Showing posts with label City Hall. Show all posts
Showing posts with label City Hall. Show all posts

Thursday, November 5, 2009

FAMED MEDIA GURU: "Autopsies" Columbia Tribune


1)  CITY HALL:  Billing mess, legal violations widen
2)  ST. ROMAINE SHOCKER:  Raising rates better than cutting costs
3)  FAMED MEDIA GURU:  "Autopsies" Columbia Tribune 
4)  YULETIDE BUMMER:  Ashland City Hall to hold Christmas party -- out of town!
5)  MU RESEARCHERS:  Put AIDS on a "leash" 
6)  MISSOURI MATH:  Middle school scores improve  
7)  AMAZING ARCHIVE:  Missourian newspapers show Columbia's past 
8)  ONLINE PET GROUP:  Helps MidMo animals
9)  HOUSING NEWS:  With Bank of Missouri's Tom Stone


CITY HALL:  Billing mess, legal violations widen
Part 4 of a series

COLUMBIA, 11/5/09 (Beat Bytes) -- A decades-long practice of underbilling large sewer users may be part of wider failures to follow city law at City Hall.   

Columbia's Protective Inspection Department -- like the sewer utility, a branch of Public Works -- failed to collect sewer connection fees from a Boone Hospital-owned office building, in violation of section 27-52 of Columbia City ordinances.  The fees are assessed to connect newly-constructed buildings to the city sewer. 

"I asked [protective inspection director] John Sudduth how much in sewer connection charges were collected for the 28-unit medical office building across from Boone Hospital at 1605 E. Broadway,"  34-year City of Columbia employee and sewer maintenance superintendent Bill Weitkemper emailed his supervisor, sewer utility manager Terry Hennkens.  "Sudduth's records show that there were never any sewer connection charges collected." 

Weitkemper discovered in March 2006 that city utility accountants weren't billing thousands of sewer utility users, sparking a process that has yet to be resolved.  His alert about the uncollected sewer connection fees set off a similar chain of confusion. 

"Sewer connection fees have been in effect at least as far back as City Ordinance 15324-1, dated 9/2/97.  Connection fees are a significant source of revenue for the sewer utility," Hennkens informed public works operation manager Mary Ellen Lea in a followup email.  "I believe the building Bill Weitkemper is referencing is Plaza 2....Plaza 4 was recently completed this year (2007).  Wonder if a collection fee was collected for it?"

"Good grief," Lea replied.  "Another one for the list.  Only this one is a Protective Inspection issue, not Utility Accounts Billing." 

"The sewer connection fee collection procedure may need to be reviewed," Hennkens added.   

LACK OF INTEREST

In emails obtained by the Columbia Heart Beat under the Freedom of Information Act, Hennkens -- also a decades-long city employee -- supports fixing the problems Weitkemper identified.  And like Weitkemper, Hennkens expresses frustration with his superiors.

"This situation has been allowed to develop due to the lack of interest in the proper management of sewer utility billing methods since at least 1987," Hennkens told Mary Ellen Lea in a Dec. 20, 2007 email.  "It is something that needs to be addressed."  

Hennkens also seemed surprised about the terms of a University of Missouri/City of Columbia agreement to increase MU's long-underbilled sewer rates, orchestrated without city council approval by public works director John Glascock.

"Discussions have been held with the University about paying for their approximately 8,100 equivalent residential units," Hennkens emailed Weitkemper on July 17, 2008.  "Ironically, they agreed to begin paying more, but Glascock gave them ten years to ramp up to get where they should be."   

Weitkemper characterized the MU/City Hall agreement as illegal, unfair favoritism. 

"The University of Missouri should not be given ten years to 'ramp up' to what the City and the University both agree the University should be paying," he wrote in a formal report to City Manager Bill Watkins on Sept. 20, 2008.  "This is not supported by ordinance and the multi-family residential property owners were not given this option." 

WRONG JOB

Expressing concern that his department had been dragged into a problem best resolved elsewhere, Hennkens told Lea he wanted to "get out of the billing process.  It is not an operations and maintenance function.  It is not an engineering function, either.  I prefer to be in the position of pointing out billing questions, not trying to resolve them."

Weitkemper's involvement, Hennkens explained, was problematic too.  "I don't want Bill involved in billing concerns by making inquiries which may result in criticism of him for pointing out what he perceives to be shortcomings of others.  He should not be involved in billing matters at all."   

Blaming a failure to update procedures, Hennkens again referred to a legal and political minefield that recurs repeatedly in the many exchanges about the sewer flap:  City Hall department heads interpreting the law.

"Prior to 1987, when we had a separate Division Head (Sanitary Engineer) for the Sewer Utility, the rates and ordinance interpretations fell upon that person," Hennkens emailed Lea, dropping the problem at her doorstep.  "Since that is no longer the case, you are it." 

"My intention is to get our list of billing concerns to the City Manager, then get it moved to Finance," Lea responded.  "I plan to tell Bill [Watkins] that these things cannot be fixed through Operations, they are billing problems.  We can help with interpretation of ordinances, but we should not the ones trying to fix the problems."


ST. ROMAINE SHOCKER:  Raising rates better than cutting costs

COLUMBIA, 11/5/09 (Beat Bytes) -- In a surprise peak at guiding philosophies behind City Hall decisions, assistant city manager Tony St. Romaine made an unusual admission to sewer maintenance supervisor Bill Weitkemper, who had inquired about the terms of an employee bonus program.

Getting more money from city residents, St. Romaine said, is better than lowering costs at City Hall. 

"Would making a suggestion that resulted in the City collecting significant additional utility revenue qualify an employee for an additional payment or award?" Weitkemper asked St. Romaine in a November 2007 email.

"Absolutely," St. Romaine (left) responded, citing Chapter 19 of the City's personnel rules, which include bonuses for exceptional performance; working beyond the normal schedule; assuming additional duties; and "providing suggestions which result in significant cost savings," a notation St. Romaine underlined -- then undermined!

"I think that ideas that result in increased revenue are just as critical, if not more so, than reducing costs," St. Romaine
concluded. 


FAMED MEDIA GURU:  "Autopsies" Columbia Tribune

COLUMBIA, 11/5/09 (Beat Bytes) -- In a colorful indictment of business as usual at the nation's newspapers, famed media guru and New York University professor Clay Shirky (below) performed an autopsy of sorts at Harvard University's Shorenstein Center -- on a copy of the Columbia Daily Tribune. 

His conclusion:  "Most of the substantive part of that day’s Trib wasn’t locally created, and most of it wasn’t news." 

