Here’s your program advisory for tonight–tune into the second half of Leslie Wilcox’s interview with Bob Sevey on her “Long Story Short” tonight at 7:30 p.m. on PBS Hawaii. The first installment, which aired last week, was a news junkie’s feast.

And if you missed the first part, I note that you can read the transcript here (along with transcripts of Leslie’s other interviews).

The current issue of Hawaii Island Journal, sister publication of Honolulu Weekly, contains a long story by Leah Gouker on the National Labor Relations Board hearing on charges brought by the Newspaper Guild against the Hawaii Tribune-Herald. The proceedings filled seven days at the end of October. The story is not yet available online, but Gouker’s day-by-day account can be seen at the web site maintained by the Newspaper Guild in Hilo (Holomua.org). Accounts of days 5 and 6 are at the top of the main page, and just click on the “more stories” link to read the earlier stories.

Retired Advertiser bureau chief Hugh Clark added his own summary of the inner workings at the Tribune-Herald.

Clark reports that, according to testimony during the hearing, work rules “are enacted at whim, without prior knowledge and applied capriciously. (Tribune-Herald editor David) Bock testified he expected a byline story a shift from reporters–but they did now know that.”

So secret rules are one problem, and Clark says even those secret rules are loosely interpreted at the whim of management.

The scorekeeper is Bock himself, who does it at odd hours and may or may not account for unpublished stories, or those rejected or even lost in the computer. Results are not published to the staff, except when members are reprimanded for allegedly falling short.

Clark adds that the Guild and its representatives “are routinely ignored or punished.”

Not a pretty picture of working conditions for journalists there in Hilo.

The Hawaii Island Journal, like Honolulu Weekly, lags its online content by a week, so these stories won’t be available for online viewing until after the next issue appears on December 1. I would advise checking back at the journal’s main page or checking directly on their list of stories from the prior issue.

The fire station in Kaneohe has been dramatically transformed into a blazing, energy-guzzling, watt-wasting extravaganza of holiday lights, the first salvo in the annual “we can do it better than you” competition with decorators across the street at the Police Department.

There in the glare of the lights as we turned to enter the Times Market parking lot, I realized that I’m just a victim of a dreaded new disease, DDD–Decoration Deficit Disorder.

That’s right. Our house looks the same now as it did before Thanksgiving. No extra lights strung through the trees or across the roof. No plastic reindeer. No red shirted fat guy with his bag of presents. And it is likely to remain that way through the end of the year, except for a few cat ornaments that get displayed in the house. But now I know it’s not my fault. The blame lies with previously undiagnosed DDD.

Perhaps its time for a DDD telethon to raise funds for a cure. Or maybe to just help the fire department pay what must be an immense electricity bill for the season.