Editing Wikipedia

Make that 1943 for the family ownership. The paper's first issue was, indeed, 1898.

It's easy to edit Wikipedia but not so easy to figure out who first posted the item on Nov. 14. Looks like somebody with the name neomandude60.

Hello, neomandude!

Wikipedia and us

I noticed this morning on Google Alerts that the Tracy Press has made the big time. Somebody recently listed us in Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia. I really like the second line.

Can anyone explain how items are added to Wikipedia? Who wrote this, and would you have written it the same way?

Take a look!

The newspaper of Tracy, California that's been run by the Matthews since 1898. Bob Matthews is the publisher and Cheri Matthews is the editor. It's probably the only San Francisco East Bay newspaper not owned by MediaNews Group.

The Tracy Press endorsed Republican Richard Pombo when he was defeated by Jerry McNerney in the 2006 midterm election and the same year endorsed Celeste Garamendi, the sister of Democrat John Garamendi, when she was defeated by Republican Brent Ives for mayor. Its editorials are usually more conservative than its articles.

Photo by Enrique/Tracy Press

You are Time Magazine's Person of the Year

If you're reading this, pat yourself on the back. Time has named You, the blogging, googling, youtubing, myspacing, vlogging (my son just taught me that term this morning) masses as its Person of the Year.

Certainly, You have changed the way information has been gathered and disseminated for the Tracy Press. Your e-mails, blog comments and responses to our Web site have changed the way we do our jobs. You've provided ideas, information and news content.

I think Time Magazine is definitely on to something with this year's choice. What do you think?

Perfect rainbow moment

Sue Spencer took this photo last week of a perfect rainbow over the Tracy Press office.

I can't let a good photo go to waste, so here it is!

Access to information

Oh, if only all public agencies provided information like this. Les Garcia from the San Joaquin Sheriff's Department just e-mailed this notice:

"We've added a new feature to assist the public and media with access to information of inmates currently in the San Joaquin County Jail."

Check out "Who's In Custody" on the sheriff's department Web site.

Now if only reporters had easier access to inmates at California's state prisons for face-to-face interviews.

Not-so-honored tradition

For years — 30, at least — we've printed the names of honor roll students when Tracy schools send them to us. Since we started the Saturday Our Town section, we've made an effort to run whatever lists the schools send us. Lately, though, I've noticed that most schools aren't sending us honor rolls as often as they used to, for whatever reason.

Today I read that the principal of a high school in Needham, Mass., has decided not to send the town's newspaper the names of students who have made the honor roll. That decision has made national news. Apparently, in the last month in Needham, two students were killed in car accidents, and in the last two years, four students have committed suicide.

"In my opinion, this high-expectations-high-achievement culture has a dark side to it," Needham High Principal Paul Richards wrote in a press release. "As principal, I've heard a message loud and clear that stress is a primary concern for parents. ... The publishing of an honor roll has been identified as a potential contributor to the focus on grades."

What do you think? Do you think the principal has gone too far? Do you like to see honor rolls in the Tracy Press? Or do you agree that it contributes to student stress?

I'd love to hear from parents of schoolchildren and school administrators.

Word of the Year

This just in: Top 10 words of 2006, according to Merriam-Webster. Heard any of these words lately?

1. truthiness
2. google
3. decider
4. war
5. insurgent
6. terrorism
7. vendetta
8. sectarian
9. quagmire
10. corruption

Here's part of the Associated Press report:

After 12 months of naked partisanship on Capitol Hill, on cable TV and in the blogosphere, the word of the year for 2006 is — "truthiness."

The word — if one can call it that — best summed up 2006, according to an online survey by dictionary publisher Merriam-Webster.

"Truthiness" was credited to Comedy Central satirist Stephen Colbert, who defined it as "truth that comes from the gut, not books.

Bloggers, unite

We're looking for other local bloggers who wouldn't mind if we linked to them from the Tracy Press Web site. Do you have a blog in Tracy or about Tracy? Let me know!

Reverse circ plunge: Give readers what they want

The last comment mentioned an article in Editor & Publisher. I haven't found that article, but I did find this one. Interesting. We've done what the author Mark Moore has suggested — we've gone tab, almost-free and short (as in story lengths). I can't imagine dropping our editorial page, though. What's a newspaper without that?

Survival mechanism: Should newspapers delay release of content?

Peter Scheer, executive director of the California First Amendment Coalition, suggests that "Newspapers are not dead yet, but their hoped-for rebirth as Internet ventures requires a new strategy to create value in their journalism." Scheer proposes that newspapers agree to a 24-hour delay in release of their content, free, on the Web.

Yes, it's an idea worth considering. But in a competitive newspaper environment, as we have here in Tracy, would our competitors agree to such a standard? I doubt it.

Meanwhile, we continue to put our news on the Web site without the online advertising revenue to support it.

Any comments on Scheer's column?

Slideshow feedback

I got a handful of positive comments about the slideshow on Thursday and Friday, and we've sold six CDs. They'll be available in our office Monday, if anyone still wants copies.

Here's a portion of an e-mail I got that shows the only negative comment so far.

I will compliment you on your slideshow of the candidates. I wish this would have been available so the rest of us could comment, but apparently that was not in the plan. I hope it wasn’t a plan and just an oversight.

With all the clamor about getting the public involved in the process, limiting time on items from the audience, baseless accusations that the public is not being heard and the accusations of secret backroom developer “deals,” holding on to this information until after the period of time for public comment as letters to the editor has expired doesn’t seem right to me. Why it almost looks alike a back room deal between the Press and TRAQC.

A sneak preview

This is for Friday's paper. The candidate slideshow should be up on the Web site soon!

Editor’s Notes

Some unsolicited insight

As I write this, a man holds a sign at the corner of 11^th Street and Tracy Boulevard to protest the Tracy Press congressional endorsement editorial. I’m OK with that. He reads the paper, which I like, and he's entitled to his soapbox.

One of the callers who told me about the sign-man asked why it is that the newspaper took a stand on the Pombo-McNerney race — or any other race.

Good question. Like most newspapers, we maintain a strict separation between the editorial pages and news operations. Reporters are not supposed to have bias — or, at least, show it — in the stories they write, and the same goes for those of us who edit news copy. Our obligation is to be fair and accurate in our presentation of the news.

A newspaper’s endorsement of a candidate or an issue isn’t some kind of weird ego trip, despite what some might say. It’s an expression of the opinion of the publisher and editorial board, which, at the Tracy Press, is made up of a handful of the newspaper’s family members and managers. Those opinions show up on the editorial pages, where readers are encouraged to share their viewpoints, too.

Publishing endorsements is a traditional role for newspapers. Back in the early 1900s, the Tracy Press ran front-page pitches for presidential hopefuls. Many newspapers proclaimed their political leanings in their nameplates. Most have altered their names over the years, such as the Arizona Republic, which used to be the Arizona Republican. But some, like the Santa Rosa Democrat, have kept their names.

That early political zeal died down, of course, and it wasn’t until 1990 that the Tracy Press started publishing endorsements for local candidates on its opinion pages — now called Voice.

We’ve always had a front-row seat on politics and a leadership role in the community, and at the very least, we figure our independent views can serve the purpose of provoking thought and discussion. At the same time, we try to get out as much information about the candidates and the issues as we can so readers have something on which to base their decisions at the ballot box.

Last Saturday, we ran eight pages of Q&As from the City Council and mayor candidates so that Our Town readers could get to know them better. Also, on two separate evenings last month, we held public forums in a school gymnasium with the candidates for Congress, state Assembly and City Council and mayor. The forums were televised and have been aired nearly every day on the city’s community-access cable Channel 26.