Calling the Trib "my old hometown paper," Shirky -- a Columbia native -- "took two copies of the August 27, 2009 edition, slit them down the spine" and separated the content into two piles: "Created" by Tribune staff;  and "Acquired," from the Associated Press (AP) or other outside organizations. 

Like a pathologist weighing heart, lungs, liver, and other organs, Shirky weighed the paper piles in grams.  "The content created by Tribune staff made up less than a third of the total; over two-thirds was acquired from other sources," Shirky wrote.  "The paper was about one-third news and about two-thirds 'Other,'" while "news reported by the paper’s staff was less than a sixth of the total content of the paper." 

Even more surprising to Shirky:  "The number of local reporters who had a byline for hard news in that day’s paper: Six," he wrote.  "Janese Heavin, T.J. Greaney, Brennan David, Terry Ganey, Jonathan Braden, and Jodie Jackson Jr." 

At first blaming "August vacations or a slow news day" for so few local news stories, Shirky settled on "the most parsimonious explanation:  Only six reporters filed news stories that day because the Tribune only has six news reporters, out of a staff list of 59."  

Calling these local reporters "expensive lures put on the outside of a product that included none of their work," Shirky expressed surprise at the long list of staff on the Trib's masthead -- few reporters but plenty of editors, and "lots and lots of columnists, writing columns like Granny’s Notes." 

"There's nothing wrong with reading your horoscope or being reminded by Granny that May really is one of the nicest months of the year," Shirky wrote.  "But it’s not news, it’s not hard to do, and it’s not hard to replace." 

What is hard to replace are good reporters, Shirky argued.   But reporters -- paid for their work (unlike many columnists) -- come and go in this city like the seasons:  Kat Hughes, Matt LeBlanc, Sara Semelka, Jason Rosenbaum, Megan Means, Joe Meyer, and several more at the Trib in the last three years alone.   

"What matters in the Tribune, and what’s at risk," Shirky wrote,  "is Terry Ganey’s work on a state cover up of elevated levels of E. Coli in Ozark lakes; Jonathan Braden on anti-gay protesters from Kansas picketing in Columbia; Jodie Jackson’s reporting of on a child molestation case against a local politician."

The MinnPost (http://www.minnpost.com) -- a Minneapolis-based version of the Columbia Heart Beat -- covered Shirky's Columbia Tribune dissection, which they termed a "news biopsy."   

"If you're not hip to media savant Clay Shirky, he's a media futurist and NYU adjunct professor that all the cool kids swoon over," wrote MinnPost editor David Brauer.   "Shirky is unsparing about newspapers, viewing them as inefficient creators of original news content touted as a bulwark of democracy."

About newspapers here Shirky concluded, "There are a dozen or so reporters and editors in Columbia, Missouri, whose daily and public work is critical to the orderly functioning of that town, and those people are trapped inside a burning business model."


READ ALL ABOUT IT!

 
YULETIDE BUMMER:  Ashland City Hall to hold Christmas party -- out of town!

ASHLAND, 11/5/09 (Beat Bytes) -- A decision by City of Ashland officials to hold City Hall's annual Christmas party out of town has residents of our neighbor 15 miles to the south feeling Scrooged!

"This is a good example of why so many Ashland businesses are struggling to survive," writes a poster on the message board of that town's newspaper of record, the Boone County Journal.  "A lack of support from the community -- and in this particular instance, City Hall itself!  Whose decision was it?  Mr. Heard's?  I know for a fact that at least two local businesses were not even given the opportunity to 'bid' on this year's dinner."

"Mr. Heard" refers to city administrator Chris Heard, Ashland's equivalent of Bill Watkins.   Similar responses followed. 

"Poor decision, I think, by not supporting a local business," writes "Tony Johnson."

"Are you kidding?  With all the restaurants, banquet/meeting facilities and catering options IN town, the city has chosen to have it's holiday party OUT of town?" writes "Taxpayer."   "I also ask, who's decision was this, our illustrious city administrator?  It is ridiculous, and more than a little sad, that city hall is choosing to not support local business." 

READ ALL ABOUT IT!

 
MU RESEARCHERS:  Put AIDS on a "leash"


COLUMBIA, 11/5/09 (Beat Bytes) -- An naturally-occurring antiviral protein aptly called "tetherin" literally puts AIDS-causing HIV on a leash to prevent its escape from infected cells, claims a national research team that includes Devon Gregory and Marc Johnson from the University of Missouri School of Medicine in Columbia. 

Reported in the October 30th issue of the journal Cell, the discovery helped the researchers design an artificial version of tetherin that also keeps the AIDS virus in check.

"Tetherin is essentially a rod with anchors at either end that are critical for its function," said team member Paul Bieniasz of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.  "One anchor gets into the virus and the other in the cell membrane to form a tether.

The team designed "a completely different protein with the same configuration -- a rod with anchors at either end -- and it worked very well," Bieniasz explained.

Tetherin may exist in different forms, some more effective than others, and the AIDS virus produces proteins that can counteract it, which helps explain why HIV progresses differently in different people.   One goal is to enhance the power of the artificial version through closer examinations of naturally-occurring tetherin's gene sequence. 

RELATED:


AMAZING ARCHIVE:  Missourian newspapers show Columbia's past


COLUMBIA, 11/5/09 (Beat Bytes) -- Want to know what really happened, to the day, in Columbia history?  Check out the amazing online collection of Missourian newspapers dating back eighty years, to the Great Depression.

Maintained at the Missouri Digital Heritage Archive, the collection offers a search feature I've used several times to uncover what really happened when the city last activated a Land Clearance for Redevelopment Authority and used eminent domain,
mostly against the black community. 

The Missouri Digital Heritage Archive has 18 separate collections, all available for viewing online.

The Missourian newspaper collection

Search the Missourian collection

The Missouri Digital Heritage Archive


MISSOURI MATH:  Middle school scores improve 

COLUMBIA, 11/5/09 (Beat Bytes) --  Missouri was among 15 states that showed notable improvement in eighth-grade math performance, says a report released last month.  

The National Assessment of Educational Progress -- aka the "Nation’s Report Card" -- shows that Missouri gained on Kansas, where scores stayed flat.  The math test samples students nationwide every two years in the fourth and eighth grades.  Missouri experienced smaller gains at the fourth grade level, again beating Kansas, although both states show scores well above the national average. 

Missouri did not make any significant progress on narrowing the so-called "achievement gap" between white and black students.   Scores for other academic areas haven't been released yet. 

