workers from across the News-Press departments at the downtown Santa Barbara headquarters filled in."
Do I dare ask? Where were Wendy and Arthur? I'll bet you could cram a lot of newspapers into those matching Bentleys.
Shelly Leachman, who did time as a reporter at the News-Press before landing at the Daily Breeze in Torrance, is leaving that paper.
On her way out the door, she shot off a farewell e-mail addressed to: "Dear Journalism."
Here's an excerpt:
I'm still trying to forgive you (journalism) for that whole Wendy McCaw thing. I know it wasn't your fault, per se, and that she, much like Glenn Close to Harrison Ford in "Fatal Attraction," just won't leave you no matter how hard you push, but wow, I wish you would kick her to the curb already. Jeez, Journalism, how many proverbial bunnies have to be boiled before you find a way to get rid of her?
As prone as those rabbits are to propagate, we could probably never round up enough to offer as a proverbial sacrifice to find out.
BTW, that was Michael Douglas and not Harrison Ford in "Fatal Attraction."