Just this week, we thought of something else we could do, and when the two mayoral candidates showed up for their face-to-face interviews with the editorial board, we asked them if they’d be willing to participate in an experiment for the sake of open democracy. We audiotaped the 1½-hour sessions, edited them to roughly 40 minutes each and put them on our Web site, with photos.

We also made CDs of the interviews — the uncut, audio portion — and have them available for readers in our front office. The price is a $1 (minimum) donation to the California First Amendment Coalition, a nonprofit public interest organization dedicated to advancing free speech and open-government rights.

One of our objectives in opening the window to this process is to show you what we asked the candidates and what they answered. We hope you’ll take a look and a listen and let us know what you think.

Who knows? By the time the next election comes around, we’ll probably be webcasting. And the protesting sign-man will probably still come around.

Slideshows

We've started something new, and I'd love some feedback from readers.

To check it out, go back to the Tracy Press home page and click on "Slideshows" about halfway down on the far-left column. That will take you to our very first slideshow. Click on the red "West Building Demolition" link, and you'll see "End of an Era," photos that Glenn Moore shot on Oct. 21 and 22 at Tracy High School, when the old West Building saw its final days. To start the slideshow, press the small arrow near the far-left bottom corner of the photo.

We plan to shoot the Halloween parade on Saturday for another show and, this time, we'll use audio, too. So watch for that in the next few days.

Let me know what you think!

Editor's Notes column

Here's what's running in Saturday's Tracy Press:

Seeing stars again

The Voice pages are packed during election season, and bringing up a topic not related to the races is asking for trouble right now.

But this is nothing compared to what happened when I thought the newspaper could exist without its daily horoscope.

The women who answer our phones at the Tracy Press have now tallied 50 calls of complaint — sometimes howling diatribes — about the disappearance of the daily prediction of events. Several weeks ago, in an effort to gain space for news stories, we dropped one comics page, which had been home to the signs of the zodiac. We moved some puzzles to the first pages of classifieds and added a weekly horoscope.

Who knew that a daily dose of astrology is more important to some readers than the police blotter or the obituaries or — imagine this — the latest developer agreement in town? Not me.

One woman, a Capricorn, explained that her daily habit is really a necessity. When she read her weekly horoscope in the Tracy Press this week, it left her defeated. It said, “News you will receive hits you very hard, Capricorn. But there is nothing you can do to change the situation, so you just have to work through it.”

Now she has to wait a week before she gets another message, when she’d really like some advice for how to get through the next few days of — something bad.

Then there was the woman who stopped in our office after West High’s homecoming parade Friday to ask if there was a chance the horoscope would be in today’s paper. The last one she’d read had said her relationship would fizzle — and it did — and now she wants to know what’s coming next.

For Cindy, whose last name will go unmentioned because she reads the paper when she’s supposed to be working for one of the largest employers in town, the horoscope is her morning ritual.

“We just have a nice little chitchat about our horoscopes in our department before we start our day,” she writes, using her work e-mail. “It wakes us up, and we move on.”

One of the women in her office says she knows how to deal with her husband after she reads her horoscope. Another says she just likes to be entertained.

I don’t know about the rest of you, but by the end of October in an election year, politics ceases to be entertaining to me. I’m tired of the TV ads, the mailbox junk, the survey calls and the computerized messages left on my answering machine.

I could really use a horoscope to read today. Here’s what I’m imagining I’ll find: “You could make at least 50 readers happy today.”

So here you go. If you really want to know what’s happening, skip over the news and go directly to Page 35.

• Cheri Matthews, editor of the Tracy Press, can be reached by phone (830-4201) e-mail (cherim@tracypress.com) or blog (www.editor-matthews.blogspot.com).

More horo-calls

Just got this update on the horoscope calls:

Here's an update on the "tally" marks. We started a new sheet when we gave you the one last week. So the second sheet was started on 10/10/06, and as of today at 5:01p.m., you may add 13 more readers who miss the horoscope.

Also, I've fixed the "comment" button on this posting, so comment away!

Astrological musings

The women who answer our phones have tallied 33 calls of complaint that the daily horoscope has disappeared from the paper. Who knows how many others are unable to face their days without the daily dose of astrology?

But I'm learning from the comments that have drifted upstairs that the daily horoscope isn't a necessity of life. It's just a harmless habit, one that lots of folks enjoy.

Cindy, whose last name will go unmentioned because she reads her horoscope when she's supposed to be working for one of the largest employers in town, said the horoscope is her morning ritual.

"We just have a nice little chitchat in our department before we start our day, and it wakes us up, and we move on," she writes, using her work e-mail.

One of the women in her office says she knows how to deal with her husband after she reads her horoscope. Another says she just likes to be entertained.

I don't suppose the news plays the same role as a useful and amusing horoscope.

Horoscope homesickness

It's been two weeks since we dropped the daily horoscope from the Tracy Press. We dropped several other features at the same time to make more room for news, and we added a weekly horoscope, which runs in classifieds on Tuesdays. But it's the daily horoscope that's generated the most calls.

I plan to take a close look this week at those responses. I have to admit surprise. At the risk of alienating dedicated readers, I'll admit that I consider the horoscope to be space-filler. I believe in all sorts of things, from UFOs to global warming, but I don't give credence to horoscope writers who tell me that I'll have unexpected good luck today or that I need to exercise discretion. They say I'm a sensitive but tough Taurus. Duh! Isn't everybody?

I'd like to hear directly from daily astrology readers. Do you miss Horoscopes by Holiday? Was it the first place you turned in the newspaper? Should we bring it back?

Is a daily newspaper necessary?

Perhaps you've considered that question, especially if you're a longtime reader of the Tracy Press. Looking at the history of our paper, it's gone from being a weekly to three days a week, from three to five days, then six and seven days a week, back to six and finally to five days a week, which is our publishing schedule in 2006.

The main reason for dropping the Monday paper last year, of course, was financial. Newspaper operations are expensive ones, and for us, a family paper, Monday advertising revenues weren't coming close to covering the costs of delivering on those days. Plus, we noticed that a considerable number of home subscribers weren't picking up their newspapers on Monday mornings.

Our publishing schedule is a constant topic of conversation for us. That's why I found a story in this week's Editor and Publisher (subscriber-only — sorry!) magazine to be so interesting. It gives credit to Hazel Reinhardt of Media Management Center for suggesting that small-market newspapers would be better off publishing five or six days a week instead of seven. That was considered heresay in the 1990s, the article says. But seven-day publishing is losing favor, as more and more papers are looking at dropping Monday and even Tuesday papers.

Meanwhile, I wouldn't have time to blog on a Sunday, as I'm doing today, if I had a Monday paper to put out. Instead, I'll take the day off (what a concept!) and update the Monday Web site later this evening.

Back to blogging

Blogging is a lot like running a newspaper. Every day starts with a blank slate, and every night, ink meets paper, while the presses roll out a new edition. And if the newspaper doesn't make it to every front doorstep, the phones ring wildly the next morning.

WHERE'S MY TRACY PRESS?

Wait.
It's not the same with my blog.
I didn't update my Editor's Notes blog for two months, and I got, maybe, two comments.

But I'm back now, with new blogging software and a slightly new look. I even went to a seminar on "Figuring Out Blogs and Whatever's Next" at the USC's Annenberg School of Journalism. And I'm going to put what I learned to use.

I like this forum, with its potential of connecting with readers. So thanks for visiting. Feel free to comment. And come back often!

- Cheri

Journalists protest pressure to reveal sources

Journalist groups on Saturday protested the jailing of a video journalist and other recent federal court rulings pressuring media workers to divulge information to the government.

From the Associated Press:
The news media becomes an information-gathering arm of law enforcement when journalists are ordered to give up confidential sources or unpublished material, said Tony Overman, president of the National Press Photographers Association.

