KEET to ignore analog extension

image ganked from popsci.com

If you’ve been following the news this week you know that there’s been a lot of discussion about postponing the end of analog television and the coming switch to the digital age. It turns out that despite a lot of advance warning to get digital converter boxes before the big switcheroo on Feb. 17, which you’ve been warned about with those annoying banner ads, and despite a coupon program to help people pay for them, a fair number of TV watchers, particularly poor folks and the elderly, are still operating with the old 20th century analog technology.

So, on Wednesday the House of Reps voted to extend the deadline until June 12. The Senate passed similar legislation last week; President Obama said he’ll sign it, and through a spokesperson promised to “continue to work with Congress to improve the information and assistance available to American consumers in advance of June 12, especially those in the most vulnerable communities.”

If you think old school TV people are breathing a sigh of relief and thinking maybe they’ll have more time to finally figure out that new-fangled box, well, that’s not exactly the case, not locally anyway. If you live in Humboldt County sans cable, and were watching the few stations still available with a TV antennae (and no digital TV or converter box) you know that the Eureka Television Group’s CBS 6 and Fox 29 made the switch on Nov. 28 last year, which is to say they switched off their analog signal and — no more Simpsons (now on 28, not 29).

Today we learned that despite the reprieve from Washington D.C. the local PBS affiliate KEET-TV will follow the original February date to shut down its analog signal, basically because it costs too much money to run both digital and analog feeds and it’s up to them to decide when to switch.  As noted in a Friday press release:

After 40 years of broadcasting on analog Channel 13, KEET-TV, public television for the North Coast, will cease transmission of its over-the-air analog signal after 11:59 p.m. on February 17, 2009. The analog shut-off will only affect viewers that receive their programming with an indoor or outdoor antenna. Cable subscribers will have no interruption of service.

Ron Schoenherr, KEET-TV’s Executive Director said, “There is some understandable confusion over the current legislation moving through Congress dealing with the possibility to continue analog broadcasting until June 12, 2009. KEET-TV’s staff and board of directors made the decision to stick with the originally mandated shut-off date and stop broadcasting our analog signal on February 17. The main consideration was a financial one. To date, KEET-TV has spent almost $2 million to comply with the federally mandated digital conversion, and we are still seeking funds for its completion. The average monthly PG&E bill for operating KEET’s 23-year-old analog transmitter is between $3,000 to $4,000. We simply do not have the funds to continue analog broadcast for another four months.”

In compliance with the federal mandate KEET began broadcasting a digital signal in 2003. In 2007, KEET began broadcasting a high-power digital signal on digital channel 13-1, and added their second channel KEET WORLD, which airs PBS news, public affairs and documentary programming on 13-2. In January of this year, KEET applied to the FCC for permission to terminate analog broadcasting on the originally mandated date of February 17, and has been running public service announcements giving viewers advance notice of the analog cut-off date.

Viewers that receive an over-the-air signal will need to install a converter box that connects to an antenna and television set. In many cases, “rabbit ear” antennas may not work well with digital broadcasting. New digital set-top antennas may also need to be purchased. There is viewer information available on KEET’s website www.keet.org, and questions about the digital conversion may also be directed to dtv@keet-tv.org. Information is also available at www.dtv2009.gov. A good site for antenna information is www.tvfool.com.

That leaves only KIEM Channel 3 for the analoggers post Feb. 17. The NBC affiliate decided to go with Obama’s pushed back June date. And they have an all new set of annoying messages ready to tell you as much.

 

Good News From CR

We have been chided, on occasion, for only focusing on the bad. The bad. And the bad. And, you know, the bad. And so on. C’mon, there’s gotta be some good news coming from the College of the Redwoods.

Well, of course there is. Tons of it, like interesting profs doing interesting stuff, that kind of thing (enough with the gratuitous linkage, ya say). There’s also that particularly fantastic news that CR will be getting $2.5 million from the U.S. Department of Labor to develop 12 job-training programs aimed to steer students toward the “targets of opportunity” types of jobs that experts are saying define our evolving new economy here in Humboldt.

