Here in the United States of America, police should not be bullying or arresting journalists who are just trying to do their jobs —President Barack Hussein Obama, 14 August.

Only five days later…

Late Monday evening, after many of the major media outlets covering the protests in Ferguson, Mo., had left the streets to broadcast from their set-ups near the police command center, heavily armed officers raced through suburban streets in armored vehicles, chasing demonstrators, launching tear gas on otherwise quiet residential lanes, and shooting at journalists.

Their efforts resulted in one of the largest nightly arrest totals since protests began 10 days ago over the killing of unarmed African American teenager Michael Brown by white Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson. At approximately 2 a.m. local time, Missouri Highway Patrol Capt. Ron Johnson announced at a press conference that 31 people had been arrested over the course of the night (NBC News later reported that, according to jail records, the actual total was more than double that). I was unable to attend or report on Johnson’s press conference because I was one of those people.

Here’s what happened.

Ryan Devereaux writing in A Night in Ferguson: Rubber Bullets, Tear Gas, and a Jail Cell for The//Intercept.

I recall another incident where thugs attacked journalists…

Earlier today I commented on an Associated Press story written by Seth Borenstein titled: No great shakes: Quakes triggered by drilling waste seem weaker than natural ones, study says. I emailed the author of the original report, Dr. Susan Hough, requesting a link to her findings. She graciously sent me the work which I am reading now.

While the Hough’s abstract appears below, for those interested, here is the whole piece: Shaking from Injection-Induced Earthquakes in the Central and Eastern United States

In this study, I consider the ground motions generated by 11 moderate (M_w 4.0–5.6) earthquakes in the central and eastern United States that are thought or suspected to be induced by fluid injection. Using spatially rich intensity data from the U.S. Geological Survey “Did You Feel It?” system, I show the distance decay of intensities for all events is consistent with that observed for tectonic earthquakes in the region, but for all of the events, intensities are lower than the values predicted from an intensity prediction equation that successfully characterizes intensities for regional tectonic events. I introduce an effective intensity magnitude M_IE, defined as the magnitude that on average would generate a given intensity distribution. For all 11 events, M_IE is lower than the event magnitude by 0.4–1.3 magnitude units, with an average difference of 0.82 units. This suggests stress drops of injection-induced earthquakes are systematically lower than tectonic earthquakes by an estimated factor of 2–10. However, relatively limited data suggest intensities for epicentral distances less than 10 km are more commensurate with expectations for the event magnitude, which can be reasonably explained by the shallow focal depth of the events. The results suggest damage from injection-induced earthquakes will be especially concentrated in the immediate epicentral region.

I turn 59 next month. My dad emailed me a series of photos and captions purported to be from 1955. I haven’t verified any of the quotes, but they’re fun nonetheless.

From my dad, of course…

During one confrontation, police fired tear gas and flash grenades. There were no immediate reports of serious violence.

From the Associated Press

Are we really that fucked up?

This is my exercise in shoveling out the blogpile…

Yay Keef…!

Rule No. 48 – Eat More Like the French. Or the Japanese. Or the Italians. Or the Greeks.

From Food Rules, an eater’s manual by Michael Pollan

Previously…

Found in my electronic chapbook. See also Eating Mindfully by Jan Chozen Bey.

Today’s headlines include:

Local News

Weeds: Overgrowth in public areas impacts community
Evidence not enough
Life in prison for murder
Warren Local OKs new middle school
Welcome back teachers

Top Headlines Poll: Have you had to take it upon yourself to clean overgrown areas around the city or where you live?

Great pictures of Marietta…

What’s going on here…

Previously…

By Roldo Bartimole

Is there a crucial message from Brook Park voters turning down two tax measures by significant margins? One was three to one and the other two to one defeat in an election a week ago. A harsh rebuke.

My journalistic take is this: Workers squeezed by years of no or little income increases and a tough job climate–are telling representatives that they don’t have the money to give more to local governments.

Finally.

They expressed their dissatisfaction at the ballot box in no uncertain terms. (Unfortunately, voters are playing suckers to sports franchises that have the ability to pay themselves but will to shove it off on taxpayers with help of office holders.)

Brook Park–a working class suburb contiguous to Cleveland–has a population of some 19,000, 92 percent white. The major private business is Ford Motors with some 1,300 employees.

Here is part of the essence of the voter turn down. People are tapped out. Squeezed.

In 1990, Brook Park median family income (half above, half below) was $36,000. Checking the Consumer Price Index inflation calculator for 2014 Continue Reading »

When I started writing journalism I had absolutely no formal training—not one day in J-school, nor even on my high school newspaper. All I had going for me was the smug self-confidence of the slumming aesthete. The editors of the Chicago Reader took me in, and, article by article, gradually tortured the condescension out of me and forced me to learn the rudiments of my trade. Finish the story, they’d always tell me: just finish it, finish it now, and move on. Journalism is not for the ages; it’s what you know on the day. The next day you’ll know something different, and you’ll write a different story then. But that’s exactly what’s great about journalism, they’d say: there’s always another story. Every day you get a fresh chance.

I’ve never forgotten that. Ever since then, I’ve never gone looking for subjects, and I’ve never lacked for them. I’ve trusted that they would find their way to me, and they always have.

But there was one lesson that’s stuck with me more tenaciously than all the rest. It was a kind of parable about the nature of journalistic morality. I heard it from one of the Reader’s most gifted editors, Kitry Krause. She said she’d once spent months writing a feature story about a colorful local character, the habitue of a neighborhood pool hall. Just as she was finishing it, a mutual friend called to let her know that he’d died unexpectedly the night before. Kitry hung up the phone; another editor came by, saw her expression, and asked what was wrong. She told him, and he immediately slapped his palm on her desk and said, “There! You’ve got the perfect ending!”

Kitry said to me, “I think at least 15 seconds would have gone by before I’d have had the same thought myself. And I pray that’s what happens to you. Because those 15 seconds are the only hope a journalist has of getting into heaven.”

Lee Sandlin writing in The 15-Second Rule for The American Scholar.

*Meatball journalism…

I turn 59 next month. My dad emailed me a series of photos and captions purported to be from 1955. I haven’t verified any of the quotes, but they’re fun nonetheless.

From my dad, of course…

This is my exercise in shoveling out the blogpile…

Rule No. 47 – Be The Kind of Person Who Takes Supplements – Then Skip the Supplements.

From Food Rules, an eater’s manual by Michael Pollan

Previously…

Found in my electronic chapbook. See also Eating Mindfully by Jan Chozen Bey.

Ferguson: Missouri national guard to be deployed.

Today’s headlines include:

Local News

Grand finale: Thousands enjoy this year’s Waterford Fair
Crash kills 2 in Williamstown
Family history tour organized
Preserving a brick sidewalk
Americorps-Vista volunteer gains experience

Top Headlines Poll: What was your favorite part of the Waterford fair?

Great pictures of Marietta…

What’s going on here…

Previously…

I turn 59 next month. My dad emailed me a series of photos and captions purported to be from 1955. I haven’t verified any of the quotes, but they’re fun nonetheless.

From my dad, of course…

This is my exercise in shoveling out the blogpile…

Arguably the funniest scene from the series. The John Larroquette Show promised to be just as funny, if not funnier, until the writers decided to go mainstream and ruined the show.

Rule No. 46 – Love Your Spices.

From Food Rules, an eater’s manual by Michael Pollan

Previously…

Found in my electronic chapbook. See also Eating Mindfully by Jan Chozen Bey.