"When news sources believe that statements or actions observed or reported by journalists find their way into the hands of police or prosecutors, those sources will be less willing -- or flat-out afraid -- to cooperate with the media," Overman said at the press conference in San Francisco.

The photographers association and the Society of Professional Journalists announced they would help pay for the legal defense of freelance video journalist Joshua Wolf.

A federal judge in San Francisco ordered Wolf jailed this week for refusing to hand over unaired video shot during a July 2005 protest in which a police car was vandalized and an officer was injured.

Wolf's defense lawyer, Jose Luis Fuentes, said jail officials blocked him from seeing his client until Saturday, five days after his incarceration, and that Wolf remains steadfast in refusing to surrender the footage.

"It smells and appears to be punishment, which is not what the civil contempt order is about -- it's about coercion," he said. "If he can't make phone calls to his mother or have visits from his mother, and he is denied visits from his attorney, it would seem that's all punishment."

Posted by cmatthews at August 6, 2006 08:39 AM

The question of reavaling sources is an interesting one. In terms of investigative reporting, it is crucial to the ability of the press to function that they are able to protect the anonymity of their sources.

However, when it comes to the realm of political opinion, the press has no responsibility. For instance, the recent attack letter by Nicholas Villagomez could easily have been identified as coming from a field representative of Greg Aghazarian. That was clearly a hit piece planted by Carl Fogliani, a political campaign consultant whose work is shared by Richard Pombo and Aghazarian. Including that simple statement would have changed the meaning of the entire letter and Mr. Villagomez chose to hide that fact.

Cheri, this campaign is going to get very dirty. This is only an early skirmish. I find it interesting that Pombo, Fogliani and Wayne Johnson seem to fear McCloskey more than they do McNerney. Pete gave them trouble in the primary, forcing them to born a lot of money. He is still giving them trouble. You should think about the fact that there might be a connection between the issues that Pete is focusing on, corruption and the Marianas, and the scope of the effort that they making to discredit him. If there is nothing to that story, as Fogliani continues to parrot, then why are they making such a fuss?

Posted by: Wes Rolley at August 11, 2006 08:46 AM

Wes, I looked at the Marianas issue and found that the dots, timelines, and everything else really didn't line up to implicate Pombo in anything unethical. The allegations of corruption just haven't led anywhere either. We found that relative to other members of congress, like Dem. Rep. Miller who carried out far more extravagant travels with family members during approximately the same time period, Pombo's decision to rent an RV and along with his family go on a tour of parks he oversees seemed pretty low key. All of it was approved by those in Congress overseeing these types of activities. If there is a problem with it, then Congress should amend its rules. For Miller, McCloskey and other's to make this their case that Pombo is corrupt is pretty lame. If they can't do better than that, they have nothing. I'm not sure why Pombo's camp is over reacting to it, but the game of politics is never easy to explain, and all tactics that political consultants like Wayne Johnson seem to do is reinforce the cynicism that causes people to not participate in the voting process.

Posted by: Bob Matthews at September 27, 2006 08:49 AM

test

Posted by: test at October 1, 2006 03:53 PM

Curious what the Tracy Press is doing to help get rid of Pombo. With wind energy (not to mention a lack of corruption) an obvious boon to the local economy, perhaps McNerney's connections can be of use to us? Will you officially endorse him? Or at the very least, ignore Pombo's publicity machine?

Thanks!

Posted by: Dave Rayster at October 9, 2006 04:00 PM

Temperatures hit record highs

For the first time in my adult life, the recent headlines have held little luster for me. Meaningful news has been delivered only by doctors in a rural hospital in Montana, where my mom is very sick. I guess you could say I'm out of the loop, and I'm thankful for the reporters, editors and photographers I have working for me.

Meanwhile, I'm getting angry e-mails about the photo of the dead calf we have on today's home page and newspaper cover. I'm collecting all opinions, and I'd like to write a column.

Posted by cmatthews at July 25, 2006 02:44 PM

First of all, Best wishes for a full and speedy recovery for your Mom.

My first thought at reading the complaint letter in today's edition of the TP was, “Oh, boohoo”, I think some people are a bit too sensitive to be reading a newspaper, where they may learn about some of the harsh things going on in the world around us. The photo was not gruesome in any way, beyond the fact that it depicted a dead cow.

Posted by: Jim Freeman at July 27, 2006 10:12 AM

Glad to have you back and sympathize with you regarding your trip to Montana. I hope things turned out well in that respect.

With respect to the dead cow on the front page. I wouldn't worry about it. People complain about anything for no apparent good reason.

It amazes me that people will shell out as much as $15 per head to go and see the latest blood and meyham at the theater, pay huge sums of money to watch what amounts to pornography on television and yet a picture of a dead cow on the front page of the paper turns their stomach?

Give me a break please! Has this world suddenly gone completely insane or have I simply not been paying attention to what has been going on?

It's kind of like the article I wrote regarding the gutters and drains in the subdivision that contains Zanussi Park.

One person complains about me lurking around and learing through fences, even though I was driving my car. Another complains of the gutter in another side of town, which I was not addressing at all. Then one of our local writers impunes I am a lord from Austria and insults all of the people involved by accusing them of pimping.

So don't worry about the nonsence that people come up with. I have become use to it.

Take care.

Dave

The great newspaper consolidation of '06

The Associated Press reports that Clinton Reilly, a millionaire real estate investor, is suing to prevent McClatchy Inc. from completing a $737 million deal to sell three of the Bay Area newspapers it picked up in its recent acquisition of Knight Ridder Inc.

The proposed deal "will result in the defendants' control of every major newspaper in the greater Bay Area," Reilly's attorney, Joe Alioto, said in a statement. That will result in higher rates for subscriptions and advertising, more-limited news and editorial coverage and decreased newspaper quality, he said.

For some food for thought, check out John McManus at Grade the News.

Posted by cmatthews at July 15, 2006 03:47 PM

Kudo's to one of the only "family owned" papers left in this state...
Interesting the priority of concerns started with higher rates for subscriptions, then concern over advertising rates, and then finally limited news and editorial coverage. That would have been my first concern....

Mum no more

I'm still scratching my head over writer Robert Novak's column Thursday, in which he breaks his silence -- sort of -- about the sources for his July 2003 column that identified CIA officer Valerie Plame.

Up until now, Novak, whose syndicated columns run in the Tracy Press, would never say whether he'd appeared before a grand jury or ever revealed his sources. I assumed he had and debated canceling our contract for running his column. While other reporters were either jailed or threatened with jail time for refusing to give up the sources who had leaked classified information to them, Novak, who had been the first to write about Plame, appeared to sit comfortably.

This week, Novak wrote that he'd testified before a grand jury in February 2004, that the special prosecutor by that time already knew the names of his sources, and that his sources (including White House adviser Karl Rove) had granted him legal waivers to testify. He names only two of those sources; his super-secret source remains shielded out of journalistic obligation, he wrote.

One last tidbit is that Novak said he'd figured out the identity of Ambassador Wilson's wife all on his own. He'd gotten Plame's name from an entry in "Who's Who in America."

Of course, the "leak" wasn't her name at all; it was the fact that Joe Wilson's wife was a CIA operative.

Meanwhile, Plame has sued Rove along with Vice President Dick Cheney, accusing them and other White House officials of conspiring to destroy her career.

More meltdown in Santa Barbara

Reporters at the Santa Barbara News-Press are silently protesting today following the resignation of a sixth editor at the paper. Owner Wendy McCaw published a front-page note to readers Thursday that characterized the paper's turmoil as a disagreement about local coverage.