And then there’s the “whew,” brow-wiping great news, delivered by e-mail to us today from CR’s  Director of Communications and Marketing, Paul Demark: “CR receives Accreditation clean slate”

We’re just going to give you the whole dang news release, for now:

CR receives Accreditation clean slate: commission removes college from warning status

College of the Redwoods received notice on Wednesday, Feb. 4 that it had been removed from accreditation warning status and given a clean slate by the Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges (ACCJC) following the Commission’s semi-annual meeting in January.

“We are delighted that the accrediting commission recognized the hard work of the College of the Redwoods faculty, staff, administration and Board of Trustees to address its concerns regarding our accreditation,” CR President Jeff Marsee said. “The Commission has identified several other issues that we need to continue working on.

“This news sends the message to the community that CR is back and continues to deliver the excellent academic and career technical education for which it has always been known.”

When CR was notified in February 2006 by the ACCJC that it had been placed on warning status, there were four areas of concern the commission identified. Those four areas have now been addressed to the commission’s satisfaction. Marsee stressed that CR continued to be fully accredited by the commission during the last three years it was on sanction.

“At no time did the accrediting commission criticize the academic excellence of its faculty or the services provided to the community,” Marsee added.

ACCJC President Barbara Beno in a letter to Marsee wrote that CR had “addressed the self-identified plans for improvement which were included in the institutional self study. The institution is commended for achievements to date and to take the recommendations of the commission seriously.”

CR recently completed its draft Educational Master Plan 2009-2020, which it submitted to the commission, and is currently working on its draft Facilities Master Plan 2009-2020. In her letter, Beno said, “The commission expects the college to continue its momentum, sustain the achievements to date and completely resolve the remaining issues related to the integrated planning and Educational Master Plan.”

Marsee said that CR accepts the challenge to continue developing its long-range planning and is fully confident that those  goals will be met.
###

 

Viola? (+ Hobart estate update)

The current edition of the Ferndale Enterprise takes note of the story from last week, “Hobart’s Children,” and takes issue with what is deemed misinformation regarding the painting above by Viola McBride.

The tangled story of the disposition of Hobart’s estate included a brief description of the tours of Hobart’s Galleries led by the Kinetic Rutabaga Queens the weekend after the trustee sale:

Throughout they told stories about art pieces that factored into the artist’s colorful history, among them a nude self-portrait of Viola McBride, the former owner of the building who essentially brought Hobart to town.
The following weekend, when the Queens returned to lead more tours, they found the gallery basically emptied, the paintings and sculptures gone. The McBride painting had been removed, along with paintings and sculptures from Hobart’s living quarters.

Some in Ferndale, including members of the McBride family, questioned whether Viola’s painting was in fact a self-portrait. The description came from Kinetic Rutabaga Queen Shaye Harty who, while leading one of those tours of Hobart’s Galleries, said,

One of the first things l like to point out is this self-portrait here by Viola Russ McBride. You can see she did it in 1977. I don’t know if you know the history, but she was the one who convinced Hobart to bring his gallery from Eureka to Ferndale. Together they did a lot of the restoration on Main Street. Some of the old ladies in town weren’t so happy that there were nude portraits in Hobart’s gallery, Viola, always a supporter of the arts, wasn’t going to have that. So she painted this picture of herself nude and had Hobart put it up right here so people walking by could see a self-portrait of Viola saying, ‘Hey old ladies, loosen up a bit.’

In retrospect I suppose it would have been better not to simply accept what she said as fact. From a quick Google search I learned that Viola Russ McBride died in October 1996 at the age of 90. (This came from a UC Davis Magazine obit that also noted, “Ms. McBride was one of the first women students at UC Davis and went on to break other gender barriers as the first woman president of the Humboldt County Cattlemen’s Association.”)

In 1977, Viola was 71 years old. So, it would indeed seem unlikely that the painting is a self-portrait. How might Shaye have made the mistake? Underneath the painting is a hand-written label that says, “Viola Russ McBride – Presented to Hobart Brown by Andy and JoAnn McBride,” and the painting is signed V. R. McBride. Was the label merely identifying the artist?

Shaye tells us that Hobart himself told her it was a painting of Viola. She also suggests that the painting might be Viola’s memory of what she looked like when she was younger. “I guess we’ll never know,” she concluded.