RELATED: 

ONLINE PET GROUP:  Helps MidMo animals

COLUMBIA, 11/5/09 (Beat Bytes) --  An online group dedicated to helping place adoptable animals is now one of mid-Missouri's largest animal welfare confabs, at 324 members.

Started in response to a pet ban on the giant Columbia Freecycle group, Pet Help for Central Mo offers to "help pet owners find a new home for their pets, find a new pet, or ask for help looking for a lost pet.  Or if you have a dog dish, leash, kennel or even extra pet food you no longer need, you are welcome to post that here also." 

The group does not accept posts "for breeding purposes." 

Check them out at: 


HOUSING NEWS:  From Bank of Missouri's Tom Stone

Highlights:

GDP rose by 3.5% for the first gain in a year and the strongest reading in two years.

$8,000 first-time homebuyer tax credit set to expire at the end of this month.

Possible addition of $6,500 tax credit for other primary home purchasers, meaning the tax credit would no longer be limited only to first-time homebuyers.

Possibility that qualifying income limits could increase from $75,000 to $125,000 for singles, and from $150,000 to $250,000 for joint tax filers.

READ ALL ABOUT IT! 

Tom Stone
The Bank of Missouri
Asst. Vice President
3610 Buttonwood Dr, Suite 100
Columbia, MO  65201
573-874-4700



Mike Martin
Blogitor in Chief
The Columbia Heart Beat
http://columbiaheartbeat.blogspot.com

CIRCULATION:  5,216

Visit us on: 
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Wednesday, October 21, 2009

SEWER STINK: Scandal swamps City Hall



1)  SEWER STINK:  Scandal swamps City Hall
2)  SULLIVAN DECLARES:  For Columbia mayor
3)  FIRST TIME HONOR:  MU hosts minority medical student conference
4)  COLUMBIA COLLEGE:  Named top military-friendly school 
5)  MASSIVE METH BUST:  Rocks Centralia
6)  MIZZOU ENGINEERS:  Make blast-resistant glass
7)  HEAR YE!  HEAR YE!   Boone County Republicans Chili Supper This Friday

SEWER STINK:  Scandal swamps City Hall

COLUMBIA, 10/21/09 (Beat Bytes) -- A 150-page soap opera starring personality conflicts, inappropriate job duties, and financial confusion that has cost Columbia residents millions of dollars.

That's one way to describe documents about a so-called "sewer billing scandal" released to the Columbia Heart Beat through a City of Columbia Freedom of Information Act request.  The documents -- mostly internal memoranda and emails -- cover three years in the beleaguered life of city sewer maintenance superintendent Bill Weitkemper, a 34-year public works employee who became alarmed when he discovered a strange and costly situation in 2006:   Thousands of sewer users weren't being billed; City Hall was violating the law; and the public -- through higher rates and bond issues -- was picking up the tab. 

IN THE DARK

"Bill -- I know you well enough to not take your note as some sort of threat, but I must tell you it reads that way." 

That's Columbia City manager William Watkins, responding in an email to Weitkemper last August, shortly before city council members adopted the 2008-09 budget.   After two years of trying to right the sewer underbilling problem, Weitkemper had finally worked his way to the top of the command chain.  He was reminding Watkins of some wisdom from their former boss, city manager Ray Beck.

"I remember what Mr. Beck told me many times about making a decision," Weitkemper wrote.  "Always ask yourself, how would this look to the public?  Would the public support this decision." 

Weitkemper's concerns -- that the city council would adopt yet another budget ignorant of the decades-long problem -- seem justified.  Worries about how the public might view the problem on the cusp of a major funding vote had come up before.  The idea seems to have been:  keep public and council in the dark, so as not to upset the budget cart. 

"I've been thinking about what you said about not wanting to take the chance of upsetting voters before the sewer bond election," Weitkemper wrote in Jan. 5, 2007 email to Public Works operations manager Mary Ellen Lea.  "This billing issue could turn out to be a critical issue for that election.  The city must be very careful to be completely open with the public."

But kept in the dark, voters approved the $77 million bond issue in April 2008.  A bond is a loan, to be repaid through utility rate increases in future years.  But if all sewer users were paying their fair share, those rates needn't rise nearly as much as they have. 

WATER IN, SEWER OUT

Imagine a 100-unit apartment complex with one big water main supplying the whole place.  Each apartment has a shower/bathtub, toilet, bathroom and kitchen sinks -- four sewer lines each. 

One big water line in; 400 sewer lines out.  Now imagine City Hall, which controls the sewer utility, has for years only billed the apartment complex on the basis of the one water line, violating a city law that says you have to bill each individual sewer user.   Imagine the problem multiplied, to some 6,000 unbilled sewer lines across the city.  Now multiply that by several decades and tremendous growth. 

It's a big number, and City Hall's failure to collect it has cost us all in the form of higher utility rates that only keep going up.

A sewer billing problem can be fixed, and city officials have taken action, including a 2007 audit that proved Weitkemper was correct.   But the harder fix lies in a dysfunctional management culture that automatically assumes the public and our representatives -- the city council -- are too stupid to understand the way city government works. 

"City administrators call us 'The Tourists,'" a former councilman once told me.  He had heard some staffers talking about this concept in the hallway.  "Tourists are dumber than locals, and always come and go."   

Smart as they are, city administrators are encouraged to interpret the laws council passes before they follow them. 

You read that right.  Department directors at City Hall routinely interpret the law -- like little Supreme Court justices -- before they implement it.  City law is clear about how to bill for sewer charges; what hasn't been clear is how individual department chiefs have been interpreting the ordinance over the past several decades, with each new leader adding a new level of confusion and disarray. 

"I believe the method of charging for basic sewer service has been dependent on interpretations of the ordinance by Finance and UAB people," wrote Weitkemper's supervisor, Terry Hennkens, in a 4/27/2006 email. 

"I plan to tell Bill [Watkins] that these things cannot be fixed through operations, they are billing problems," wrote Mary Ellen Lea in a 12/20/2007 email to Hennkens.  "We can help with interpretation of ordinances, but we should not be the ones trying to fix billing problems."

"Does user mean dwelling unit?  Can we relate the base fee to the meters?  Still don't think this clarifies when and how we apply the base fee," city finance director Lori Fleming emailed public works director John Glascock on 9/30/2009, fully three years after Weitkemper first broached the problem.

Add clashing personalities, miscommunications, and conflicting management styles, and the mess has metastasized.  It's a mess we'll be covering in detail, in this Fall investigative series.


