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It took me all week to think of customizing this week's page to reflect this brief visit to the South. That's the view from our hotel window, looking North from downtown. Enjoy the view.I'm uploading this via a Sprint phone from the hotel lobby. It's slow, so I won't be checking in to see if all the graphics loaded properly. I'll just cross my fingers and hope for the best.
I'm not sure why I was stressed out by this week's happenings at the Star-Bulletin. I found myself waiting anxiously for word of Thursday's announcement even though it's been ten months since I left the staff and the situation no longer affects me directly. But I still felt the tension while waiting for the news.
Penciling out the numbers, it appears the Star-Bulletin is trying to save about $1 million over the next year, if none of those laid off are called back to work. It could be more if the temporary salary cuts remain beyond the initial 90 days.
Downtown Atlanta has a dangerous density of corporate behemoths, from Bell South to Coke. This is the world HQ of Coke, which also maintains a tourist center--The World of Coca-Cola Pavilion--just a mile or so from their corporate tower. It is described as housing "the largest collection of Coca-Cola memorabilia in existence."
We wandered through the front door, but weren't willing to spring the $6 each to wander through floors of exhibits from the history of the colonial cola. So instead we shuffled with the crowd through the Coke store, where you could stock up on overpriced replicas, if so inclined.
Otherwise, Friday was uneventful. Meda was off almost all day solving problems of the American Society of Criminology, and she'll be doing that today. We did find the Olympic Park this morning, as well as other reminders of the 1996 games.
This morning's Atlanta Journal Constitution reported passenger arrivals and departures through Atlanta's airport were down 40-50 percent during the last two weeks of October, but state officials are still hoping that year end numbers will be down only marginally from the year before.
Meanwhile, I'm looking forward to getting home. We'll be in transit most of tomorrow, so the day's update will happen late, if at all. With a little luck, though, the flights will be on schedule and not leave us stranded somewhere en route.
Other Honolulu media have carried reports of job and wage cuts announced at the Star-Bulletin yesterday. Take your pick: Honolulu Advertiser, Pacific Business News, KHON, KITV, & KHNL. Bottom line: somewhere around 20 layoffs, plus "temporary" pay cuts ranging from 5-10 percent for employees earning more than $40,000 annually.Star-Bulletin managers reportedly failed to see the impacts of September 11 coming. That had staffers shaking their heads.
I'm haven't heard much from S-B staffers since the announcements, and have depended on these published reports for a sense of what transpired. Staffers were apparently advised to keep the details under wraps, but that was obviously impossible, as those who own newspapers or work in them should know.
But it was a bad day that's left everyone scrambling to cope.
I updated the photo gallery last night, but in the process messed up links to prior photos. I tried to correct the errors, but some bad links might remain.
Ms. Wally
Seismic rumblings at the Star-Bulletin. There were hush-hush meetings of managers all day yesterday, with word of a "major announcement" to be made at a staff meeting late this morning. There were also meetings of Newspaper Guild reps, and Guild staffer Wayne Cahill was around the newsroom a couple of times. No further clues. Fears of layoffs and downsizing, despite David Black's assurances to the contrary during his recent visit. Just like old times.Watch for further news.Former judge and legislator Russell Blair says Mayor Jeremy Harris should resign immediately in compliance with the "resign to run" provision contained in Article II, Section 7 of the Hawaii State Constitution.
Blair sent an email on Tuesday directing legislators to a legal analysis posted on his own web site. It's a very interesting legal opinion which raises substantial issues.
Blair rejects the usual interpretation of constitutional provision, which has been taken to require an elected official to resign when he or she files nomination papers for another office if the terms of the two offices would overlap.
The 1978 Constitutional Convention, which adopted the "resign to run" provision, considered but ultimately rejected a specific proposal tied to the filing of nomination papers, Blair points out. That proposal, made by delegate Helene Hale, was countered by other delegates concerned about conflicting loyalties of public officials once they announce for another office or begin campaigning for it.
