Illegal immigrant kills nun, had been released pending deportation

The Washington Post is reporting that a man arrested for drunk driving and killing a nun in Virginia had been arrested previously for drunken driving, discovered to be an illegal immigrant and was released pending a deportation hearing.

And this one is on President Bush's administration, but it makes my point that Arizona is not the only place that currently checks folks for immigration status on folks arrested for other crimes. The fact the federal government's enforcement releases these folks back into the population is what is at issue.

If you are interested, follow the links at the bottom of the story that show that in this one county 13 percent of those arrested on crimes are also illegal immigrants. Please keep telling me how this is not a problem.

There's also an interesting note about the federal government's endorsement of this local enforcement in Virginia, which is in contrast to its current stated and legal battles with Arizona.

From the WP story: "Prince William is one of a few dozen communities in the country that participate in a federal program that deputizes local police officers to act as immigration agents and check the immigration status of people they arrest."

Maybe illegal immigration is more of a problem if the issue is in the D.C. backyard and not somewhere way out west. Check out pages 15-16-17 of the pdf of these local police statistics.

If the feds are going to sue anyone, it should be the cities who declare amnesty for illegal immigrants, that is truly an issue the federal government should sue over.

As to deportation hearings, how long should that take.

Judge: "Are you here illegally."

Suspect: "Yes"

Judge: "You're gone."

The Detroit Lions one big highlight film

The Detroit Lions don't have many highlights of their own (they are featured in many other teams' highlights, however) but this was the one game that gave fans hope for the future.

AnnArbor.com: A year later, another perspective

Online readers are up, but Advance is silent on whether the venture is profitable according to this new article about AnnArbor.com.

What is still not arguable is that the print product of AnnArbor.com is the biggest revenue generator. Be sure to follow the links in the story to the Chicago Tribue column and others.

Does anyone know if the 35 newsroom employees include unpaid bloggers and interns?

Suspicions confirmed: Internet handy, as long as it is free

A loyal reader, Jan, sent along a link that has a lot of good information about how people feel about the Internet and newspapers.

People love the Internet, but they are not willing to pay for much. That does not bode well for those who believe that a sustainable and lucrative model for online news gathering is anywhere on the horizon.

Maybe years down the road, but people want their information and they want it for free. I have a Twitter account, a Facebook account and use the Internet daily. But when someone asks me for dough, I say no. I hate tip jars, as well.

Also notice if you want the full report you'll have to pay for it. I'm not.

Gene Weingarten: On digitial media and Lady Gaga

In case you missed this Gene Weingarten column in the Washington Post (thanks, Dad) it is a funny and very apt discussion of the state of journalism and news today.

Once again I put myself out there as a self-confessed journalism dinosaur, but even those who have reigned over the current journalism state of affairs should get a good laugh out of this. They probably won't because they will actually think this all makes sense.

From A to Zowie: A reporter's reflections

Reporter Richard has a blog of his own. Here are a couple of his recent columns.

On writing opinion columns about issues you cover.

A day in his life, which includes getting to bed early so he can be rested for his second job at the gas station.

One really has to have passion to be willing to work two jobs so you can do one that is important, but not paid that way.

More sloppy newspaper checking

This time from afar. Thanks to a reader for sending along this link to Regret the Error.

Old colleagues, new business

Some former colleagues have launched a new business, Ohno Design, and I'm pretty excited for them. The innovative website and the crisp, clear writing there shows why they should never have been dropped from the Flint Journal to begin with.

If annarbor.com had 10 percent of the creativity of what I have already seen on this website, well someone besides me would probably be talking about annarbor.com.

Congratulations Ohno Design, give 'em heck.

I know a lot of folks from different disciplines who check in here. You could do worse, a lot worse, than checking out Ohno Design if you are in the market for that kind of thing.

AnnArbor.com: A year later a review by someone else

Having lost all interest in annarbor.com (I still visit there every six weeks or so to see if it's still there) I received a message from Ruth, a blogger who has done a look back at the site after one year. She looks at the good and the bad, and it's in three parts.