COLUMBIA, 10/21/09 (Beat Bytes) -- Planning advocate Sid Sullivan, who ran an unsuccessful primary campaign against southern Boone County commissioner Karen Miller last year, has formally declared his intention to seek the office of Columbia mayor.  Sullivan joins 4th ward councilman Jerry Wade and Eastside Tavern owner Sal Nuccio for the upcoming April 2010 election. 

Citing the need to tackle a broad array of citywide issues, Sullivan told the Columbia Heart Beat he wants to be "a mayor for all the people."   City Hall's focus on parks and trails "has been great," Sullivan said, "but we need to work on the basics, like crime, roads, and growth.  These are issues for everyone."

Sullivan's supporters are gathering signatures for Friday, the official petition opening day, when candidates can first deliver their nomination petitions to City Hall.   Mayoral candidates need at least 100 signatures; council candidates need 50.  For more information, read Section 122. Nominations by Petition in the Columbia city charter:

Students who want to work on campaigns and folks who want to sign petitions can contact the three candidates as follows: 

Sid Sullivan
573-234-2374

Jerry Wade
(573) 447-0064 

Sal Nuccio
(573) 256-1500




FIRST TIME HONOR:  MU hosts minority medical student conference

COLUMBIA, 10/21/09 (Beat Bytes) --  For the first time ever, the University of Missouri School of Medicine is hosting an annual conference for the Student National Medical Association, the nation's oldest and largest independent, student-run organization for medical students of color.  Boasting some 8,000 medical students, pre-medical students, residents and physicians SNMA was established in 1964 by medical students from Howard University School of Medicine and Meharry Medical College, both traditional black colleges.

"SNMA is dedicated both to ensuring culturally sensitive medical education and services, as well as increasing the number of African-American, Latino and other students of color entering and completing medical school," says a note on the organization's website.  The conference kicks off October 30th and runs through November 1st, 2009.

RELATED: 

COLUMBIA COLLEGE:  Named top military-friendly school

COLUMBIA, 10//21/09 (CCIS) --  G.I. Jobs magazine has named Columbia College a top school for educating former military members.  The magazine ranked the college in the top 15 percent of all schools nationwide based on military-friendly policies which include the Yellow Ribbon Program, a matching servicemembers' tuition program

READ ALL ABOUT IT!

http://www.ccis.edu/newsroom/index.asp?story=860

MASSIVE METH BUST:  Rocks Centralia 


CENTRALIA, 10/21/09 (Fireside-Guard) --  In Columbia, bikes, pedestrians, and wheelchairs have been on recent city council agendas.  But in northern Boone neighbor Centralia, a new state law which enables municipalities to legalize golf carts on city streets was brought up to that city's Board of Aldermen and shelved for later discussion, according to the Centralia Fireside-Guard.

Also in the news:  A massive methamphetamine bust earlier this month.  Centralia Police officers arrested five people at a duplex, ending a months-long investigation.  Officers also found an active meth lab, five miles west of Centralia in rural Audrain County. The Boone County Sheriff's Department assisted. 

"This was a lab capable of easily making an ounce of pure meth every 24 hours," Centralia Police chief Larry Dudgeon told the Fireside Guard, noting that waste products posed an environmental hazard.   Among those arrested: Jebadiah Romine, 28, for distribution, possession, and maintaining a drug house within 1,200 feet of Chester Boren Middle School and Chance Elementary School.

READ ALL ABOUT IT!


COLUMBIA, 10/21/09 (MU News) --  Blast-resistant glass that Mizzou engineering researchers are developing may substantially reduce collateral damage from exploding bombs and natural disasters. 

With a $250,000 U.S. Department of Homeland Security grant, Sanjeev Khanna, a mechanical and aerospace engineering associate professor, and Zhen Chen, a civil and environmental engineering professor, have developed thinner and less expensive blast-resistant glass.  They tested the glass this spring by exploding a small bomb within five feet.  The glass panel withstood the blast.

Ultra-thin glass fibers embedded in plastic give the glass its strength.   Only about 25 microns thick -- half the thickness of a human hair -- the glass fibers literally have no room for defects that could lead to cracking. 

The Mizzou blast-resistant glass is less than a half inch thick and would cost a fraction of what such glass currently costs, Khanna said.  For instance, it could protect residential windows from hurricanes, flying debris, or earthquakes.

READ ALL ABOUT IT!

HEAR YE!  HEAR YE!   Boone County Republicans Chili Supper

Longtime local radio talk show host Tom Bradley will host/emcee the Boone County Republicans Annual Chili Supper
this Friday, October 23rd, at the Elks Lodge in Columbia (4747 E. Elk Park Drive).   Dinner starts at 6 P.M., Program begins at 7:15 P.M. 

Children's Playroom Will Be Open During the Event

Confirmed Speakers include
- Kevin Jackson, conservative author, blogger, and radio host; wrote "The BIG Black Lie", http://theblacksphere.net/
- Keynote: Congressman Blaine Luetkemeyer, 9th Congressional District*
- Congressman Roy Blunt, 7th Congressional District*, candidate for U.S. Senate
- State Sen. Kurt Schaefer, 19th State Senatorial District
- State Sen. Chuck Purgason, 33rd State Senatorial District, candidate for U.S. Senate
- State Representative Allen Icet, candidate for Missouri Auditor

*Plan to attend but are dependent on House of Representatives' schedule. Other speakers TBA.

Tickets: $12.00/person in advance; $15/person at the door; Children 3 and under free. Make checks payable to Columbia Pachyderm Club.  Tickets are also available for purchase at The Columbia Pachyderm Club meetings on Fridays at Noon at Jack's Gourmet Restaurant on Business Loop 70 (across from Westlake's at Old Hwy. 63).

You can also contact Jerry at 573-489-0106 or via e-mail at Jerrya814@centurytel.net,or at centralmoyrs@gmail.com

Directions to the Elks Lodge of Columbia:

- From Hwy. 63, go East, follow East Broadway/Route WW East approximately 1.5 miles, just past Cedar Ridge School (at street light), turn right onto E. Elk Park Drive.
- Then merge left to access Lodge parking

If you cannot make it, but would still like to support the Columbia Pachyderm Club, please send your non tax-deductible donation to:

Columbia Pachyderm Club
PO Box 30642
Columbia, MO 65205




Missouri United Methodist Church Youth Missions & The Center for Women’s Ministries is hosting a home-made cinnamon rolls fundraiser on October 24, from 8:30 a.m. onward.   The church is located at 204 South Ninth Street (across from Shakespeare’s).  Contact the YOUTH GROUP at (573)-443-3111. 

