ON AGAIN, OFF AGAIN: We've been merciless with our local newspaper, especially since the departure of "Big Mike" Levine who is making quite the name for himself covering the Honolulu City Council for the online news source Civil Beat with the same rabid no-holds-barred coverage he provided for the Kaua`i community.
But what made the era remarkable- especially considering the seemingly determined efforts of the owners and publishers to dumb down the content and bend over for the Chamber of Commerce crowd- was Levine's tag-team partner Editor Nathan Eagle who, despite the orders from above, managed to shine even with a usually semi-literate, untalented group of underlings.
And now it's Eagle's turn to exit as we've learned with a one-way ticket to South America where he plans to both work and play, "hopefully more of the latter."
Eagle, whose last day will be Wednesday, has no idea who his replacement will be but we fear the worst given that the search for a new editor has been ongoing without success.
The facts that the salaries are traditionally of the starvation variety at the paper and that the job has been advertised locally don't instill much hope that anything resembling professionalism will be a trait of Eagle's replacement.
For the uninitiated, there is a "circuit" where many new J-school grads jump on board, travel the country, spend a couple-o-few years working, first at small papers and then gradually larger ones, trying to make their mark and move up the ladder while honing their skills. Many do it because they need the experience- others because they like the lifestyle.
And separate from the chaff, some of the highest quality semolina has come from that job mill.
The thing is that a Hawai`i assignment usually attracts those who will work for less, and many times that is reflected in their work. The Anthony Sommers, Dennis Wilkens, and the Levines and Eagles of the world are the exception rather than the rule. They generally arrive sans family or attachments and, although they sometimes intend to stay a while, they usually eventually depart for bigger and better things, disgusted with the way they've been treated both financially and as to the freedom to report what they actually see without a filter imposed from above.
The Andy Gross episode of a few years back is typical. The then fairly newly-hired Gross started nosing around the sale and operation of the then newly-created electrical "co-op" and eventually had his copy squelched by then weekend-Editor Paul Curtis, a former close associate of Gregg Gardiner, the "founder" of KIUC. With Gardiner at the helm and Curtis writing the copy at the notorious "The Kaua`i Times" they worked to, among other ventures, overturn the Nukoli`i vote, support the Hanalei boaters and champion various other efforts that took a crap on the people of Kaua`i.
So don't expect much when the new editor is named, especially with Publisher and CofC Board Member Randy Kozerski in charge. Kozerski fired the last business editor for perceived disregard of Chamber news and then hired the next one with instructions to pump up the CofC with more and more "positive" coverage.
So get ready to meet the news boss. We can only hope they're the same as the old boss.
Showing posts with label Paul Curtis. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Paul Curtis. Show all posts
Monday, December 12, 2011
Thursday, December 30, 2010
YOU’VE GOTTA BE KIDDING
YOU’VE GOTTA BE KIDDING: The departure of local newspaper “reporter” Paul Curtis- apparently for plagiarism- is a two-edged sword. While Curtis manipulated his reports to protect friends and go after enemies- and do so in the laziest manner possible- now we’re stuck with the oft unintelligible Leo Azambuja on the cops and courts beat.
Today’s attempt to clarify the facts surrounding the recent alleged murder of Aureo Arick Moore did anything but, demonstrating that our student Leo is ready for lesson two in his on the job j-school.
After you’ve learned the 5 W’s and determining and writing a “lead”- or lede as it’s spelled on the inside- you need to be able to, as editors across the world ask their reporters to do, “tell me a story.”
But instead, today’s hodge-podge of fact and fiction was more like a spaghetti cooking contest with a pasta-splattered wall attesting to the “toss it all and see what sticks” methodology of journalism Azambuja prefers.
One thing that beginners fail to recognize is that sometimes, when your hunch turns out to lead nowhere you don’t need to tell the story of how hard you tried to track down the immaterial facts.
Seems that, according to the article,
On Dec. 19, Carrie Ann Robson, 39, of Kilauea, was arrested and charged at 11:30 p.m. with second-degree attempted murder. Her bail was set at $100,000.
But when Azambuja finally clarified with Prosecutor Shaylene Iseri Carvalho that the case had nothing to do with the Moore murder, rather than moving on he insisted on including a lengthy explanation of how much work he did to find out that it was irrelevant to the story.
He also seemed compelled to lay out his confusion over the dribs and drabs of information released by the county. But rather than clarify it all in a narrative it’s simply laid out in a chronology with little or no explanation of the relevancy.
But the inability to tell a story- combined with the inability to “find the lede”- make for an exercise in incomprehensibility.
Toward the end of the article he tries to delve into the relationship between the alleged October robbery of Moore where a shot or shots were allegedly fired and the upcoming trial of Kyle Akau, 24, of Anahola who is accused of firing the shot(s) and robbing Moore of cash and drugs.
Way down at the bottom- 2184 words into the 2660 word piece- we finally get some information on why alleged killer Vicente "Vinnie" Hilario might have murdered Moore.
After discussing the various charges and reports on the Safeway robbery of Moore we read:
The coconut wireless over the latest murder case on Kaua`i has inundated blogs and Internet discussion forums with many rumors.
Some have claimed Moore was set up by an unidentified woman. Others allege he was murdered because he was dating Hilario’s mother. There were drug connections spread all over the Internet. Moore was also said to have been killed for being a witness in a court case.
While most of these are purely rumors, the prosecution was able to add the more serious first-degree murder charge because the crime involved the killing of an officer or a witness related to a crime.
Iseri-Carvalho said the prosecution added the first-degree murder because Moore was a witness to a court case pending against Hilario.
Huh? What “court case pending against Hilario”? Charges were in fact dropped against Hilario after he was arrested with Akau in the Safeway robbery of Moore.
As we speculated the day Hilario’s name was released it appeared Hilario might have killed Moore because he was a witness in Akau’s trial which had been scheduled for Dec 27 at the time of the murder.
Our conjecture was based on past newspaper reports that said that Hilario was one of the two who were released after being arrested in connection with the robbery.
But while for some reason Azambuja was reluctant to report that two plus two equals four- instead telling us that it equaled a number somewhere between three and five- the Honolulu Start Advertiser didn’t mince any words.
In a “corrections” in today’s edition they write:
Prosecutors charged Vicente "Vinnie" Hilario with first-degree murder involving the shooting death of Aureo Arick Moore. Prosecutors allege the fatal shooting was related to Moore's status as a witness against Hilario and another man involving a robbery case. Prosecutors had amended their complaint to add the first-degree murder charge. A B2 story that ran on Friday reported Hilario was charged with second-degree murder.
That is the story today- not the thousands of words about what KPD, the prosecutor and the public information officer put Azambuja through in trying to track down the facts.
Not only was the lede buried toward the end of the article it wasn’t even written in a plain straightforward manner but rather, like we’re playing a game of 20 Questions where we’ve used up 19 and have to guess what the news is with our 20th.
Today’s attempt to clarify the facts surrounding the recent alleged murder of Aureo Arick Moore did anything but, demonstrating that our student Leo is ready for lesson two in his on the job j-school.
After you’ve learned the 5 W’s and determining and writing a “lead”- or lede as it’s spelled on the inside- you need to be able to, as editors across the world ask their reporters to do, “tell me a story.”
But instead, today’s hodge-podge of fact and fiction was more like a spaghetti cooking contest with a pasta-splattered wall attesting to the “toss it all and see what sticks” methodology of journalism Azambuja prefers.
One thing that beginners fail to recognize is that sometimes, when your hunch turns out to lead nowhere you don’t need to tell the story of how hard you tried to track down the immaterial facts.
Seems that, according to the article,
On Dec. 19, Carrie Ann Robson, 39, of Kilauea, was arrested and charged at 11:30 p.m. with second-degree attempted murder. Her bail was set at $100,000.
But when Azambuja finally clarified with Prosecutor Shaylene Iseri Carvalho that the case had nothing to do with the Moore murder, rather than moving on he insisted on including a lengthy explanation of how much work he did to find out that it was irrelevant to the story.
He also seemed compelled to lay out his confusion over the dribs and drabs of information released by the county. But rather than clarify it all in a narrative it’s simply laid out in a chronology with little or no explanation of the relevancy.
But the inability to tell a story- combined with the inability to “find the lede”- make for an exercise in incomprehensibility.
Toward the end of the article he tries to delve into the relationship between the alleged October robbery of Moore where a shot or shots were allegedly fired and the upcoming trial of Kyle Akau, 24, of Anahola who is accused of firing the shot(s) and robbing Moore of cash and drugs.
Way down at the bottom- 2184 words into the 2660 word piece- we finally get some information on why alleged killer Vicente "Vinnie" Hilario might have murdered Moore.
After discussing the various charges and reports on the Safeway robbery of Moore we read:
The coconut wireless over the latest murder case on Kaua`i has inundated blogs and Internet discussion forums with many rumors.
Some have claimed Moore was set up by an unidentified woman. Others allege he was murdered because he was dating Hilario’s mother. There were drug connections spread all over the Internet. Moore was also said to have been killed for being a witness in a court case.
While most of these are purely rumors, the prosecution was able to add the more serious first-degree murder charge because the crime involved the killing of an officer or a witness related to a crime.
Iseri-Carvalho said the prosecution added the first-degree murder because Moore was a witness to a court case pending against Hilario.
Huh? What “court case pending against Hilario”? Charges were in fact dropped against Hilario after he was arrested with Akau in the Safeway robbery of Moore.
As we speculated the day Hilario’s name was released it appeared Hilario might have killed Moore because he was a witness in Akau’s trial which had been scheduled for Dec 27 at the time of the murder.
Our conjecture was based on past newspaper reports that said that Hilario was one of the two who were released after being arrested in connection with the robbery.
But while for some reason Azambuja was reluctant to report that two plus two equals four- instead telling us that it equaled a number somewhere between three and five- the Honolulu Start Advertiser didn’t mince any words.
In a “corrections” in today’s edition they write:
Prosecutors charged Vicente "Vinnie" Hilario with first-degree murder involving the shooting death of Aureo Arick Moore. Prosecutors allege the fatal shooting was related to Moore's status as a witness against Hilario and another man involving a robbery case. Prosecutors had amended their complaint to add the first-degree murder charge. A B2 story that ran on Friday reported Hilario was charged with second-degree murder.
That is the story today- not the thousands of words about what KPD, the prosecutor and the public information officer put Azambuja through in trying to track down the facts.
Not only was the lede buried toward the end of the article it wasn’t even written in a plain straightforward manner but rather, like we’re playing a game of 20 Questions where we’ve used up 19 and have to guess what the news is with our 20th.
Wednesday, December 22, 2010
HAPPY TRIALS
HAPPY TRIALS: We’ve never been much for “belief,” rather subscribing to the “half of what you see and none of what you hear” philosophy.
But our skepticism regarding a certain intrepid, red-suited, north pole denizen got a challenge with the news that the local newspaper’s courts and police reporter, Paul Curtis, is apparently no longer in their employ.
Assuming it was an involuntary separation- something we have it on fairly decent authority is the case, especially since his name has been purged from the staff page- it would be the third such termination for the Billy Martin of local reportage.
Although our celebration of the departure of government beat reporter Leo Azambuja was premature, we’ll proceed as if once burned, twice shy doesn’t apply here.
Last time Curtis was canned it was for causing then Business Editor Andy Gross to quit when Curtis tried to squelch Gross’ investigation of some of the shenanigans at the Kaua`i Island Utilities Coop (KIUC).
Curtis had been given his first job in reporting at the now seemingly defunct Kaua`i Times (despite a consent decree in a lawsuit forcing the local newspaper to continue to publish it) by Gregg Gardiner, who later pushed through the sale of Kaua`i Electric at an exorbitant price that continues to saddle rate payers with the highest rates in the country.
Though rumors of kickbacks were rampant, nothing was ever proven.
But with Curtis’ departure it’s time for the paper to regain the professionalism it exhibited during the recent and brief golden age when current editor Nathan Eagle and the now departed Mike Levine provided hold no punches coverage of island news.
That’s going to take one of two things.
The first and least likely is to see one of the myriad professionals recently let go in the contraction of Honolulu newspapers being lured to Kaua`i despite the starvation wages the paper notoriously pays.
The best scenario is to see Publisher Randy Kozerski loosen the purse strings and spring for a living wage so as to lure one of them- or even one of the local professionals- to do the job.
We’re not expecting a miracle. Just another little present from a gift-giving fat man.
-----
Speaking of most likely, unless something forces us to sit in front of this screen, we’re gonna take a long weekend.
But our skepticism regarding a certain intrepid, red-suited, north pole denizen got a challenge with the news that the local newspaper’s courts and police reporter, Paul Curtis, is apparently no longer in their employ.
Assuming it was an involuntary separation- something we have it on fairly decent authority is the case, especially since his name has been purged from the staff page- it would be the third such termination for the Billy Martin of local reportage.
Although our celebration of the departure of government beat reporter Leo Azambuja was premature, we’ll proceed as if once burned, twice shy doesn’t apply here.
Last time Curtis was canned it was for causing then Business Editor Andy Gross to quit when Curtis tried to squelch Gross’ investigation of some of the shenanigans at the Kaua`i Island Utilities Coop (KIUC).
Curtis had been given his first job in reporting at the now seemingly defunct Kaua`i Times (despite a consent decree in a lawsuit forcing the local newspaper to continue to publish it) by Gregg Gardiner, who later pushed through the sale of Kaua`i Electric at an exorbitant price that continues to saddle rate payers with the highest rates in the country.
Though rumors of kickbacks were rampant, nothing was ever proven.
But with Curtis’ departure it’s time for the paper to regain the professionalism it exhibited during the recent and brief golden age when current editor Nathan Eagle and the now departed Mike Levine provided hold no punches coverage of island news.
That’s going to take one of two things.
The first and least likely is to see one of the myriad professionals recently let go in the contraction of Honolulu newspapers being lured to Kaua`i despite the starvation wages the paper notoriously pays.
The best scenario is to see Publisher Randy Kozerski loosen the purse strings and spring for a living wage so as to lure one of them- or even one of the local professionals- to do the job.
We’re not expecting a miracle. Just another little present from a gift-giving fat man.
-----
Speaking of most likely, unless something forces us to sit in front of this screen, we’re gonna take a long weekend.
Wednesday, December 15, 2010
THEFT, SCHMEFT
THEFT, SCHMEFT: The plagiarism- as we depicted it yesterday- of blogger Charley Foster’s summarization of a lawsuit over the Hapa Trail in Koloa by local newspaper reporter Paul Curtis, elicited a mysterious comment by prolific Big Island blogger Damon Tucker (who also uses the “P” word in a post today) which read “Tim Ryan?” and included this link.
It leads to a little know discussion page of the “go to” information repository Wikipedia and a January 2006 article entitled “Wikipedia editors expose journalist's plagiarism.”
Michael Snow writes:
Sleuthing Wikipedia editors have found several cases of apparent plagiarism over the past two years by Tim Ryan, a reporter for the Honolulu Star-Bulletin. It began with the discovery of an article last month containing language that closely matched a Wikipedia article, and more investigation found earlier articles that seemed to borrow from additional sources without attribution.
In response to these reports, the Star-Bulletin acknowledged the situation by adding corrections or editor's notes to some of the articles. Star-Bulletin Editor Frank Bridgewater took these actions after investigating the incident and also met with the newspaper's publisher, Dennis Francis, about the situation. However, Bridgewater said last week that he considered the issue of whether any action would be taken against Ryan "a confidential personnel matter."
Apparently Ryan was a serial plagiarist who not only lifted Wikipedia sections unattributed- that essentially being the difference between a “fair use” reference and plagiarism- but also passages from the Sacramento Bee newspaper and the NPR radio program All Things Considered, according to Snow.
But you’d think they’d have learned, especially Bridgewater who continued on at the new Star-Advertiser when the Star-Bulletin “bought out” the bigger and stronger Advertiser.
While we’ve reserved a special place in journalism purgatory for much of what’s presented by the current crop of people at our local newspaper they do one thing that Bridgewater’s Star(ved for real news) Advertiser apparently refuses to do- attribute their press release rewrites.
One of the staples of a daily “newspaper of record” is the rewritten press release, especially those emanating from local and state government public information offices.
Editors, usually those on the “night shift” of larger papers, avoid plopping the copy directly in their news hole- the place left for news when the predetermined advertising is laid out.
In order to avoid charges of plagiarism they re-write the releases shifting the sentence constructions and using other wordsmithing techniques.
But while you’ll always find the words “according to a county release” or another appropriate credit in our local Kaua`i newspaper, when the identical release is rewritten in the Honolulu paper that attribution is never to be found.
Plagiarism has become a serious problem at many publications of late. The NY Times Jason Blair case and other have spurred policies that are designed to eliminate not just the lack of attribution but much more serious lapses.
