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A Republican state representative yesterday challenged Gannett's solicitation of campaign advertising using unsolicited email to legislators at their offices in the State Capitol while the Legislature was in session.In an email reply to Honolulu Advertiser sales rep Glenn Zuehls, Rep. Joe Gomes pointed to the Advertiser's past criticism of public officials use of government resources for campaign purposes.
Gomes asked: "Is it now the Advertiser's view that the use of state resources for purely political purposes is an acceptable practice? "
"As to your offer, no thank you."
Click here to read Gomes' complete message.
Gomes, who represents the Windward Oahu district stretching from Waimanalo to Lanikai, sent copies of his message to a number of legislative colleagues.
The Advertiser's online Classified Advertising FAQs currently lists Zuehls as the sales representative for automotive advertising.
Back on the home front, the kittens appear to be doing fine, despite my anxieties. They gained just a bit of weight in their first two days, so the food supply appears adequate for now. Cybelle's appetite was picking up yesterday, so it looks like we're on track. Meda observed that the kittens function like a fireplace in the room. You can just sit and stare for hours, watching all the little movements and changes. Over the weekend I'll get a separate page going for updated kitten pictures.
No pretense this morning. My Wednesday was focused on these kittens. I spent Tuesday night at the office keeping the whole scene under observation, ready to heed the vet's advice on supplementary feedings if the kittens aren't getting enough milk. But that raised the next question--how in the world do you know if they're getting that milk? I thought about interrogating them, but they spent a lot of time sleeping, and the rest of the time glued to Cybelle's underside. But they didn't cry, and they seemed to satisfy themselves, so I'm assuming that there is enough milk getting through to them, for now at least.
Then came a wave of worries about Cybelle, who didn't each much all day. I tried a couple of different foods. No luck.Then later in the afternoon I moved a bowl of dry cat food across the room and put it down right next to the box where I've got the whole family, and she immediately got up and started eating. She ate that whole serving in two tries. So it looks like perhaps she just wasn't comfortable leaving the kittens to go across the room to eat. I could be wrong, but that's the impression I was left with.
In any case, she seems to know what she's doing and is a good mother. So last night I came home and left Cybelle and her kittens on their own. Hopefully all will be fine.
I appreciated this note received yesterday:
Congratulations to Mama Cat and good luck w/the kitten watch!I, for one, like both your media watch and the animal updates.
Gives a good balance to life - between the serious investigative stuff that keeps everyone informed and alert. And - the stuff that tugs at your heartstrings.
Technical note: Hostrocket's shift of these pages to a server in their new data center eliminated the previous static IP address, so the few folks who were getting here using that address are now lost in cyberspace. We're dickering over the address, but for the tmebeing you'll just have to try again with www.ilind.net. This has primarily involved folks with Prodigy accounts who had trouble getting through to the current entries.
I'm tiptoeing between the cat lovers and "no cat" advocates. So all cat folks just click here to skip ahead!I'm still looking for anything about the MidWeek union vote, which apparently remains unmentionable in both the Star-Bulletin and Advertiser. Perhaps I've missed it. If so, someone please point me to the story (or stories). Thanks to those who pointed me to the brief Pacific Business News item. I've really got to wonder whether this reflects the kind of anti-labor bias local unions have long complained about? There was no shortage of coverage of the Star-Bulletin's new investors. How about their new union?
Someone asked what happens next at MidWeek. Well, the new union will elect a bargaining committee and begin negotiations on a new contract. The company is required by federal law to bargain in good faith, and the Star-Bulletin's drive for public approval and goodwill would appear to give the union some leverage in those negotiations, although fledgling unions don't often make major breakthroughs in the first contract.
It's worth reading the story in The Chronicle of Higher Education published back in late February on UH President Dobelle's hiring of longtime friends in highly paid administrative positions.
There's quite a controversy brewing over the right to link to other publications through so-called deep links, which bypass the other home page and go directly to specific pages. There was a story this morning on Low End Mac, and Jim Romenesko's MediaNews points to demands made on Barkingdogs.org by the publisher of the Dallas Morning News.
But the the real news of the day: We have kittens! Finally. Three of them.
They appear to have been born late Monday night or, most likely, early Tuesday morning.
The little rescued Siamese, Ms. Cybelle, didn't choose any of the cozy private nests I had ready for her. No way. She had those kittens right in the middle of the couch that sits against the wall across from my desk.
Then she moved them, but not too far. Did she hide them like the books say? No way. She carried them onto a towel I had placed out in the middle of the floor for Cybelle to sleep on. That's where I found the little pile of kittens when I arrived around 9:30 yesterday morning. I actually missed them when I first came in. It was a couple of minutes before I glanced down and saw the unusual beige pile that turned out to be kittens.