 
MORE INFORMATION about tonight's CPS Band Curriculum meeting is at these links:




Mike Martin
Blogitor in Chief
The Columbia Heart Beat
http://columbiaheartbeat.blogspot.com

CIRCULATION:  5,216

Visit us on: 
Twitter:  http://twitter.com/BeatByte
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Wednesday, September 23, 2009

BEAT BYTE: Bizarre cell phone sale offers MU athletic dept. secrets

BEAT BYTES -- 9/23/09
News and Notes from the Columbia Heart Beat

1) CONVERSATION WITH: The City Manager
2) BIZARRE CELL PHONE SALE: Offers MU Athletic Dept. Secrets
3) TRAFFIC SAFETY: Grant School, four years after an accident
4) MU SCIENTIST: Studies Fall foliage
5) SANS PEPPER AND MOUSER: Advertisers drop KOMU
6) MORTGAGE AND HOUSING NEWS: From Tom Stone
7) GET ALL THE LOCAL HEADLINES: At www.Columbia360.com

Listening Whilst Writing: A Fistful of Dollars, Ennio Morricone




CONVERSATION WITH: The Columbia City Manager

It's not everyday a schlep like me gets to chat it up with Columbia City Manager Bill Watkins. Depending on your perspective, our conversation either went well...or not.

Our convo started with an email from a constituent to the City Council about the unfolding sewer billing scandal, cc'd to me:

----- Original Message -----
From: A Constituent
To: Jerry Wade; Karl Skala; Barbara Hoppe; Paul Sturtz
Sent: Monday, September 21, 2009 2:48 PM
Subject: tonight's Council vote on sewer rate increase

Council Members,

I'm hoping you will look into this before you vote to increase the rates. From what I can tell, this should be a "no" vote.
http://www.columbiatribune.com/news/2009/sep/21/sewer-billing-trouble-costly

Today: "As the Columbia City Council votes tonight on a 2010 budget with a proposed increase in basic service rates for each city sewer user, there is a source of money that some in the Public Works Department believe is being ignored...According to multiple e-mails by Weitkemper, he believes the city is enforcing the sanitary sewer billing ordinance haphazardly and is giving certain users preferential treatment."

Talbert said the rate increase is necessary to cover debt incurred for the $69 million wastewater treatment plant upgrade voters approved in 2008. "We have to have enough cash to cover our debt. That's what the bulk of that is," she said.
http://www.columbiamissourian.com/stories/2008/04/08/sewer-bonds-passed-overwhelmingly

April 8, 2008: "voters were told the rise would be steeper--and come sooner--without the bonds."
http://gocolumbiamo.com/Public_Comm/Public_Information/Press_Releases/documents/April08.pdf

Regards,

A Constituent


I added my two cents:

----- Original Message -----
From: Mike Martin
To: Paul Sturtz; Barbara Hoppe; Karl Skala; Jerry Wade; A Constituent
Sent: Monday, September 21, 2009 3:35 PM
Subject: Re: tonight's Council vote on sewer rate increase

I've heard about this sewer fiasco at length already -- glad somebody else did the heavy lifting on putting a story together on it.

What a bunch of the same old crap this is, eh? Favoritism for the few at the expense of the many -- and right here, in good ol' progressive Columbia!


Mr. Watkins admonished me about an hour later:

----- Original Message -----
From: William Watkins
To: Mike Martin: CityMan; Darwin Mayor; Paul Ward1; Jason Ward2; Karl Ward3; Jerry Ward4; Laura Ward5; Barbara Ward6; Sent: Monday, September 21, 2009 4:23 PM
Subject: Re: Fw: tonight's Council vote on sewer rate increase

It would be very nice if you would consider all the facts before rushing to a decision.


I replied:

----- Original Message -----
From: Mike Martin
To: CityMan; William Watkins
Cc: Barbara Ward6; Laura Ward5; Jerry Ward4; Karl Ward3; Jason Ward2; Paul Ward1; Darwin Mayor
Sent: Monday, September 21, 2009 4:36 PM
Subject: Re: Fw: tonight's Council vote on sewer rate increase

Bill:

With all due respect, that's part of the problem in this community. Only a select few have "all the facts," doling them out as need be. The rest of us schleps just have to get by. As one of those schleps, I do the best with what I have, and everything I write or say is as carefully considered as it can be, given my intrinsically limited circumstances.

Mike


Councilman Skala jumped in:

----- Original Message -----
From: Karl Skala
To: Jason Thornhill; Paul Sturtz; Karl Skala; Jerry Wade; Laura Nauser; Barbara Hoppe; Darwin Hindman; William Watkins; Mike Martin; A Constituent
Sent: Monday, September 21, 2009 4:33 PM
Subject: Re: Fw: tonight's Council vote on sewer rate increase

A Constituent, et al.,

Tonight, I will ask Bill Watkins for his explanation regarding this information.

Best Regards,

Karl


Feeling naughty, I dashed off some satire:

----- Original Message -----
From: Mike Martin
To: Karl Skala;
Cc: Jason Thornhill; Paul Sturtz; Jerry Wade; Laura Nauser; Barbara Hoppe; Darwin Hindman; William Watkins;
A Constituent
Sent: Monday, September 21, 2009 4:58 PM
Subject: Re: Fw: tonight's Council vote on sewer rate increase

Karl:

You know darned well you can't ask Bill to explain anything. It's a violation of the City Charter, Chapter 205-A, Section 6B, Subchapter 7D.5, Paragraph 3A:

"No council member shall ever ask the city manager or any assistant city manager to explain anything, at any time, whatsoever, ad infinitum. Doing so will result in immediate removal from the council."

[City Attorney] Mr. Boeckmann sent me the relevant passage. It's right below the passage about how council members can't be paid.

See you out here in Schlep Land.

-- Mike


Mr. Watkins was not in a satirical mood:

----- Original Message -----
From: William Watkins
To: Mike Martin
Sent: Monday, September 21, 2009 4:55 PM
Subject: Re: Fw: tonight's Council vote on sewer rate increase

Mike -- I think your attempt at humor is way out of line.


Ever conscientious, Councilman Skala hunted for the ordinance I had cited:

----- Original Message -----
From: Karl Skala
To: Mike Martin
Sent: Tuesday, September 22, 2009 9:21 AM
Subject: The Sewer Thing

Mike,

....I am not sure what you meant by "City Charter, Chapter 205-A, Section 6B, Subchapter 7D.5, Paragraph 3A" as a reference; perhaps you would clarify this reference for me (I was unable to locate a City Charter, Chapter 205-A).