Blair cites comments made by ConCon delegates during debate over the provision. For example:
"DELEGATE VILLAVERDE: ... I feel very strongly, although I cannot put my finger on it and prove the area of abuse in offices of the incumbency when a person seeks higher office. This is a personal gut feeling as far as I'm concerned, but I feel that a person seeking higher office should resign. I hate to be suspicious that he is using the office to seek higher office in the area of administrative staffing, in the area of using governmental time -- governmental public time -- as well as using public facilities. And I don't like to see that happen, and maybe it is happening... I feel that he should, within a period of time, still resign from that particular office so as to give the public at least that feeling of a clean operation, a clean slate -- or cleanliness, as you might say -- that will not raise doubts in the public's mind, that he is not using public funds, not using public time, if you say that...."It isn't clear what triggered Blair's analysis, but it is certainly a challenge to Harris, who is otherwise expected to retain his position as Honolulu mayor until the filing deadline next summer.
Harris is certainly a classic example of someone using an existing office as the basis for a future campaign. He's used patronage positions to hire a long list of veteran local campaigners to stock his talent pool. And the issue of divided loyalties raises real questions for Harris to deal with.
The President (that's as in W, Bush the second, etc) is due here later today. There's little in the way of a sense of excitement or anticipation. No discernible reaction on the street, except perhaps a bit of extra police presence downtown, near where Bush will be speaking.
Atlanta looks like a big city, but its mayor was elected Tuesday night with 40,715 votes, and that was a 50 percent share of the total votes cast for that office.
Oh--that me, at the right, along with another sign of the times, just two blocks from this downtown hotel.
More from Atlanta.Today's lesson: There's no legitimate right to privacy if you're having sex in a stall in a public bathroom. At least that was the unanimous ruling Monday by the Georgia Supreme Court.
No, it's not a Bishop Estate flashback. The Georgia ruling came in the case of a 14-year-old girl arrested for allegedly doing the big you-know-what in a stall at Rockdale County High School.
"A stall in a public restroom is not a private place when it is used for other than its intended purpose," the court held.
"Nobody actually saw them doing it," the girl's lawyer said in her defense, according to a story in the Journal-Constitution. But with his privacy appeal turned down by the Supreme Court, her case will now proceed in Juvenile Court.
The case is available online: http://www.legis.state.ga.us/courts/supreme. According to directions appearing in today's Atlanta Journal-Constitution, "There, under court links, look for opinions published Nov. 5. Select the document designated 'In re: C.P.'"
The sun rose this morning while we were out walking. I tried to orient myself so that I faced the same direction as in Kaaawa, and I was greeted with this view.
Not quite like a sandy beach, and the cranes are no substitute for the little sandpipers that run along the sand at the edge of the waves.
But it was the best Atlanta offered up today.
Atlanta sunrise #2
Ms. HarryAccording to the latest report from home, most of the cats have been showing up to be counted when the crunches go into the bowls. Harry's one of the holdouts. I'm sure she's not missing, just spending most of her time outside in her favored spots. The last time we were gone, she managed to sneak around unseen the whole time. Hopefully she'll make an appearance soon and ease my anxieties.
Silverman's also been scarce, but he's less of a worry, because I've observed his stealth runs to the food dishes at other times.
Click here for a report from our cat sitter. The page is a bit slow loading, but hopefully won't cause any trouble for your cat lovers.
I enjoyed spending time with yesterday's Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the result of the recent merger of morning and afternoon papers.The daily Journal-Constitution sells for 50 cents, and the Monday edition had five sections (front section with news and opinion; a Metro section with local news, obituaries, and a few pages of classifieds; Horizon, featuring business and real estate development news; Living, with entertainment, comics, and more classifieds; Sports; and a classifieds section).
It features three-pagesof editorials, letters, & discussion daily which they call "@Issue".
