Stabbings, murders unconnected for more than a month

Many of us who used to cover crime in Flint are trying to wrap our heads around a series of crimes, five of them murders, that went unconnected for many, many weeks. With the arrest of an Israeli citizen in Atlanta for this series of crimes, it is time to ask some hard questions.

This series of crimes, and there were many more than just the homicides, began in May, but it wasn't until a couple weeks ago that two and two added to four.

There was a time that the Flint Journal sent reporters to the police station every day, two and three times a day, to check on crimes. Not sure if that is still going on, but trust me that a series of five men being murdered, all by the same method, in a short period of time would have created a media firestorm much earlier than this one.

I am far from the newsroom, I don't know if those two and three times a day visits are still being made to the detective bureau at the police station. The reporters who are there are good, competent folks, but again, I don't know how much time they have to dedicate to a beat, or even if there are still beats.

Back in the day, the day police reporter would make an early visit to the detective bureau (7 a.m.) and check on overnight activities and go through police reports for serious activities or accidents over night.

The night cop reporter would stop back at the police department about 5 p.m. and repeat the process for the dayside. Several times during the day and evening calls would be made to the police department to check on current investigations and to see what is going on.

And the police scanner was on in the newsroom and in our cars all the time monitoring police and fire radio traffic. Often to the irritation of the non-police reporters and editors in the newsroom.

There were nights when something would happen as I was leaving at 11 p.m. and I would stay many hours into the night. A few times I would still be there at 5 a.m. when editors began showing up for work the next day.

Editors demanded that crimes be covered like a blanket. That began to erode even during my last years at the Journal, but there was still a commitment to aggressively cover crimes.

I have no idea if crime coverage is still heavily emphasized. I do know there are far fewer reporters to do the job of gathering news than when I was there. Whether this helped lead to a lack of oversight and the missed signals of these crimes is only speculation.

But I do know this, if we had noticed even two men killed in a short time by the same method, someone would have been asking questions. By the time it got to three, four and five men, we would have been running daily and Sunday stories on the "trend." We loved trend stories back in the day.

There is no question I spent many, many hours hanging around the police station, developing relationships with all the detectives and I had the time and freedom to follow stories. That, I am sure, is different today.

Many times, reporters would notice crime trends from one community to the other and we became the conduit that put together similar crimes from those communities.

A running list of traffic accident victims and homicide victims was kept religiously in a computer file at the paper. Those lists were critical to tracking and discovering disturbing crime trends in the area. Those of us who covered crime used to hate the year end wrap up stories we were required to do on each and every murder that occurred.

The old beat method allowed reporters the time and space to develop sources. To be clear, I don't know what happened in this case, but the days of the local television and newspaper media leading the way in coverage is apparently gone.

With the newspaper only printing three days a week, maybe that has had an effect on the daily coverage of the police department. I just don't know. Much of the early online coverage of the arrest was simply links to other news outlets. That would not have been allowed in the "old days."

The reporters now working on the story are doing a good job, I have no argument with that.

Also, the Flint Police Department has taken a heavy hit due to budget considerations. I don't know the status of the homicide bureau and what effect that had on the failure to connect the dots for so long. But it is a question that needs to be asked.

Sorry, just lots of questions and few answers today. It just appears that the watchdogs, public and private, were asleep.

What he said (on immigration)

For those who disagree with me about immigration enforcement. This sums up my feelings pretty well.

The "Summer of Recovery" fizzles, both parties get the blame

My Libertarian and third party desires are well known here, but I love it when my instincts prove somewhat correct. The Wall Street Journal and NBC News did a poll that show that people are mad at Democrats - and Republicans - for the miserable efforts to fix the economy.

Let's be honest, the government rarely fixes anything. It does some things well, we have the finest military in the world even though politicians have frequently misused it. But when a bunch of politicians who have never worked a real job a day in their lives try to fix the economy the results are predictable.

Two-party partisan bickering and posturing is ruining this country and those of us longing for a real change, a departure from the two-party system, continue to hope others will come along. And as long as the Tea Party is somehow aligned with Republicans, I don't want them either.

The country needs a true independent party, one that reflects the attitudes of the vast middle voters and not the fringe left and right who dominate all the conversation.

Otherwise we'll continue to have congressional representives who write tax laws and then ignore them in his own life and others who talk about fixing the deficit while approving bridges to nowhere in bills that have nothing to do with bridges.

The President can keep saying it's the "Summer of Recovery" and that "things are getting better, really" and all we can point to is that the jobs he is saving are government jobs. Wishing the economy well will not make it so.

So while the private sector shrinks, the government gets bigger.

The original idea was that government would work for us. What we have in turn is that those in the private sector are now working for government to keep it going. Just live in New York for a few days and see what the excessive taxes are doing there.

Our children will someday get this deficit bill and I don't think they will thank us for it.

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.