Freelance journalist Peter Lance, who is fighting off allegations of drunk driving both in the courts and in the News-Press (well, mostly in the News-Press) was in court on Tuesday for a pretrial hearing. Judge Brian Hill declined to find him or the News-Press in contempt for defying his order not to publish certain confidential information in the newspaper.
According to the front page article in Wednesday's News-Press, Lance was reprimanded by Judge Hill for being a little too exuberant in the courtroom by giving a "thumbs up" sign to a witness. Gee, every sportswriter knows that there's no cheering in the press box. Does Lance not know that there's no cheering at the counsel table?
That News-Press story was written by Scott Steepleton. Well, at least they didn't assign Lance to cover his own court hearing.
If you can't read the Steepleton article because of the News-Press pay wall, there's also a good account of what happened at the Indy.
Unlike its Santa Barbara County counterpart, the Los Angeles County Employees Retirement Association is refusing to identify by name how much its county retirees are receiving. As I mentioned last week, the Santa Barbara Retirement system has notified its members that it will be releasing their names along with the amounts of their monthly allowances to the News-Press and the LA Times.
Today at noon in De la Guerra Plaza, there will be a rally to commemorate the five-year anniversary of the News-Press meltdown. Come out and show your support for the workers who were fired from the News-Press.
© 2011 by Craig Smith and www.craigsmithsblog.com