The Tracy Press has an Associated Pres story today that reports that some of the departed insist ethics are at the heart of the matter, while the newspaper's ownership say a focus on local news led to the exits.

R-rated Annie?

I just got this letter and wonder if other readers agree. What do you think?

"I am finally disgusted enough to write about the layout of the Tracy
Press. In the Wednesday morning edition, I found the disgusting letter to 'Annie's Mailbox' amid the comics. The content of that letter was R-rated at best. This column contains sexual innuendo at least three times a week. I find this trend disturbing and distracting when reading the comics with my children.

"Moreover, you run advertisements encouraging parents and children to read the paper together. However, I don't take my children to PG-13 movies, and I shouldn't have to come across that sort of material while reading the paper with them. My son, who is nearly 11, often reads this column before I can get to the paper and rip out that section. He doesn't need to be curious about this type of material at his age!

"Please put this column on some other page or delete it."

Posted by cmatthews at July 10, 2006 07:47 AM

The reader is more than within his or her rights to edit the paper for his or her own children, or even cancel a subscription. In fact, last time I checked, that's exactly the kind of role a parent should be playing in the life of a child — establishing boundaries, instilling moral values and determining what is and is not appropriate.
However, that is not the job of a newspaper, its editors or its writers. Bowing to the most-sensitive readers in any community would lead to a blank newspaper. Let the parents be parents and the newspaper be a newspaper.
On a personal note, I wouldn't be opposed to taking out the Mailbox and putting in a couple of other comic strips, but mostly because I find many of the people needing advice simply lack common sense.
Thanks for the posting...

Posted by: J. Mendelson at July 10, 2006 06:32 PM

Glad to have you blogging again, Cheri.

Posted by: Ed Gable at July 11, 2006 10:09 AM

Have I been missing something? PG? R? Must read it again. My opinion of "Annie's Mailbox" is much like Jon Mendelson's. The writers lack commmon sense. I'm glad parents read the paper, especially the comics, with their children. But what do you do with Garfrield's oversexed but underfulfilled owner? How do you --or does anyone-- explain "Bizarro"? What about Bucky's bad attitude in "Get Fuzzy?" I wonder if the letter writer thinks positively about the horoscopes? I am most offended by the daily body count in the news from Iraq. What do you say to a child about that?

Posted by: Mike McLellan at July 11, 2006 10:25 AM

I learned to read via the newspaper and supermarket tabloids. I can remember being 6 years old and sounding out Nos-tra-damus in a "Weekly World News" story about his predictions that "marked the end of the world was near." Newspaper stories taught me about "adultery," "sodomy," "homosexual," and others words I'm sure my mother wasn't ready to define for me at that age but did.
But, it was the Bible that gave me the rudest awakening as a child.
At 8 years old, it taught me that no matter how good I was, I could never go to heaven. The family Bible was quite old, printed long before Vatican II, and it had a glossary section that served as a quick reference guide for the curious Catholic. Reading it, I came across a challenging word I'd never seen before: illegitimate. The Bible defined the word as a child who is the product of unmarried parents. The entry went on to say that such children, borne of sin, were not eligible for entry into heaven.
The next day, I discussed heaven with my mom and who in our family was there. I matter-of-factly told her that I was sad not to meet those relatives. She assured me that I would get my chance when I got there.
Imagine the look on a mother's face when her 8-year-old says, "No, I don't get to go to heaven because I'm illegitimate." I could see her blood boil. "Who told you that?" she demanded to know. "I read it last night in the Bible. The Bible says that illegitimate children can't go to heaven, and I know I'm illegitimate because you've never been married."
She said something under her breath, told me that the Bible was really old and that I should pay it no attention. When I went to bed that night, I noticed it was gone from my bedside table.
Up to that point, the Bible had been my best source for salacious reading (it full of tales of sex, murder and subterfuge) -- stuff children who, like me, weren't allowed to watch movies rated higher than PG or TV shows that aired after 8 p.m., never were exposed to. After that, the sanitized facts of newspapers dulled by comparison.

Posted by: Tonya at July 12, 2006 10:51 AM

5 editors, 1 veteran columnist quit

I checked the Rough & Tumble site first thing today for the latest in coverage of California politics and public policy, and I saw the Los Angeles Times item about the walkout at the Santa Barbara News-Press.

My first thought was: Wow. What would it take to get all those people to leave a newspaper? My next one was: Wow. How stupid is that newspaper's owner.

According to the Times, the six resigned in protest after being told to kill a short article about a drunk-driving sentence given to the then-editorial page editor (now publisher). Another dispute involved the owner's reprimand of a reporter and three editors for publishing the address where actor Rob Lowe planned to build his "dream home." The final straw was when the new publisher announced that he'd also directly oversee some news coverage.

Could that happen here?
No.
1. We've always said that we will print the names of all felony drunk-driving arrests in Tracy, which includes even our own children, who are now of legal age — and, I might add, have managed to stay out of trouble!

2. We'd print the address of anyone, even a friend who begged for privacy, who had convinced our planning commission to build a 10,000-plus-square-foot home despite a neighbor's protests. Hello. It's public record and probably pretty good copy.

3. Our publisher doesn't oversee news coverage. I do. I'm part of the family that owns this paper. But I'm the editor.

Attack on newspapers

Here I am again, back blogging after a two-month sabbatical. This caught my eye and is getting the juices flowing again.

The American Society of Newspaper editors today issued a statement
deploring attempts by government leaders to demonize newspapers for
fulfilling their Constitutional role.

Posted by cmatthews at June 30, 2006 04:07 PM

I support the First Amendment of the Constitution completely. However that does not give anyone the right to jeopardize the health and safety of others under the guidelines of "Free Speech."

"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances."

If you read the amendment very closely and interpret it literally, the only right we have to free speech is to be able to petition the government for a redress of grievance. This can be either through speech, the press or a peaceful assembly.

It does not give the press, any speaker or assembly of persons the right to do and say anything they please or the right for someone to attack, fabricate half truths, embarrass or castigate any private citizen for any reason what so ever.

Nor does it give anyone the right to jeopardize the health and safety of others by exposing specific technological procedures the government uses to maintain our health and safety, something they specifically are chartered to do under the constitution.

In point of fact it doesn't really address citizens all that much in that it specifically addresses what the government cannot do.

Under this line of thought all of us are responsible for what we say and can be held accountable for what we say either through legal action or, regretfully, a punch in the nose if necessary.

I say this because in certain circumstances, because of some of the inflammatory, personal and libelous attacks I have read and seen could legally provoke such an action as people take personal insults seriously and, if allowed to continue unfettered, will resort to physical altercation as their remedy.

Our courts have upheld many cases where a punch in the nose was allowed as a result of continuous provocation. Apparently the courts understand that if pushed, such emotional outbursts to such continuous provocation are excusable.

Think of it this way. Should I accuse you publicly of being an unsavory type of woman, no doubt your husband would punch me in the nose in defense of your honor. And he would be justified in doing so because I do not have license to say anything I please.

Granted there really isn't much that can be done to unscrupulous media personnel who are more interested in making that big scoop to get a name for them than they are about the health and safety of others. But they should be required, under the guidelines of maintaining security, to divulge the names of the people who illegally divulged critical and classified information. Those people, the people who leaked the information, then should be prosecuted under the full extent of the law if for no other reason than they have jeopardized the health and safety of every American.

Dave Hardesty

Telling stories about the stories

Reporters from the Tracy Press and Patterson Irrigator met with veteran storytellers Jeff Jardine and Larry Minner from The Modesto Bee today over pizza.

We talked about the job of reporters, which is to find news and tell stories. That doesn't always come easily, and as Jardine reminded us, we need to get out of the newsroom and out into the town, talk to people everywhere we go and dig to get the good stuff.

