Posted on Tuesday, November 18, 2008 by J. Robert Gough

I came across the following story during my morning browsing.

Sounds incredibly familiar, except for the multiple staff members and not-for-profit status stuff. We're trying to make a buck.

Click here to read about the rise of watchdog news Web sites.

I would love to hear your thoughts about why you think these sites are catching on around the country.

23 Comments    Leave Comment

Posted on Monday, November 17, 2008 by J. Robert Gough

I've been bitter about NL MVP awards before.

1987 as Jack Clark and Ozzie Smith split the vote and allowed Andre Dawson of the last-place Cubs to win. (Allegedly) Juiced-up Barry Bonds winning and Pujols' string of second place finishes. Keith Hernandez's splitting the MVP with Willie Stargell in 1979 (okay, maybe not so much with that one).

The greatest player in the National League today certain deserves to have more than one MVP award and now he has two.

Let's just hope that elbow ligament heals...and the Cards find some middle infielders...and relief pitching...and starting pitching.

3 Comments    Leave Comment

Posted on Monday, November 17, 2008 by J. Robert Gough

One of the funny things about being in the local media business is way that people in the business act like they don't read each other's stuff. We all do and we have for years, even before the Internets effectively ended the big media news monopoly.

Many of them try to admit they don't read the blogs and many of the old media members begrudgingly admit they read QuincyNews.org (they do, because my Google tracker tells me so).

This is the lead I am burying: The newspaper's FOIA request which led to the city admitting the cost of Firegate (It is what everybody calls it, so let's not get caught up on formalities, okay?) in Sunday's edition.

Looks like that $395,000 doesn't include the cost of the city lawyers, who are getting paid the same if they are sitting in on firefighter hearings or flicking paper footballs through each other's fingers (I'm not saying they are doing that, btw).

So let's just say the tab is $400,000, because we know there are other indirect costs. It is a pretty staggering amount and I think the biggest question is what exactly did this process accomplish?

I guess the city learned some union rules are pretty strong, of course if the mayor had some experience with the Fire and Police Commission, you would think he would have known that going in. Oh, wait...

Rules were broken and punishment was handed down. Apparently, the punishment did not fit the crime in two of three cases that went before the arbitrator. We don't know if that's the case for the women involved, unless one of them goes to court.

Looking back, I don't see how anyone involved in this process (from the accused to the cleared to the city itself) could say they would have handled anything related to this situation the same way.

It will be interesting to see if the city is serious about tightening its personal work done on company time mantra. It seems like there was no enforcement when Firegate started and now the city is (selectively) overreaching.

The city has done something similar in its policy dealing with Central Business District Revolving Loans. The city had a couple of loans that went bad, loans which they didn't actively collect and waited years before taking action and now the city has changed the policy so it will not sit second chairs on such loans, it must be on equal footing with the banks, even though the city is not (in most cases) putting in the same amount of money as the banks. I've talked to a few local bankers who are not very excited in participating in this type of arrangement.

The CBDRL plan is something positive for small business. In writing about the plan, I have never said it was a bad plan as a majority of the loans have been repaid. I just wondered why a few of the borrowers were allowed to seemingly take the money and run (see original old Holiday Inn loan, Newcomb Hotel, Quincy Polymers).

This seems to be a pattern with city government: Make a mistake, don't necessarily admit that mistake, but overcompensate when people start noticing the mistake.

5 Comments    Leave Comment

Posted on Monday, November 17, 2008 by J. Robert Gough

The arbitrator's decision regarding the Quincy Firefighters dominated last week's QuincyNews.org readership.

Firefighter arbitrator opinions: The opinions from the artbitrator.

Arbitrator rules in Firefighters hearings: This was the initial story that a decision had been reached.

QFD reinstatements means two others will be demoted: This was where Chief Scott Walker said when Captain Mark Bigelow and Lt. Bruce Oitker are reinstated, two other firefighters will be demoted and, possibly, one will be without a job. 

QPD gearing up for more grant-funded traffic enforcement: A new year of IDOT-funded traffic enforcement has begun. Buckle up and slow down.

Phillips takes third at WSOP: Phillps grabs $4.5 million from Las Vegas.