Are we really that far removed from the mainland that the Honolulu daily thinks it doesn’t have to join the 21st century when it comes to accuracy and full disclosure?
Apparently the answer is yes, as long as the notoriously thin-skinned throwback Bridgewater is in charge.
It leads to a little know discussion page of the “go to” information repository Wikipedia and a January 2006 article entitled “Wikipedia editors expose journalist's plagiarism.”
Michael Snow writes:
Sleuthing Wikipedia editors have found several cases of apparent plagiarism over the past two years by Tim Ryan, a reporter for the Honolulu Star-Bulletin. It began with the discovery of an article last month containing language that closely matched a Wikipedia article, and more investigation found earlier articles that seemed to borrow from additional sources without attribution.
In response to these reports, the Star-Bulletin acknowledged the situation by adding corrections or editor's notes to some of the articles. Star-Bulletin Editor Frank Bridgewater took these actions after investigating the incident and also met with the newspaper's publisher, Dennis Francis, about the situation. However, Bridgewater said last week that he considered the issue of whether any action would be taken against Ryan "a confidential personnel matter."
Apparently Ryan was a serial plagiarist who not only lifted Wikipedia sections unattributed- that essentially being the difference between a “fair use” reference and plagiarism- but also passages from the Sacramento Bee newspaper and the NPR radio program All Things Considered, according to Snow.
But you’d think they’d have learned, especially Bridgewater who continued on at the new Star-Advertiser when the Star-Bulletin “bought out” the bigger and stronger Advertiser.
While we’ve reserved a special place in journalism purgatory for much of what’s presented by the current crop of people at our local newspaper they do one thing that Bridgewater’s Star(ved for real news) Advertiser apparently refuses to do- attribute their press release rewrites.
One of the staples of a daily “newspaper of record” is the rewritten press release, especially those emanating from local and state government public information offices.
Editors, usually those on the “night shift” of larger papers, avoid plopping the copy directly in their news hole- the place left for news when the predetermined advertising is laid out.
In order to avoid charges of plagiarism they re-write the releases shifting the sentence constructions and using other wordsmithing techniques.
But while you’ll always find the words “according to a county release” or another appropriate credit in our local Kaua`i newspaper, when the identical release is rewritten in the Honolulu paper that attribution is never to be found.
Plagiarism has become a serious problem at many publications of late. The NY Times Jason Blair case and other have spurred policies that are designed to eliminate not just the lack of attribution but much more serious lapses.
Are we really that far removed from the mainland that the Honolulu daily thinks it doesn’t have to join the 21st century when it comes to accuracy and full disclosure?
Apparently the answer is yes, as long as the notoriously thin-skinned throwback Bridgewater is in charge.
Tuesday, December 14, 2010
JUST A LITTLE BIT, JUST A LITTLE BIT
JUST A LITTLE BIT, JUST A LITTLE BIT: In addition to the inability of the local newspaper to do things like get the story right and present it in an intelligible manner, other than the intrepid “photographer” Dennis Fujimoto- who is somehow able to be in both Wainiha and Waimea at the same moment- the others are among the laziest reporters in the world.
You can’t help but notice that the dispatches from courts and police beat “reporter” Paul Curtis seem to emanate solely from hanging around the courthouse and cop shop and recording and regurgitating whatever they dump in his lap.
But this Saturday might have been a new low according to a post from attorney-blogger Charley Foster.
Though Foster’s posts have been all too infrequent since he got his law license and stopped writing about local issues, something in Curtis’ article about the Hapa Trail controversy in Saturday’s newspaper forced him to feed the beast today.
Foster writes:
I'm informed some of my blogging appeared in Saturday's Garden Island. That's kind of exciting. It would be even more so if the paper had showed me some love by way of attribution.
He then posts a section of his April 2009 post listing six bullet points culled from a lawsuit, filed by Koloa activist Ted Blake, over “a case filed back in March of 2009 over the Knudsen Trust's planned Village at Poipu development.”
And lo and behold a look at Curtis’ article shows he plagiarized Forster’s bullet points word for word without attribution.
Foster is a bit more forgiving than to call it plagiarism saying:
Hey, I'm happy for the paper to reprint anything I've written on Planet Kauai. But I'd appreciate a little nod. Something along the lines of, "According to Kauai attorney and legal blogger Charley Foster..." would be nice.
We can accept the almost monthly article about an auto accident occurring within a hundred years of the local newspaper’s offices. They apparently cover all the news that happens between McDonald’s and the “76” gas station.
But when you lift a passage the difference between attribution and plagiarism IS that the latter is done without the former, as many authors of greater stature than Curtis have found out.
You can’t help but notice that the dispatches from courts and police beat “reporter” Paul Curtis seem to emanate solely from hanging around the courthouse and cop shop and recording and regurgitating whatever they dump in his lap.
But this Saturday might have been a new low according to a post from attorney-blogger Charley Foster.
Though Foster’s posts have been all too infrequent since he got his law license and stopped writing about local issues, something in Curtis’ article about the Hapa Trail controversy in Saturday’s newspaper forced him to feed the beast today.
Foster writes:
I'm informed some of my blogging appeared in Saturday's Garden Island. That's kind of exciting. It would be even more so if the paper had showed me some love by way of attribution.
He then posts a section of his April 2009 post listing six bullet points culled from a lawsuit, filed by Koloa activist Ted Blake, over “a case filed back in March of 2009 over the Knudsen Trust's planned Village at Poipu development.”
And lo and behold a look at Curtis’ article shows he plagiarized Forster’s bullet points word for word without attribution.
Foster is a bit more forgiving than to call it plagiarism saying:
Hey, I'm happy for the paper to reprint anything I've written on Planet Kauai. But I'd appreciate a little nod. Something along the lines of, "According to Kauai attorney and legal blogger Charley Foster..." would be nice.
We can accept the almost monthly article about an auto accident occurring within a hundred years of the local newspaper’s offices. They apparently cover all the news that happens between McDonald’s and the “76” gas station.
But when you lift a passage the difference between attribution and plagiarism IS that the latter is done without the former, as many authors of greater stature than Curtis have found out.
Friday, October 22, 2010
AND ALL FOR UNDER A BUCK
AND ALL FOR UNDER A BUCK: We’ve come up with a formula that perfectly describes the treatment of information consumers on Kaua`i.
Yesterday’s Papers + Everything Old Is New Again = Our Local Newspaper.
This kind of “when we get around to it... and if we’re forced to” journalism results in things like the way someone decided to tip off the Star(ad)vetiser to the story today of the $38 million sale of the Aston Kauai Beach to JMI Realty of Texas rather than tell the Kaua`i paper because they knew the S-A would not just publish the story in a timely manner but actually get the story right.
So we were not surprised by the “day late and a dollar short” story that appeared in Wednesday’s local paper that must have been a head-scratcher for anyone who had not read our report almost a month and a half ago that Mayor Carvalho’s Administrative Assistant Gary Heu was warning people that alleged “Westside serial killer” Waldorf “Wally” Wilson was spotted on Kaua`i riding a bike in Puhi.
But of course the newspaper danced around the whole story by leaving out the fact that Wilson was identified as the suspect in two killings and an assault many years ago, according to Chapter 8- The Serial Killer in the book KPD Blue by Anthony Sommer (see left rail to read the entire book).
Seems police beat “reporter” Paul Curtis must have missed one of the “5 W’s” in J-school classes- the one where, after covering who, what, when, and where, they cover “why”- leaving out the fact that Wilson was a suspect in those killings.
Instead Curtis wrote that “a widely circulated e-mail came just short of accusing an innocent man of murder”.
Innocent? Well, maybe just short of it according to Sommer.
The article essentially repeats Joan Conrow’s report a few weeks back regarding the KPD and AG’s office contention that they checked and Wilson “is still living in Kane`ohe” although later in the article it says that “(i)f visiting another island for more than 10 days, (registered sex offenders) must register in person with the county police department on that island within three days of arrival” implying that no notification is needed to visit for 10 days so it doesn’t mean Wilson was never here as Curtis strains to imply.
Our favorite part of course is where Curtis writes:
“Word spread from as high up as Mayor Bernard Carvalho Jr.’s No. 2 man, Administrative Assistant Gary Heu, to as low as blogs written by local residents saying Wilson may be living in Puhi”
Well if Heu is “high” and we’re “low” we suppose today’s publication means the story has finally hit rock bottom.
So why would the local newspaper fail to report the core of the story? Well it wouldn’t be the first time they failed to touch the story with a 10 foot pole.
Sommer tells us why that might be, writing:
On Sept. 12, 2000, the KPD announced it had arrested a convicted rapist on a parole violation. The man’s name and mug shot were released through the mayor’s office.
The press release was almost instantly followed by another insisting the parole violator was in no way a suspect in the west side attacks and his only crime was violating the conditions of his parole.
The KPD was so vehement in pointing out that the man was not the serial killer, every editor in the state bought it. Except for one Honolulu television station, which used his name and broadcast his picture, all the “news executives” were frightened by the KPD’s threat of libel suits.
The next day, the KPD, through the mayor’s office criticized the lone television station that identified the arrested man for “irresponsible reporting.”
The television station was correct. It was the KPD that was lying. And the mayor’s office knew it but lying to the press was pretty much standard operating procedure. Next, Inspector Mel Morris, head of the investigations bureau, began dragging a red herring claiming, “KPD has not ruled out the possibility that there may be more than one person responsible.”
He said the man arrested is “unrelated to any of these cases. Any impression that might have been given that these cases are close to being solved is flat-out wrong.”
The arrested man was, of course, KPD’s primary, in fact only, suspect and (off the record, of course) they were certain he was the killer but they couldn’t prove it.
His name was Waldorf “Wally” Wilson, and his name and picture were all over the west side on anonymously printed flyers.
But the Honolulu media executives would not publish his name until two years later—and then only because Wilson filed a lawsuit against KPD, a newspaper and a magazine.
Wilson was convicted in 1983 of a brutal rape on Oahu. He was paroled on Jan. 9, 1999 and in January 2000 moved to Kauai. The attacks began three months later.
Wally Wilson’s brother was a KPD officer, Buddy Wilson, a long-time member of the Vice Squad known for his somewhat less than subtle tactics in investigating narcotics cases.
(Once again the circle that began with the Randy Machado trial looped back. Kelly Lau was a witness for Machado at his trial. Lau indicated quite clearly she was a confidential informant working for Buddy Wilson.)
All the while, KPD insisted Wally Wilson was not a suspect. For the next two years, the KPD engaged in tactics that Wally Wilson later claimed in his lawsuit violated his Constitutional rights.
But he was kept off the streets without ever actually being charged with any crime.
And there were no more attacks.
According to Wally Wilson’s lawsuit, KPD “coerced” him into taking a polygraph test on Sept. 12, 2000 and then “strongly pressured” the Hawaii Parole Authority to revoke Wilson’s parole. The results of the polygraph test were not given in the lawsuit.
A judge ultimately threw out Wilson’s lawsuit but by then KPD’s tactics were pretty obvious, as was its complete inability (or unwillingness) to bring criminal charges against him involving the three attacks.
Unable or unwilling to cover news in a timely manner?.. failing to include facts not just material but central to the story?... repeating whatever those he covers tells him to without questioning and an inability to adhere to basic reporting standards?...
Check, check and check.
So much for “without fear or favor.”
That’s our Paul and that’s our newspaper- serial offenders of journalistic standards by any measure.
Yesterday’s Papers + Everything Old Is New Again = Our Local Newspaper.
This kind of “when we get around to it... and if we’re forced to” journalism results in things like the way someone decided to tip off the Star(ad)vetiser to the story today of the $38 million sale of the Aston Kauai Beach to JMI Realty of Texas rather than tell the Kaua`i paper because they knew the S-A would not just publish the story in a timely manner but actually get the story right.
So we were not surprised by the “day late and a dollar short” story that appeared in Wednesday’s local paper that must have been a head-scratcher for anyone who had not read our report almost a month and a half ago that Mayor Carvalho’s Administrative Assistant Gary Heu was warning people that alleged “Westside serial killer” Waldorf “Wally” Wilson was spotted on Kaua`i riding a bike in Puhi.
But of course the newspaper danced around the whole story by leaving out the fact that Wilson was identified as the suspect in two killings and an assault many years ago, according to Chapter 8- The Serial Killer in the book KPD Blue by Anthony Sommer (see left rail to read the entire book).
Seems police beat “reporter” Paul Curtis must have missed one of the “5 W’s” in J-school classes- the one where, after covering who, what, when, and where, they cover “why”- leaving out the fact that Wilson was a suspect in those killings.
Instead Curtis wrote that “a widely circulated e-mail came just short of accusing an innocent man of murder”.
Innocent? Well, maybe just short of it according to Sommer.
The article essentially repeats Joan Conrow’s report a few weeks back regarding the KPD and AG’s office contention that they checked and Wilson “is still living in Kane`ohe” although later in the article it says that “(i)f visiting another island for more than 10 days, (registered sex offenders) must register in person with the county police department on that island within three days of arrival” implying that no notification is needed to visit for 10 days so it doesn’t mean Wilson was never here as Curtis strains to imply.
Our favorite part of course is where Curtis writes:
“Word spread from as high up as Mayor Bernard Carvalho Jr.’s No. 2 man, Administrative Assistant Gary Heu, to as low as blogs written by local residents saying Wilson may be living in Puhi”
Well if Heu is “high” and we’re “low” we suppose today’s publication means the story has finally hit rock bottom.
So why would the local newspaper fail to report the core of the story? Well it wouldn’t be the first time they failed to touch the story with a 10 foot pole.
Sommer tells us why that might be, writing:
On Sept. 12, 2000, the KPD announced it had arrested a convicted rapist on a parole violation. The man’s name and mug shot were released through the mayor’s office.
The press release was almost instantly followed by another insisting the parole violator was in no way a suspect in the west side attacks and his only crime was violating the conditions of his parole.
The KPD was so vehement in pointing out that the man was not the serial killer, every editor in the state bought it. Except for one Honolulu television station, which used his name and broadcast his picture, all the “news executives” were frightened by the KPD’s threat of libel suits.
The next day, the KPD, through the mayor’s office criticized the lone television station that identified the arrested man for “irresponsible reporting.”
The television station was correct. It was the KPD that was lying. And the mayor’s office knew it but lying to the press was pretty much standard operating procedure. Next, Inspector Mel Morris, head of the investigations bureau, began dragging a red herring claiming, “KPD has not ruled out the possibility that there may be more than one person responsible.”
He said the man arrested is “unrelated to any of these cases. Any impression that might have been given that these cases are close to being solved is flat-out wrong.”
The arrested man was, of course, KPD’s primary, in fact only, suspect and (off the record, of course) they were certain he was the killer but they couldn’t prove it.
His name was Waldorf “Wally” Wilson, and his name and picture were all over the west side on anonymously printed flyers.
But the Honolulu media executives would not publish his name until two years later—and then only because Wilson filed a lawsuit against KPD, a newspaper and a magazine.
Wilson was convicted in 1983 of a brutal rape on Oahu. He was paroled on Jan. 9, 1999 and in January 2000 moved to Kauai. The attacks began three months later.
Wally Wilson’s brother was a KPD officer, Buddy Wilson, a long-time member of the Vice Squad known for his somewhat less than subtle tactics in investigating narcotics cases.
(Once again the circle that began with the Randy Machado trial looped back. Kelly Lau was a witness for Machado at his trial. Lau indicated quite clearly she was a confidential informant working for Buddy Wilson.)
All the while, KPD insisted Wally Wilson was not a suspect. For the next two years, the KPD engaged in tactics that Wally Wilson later claimed in his lawsuit violated his Constitutional rights.
But he was kept off the streets without ever actually being charged with any crime.
And there were no more attacks.
According to Wally Wilson’s lawsuit, KPD “coerced” him into taking a polygraph test on Sept. 12, 2000 and then “strongly pressured” the Hawaii Parole Authority to revoke Wilson’s parole. The results of the polygraph test were not given in the lawsuit.
A judge ultimately threw out Wilson’s lawsuit but by then KPD’s tactics were pretty obvious, as was its complete inability (or unwillingness) to bring criminal charges against him involving the three attacks.
Unable or unwilling to cover news in a timely manner?.. failing to include facts not just material but central to the story?... repeating whatever those he covers tells him to without questioning and an inability to adhere to basic reporting standards?...
Check, check and check.
So much for “without fear or favor.”
That’s our Paul and that’s our newspaper- serial offenders of journalistic standards by any measure.
Wednesday, September 8, 2010
MUZZLED (Part 3)
MUZZLED (Part 3): While the subject line may not be as jarring as embezzlement and slavery, another story- one that may have much bigger implications for the island’s future- is striking for it’s absence from the local newspaper.
The big news ran in a Pacific Business News article headlined
Barking Sands Going Off Grid
A fragile domestic electricity grid makes military installations unnecessarily vulnerable.