Posted by cmatthews at April 28, 2006 06:02 PM

My lesson: local. local. local. Do it better than anyone and give commuters with choices a REASON to pick up the Press.

Posted by: Phil at April 29, 2006 12:38 PM

When can we have an archive of old articles online? Why do you take old stuff off? Why not archive? I know I can go down to the libary and do it, but online is better. I am ready to pay for it.

From Cheri: You can search for articles on the Web site starting from sometime last summer. You can also use the Google search engine and pull up archives. We aren't quite there yet with anything older than about July 2005.

Check out this newspaper empire

The McClatchy Co. sold the San Jose Mercury News and the Contra Costa Times to the MediaNews Group of Denver — the same company that owns the Tri-Valley Herald — as part of a four-newspaper $1 billion deal announced Wednesday. The sale would lead to an unprecedented concentration of ownership in Bay Area newspapers and give MediaNews control of papers publishing more than 800,000 copies daily in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Here's what others are saying. What do you think?

Most coveted award in journalism

News of the 2006 Pulitzer Prizes was announced this week, and some of us celebrated with the Times-Picayune of New Orleans and The Sun Herald of Gulfport, Miss., which share the prize for public service for their stories on Hurricane Katrina.

The Times-Picayune also won the Pulitzer for breaking news reporting on the hurricane, and The Dallas Morning News won for its Katrina pictures in the breaking news photography category.

Here's where you can find a list of the winners.

Joan Ryan's sabbatical

One of my favorite writers, Joan Ryan, announced this week that she's taking a break from her column in the San Francisco Chronicle.

When I read her last column, I remembered what I loved most about being a feature writer.

As Joan said, "I get to parachute into people's lives, sit at their kitchen tables and listen to their stories. I get to carry issues I care about onto the public stage and shine a light on them."

Pretty picture but no alfalfa field

One of our photographers went out Tuesday for a photo of an alfalfa field to illustrate a story about the affect of rain on farmers' crops.

How do I know it's alfalfa? he asked.

"Look for lots of green, clover-like grass," I told him, promising to check it when he got back.

He came back with lots of green, but the flowers were white. Alfalfa has purple blossoms. I know. My husband has grown alfalfa for our horses for several years. Of course, he's the farmer, not me.

The photographer went out again, ever diligent. This time I stressed purple flowers. And he came back with purple. Trouble is, I didn't look at the photos again until I saw one in Wednesday's paper, with a cutline identifying the field as alfalfa.

It could be lupine among some wild grasses, but it's not alfalfa. Are we such city folks that no one noticed?

Alfalfa, lupine, wild grass, heck it was all green to me. Why didn't you ask me something easy like take a picture of an airplane? I always get the hard assignments!

Posted by: Glenn Moore at April 13, 2006 11:22 AM

No, you weren't the only one that noticed, but I didn't want to say anything — especially since Bob grows alfalfa!! LOL

Posted by: rzellmer at April 13, 2006 02:37 PM

Close enough for me! Nice pic. Glenn, I like your Our Town features.

Ahh, but you are going to get those nastygrams from the farmers! They are already up in arms about us cityfolk attitude towards them, and rightly so I think.

Posted by: Jim Freeman at April 14, 2006 12:12 PM

Did editor cross an ethical line?

San Jose Mercury News Editorial Page Editor Steve Wright testified this week during a formal public hearing at the San Jose City Council meeting. He spoke in favor of proposals for a new law providing for more open government.

Is that appropriate for a newspaper editor?

I say yes, and so does Grade the News, a media research project that focuses on the quality of the news media in the San Francisco Bay Area. The project is based at San Jose State University's School of Journalism and Mass Communications and is affiliated with Stanford University’s Graduate Program in Journalism.

Posted by cmatthews at April 6, 2006 03:30 PM

I commend your focus on journalistic ethics and agree about Steve Wright's testimony. In fact, I have tried to generate more support for his position from within San Jose organizations that I follow.

By extension, let me ask you this question. I see many new stories in a wide range of papers that define fair and balanced reporting as giving the right and left both a chance to insert a good quote. However, if one or both of those quotes does not make sense, maybe a politician sayying one thing but voting the opposite way, should the reporter just enter the quote, or should they call attention to the discrepancy? It happens all to frequently in too many newpapers: e.g. WSJ, NY Times, Washington Post down to local weeklies, that all they do is report the quote.

From Cheri: You're right, and this is a great topic for discussion. We do tend to call a story balanced if we've included quotes from both sides. And we probably don't look closely enough to see if what a person says matches what he/she does or votes. I think we should call attention to discrepancy.

Posted by: Wes Rolley at April 12, 2006 10:22 AM

Grabbing for Mrs. Sward's bottle

“No passion in the world is equal to the passion to alter someone else’s draft.”
— H.G. Wells

When I was an eighth-grader, my favorite subject in school was English, in spite of the old biddy who taught the class. Mrs. Sward, who taught many, many miles from here and has been dead for decades, would keep small bottles of whiskey in her drawer, and every time she’d read something in our essays that mortified her — say, a misplaced modifier or subject-verb disagreement — she’d take a gulp from the bottle and clear her throat.

I know the feeling.

I grew up to be a fanatic about the English language. In my years as editor, I’ve been known to wrestle with a pressman over a page that was about to go to press with a grammar gaffe in the lead story. I’ve pulled out perfectly good strands of hair (my own) over a faulty apostrophe that made it into the paper — you know, an “it’s” that was supposed to be an “its,” or vice versa.

A run-on sentence like the one on the front page of Saturday’s Tracy Press — “Daylight-saving time begins Sunday, move clocks forward one hour at 2 a.m.” — can put a damper on an entire day for me. If only I’d stayed up a little longer Friday night to proof pages, I could’ve turned that comma into a semi-colon.

Truly, my newspaper-reader-soulmates are the ones who stop me on the street or e-mail me when they’ve found an especially egregious language error in the paper (not to be confused with fact errors, which are another story.)

Just last week, Aaron Carter e-mailed with angst after he read the tease on the front page of Friday’s paper: In 1906, an earthquake and fire devastated the city by the bay. One hundred years later, officials are preparing for another terrible “tremblor.”

“I’m certain the person making the entry intended to use the word ‘temblor,’ which is defined as ‘a quaking,’” he wrote. “I am hopeful the writer did not intend to use the word “trembler,” which is a noun used to describe a person who trembles or who has trembled, or who, by nature, is a trembler.”

He’s right, and I'm trembling just thinking about that misspelled temblor.

Jane Devlin, another Tracy Press reader, called me recently to tell me that we should have corrected a source’s grammar rather than repeat the mistaken use of the word “like” in a direct quote. You know, we were, like, adults, speaking like kids, and we should, like, know better.

That just warmed her up to talk about other modern-day problems with the language.

“You know what really sends me over the edge?” she said. “When someone replaces the word ‘said’ with ‘go.’ That, to me, is a crime.”

Jane and Aaron remind me of another astute reader named Mike Blake, who started e-mailing me in 2002 with lists of annoying mistakes from our paper — words that sound the same but mean something different, like “patients” used in place of “patience,” and typos that change meanings, like “math lab” rather than “meth lab.”

I’d dutifully pass them on to my young staff (all college graduates who majored in English, journalism, rhetoric, history or political science, mind you) as Lessons From The Outside, which always carry more weight, you know, than those from ever-picky editors.

I eventually convinced Mike to work as a part-time copy editor for us. By day, he wrote software over the hill, and by night, he’d proof our pages — and save our bacon.

Alas, he moved on and bought a farm in Vermont. His wife, Margaret, recently asked about the New Year’s baby who weighed 15 pounds, 14 ounces, as she’d read on the Tracy Press Web site. She was pretty sure we’d meant to write 5 pounds, 14 ounces.