0 Comments    Leave Comment

Posted on Friday, November 14, 2008 by J. Robert Gough

Boy, don't let Fr. John at St. Peter see this story. Okay...maybe let him see it. :)

From The Greenville (S.C.) News via USA Today: Catholics who did so (vote Obama) should be reconciled to God through penance before receiving communion, "lest they eat and drink their own condemnation," Rev. Jay Scott Newman wrote, echoing a I Corinthians admonition for anyone who partakes "without recognizing the body of the Lord."

The response from parishioners has been supportive by a margin of 9 to 1, Newman said. He also cited Scripture in urging parishioners to pray for Obama and cooperate with him wherever conscience permits.

 Click here to read more about suggesting penance before Communion for Obama voters.

0 Comments    Leave Comment

Posted on Thursday, November 13, 2008 by J. Robert Gough

In case you were thinking about applying for a job with the new administration, here is a questionnaire you must fill out: Click here to read.

The New York Times has some highlights here.

Maybe some human resource types can chime in, but I thought there were certain questions you weren't supposed to ask job applicants?

And didn't Rahm Emanuel work for Freddie Mac?

0 Comments    Leave Comment

Posted on Wednesday, November 12, 2008 by J. Robert Gough

Okay, so I'll use the common nickname for the situation on this blog entry to differentiate it from the other stories I'm working on.

I was working on this story mid-to-late afternoon on Tuesday and the comments picked up quickly.

I'm working on a couple of different angles today and hoped to post some this morning and some this afternoon.

When commenting on this story, please don't forget to be a human being while you are at the keyboard...and the blog rules of no libel and no profanity still apply.

8 Comments    Leave Comment

Posted on Tuesday, November 11, 2008 by J. Robert Gough

This is from Phil Kadner of southtownstar.com:

"There was a waiting list of nearly 400 people waiting to get into one of the state's four (veterans) homes," Kadner writes. "The average wait was more than 12 months. As I detailed in a series of columns earlier this year, there were beds available for veterans, but the state didn't bother allocating enough money to staff those beds."

Click here to read all of Kadner's column about funding for the state's veterans homes.

1 Comments    Leave Comment

Posted on Monday, November 10, 2008 by J. Robert Gough

One of the reason most folks figured Barack Obama was a stone cold, lead pipe lock for most Illinois newspaper endorsements was the perception that having a president from the home state meant loads of largesse, pounds of pork and a beaucoup bounty of bennies (and we all know how our local leaders love the gubmint gifts).

But that might not necessarily be the case. Here are a couple of different points of view.

Click here to read from suburban southtownstar.com.

Click here to read from stltoday.com.

Let's see, I know President-Elect Obama has been at the Oakley-Lindsay Center, Clat Adams Park and the Maid-Rite in Quincy. I wonder who has the shovel he used while sandbagging? I guess we had better start saving up for the new round of storyboards now.

Instead of "Looking for Lincoln" how about:  "On the lookout for Obama", "Beatifying Barack" or "Obama on Parade"?

1 Comments    Leave Comment

Posted on Monday, November 10, 2008 by J. Robert Gough

The before, during and after of the election helped QuincyNews.org break its single-week visit and pageview mark...again. I can't thank you enough for the response to QuincyNews.org. We must be doing something right.

I am a little puzzled about the local blog scene, which seems to be losing membership left and right (not a political statement). We've had some very good ones retire and some that looked great but never developed (BlogQuincy). I am going to clean out the blogroll this week.

It is a little tough to maintain a blog on a regular basis, especially when you want to keep it interesting and fresh. I mean anybody can slap something together, but in my case I want the blog to be something people enjoy and think about. I also want to stick mostly with local and state issues, although I may talk about the national scene from time-to-time.

I would like to blog 3-4 times a week, but now find myself struggling to get 2-3 done every week.

Speaking of what interests people...here's last week's top five:

City-paid cell phones: Who has them?: Election? Who cares about an election? How many people are getting cell phones from my tax dollars?

Local election results: A close second.

FBI to assist in alleged Website hack investigation: I'll keep calling every week or so just to see where we are on this.

Mayor's campaign war chest pushes past $50K: I'm just guessing, but this story would have been higher had it run earlier in the week.

Dame and Hurdle to close: That's a big name the downtown is losing.

0 Comments    Leave Comment

Showing 1 - 10 of 179 Articles | Page 1 of 18