Wildfires in Southern California...

Story can be found here. 

I have family and friends in Southern California. I've been there more times than I can count. I'm considering transferring to USC next fall. Therefore, when there are forest fires, I try to keep myself as informed as possible so that I can make sure that my family and friends are safe. 

One thing that really frustrates me is that when I read most national news service descriptions of wildfires (Yahoo! is especially guilty) just describes the general area as "Southern California." That is awful because Southern California is huge. At least USA Today used Rancho Cucamonga as a starting point for their story. Most that I've found in the past don't do that. 

However, as far as online journalism goes, this isn't the best example that I've seen. There aren't enough interactive features. I do really like the map though. Maps should always be used in situations like this. I can tell by the map that the fires are currently far enough away from my family and friends. 

Power Outage...

Story can be found here. 

I posted another story from The Buffalo News. Shocker, shocker. Honestly, beside being extremely happy that the Bills are 5-1 (YAY!), this power outage situation really got me thinking. 

First of all, I find it funny that 3 small helium balloons were able to knock out power to an entire professional size football stadium for an extended period of time. Looks like Ralph Wilson Stadium needs to update its power and electrical system. 

Secondly, I was driving back to Ithaca from Buffalo during this game. We had it on in the radio and couldn't figure out why the audio had such awful quality. Then, all of a sudden, the audio turned crystal clear again. Turns out that with the power outage, the radio station couldn't use its equipment to broadcast the game. Determined to still provide fans with a play by play (which is a darn good thing, because CBS couldn't broadcast the game on TV when the power was out. There would have been an uprising if the radio failed to do the same), someone from 97 ROCK called a play by play in on his cell phone. 

Dedication to sports and journalism at its finest! 

Sarah Palin and Abortion

Story can be found here. 

By now, most people I know think Sarah Palin is a lunatic. While I don't support Obama, (I'm a jaded Hillary supporter) I would tend to agree.  

She doesn't support abortion at all, even in cases of rape and incest? Really? So, what she's saying is that some poor woman who was already victimized and abused in one of the most personal and disgusting ways possible, should also legally have to carry a baby full term that she didn't ask for. That is vial. That poor woman will have to look at a daily reminder of an incident that she will more than likely want to forget. Sarah Palin will alienating a lot of women on this one. 

As far as the presentation of this story, props to CNN. It was easy to follow and enjoyable to read (or, as enjoyable as reading about Palin can be). 

Tompkins County 2009 Budget Proposed

The 2009 Tentative County budget meets the Legislature's goal of a tax levy increase of no more than 3 percent. 

Steve Whicher and Norma Jayne, executive assistant to the county administrator, spoke at a press conference at Ithaca College's Roy H. Park School for Communications on September 29. They spoke for a little over an hour to a group of News Reporting and Writing students, using the same presentation and power point that was given at the Tompkins County Public Library. 

Whicher and Jayne described the tentative tax levy increase of 2.77 percent from last year. This is under the goal of a no more than 3 percent increase from last year's tax levy increase created by the Legislature. A tax levy is the total amount of property tax revenue collected to balance the budget. 

Expenditures in the budget are as follows: 

• $19.1 million for mandated services
• $45.1 million for non-mandated services 
• $1.1 million for non-capital over target requests
• $700,000 for over target requests
  

Tompkins County revenue comes from the following sources: 

• $29 million from sales tax
• $36.8 million from property tax
• $4 million from other sources

The tax rate in Tompkins County this year is undergoing some changes as well. This is because the tax rate, or the amount of tax property owners pay per thousand dollars assessed value, has decreased significantly. The tax rate will drop by 13.7 percent from 2008. 

In the tentative budget for 2009 there is $250,000 budgeted for overcrowding in the prisons. "Spending money on a jail will invite more people to go to the jails, " Whicher said. He explained that the legislature has a "if you build it, they will come"  mentality about prisons and would rather spend the money elsewhere. There are no immediate plans to remedy jail-house crowding in the future. However, if conditions persist, the county is considering working with Cortland County to build a joint prison specifically for people who have been sentenced to a crime, Whicher said. 

Currently there are 80-84 inmates in the county's jail. The total capacity is 74. The county does not believe that the cost of expansion or other means of rectifying the situation are beneficial due to the cost. So, for the time being, the county will continue to bus its prisoners elsewhere unless the situation drastically changes. 

The budget vote will take place during the third week of November. While the tentative budget is under the 3 percent tax levy increase proposed by the County Legislature, unforeseen costs and the loss of state aid could cause this number to increase. 

Oh, Time Warner...

This is clearly a case of not knowing your audience. 

So, I've realized a few things.

1. Almost all of my blog stories come from The Buffalo News. Oh well. Stick with what you know, right? 

2. I hate Time Warner, mostly because they totally screw over IC students. It's ridiculous. 

But anyway, back home in Buffalo, they've dropped our local CBS affiliate. This is the stupidest thing that they could have possibly done. CBS has all of the Bills games. You do not deprive Bills fans of their games, especially when the Bills are 4-1 (stupid Arizona Cards). Also, Oprah and the most popular news shows are on CBS.

Congratulations, Time Warner,  you just lost yourself a lot of customers.