As  noted in “Hobart’s Children,”  the McBride painting was among the items that disappeared from the building in the period between the property sale and the court hearing regarding Beltz v. Brown. The nude was reportedly given to the McBride family under the assumption that the painting was merely loaned to Hobart.  A press release received today from Justin Brown and the family trust asks anyone who was given paintings or other items from the gallery to contact trust representatives:

The Hobart Brown Trust would like to ask the public to help recover trust property. In the last year and with the increased activity since January 8th 2009, property has been sold and/or given away from Hobart Brown’s business and home located at 393 Main Street in Ferndale California. Some of this property includes sculptures and other works by Hobart Brown along with pieces by many other artists.  Some but not all items were clearly marked on the back “Property of Hobart Brown,” “Hobart Galleries,” “Justin Hobart Brown” or “Maggie Brown McDaniel.” In addition to the artwork, family photo albums, scrapbooks and family heirlooms are missing, and we are trying to recover these personal items. We apologize if anyone was misled to believe these personal items were available to the public. If you have anything in your possession or know someone who has possession of such items from Hobart Galleries or Hobart’s home; if you know where any of our family’s legacy may be, please contact the trust at: hobartgalleries@msn.com or at (707) 444-3395. We would also like to thank those who have already stepped forward and spoke up in order to return items to the family.

 

Ann Coulter with John Matthews on KSLG Monday

the book

This just in from KSLG:

Ann Coulter, the author of Guilty: Liberal “Victims” and Their Assault on America will discuss her new book with John Matthews Monday, Jan. 19 at 9:00 a.m. Coulter is the legal correspondent for Human Events and writes a syndicated column for Universal Press Syndicate. Her weekly column can be found at anncoulter.com.

Listeners can tune in on the dial at 94.1 KSLG FM or online at kslg.com

Any suggestions for what Mr. Matthews might ask her?

 

Farmers’ Daughters

And sons, of course — they, your kids, are the ones who may be taking over the family farm once you’ve, uh, bought the farm. Or maybe it’ll be some other sodbustin’, cattle-cooin’, sheep-shearin’ member of the family. Or haven’t you thought about that? Think you’re going to live forever? Think things will all go smoothly once you’re in that big pigpen in the sky (excuse me, corral; or maybe it’ll be a nice sunny field; or maybe an apple orchard; or maybe Beverly Hills and none of this will matter!). Think there won’t be hair-pulling and eye-poking and nasty scenes in court? OK, maybe there won’t be.

Still, you might want to chew on it. So, the folks at California FarmLink and the U.C. Cooperative Extension are holding a two-part workshop to help you consider and negotiate the intricacies of transferring your farm or ranch to the next generation. It’s called the “Sowing the Seeds of Farm Succession Conference,” and takes place on two days — the first all-day session is Thursday, Jan 15, the second is Feb. 19.

The news release has the details.

 

Bobby McFerrin show cancelled (don’t worry)

This just in:

CenterArts regretfully announces the cancellation of [the] Bobby McFerrin [concert] this Friday, January 9 at 8 p.m. in the Van Duzer Theatre, HSU. Due to Bobby coming down with strep throat we are forced to cancel his performance on campus this Friday. We are working to reschedule the event for sometime in the future, and we hope that he is feeling better soon! For refunds or exchanges please contact the University Ticket Office at HSU or at centerarts.humboldt.edu.

For more information call CenterArts at 826-3928

And while you wait for rescheduling, you can sing along with Bobby…

 

Rep. Mike hits ground running

This just in from Mike Thompson’s office:

Congressman Thompson Introduces Bill to Permanently Ban Drilling on North Coast

WASHINGTON – On the first day in the 111th Congress, North Coast Congressman Mike Thompson (D-CA) introduced a bill that would permanently prohibit oil and gas drilling off the coasts of Mendocino, Humboldt and Del Norte Counties. The Northern California Ocean and Coastal Protection Act provides protection to the unique and productive marine environment along Northern California’s outer continental shelf (OCS).

“For the economic and biological health of our country, it’s critical that we permanently protect this unique area from the environmental hazards of off-shore drilling,” said Congressman Thompson.  “Unfortunately in the last Congress drilling became a political drama, rather than a policy debate.  My legislation is one aspect of a broader campaign to restore sensible, science based policy and ensure the health of our oceans for generations.”