The sub-head tells the rest of The Pacific Missile Range Facility’s (PRMF) side of the story including a target date of 2015.
You don’t have to be a mathematics genius to understand the untold story of the implication for rate-payers who are forced to remain on the grid and who will have to pay for all the established infrastructure of lines and generation facilities with fewer rate payers.
Actually you didn’t have to be a genius to predict it either. The “nitpickers”, who got their name from then Mayor Maryanne Kusaka for their efforts opposing the sale, did so during the deal-making process about a decade ago.
They knew that when the big users- specifically naming PMRF among them- decide to go off the grid the rate payers would suffer. And as home generation though wind and solar became cheaper and more widely available more families would leave the grid too making their- now our- old fissile fuel generation units, well, old fossils.
And you don’t have to be anything but observant to understand the links the local newspaper has to Kaua`i Island Utilities Cooperative (KIUC) to understand why the story was absent from its pages.
First of all, the firing of Business Editor Coco Zickos for not making kissy-face with the Chamber of Commerce crowd wasn’t the first time a business editor left under similar circumstances.
A few years back Business Editor Andy Gross was starting to ask questions about KIUC and publish answers that didn’t please the board and management. One weekend, while then weekend editor Paul Curtis read the latest installment of Gross’ investigative efforts he demanded Gross leave out the most embarrassing parts.
Gross essentially told Curtis “to take this job and shove it” but when the editor returned Monday, Gross wasn’t the only one out of a job. Curtis was fired and by the time Gross was offered his job back he had already found better paying employment and refused to return to a newspaper that censored news.
But why would Curtis- who has been rehired under Editor Nathan Eagle and reinstalled as weekend editor- care? For that you have to go back to the nascent days of The Kaua`i Times newspaper where then publisher Greg Gardiner gave Curtis his first newspaper job as Gardiner’s shill in his pro-development efforts.
Gardiner went on to lead the coop’s efforts to buy the utility at any price that owner Citizen’s Utilities asked- an original price that was dropped by over $50 million and, the nitpickers contended, should have been lowered much more with some, including PNN, saying they should have had to pay us to take it off their hands due to the other liabilities such as the toxic waste dump under the Ele`ele power plant.
Add to that the fact that KIUC is one of the biggest advertisers in the paper- using rate-payer’s bucks for happyface PR- and it doesn’t take a genius to figure out why news of the biggest user of electricity deciding to go it alone hasn’t made the pages of our “newspaper of record”.
A newspaper is more than just another business especially when it’s the only news source in town, small, independent, essentially one-person outlets like this notwithstanding.
“Without fear or favor” and “afflict the comfortable and comfort the afflicted” are more than just slogans. They are at the heart of responsible journalism- the kind our local Kaua`i newspaper apparently eschews if it displeases those who advertise with them.
The big news ran in a Pacific Business News article headlined
Barking Sands Going Off Grid
A fragile domestic electricity grid makes military installations unnecessarily vulnerable.
The sub-head tells the rest of The Pacific Missile Range Facility’s (PRMF) side of the story including a target date of 2015.
You don’t have to be a mathematics genius to understand the untold story of the implication for rate-payers who are forced to remain on the grid and who will have to pay for all the established infrastructure of lines and generation facilities with fewer rate payers.
Actually you didn’t have to be a genius to predict it either. The “nitpickers”, who got their name from then Mayor Maryanne Kusaka for their efforts opposing the sale, did so during the deal-making process about a decade ago.
They knew that when the big users- specifically naming PMRF among them- decide to go off the grid the rate payers would suffer. And as home generation though wind and solar became cheaper and more widely available more families would leave the grid too making their- now our- old fissile fuel generation units, well, old fossils.
And you don’t have to be anything but observant to understand the links the local newspaper has to Kaua`i Island Utilities Cooperative (KIUC) to understand why the story was absent from its pages.
First of all, the firing of Business Editor Coco Zickos for not making kissy-face with the Chamber of Commerce crowd wasn’t the first time a business editor left under similar circumstances.
A few years back Business Editor Andy Gross was starting to ask questions about KIUC and publish answers that didn’t please the board and management. One weekend, while then weekend editor Paul Curtis read the latest installment of Gross’ investigative efforts he demanded Gross leave out the most embarrassing parts.
Gross essentially told Curtis “to take this job and shove it” but when the editor returned Monday, Gross wasn’t the only one out of a job. Curtis was fired and by the time Gross was offered his job back he had already found better paying employment and refused to return to a newspaper that censored news.
But why would Curtis- who has been rehired under Editor Nathan Eagle and reinstalled as weekend editor- care? For that you have to go back to the nascent days of The Kaua`i Times newspaper where then publisher Greg Gardiner gave Curtis his first newspaper job as Gardiner’s shill in his pro-development efforts.
Gardiner went on to lead the coop’s efforts to buy the utility at any price that owner Citizen’s Utilities asked- an original price that was dropped by over $50 million and, the nitpickers contended, should have been lowered much more with some, including PNN, saying they should have had to pay us to take it off their hands due to the other liabilities such as the toxic waste dump under the Ele`ele power plant.
Add to that the fact that KIUC is one of the biggest advertisers in the paper- using rate-payer’s bucks for happyface PR- and it doesn’t take a genius to figure out why news of the biggest user of electricity deciding to go it alone hasn’t made the pages of our “newspaper of record”.
A newspaper is more than just another business especially when it’s the only news source in town, small, independent, essentially one-person outlets like this notwithstanding.
“Without fear or favor” and “afflict the comfortable and comfort the afflicted” are more than just slogans. They are at the heart of responsible journalism- the kind our local Kaua`i newspaper apparently eschews if it displeases those who advertise with them.
Friday, August 27, 2010
TAKIN’ IT TO THE STREETS
TAKIN’ IT TO THE STREETS: What do you do when you are waging war with those who “buy ink by the barrel”.
The questionable judgment it shows in perpetuating the conflict aside, Prosecutor Shaylene Iseri-Carvalho has decided the best course is to take her show on the road.
Apparently the next parry in her battle with local newspaper reporter Paul Curtis is her announcement of a series of six “community meetings” in September and October at various neighborhood centers around the island.
A poster she’s distributing reads:
Pono Kaulike
Equal Rights and Justice for All
Community Meetings
Have any questions for the Office of the Prosecuting Attorney? Our office will be holding six Pono Kaulike community meetings in September and October at the following locations
5:30-7:30 p.m.
Kapa`a Neighborhood Center Thursday September 2
Koloa Neighborhood Center Thursday September 9
Lihu`e Neighborhood Center Tuesday September 14
Kekaha Neighborhood Center Wednesday September 29
Waimea Neighborhood Center Thursday October 7
Kilauea Neighborhood Center Friday October 15
Come learn more about our office and ask questions to (sic) our experienced attorneys.
It’s hard to fathom Iseri’s thought processes sometimes and when she gets all riled up it’s really a hoot to try.
As a result of her hostilities with Curtis, the biggest criticism of Iseri’s office- rightly or wrongly- is that they don’t seem to spend enough time preparing their cases and, due to “limited resources”, the ones they choose to prosecute aren’t the more serious ones... or at least the ones that matter most to the community.
So what does she do? She takes her whole office out on the road to spend the time they could be spending prosecuting the “bad guys” to do a PR talking tour in order to placate those making these kinds of complaints.
Plus, for those who have had the Iseri experience, she isn’t exactly the most enchanting and charismatic of figures in person often electing “fingernails on the blackboard” reactions even from those who agree with what she is saying.
Perhaps she thinks that she’s god’s gift to public speaking after winning an open council seat based on how big her family is or running unopposed in her prosecutor’s race. Perhaps she believes her own publicity.
Either way we urge anyone looking for a rousing evening of entertainment to attend one of these session. You can be sure Paul Curtis will.
The questionable judgment it shows in perpetuating the conflict aside, Prosecutor Shaylene Iseri-Carvalho has decided the best course is to take her show on the road.
Apparently the next parry in her battle with local newspaper reporter Paul Curtis is her announcement of a series of six “community meetings” in September and October at various neighborhood centers around the island.
A poster she’s distributing reads:
Pono Kaulike
Equal Rights and Justice for All
Community Meetings
Have any questions for the Office of the Prosecuting Attorney? Our office will be holding six Pono Kaulike community meetings in September and October at the following locations
5:30-7:30 p.m.
Kapa`a Neighborhood Center Thursday September 2
Koloa Neighborhood Center Thursday September 9
Lihu`e Neighborhood Center Tuesday September 14
Kekaha Neighborhood Center Wednesday September 29
Waimea Neighborhood Center Thursday October 7
Kilauea Neighborhood Center Friday October 15
Come learn more about our office and ask questions to (sic) our experienced attorneys.
It’s hard to fathom Iseri’s thought processes sometimes and when she gets all riled up it’s really a hoot to try.
As a result of her hostilities with Curtis, the biggest criticism of Iseri’s office- rightly or wrongly- is that they don’t seem to spend enough time preparing their cases and, due to “limited resources”, the ones they choose to prosecute aren’t the more serious ones... or at least the ones that matter most to the community.
So what does she do? She takes her whole office out on the road to spend the time they could be spending prosecuting the “bad guys” to do a PR talking tour in order to placate those making these kinds of complaints.
Plus, for those who have had the Iseri experience, she isn’t exactly the most enchanting and charismatic of figures in person often electing “fingernails on the blackboard” reactions even from those who agree with what she is saying.
Perhaps she thinks that she’s god’s gift to public speaking after winning an open council seat based on how big her family is or running unopposed in her prosecutor’s race. Perhaps she believes her own publicity.
Either way we urge anyone looking for a rousing evening of entertainment to attend one of these session. You can be sure Paul Curtis will.
Thursday, August 19, 2010
INCOMPETENCE AT TEN PACES
INCOMPETENCE AT TEN PACES: No one looks good when a war breaks out. But the hostilities between local newspaper “reporter” Paul Curtis and Prosecuting Attorney (PA) Shaylene Iseri-Carvalho pit two of the least sympathetic characters on Kaua`i against each other in a race to the bottom of the island’s approval ratings.
Today’s artillery blast from Curtis accusing Iseri of causing the “dismissal” of 16 counts of incest comes on the heels a “press release” issued by Iseri on Tuesday that refutes much of the content of an Aug 5 Curtis-penned front page article accusing her of various misdeeds in a case involving her ex-boyfriend- allegations the paper was forced to retract the next day although they did it so via a tiny “Corrections and Clarifications” blurb at the bottom of page 2.
For more background you can re-read out post on the subject
Iseri’s release, which does not seem to appear at the web site of the Prosecuting Attorney, was obtained by PNN and starts by saying:
The Kaua`i Office of the Prosecuting Attorney (“OPA”) issues the following News Release in response to an August 4, 2010 Garden Island Newspaper (“GI”) article entitled ‘Battle Brewing’ (“the article”). The OPA previously declined comment on the case, as it was legally bound by ethical obligations. Those obligations have since been removed, and the OPA is now ethically able to comment.
It goes on to detail what Iseri claims are the false statements made by Curtis. The first three were pretty much covered by the “corrections”. With an explanatory blurb after each one Iseri writes:
The GI’s claim that Prosecuting Attorney Shaylene Iseri-Carvalho announced that she was seeking enhanced sentencing for Dennis Rego Jr. is patently false.
Neither Rego or his attorney Mark Zenger asserted any conflict until
the court refused to grant any further continuances of the trial date
The OPA contacted the Attorney General’s Office, who opined that there was no conflict.
However the next one contains heretofore untold accusations of misconduct against Rego’s attorney Mark Zenger:
Zenger contacted the victim numerous times to pressure him into dropping the theft charge against Rego.
According to the victim: Zenger told the victim that Rego’s family owns City Liquor Store on Rice Street, is very embarrassed by the incident, and wants everything to be handled quietly without going to court. Zenger also said that Rego would never be convicted based on his connections, having dated Iseri-Carvalho, and having a sister who works for a judge. Zenger said that Rego would return the stolen money and property if the victim promised not to participate in prosecuting Rego.
Finally she tells her side of a meeting she says took place six days after the article appeared:
Iseri-Carvalho met with the GI.
On August 11, 2010, Iseri-Carvalho and OPA staff met with GI reporter, Paul Curtis, and GI editor, Nathan Eagle. The GI admitted that it failed to investigate the personal allegations against Iseri-Carvalho. The GI deliberately misled the public by inventing a scandalous story alleging abuse of the Prosecuting Attorney’s position without a shred of legal or factual basis. The GI attacked Iseri-Carvalho’s professional and personal reputation without due regard for the truth. Had the Garden Island acted professionally, it would have waited to report on testimony given under oath at a hearing that had already been set for September 14th. Instead, the GI chose to publish its uninformed, unsubstantiated allegations, which interfered in the judicial process and compelled the OPA to transfer this case to the AG.
Of course the paper has disregarded Iseri’s release.
Instead, in today’s article, under a headline of “Judge dismisses 32 counts of incest,” Curtis reports:
Calling some statements county Prosecutor Shaylene Iseri-Carvalho made to a grand jury “irresponsible” and “sloppy,” 5th Circuit Judge Kathleen Watanabe on Wednesday dismissed 32 counts of incest against Kenneth Bray of Kapa`a.
“I’m surprised that caution was not taken,” Watanabe said before dismissing the 32 counts without prejudice.
"Without prejudice", for the uninitiated, means that Bray can be re-indicted by the grand jury- essentially a “no harm no foul” decision.
It’s hard to tell who’s worse in all this crap.
You can practically see the spittle coming off the page of Iseri’s release. And Curtis’ petty vindictive coverage of the pre trial motions is typical of his childish behavior.
As our source for the release said “those two deserve each other”. And we deserve better from both.
------
On a serious note many may have heard by now about the tragic death of our dear friend Ann Punohu’s eldest daughter Shanarae Kaulananapuaikaikamaolino Donovan also known by her many beloved nicknames: Shana, Lana and Fi.
Kaulana was on the Mayor’s Youth Advisory Committee, Vice President of the Young Democrats, was commended by the Governor for her work with the Boy’s and Girl’s Club as an outstanding leader and was a Leadership Kauai graduate. She was a student at KCC with plans to attend Cornell University, and was the recipient of the Wai’ale’ale four-year scholarship for college. She was completing an internship at the National Tropical Botanical Garden and an active volunteer in her community.
A Benefit Concert will be held to help the family, who are unable to cover her funeral expenses. The concert will be held at The Children of the Land Polynesian Culture Center under the clock tower at Kaua`i Villiage Shopping Center in Waipouli on Tuesday, August 24th from 6-10 PM.
Musicians, Performers and volunteers are needed for this event. If you are interested in donating your time to help the family, please call Sandy Herndon at The Children of the Land at (808) 821-1234.
A Memorial Fund to help with expenses has also been set up at Bank of Hawaii. Donations can be made at any Bank of Hawaii location by requesting the funds go to the Shanarae Donovan Memorial Fund.
---------
We’re off to the dentist tomorrow. Be back Monday.
Today’s artillery blast from Curtis accusing Iseri of causing the “dismissal” of 16 counts of incest comes on the heels a “press release” issued by Iseri on Tuesday that refutes much of the content of an Aug 5 Curtis-penned front page article accusing her of various misdeeds in a case involving her ex-boyfriend- allegations the paper was forced to retract the next day although they did it so via a tiny “Corrections and Clarifications” blurb at the bottom of page 2.
For more background you can re-read out post on the subject
Iseri’s release, which does not seem to appear at the web site of the Prosecuting Attorney, was obtained by PNN and starts by saying:
The Kaua`i Office of the Prosecuting Attorney (“OPA”) issues the following News Release in response to an August 4, 2010 Garden Island Newspaper (“GI”) article entitled ‘Battle Brewing’ (“the article”). The OPA previously declined comment on the case, as it was legally bound by ethical obligations. Those obligations have since been removed, and the OPA is now ethically able to comment.
It goes on to detail what Iseri claims are the false statements made by Curtis. The first three were pretty much covered by the “corrections”. With an explanatory blurb after each one Iseri writes:
The GI’s claim that Prosecuting Attorney Shaylene Iseri-Carvalho announced that she was seeking enhanced sentencing for Dennis Rego Jr. is patently false.
Neither Rego or his attorney Mark Zenger asserted any conflict until
the court refused to grant any further continuances of the trial date
The OPA contacted the Attorney General’s Office, who opined that there was no conflict.
However the next one contains heretofore untold accusations of misconduct against Rego’s attorney Mark Zenger:
Zenger contacted the victim numerous times to pressure him into dropping the theft charge against Rego.
According to the victim: Zenger told the victim that Rego’s family owns City Liquor Store on Rice Street, is very embarrassed by the incident, and wants everything to be handled quietly without going to court. Zenger also said that Rego would never be convicted based on his connections, having dated Iseri-Carvalho, and having a sister who works for a judge. Zenger said that Rego would return the stolen money and property if the victim promised not to participate in prosecuting Rego.