Best Regards.

Karl


I replied:

----- Original Message -----
From: Mike Martin
To: Karl Skala
Sent: Tuesday, September 22, 2009 10:07 AM
Subject: Re: The Sewer Thing

...no, there's no such thing as those charter citations. I was kidding...Many old-line senior staffers disdain answering council's questions, and I'm sure they wish there was such a charter citation....


BIZARRE CELL PHONE SALE: Offers MU Athletic Dept. Secrets

COLUMBIA, 9/23/09 (Beat Byte) -- In one of the weirdest stories to cross our desk in a while, a Craigslister is offering nearly 30 cell and smart phones for sale as "unique souvenirs." Why unique? They used to belong to the MU Athletic Department and still contain information from their former owners. The seller claims he purchased the old phones at a university disposal sale.

He says he offered to sell them back, but that the Athletic Department turned him down.

"Ever wanted to know how those sports dignitaries use their electronic stuff?" the seller writes. "What do they say in a chat? Who do they get tweets from? Now you can get a little bit of UNFILTERED insight. The price is reflective of the rarity and ensures only SERIOUS offers."

The smart phones, cell phones, and flip phones allegedly contain "conversations, text messages, email, memos, calendar entries and address books from all over the MU Athletic Department. Coaches and Directors of Volleyball, Soccer all the way up to Football and Basketball. In some cases there are conversations FROM the people as well. One seems to be from a sports doctor or pharmacist. Some seem to be from players and interns."

CHECK IT OUT AT:
http://columbiamo.craigslist.org/mob/1384339670.html
http://web.me.com/mikebellman/MU_Souvenirs/MUCellPhones.html


TRAFFIC SAFETY CHECK: Grant School, four years after an accident

COLUMBIA, 9/23/09 (Beat Byte) -- "One parent who witnessed Monday's accident said she didn't think she'd ever be able to forget the horrid sound of a child's body bouncing off a car's fender. A playground teeming with schoolmates and families witnessed the accident and it's aftermath. This should not happen again. The accident at Grant Elementary on Monday afternoon has to be a wake-up call to all drivers in Columbia."

That was the conclusion of an April 2005 Columbia Missourian guest column about a first grade girl at Grant Elementary struck by a car on Garth Avenue a month earlier.

In May 2005, Jacque Cowherd, then a Columbia Public Schools assistant superintendent, coordinated a meeting about traffic safety at Grant, a still-dangerous affair. Sandwiched between both the library and the elementary, Garth Avenue simply can't handle a traffic burden that has only grown in the past 4 years.

Attended by representatives from City Hall, Columbia Police Department, First Student Bus Service, assistant superintendent Jack Jensen, then-Grant principal Crystal Church, and school district safety coordinator Preston Bass, Cowherd's meeting addressed two goals, wrote Julie Davis in the Grant PTA newsletter:

1) To effect better enforcement of parking and speed
2) To request extension or maintenance of the yellow curb zone on Garth

Back then, Davis noted that among 360 total students, 100 rode the bus to and from school, while another 40 students attended Adventure Club, a popular after-school program held in the Grant auditorium.

"That leaves 220 students either walking home or picked up by car," Davis noted. She then provided what today could be used as a followup checklist: Was this done? Was that done? Crosswalks, crossing flags, and better rules have all been instituted.

But basic road and traffic issues remain largely unchanged.

"We have zero parking spaces at Grant and currently have no good safe spot for a drive-up student pickup area," Davis wrote.
She then noted that police will be "enforcing and ticketing speeders and vehicles parked, stopped or standing along Garth. The school district specifically asked the police department to help us in this way."

A number of other approaches were discussed, including traffic-calming devices, such as speed humps, on Garth; and developing a "drop-off/pick-up plan" Davis said would be "enforced very consistently by both our school and the Columbia Police Department" and having the library add another entrance/exit on Crestmere Ave., as the old library had.

Taking a serious look at this checklist today is like reviewing compliance with a series of expert recommendations. Writing to 4th Ward councilman Jerry Wade last year, Davis said she had been "heavily involved over the last 3-7 years working to address traffic safety issues at Grant. I worked with parents, school personnel and a city traffic engineer named Richard Stone during and after the library construction project. Stone was extremely knowledgable and worked very hard to help us. He probably still has a very deep file of Grant-related notes."

Davis concluded with a call to action in her 2005 PTA story, addressing a situation that continues to plague Grant school at least twice daily.

"As long as I've had children at this school, folks have been concerned about the traffic safety issues. The unfortunate accident last month has people paying attention. Please join me in doing your part to keep Garth Avenue safe by driving the speed limit, staying off the yellow curb, and crossing only in the crosswalk. Thanks for your help and cooperation!"


MU SCIENTIST: Studies Fall foliage

COLUMBIA, 9/23/09 (Mizzouwire) -- Meet John Walker, Plant Detective. His mission: To investigate one of the most common occurrences in nature -- abscission -- something that happens in plain sight billions and billions of times every year, every time a leaf falls from a tree or an apple drops to the ground.

Walker, a biologist who has been at the University of Missouri since 1987, and his MU colleagues in the University's Interdisciplinary Plant Group have been attracting international press for discovering links in the chain of genetic events that control abscission. With funding from the National Science Foundation, they tracked the process in a small flowering weed that grows in Europe, Asia and Africa.

"John is a pioneer," said Frans Tax, a plant biologist at the University of Arizona. "His research is an elegant combination of genetics and biochemistry. Because these genes are found in all plants, manipulation in crops to regulate abscission could be fairly straightforward."

Before following Walker on his path to discovery, let's review for a moment the case file on plant abscission: The autumn turning of leaves has always been part of the human experience, an activity has attracted at least as much interest from poets as from scientists.

When Walker does a PowerPoint presentation of his work he includes a citation from Emily Bronte:

Fall, leaves, fall; die, flowers, away;
Lengthen night and shorten day;
Every leaf speaks bliss to me
Fluttering from the autumn tree.

"That just about says it all," Walker says.

READ ALL ABOUT IT


SANS PEPPER AND MOUSER: Advertisers drop KOMU

COLUMBIA, 9/23/09 (Beat Byte) -- Now that Pepper and Friends has departed from the airwaves, local businesses are following through with threats to pull their advertising from Pepper's former home, television station KOMU.

The businesses include Affordable Cruises and Travel, LLC; Appletree Quilting Center; Children's Orchard; Dancearts of Columbia; Hazel Kinder's Lighthouse Theater; Hearing Solutions; The MacXprts Network; Missouri River Monuments; World Harvest International and Gourmet Foods; and Columbia Catering Company.

