The Turner Report

The waste of time lawsuit filed by the Diamond R-4 School District against Edison Schools has been settled. Both sides filed a joint motion today in U. S.

District Court for the Western District of Missouri to dismiss the case with prejudice, meaning it cannot be refiled.
Even though The Joplin Globe has yet to write a story on the lawsuit, I would hope the Globe would think enough of Diamond R-4 taxpayers that it would look into the terms of the settlement, plus how money the district spent, especially how much it is paying its lawyers.
As I have pointed out numerous times, even though I am not a big fan of Edison Schools and the whole running schools as businesses (considering the way some American businesses operate, Edison would eventually have to outsource its students to China), Edison has made a considerable profit for every school with which it has operated summer schools, including Diamond.

Only Diamond claims to have been cheated, despite its sizable profit. This could be another one of those lawsuits that was settled just to avoid the cost of defending against a frivolous claim.

Nexstar, Mission drowning in red ink

Nexstar Broadcasting, owner of KSNF in Joplin and KSFX in Springfield, and Mission Broadcasting, owner of KODE in Joplin and KOLR in Springfield, had a combined debt of $422 million as of March 31, according to a prospectus filed June 28 with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

In an area of the report reserved for possible risks the companies faces, Nexstar officials said, "We and Mission have a history of net losses and a substantial accumulated deficit.
We had consolidated net losses of $20.5 million, $71.

8 million and $99.1 million for the years ended December 31, 2004, 2003 and 2002. In addition, as of March 31, 2005, we and Mission had a combined accumulated deficit of $422.

8 million. We and Mission may not be able to achieve or maintain profitability." TiVo services will be offered to all Cebridge Connections customers, including those in Neosho, according to the Tuesday St.

Louis Business Journal.
TiVO creates television services for digital video recorders.

More sales coming at J.

C. Penney

Shoppers at the Joplin and Pittsburg J. C.

Penney stores will save some money in the near future.
The Dallas Morning News reported yesterday that the Texas-based company has finished the comeback portion of its strategy and has now entered the financial growth stage. A key component of the growth plan will be a number of sales at every J.

C. Penney store across the country.l For a 49-week period, beginning on Aug.

15, 1996, and ending on July 11, 1997, I was the managing editor of what I still believe was the best weekly newspaper this area has seen- The Lamar Press.
If you have read this blog for the past several months, you have probably come across a mention of it from time to time. It was a complete local newspaper with coverage of city government, county government, school, sports, and maybe the best stable of columnists a small-town weekly has ever had.

The newspaper featured general columns from Kim Earl, Katie Jeffries and Cait Purinton, a cooking column by Susan Davis Mabe, a religious column by Doug Oakes, and occasional guest columns by Amy Lamb.
Three people contributed columns to each edition of The Lamar Press. I wrote regular columns each week, and usually had a sports column, as well.

Marvin VanGilder wrote historical tales of Lamar and Barton County.
But the most popular column by far in that short-lived but fondly remembered newspaper was the one Nancy Hughes wrote- and what a great sport her husband, LeRoy, was for he was a featured player in many of her hilarious columns about the Hughes family life. Other men might not have appreciated being a regular feature in the community newspaper, but LeRoy took it with a grain of salt.

He knew his wife loved writing the column and that was good enough for him.
I never knew LeRoy Hughes that well and sadly, I will never have that opportunity. He died this week from a heart attack at age 56.

I only had brief conversations with him when I ran into him and his wife at various ballgames and other school functions.
From what I knew of him, both from Nancy's columns and from talking with her, it was obvious that LeRoy provided the foundation upon which a wonderful family was built. He provided support for Nancy as she not only served as Lamar R-1 school nurse, but became a widely-respected proponent of abstinence-based sex education.

She also helped start the highly successful Hi-Step program at Lamar High School.
LeRoy and Nancy also had great success with their three children, Tyler, Leigh and Lindsay, all of whom I had the pleasure of working with during their school days. Tyler takes after his father and is the quiet, hard-working type.

The daughters inherited the hard-working part, but inherited their mother's infectious, outgoing personality.
I can remember the battles Leigh fought to restore the pre-game prayer at Lamar High School football games, and how when it was finally restored the year after Leigh graduated, it was Lindsay who said that first prayer over the stadium loudspeaker.
LeRoy Hughes was one of the few fathers who had the opportunity to see his daughter receive her first kiss and her marriage proposal.

In fact, there were over 1,000 of us who saw that first kiss, since it was given to her by Brent Swearingen when Leigh was crowned Lamar High School Basketball Homecoming Queen in February 1993. Two years later, Leigh's boyfriend, Doug Kirkpatrick proposed to her in front of a homecoming basketball crowd, since he knew how much that first kiss, my story about it and the overwhelmingly positive reaction she received from it (after she got over the initial embarrassment) meant to her. The two were married in June 1997, (a wedding which I covered for one of the last issues of The Lamar Press.

)
I just finished rereading the 49 columns Nancy wrote for The Press. Sometimes she had me laughing, and there was almost never a time when I didn't feel my face curling into a smile. From what I read in those columns and what was obvious when Nancy and LeRoy were together, I don't know if I have ever seen two people who still so obviously enjoyed each other's company after three decades of marriage.