Finally she tells her side of a meeting she says took place six days after the article appeared:
Iseri-Carvalho met with the GI.
On August 11, 2010, Iseri-Carvalho and OPA staff met with GI reporter, Paul Curtis, and GI editor, Nathan Eagle. The GI admitted that it failed to investigate the personal allegations against Iseri-Carvalho. The GI deliberately misled the public by inventing a scandalous story alleging abuse of the Prosecuting Attorney’s position without a shred of legal or factual basis. The GI attacked Iseri-Carvalho’s professional and personal reputation without due regard for the truth. Had the Garden Island acted professionally, it would have waited to report on testimony given under oath at a hearing that had already been set for September 14th. Instead, the GI chose to publish its uninformed, unsubstantiated allegations, which interfered in the judicial process and compelled the OPA to transfer this case to the AG.
Of course the paper has disregarded Iseri’s release.
Instead, in today’s article, under a headline of “Judge dismisses 32 counts of incest,” Curtis reports:
Calling some statements county Prosecutor Shaylene Iseri-Carvalho made to a grand jury “irresponsible” and “sloppy,” 5th Circuit Judge Kathleen Watanabe on Wednesday dismissed 32 counts of incest against Kenneth Bray of Kapa`a.
“I’m surprised that caution was not taken,” Watanabe said before dismissing the 32 counts without prejudice.
"Without prejudice", for the uninitiated, means that Bray can be re-indicted by the grand jury- essentially a “no harm no foul” decision.
It’s hard to tell who’s worse in all this crap.
You can practically see the spittle coming off the page of Iseri’s release. And Curtis’ petty vindictive coverage of the pre trial motions is typical of his childish behavior.
As our source for the release said “those two deserve each other”. And we deserve better from both.
------
On a serious note many may have heard by now about the tragic death of our dear friend Ann Punohu’s eldest daughter Shanarae Kaulananapuaikaikamaolino Donovan also known by her many beloved nicknames: Shana, Lana and Fi.
Kaulana was on the Mayor’s Youth Advisory Committee, Vice President of the Young Democrats, was commended by the Governor for her work with the Boy’s and Girl’s Club as an outstanding leader and was a Leadership Kauai graduate. She was a student at KCC with plans to attend Cornell University, and was the recipient of the Wai’ale’ale four-year scholarship for college. She was completing an internship at the National Tropical Botanical Garden and an active volunteer in her community.
A Benefit Concert will be held to help the family, who are unable to cover her funeral expenses. The concert will be held at The Children of the Land Polynesian Culture Center under the clock tower at Kaua`i Villiage Shopping Center in Waipouli on Tuesday, August 24th from 6-10 PM.
Musicians, Performers and volunteers are needed for this event. If you are interested in donating your time to help the family, please call Sandy Herndon at The Children of the Land at (808) 821-1234.
A Memorial Fund to help with expenses has also been set up at Bank of Hawaii. Donations can be made at any Bank of Hawaii location by requesting the funds go to the Shanarae Donovan Memorial Fund.
---------
We’re off to the dentist tomorrow. Be back Monday.
Tuesday, August 10, 2010
(PNN) LOCAL PAPER’S BUSINESS EDITOR ZICKOS FIRED DUE TO BUSINESS COMMUNITY COMPLAINTS
LOCAL PAPER’S BUSINESS EDITOR ZICKOS FIRED DUE TO BUSINESS COMMUNITY COMPLAINTS
(PNN) -- The local newspaper’s Business Editor, Coco Zickos, was fired last week because, she was told, the business community was unhappy with her reporting and she was doing too many environmental articles.
According to Zickos on August 4 she was called to a meeting with Editor Nathan Eagle and Human Resources Director Tamra Wedemeyer where she was told by Eagle that she was “not a good fit anymore” and to gather her belongings and go.
However Zickos says that when Eagle left the room Wedemeyer essentially told her that it was “not personal but you've been doing a lot of environmental stuff but not involved enough in the business community and the business community is unhappy with your business reporting” although she could not recall the precise words used by Wedemeyer
She says Eagle told her it was not her writing or journalistic skills but her “performance” that was at issue, saying she was pushed to attend more chamber of commerce promoted events and didn’t always do so.
“It was a total shock” Zickos said in a telephone interview conducted yesterday afternoon. “There was no warning- nobody ever pulled me aside and said there were any problems.”
Although no one said so, Zickos said she suspects the firing was at the behest of Publisher Randy Kozerski.
Although in the past the paper’s business editors also covered the “environmental” beat Zickos says she was not originally hired to cover environmental issues but, since that was her passion, she asked and was given permission to cover the beat.
Some sources who asked not to be identified said that it might have been the content of her environmental coverage such as the series on bacterial counts at local beaches that upset tourism industry officials who would rather bad news that could effect visitor count be squelched.
This is not the first time the paper’s business editor has left the paper due to complaints over content that upset some in the business community. Editor Andy Gross quit after being told to stop covering Kaua`i Island Utilities Coop (KIUC) issues raised by co-op members by current Police and Courts Editor Paul Curtis who was weekend and assistant editor at the time.
Curtis was then let go by the Editor Adam Harju due to the incident but has returned to the paper under Eagle.
Before that Curtis was employed by KIUC founder Gregg Gardiner at The Kaua`i Times newspaper before it was bought out by TGI.
Zickos says she guesses that she angered some powerful people in the business community somehow although she didn’t venture a guess as to whom that might be.
Though she said she had no experience or training in journalism she said she “learned a lot” by working at the paper.
Pressed with the $64 question often raised by PNN as a reason why journalistic skills and experience are apparently given short shrift during hiring- especially given the number of experienced journalists out of work after the “merger” of the Honolulu newspapers- Zickos would only give her salary “range” of “between 12 and 15 dollars an hour”.
The paper has apparently not as yet hired a new business and/ or environmental editor and Zickos’ name has been purged on the staff page.
For the record Zickos did not initiate contact with PNN, we sought her out for this story.
(PNN) -- The local newspaper’s Business Editor, Coco Zickos, was fired last week because, she was told, the business community was unhappy with her reporting and she was doing too many environmental articles.
According to Zickos on August 4 she was called to a meeting with Editor Nathan Eagle and Human Resources Director Tamra Wedemeyer where she was told by Eagle that she was “not a good fit anymore” and to gather her belongings and go.
However Zickos says that when Eagle left the room Wedemeyer essentially told her that it was “not personal but you've been doing a lot of environmental stuff but not involved enough in the business community and the business community is unhappy with your business reporting” although she could not recall the precise words used by Wedemeyer
She says Eagle told her it was not her writing or journalistic skills but her “performance” that was at issue, saying she was pushed to attend more chamber of commerce promoted events and didn’t always do so.
“It was a total shock” Zickos said in a telephone interview conducted yesterday afternoon. “There was no warning- nobody ever pulled me aside and said there were any problems.”
Although no one said so, Zickos said she suspects the firing was at the behest of Publisher Randy Kozerski.
Although in the past the paper’s business editors also covered the “environmental” beat Zickos says she was not originally hired to cover environmental issues but, since that was her passion, she asked and was given permission to cover the beat.
Some sources who asked not to be identified said that it might have been the content of her environmental coverage such as the series on bacterial counts at local beaches that upset tourism industry officials who would rather bad news that could effect visitor count be squelched.
This is not the first time the paper’s business editor has left the paper due to complaints over content that upset some in the business community. Editor Andy Gross quit after being told to stop covering Kaua`i Island Utilities Coop (KIUC) issues raised by co-op members by current Police and Courts Editor Paul Curtis who was weekend and assistant editor at the time.
Curtis was then let go by the Editor Adam Harju due to the incident but has returned to the paper under Eagle.
Before that Curtis was employed by KIUC founder Gregg Gardiner at The Kaua`i Times newspaper before it was bought out by TGI.
Zickos says she guesses that she angered some powerful people in the business community somehow although she didn’t venture a guess as to whom that might be.
Though she said she had no experience or training in journalism she said she “learned a lot” by working at the paper.
Pressed with the $64 question often raised by PNN as a reason why journalistic skills and experience are apparently given short shrift during hiring- especially given the number of experienced journalists out of work after the “merger” of the Honolulu newspapers- Zickos would only give her salary “range” of “between 12 and 15 dollars an hour”.
The paper has apparently not as yet hired a new business and/ or environmental editor and Zickos’ name has been purged on the staff page.
For the record Zickos did not initiate contact with PNN, we sought her out for this story.
Friday, August 6, 2010
GET THE WHITE-OUT
GET THE WHITE-OUT: We were pretty rough on local newspaper “employee” Leo Azambuja the other day in calling him “(h)yperbole notwithstanding, the worst reporter in the world at the worst newspaper in the world”.
But that statement is only problematic if you dispute the tag “reporter” given his lack of acumen and apparently after these many months, his ability- or interest in trying- to learn the job.
Therefore let us amend that- given his decades of pseudo-journalism on Kaua`i the “worst reporter” award has to go to courts and police beat reporter Paul Curtis whose controversial front page report yesterday alleging misconduct on the part of Prosecutor Shaylene Iseri- Carvalho was apparently based on a central “fact” Curtis created out of whole cloth.
In writing about a case in 5th Circuit Judge Randal Valenciano’s court Curtis’ lede read:
At face value, it looked like an open-and-shut theft case with the perpetrator caught on a grocery store surveillance camera.
That is until county Prosecuting Attorney Shaylene Iseri-Carvalho through Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Lauren McDowell announced she may seek enhanced sentencing against Dennis Louis Rego Jr. because of his petty misdemeanor theft conviction in 1987 in Honolulu.
But today, tucked into a corner of page 2 under the banner Corrections and Clarifications the SECOND correction was this little tidbit:
In the front-page story Thursday, “Battle brewing,” it should not have stated that county prosecutors are seeking enhanced sentencing against defendant Dennis Louis Rego Jr., and that the state Attorney General’s office never uses outside private counsel as special deputy attorney generals (sic), but deputizes prosecutors from other county prosecutors offices to take certain cases.
For those that missed the story, apparently, according to a filing by Rego’s attorney Mark Zenger, Rego and Iseri:
were boyfriend-girlfriend for nearly a decade, that Rego helped put Iseri-Carvalho through undergraduate and law school, and that Iseri-Carvalho prodded Rego into the 1987 theft of cosmetics from a Honolulu department store.
But no one apparently said anything connecting anything about any enhanced sentencing, which would be central to any allegation of misconduct on the part of Iseri who said she checked with the attorney general’s office regarding any conflict of interest before the case went forward and did not personally prosecute Rego.
The second part of the correction is bad enough because any experienced court reporter would know that deputy attorneys general (not “attorney generals” as any court reporter should know) aren’t used as prosecutors.
But in this case Curtis even writes that “Iseri-Carvalho in an e-mail advised against the newspaper printing ‘false statements’ but did not elaborate”.
You’d think that a good reporter would go back and figure out what the false part is, and, given that the rest of the allegations were contained in Zenger’s written filing, focus on the one thing that wasn’t in writing.
So what? Well if the 44 Comments on the article are any indication the peasants were gathering pitchforks and torches and getting ready to march on Iseri’s office today.
And given the placement of the correction, today’s “furlough Friday” may have been all that saved Iseri’s neck.
The worst part is, in an attempt to present a scandalous story with a “Battle Brewing” headline- we’ll give the benefit of the doubt that Curtis didn’t really try to “sensationalize” what would have been pretty sensational anyway were the story “true”- Curtis should have suspected something was wrong with his story based on Iseri’s statement about “false statements” and could easily have double checked with the deputy prosecutor that he’d gotten the story right.
Is there a “per se” libel case here? For that the article would have to not only falsely accuse Iseri of a crime- which although it does in saying she conspired with Rego to steal the cosmetics, he is quoting Zenger so it would have had to have been published with “reckless disregard for the truth”- but since Iseri is a public figure she would have to prove “malice aforethought” on Curtis’ part.
With over 20 years of experience Curtis should certainly known better and if he’s not fired he should certainly disciplined severely by the local paper’s editor and/or publisher.
-------
Note: Somehow we left off the campaign contributions filing of Councilperson Tim Bynum yesterday. Here it is.
Bynum, Tim
Had $8,096.47
Raised $7,775.00
Spent $12,659.97
Loan $3,725.00
Debt $513.50
The on-line version of yesterday’s post has been edited to include Bynum’s numbers numbers.
But that statement is only problematic if you dispute the tag “reporter” given his lack of acumen and apparently after these many months, his ability- or interest in trying- to learn the job.
Therefore let us amend that- given his decades of pseudo-journalism on Kaua`i the “worst reporter” award has to go to courts and police beat reporter Paul Curtis whose controversial front page report yesterday alleging misconduct on the part of Prosecutor Shaylene Iseri- Carvalho was apparently based on a central “fact” Curtis created out of whole cloth.
In writing about a case in 5th Circuit Judge Randal Valenciano’s court Curtis’ lede read:
At face value, it looked like an open-and-shut theft case with the perpetrator caught on a grocery store surveillance camera.
That is until county Prosecuting Attorney Shaylene Iseri-Carvalho through Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Lauren McDowell announced she may seek enhanced sentencing against Dennis Louis Rego Jr. because of his petty misdemeanor theft conviction in 1987 in Honolulu.
But today, tucked into a corner of page 2 under the banner Corrections and Clarifications the SECOND correction was this little tidbit:
In the front-page story Thursday, “Battle brewing,” it should not have stated that county prosecutors are seeking enhanced sentencing against defendant Dennis Louis Rego Jr., and that the state Attorney General’s office never uses outside private counsel as special deputy attorney generals (sic), but deputizes prosecutors from other county prosecutors offices to take certain cases.
For those that missed the story, apparently, according to a filing by Rego’s attorney Mark Zenger, Rego and Iseri:
were boyfriend-girlfriend for nearly a decade, that Rego helped put Iseri-Carvalho through undergraduate and law school, and that Iseri-Carvalho prodded Rego into the 1987 theft of cosmetics from a Honolulu department store.
But no one apparently said anything connecting anything about any enhanced sentencing, which would be central to any allegation of misconduct on the part of Iseri who said she checked with the attorney general’s office regarding any conflict of interest before the case went forward and did not personally prosecute Rego.
The second part of the correction is bad enough because any experienced court reporter would know that deputy attorneys general (not “attorney generals” as any court reporter should know) aren’t used as prosecutors.
But in this case Curtis even writes that “Iseri-Carvalho in an e-mail advised against the newspaper printing ‘false statements’ but did not elaborate”.
You’d think that a good reporter would go back and figure out what the false part is, and, given that the rest of the allegations were contained in Zenger’s written filing, focus on the one thing that wasn’t in writing.
So what? Well if the 44 Comments on the article are any indication the peasants were gathering pitchforks and torches and getting ready to march on Iseri’s office today.
And given the placement of the correction, today’s “furlough Friday” may have been all that saved Iseri’s neck.
The worst part is, in an attempt to present a scandalous story with a “Battle Brewing” headline- we’ll give the benefit of the doubt that Curtis didn’t really try to “sensationalize” what would have been pretty sensational anyway were the story “true”- Curtis should have suspected something was wrong with his story based on Iseri’s statement about “false statements” and could easily have double checked with the deputy prosecutor that he’d gotten the story right.
Is there a “per se” libel case here? For that the article would have to not only falsely accuse Iseri of a crime- which although it does in saying she conspired with Rego to steal the cosmetics, he is quoting Zenger so it would have had to have been published with “reckless disregard for the truth”- but since Iseri is a public figure she would have to prove “malice aforethought” on Curtis’ part.
With over 20 years of experience Curtis should certainly known better and if he’s not fired he should certainly disciplined severely by the local paper’s editor and/or publisher.
-------
Note: Somehow we left off the campaign contributions filing of Councilperson Tim Bynum yesterday. Here it is.
Bynum, Tim
Had $8,096.47
Raised $7,775.00
Spent $12,659.97
Loan $3,725.00
Debt $513.50
The on-line version of yesterday’s post has been edited to include Bynum’s numbers numbers.
Wednesday, July 14, 2010
WHAT’S HE BEEN SMOKIN’?
WHAT’S HE BEEN SMOKIN’?: Where- or more to the point who- do we blame for the impossibly contrived and deceitful “reefer madness” in an article by clueless police beat reporter Paul Curtis in today’s local paper.
We could start with Curtis himself for the unchallenged regurgitating of the equally clueless KPD officer Mark Ozaki’s presentation to a church group.
Not even the DEA itself claims that (t)hose hooked on the “new,” more-potent, quick-growing strains of Kaua`i marijuana are... break(ing) into homes and vacation rentals seeking money to fund their habits”
Habits? Oh nooo- they must be mainlining it nowadays Gertrude.