During the last Congress, the ban on OCS drilling expired, which leaves the North Coast susceptible to drilling in as little as three years. The moratorium on OCS drilling had been a bipartisan agreement in Congress since 1982, but came under regular attack, and was not renewed in 2008.  In order to make sure that the North Coast of California is permanently protected, Congressman Thompson introduced his legislation today.

“Our coastline is home to one of the four most important upwellings in the world, which together support 20 percent of the ocean’s fish.  Drilling on the North Coast doesn’t make sense, either from an economic standpoint or an environmental perspective.  By permanently banning drilling, we can provide our coast with the protection it needs, regardless of who is in charge in Washington,” said Congressman Thompson.

Upwelling regions are coastal areas that support extremely abundant and productive marine life. This is because an upwelling brings cold, nutrient-rich waters up from the ocean depths that, when combined with sunlight, enhance seaweed and phytoplankton growth. The seaweed and phytoplankton provide energy for some of the most productive ecosystems in the world, including many of the world’s most important fisheries, such as the North Coast fisheries.

Drilling for gas and oil off the Northern Coast of California could cause serious harm to the unique and productive ecosystem and abundant marine life found off the coast, including the fish many local North Coast economies depend on.

Thoughts?

 

Frank Rich on K-SLUG Wed. morn

This just in from the folks at Lost Coast Communications:

New York Times Columnist, Frank Rich with John Matthews on KSLG 94.1 FM

On Wednesday, December 31, 2008 at 9:15 AM, KSLG morning host, John Matthews will speak with New York Times columnist Frank Rich about Barack Obama’s decision to have Reverend Rick Warren perform the invocation at his inauguration. Reverend Warren is a California-based megachurch preacher who has likened committed gay relationships to incest, polygamy and “an older guy marrying a child.”

In addition to Mr Rich’s work at The New York Times, he has written about politics and culture for many other publications. His latest book, The Greatest Story Ever Sold: The Decline and Fall of Truth From 9/11 to Katrina, was published by Penguin Press in 2006.

Listeners can tune in on the dial at 94.1 KSLG FM or on the web stream at kslg.com

 

Diesel Dope for Supes

Typical Grow

The troubles associated with marijuana grown with the use of fossil fuel were covered by SoHum blogger Kym Kemp in a Journal story titled “After Hacker Creek.” The diesel dope issue hits the Humboldt County Board of Supervisors tomorrow as a group of concerned citizens led by Robert “The Man Who Walks in the Woods” Sutherland lay things out in a PowerPoint presentation. Here’s Robert’s press release announcement and some of the photos they’ll be showing the Supes:

Friends!

On this Tuesday December 9th at 11 am your neighbors will present a program to the Humboldt County Board of Supervisors about diesel in the hills.

This is an account of the local marijuana industry, its history and its adverse environmental impacts, with examples of possible environmental safeguards that are within the authority of the Board. A slide show featuring adverse impacts will accompany.

The Board will be taking no action and this is informational only. We expect there will be no formal opportunity for public input at this time.

Speakers are slated to include long-time southern Humboldt residents Jesse Hill, Robert Sutherland (The man who walks in the woods), and Tyce Fraser. Joining the presentation from Mendocino County is the widely recognized authority Jim Harrison.

 

Sara Bareilles up for Grammy (times 2)

Eureka homegirl Sara Bareilles hit the big time some time ago, but her career just got even bigger. Her hit single “Love Song,” which went to No. 1 on the charts, is now in the running for a “Song of the Year” Grammy. It doesn’t get much bigger than that, but wait, she’s also in the running for “Best Female Pop Vocal Performance,” and Apple just announced that her album, Little Voice, ranked in the top 5 this year for iTunes sales for 2008.

If you were paying attention a few weeks ago, you might have scored tickets to one of her local shows (Dec. 18 and 19 at the Arkley Center). Sorry, both are sold out. Last year around this time we wished her a happy birthday on the Blogthing – we’ll repeat that – she turns 29 this Sunday. And once again, congratulations!

Here’s the announcement from Epic, her record label.

NEW YORK, Dec 04, 2008 (BUSINESS WIRE) — Epic recording artist Sara Bareilles marked another milestone in her already remarkable career today by grabbing two Grammy nominations. “Love Song,” the hit single from her debut album, Little Voice garnered the female singer-songwriter a nomination for “Song Of The Year,” as well as for “Best Female Pop Vocal Performance” as nominees for the 51st Annual Grammy Awards were announced at the Nokia Theatre last evening.