Uh, yeah. We ran a correction on that slip-of-the-finger on the keyboard.

Meanwhile, I’ll have three other editors read this column before it hits the press, so I’m pretty sure it will be typo-free.

Rest in peace, Mrs. Sward.

Posted by cmatthews at April 5, 2006 07:33 AM

This piece was quite revealing. It is quite a relief to know that even those who are native English speakers and consider English as the primary language also grapple with the tricky problems of grammar and usage, and even with such petty stuff as spelling. For those of us who have English as a secondary language, mostly because we originated from another country, jousting with the intricacies of the language is a continuing battle.

And English is such a dynamic and complicated language to be good at, much less to be a master at. What with all the countless rules and exceptions to the rule to be learned, remembered, and used properly. Partial thanks go to any spell-checker in any word-processing application for the valuable assistance that it provides.

I am by no means a linguist or a grammarian, but I do have a deep interest in the language and how it continues to evolve.

Thus, aside from those mentioned and narrated, I find another area where “errors” or call them, changes, may also be quite common. And it is in deviation from standard usage or meaning. Take the phrase, beg the question. Its standard usage is supposed to refer to a logical fallacy, but the common usage would now suggest that it means that a statement made prompts the question, or begs the question.

And to illustrate a classic change in meaning which I believe is universally accepted is the verb, to cleave. In olden times, the word meant to unite or join together, but now it’s quite the opposite, to break apart or separate, as in cleavage.

And lastly, regarding the inadvertent use of tremblor. I find this word easily confused because another common but correct word aside from temblor is the word, tremor, which also means an earthquake. Thus, if one puts the three words together and shakes them, it is understandable to see why at times it could come out as tremblor, instead of temblor or tremor.

Though, there is still the bigger issue in the use or over-use of clichés or bromides. But save that for another time.

And unfortunately, I have neither proofreader nor editor to go over this comment.

Posted by: Amadeo at April 5, 2006 11:42 AM

Dear Cheri,
Thanks so much for your April 5 article about the proper use of the English language - it struck a real resonance with me.
I also had a Mrs. Sward in my schooling days. Mine was named Mrs. Cook, also from many miles away and also long dead. Unlike Mrs. Sward, I don't remember Mrs. Cook having a bottle in her desk to help her cope with our butchery of English. Instead, she'd roll her eyes upward, looking perhaps for divine guidance to help us mend our ways.
For me, her methods worked as well as Mrs. Sward's apparently worked for you - I also grew up to be a fanatic about the English language. I was certainly in the minority of those in my chosen profession of engineering. I'm retired now, but as an engineering manager in the last years of my employment, I had ample opportunity to grit my teeth and make grammar and spelling corrections in the many draft reports I reviewed. My biggest pet peeves were the constant confusion of its/it's, your/you're, to/too, their/there, etc.
I think the situation actually worsened with the advent of word processing software with spell checkers, probably because many writers believed they no longer had to think about correct usage. Unfortunately, most of the errors are real words - they're just the wrong words.
Anyhow, I'm thankful for what the Mrs. Swards and Mrs. Cooks did for some of us. I just wish there were more of them and more of us.
Gus Carlson

Good news for all

Jill Carroll arrives home
After 82 days in captivity, journalist Jill Carroll arrived in Boston to join her family Sunday.

Comic relief?

One of our most-loved and most-loathed comic strips will take a six-month sabbatical beginning this month.

Aaron McGruder announced in a letter this week to the 350 newspapers that carry his edgy strip that he needs to take a break from "The Boondocks."

"Every well needs occasional refreshing, and I hope that this fall you will agree that the time away from the demands of deadlines has served the strip, your readers and me," McGruder wrote.

That leaves us with a hole on our Laugh page. What to do?

Universal Press, the syndicate that distributes Boondocks, urges newspapers to run reruns of the antics of Huey and Riley and their eccentric grandfather.

I think this is a good excuse to try something new.

Here are a couple of offbeat comics that I think would make good replacements:
"Non Sequitur"
"Pearls Before Swine"

Let me know what you think!

Posted by cmatthews at March 12, 2006 10:03 AM

I read the available samples of both of these replacement comics, and I don't care for either of them. "Pearls Before Swine" even had one strip which included the hilarious punchline, "Who gives a $#%*?".
Non-Sequitur's left-leaning take on political issues may belong on your "Voice page", but it doesn't fit with the comics.
All funny comic strips have already been written. My solution? Bring back "Classic Peanuts"! Who is with me here?

Posted by: Jim Freeman at March 13, 2006 01:29 PM

Good riddence to McGruder He is a waste of Ink.

Posted by: David Kerst at March 29, 2006 12:09 PM

How about making a start by publishing the Monday comic strips in the Tuesday paper? We all miss a day of the serial strips.

From Cheri: We're publishing two of the "Doonesbury" strips Tuesdays on the Voice page. What other serial comics do you miss on Mondays?

Posted by: Steven Braman at March 29, 2006 07:55 PM

Send in your feedback

We've had many calls from readers who are unhappy about our change to a five-day-a-week publishing schedule — with the sixth day on the Web.

I expect we'll hear from sports readers, too, after we move the sports pages back inside the paper, instead of upside-down and on the back.

The first change was an extreme cost-cutting move, and the second was a revenue-enhancing one. Advertising pays our bills, and the back page is prime ad space. I think these business decisions will strengthen our family-owned company, and I'm excited about the prospects of using the Web site for breaking news. But change is difficult.

I'll likely write more about this in the next few days, but I'd like to hear from you, too. If you have questions, feel free to post them, and I'll try to answer them.

Thanks,
Cheri

Posted by cmatthews at February 27, 2006 10:11 PM

Totally off topic ...
I read Bill Burdette's obituary yesterday, and it reminded me of when I found the Byron Hot Springs. That place has always captured my imagination. I wished I could have picked this guy's brain, because at first I had a hard time researching the hotel. I discovered the place about 6 months ago when I was looking for the closest, natural hot springs. I walked the property, and it is amazing. There’s a huge 4-story brick hotel with a grand walkway and what once was a beautiful fountain.
When you walk through it, you get really eerie feeling because it’s been vacant for so long. It’s just a big old 4-story hotel out in the middle of nowhere surrounded by hundreds of cows grazing. It’s funny that the rich and famous would visit the place at the turn of the century when mineral waters would cure anything. In the depression people lost interest in such things and the place went bankrupt. Then shut down for years. Then the government acquired the property because of its size and location modified it and reopened for service as a prison camp. During this time they also capped off the well to the hot springs for security reasons. I bet they just did not want the prisoners to go swimming in the big old indoor and outdoor mineral pools. Now it is owned by a rancher who hopes to sell the property to some developers. There is also an awesome craftsman home next to the hotel that recently burnt down. I think I was one of the last ones to see it because it burnt down like a week after I walked the property. I did find the salt water hot springs its still there it’s a small pond and very salty. I just think it would be a good story from a historic prospective.

Posted by: Brian Barringer at March 2, 2006 11:08 AM

I was not aware of its prison camp status. I was always under the impression the government used it as a Sanitarium possibly to treat TB or something like that.

Yes, some accurate history from some of our local historians would be nice before such history is lost forever.

I can think of a couple of Tracyites who have lived here all their lives and have the expertice to provide such histories. But I will not mention them here until I have spoken with them. The Museum folks, members of the West Side Pioneers, would be a great place to start.

Posted by: Dave Hardesty at March 7, 2006 07:24 AM

I understand the interest in cutting costs; you are, after all, a business. I am finding in my advanced age that any time you make a change, there are people who are going to react. There is no way around it. As far as having no paper on Monday mornings? It just gives me less to do, and more time to get ready for my work week.
In other words, I am sure we will all survive.