But that’s just for starters. Later Ozaki claims that “(w)hat used to take a year now takes less than a month as these new pot plants can go from seed to harvest in 28 days”.
A whole lot of medical pot patients would like to get their hands on those seeds especially if they grow a biologically ridiculous “strain... comprised of 60 to 70 percent tetrahyrdocannabinol, compared to less than 20 percent just a few years ago”.
Ooooo- dat's some sticky bud. Stop holding out on us Mark. If that’s da kine the cops smoke think what a great recruiting tool it’d be.
Perhaps Curtis is just warning us that this crap is actually what these people think is factual and that it’s being foisted on our kids who know of course all this is an over the top pack o’ lies and so assume whatever pinheads like Ozaki claim about deadly drugs like ice is equally fabricated.
But if so, where is the rebuttal- a staple of the usual “he said she said reporting”.
Curtis makes it worse with the tired old post hoc proctor hoc fallacy of “the gateway drug theory” which is belied by the fact that those at the top of the societal rung commonly use the sacred herb regularly.
Did you know that most pot smokers started out on mothers milk? And all of them breath oxygen?
We might blame Editor Nathan Eagle whose credibility at the helm of the paper has taken a nose dive since reporter Mike Levine left and ceased to keep him honest if not for the fact that Curtis is now the “assistant editor” who has no higher editor on days that Eagle is off.
We could say that this parochially backward and insidiously destructive mindset begins at the top with kindly old brain-dead Chief Darryl Perry and his merry men of mental midgets at the police commission who seems satisfied with presenting this D.A.R.E style drivel rather than putting officers on the beat to do other things... like maybe, oh, maybe, let’s say... solve murders or something.
Congrats all around for doing the impossible- making KPD even more of a laughing stock.
But really it begins and ends with our elected officials who haven’t got the guts to stop this kind of frittering away of resources on green harvest operations, busting medical users (as the article describes) and of course devoting a full-time officer on a short-staffed force to spread utter bull-sh*t to our kids and other equally gullible groups like churches and business groups.
With public pressure the council on the Big Island has taken matters into their own hands, cutting off funding for the choppers and forcing the police department to stop busting users.
Until we put some pressure on our council to buy a clue- and some political guts- we’ll continue to see this kind of drivel in our faces over coffee each morning.
We could start with Curtis himself for the unchallenged regurgitating of the equally clueless KPD officer Mark Ozaki’s presentation to a church group.
Not even the DEA itself claims that (t)hose hooked on the “new,” more-potent, quick-growing strains of Kaua`i marijuana are... break(ing) into homes and vacation rentals seeking money to fund their habits”
Habits? Oh nooo- they must be mainlining it nowadays Gertrude.
But that’s just for starters. Later Ozaki claims that “(w)hat used to take a year now takes less than a month as these new pot plants can go from seed to harvest in 28 days”.
A whole lot of medical pot patients would like to get their hands on those seeds especially if they grow a biologically ridiculous “strain... comprised of 60 to 70 percent tetrahyrdocannabinol, compared to less than 20 percent just a few years ago”.
Ooooo- dat's some sticky bud. Stop holding out on us Mark. If that’s da kine the cops smoke think what a great recruiting tool it’d be.
Perhaps Curtis is just warning us that this crap is actually what these people think is factual and that it’s being foisted on our kids who know of course all this is an over the top pack o’ lies and so assume whatever pinheads like Ozaki claim about deadly drugs like ice is equally fabricated.
But if so, where is the rebuttal- a staple of the usual “he said she said reporting”.
Curtis makes it worse with the tired old post hoc proctor hoc fallacy of “the gateway drug theory” which is belied by the fact that those at the top of the societal rung commonly use the sacred herb regularly.
Did you know that most pot smokers started out on mothers milk? And all of them breath oxygen?
We might blame Editor Nathan Eagle whose credibility at the helm of the paper has taken a nose dive since reporter Mike Levine left and ceased to keep him honest if not for the fact that Curtis is now the “assistant editor” who has no higher editor on days that Eagle is off.
We could say that this parochially backward and insidiously destructive mindset begins at the top with kindly old brain-dead Chief Darryl Perry and his merry men of mental midgets at the police commission who seems satisfied with presenting this D.A.R.E style drivel rather than putting officers on the beat to do other things... like maybe, oh, maybe, let’s say... solve murders or something.
Congrats all around for doing the impossible- making KPD even more of a laughing stock.
But really it begins and ends with our elected officials who haven’t got the guts to stop this kind of frittering away of resources on green harvest operations, busting medical users (as the article describes) and of course devoting a full-time officer on a short-staffed force to spread utter bull-sh*t to our kids and other equally gullible groups like churches and business groups.
With public pressure the council on the Big Island has taken matters into their own hands, cutting off funding for the choppers and forcing the police department to stop busting users.
Until we put some pressure on our council to buy a clue- and some political guts- we’ll continue to see this kind of drivel in our faces over coffee each morning.
Tuesday, July 6, 2010
HI-HO HI-HO, IT’S OFF FROM WORK WE GO
HI-HO HI-HO, IT’S OFF FROM WORK WE GO: When Kaua`i Police Department (KPD) Chief Darryl Perry has a gripe against Mayor Bernard Carvalho’s administration he doesn’t have to look far for his lap dog Paul Curtis, police beat reporter for the local newspaper.
So following the first Kaua`i county “furlough Friday” Perry made sure Curtis got the message out loud and clear that, despite the fact that police officers and firefighters were spared furloughs supposedly to maintain public safety, because civilian employees were not spared “the vacancies (among KPD civilian personnel) coupled with the furlough days will have a negative impact on service delivery”.
But what was most interesting was not the article itself but the one comment on the article left at the paper’s web site which, unlike the usual bombastic drivel in the paper’s comment section, went right to the point in questioning county furloughs.
Francine1 said:
I was under the impression that Furloughs aren't supposed to be affecting Fire or Police Agencies.... I was informed by a former KPD Officer, who was also a former County Council member that the County of Kaua`i has a Budget Surplus. So I'm wondering why Mayor Carvalho felt the need for the Furloughs. Is it a monkey-see, monkey-do move; to follow the other Counties or is the County of Kaua`i really in that bad shape?You keep hearing how the Economy is rebounding on Kaua`i because Unemployment rates are dropping. With these latest County Furloughs, one would think not. We, the people of Kaua`i are not being told the true story.... Which leads one to believe it's all Politics and another way to screw the people who are supposed to be serving the Public.
Gee, ya think?
As a matter of fact, in a presentation made at one of the non-televised budget hearings and repeated in part in a later, televised meeting, councilperson Tim Bynum revealed that not only is there a surplus but there is a huge surplus and Kaua`i county is virtually awash with cash.
In governmental budgeting the widely accepted rule of thumb is that you need to keep a surplus of 15% above the appropriated budget. In other words if your budget is $150 million you should have $22.5 million in reserve for emergencies and in case other unforeseen contingencies come up.
But Kaua`i is projected to have fully 35% above the amount budgeted for 2010-11.
So why the furloughs?
Back in January Bynum began asking that the administration come before the council to inform them about what was going to happen if, as had been threatened, the legislature decided to “scoop” the usual payment from the transient accommodations tax (TAT) that the county receives in order to mitigate some of the expenses of services for visitors.
He also wanted to see generally what kind of fiscal shape we were in, all to get a head start on the then upcoming budget sessions in April, especially given the predicted “dire economic conditions”.
But he was blocked at every turn by both the administration which kept asking for delays and deferments and by the Chair of the Budget Committee Darryl Kaneshiro who, since it was his committee, kept allowing the deferrals.
This kept going on until April making the attempt to get the head start moot.
At the same time, as many will remember, Carvalho and the other county mayors went to the legislature to lobby for their share of the TAT, an effort that was eventually successful.
But what many may not remember is the public statements by leadership in both the house and senate to the effect that, while the state had been furloughing teachers and expected to start other furloughs for other state employees, the counties had no such plans and therefore didn’t seem to need the TAT.
That was when the mayors met secretly with the legislative leadership coming out of those meetings with their share of the TAT intact. And shortly after Carvalho announced furloughs for county employees.
You’d have to be a complete idiot to think there was no quid pro quo saying that in exchange for the TAT money, Kaua`i would furlough workers whether we needed to or not.
Francine1 ends her comment by saying
We, the people of Kaua`i are not being told the true story... Which leads one to believe it's all Politics and another way to screw the people who are supposed to be serving the Public... So who do you vote for when the election comes along? Because you don't really know who's telling you the truth or who's just telling you what they think you want to hear, just to get their vote. It's just another normal day on Kaua`i. Aloha!
Aloha indeed. Go forth and wonder no more.
So following the first Kaua`i county “furlough Friday” Perry made sure Curtis got the message out loud and clear that, despite the fact that police officers and firefighters were spared furloughs supposedly to maintain public safety, because civilian employees were not spared “the vacancies (among KPD civilian personnel) coupled with the furlough days will have a negative impact on service delivery”.
But what was most interesting was not the article itself but the one comment on the article left at the paper’s web site which, unlike the usual bombastic drivel in the paper’s comment section, went right to the point in questioning county furloughs.
Francine1 said:
I was under the impression that Furloughs aren't supposed to be affecting Fire or Police Agencies.... I was informed by a former KPD Officer, who was also a former County Council member that the County of Kaua`i has a Budget Surplus. So I'm wondering why Mayor Carvalho felt the need for the Furloughs. Is it a monkey-see, monkey-do move; to follow the other Counties or is the County of Kaua`i really in that bad shape?You keep hearing how the Economy is rebounding on Kaua`i because Unemployment rates are dropping. With these latest County Furloughs, one would think not. We, the people of Kaua`i are not being told the true story.... Which leads one to believe it's all Politics and another way to screw the people who are supposed to be serving the Public.
Gee, ya think?
As a matter of fact, in a presentation made at one of the non-televised budget hearings and repeated in part in a later, televised meeting, councilperson Tim Bynum revealed that not only is there a surplus but there is a huge surplus and Kaua`i county is virtually awash with cash.
In governmental budgeting the widely accepted rule of thumb is that you need to keep a surplus of 15% above the appropriated budget. In other words if your budget is $150 million you should have $22.5 million in reserve for emergencies and in case other unforeseen contingencies come up.
But Kaua`i is projected to have fully 35% above the amount budgeted for 2010-11.
So why the furloughs?
Back in January Bynum began asking that the administration come before the council to inform them about what was going to happen if, as had been threatened, the legislature decided to “scoop” the usual payment from the transient accommodations tax (TAT) that the county receives in order to mitigate some of the expenses of services for visitors.
He also wanted to see generally what kind of fiscal shape we were in, all to get a head start on the then upcoming budget sessions in April, especially given the predicted “dire economic conditions”.
But he was blocked at every turn by both the administration which kept asking for delays and deferments and by the Chair of the Budget Committee Darryl Kaneshiro who, since it was his committee, kept allowing the deferrals.
This kept going on until April making the attempt to get the head start moot.
At the same time, as many will remember, Carvalho and the other county mayors went to the legislature to lobby for their share of the TAT, an effort that was eventually successful.
But what many may not remember is the public statements by leadership in both the house and senate to the effect that, while the state had been furloughing teachers and expected to start other furloughs for other state employees, the counties had no such plans and therefore didn’t seem to need the TAT.
That was when the mayors met secretly with the legislative leadership coming out of those meetings with their share of the TAT intact. And shortly after Carvalho announced furloughs for county employees.
You’d have to be a complete idiot to think there was no quid pro quo saying that in exchange for the TAT money, Kaua`i would furlough workers whether we needed to or not.
Francine1 ends her comment by saying
We, the people of Kaua`i are not being told the true story... Which leads one to believe it's all Politics and another way to screw the people who are supposed to be serving the Public... So who do you vote for when the election comes along? Because you don't really know who's telling you the truth or who's just telling you what they think you want to hear, just to get their vote. It's just another normal day on Kaua`i. Aloha!
Aloha indeed. Go forth and wonder no more.
Monday, May 17, 2010
AND YOU CAN QUOTE THAT
AND YOU CAN QUOTE THAT: After submitting to a shave and a bone cut (40,000 bits) to rid us of scapular-acromion and clavicular bone spurs inside our other (right) shoulder last Thursday- sans last September’s titanium-screw rotator cuff repair which, with complications, took six months to sort-of heal up, “fixing” our left shoulder)- we’ve had a lot of spare time for one of our favorite activites this past weekend... perusing the movable feast of on-line news from across the world.
On Sunday we had even more time than expected after turning to our local Kaua`i newspaper and finding, after one brief shining moment in which its content approximated a real newspaper, they’ve hit rock bottom again and begun a new era of incompetent, kissy-faced, fluff and puff, thus regaining their late-‘80’s through mid-‘00’ moniker The Garbage Island.
This is the actual list of headlines which passed for Sunday’s entire on-line local “news” section (note that the quotation marks on “news” are the kind you make in the air denoting that it’s anything but), each indicating pretty clearly the extent of the content of each:
KCC graduates offer hope, Obituaries for Sunday, May 16, 2010, Don’t let them forget it is your tax dollar (Lowell L. Kalapa’s usual drivel), Walkers show support for nonprofits, Volunteers’ aloha makes difference, Students celebrate the Earth, Kaua`i Sovereign Volunteers Award winners, Kaua`i residents graduate from University of Portland, Nutrition seminar set for Tuesday, Students help divert phone books from landfill, Free vehicle window tint inspections next week, Weekly Roadwork Index for Sunday, May 16, 2010, and Public Meetings for Sunday, May 16, 2010.
Rock bottom news can only be provided by rock bottom “writers” (again those air quotes): in this case 1) new guy Leo Azambuja, the language-challenged, rank-amateur government reporter we “mentioned” (yes again) a few weeks back, 2) Paul Curtis the oft fired and rehired “professional” (uh-huh) whose “please like me Mr. Newsmaker” reporting has been instrumental in the derivation of the Garbage Island label over the past couple for decades and 3) the always prolific Dennis Fujimoto who, though he’s been the paper’s photographer for decades so is of course the most literate among the current crop of crappy “correspondents” (of course).
But wait- on Sunday there’s a business news page, which this week, if it’s possible, was even more vapid and insipid than usual due to 4) our own Miss Malaprop, Coco Zickos who took an embrace the suck attitude toward our “flighty fluffmeister” review of her work as (here we go again) ‘Business Editor”
This week in addition to the always boring regurgitation of press releases in News & Notes for Sunday, May 16, 2010, People on the Move for Sunday, May 16, 2010, News & Events for Sunday, May 16, 2010 and People on the Move for Sunday, May 2, 2010 and another in her series of “huh?”, off-deadline-style meanderings, is a piece headlined Has Kaua`i seen the recession’s end?.
The use of a question in a news story headline and its place on the journalistic no-no list aside, Zickos’ “story” (you bet) and it’s content can be summed up in one hilarious “qualifying the previously unqualified- and doing so twice” second sentence, destined we hope to be saved by some professor for a J-school their list of howlers:
Apparently the recession is over, some economists say.
Or maybe, apparently, not.
Current Editor Nathan Eagle has a lot to answer for here although we’re not sure how much of a leash Publisher Randy Kozerski provides him. Based on his clear, decently informative although nothing-to-write-home-about, rather pedestrian coverage of the government beat- which preceded his stint as Editor- Eagle certainly knows his ass from his news-hole-in-the-ground in the journalism world.
Perhaps seeing the first enterprise reporting (and even on occasion investigative work) since the departure of legendary Editor Jean Holmes and her ace reporter Bill LeGro in 1982, made for delusional expectations on our part.
We’ve got to accept the fact that Mike Levine has gone to his reward over at Civil Beat, Now he’s busy schmoozing with paid lobbyists and candidate shills who’ve paid $20 to take turns on the soap box within the gated-community in what Larry Geller (see forth comment on article) theorizes is just an auto-renewal scam for CB (and EBay) owner Pierre Omidyar’s Pay-Pals’ test of a business model for paid, on-line-newspaper subscriptions (much like the Superferry was a model to sell the armed forced similar “littoral” boats.)
Everything old is new again... same as it ever was... but can’t anyone here play this game?
-----
Depending on our level of “discomfort”, frequency of follow-up with the Doc and the supply and effectiveness of these little white pills, we may or may not be, apparently some say, intermittent in posting over the next week or so.
(Pardon the interruption- try to do better next time- Nathan Eagle: go to your room).
On Sunday we had even more time than expected after turning to our local Kaua`i newspaper and finding, after one brief shining moment in which its content approximated a real newspaper, they’ve hit rock bottom again and begun a new era of incompetent, kissy-faced, fluff and puff, thus regaining their late-‘80’s through mid-‘00’ moniker The Garbage Island.