News stories tended to be longer than we see in Honolulu's dailies, although it may be that Monday's paper just had more enterprise features. I'll be interested to see if Tuesday's edition is much different. [late note: Tuesday's stories are shorter, none of those detailed ramblings seen yesterday.]
My favorite item was an ad that's part of the Journal-Constitution's own Holiday Savings Coupon Giveaway Program. Three columns across and a half-page high, it shouts "Holiday Savings", with a nice little graphic of wrapped presents, snowflakes, etc. All that next to the day's featured clip-out coupon with its own graphic--this one a photo of a person holding a pistol at arms length, ready to fire. "FREE - 1 Hour Pistol Range...Use your own ammunition or buy ours! Targets, eye & ear protection extra."
Happy Holidays in Georgia. Lock & Load. Yeehaw!
I couldn't resist this photo. It's about as close to a colorful sunrise at the beach as I'll see for another few days. It's actually a mural on one of the walls in the North Street station , part of the rail system operated by MARTA, the area's municipal transit agency. Not exactly one of the high points, but it's always interesting to experience another city's infrastructure (this one seems to work very well).
Subway sunrise
My sense of time and calendar is pretty warped today.Weather in Atlanta--Beautiful. Sunny and clear. Warm in the sun, cool on the shady side of the street.
And I've finally found a way past my computer communication screw ups. I had planned on connecting via a roaming service recently offered by Flex, my local Internet provider. No luck. The Atlanta access number returns "Authentication failed".
Then my backup plan--to connect via my Sprint cell phone--also failed, apparently because I've deleted some obscure but essential system extension. I didn't need that frustration after twelve hours and four airports.
That put a crimp in getting yesterday's entry posted right after arrival. I had to give up and try again this morning. I finally succeeded by reaching Flex via a long distance phone card. I really didn't know if this particular calling card was still good or not, but it allowed me to connect, so I'll be uploading these entries momentarily.
At least one person over at the Advertiser expressed disbelief about the incident of a former employee being thrown out of a retirement reception because they now work over at the Star-Bulletin. She notes that another former HNA sales rep who is now a S-B manager attended the gathering without incident, and even brought a guest. But the person who was thrown out confirmed the incident did occur, although he can't explain it either.
Hopefully this technology will cooperate well enough to stay in touch through the rest of this week. But if not, at least you'll know why.
Down, George. I know this late. Very late. But better late than never.I'm sure the extended departure from my normal schedule has some folks gnashing their teeth and others worried that I've fallen victim to dengue, or maybe cat scratch fever.
This time, though, I've got a better excuse that oversleeping. I've been flying since Saturday night. San Francisco, Denver, Atlanta. And now I'm officially ensconced in this Southern city.
Honolulu airport was very quiet last night. Several of the airport restaurants were closed before 8 p.m., as were some of the shops. Lines were short. Security was more stringent. I was patted down, right down to the socks, but I don't mind that at all. I can report that United's flights were relatively full from Hawaii through to Denver, but there were lots of free seats on the Atlanta leg.
Flying out of Honolulu, the pilot went to great lengths to reassure us, mentioning that United was the first airline to finish reinforcing all of its cockpit doors, and to say that he and another flight officer were Vietnam vets and, presumably, ready to defend us all if need be. He also said, unless I heard it wrong, that he had also experienced a previous armed hijacking. I guess that was also supposed to reassure us.
The San Francisco airport was calm and less crowded than normal, with fewer United flights listed on the boards, while the Atlanta airport seemed quite busy, although that's just my perception.
The reception here at the Georgian Terrace Hotel, a renovated older building, was exciting. A number of police cars were parked out front and down the side of the building. A half hour later I saw a police officer putting something into his car. It appeared to be a rifle case, although I could have been wrong. The hotel folks evaded questions, obviously didn't want to talk about it except to say, everything's ok.
We've only been gone for 12 hours, and I miss the cats. But they're in good hands with a cat & house sitter, and I'll be able to sleep tonight without the usual disruptions.
This is a very hard way to sneak in a good night's sleep.
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