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September 14, 2002 - Saturday
Here's a brief comment from a neutral observer (not employed by nor favoring either newspaper):
I have to go with the vote of my sister, a native Manhattanite, that the advertiser front page is better despite the Star Bulletin's use of color on Sept. 11th. The mass of gray matter reflects the solemnity of the occasion, in true newsprint form, rather than the Star Bulletin's USA Today style front page.
That's a bit ironic--labelling the Bulletin's design a "USA Today style", since the national paper is the flagship of Gannett's fleet of papers.
I'll probably get my share of hate mail as a result of the essay in this week's Honolulu Weekly, but I've already had several appreciative messages although I wasn't here to receive them personally. It's another indication of how divided the country is these days.
| Walking through semi-industrial parts of Kahului in the early mornings this week was a lot different than doing the same mileage here in Kaaawa. But even sunrise over Kahului Harbor had its moments. |
Kahului Sunrise
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September 13, 2002 - Friday
Better late than never. After discovering Hawaiian Airlines had cancelled our morning flight, leading to a later-than-expected arrival back in Honolulu, things are slowly falling into place. My traveling hard drive has been resurrected, thanks to Norton Utilities, and as yet no disasters have been discovered.
I missed out by not reading the Star-Bulletin regularly while on Maui. Yesterday's big announcement was the sale of a 19 percent stake in Black Press, the ultimate parent company of the Star-Bulletin, to the owner of the Toronto Star.
David Black, until recently sole owner of Black Press, has now sold a minority stake in the Star-Bulletin and a minority stake in Black Press, raising a substantial bit of cash in the process. What this potentially means for the Star-Bulletin isn't clear, except that it increases the depth of Black's pockets.
I got several replies to my comments about the Advertiser's Sept 11 front page design. Here are a couple from Bulletin staffers.
I'm biased, but the Star-Bulletin's A1 today (AM edition) was much better in a number of ways.
Yes, the names of the dead are important, but our use of the photo accomplished rememberance with a more personal yet equally reverent touch. There were even stories to read out there.
p.s. not only was our front page better, the insides were way, way, way better and the special section was a prize-winner. The Tiser did its usual: Ask readers to write in and produce their work for them. Bogus reader empowerment; it's part of the Gannett way.
And #2:
You're kidding, right? You think the Advertiser's Sept. 11 anniversary cover looks *good*, with its mass of gray and indistinct font? Have you seen our cover? For God's sake, Ian, please tell your readers the truth: The Star-Bulletin's cover kicks ass. It kicks *major* ass over the Advertiser's.
Thanks for letting me vent. And no, I'm not biased. :-)
Just a flavor of the competition in this marketplace.
September 12, 2002 - Thursday
Hostrocket.com, my web hosting service, was "down" this morning when I tried to update this page. At this point, I'm unlikely to try again until late this afternoon. Sorry for the delay, but it's really beyond my control.
And I had another computer glitch yesterday afternoon and lost a bunch of stuff, including this whole web site. Well, at least the working copy that I bought with me on this trip. What can go wrong will go wrong, as they sometimes say. Translated, this means: "It wasn't my fault!"
In any case, I'm hoping that I can upload this updated page without losing all of its links, but the new software is still a bit of a mystery, so I'll just cross my fingers and give it a try. Friday's entry will probably be delayed until mid-day.
A quick check of Congresswoman Patsy Mink's official web site says nothing about her hospitalization or current condition. Nada. That seems a bit odd, under the circumstances.
| The observance of September 11 was very low key on this end of Maui. The little farmers and crafts market held every Wednesday across the street at the Kahului Shopping Center went on as scheduled, a handful of flags displayed among the many vegetables the only reminder of the significance of the day. |
9/11 at the old Kahului Shopping Center |
The Office of Information Practices released an important opinion (Op. No. 02-08) this week concluding that Olelo, which manages the public access cable channels, is subject to the state's public records law despite being set up as a private, nonprofit corporation.
The opinion sets out several criteria for determining whether a third-party is so intertwined with the government as to fall under the provisions of the law. These include the government's role in the establishment of the third-party organization, the degree of ongoing control, the nature of the government function which the organization fulfills, and the extent of government funding.
The opinion explicitly blocks government agencies from preventing public accountability through privatization, assigning public tasks to private agencies and then claiming they are exempt from openness requirements. It's an opinion with significant coat tails, and should impact numerous similar situations.
I'm experiencing feline withdrawal symptoms, despite the pleasures of sleeping through a whole night without the 3 a.m. cat Olympics. So it's time to head for home.