This is the actual list of headlines which passed for Sunday’s entire on-line local “news” section (note that the quotation marks on “news” are the kind you make in the air denoting that it’s anything but), each indicating pretty clearly the extent of the content of each:
KCC graduates offer hope, Obituaries for Sunday, May 16, 2010, Don’t let them forget it is your tax dollar (Lowell L. Kalapa’s usual drivel), Walkers show support for nonprofits, Volunteers’ aloha makes difference, Students celebrate the Earth, Kaua`i Sovereign Volunteers Award winners, Kaua`i residents graduate from University of Portland, Nutrition seminar set for Tuesday, Students help divert phone books from landfill, Free vehicle window tint inspections next week, Weekly Roadwork Index for Sunday, May 16, 2010, and Public Meetings for Sunday, May 16, 2010.
Rock bottom news can only be provided by rock bottom “writers” (again those air quotes): in this case 1) new guy Leo Azambuja, the language-challenged, rank-amateur government reporter we “mentioned” (yes again) a few weeks back, 2) Paul Curtis the oft fired and rehired “professional” (uh-huh) whose “please like me Mr. Newsmaker” reporting has been instrumental in the derivation of the Garbage Island label over the past couple for decades and 3) the always prolific Dennis Fujimoto who, though he’s been the paper’s photographer for decades so is of course the most literate among the current crop of crappy “correspondents” (of course).
But wait- on Sunday there’s a business news page, which this week, if it’s possible, was even more vapid and insipid than usual due to 4) our own Miss Malaprop, Coco Zickos who took an embrace the suck attitude toward our “flighty fluffmeister” review of her work as (here we go again) ‘Business Editor”
This week in addition to the always boring regurgitation of press releases in News & Notes for Sunday, May 16, 2010, People on the Move for Sunday, May 16, 2010, News & Events for Sunday, May 16, 2010 and People on the Move for Sunday, May 2, 2010 and another in her series of “huh?”, off-deadline-style meanderings, is a piece headlined Has Kaua`i seen the recession’s end?.
The use of a question in a news story headline and its place on the journalistic no-no list aside, Zickos’ “story” (you bet) and it’s content can be summed up in one hilarious “qualifying the previously unqualified- and doing so twice” second sentence, destined we hope to be saved by some professor for a J-school their list of howlers:
Apparently the recession is over, some economists say.
Or maybe, apparently, not.
Current Editor Nathan Eagle has a lot to answer for here although we’re not sure how much of a leash Publisher Randy Kozerski provides him. Based on his clear, decently informative although nothing-to-write-home-about, rather pedestrian coverage of the government beat- which preceded his stint as Editor- Eagle certainly knows his ass from his news-hole-in-the-ground in the journalism world.
Perhaps seeing the first enterprise reporting (and even on occasion investigative work) since the departure of legendary Editor Jean Holmes and her ace reporter Bill LeGro in 1982, made for delusional expectations on our part.
We’ve got to accept the fact that Mike Levine has gone to his reward over at Civil Beat, Now he’s busy schmoozing with paid lobbyists and candidate shills who’ve paid $20 to take turns on the soap box within the gated-community in what Larry Geller (see forth comment on article) theorizes is just an auto-renewal scam for CB (and EBay) owner Pierre Omidyar’s Pay-Pals’ test of a business model for paid, on-line-newspaper subscriptions (much like the Superferry was a model to sell the armed forced similar “littoral” boats.)
Everything old is new again... same as it ever was... but can’t anyone here play this game?
-----
Depending on our level of “discomfort”, frequency of follow-up with the Doc and the supply and effectiveness of these little white pills, we may or may not be, apparently some say, intermittent in posting over the next week or so.
(Pardon the interruption- try to do better next time- Nathan Eagle: go to your room).
Wednesday, April 28, 2010
COPY!
COPY!: After twenty-five years plus of providing unending targets for ridicule it was a bit uncomfortable for us to gush over anything remotely related to our joke-of-a-local-newspaper during the brief period that saw reporter Mike Levine waste his talents on Kaua`i.
But if it’s possible, with Mike’s departure, the paper might just be the worst it’s been in at least a decade or more with the addition of Leo Azambuja who has quite apparently never seen the inside of a basic newswriting textbook.
As if the flighty fluffmeister “Business Editor” Coco Zickos and the always incomprehensible “police and courts reporter” Paul Curtis weren’t bad enough, Azambuja seems totally baffled after being hired to cover the all important “government beat”.
A new article is supposed to have what’s called a lead- or lede as it’s spelled in the trade. A good reporter sits down to file a story and takes a breath to come up with the most important thing that that happened and put it at the top- all in 25 words or less.
The rest of the story follows what’s called the “inverted triangle” and tells a story- another important element- with the more important information nearer the top and the less important depth and background to follow.
It’s kind of the opposite of normal writing and a writer who is not a journalist must unlearn everything he or she knows in order to be a good reporter.
In covering a meeting the one thing you don’t want to see is a chronological regurgitation of what happened and a lede something like “A meeting of the county council was held yesterday at 9 a.m. in the council chambers at the county building”.
But apparently Azambuja either missed that day’s lesson or never attended a class.
Take his wrap-up of the budget hearings- which individually were a minute by minute recap with no context or narrative. Here’s his lede:
NAWILIWILI — Kaua‘i County Council members have been keeping busy since April 9, reviewing Mayor Bernard Carvalho Jr.’s proposed $146.29 million operating budget for Fiscal Year 2011, which starts July 1.
Classic. It the type of thing that a frst day student might turn in- one who hadn’t bothered to do the reading or pay attention in class.
Another skill is deciding the most important story to report if there’s more than one. But today. while Azambuja was filing a somewhat disjointed report from yesterday’s planning commission meeting about an ongoing, weeks-old story about an art gallery permit in Hanalei, Joan Conrow was reporting about the Transient Vacation Rental (TVR) bill that was passed out of the planning commission- a bill will basically ditches all the restrictions the council placed on TVRs last year and could, if passed by the council, have repercussions for decades to come.
Perhaps the most egregious thing one can do is to “bury the lede”, waiting until halfway through the article until you report the most important thing.
Azambuja’s story last Thursday on the “dog path” bill started with the end, calling the deferral of the bill to allow dogs on the entire bike path a “surprise” and regurgitating much the testimony of the “dog ladies”.
Finally 634 words into an 874 word story in the 22nd paragraph of a 27 paragraph report he writes that
The Parks and Recreation new plan suggests leashed dogs be allowed from Kealia lookout to the north end of Kuna Beach, popularly known as Donkey Beach.
United Public Workers Business Agent Trina Horner said the union supports leashed dogs on the portion of the path proposed by Rapozo, because allowing them on the entire path would put an extra burden on maintenance workers.
And that was it- no other reference to the administration’s official recommendation that dogs be allowed only on the extreme northern section of the path rather than the entire path as the bill currently calls for. There was no reference at all to an all important grievance filed by the union that could make the use of the entire path as a dog walk difficult without a resolution to the filing.
Seems that the workers are willing to perform the added maintenance duties on the northern portion for now as a compromise. They could have said no to any additions since new job descriptions cannot, by law, be imposed on them unilaterally and must be negotiated.... especially, apparently, the job of picking up dog poop.
But you’d never know that from the story which only mentions the administration’s position in passing as if it had no consequence when in actuality it very well could cause the first veto of Mayor Bernard Carvalho’s administration.
Though the story ranted on and on about the survey there was no mention that it was as nonscientific as could be or that the information was gathered by dogs-on-the-path zealots and so predictably found that “everyone” wants dogs on the path- apparently including those who have been bitten or harassed by or just don’t like being around huge unpredictable animals.
Which leads us to the “surprise” deferral- one that was, as Parks and Transportation Committee Chair Lani Kawahara said, done to allow for the committee to decide on an amendment to give the administrations proposal it’s due consideration and then either accept or reject it... and do so in committee where council’s “work” is supposed to be done.
These are just a few examples of the piss-poor job being done by the one person who this community relies upon to inform the public of governmental doings via the self-proclaimed “newspaper of record”.
There’s no shortage of excellent reporters in the state and even the island and a slew more out-of-work journalists to come with today’s announcement that the merger of the Honolulu Advertiser and Star Bulletin will proceed, initiating mass layoffs as the two staffs combine into one.
But hiring one of them would entail actually paying them a living wage, something the local paper avoids at all costs according to many past employees.
We don’t like denying anyone their job. But the tracking of the doings of government for the community is too important to be left to amateurs.
But if it’s possible, with Mike’s departure, the paper might just be the worst it’s been in at least a decade or more with the addition of Leo Azambuja who has quite apparently never seen the inside of a basic newswriting textbook.
As if the flighty fluffmeister “Business Editor” Coco Zickos and the always incomprehensible “police and courts reporter” Paul Curtis weren’t bad enough, Azambuja seems totally baffled after being hired to cover the all important “government beat”.
A new article is supposed to have what’s called a lead- or lede as it’s spelled in the trade. A good reporter sits down to file a story and takes a breath to come up with the most important thing that that happened and put it at the top- all in 25 words or less.
The rest of the story follows what’s called the “inverted triangle” and tells a story- another important element- with the more important information nearer the top and the less important depth and background to follow.
It’s kind of the opposite of normal writing and a writer who is not a journalist must unlearn everything he or she knows in order to be a good reporter.
In covering a meeting the one thing you don’t want to see is a chronological regurgitation of what happened and a lede something like “A meeting of the county council was held yesterday at 9 a.m. in the council chambers at the county building”.
But apparently Azambuja either missed that day’s lesson or never attended a class.
Take his wrap-up of the budget hearings- which individually were a minute by minute recap with no context or narrative. Here’s his lede:
NAWILIWILI — Kaua‘i County Council members have been keeping busy since April 9, reviewing Mayor Bernard Carvalho Jr.’s proposed $146.29 million operating budget for Fiscal Year 2011, which starts July 1.
Classic. It the type of thing that a frst day student might turn in- one who hadn’t bothered to do the reading or pay attention in class.
Another skill is deciding the most important story to report if there’s more than one. But today. while Azambuja was filing a somewhat disjointed report from yesterday’s planning commission meeting about an ongoing, weeks-old story about an art gallery permit in Hanalei, Joan Conrow was reporting about the Transient Vacation Rental (TVR) bill that was passed out of the planning commission- a bill will basically ditches all the restrictions the council placed on TVRs last year and could, if passed by the council, have repercussions for decades to come.
Perhaps the most egregious thing one can do is to “bury the lede”, waiting until halfway through the article until you report the most important thing.
Azambuja’s story last Thursday on the “dog path” bill started with the end, calling the deferral of the bill to allow dogs on the entire bike path a “surprise” and regurgitating much the testimony of the “dog ladies”.
Finally 634 words into an 874 word story in the 22nd paragraph of a 27 paragraph report he writes that
The Parks and Recreation new plan suggests leashed dogs be allowed from Kealia lookout to the north end of Kuna Beach, popularly known as Donkey Beach.
United Public Workers Business Agent Trina Horner said the union supports leashed dogs on the portion of the path proposed by Rapozo, because allowing them on the entire path would put an extra burden on maintenance workers.
And that was it- no other reference to the administration’s official recommendation that dogs be allowed only on the extreme northern section of the path rather than the entire path as the bill currently calls for. There was no reference at all to an all important grievance filed by the union that could make the use of the entire path as a dog walk difficult without a resolution to the filing.
Seems that the workers are willing to perform the added maintenance duties on the northern portion for now as a compromise. They could have said no to any additions since new job descriptions cannot, by law, be imposed on them unilaterally and must be negotiated.... especially, apparently, the job of picking up dog poop.
But you’d never know that from the story which only mentions the administration’s position in passing as if it had no consequence when in actuality it very well could cause the first veto of Mayor Bernard Carvalho’s administration.
Though the story ranted on and on about the survey there was no mention that it was as nonscientific as could be or that the information was gathered by dogs-on-the-path zealots and so predictably found that “everyone” wants dogs on the path- apparently including those who have been bitten or harassed by or just don’t like being around huge unpredictable animals.
Which leads us to the “surprise” deferral- one that was, as Parks and Transportation Committee Chair Lani Kawahara said, done to allow for the committee to decide on an amendment to give the administrations proposal it’s due consideration and then either accept or reject it... and do so in committee where council’s “work” is supposed to be done.
These are just a few examples of the piss-poor job being done by the one person who this community relies upon to inform the public of governmental doings via the self-proclaimed “newspaper of record”.
There’s no shortage of excellent reporters in the state and even the island and a slew more out-of-work journalists to come with today’s announcement that the merger of the Honolulu Advertiser and Star Bulletin will proceed, initiating mass layoffs as the two staffs combine into one.
But hiring one of them would entail actually paying them a living wage, something the local paper avoids at all costs according to many past employees.
We don’t like denying anyone their job. But the tracking of the doings of government for the community is too important to be left to amateurs.
Monday, March 8, 2010
MORE POOP ON THE PATH
MORE POOP ON THE PATH: It’s been a week and a half now since the jaw dropping news from Joan Conrow that none other than Kaua`i Humane Society (KHS) chief Becky Rhoades
was indeed cited on Jan. 29 for having a dog on a section of the Path where dogs are not allowed. Hers was one of five citations issued since the ordinance took effect on Dec. 1, 2008.
And indeed in an email, county spokesperson Mary Daubert confirned to Joan that:
Dr. Becky Rhoades was cited on Jan. 29 for having a dog in a section ofthe multi-use path where dogs are not allowed.
Since the ordinance took effect on Dec. 1, 2008, 5 citations have beenissued to people who had dogs on sections of the multi-use path wheredogs are not allowed.
But nary a word out of the local newspaper whose editors, we’re quite sure read Joan’s Kaua`iEclectic reports where, despite the “blog” disguise, many major local stories are broken on a regular basis.
Now you would think this is man bites dog stuff. A leash law violation in and of itself is not front page news. One by the head of KHS might be although it might actually be more of an embarrassment.
But, as Joan wrote:
Yes, this is the very same Dr. Becky Rhoades who is continually preaching responsibility among dog owners, who launched a citizen’s patrol to ensure people were picking up their dog’s doodoo on the Path and who told the County Council:
“I honestly believe we will have better dog stewardship if we pass these ordinances,” she said.
Can you say ironic?
Joan is such a nice lady that the word she chose was ironic. We’d prefer to drop the “i” and add “mo”.
The fact that the one person who led the fight to allow dogs on one certain portion of the dog, er, bike path and was even put in charge of education as to where to and more importantly where not to walk your dog would care about the potential negative publicity of getting a ticket.
She obviously is concerned enough about negative publicity that, in the same article Joan cited she also said:
“This is a really important time for Kaua‘i,” Kaua‘i Humane Society Director Becky Rhoades said. “To be known as a dog-hating visitor attraction is not what we want to be known for.”
But maybe she has no need to be concerned. Especially if we remember who would be the one to report on the police and courts.
That would, at the risk of stealing Keith Obermann’s shtick, the “worst reporter in the world”, Paul Curtis- the same one who splashes headlines above articles about poor misguided, usually drug addicted kids who go astray, assuring that integration into the community after either rehab or jail time will be twice as hard, increasing chances for recidivism.
As Joan pointed out earlier back in June of 2009, this is nothing new from Curtis when it comes to Rhodes and KHS, writing
I’m so glad I’m one of those people who naturally wakes up early and so am able to enjoy the dawn of each day. It fortifies me with a good feeling that persists even through exposure to the news — not that you could call The Garden Island’s article on a Poipu animal cruelty case that. Reporter Paul Curtis completely threw objectivity out the window in his coverage and allowed himself to become a propaganda machine for the Kauai Humane Society.
I’ve noticed this every single time the paper covers stories that obviously come from the Humane Society. The reporters let director Becky Rhoades say any kind, with nary a glimmer of any other point of view. She did the same thing last month in a piece on roosters confiscated from a chicken fight.
Now no one wants to learn of dogs starving and rotting in their kennels, but there’s also the issue of trying —heck, slandering — a person in the newspaper, especially when he’s awaiting trial. And I couldn’t help but wonder if the KHS offensive was an attempt to CYA. I mean, they reportedly found a dead dog in this guy’s kennels in March, and after seeing everything was hunky dory in April, the enforcement officer stopped following up.
Come on. People don’t go from having a dead dog in a kennel to being model pet owners in a month. Surely a tad more oversight was warranted.
Today’s article notes:
The case is a bit puzzling to Rhoades, she said, because KHS offers free food, owner educational assistance, spay and neuter services, and other services, no questions asked.
What Dr. Becky in her self-righteousness doesn’t seem to understand is that many people do not view the Humane Society as a helpful resource where they’re likely to get assistance “no questions asked” – especially if they’re hunters.
A good reporter has that “nose for news” and when they are being bullsh-tted and sold a bill of good they use that nose to sniff around and find out what’s really going on and why they feel like something doesn’t add up
They don’t just act as regurgitating scribes who allow themselves to join a “Confederacy of Dunces” and spread the self-serving propaganda of some PR hack or mealy-mouth CEO.
