i L i n d . n e t

I had fun with my “big” camera (a Canon Digital Rebel XTi) yesterday after being off for a week with my small travel camera (a little Panasonic LX-1. So today you reap some of the benefits.

We were on the way back from the early morning visit to the beach when this treo came buzzing past. It didn’t look all that safe, but there’s no doubt they were all having a lot of fun. As they came around the corner, I barely had time to get the camera to eye level squeeze off a few shots as I tried to track their motion

Just click for a larger version.

And then there were Saturday’s Dogs. These photos were all taken yesterday morning as we made our rounds through Kaaawa. This is Mr. Duke (yes, he shares the name with our cat) and his new friend, whose name we are still trying to learn. You’ll have to click to see the rest of the photos. And although this is a good size group, there were other dogs that didn’t get their pictures taken. At least nine more, to be exact. That’s why my bag of morning dog biscuits is pretty heavy when we start out in the morning. Otherwise there are disappointed dogs by the end of the three miles.

Cincinnati Post editor Mike Philipps wrote a good column on the newspaper’s announcement that it will cease publication at the end of this year. Be sure to also check out some of the 14 pages of reader comments.

One of those comments:

Lee Enterprises has printing facilities that could produce a Kentucky Post if Scripps would give up the nameplate. Cincinnati might be a lost market for the publishing operation, but there is no reason the its Northern Kentucky readers should suffer.
–Mark Samuels, Logan, OH, Friday, July 20, 2007

Makes me wonder whether a Star-Bulletin type solution might be possible on the Kentucky side of the river.

This recent column on cutbacks on news coverage in the California state capitol caught my attention.

What does it mean for state political coverage when good reporters leave?

“What is the impact on democracy? That’s the real question. There’s an important function that doesn’t provide any revenue, and that’s the watchdog function. When newspapers go away, it’s not just the stories they generate. It’s the people in government who should fear exposure about their governing, and what effect the paper has on their behavior,” said Los Angeles Times bureau chief Virginia Ellis.

Dwindling numbers mean “the competition that was once there, is not,” she added. “You never want to be in the position where there is no competition. You don’t want just one voice, you want competition to keep you sharp,” added Ellis, whose own bureau suffered the loss of two staffers.

“The watchdog function is curtailed,” agreed A.G. Block, the former executive editor of the California Journal and now the director of the Public Affairs Journalism Program at UC Center. “There are still folks around, but there are fewer of them and they are stretched further. There are fewer eyes on the ball.”

It’s the same thing that has happened here in Hawaii over the past 10-15 years, as news organizations have cut back or eliminated full-time coverage of government decision-making.