 

News Flash on Prop 8

Prop 8 protest in Eureka - photo by Kim Sallaway

The Sacramento Bee reports that the California Supreme Court will consider issues brought by those opposed to Proposition 8.

They’ll be looking at three things:

Whether Prop 8 is a revision of the California Constitution when it should have been an amendment. If it’s a revision, it’s invalid.

Does it violate the separation-of-powers doctrine?

And last, if the Prop passes muster and stands, what about the marriages that took place this year? Are they now null and void or do they stand?

The plan is to get on it ASAP. Oral argument may begin as soon as March 2009. In the meantime, Prop 8 is in effect, marriage is strictly man/woman, so no more same-sex marriages for now.

More details on the case can be found on the Court’s site.

Not all Prop 8 supporters are happy that the court is taking this up (as you will see if you read the Bee story or see below), but you would not know that from this press release from ProtectMarriage.com:

Sacramento, CA – The official proponents of Proposition 8 and ProtectMarriage.com – Yes on 8, the campaign committee responsible for its enactment by voters today said it is “profoundly gratified” that the California Supreme Court granted all their requests by agreeing to accept original jurisdiction of three cases challenging the measure’s validity,  granted their request to intervene in the cases as Real Parties in Interest, denied the request of others to delay implementation of Proposition 8, and refused to allow outside groups to directly participate in the litigation.

“This is a great day for the rule of law and the voters of California,” said ProtectMarriage.com General Counsel Andy Pugno. “This order means that voters will get their day in court and ensures that voters will have a vigorous defense of Proposition 8 before the California Supreme Court. We are profoundly gratified with the Court’s order and are confident that Proposition 8 will be upheld.”

 

Prop 8 battle headed for court

Opponents of Proposition 8, the ballot measure titled “Eliminates Right of Same-Sex Couples to Marry,” have not yet conceded defeat. They’re holding out hope that absentee and provisional ballots still uncounted might make up for the fact that “Yes” votes currently outnumber “No”s by around 500,000. In the meantime, No on 8 groups have already stated legal maneuvers to invalidate the measure. The Yes side is hitting back. A pair of press releases lays out the dueling positions.

There’s this from the ACLU:

Legal Papers Claim Initiative Procedure Cannot Be Used To Undermine the Constitution’s Core Commitment To Equality For Everyone

SAN FRANCISCO – The American Civil Liberties Union, Lambda Legal and the National Center for Lesbian Rights filed a writ petition before the California Supreme Court today urging the court to invalidate Proposition 8 if it passes. The petition charges that Proposition 8 is invalid because the initiative process was improperly used in an attempt to undo the constitution’s core commitment to equality for everyone by eliminating a fundamental right from just one group – lesbian and gay Californians. Proposition 8 also improperly attempts to prevent the courts from exercising their essential constitutional role of protecting the equal protection rights of minorities. According to the California Constitution, such radical changes to the organizing principles of state government cannot be made by simple majority vote through the initiative process, but instead must, at a minimum, go through the state legislature first.

The California Constitution itself sets out two ways to alter the document that sets the most basic rules about how state government works. Through the initiative process, voters can make relatively small changes to the constitution. But any measure that would change the underlying principles of the constitution must first be approved by the legislature before being submitted to the voters. That didn’t happen with Proposition 8, and that’s why it’s invalid.

“If the voters approved an initiative that took the right to free speech away from women, but not from men, everyone would agree that such a measure conflicts with the basic ideals of equality enshrined in our constitution. Proposition 8 suffers from the same flaw – it removes a protected constitutional right – here, the right to marry – not from all Californians, but just from one group of us,” said Jenny Pizer, a staff attorney with Lambda Legal. “That’s too big a change in the principles of our constitution to be made just by a bare majority of voters.”

“A major purpose of the constitution is to protect minorities from majorities. Because changing that principle is a fundamental change to the organizing principles of the constitution itself, only the legislature can initiate such revisions to the constitution,” added Elizabeth Gill, a staff attorney with the ACLU of Northern California.

The groups filed the lawsuit today in the California Supreme Court on behalf of Equality California and 6 same-sex couples who did not marry before Tuesday’s election but would like to be able to marry now.