By mid-afternoon, mother and kittens had visited the vet and gotten a clean bill of health. It wasn't clear whether Cybelle is producing enough milk for these guys, so I'm on kitten watch with an initial supply of milk substitute. So far, they seem satisfied, but they're just a day old.
All three kittens are a beige Siamese color. I'm told the darker "points" appear later.
I don't know whether they're males or females, but all appear healthy.
Cybelle looked big enough to have more kittens, but Dr. Lee Loy said this appears to be it for now.
I wonder if there will be any coverage of MidWeek's union vote in today's papers? I don't see anything in the Advertiser's online edition, and the Star-Bulletin hasn't arrived yet. Nothing in their online "breaking news" section, either.Come to think of it, I don't think either paper has mentioned the union drive or the NLRB decision establishing the bargaining unit and setting the election. Blackout? You've got to wonder. The NLRB ruling defining the bargaining unit was mentioned here back on April 11.
It will be interesting to see how the Star-Bulletin/MidWeek management handle the initial contract negotiations with GCIU.
It rained through our whole walk yesterday morning. I grabbed this photo while huddling in the meager shadow of a small umbrella. Even the rainy mornings are beautiful.
And there were still no kittens as of 5:30 p.m. yesterday, although the little Siamese, Ms. Cybelle, was much more seriously mapping out each of the potential nests and looking for other possibility hidden places to plant herself and whatever kittens eventually emerge.
UPDATE: Congratulations to employees in the MidWeek press department, who voted overwhelmingly on Friday to be represented by the Graphic Communications International Union, Local 501M.The vote was 55 in favor of the union and 12 opposed, with no challenged ballots, according to the local office of the National Labor Relations Board. Four eligible employees apparently did not vote.
How times change. Anyone who has been around Hawaii's Legislature for a while knows that access to the budget worksheets during the session has been an incredibly contentious issue. It has spawned lawsuits and open political battles in the past when the worksheets were held essentially under guard to block public access and even access by legislators who weren't on the budget committees. For a time, these were one of the most closely held secrets. A past Legislature even wrote an exemption to the state's open records law to allow continued secrecy. Now the worksheets are available online for the world to see. It shows what a bunch of lies all those old arguments were. They said the legislative process required these to be secret, and would break down if they were disclosed, yet somehow they're muddling through with the pesky public having a clearer idea of how the budget is progressing.
Harold Morse, another former Star-Bulletin reporter, called last night to say that he's returning to his home turf of Bloomington, Illinois, after a stop to visit his daughter on the west coast. He leaves today. He left a forwarding address for anyone who's interested.
Leo's one of the stars in the latest batch of photos to get posted to the gallery. Just click on his picture or on the Photo Gallery banner. Either route will take you there.
He's a complex cat. Smart. Not very well behaved. He's probably developed more little tricks for aggravating us and demanding attention than any of the others. Somehow we put up with it. But on a morning like this, when he decided that I needed to pop out of bed at 4:18, he's really pushing the limits. Actually, he's beyond the limits. Over the line. But somehow I manage to forgive him.
A salute and farewell to Hawaii Cows, a local web site which for several years offered up what it called "news, moos, and irreverent views". It's disappeared and this time it appears final. Best wishes to Louise Kubo, site author and alpha cow, who's now grazing in the administrative fields of the UH-Manoa Chancellor's Office and probably dreaming of those simpler days as a member of the faculty.Here's a tidbit from a friend in the Star-Bulletin newsroom:
I was talking to an SB ad exec yesterday, and she told me that ad sales have been pouring in since Black's big announcement (of new local investors). The difference, she said, is like night and day. Of course, you have to consider the source, but I find it very comforting.Gannett had promised everyone we'd be out of business within our first year, and they turned out to be full of --it. Some people have been getting tired of lies from big corporations- or so I would like to believe.
Next they'll have to find out if it sells newspapers as well as advertising.
Honolulu Weekly cartoonist John Pritchett has announced the availability of Jeremy's World Comics Part II (online only), cartoons and commentary about Honolulu Mayor Jeremy Harris.
I added another round of dog photos to the Mornin' Dogs collection. Just click on the handsome couple here, or on the dogs banner at the top of the page.
Leo just hockeyed the cup of water we leave on the counter for the cats. It's part of his regular naughty rounds, although most mornings he taps it a few times for attention before trying to dump the whole thing. Today he got right down to business, sending the water across the end of the counter and onto the floor. At least I got there before the cup went off the edge.
George & Lucy
And the quick answer is--still no kittens as of yesterday afternoon.
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