We’ve been very lucky lately that the local paper has put the dynamic duo of Mike Levine and Nathan Eagle in charge of daily operations.
Their one mistake until now has been in bringing back Curtis who, as weekend editor during the Adam Harju reign was fired for interfering with a series of stories by Business Editor Andy Gross investigating KIUC. Gross quit in protest over what was essentially a published apology to KIUC for Gross’ series of articles, written by Curtis.
Come one guys- how much longer does this have to go on? There’s no shortage of good reporters without job these days- why do we have to put up with someone who has to put a smiley face on any story about the comfortable and afflict only the already afflicted?
was indeed cited on Jan. 29 for having a dog on a section of the Path where dogs are not allowed. Hers was one of five citations issued since the ordinance took effect on Dec. 1, 2008.
And indeed in an email, county spokesperson Mary Daubert confirned to Joan that:
Dr. Becky Rhoades was cited on Jan. 29 for having a dog in a section ofthe multi-use path where dogs are not allowed.
Since the ordinance took effect on Dec. 1, 2008, 5 citations have beenissued to people who had dogs on sections of the multi-use path wheredogs are not allowed.
But nary a word out of the local newspaper whose editors, we’re quite sure read Joan’s Kaua`iEclectic reports where, despite the “blog” disguise, many major local stories are broken on a regular basis.
Now you would think this is man bites dog stuff. A leash law violation in and of itself is not front page news. One by the head of KHS might be although it might actually be more of an embarrassment.
But, as Joan wrote:
Yes, this is the very same Dr. Becky Rhoades who is continually preaching responsibility among dog owners, who launched a citizen’s patrol to ensure people were picking up their dog’s doodoo on the Path and who told the County Council:
“I honestly believe we will have better dog stewardship if we pass these ordinances,” she said.
Can you say ironic?
Joan is such a nice lady that the word she chose was ironic. We’d prefer to drop the “i” and add “mo”.
The fact that the one person who led the fight to allow dogs on one certain portion of the dog, er, bike path and was even put in charge of education as to where to and more importantly where not to walk your dog would care about the potential negative publicity of getting a ticket.
She obviously is concerned enough about negative publicity that, in the same article Joan cited she also said:
“This is a really important time for Kaua‘i,” Kaua‘i Humane Society Director Becky Rhoades said. “To be known as a dog-hating visitor attraction is not what we want to be known for.”
But maybe she has no need to be concerned. Especially if we remember who would be the one to report on the police and courts.
That would, at the risk of stealing Keith Obermann’s shtick, the “worst reporter in the world”, Paul Curtis- the same one who splashes headlines above articles about poor misguided, usually drug addicted kids who go astray, assuring that integration into the community after either rehab or jail time will be twice as hard, increasing chances for recidivism.
As Joan pointed out earlier back in June of 2009, this is nothing new from Curtis when it comes to Rhodes and KHS, writing
I’m so glad I’m one of those people who naturally wakes up early and so am able to enjoy the dawn of each day. It fortifies me with a good feeling that persists even through exposure to the news — not that you could call The Garden Island’s article on a Poipu animal cruelty case that. Reporter Paul Curtis completely threw objectivity out the window in his coverage and allowed himself to become a propaganda machine for the Kauai Humane Society.
I’ve noticed this every single time the paper covers stories that obviously come from the Humane Society. The reporters let director Becky Rhoades say any kind, with nary a glimmer of any other point of view. She did the same thing last month in a piece on roosters confiscated from a chicken fight.
Now no one wants to learn of dogs starving and rotting in their kennels, but there’s also the issue of trying —heck, slandering — a person in the newspaper, especially when he’s awaiting trial. And I couldn’t help but wonder if the KHS offensive was an attempt to CYA. I mean, they reportedly found a dead dog in this guy’s kennels in March, and after seeing everything was hunky dory in April, the enforcement officer stopped following up.
Come on. People don’t go from having a dead dog in a kennel to being model pet owners in a month. Surely a tad more oversight was warranted.
Today’s article notes:
The case is a bit puzzling to Rhoades, she said, because KHS offers free food, owner educational assistance, spay and neuter services, and other services, no questions asked.
What Dr. Becky in her self-righteousness doesn’t seem to understand is that many people do not view the Humane Society as a helpful resource where they’re likely to get assistance “no questions asked” – especially if they’re hunters.
A good reporter has that “nose for news” and when they are being bullsh-tted and sold a bill of good they use that nose to sniff around and find out what’s really going on and why they feel like something doesn’t add up
They don’t just act as regurgitating scribes who allow themselves to join a “Confederacy of Dunces” and spread the self-serving propaganda of some PR hack or mealy-mouth CEO.
We’ve been very lucky lately that the local paper has put the dynamic duo of Mike Levine and Nathan Eagle in charge of daily operations.
Their one mistake until now has been in bringing back Curtis who, as weekend editor during the Adam Harju reign was fired for interfering with a series of stories by Business Editor Andy Gross investigating KIUC. Gross quit in protest over what was essentially a published apology to KIUC for Gross’ series of articles, written by Curtis.
Come one guys- how much longer does this have to go on? There’s no shortage of good reporters without job these days- why do we have to put up with someone who has to put a smiley face on any story about the comfortable and afflict only the already afflicted?
Wednesday, January 6, 2010
WHEN THE CAT’S AWAY...:
WHEN THE CAT’S AWAY... : Anyone reading today’s local newspaper coverage of the council interviews of prospective board and commission (B&C) members would think that the session was rather mundane and that, like a popular t-shirt says “Experts agree- everything is A-Okay” down at the county buildings.
But of course when you look at the byline you find out why.
Reporter Mike Levine- the paper’s government beat reporter who, with Editor Nathan Eagle has spent the last year building back the credibility of the paper after a thirty-plus year lull- is apparently on vacation or taking a long weekend and the vapid Paul Curtis was there to report how smoothly everything went, with no mention of Rob Abrew’s testimony and the promises of some councilmembers to look into the matters that he raised before today’s scheduled confirmation votes.
We’ve pretty much outlined the problems with the lack of adherence to some county charter provisions over the past two days but Abrew’s testimony details OIP opinions regarding state open records laws that the council is set to violate if they proceed without providing the public with the non-confidential disclosures contained in the applications prospective B&C members have filled out- one the council has indeed received but have not released to the public.
We’ll try to follow up tomorrow on today’s activities based on reports from Abrew but for today we’ll present his testimony verbatim as it details the issues and the law that, despite Abrew’s testimony, Curtis ignored in favor highlighting kissy-face testimony of former Judge “What Me Worry, Alfred E, Let ‘em go” Laureta and the supposedly laudable qualities of all the nominees.
Here’s Abrew’s testimony:
------
Aloha and Good morning Council Members
I would like to offer my gratitude to all our community members here today that have become the Mayor's successful applicant for a position to one of Kauai's many Boards or Commissions We are here today to complete the process that the citizens of Kauai have approved in Charter section 23.02 (B) on how the Mayor appoints and our Council approves the successful applicant's to a Board or Commission.
On behalf of The Public I must ask today that the Council defer the interview process until the public has a chance to review and publicly testify on information contained on the successful applicant's application as required by HRS 92F, THE UNIFORM INFORMATION PRACTICES ACT (MODIFIED)
In an Letter dated January 1, 2005 addressed to Former Council Member JoAnn Yukimura concerning Executive Session Interviews, the issue of public disclosure of a successful applicant's information was discussed at great length. This letter was responsible for the interviews of the successful applicant's moving from Executive Session to a Public Meeting.
This Letter was also copied and sent to Chair Asing, Former County Attorney Nakazawa and County Clerk Peter Nakamura
It stated:
The Charter provides that all members of boards and commissions shall be appointed and may be removed by the mayor, with the approval of the council.” Charter, Art. XXIII, § 23.02. It is our understanding that, in accordance with the Charter, the Mayor transmits to the Council the names of the appointees for the Council’s approval. A copy of each appointee’s application for appointment to the board or commission is also transmitted to the Council. The application includes, among other things, the appointee’s name and employer, a summary of the appointee’s major work experience, and a statement of the applicant’s understanding of the primary duties of the appointment.
Although the UIPA recognizes that individuals have a significant privacy interest in “applications” and “nominations” for “appointment to a governmental position,” the OIP has previously opined that this significant privacy interest is outweighed by the public interest in the application information concerning successful applicants, or nominees, because it “sheds light upon the composition, conduct, and potential conflicts of interest of government board and commission members.” OIP Op. Ltr. No. 91-8 (June 24, 1991). Therefore, the UIPA would require the disclosure of the appointees’ application information.
This is straight forward. We cant say these are only “guidelines”, this is the Law, the intent of the Legislature.
This Letter also made reference to an OIP decision made back in June 1991 (OIP Op Ltr No. 91-8)
This OIP decision was in reference to the Governor's applications for appointments to Boards and Commissions to be reviewed by the State Senate.
Below you will find some information included in that opinion. Since the OIP directly referenced this decision I took the liberty to add Mayor where it had Governor and Council in place of Senate.
*Government Record*
HRS 92F-3 Defines "Government record" means information maintained by an agency in written, auditory, visual, electronic, or other physical form.
*Successful Applicants*
*OIP 91-8*
We find that certain information about a Mayor's nomination would shed light upon the operations of government boards and commissions, and also upon the Mayor's and the Council's role in selecting board and commission members on the public's behalf.
In our opinion, the public has an interest in the application and nomination records concerning a nominee that would reveal the composition, conduct, and potential conflicts of interest of board and commission members whom the Mayor appoints with the Council's approval
We believe that this public interest would be furthered by the disclosure of a nominee's identity and the other nominee information discussed below.
The nominee's work experience required for appointment to the particular board and commission must also be disclosed to the public upon request. Under the UIPA, an individual has a significant privacy interest in the individual's "nongovernmental” employment history, except as necessary to demonstrate compliance with requirements for a particular government position," in this case, as a board or commission member.
We find that more than a "scintilla of public interest" in a nominee's qualifying work experience exists "to preclude a finding of a clearly unwarranted invasion of privacy."
We find that the UIPA requires public disclosure of a nominee's current occupation, business address, business telephone number, education and political membership due to a charter provision to keep our government to a bare political majority as possible.
The nominee's home address, home telephone number, birth date, financial information, and other information contained in the application must be kept confidential under the UIPA exception for a clearly unwarranted invasion of privacy.
*Public Access*
Under section 92F-19(a)(6), Hawaii Revised Statutes, the Mayor may disclose information, including confidential information, about a nominee to the Council that will review the nomination. When the Council receives confidential information about a nominee from the Mayor, the Council must observe the applicable restrictions on disclosure. *However, the Council will be required to publicly disclose certain nominee information under its review when the public interest in disclosure of the information outweighs the nominee's privacy interest. *
Both opinions guide us on what is public information and what is confidential in a successful applicant's application. In my opinion the last line tells us that before the Council can review the information and act to approve or not approve *the Council must disclose the non confidential successful applicant information to the public. This information should be available to the public when the agenda is posted, it was not. *
The communications from the Mayor received in the County Clerks office on 12-4-09 and 12-23-09 stated that the applications of today’s successful applicants were attached. This allowed more then enough time for the Clerks office to remove the confidential information on the application and make available to the public the information needed for the Council to review and move forward. If the applications were not attached and the Mayor did not include them, please have the Mayor send over the applications so we can move forward.
Due to time I have offered only a small portion of the information contained in the two OIP letters I mentioned. I feel to get a complete understanding of all the information supplied, the case notes, case law and Legislative intent of the UIPA you must read the opinions in their entirety. Please feel free to ask you Council Attorney their advice on if it is appropriate to move forward today with this new information supplied today.
My testimony here today is to not interfere with a process that brings members of our fine community together for public serve. But to ask questions about the process and are we doing what we can to make our government the most open and free flowing of information as possible while respecting the private lives of all in our community.
Mahalo for your time
Rob Abrew
But of course when you look at the byline you find out why.
Reporter Mike Levine- the paper’s government beat reporter who, with Editor Nathan Eagle has spent the last year building back the credibility of the paper after a thirty-plus year lull- is apparently on vacation or taking a long weekend and the vapid Paul Curtis was there to report how smoothly everything went, with no mention of Rob Abrew’s testimony and the promises of some councilmembers to look into the matters that he raised before today’s scheduled confirmation votes.
We’ve pretty much outlined the problems with the lack of adherence to some county charter provisions over the past two days but Abrew’s testimony details OIP opinions regarding state open records laws that the council is set to violate if they proceed without providing the public with the non-confidential disclosures contained in the applications prospective B&C members have filled out- one the council has indeed received but have not released to the public.
We’ll try to follow up tomorrow on today’s activities based on reports from Abrew but for today we’ll present his testimony verbatim as it details the issues and the law that, despite Abrew’s testimony, Curtis ignored in favor highlighting kissy-face testimony of former Judge “What Me Worry, Alfred E, Let ‘em go” Laureta and the supposedly laudable qualities of all the nominees.
Here’s Abrew’s testimony:
------
Aloha and Good morning Council Members
I would like to offer my gratitude to all our community members here today that have become the Mayor's successful applicant for a position to one of Kauai's many Boards or Commissions We are here today to complete the process that the citizens of Kauai have approved in Charter section 23.02 (B) on how the Mayor appoints and our Council approves the successful applicant's to a Board or Commission.
On behalf of The Public I must ask today that the Council defer the interview process until the public has a chance to review and publicly testify on information contained on the successful applicant's application as required by HRS 92F, THE UNIFORM INFORMATION PRACTICES ACT (MODIFIED)
In an Letter dated January 1, 2005 addressed to Former Council Member JoAnn Yukimura concerning Executive Session Interviews, the issue of public disclosure of a successful applicant's information was discussed at great length. This letter was responsible for the interviews of the successful applicant's moving from Executive Session to a Public Meeting.
This Letter was also copied and sent to Chair Asing, Former County Attorney Nakazawa and County Clerk Peter Nakamura
It stated:
The Charter provides that all members of boards and commissions shall be appointed and may be removed by the mayor, with the approval of the council.” Charter, Art. XXIII, § 23.02. It is our understanding that, in accordance with the Charter, the Mayor transmits to the Council the names of the appointees for the Council’s approval. A copy of each appointee’s application for appointment to the board or commission is also transmitted to the Council. The application includes, among other things, the appointee’s name and employer, a summary of the appointee’s major work experience, and a statement of the applicant’s understanding of the primary duties of the appointment.
Although the UIPA recognizes that individuals have a significant privacy interest in “applications” and “nominations” for “appointment to a governmental position,” the OIP has previously opined that this significant privacy interest is outweighed by the public interest in the application information concerning successful applicants, or nominees, because it “sheds light upon the composition, conduct, and potential conflicts of interest of government board and commission members.” OIP Op. Ltr. No. 91-8 (June 24, 1991). Therefore, the UIPA would require the disclosure of the appointees’ application information.
This is straight forward. We cant say these are only “guidelines”, this is the Law, the intent of the Legislature.
This Letter also made reference to an OIP decision made back in June 1991 (OIP Op Ltr No. 91-8)
This OIP decision was in reference to the Governor's applications for appointments to Boards and Commissions to be reviewed by the State Senate.
Below you will find some information included in that opinion. Since the OIP directly referenced this decision I took the liberty to add Mayor where it had Governor and Council in place of Senate.
*Government Record*
HRS 92F-3 Defines "Government record" means information maintained by an agency in written, auditory, visual, electronic, or other physical form.
*Successful Applicants*
*OIP 91-8*
We find that certain information about a Mayor's nomination would shed light upon the operations of government boards and commissions, and also upon the Mayor's and the Council's role in selecting board and commission members on the public's behalf.
In our opinion, the public has an interest in the application and nomination records concerning a nominee that would reveal the composition, conduct, and potential conflicts of interest of board and commission members whom the Mayor appoints with the Council's approval
We believe that this public interest would be furthered by the disclosure of a nominee's identity and the other nominee information discussed below.
The nominee's work experience required for appointment to the particular board and commission must also be disclosed to the public upon request. Under the UIPA, an individual has a significant privacy interest in the individual's "nongovernmental” employment history, except as necessary to demonstrate compliance with requirements for a particular government position," in this case, as a board or commission member.
We find that more than a "scintilla of public interest" in a nominee's qualifying work experience exists "to preclude a finding of a clearly unwarranted invasion of privacy."
We find that the UIPA requires public disclosure of a nominee's current occupation, business address, business telephone number, education and political membership due to a charter provision to keep our government to a bare political majority as possible.
The nominee's home address, home telephone number, birth date, financial information, and other information contained in the application must be kept confidential under the UIPA exception for a clearly unwarranted invasion of privacy.