Posted by: Ed Gable at March 20, 2006 09:11 AM

In defense of free speech

I finally looked at each of the 12 Danish cartoons that have sparked such a clash of civilizations, even in Tracy.

To my Western eye, there’s nothing offensive or newsworthy about the depictions of the Prophet Mohammed that first ran in a Danish newspaper last September and have since been reprinted around the world. But the international ado has led to demonstrations and violence in the streets and death threats against the cartoonists.

For some, it’s been an eye-opener about Islam and the sensitivities of different groups. To Muslims, depictions of Muhammad are forbidden; thus, these cartoons insult the Quran and demonize a beloved prophet.

But the publishing of the cartoons makes an important point about press freedom and our country’s First Amendment. Just as we are free to publish the cartoons, if we choose, readers are free to tell us exactly what they think of the cartoons.

Well, to tell you the truth, I haven't even seen the cartoons. But I can't think of many things that would offend me, being the heathen that I am. Regardless of what the cartoon says and who gets upset about it, it does fall under freedom of speech. Some folks may not like it, may not approve of it, but WHAT ELSE IS NEW?? Get over it already!
I have many things that make me upset, but I don't go outside and pillage and burn when someone makes disparaging remarks about George W, (but then how can tell if they are disparaging?), nor do I become ballistic when I hear the head idiot in Iran saying the Holocaust was a figment of everyone's imagination and that Isreal must be destroyed, etc. Americans figure he has the right to say whatever he wants because they know freedom of speech — and they know he's an idiot.
People may not like it, may not agree with it, but we all have the right to say it. If you don't like what you hear or read, then you have many alternatives. Turn off the TV, don't subscribe to the newspaper, leave the country, or turn around and walk away — and did I mention leave the country. Because we do live in America, Muslims who are offended even have the right to say that we shouldn't or can't make fun of Muhammad. But that doesn't mean I have to listen to them.
I'd say I would respect your right to be upset, but you have to respect my freedom of speech. And given today's society, nothing should come as much of a shock. Again, we may not like it, but it is America.
After all, if you don't like it, there are always those alternatives.

Posted by: russ zellmer at February 13, 2006 03:16 PM

This issue is more than just about press freedom and how it impacts on other people's sensibilities.

More importantly, it is about submission. Whether the West should submit to demands from groups that continue to cling to ways and values long ago buried in the archives of past centuries.

Once and for all, a definite stand has to be made. Or else, Western civilization which has done so much may be lost.

Posted by: Amadeo at February 14, 2006 12:47 PM

My opinion on the bigger picture.
I have been avoiding posting on this subject, but I have been reading up on what is happening in Europe as a result of Muslim immigration, and considering the parallel of immigration in our country. This leads me to the eventuality that we will either change our immigration policies or face destruction. I do not want to use the word holocaust, but 9/11 was the closest thing to the European holocaust that has ever happened on US soil (with the possible exception of Pearl Harbor). I think the biggest problem we face is that we are sitting back, fat, dumb and happy, and fanatics who would like to destroy us are working on their plans, and teaching future generations to continue those plans.

In the US, we do not teach future generations to learn from the past (revisionist history), and if one thing is true, it is true that those who do not learn from the past are doomed to repeat it. We already saw that on 9/11. Israel and other countries have suffered terrorist attacks and we did not learn from the measures they have taken to prevent them from happening again. It was only until after 9/11 that we hardened a cockpit door on jet aircraft and started searching passengers more thouroughly.

So while cartoons are a mere distraction today, they are part of the latest chapter in this book being written, the rise and fall of the USA. We cannot allow this to be the final chapter.
Immigration and control of WMD’s (Weapons of mass destruction, i.e. nukes, dirty bombs, poison gas, etc.) are the keys to our survival today. If we do not clean up immigration and control illiegal immigration, we will have the Muslim influx seen in Europe. Americans absolutely cannot fathom a Muslim demonstration in the streets of the USA with the type of messages seen this year in Britain. The “cartoon” demonstrations had Islamic fanatics carrying signs with slogans like “Britain, you will pay, 7-7 is on the way”. For those who do not know, 7-7 was the day of the bus bombings in Central London last year. The bombings were carried out by Muslim fanatics, suicide bombers.
If a demonstration were held on most any city street corner in America (except perhaps in Berkeley or San Francisco) and Islamic protestors held up signs saying “USA you will pay, another 9/11 is coming”, I would bet my next paycheck that there would be bloodshed on that street corner on that day.
Don’t get me wrong. I wouldn’t personally get involved. The persons being arrested would be Americans, for the Muslim protestors would only be exercising their right of free speech.
What I want people to consider is that with illegal immigration to the USA continuing as it is today, basically unchecked, the only reason we have survived through to today is that the immigrants come from mainly Christian countries. If the illegal population here in the US were mainly Muslim, what would have happened after 9/11?
The clash of civilizations may come down to a free speech argument today, but it will be over something else tomorrow. What will that be? The borders of Israel? The right of Iran to nuclear capability? We can pick a fight with Muslims over some issues, but we do not want that fight taking place in our backyard

Posted by: anon.tracyite at February 23, 2006 11:49 AM

With all this crying about how the cartoons were 'harmful' and somehow offensive to muslims, our President made one mistake. By siding with the Islamic thought that such drawings are offensive, yet the media, among others, keeping their silence when Andres Serrano put a crucifix into a jar of urine in 1989. I feel that the 1989 photograph was more offensive than these cartoons, of which all I have seen. Did Christians across America riot? No. Was there an outcry to have the photograph removed from display? Yes. Why wasn't it? Freedom of Speech. So why doesn't the press print all of these photos? Islam is, after all, a peace loving religion aren't they?

Posted by: Scott Baldwin at March 6, 2006 03:00 PM

New Brown Act exemption heads to Senate

Some legislation that would snub the Ralph M. Brown Open Meeting Law by creating a new closed-session exemption is heading toward the California Senate's Local Government Committee.
The California Newspaper Publishers Association opposed AB 463 last May and continues to oppose it.

I agree, and that's why I'm posting this blog for Sen. Michael Machado, who represents Tracy's district and serves on the Local Government Committee:

This bill only invites abuse by closing the door on decisions about the distribution of police resources associated with the security of private property. It denies any public accountability.

Don't go there.

Our Town goes daily with you in mind

Something new is on Pages 11 and 12 today. A bit of Saturday’s Our Town has spilled into the daily Tracy Press.

We hear from a lot of readers, and few are shy about expressing themselves. Some want more sports coverage; some want less. Some want more state, national, world and business news; some want less. Some want all the news on the Internet; some want none of that.

Readers are a divergent mix here, which is challenging for a newspaper editor. But one thing is certain: When folks move to town, unpack their boxes and settle in, they eventually come to appreciate what we call community news — the happy stuff of Our Town.
That’s why we’re going to put some Our Town into each day’s Tracy Press.

Tuesdays will be school days — or youth, as we’ve called it today. Wednesdays will be local biz, which gives us a chance to run a business profile, a column and some briefs. Thursdays will be reserved for church and religion items. Fridays will be for seniors, with Remember When, Twice Told Tales and news from Lolly Hansen Senior Center.

We might mix those pages up a bit — run Health one day, or Neighborhoods on another. You’ll probably have some other ideas as time goes on.

And we’ll keep Our Town as a separate Saturday section — for the Spotlight, to introduce you to an interesting person in town; for the columnists, who continue to enlighten us; for some color comics, for fun; for engagements, births, weddings and anniversaries; for animals that need rescuing; for Scene & Heard photos; and for Datebook — which will be even beefier, starting this week.