Speaking of home, Ms. Harriet spent the week in the kitty slammer, a boarding cage at VCA in Kaneohe. She's not sick, but we're just so worried that she might drift off in the same way Lizzie did. As a result, we didn't want to leave her under the minimal supervision of our cat sitter. This way, we didn't have to worry about her, although she's sure to be upset when we pick her up on the way back from the airport.
September 11, 2002 - Wednesday
The Honolulu Advertiser has a winning front page today, but I don't know whether it's an imported Gannett corporate product or an original local product. The page features names of Sept. 11 victims, with bold print used to create an image of the twin World Trade Center towers. Visually it works. We were standing in the Kahului Safeway around 6 a.m., midway through an hour walk, when I spotted it on the news racks. Star-Bulletin's were also available in news racks at that early hour.
But the day's top story is Rick Daysog's piece in the Star-Bulletin regarding new developments in the grand jury investigation of Mayor Jeremy Harris' campaign. A front pager on any other day of the year, but with 9/11 and all, it leads A-3. You'll definitely want to read it online later today.
The story reports the arrest of a witness who failed to appear before the grand jury last week. The witness, identified as Lisa-Katherine Otsuka, is president of Aloha Manicure & Pedicure, Inc., he reports, and she apparently isn't linked to the contractors under investigation. According to Daysog, investigators are probing whether a payment to a political consulting firm headed by Norma Wong and Harry Mattson was transfarred in whole or part to Otsuka in 2000.
There are lots of suggestive possibilities here. If she wasn't tied to the contractors or to the campaign, what is her link to Harris, if any? If she's just a "nobody", why is she represented by heavy hitting attorney Michael Green? And where does Wong, a longtime associate of former Gov. John Waihee, fit in? Wong has also been a behind-the-scenes power broker down the street at the Office of Hawaiian Affairs, adding to the spectator interest.
There's obviously more to come on this story. Keep digging, Daysog!
"A nameless reader" added this comment to yesterday's look at Rep. Patsy Mink's situation:
There is another scenario - If Mink were to withdraw or die before the Primary, then Steve Tataii would be the only Democrat candidate and would win the Primary.
The Party could attempt to prevail upon him to withdraw for any one of a very limited amount of acceptable excuses - and then they could appoint his replacement to go on and face the Republican challenger.
If they were unsuccessful in this, Steve would be Democrat candidate in the General Election.
And who could Democrats look to for a successful run in the 2nd Congressional District? Who said Mufi? He's got a campaign in hibernation, and a long-expressed desire to be in Washington.
The National Writers Union, citing significant changes in the insurance industry environment, has been unable to find a carrier willing to offer libel insurance to its members. If a provider is eventually found, NWU officials say the price is likely to be 3x higher than the policy previously offered. Times are rough out here in freelance land.
September 10, 2002 - Tuesday
Hawaii Democrats must be holding their collective breath. Congresswoman Patsy Mink has been hospitalized for more than a week in intensive care, suffering from pneumonia following a bout of Chicken Pox. Ominously, virtually no information is being released about her condition, unlike the artificially rosy reports that political staffers usually use to put a positive spin on otherwise bad news.
What happens if, in the worst case, Mink dies or must withdraw from the race for health reasons? It seems like an issue that must be at the top of many political agendas, but so far reporters are shying away from the question.
Applicable state law is a bit confusing, but it appears that if Mink won the primary and then had to withdraw, the party would name a replacement. If Mink won the general election and then withdrew, I believe the governor would name a replacement.
Mink has just a single Democratic opponent, Steve Tataii, a perennial candidate who few take seriously and appears to have no chance at winning an election.
In any case, Mink's seat in Congress, once considered one of the safest for the Democrats, now appears to be very much up in the air and could end up in the Republican camp.
If you're reading this, it's good news. I'm in the process of transferring this site from my ancient software, Claris Home Page, to something a bit more up to date. This involved importing the existing site into a new format using Adobe's GoLive 6.0. The problem is that I really have little idea of how to use the software. I've been keeping parallel updates for a couple of days while trying to pick up the Adobe basics, and I decided yesterday that it's time to take the risk and make the move. So this is the first daily update prepared with the new software, and, if you're reading this, the upload went reasonable smoothly. Or at least it worked.