Part I

Part II

Part III

As for me, the site, which promised to be this revolutionary "new" way to deliver online news was just warmed over MLive.com without all creativity. That was a joke. For me the site from its inception was boring, and has remained so. But they do have a well furnished lobby. But if it is providing a high paid living for some working journalists then I'm all for it. For sure it is probably providing a high paid living for a few non-working, non-journalists who run the place.

Flint Journal: Punked

A sometime poster here, Kevin McKague, has admitted that he is the real author of a letter from "Nona T. Reilly," which if you say it fast (or slow) comes out "No Not Really."

Don't know how long the letter will be up at the site, but Kevin's blog has a screen shot of the letter to prove it was there.

I saw it tonight. Used to be that the editors would call and actually talk to a letter writer to confirm the authenticity.

It's happened before and likely will happen again. Kevin, a pretty prolific letter writer, may have published his last letter to the editor in The Flint Journal, but you have to admit, it was a wild one.

Land of Goshen, we're in Indiana

First post and photos are up at Grandma's Recess.

Blogging to slow

I know, blogging has already been slow. Not much going on in journalism land and we're off for a short vacation within our retirement to Indiana and then Up North. The house sitter will be here shortly and we are out of here.

For the next couple weeks you can follow (if you care) our adventures on my other blog grandmasrecess.blogspot.com. We'll check in from there.

By the way, a friend took us to Port Huron for a ride on the Huron Lady II last Sunday. It was really enjoyable. A nice trip up and down the St. Clair River and a little excursion on Lake Huron. Cost was only $15 for a two-hour trip and it was well worth it.

Of course, any time I spend on the water is always worth it.

Also spent a little time enjoying watching the shipping lane from Vantage Point.

Sometimes you find little jewels right near home.

BP and fisherman at odds

The oil spill in the Gulf has exposed another major issue in this country. The underground economy is alive and well. As taxes increase, many folks are simply avoiding the problem by working in cash.

Now a bunch of fisherman in the gulf are having a problem getting paid because BP wants to base payments on tax forms and they simply don't have them, or have seriously underreported their income.

This could get ugly as fisherman demand payments for income they can't prove, but likely earned. I feel sympathy for the fisherman, but can also see BP's point that they simply won't pay out based on verbal statements. Heck, I could say I was a fisherman who lost money.

There are reports that some fisherman are making $3,000 a day skimming oil, which eclipses what they would make if they were fishing.

So, what to do? If you come clean that you have under reported your income will that sic the IRS on the fisherman.

Don't really know where I come down on this because I feel no sympathy for BP, but if you have been working for years under the table you have reaped an incredible benefit for not paying your taxes.

I'd be interested in what you think.

What is illegal?

I guess what the President and the Department of Justice are saying in the lawsuit against Arizona is that it is illegal to enforce laws against illegal aliens. The lawsuit is not based on the law being prejudicial, which is what they have been talking about, but rather challenging the law based on the fact that the State is not allowed to enforce federal law.

Wonder who is allowed to enforce federal law? Second question, why aren't they doing it? Now that would be a good lawsuit.

Carnival Cruise Fail. November cruise is high and dry

A family reunion cruise on the Carnival Pride in November is apparently off. Not the end of the world, not even close, but the response of the Carnival Cruise Line company is a little upsetting.

My wife and I love cruising, we have made four previous Carnival cruises, one to the Western Caribbean, one to the Eastern Caribbean, one to Alaska and one to Hawaii. They have all been great fun.

Over the years I have recommended Carnival to many folks and still could depending on how this all turns out. We booked this thing early to take advantage of great rates and a week that allowed six members of our family to all cruise at the same time.

Last night our travel agent and Carnival sent us an e-mail telling us that the ship was being sent to dry dock in early November and that our cruise was cancelled. It even rated a story in USA Today. As part of that, the cruise line was going to give us a $50 on board credit (that about covers my wife and stepdaughter's one day Mojito bill) and would find us another cruise, but could no longer guarantee our cruise price or cabin location.