The beauty of Our Town is that it relies on the generosity of volunteers who send us e-mails, drop off notes on napkins, bring us photos, leave phone messages, stop us on the street or meet us for coffee. Sometimes they write full stories — and we give them bylines.

As newspapers face cutbacks, they often cut community news first.
We don’t want to do that.

Thank you for all your support — and for being part of Our Town.

Posted by cmatthews at February 27, 2006 10:07 PM

Well, I have to tell you I do MISS my monday am Tracy Press while on the ACE train.. The ACE train does have wireless access so I could access the Tracy Press via computer, but it's similiar to a really bad dial up experience.. So I guess I'll use the time to catch up on my sleep. Regarding the sports section, I was just getting used to switching the paper around and now you want to change it? Seriously though, it really doesn't matter to me which way it faces as long as you have coverage!
One thing I do wish you would publish is weekly paper that is ads.. In the midwest we had a weekly "Xchanger" paper where all the want ads were in it. It reached out to several towns listing everything from real estate, cars, personals, to livestock, hay and farm equipment. I don't know where everyone is placing their ads today for these items, but it doesn't appear they are using the Press all that much for it. It could be a county wide type of paper and with all the recent acquistions that the Press has made, I would think that you would have the area to pull these into one weekly paper. Keep up the good work!

Posted by: rzellmer at March 9, 2006 03:15 PM

News from Iraq

Like many of you, I'm waiting for some good news about Jill Carroll, the kidnapped journalist on assignment for the Christian Science Monitor. This is where I'm finding the best updates on her.

Unfortunately, the news from Iraq today is much, much closer to home. Brandon Dewey was one of two Marines killed Friday in a suicide bomber attack in Iraq. He was a 2003 graduate of West High School, and his family lives in Tracy. We will have a story with more details in Monday's Tracy Press.

Busy in Our Town

Wow. Where has January gone? Having a blog really makes me aware how time flies — and how long it's been since I last created an entry here.

I've been brainstorming how we can freshen up the Our Town section (in Saturday's TP). Here are two ideas you may see in the weeks to come:
• A weekly man-on-the-street Q&A called Lip Service
• A new feature called "Only in Our Town"

If you have any thoughts about Our Town — what you like, what you don't like, what you'd like to see — feel free to express yourself here!

Posted by cmatthews at January 19, 2006 06:48 PM

Miss seeing Jack Elliott's column and the father's column accounting his first birth.

From CHERI: Jack's "Thinking Out Loud" column is running every other week. James Leonard's parenting column no longer runs, because James went to work for The Modesto Bee.

Kakuro is coming

Puzzle lovers: We've signed up for Kakuro on the Tracy Press Laugh pages. It's a new numbers puzzle that starts in national syndication on Feb. 6. The puzzle is similar to Sudoku but is slightly more challenging. Most people I know who have tried both say they prefer Kakuro. Let me know in February!

- Cheri

12 miners — not found alive

Newspapers throughout the country, including the Tracy Press, reported in today's papers that 12 trapped West Virginia miners were found alive.

All day, we'll have to live with our headline, which reads, "12 trapped miners reported alive." Unfortunately, by the time most of us woke up this morning and got our first news reports, we found out that we got it wrong.

When I went home last night, the story that was planned to run on the missing miners in West Virginia led with the news that the body of one miner had been found by rescue crews. Then around 11:15 p.m., right before we went to press, the Associated Press issued an alert and then a story about how, in an extraordinary twist of fate, 12 of 13 miners were found alive.

One of our copy editors called the newsroom shortly afterward from out of town to make sure we had the revised story, and slot editor Goldie VanHeel was quick to reply, "We're on top of it!"

Another copy editor, Jon Mendelson, was hesitant, though, in declaring with such certainty that the miners were alive. He suggested that the headline should say that the 12 coal miners were reportedly found alive.

For the next several hours, the AP sent repeated updates, with more details from the scene, including celebration and expressions of gratitude from family members. Each update reported that the mine's owner, International Coal Group, had not confirmed that the 12 were alive."

But it wasn't until 2:59 a.m. — well after Tracy Press editors had gone home for the night and Wednesday's papers had been printed — that the AP moved this alert:

TALLMANSVILLE, W.Va. (AP) — Family members report that 11 of the 12 coal miners who were initially thought to have survived an explosion in a coal mine have died. The sole survivor is hospitalized."

Early this morning, we got this e-mail from a reader, who is absolutely right:

"I would like to correct your newspaper on the fact that
in today's paper (01-04-06) there was an article written by Allen Breed about some miners that were trapped in a Virginia coal mine. In this article, it stated that 12 out of the 13 miners were found alive, (but) the opposite is true. Only one out of the 13 miners were found alive. I believe that this was an honest mistake and nonetheless should be corrected for respect of the 12 miners who lost their lives."

And so we will.

Posted by cmatthews at January 4, 2006 02:42 PM

Kudos to the TP for adding the word reportedly to the headline. That showed a journalistic instinct that others lacked.
I turned on the TV news sometime shortly after the first networks started reporting that there were 12 miners alive. In hindsight, it is now obvious that the journalists on the scene should have reported and repeated that they had no official confirmation that the men were alive. I didn't see any of the reporters who were on at that time adding a mention that all of the reports were unconfirmed.
Any journalist who reported that these 12 miners were alive without being able to attribute it to an official source should be penalized for it. We will enforce this the old-fashioned way. Each offender will have to write on paper 100 times, with a number-two pencil, "I will not publish facts without a source.". If the same person was also assigned to Hurricane Katrina reporting, make them write it 500 times. Mr Cooper, get to work!

Posted by: Jim Freeman at January 5, 2006 12:37 PM

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Posted by: hydrocodone online at October 3, 2006 12:54 AM

Splogs: The next new thing

Here's another new word: splog, a blog that's actually spam.
Umbria Communications recently reported that of the 80,000 blogs created each day, about one in five is spam, created only for marketing purposes.
Speaking of spam, I'm getting it on my comments to this blog. But I've learned how to quickly hit my delete key.

Posted by cmatthews at January 3, 2006 02:48 PM

Here is another new word, actually a phrase I stumbled upon, "jump the couch" The Internet writing Journal website describes it here:

http://www.internetwritingjournal.com/iwjblogaug05/

Posted by: Glenn Moore at January 3, 2006 07:37 PM

I note that you use Movable Type for this blog. It is what I use for PomboWatch. Since updating to the most recent level 3.2, I have not had any of the comment spam get through.

As for new words, the Internet jargon that comes to mind is "freep," derived from the name of the far-right conservative site, Free Republic, which uses fake postings to other blogs and discussion lists as a standard procedure to create a false impression of popular support.

Posted by: Wes Rolley at January 6, 2006 07:05 AM

Also, splogs or spam blogs are mirror images of actual legitimate blogs, thus creating confusion.

It is possible for this blog to be hosted in another site, containing similar content but maybe the title changed.

Thus, they can be both very annoying and harmful.

Posted by: Amadeo at February 14, 2006 12:55 PM

That's a shame. It's bound to happen, but the blogs with unique content and actual opinions will thrive. Also, if you are a big blogger with great OG content, then you should copyright yourself. I would be really mad if someone did this to me. I would do all in my power to shut the blog down, including bombarding them with comments like FAKERS.
I may be marketing myself in my blog, but I also try to make content interesting, unique and valuable, atleast from my prospective. I try to keep shamless self-promotion to a minumum because people don't want that.

Posted by: Brian Barringer at March 2, 2006 11:33 AM

Creative lawyering punches loophole in open-meeting law

Worth reading, from the California First Amendment Coalition: City council closed sessions to discuss "pending litigation" are an excuse for conducting important business in secret.