In August, Mac Xperts owner and former congressional candidate Duane Burghard wrote MU Chancellor Brady Deaton, Vice-Chancellor Jacquelyn Jones and KOMU General Manager Marty Siddall. "Unhappily, if the University insists on this course of action (cancellation), my business will be included in a group" of advertisers who've pulled their business.

Longtime MU associate professor of consumer and family economics Mel Zelenak, who owns Affordable Cruises and Travel, said that, "In total, Affordable Cruises and Travel has been responsible for approximately $5,000 in revenue sales for KOMU-TV through the first nine months of 2009. Once our contractual obligations end in September; I will terminate our five year relationship with the station. My decision is solely because of the management team's decision to eliminate Pepper and Friends programming."

Public relations executive Barbara Carman of Creative Concepts called Pepper and Friends a "front-porch" outlet.

"In the past, I have always considered 'Pepper and Friends' as the absolute best advertising resource to reach the Mid-Missouri people. If the show goes, KOMU-TV has nothing for me to recommend that has that wide local appeal."


MORTGAGE AND HOUSING NEWS: From Tom Stone

"I'M ON MY WAY...JUST SET ME FREE...HOME SWEET HOME." The lyrics from Motley Crue's Home Sweet Home sound a lot like something the housing industry might have sang last week, after the Commerce Department reported that the number of Housing Starts in August came in better than expected.

As you can see in the chart below, Housing Starts have fallen significantly since June 2008, but in last week's report, they broke free to come in at their highest level since last November. Building Permits were a bit lower than expectations, but the overall report suggests that while we're not entirely out of the woods yet, the worst in the housing market may have passed and that the industry may be on its way to stabilizing.

READ THE FULL REPORT


Tom Stone
The Bank of Missouri
Asst. Vice President
Columbia, MO
Office: 573-874-4700



Mike Martin
Blogitor in Chief
The Columbia Heart Beat
http://columbiaheartbeat.blogspot.com
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Monday, September 21, 2009

DINOsaurs AT COUNTY HALL: Do small "d" Dems dominate?

Local Opinion and Commentary

1) AND THERE WERE RATS: Liz Schmidt talks Land Clearance and Black Injustice
2) DINOsaurs AT COUNTY HALL: Do small "d" Dems dominate?
3) THE HARD TRUTH: Freedom at the Frederick Douglass Coalition
4) READERS WRITE: Eminent domain, journalism, Mediacom

Listening Whilst Writing: Jerry Goldsmith's wonderful score from "Papillon"
Hey you bastards -- I'm still here!


In Brief:
GET ALL THE LOCAL HEADLINES: At Columbia360.com
CITY FEE INCREASES TOP: Tomorrow's Council Agenda


AND THERE WERE RATS: Liz Schmidt talks Land Clearance -- and Black Injustice

Few people in Columbia or Boone County have the institutional memory -- or command the respect -- of Liz Schmidt.

The long-time Columbia resident wrote a lengthy response to our recent stories on City Hall's insidious use of eminent domain to acquire land from the black community under the guise of "urban renewal" in the 1950s and thereafter.

In so doing, Schmidt confirms some devastating historical details -- and exposes the roots of a practice that has become a part of City Hall's DNA: Taking liens against central city property in exchange for Federally-funded loans and grants -- that's right, grants -- to fix it up. Then, if things don't go quite right, taking the property.

Here's Liz, with some editing and clarification:

Ninety years after Emancipation, time and circumstance had put the black community in one area of the city. The 1935 Hare Planning and Zoning report stated that they should be treated fairly, have their own stores and houses, etc. etc. But by the 1950s, other things had intervened.

During so-called Urban Renewal starting around 1956, Columbia not only instituted Land Clearance, but also voted in a Housing Authority, to see that displaced people had a place to go. Many cities had only land clearance, and thus the people had to fend for themselves.

In your story, Sehon Williams was right -- at that time, black residents didn't go past 8th street, except for work. Park Avenue was lined with row-shacks. And the complaint about Sharps End was that the police didn't do anything about black-on-black crime, such as if a black person stabbed another black person during a craps game.

The area east of the cemetery on West Broadway was called Cemetery Hill. Providence (then Third Street) was not paved. Privies were in yards and electricity was one light bulb in the middle of a single room. The houses were in terrible disrepair. The principal from Grant School went to take clothing to a family there once, and stepped through the boards on the porch. There was one pump in the yard to get water to carry into the shacks.

And there were rats. When the city began clearing for Urban Renewal, the rats began to flee.

The city got some of its money for Land Clearance by building streets and putting in water and electricity and sewers. The State probably put in some for Providence Road. The rest of the money for land clearance came from the Federal government under Housing Authority regulations.

We did not have "open" or "fair" housing until 1968, so many people were not fully compensated for what they lost. More importantly, entire neighborhoods were disrupted when people who had been neighbors were assigned to different housing areas.

Some of the more affluent "negroes" (as the term was used then) did have help in either moving a house, or getting some money to get another house. Noble Court, Switzler Street, and Miles Manor were places the more affluent could go. However, the help they received was underfunded.

White landowners, on the other hand, were almost-certainly fully compensated, as evidenced by the fact that they cobbled together enough land to build the Housing Authority.

[At this point, Schmidt describes what I call a private version of eminent domain].

Several of our "illustrious citizens" got a lot of property through private "foreclosures." The owner of the house or land -- usually black -- would have a sick child, or get sick, or something else would happen and they would borrow money against the house from a private party, [as banks back then didn't often lend to black folks]. The private-party lender -- usually white -- would have a "hard time," call the loan, and take the house. But the borrower could go on living there by paying rent.

By the time the city instituted Land Clearance, most of the shanties and shacks were owned by a handful of these "lovely landlords," [many of whom had acquired their properties as collateral for small loans]. I can name names if you like, as one of my League of Women Voters jobs was to go to the courthouse and see who owned these parcels.

When the Urban Renewal votes came along in 1954 and 1956, landlords threatened their tenants, that "if you vote tomorrow, we might have to raise your rent. And you wouldn't want that. You know how nice we've been about the rent."

Needless to say, whatever the grown ups of today remember, they were kids then. And kids remember the good stuff, and are protected from the other.


DINOsaurs at County Hall: Do small "d" Dems dominate?

Earlier this month, Boone County Treasurer Kay Murray told the Trib that Boone County government has several elected officials who are “dyed-in-the-wool Democrats.”