The groups filed a writ petition in the California Supreme Court before the elections presenting similar arguments because they believed the initiative should not have appeared on the ballot, but the court dismissed that petition without addressing its merits. That earlier order is not precedent here.

“Historically, courts are reluctant to get involved in disputes if they can avoid doing so,” said Shannon Minter, Legal Director of NCLR. “It is not uncommon for the court to wait to see what happens at the polls before considering these legal arguments. However, now that Proposition 8 may pass, the courts will have to weigh in and we believe they will agree that Proposition 8 should never have been on the ballot in the first place.”

This would not be the first time the court has struck down an improper voter initiative. In 1990, the court stuck down an initiative that would have added a provision to the California Constitution stating that the “Constitution shall not be construed by the courts to afford greater rights to criminal defendants than those afforded by the Constitution of the United States.” That measure was invalid because it improperly attempted to strip California’s courts of their role as independent interpreters of the state’s constitution.

In a statement issued earlier today, the groups stated their conviction, which is shared by the California Attorney General, that the state must continue to honor the marriages of the 18,000 lesbian and gay couples who have already married in California.

A copy of the statement is available at: www.aclu.org/lgbt/relationships/37701prs20081105.html.

A copy of the writ petition filed today is available at: www.aclu.org/lgbt/relationships/37709lgl20081105.html.

In addition to the ACLU, Lambda Legal and NCLR, the legal team bringing the writ also includes the Law Office of David C. Codell; Munger Tolles & Olson, LLP; and Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe, LLP.

Meanwhile we got this statement in response from Andrew Pugno, General Counsel of ProtectMarriage.com, the Yes on 8 folks:

“The lawsuit filed today by the ACLU and Equality California seeking to invalidate the decision of California voters to enshrine traditional marriage in California’s constitution is frivolous and regrettable. These same groups filed an identical case with the California Supreme Court months ago, which was summarily dismissed. We will vigorously defend the People’s decision to enact Proposition 8.

This is the second time that California voters have acted to define marriage as between a man and a woman. It is time that the opponents of traditional marriage respect the voters’ decision.

The ACLU/Equality California lawsuit is completely lacking in merit. It is as if their campaign just spent $40 million on a losing campaign opposing something they now say is a legal nullity. Their position is absurd, an insult to California voters and an attack on the initiative process itself.

The right to amend California’s Constitution is not granted to the People, it is reserved by the People. The Supreme Court has repeatedly acknowledged the reserved power of the People to use the initiative process to amend the Constitution. For example, when the Rose Bird Court struck down the death penalty as a violation of fundamental state constitutional rights, the People disagreed, and in the exercise of their sovereign power reversed that interpretation of their Constitution through the initiative-amendment process. Even a liberal jurist who vehemently disagreed with the People’s decision on the death penalty, Justice Stanley Mosk, nevertheless acknowledged the People’s authority to decide the issue through the initiative-amendment process.

It should also be noted that the ACLU recently made this same “constitutional revision” claim in a nearly identical matter in Oregon and it was unanimously rejected. The claim was made under almost identical provisions of the Oregon State Constitution, against an almost identical voter constitutional amendment which read, “…only a marriage between one man and one woman shall be valid or legally recognized as a marriage.” The Court of Appeals of Oregon unanimously rejected the ACLU’s “revision” claim. (Martinez v. Kulongoski (May 21, 2008)  — P.3d—-, 220 Or.App. 142, 2008 WL2120516).

The coalition that has worked so hard for the past year to enact Proposition 8 will vigorously defend the People’s decision against this unfortunate challenge by groups who, having lost in the court of public opinion, now turn to courts of law to pursue their agenda.”