Further, they would not make up the difference in the travel costs to a new port. So the trip is off. No huge deal for Joan and me, we're retired and can reschedule another time. But for the other four members of our party it's not so easy. They still work and vacations are not so easy to schedule.

My suspicion is that the dry dock dates were swapped with the originally planned January schedule because our cruise was under booked and January is a much more lucrative time to fill a cruise to the Bahamas. All that is understandable. What is not understandable is the lack of concern by Carnival as to making and taking care of other arrangements.

For members of our party who have already booked airline tickets, Carnival is offering up to $200 in an on board credit to repay any airline cancellation charges. How about paying those folks back in cash? That is, after all, what they paid.

If you ever sail on Carnival they keep emphasizing that they "want to exceed your expectations." In this case, not even close. As I said, this is not the end of the world and there are many people with much more important problems and issues than this, but it always amazes me when I see how tone deaf some corporations are when they disrupt people's plans.

A Civil War story worth hearing

This is a year old, but NPR ran a good story last July recalling the 75th - and final - reunion of soldiers of the North and South at the Gettysburg Battlefield. The Civil War is a particular interest of mine and World War II is close behind.

It is interesting to hear the recorded voices of men who actually fought at Gettysburg meeting for the final time in 1938.

If you are not interested in the Civil War you probably won't want to listen.

RIP Bob Probert, the original Red Wing #24

I love hockey and I especially love the Detroit Red Wings. Back in the "old" days when hockey let guys fight a little more Bob Probert was the main enforcer for the team. He would always take on the bad guy from the other team and never backed down from a fight. Well, don't take my word for it, here is a little YouTube.com montage. There are plenty more at the site if this isn't enough. Sad news to hear of his death at the relative young age of 45. He lived hard and played hard.

After 50 years, time to stop and play

When I accepted an early retirement from the Flint Journal in December 2007 I knew in my heart I was not done working. My internal clock still yearned to work and produce. So I started a little business and contracted out some writing and communication services, which resulted in one main client, a local school district.

When I did my taxes last year, I realized I was working 25 minutes of every hour to pay Uncle Sam and decided that the fire to work had gone out. If you are curious about the tax math: 25 percent federal income taxes, 15 percent (the employee's 7.5 percent Social Security contribution and the employer's 7.5 percent Social Security contribution) and Michigan's 4.1 percent income tax.

In other words, it no longer made sense to continue getting up early, put on a tie and make my way to work. I loved the school work, but it was no longer worth it.

Also, a person wiser than me once said that "you'll know when it's time to retire." At some point this winter, while Joan and I were away on vacation, a clock went off in my head telling me it was time to stop. Not wanting to quit in the middle of a school year I decided that when the school year ended, so would my employment.

That was yesterday. June 30. For the first time in 50 years there is no paid work now or in the future. It feels great this morning.

As mentioned previously, my life has been blessed. Not once have I had to apply for unemployment. In the 1960s I was laid off from a sandblasting job in San Carlos, California on a Friday (my paycheck bounced by the way) and hit the bricks on Monday and found a similar unadvertised job with a competitor about three miles away. My pay at the time was $2.35 an hour. The work was hard.

In August of 1970, the Foster City Public Safety Department hired me and between then and July 1977 I worked for two Bay Area police departments. Most of that work was in communications and dispatching, but I was also a sworn officer and rode shifts alone and with other officers at the Atherton Police Department. It was great fun. During that time I also served as a paid on call firefighter at Foster City.

But I yearned to write and in the mid-1970s I went back to college to study journalism and eventually gave up the police work and moved to Michigan to attend Michigan State University to study journalism. I picked up a job as a bouncer at the Coral Gables bar on Grand River Avenue to make a little extra money. At that time we were living on the GI bill and money we had taken from my police retirement account.

Somehow I ended up as editor-in-chief of The State News, which at that time was the nation's largest daily college newspaper, leading a staff of 56 editorial employees. That experience left me with many lifelong friends and the knowledge that this was what I was born to do.