On the cat front: Mr. Silverman visited again over the weekend, only the third time we've seen him since he moved around the corner. But this time with a hopeful difference. We were nearly home at the end of our morning walk when he ran out from somewhere down the dead end side of Hiwahiwa Street to greet us, crying loudly. He appeared to be in reasonably good shape, although a little on the thin side and, like Ms. Kili, he's chewed his fur in spots during the summer flea season.
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Silverman followed us home, a long way on the cat scale but really not very far, just one house to our corner, then four houses down to our place. He was a little jumpy, but followed right along.
When we got home, he ate two servings of cat food out on the front deck, with Leo circling and Duke staying close by but at a respectful distance. Then I put Mr. Silverman in my bathroom and closed the door so he could rest without Leo bothering him. He slept for a while, ate more, and slept again, before finally exiting. Later in the day, he popped through the cat door twice, both times briefly checking out the food situation before leaving again.
He reappeared when canned food was being served Saturday night, and again briefly Sunday morning.
Now we're wondering whether Silverman's decision to move down the street several months ago might have been his reaction to yellow cat. If so, then maybe, just maybe, he'll come back. Home again. We'll just have to see what happens.
September 9, 2002 - Monday
Pacific Business News reports in its current issue that a federal mediator has been asked to enter the contract negotiations at Gannett's Honolulu Advertiser. Apparently the two sides are far apart, with Gannett seeking a significant cut over the life of the proposed contract, and the Newspaper Guild asking for modest increases.
Over at the Star-Bulletin, newsroom staffers are upset by ongoing problems with color printing. Color is supposed to be the Bulletin's competitive advantage, because its presses are more modern and are capable of superior print quality. But it hasn't been working out that way. One source comments:
Part of the problem is the overworked presses and pressmen, but primarily it's because these rural Canadians have no experience with high-production color printing, and refuse to use the basic tools other newspapers use to get it right. Look at the paper. You see any registration tics or color bars anywhere on the margins of the pages? No. They "eyeball" the pages, and the paper is consistently out of register.
At least some staffers blame the Bulletin's Canadian managers for failing to appreciate how they are squandering their otherwise natural advantage in print quality.
September 8, 2002 - Sunday
I opened Saturday's Star-Bulletin just a few
minutes after posting yesterday's entry with my musings
about news coverage of the former Marine accused of
murder, but released Friday after a DNA test excluded him
as a suspect.
A S-B photo showed the man leaving prison yesterday,
where he had been held for a year while awaiting trial.
The photo caption stated: "He was released after new
evidence overturned his murder conviction." Of course, he
hasn't been convicted because there hasn't been a trial
yet. Perhaps it just seems like it from the overall news
coverage.
Here's another reader comment on the KHON
gubernatorial debate:
I missed the debate, but watched KHON's 10:00
newscast with interest.
What was left out of their online transcript was a
little sparring between anchor and reporter over the
value of the poll.
When his reporter mentioned the results of the
viewer poll, with Case coming out ahead, Joe Moore got
that twinkle in his eye, and said with undisguised
skepticism, "But that poll's not scientific, now, is
it?" The reporter said no, of course not, but then
made a point to mention the huge number of people who
called in.
Joe persisted (and I paraphrase), "But someone
still could have called in over and over, isn't that
so, to skew the results?" The reporter reluctantly
admitted that was the case, and Joe's disdain for the
whole process was clear from his bemused expression.
It was obvious to me that the poll was more valuable
to KHON as a device to announce the number of people
who supposedly tuned in, than it was about the results
-- or anything remotely related to "news" or
"science."
I suspect management wanted to strangle Joe for
stressing that the numbers might not reflect reality,
either in the poll results OR, by implication, the
actual audience size.
Joe Moore hates fluff, and remember, he's the guy
who didn't even want a weather person on the newscast.
To me, a television poll is the domain of the bored,
the stupid, or people who should get out more.
PS. Andy Anderson was also very visible (it helps
to be tall) in the crowd at 'Iolani Palace on
Monday.
And so it goes this Sunday.
Here's the question of the weekend: where did the tiny
mouse carcass go? I was awakened early Friday
morning--very early--by the sounds of cats playing at the
bedroom door. Eventually I staggered over and turned on a
light. There were three cats--Duke, Leo, and Kili--all
apparently co-hunting this tiny baby rat, which appeared
to have already expired. I turned off the light and went
back to bed. When I finally did get up at a more
reasonable hour, the victim was gone. The question, of
course, is where? I'm still looking.
Daily updates for the rest of this week will be a
little erratic. I'll actually be over on Maui most of the
wee, so my schedule won't be as predictable. But I'll do
my best.
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