 

KEET is sorry for switching away before Obama’s speech

Obama giving historic Election Night speech

While watching Obama’s big moment last night at home with friends and family, I was getting irritated by the scrolling tickertape of state-by-state results and other business at the bottom of the screen on CNN, so I changed the channel to 13, hoping for something cleaner from PBS. To my surprise, the speech wasn’t on. My wife was screaming to get back to O, so I didn’t linger long enough to see what was on, but I wondered who’d made the decision not to show this historic moment. Apparently I was not the only one who wondered this. KEET-TV just sent us this explanation:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

KEET-TV APOLOGIZES FOR THE INTERRUPTION OF ELECTION COVERAGE

KEET-TV apologizes for the interruption of election coverage on November 4, 2008.  The local PBS station broadcast live election coverage from 6:00 to 9:00 p.m, but the coverage was cut off before President-elect Barack Obama delivered his acceptance speech shortly after 9:00 p.m. PST.  PBS stations across the country were offered a satellite feed of election coverage from the Newshour With Jim Lehrer from 9:00 p.m. to 12:00 a.m. EST (6:00 to 9:00 p.m. PST).  The satellite feed was scheduled for broadcast on KEET-TV from 6:00 – 9:00 p.m. on November 4, and the station was switched over to its usual after-hours automation system at 6:00 p.m. The station was not notified that the Newshour coverage may extend beyond 9:00 p.m., until 8:32 p.m. PST.  Unfortunately, there are no staff members at the station after 6:00 p.m.  Therefore, the automation system switched from the Newshour election coverage to scheduled programming.  KEET management admits to an error in judgment regarding the possibility that election coverage may be available after 9:00 p.m.

KEET-TV Program Director Karen Barnes states, “We truly regret this failure to anticipate the extension of election coverage availability, especially at such an historic moment in our nation’s history.  We are aware that many television viewers rely on KEET-TV for information and we do take that responsibility very seriously. However, we understand that for many last night, we did not fulfill that responsibility and we are deeply sorry.”  In response to this issue, Barnes has instated a new station policy that all live broadcasts be monitored by a master control operator or other station staff.

By the way, in case you missed it, here’s a link to the speech.

 

Arcata Pre-Election Poll

When we hazarded a guess on who might take a seat in the Arcata City Council election, it was admittedly based solely on guesswork. Now, thanks to Prof. Mark Larson from Humboldt State University’s Journalism & Mass Communication Dept. some polling has been done.

Here are the results:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

A recent poll of 422 registered “likely” voters in Arcata asking whom they would vote for in the Nov. 4 Arcata City Council election shows Michael Winkler with a lead at 42.7 percent, and a statistical tie, given the error margin, among Susan Ornelas at 29.4 percent; Shane Brinton at 25.8 percent, and Michael Machi at 22.8 percent. About one-third of the sample (33.2 percent) weren’t sure whom they would vote for in the city council election.

Results for other city council candidates include: Jason Grow, 9.7 percent; and, Geronimo Garcia, 5.0 percent.

The survey also found 68.5 percent in favor of Measure F, the initiative proposing to enact the ordinance to prohibit military recruitment of persons under the age of 18, with 24.4 percent opposed.  Another 7.1 percent said they didn’t know how they would vote on Measure F.

Respondents favored Measure G as well, with 66.6 percent saying they would vote to support the proposed three-quarter cent sales tax for governmental purposes within the City of Arcata. About one fourth (25.4 percent) said they opposed Measure G and 8.0 percent said they didn’t know how they would vote on Measure G.

“This is a lower level of undecided voters for the city council race with only one incumbent running, compared to prior pre-election polls we’ve conducted in Arcata,” said Mark Larson, journalism professor at Humboldt State University, who sponsored the poll. Larson and students in his research class have previously conducted polls on Arcata’s city council election and ballot measures from 1976 to 2000 and again in 2006.

The error margin for a random sample of 422 is plus or minus 4.9 percent, with a confidence level of 95 percent.

 

A Folklife show that fell through the cracks

Sometimes things fall through the cracks in our event listing system, an e-mail is overlooked or gets incorrectly diverted by the junk mail filter. Here’s the p.r. for a very cool show tomorrow night (Monday) that I discovered this morning after hearing about it from a friend:

What:  Humboldt Folklife Society presents Russ Barenberg and Bryan Sutton
When:  8 pm, Monday, October 20th
Where:  The Arcata Playhouse

On Monday, October 20th, the Humboldt Folklife Society brings two fabulous flatpicking guitarists – Bryan Sutton and Russ Barenberg – to the Arcata Playhouse.  If you enjoy neatly crafted tunes and phenomenal talent, this is a golden opportunity to see two first rate players in person.  The show starts at 8 pm, with doors at 7:30 pm. Admission is $20 general, $18 HFS members.  Tickets are available at Wildwood Music and The Works, and at the door.

Russ Barenberg