In the late 1970s, after leaving MSU, I was editor of a local weekly newspaper and a change in ownership forced me to quit when the new publisher demanded editorial changes that ethically I was not willing to make. For six weeks I hauled 80-pound bags of soft water salt to Lansing apartment complexes to make 35 cents a bag for each one I dumped. That kept me going through Christmas 1979 and then I took a job in January 1980 doing internal communications for a large Styrofoam cup manufacturer in Mason, Michigan.

A good friend who was working as a reporter at the Oakland Press in Pontiac let me know of a police reporter job opening in December 1983 and I started there the first week of January 1984.

My 23-year daily newspaper career was more fun than could be possibly described. Every day was a gift, most stories were a wonderful adventure and except for the occasional incompetent editor, it was a great ride. The bad editors are a source of constant amusement, even now.

There were days, like the one where my assignment was to fly on a World War II B-24, Liberator bomber, that I had to pinch myself to see if I was dreaming. I was paid overtime to attend the clinching World Series game at Tiger Stadium in 1984. Life was good.

So I thank God for leading me to such a rewarding career.

My very first job I landed at 12. I did yard work at $1 an hour for my church and pastor in La Crescenta. Each Saturday, I rode my bike two miles to the church and rectory (which were next door to each other) and trimmed bushes, raked pine needles and mowed lawns.

Later when $8 a week was not enough to pay for my school lunches and Los Angeles Dodger baseball games (my brother and I had to buy our own school lunches if we didn't want bologna sandwiches every day and also pay for our own amusement) I located another yard work job at "The Brass Tree," a woman's clothing store on Foothill Boulevard within walk/bicycle riding distance of the church.

Between the yard work jobs, some babysitting work and other odd jobs I was making about $100 a month, which was plenty in the 1950s-60s. I could take my girlfriend out for a night on the town (dinner an a movie) for about $15. When I was old enough to drive I was expected to pay for my gas and insurance when I used the family car.

When I left Los Angeles after high school and moved in with my father and stepmother, I worked as a 'fly boy' for Pacific Lithograph, a printer in San Francisco. I loved commuting to work in the city and all that went with that.

When my first try at college failed I joined the Navy and spent some time growing up in the service. That included two tours of duty in Vietnam.

I have worked as a gas jockey, back in the days gas stations had "service." I was pretty much willing to do anything to make money, as long as it was legal. During my years on the police department I often worked special details and also worked an outside third job as a temp using my typing skills as a teletype operator at a Silicone Valley company to make extra money.

My police department pay when I started was about $500 a month and we were paid monthly. Without the extra work we would always fall short by the end of the month. Sometimes even with the extra work we still fell short of money.

I've probably had 40 different jobs in my life, each came with its own lessons and rewards. Each taught me something I could use for my next job. To me there is no dishonor in honest work. I respect folks who work hard and get their hands dirty.

My children and stepchildren have never been afraid to work either. I'm proud of them for that.

Retirement, at least to me, doesn't mean being idle. I have plenty of volunteer jobs that I am already involved in and, there's a big travel trailer in my driveway that wants to take me to the far reaches of America.

And I'll have the blog to keep me writing.

Connor Doran, a young man with a talent

A former colleague and his wife, Tim and Amy Doran, have raised a remarkable young man that some of us knew as an infant. Following is a YouTube.com that a friend posted on Facebook.



A great post for a Sunday.

Life after Booth: Bay City Times environmental reporter leaves, starts website

Jeff "Mr. Great Lakes" Kart, the former environmental reporter for the Bay City Times has started his own website.

As readers here know, I'm not what you'd call an environmentalist. I believe in recycling, conservation and protecting the environment. While I don't subscribe to popular man made global warming theories, I'm always willing to listen and consider real evidence.

So stop over and see a former Booth colleague who is now out on his own. We wish you good luck and good fortune Jeff.

He has some great suggestions on how to find out if your beach destination is safe. We do disagree on Larry King, who I believe may be the worst interviewer in the history of television.