Pueblog USa
Wednesday, March 08, 2006
A Rant on Education and Pueblo
This is not my best work, but it is, after all, a rant.
Pueblo at large, and our school districts, have to get their acts together on education. They have to start at home and in the marketplace, because they’ll make sure the schools do their job.
First, Pueblo has to upgrade its blue collar image. I say upgrade because it needs to acknowledge that blue collar jobs require more knowledge and more skills than they used to. Heck, just for a worker to wade through all the stuff OSHA wants the employer to make sure the employee understands means that a worker has to have pretty good reading and other comprehension skills.
Quarterly OHNO Meeting
Brief-back on what transpired.
Had a GREAT meeting last night.
About 20 people showed up to hear reports on what was going on around us, listen to Detective Pat Heine (Pueblo Police Department Crime Prevention Officer) about the reasons for having a Neighborhood Watch Program and discuss some really great ideas on how to improve our ability to influence what is going on in the neighborhood.
The information reported is as follows:
Tuesday, March 07, 2006
Conduit III
A better idea.
Based on what I’ve read in the Pueblo Chieftain, I think State Representative McFayden (D-Pueblo West) is on the right track.
Her bill, HB1352 on considering water quality in water court decisions, passed a major hurtle, a House committee. This over the obvious objections from our friends in Colorado Springs.
The real test will come on the floors of the House and Senate, where, thanks to the Warren Supreme Court, places like Colorado Springs and Denver, have an inordinate amount of legislative authority.
My money is on the bill dying because the large metropolitan districts do NOT want to have to be held responsible for what they’ve done to water. There’s more to this than most people realized.
More on that later…..
Sunday, March 05, 2006
Conduit II
Additional thoughts on the proposed conduit to give good water to the Lower Arkansas; as if they didn’t have any such stuff at THIS time.
You may have guessed….
Saturday, March 04, 2006
Conduit
Thoughts on the interesting necessity of providing a conduit for good water to get to the lower Arkansas.
According to the Pueblo Chieftain the Salazar boys are suddenly demanding action on the proposed conduit.
And I’m reminded that politics is a lot like a good game of chess….
Friday, March 03, 2006
It’s In Distribution
Quarterly newsletters are coming out.
The quarterly newsletter for OHNO is in distribution this weekend.
However, we could still use some help in getting them out. Especially along West.
If you enjoy gorgeous sunshine and like seeing what your neighbors are doing with their property while getting some good exercise, have we got a deal for you! Send an e-mail to Chuck Pelto at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address). Or call him at 543-4502.
Watch Out!
OHNO’s March Quarterly Meeting
This tuesday’s quarterly meeting of OHNO [Old Historic Northside Organization] will be about Neighborhood Watch.
With Spring fast coming upon us it’ll be warm nights and plenty of opportunities for some people to make mischief. One of the best counters to that sort of thing is to keep a friendly eye on your neighbor’s house and property. And for them to do the same for you.
Pat Heine, the Crime Prevention Officer for the Pueblo Police Department will tell us some of the things we need to know in order to do that more effectively and protect ourselves as well.
The meeting will be held at the Pelto’s, 425 W. 18th Street. It will start at 6:30 pm. OHNO residents and their guests are invited. Light refreshements will be offered.
Thursday, March 02, 2006
Spring Is Here II
The other shoe has landed.
Just came back from a friendly chat with the lawn-guy.
I knew, when I heard those birds the other night, that the lawn-guy would be showing up soon.
Sure enough, the doorbell rang and there he was.
We had a great chat about how to go about dealing with the turf and the shirt-eating tree. I informed him of my taking the Master Gardener program and he was all for dragging me around to talk to all his other clients—the ones who don’t listen to him about lawn care. I had to beg off on that.
Maybe next year…..
It’s the 6 Ws, Stupid! (for PR people)
Part B, for those who are in public relations.
In today’s Chieftain, there is an ad from PEDCO (Pueblo Economic Development Corporation) for a speech by Major General Robert Mixon, Jr. It suffers from a lack of complete information just like the previously cited story about speech winners.
To be specific, we know who (the general speaking to “All Pedco Members & the general public who are interested in attending this Pedco function). We know what (a guest speaker). We know where and when. We know how much (lunch $10.00 at the door). So what’s missing?
We don’t know WHY! There’s a bio of the general that even lists his wife and children, but there is absolutely no mention of why I should spend 10 dollars to hear him speak, not to mention giving up my lunch hour. The topic is not given. He has not, apparently, won any speech meets. He’s got three master’s degrees, but most Puebloans will not consider that a recommendation (or so I’ve been warned).
Whoever put this ad together, no doubt a PR flack for Pedco or the Army, needs to supply the why. And, as my junior high journalism teacher would say, the “Wow!” A man who gets his kicks writing master’s theses isn’t a “wow” that would cause the average person to cough up 10 bucks and and an hour of free time.
It’s the 6 Ws, Stupid!
Where’s Ruby Ballantyne (my junior high journalism teacher) when you really need her?
A little item under “Local Briefs: Schools” (pg. 8A) caught my eye in the Chieftain this morning. I’d link to it, but I couldn’t find it on the Chieftain’s web site.
The headline is “Speech winners” and it briefly states “Winners of the all-city public schools debate championships are: ...” and it goes on to lists the winners and the 1st runners-up for three events.
What is wrong is that this item was undoubtedly submitted by someone who either majored in, or extensively studied, speech communications, which means they’ve studied communications, and it was reviewed by an editor who supposedly studied journalism. What is wrong is that this story omits four of the six Ws—who, what, when, where, why and how—that must be covered in order to have a news story. We know who the winners were and we know what the competition was. We do not know who sponsored the event, who the trophies are named after, why the event was held, where it was held, when it was held, or how the winners won. We don’t know how many participants there were. For all we know, the winners and the first runners-up were the only participants.
I don’t know whether it was the fault of the submitter, or the fault of the editor, but this item is journalistically worthless. It is not a “story.”
Considering all the attention that gets paid to high school sports competitions, it seems to me that we could supply just a few more details on this other competition, hmmm? Especially the other events that were held, besides the three listed.
Wednesday, March 01, 2006
Tips for Roamie
The undocumented tips of working with a robot in the house.
When we bought this house, I asked the distaff how often she wanted to vacuum the 6500 square foot area. When her eyes started spinning I knew we’d get a Roomba robotic sweeper.
So we got it. It has been a wife-saver; as she does the majority of the cleaning in this house. [Note: I do the majority of the cooking.]
Well, of late, Roamie, as we refer to it, has been acting up. Shying, like a horse before a jump it doesn’t want to take. Going in a partial circle, trying to go forward again and, once more, shying back. As if he were suddenly surrounded with sheer drops that would dash him to pieces.