What the heck? I don't know any dyed-in-the-wool Democrats who pay taxes just so their money can go into a big, dead piggy bank called a reserve fund. All the dyed-in-the-wool Dems I know want their tax dollars spent helping those who can't help themselves.

But that doesn't seem to matter much at the Roger B. Wilson county government building these days. Check out what county clerk Wendy Noren wrote on the Trib's website a few days ago.

"Our current reserves are 28.82% of expenditures. If we do not do the tax increase they will be 28.22% of expenditures. This is a minor decrease and our reserves are still way above the County's reserve policy of 15 to 20% of expenditures."

Lawdy m'lady! Nearly 29% reserves -- when 15% is adequate and when we rightly squawked about the Columbia school district's 22% reserve? And all this bitchin' about tight budgets?

Contrast this multi-million dollar piggy bank and the county commission's fancy new offices with 25-year county public works employee Greg Mullanix, who told the three all-Democrat county commissioners last week that he has "gone without a pay raise for seven years," and that he's "forced to cut costs every day as a homeowner and breadwinner."

I could go on -- and I have, many times -- about how parts of county government run by "dyed-in-the-wool Democrats" have become vehicles for rich, powerful patrons who contribute big campaign bucks and sadly, call far too many shots, which is terrible news for a political party that prides itself on taking care of the little guy and gal.

When politicians but a "D" or an "R," or any other partisan label after their names, it's like stamping their service with the Good Housekeeping seal of approval, an imprimatur, or the union label. People wearing it are expected to live up to a certain set of politico-moral standards, a code if you will, defined historically as a party platform.

Big R Republicans stand for smaller government, less taxes, and fiscal frugality. Big D Democrats support helping those who can't help themselves.

DINOs and RINOS -- Democrats and Republicans in name only -- use the party label, but only to get elected. And with all these DINOsaurs -- Democrats in Name Only, who've been in office too long -- running local government, I've started to wonder if we need a certification or accreditation process before the label backs up the politician's name.

Vote for a Certified Big D Democrat. Support a fully-accredited Big R Republican.

Bless her heart for joining with Murray to stop the commission's planned tax hike, but still, "the County's budgetary policy calls for a fund balance of 15% to 20% of budgeted expenditures," Noren writes. "Our current fund balance exceeds the high end of that by $2,234,000 and the low end by $3,393,000."

If that's true, live up to the Big D and give it back to the folks. Spend it on that mental health care program Skip Elkin talked up a few years ago. Build a new shelter for the humane society or some other animal welfare facility. Make sure folks like the residents of Paquin Towers don't lose measly allowances for simple pleasures like recreation.

Get more sheriff's deputies on the street. Lower taxes. Don't hammer our best manufacturers with big property tax increases.

Get together with the city and the housing authority and fix up all that run-down, obsolete public housing in the center of the city. And boost your indigent burial fund. Commissioners have only allocated $3,000 to bury people too poor to bury themselves? Some Dems they are, eh?

Finally, quit making us all feel like guilty schmucks by complaining about tight budgets that aren't that tight. If they were, how could this be true in April:

County cash balance lowest in decades
http://www.columbiatribune.com/news/2009/apr/09/county-cash-balance-lowest-in-decades/

and all this stuff Wendy Noren wrote be true today?
http://www.columbiatribune.com/news/2009/sep/17/county-rejects-property-tax-hike/#c69849

And for heaven's sake: Give Greg Mullanix a long-overdue raise.


THE HARD TRUTH: Freedom at the Frederick Douglass Coalition

Thank the Lord for people like Vivian Hearn.

Vivian is mentioned in a Trib article today about central city slumlords and a new city program that may make slumlording as taboo as smoking.

At this week's meeting of the Frederick Douglass Coalition at the Armory, Vivian spoke out -- truthfully, but always catching herself as though she might offend the three white guys in the room -- me, Councilman Paul Sturtz, and central city builder Amir Ziv.

"All the crappy, run-down, torn up houses in this city are in the black neighborhoods," Vivian said. "It's been that way ever since I can remember."

She's right, but it wasn't always that way. Before Land Clearance and hard-core segregation, a local statistic was reversed. Around the turn of the last century in Columbia, black home and landowners outnumbered black renters. Today, the oppposite is true.

Promised easy loans for new homes, black homeowners displaced during Land Clearance instead found themselves red-lined, effectively shut out from the American dream they were busily creating as both freed slaves -- and newly inaugurated American immigrants. The Harlem Renaissance represented the peak of that nationwide rebirth, which found expression here in the work of jazz musician Blind Boone, restauranteur Annie Fisher, and myriad stories in Rufus Logan's newspaper, The Professional World, founded in 1901.

The society page, for instance, reported a local Black physician's appointment to the Republican Party convention; the business page reported the success of a Black-owned transfer company.

In too many ways, Columbia is still a racially-divided mess driven by the same lack of real, honest communication that plagues the rest of the nation. Changing that part of our shared history is key to this city's future, and starts with telling the unvarnished, often politically-incorrect truth.

The truth, they say, will set you free and folks like Vivian Hearn should never have to pause or stop themselves on the road to that freedom.

RELATED

READERS WRITE

Hey Mike. Another great read!
-- Renee Hulshof, Columbia

Your reporting on how eminent domain affected (and practically destroyed) the minority community has been excellent. What I like getting from you is fearless reporting that no other media outlet in Columbia has the ability or guts to match.
-- An admiring attorney, Columbia

About our story, Outrage rises over Mediacom outages
Mike: I too, was down all day yesterday with Mediacom high speed internet. Couldn't reach a real person so send an email to the corporate "contact us" and got a lame answer referring me to call the 866 number in your story. Guess what - more automated gibberish. Waiting for another reply today.
-- Linda Dellsperger, Columbia

About our story, MU RESEARCH: Readers like local, negative online news BEST!
Dear Mike, Thank you for linking the news release of our research to the recent Heart Beat e-newsletter. I am both a subscriber to and fan of the newsletter.

I’d like to briefly clarify the headline pertaining to our research: We found no evidence that people like local/negative news better, only that they pay more attention to it and remember details from it better, relative to distant/negative news. We did include a physiological measure of unpleasantness in the experiment but found no meaningful difference between responses to the local and distant news stories.

Thanks again for including our research in the newsletter. I look forward to the next issue.
-- Kevin Wise, Assistant Professor
Strategic Communication Faculty
Co-Director, PRIME Lab
Missouri School of Journalism, Columbia


Mike Martin
Blogitor in Chief
The Columbia Heart Beat
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