*Public Access*
Under section 92F-19(a)(6), Hawaii Revised Statutes, the Mayor may disclose information, including confidential information, about a nominee to the Council that will review the nomination. When the Council receives confidential information about a nominee from the Mayor, the Council must observe the applicable restrictions on disclosure. *However, the Council will be required to publicly disclose certain nominee information under its review when the public interest in disclosure of the information outweighs the nominee's privacy interest. *
Both opinions guide us on what is public information and what is confidential in a successful applicant's application. In my opinion the last line tells us that before the Council can review the information and act to approve or not approve *the Council must disclose the non confidential successful applicant information to the public. This information should be available to the public when the agenda is posted, it was not. *
The communications from the Mayor received in the County Clerks office on 12-4-09 and 12-23-09 stated that the applications of today’s successful applicants were attached. This allowed more then enough time for the Clerks office to remove the confidential information on the application and make available to the public the information needed for the Council to review and move forward. If the applications were not attached and the Mayor did not include them, please have the Mayor send over the applications so we can move forward.
Due to time I have offered only a small portion of the information contained in the two OIP letters I mentioned. I feel to get a complete understanding of all the information supplied, the case notes, case law and Legislative intent of the UIPA you must read the opinions in their entirety. Please feel free to ask you Council Attorney their advice on if it is appropriate to move forward today with this new information supplied today.
My testimony here today is to not interfere with a process that brings members of our fine community together for public serve. But to ask questions about the process and are we doing what we can to make our government the most open and free flowing of information as possible while respecting the private lives of all in our community.
Mahalo for your time
Rob Abrew
Wednesday, December 30, 2009
CHOPPED LIVER?
CHOPPED LIVER?: In the two newspaper city of Honolulu bloggers like Ian Lind and the King of the Rats Larry Geller often refer to a two newspaper mornings when what the news is depends on what paper you read.
Lately, with the addition of editors/reporters Mike Levine and Nathan Eagle, when those two paper moments involve the local Kaua`i newspaper, the local version usually shows a lot more enterprise that the O`ahu take.
But the reporting skills of the dynamic duo far outshine their human resources proficiency as evidenced by their recent hiring of “the worst journalist in the world” or at least the island- Paul Curtis to cover the police and courts beat.
Put it all together and you have drop-in, malihini, part-time, Honolulu Advertiser correspondent Diana Leone answering the $64,000 question that Curtis ignores in dueling reports on the fact that the state will not fight an Advertiser records request to release at least the settlement amount- if not the settlement particulars- the state must pay in the Ka Loko Dam tragedy settlement.
The question left burning after reading Curtis’s report is “what about Kaua`i County?” which was, if anything, not just negligent like the state but apparently complicit in covering up some of the grading and grubbing violations of the fiendish Jimmy Pflueger.
While Curtis- under a patently false headline of State settlement in Ka Loko suit unsealed (it hasn’t been unsealed yet but will be soon)- fails to even mention anything about the county settlement- which is equally subject to state open records laws- Leone reports that in addition to the record request for the state settlement,
The (Advertiser) also demanded that Kaua`i County, the only other public entity involved in the settlement, reveal its promised payment amount, but the county has not yet done so. Kaua`i County Attorney Al Castillo didn't respond to a request for comment yesterday.
Once the state information is obtained, The Advertiser will revisit asking Kaua`i County to make its payment amount public, said Advertiser attorney Jeff Portnoy.
The state and county shares should never have been sealed, Portnoy said.
But what neither discussed is why the records requests apparently failed to include anything asking for any information on findings or admissions of culpability on the part of either the state or county.
Anyone following the case will remember that, although the state was supposed- and failed- to inspect the dam, much of the law that was flouted by Pflueger was that of the county’s grubbing and grading ordinance, one that had been recently strengthened after Pflueger’s previous crimes in Pila`a and Ka Loko.
People have also have heard the allegations that the county, in the persons of Mayor Maryann Kusaka and her Department of Public Works personnel- Wally Kudo, Cesar Portugal and then-DPW chief and current Planning Director Ian Costa- actively protected Pflueger when Kusaka directed the three to back off on any investigation and enforcement.
And whether Kusaka indeed directed them as a member of the DPW has sworn, their negligence and reluctance to investigate is a matter of record in testimony before the county council prior to the dam break.
It would be interesting to see what if anything was stipulated in this settlement but for some reason the myopic corporate press is apparently only interested in reporting the bottom line, not getting down to the matter of responsibility.
That might take a little work in explaining the whole story, something a he-said-she-said, one-day–story, mainstream press has no interest in doing.
Don’t count on there being anyone who will reveal the criminal culpability or prosecute those involved at either the state or county level. The dollar amount will have to intimate culpability and the truth will be left to speculation.
No one tried to say a thing
When they carried him out in jest
Except of course, the little neighbor boy
Who carried him to rest
And he just walked along alone
With his guilt so well concealed
And muttered underneath his breath
"Nothing is revealed"
Lately, with the addition of editors/reporters Mike Levine and Nathan Eagle, when those two paper moments involve the local Kaua`i newspaper, the local version usually shows a lot more enterprise that the O`ahu take.
But the reporting skills of the dynamic duo far outshine their human resources proficiency as evidenced by their recent hiring of “the worst journalist in the world” or at least the island- Paul Curtis to cover the police and courts beat.
Put it all together and you have drop-in, malihini, part-time, Honolulu Advertiser correspondent Diana Leone answering the $64,000 question that Curtis ignores in dueling reports on the fact that the state will not fight an Advertiser records request to release at least the settlement amount- if not the settlement particulars- the state must pay in the Ka Loko Dam tragedy settlement.
The question left burning after reading Curtis’s report is “what about Kaua`i County?” which was, if anything, not just negligent like the state but apparently complicit in covering up some of the grading and grubbing violations of the fiendish Jimmy Pflueger.
While Curtis- under a patently false headline of State settlement in Ka Loko suit unsealed (it hasn’t been unsealed yet but will be soon)- fails to even mention anything about the county settlement- which is equally subject to state open records laws- Leone reports that in addition to the record request for the state settlement,
The (Advertiser) also demanded that Kaua`i County, the only other public entity involved in the settlement, reveal its promised payment amount, but the county has not yet done so. Kaua`i County Attorney Al Castillo didn't respond to a request for comment yesterday.
Once the state information is obtained, The Advertiser will revisit asking Kaua`i County to make its payment amount public, said Advertiser attorney Jeff Portnoy.
The state and county shares should never have been sealed, Portnoy said.
But what neither discussed is why the records requests apparently failed to include anything asking for any information on findings or admissions of culpability on the part of either the state or county.
Anyone following the case will remember that, although the state was supposed- and failed- to inspect the dam, much of the law that was flouted by Pflueger was that of the county’s grubbing and grading ordinance, one that had been recently strengthened after Pflueger’s previous crimes in Pila`a and Ka Loko.
People have also have heard the allegations that the county, in the persons of Mayor Maryann Kusaka and her Department of Public Works personnel- Wally Kudo, Cesar Portugal and then-DPW chief and current Planning Director Ian Costa- actively protected Pflueger when Kusaka directed the three to back off on any investigation and enforcement.
And whether Kusaka indeed directed them as a member of the DPW has sworn, their negligence and reluctance to investigate is a matter of record in testimony before the county council prior to the dam break.
It would be interesting to see what if anything was stipulated in this settlement but for some reason the myopic corporate press is apparently only interested in reporting the bottom line, not getting down to the matter of responsibility.
That might take a little work in explaining the whole story, something a he-said-she-said, one-day–story, mainstream press has no interest in doing.
Don’t count on there being anyone who will reveal the criminal culpability or prosecute those involved at either the state or county level. The dollar amount will have to intimate culpability and the truth will be left to speculation.
No one tried to say a thing
When they carried him out in jest
Except of course, the little neighbor boy
Who carried him to rest
And he just walked along alone
With his guilt so well concealed
And muttered underneath his breath
"Nothing is revealed"
Monday, December 14, 2009
TIME FLIES
TIME FLIES: We’ve been perhaps hyper-critical of Police Chief Darryl Perry’s administration and haven’t had many kind words for the local newspaper’s KPD-beat reporter Paul Curtis who’s served more like a stenographer for Perry’s PR efforts than a reporter.
But Curtis’ Sunday’s entry is almost as baffling as the amazing revelation regarding what most thought were the ongoing, concerted efforts focusing on one of Perry’s stated “top priorities” upon taking office.
After “burying the lede” with six paragraphs and 157 words evoking an image of the entire department scurrying for no-place-in-particular if “a terrorist attack, gas leak or act of nature” were to hit the new KPD headquarters, Curtis talks about the status of Perry’s accreditation efforts.
At the top of the list (of goals) is departmental accreditation, something Perry has been talking about since he became the county’s seventh police chief in October 2007.
Oh, good- let’s see where we are.
“It’s going to take years,” he said of the process. He is advocating appointment of a full-time accreditation manager to guide the department down the rigorous road to accreditation with the Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies.
That manager would also be responsible for attaining periodical re-accreditation, he said. KPD is the state’s only county police department lacking CALEA accreditation.
Well, we knew it was a long process. Apparently we are already at the stage where we need a manager for completing the process.
The appointing of the manager will need to happen as phase one of the department’s accreditation process begins, as he or she will liaison with CALEA, he said.
Huh? Phase 1? Begins? Yes folks, “as phase 1... begins”. Two years later we find out there have been approximately zero efforts toward accreditation and the chief is just now proposing to fund a full time position.
As Curtis then reports, now 11 paragraphs into his piece and five on the subject of accreditation:
Phase one includes contacting CALEA, assessing KPD, establishing a timeline for accreditation completion, and determining roadblocks and obstacles to successful accreditation, according to the single-page 2010 KPD goals list.
You’ve gotta be freakin’ kidding. Contacting them?
Let us be of assistance.
According to CALEA’s “Getting Started and Enrollment” section- which at least Curtis, if not Perry has apparently visited:
Agencies can obtain information, view/print fee schedules and required documents, or purchase any CALEA Publication, including the CALEA Accreditation Compliance Express (CACE) software, directly from the CALEA website or by contacting CALEA (800-368-3757).
We presume they have computers and telephones. Now they have the web site and number to call. And there’s a handy-dandy list of “suggestions... for agencies interested in finding out more about the Law Enforcement Accreditation Program”... two years late being better than never.
Purchase a copy of the Standards for Law Enforcement Agencies and carefully review and compare the CALEA Standards to your existing written directives. By doing this you should be able to determine: 1. what additions or changes will need to be made to policies and procedures; 2. how long this might take; and 3. what additional costs will be involved to include in budget.
Download the CALEA Accreditation Compliance Express (CACE) Help File. The CACE Program provides an agency with a powerful tool in completing the steps necessary to achieve accredited status and serves as a valuable assistant in the overall management of the accreditation process. Click here to begin the download process.
And maybe instead of sending commissioners to attending those mainland pep talks about how to fight against sick people receiving their medical marijuana they might just spend some money to send someone to:
Attend a CALEA Conference. Who should attend? Key council members; managers; mayor; law enforcement entity CEO; command staff; or designated accreditation manager. You will receive the training needed to begin the process and to successfully complete your accreditation goals; network with other public safety personnel and gain insight into the program; and consult with other CALEA Agencies for “flagship examples.”
Or they could just
Arrange to visit with a nearby CALEA Accredited Agency to view accreditation files and written directives.
Attend and/or join the local PAC (Police Accreditation Coalition), if available to you. This is another resource for information and accreditation process training. Click here to check on a PAC in your area.
Among the goals of accreditation, according to the web site and Curtis’ article are to “establish fair and nondiscriminatory personnel practices”. Given the millions paid in attorney fees and awards in discrimination lawsuits over the years it seems incredible that we’re only now getting started on accreditation.
And given the state of community relations after the publication of “KPD Blue” perhaps another stated purpose of “increas(ing) community and staff confidence in the agency” accreditation might be demand a little more immediacy.
One of the first things a student learns in journalism school is “how to write a lead”- or lede in the written lingo. It’s supposed to be the most important “news” in your “story” in 25 words or less.
A real reporter might have written story with a lede that evoked a headline of “Chief’s says accreditation process still not begun”. The fact that Perry could depend on Curtis to cryptically bury the bad news- and try to portray it as “good news” in the middle of an otherwise ho-hum article- speaks volumes.
What Curtis is doing at a newspaper that has moved so far is so short a time with two real newspeople- Mike Levine and Nathan Eagle- in charge, combined with the news that the accreditation process hasn’t begun after two more years has us once again asking “can’t anyone here play this game?”
But Curtis’ Sunday’s entry is almost as baffling as the amazing revelation regarding what most thought were the ongoing, concerted efforts focusing on one of Perry’s stated “top priorities” upon taking office.
After “burying the lede” with six paragraphs and 157 words evoking an image of the entire department scurrying for no-place-in-particular if “a terrorist attack, gas leak or act of nature” were to hit the new KPD headquarters, Curtis talks about the status of Perry’s accreditation efforts.
At the top of the list (of goals) is departmental accreditation, something Perry has been talking about since he became the county’s seventh police chief in October 2007.
Oh, good- let’s see where we are.
“It’s going to take years,” he said of the process. He is advocating appointment of a full-time accreditation manager to guide the department down the rigorous road to accreditation with the Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies.
That manager would also be responsible for attaining periodical re-accreditation, he said. KPD is the state’s only county police department lacking CALEA accreditation.
Well, we knew it was a long process. Apparently we are already at the stage where we need a manager for completing the process.
The appointing of the manager will need to happen as phase one of the department’s accreditation process begins, as he or she will liaison with CALEA, he said.
Huh? Phase 1? Begins? Yes folks, “as phase 1... begins”. Two years later we find out there have been approximately zero efforts toward accreditation and the chief is just now proposing to fund a full time position.
As Curtis then reports, now 11 paragraphs into his piece and five on the subject of accreditation:
Phase one includes contacting CALEA, assessing KPD, establishing a timeline for accreditation completion, and determining roadblocks and obstacles to successful accreditation, according to the single-page 2010 KPD goals list.
You’ve gotta be freakin’ kidding. Contacting them?
Let us be of assistance.
According to CALEA’s “Getting Started and Enrollment” section- which at least Curtis, if not Perry has apparently visited:
Agencies can obtain information, view/print fee schedules and required documents, or purchase any CALEA Publication, including the CALEA Accreditation Compliance Express (CACE) software, directly from the CALEA website or by contacting CALEA (800-368-3757).
We presume they have computers and telephones. Now they have the web site and number to call. And there’s a handy-dandy list of “suggestions... for agencies interested in finding out more about the Law Enforcement Accreditation Program”... two years late being better than never.
Purchase a copy of the Standards for Law Enforcement Agencies and carefully review and compare the CALEA Standards to your existing written directives. By doing this you should be able to determine: 1. what additions or changes will need to be made to policies and procedures; 2. how long this might take; and 3. what additional costs will be involved to include in budget.
Download the CALEA Accreditation Compliance Express (CACE) Help File. The CACE Program provides an agency with a powerful tool in completing the steps necessary to achieve accredited status and serves as a valuable assistant in the overall management of the accreditation process. Click here to begin the download process.
And maybe instead of sending commissioners to attending those mainland pep talks about how to fight against sick people receiving their medical marijuana they might just spend some money to send someone to:
Attend a CALEA Conference. Who should attend? Key council members; managers; mayor; law enforcement entity CEO; command staff; or designated accreditation manager. You will receive the training needed to begin the process and to successfully complete your accreditation goals; network with other public safety personnel and gain insight into the program; and consult with other CALEA Agencies for “flagship examples.”
Or they could just
Arrange to visit with a nearby CALEA Accredited Agency to view accreditation files and written directives.
Attend and/or join the local PAC (Police Accreditation Coalition), if available to you. This is another resource for information and accreditation process training. Click here to check on a PAC in your area.
Among the goals of accreditation, according to the web site and Curtis’ article are to “establish fair and nondiscriminatory personnel practices”. Given the millions paid in attorney fees and awards in discrimination lawsuits over the years it seems incredible that we’re only now getting started on accreditation.
And given the state of community relations after the publication of “KPD Blue” perhaps another stated purpose of “increas(ing) community and staff confidence in the agency” accreditation might be demand a little more immediacy.
One of the first things a student learns in journalism school is “how to write a lead”- or lede in the written lingo. It’s supposed to be the most important “news” in your “story” in 25 words or less.
A real reporter might have written story with a lede that evoked a headline of “Chief’s says accreditation process still not begun”. The fact that Perry could depend on Curtis to cryptically bury the bad news- and try to portray it as “good news” in the middle of an otherwise ho-hum article- speaks volumes.
What Curtis is doing at a newspaper that has moved so far is so short a time with two real newspeople- Mike Levine and Nathan Eagle- in charge, combined with the news that the accreditation process hasn’t begun after two more years has us once again asking “can’t anyone here play this game?”
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