What a wonderful example to pass on to their children and grandchildren.

Saturday, August 20, 2005

At most newspapers, from time to time the editorial page content differs from what is seen on the news pages.
Very seldom does the editorial page undercut the editors and reporters of a newspaper as blatantly as The Joplin Globe did this week with its editorial on Gary Nodler's confrontation with a 20-year-old caregiver at a local movie theater.

It was the Globe that first brought the matter to the public's attention in a page-one story by written by investigative reporter Max McCoy, and kept it alive with follow-up reports. The issue obviously resonated with the public, considering all of the letters to the editor and comments on the Globe's website.
Then the Globe editorial board entered the picture and said it was not a story after all.

It was just a he said/she said situation.
As you can imagine, Globe reporters are angered about this and some of them believe that the editorial was spoon-fed to the Globe editorial page editor by Gary Nodler and his supporters. Consider some of what was put in the editorial:

"It would be informative if he were to confirm Nodler’s contention that others in the theater asked for refunds because of the noise level.

" This indicates that the Globe editorial board is 100 percent certain that Nodler's version of the story is the complete truth.

"Legislative members of both parties voted for reducing Medicaid to bring under control the spending that threatened to take ever-larger chunks out of a resource-limited state budget," the editorial said. That appears to some Globe reporters to come directly from the Nodler camp since it would have only taken a few minutes for editorial writer to double check his facts.

Though some are trying to show that in preliminary votes, Democrats also voted for the Medicaid cuts, the simple fact is the cuts were made totally on a party-line vote. Not one Democrat voted yes.

Morale is low at the Globe, as you can imagine.

Editors and reporters have been shown that there are sacred cows that cannot be written about truthfully and Sen. Gary Nodler is one of them.
Now they are wondering who else is on that list.

The first degree murder trial of Jim Edward Ryan, 42, Lamar, charged with the May 25 tire iron slaying of his brother-in-law Jim John Kullie in Lamar Heights, will be moved to Cedar County. The decision was made during a hearing before Judge James Bickel Monday in Barton County Circuit Court.
The trial has been scheduled for March 14-17, 2006.

What's new? Second quarter profits up at Wal-Mart

Wal-Mart reported a 5.8 percent increase in second quarter profit, according to Arkansas Business News.

Net income was $2.8 billion, compared to $2.7 billion during the second quarter last year.

The company disappointed analysts by anticipating lower-than-expected earnings during the third quarter, the article said. Neosho Daily News Publisher Rick Rogers's column featured a few paragraphs about Gary Nodler's theater meltdown:

"Boy, I bet Sen. Gary Nodler, R-Joplin, wishes he decided to do a little work Friday afternoon instead of seeing a matinee at the theater.

Nodler is taking a lot of heat in the media and on Web sites concerning his argument with an aide for developmentally disabled adults at a showing of the "Fantastic Four" at Joplin's Northstar 14 theater. Nodler and his brother walked out of the theater, complaining about the noise, which the aide found offensive to her group. Then word leaked that Nodler, along with other state lawmakers, receive free passes to movies from the United Motion Picture Association.

In these days when cuts in the budget have severely hurt state programs -- like developmentally disabled support groups -- one would think Sen. Nodler would be a little more understanding toward this group of constituents, especially when that group of moviegoers actually paid to get into the theater."

Motion to dismiss lawsuit against priest, church, denied

A motion to dismiss Glenna McKitterick's wrongful dismissal/sexual harassment lawsuit against Father Phillip Bucher, Bishop John J.

Liebrecht, the Roman Catholic Diocese of Springfield-Cape Girardeau, Our Lady of the Lake Catholic Church and Our Lady of the Ozarks Catholic Church was denied, according to an order filed today in federal court.
The decision came on a technicality since the motion to dismiss was for Ms. McKitterick's original complaint and she has since filed an amended complaint in U.

S. District Court for the Western District of Missouri.
More information about the lawsuit can be found at: When Brandie McLean goes to trial on forgery and endangering the welfare of a child charges next month, she will be tried as a prior offender, according to Jasper County Circuit Court documents.

No further specifications were given in the files available on case.net
The child welfare charges came after she allowed her two-year-old on the roof of her Webb City home. After her children were taken away from her, her eight-year-old son Braxton Wooden was shot to death by his foster parents' son.

Ms. McLean initially pleaded guilty to the charges, but was allowed to withdraw her plea after she learned that she would most likely not be able to get her children back if she pleaded guilty.
Her trial is scheduled for Sept.

12.

Nexstar expenses cut, red ink bath continues

Nexstar Broadcasting's quarterly report indicates a steep drop in income, and cuts at local stations. Unfortunately for CEO Perry Sook and his company, those cuts were offset by expenses at newly acquired stations, according to a filing this week with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Nexstar, owner of KSNF in Joplin and KSFX in Springfield, and de facto owner of KODE in Joplin and KOLR in Springfield, diligently went about the "termination of non-strategic contractual commitments," including the Nielsen rating service and Associated Press. Of course, they also cut personnel. Those cuts enabled the highly-leveraged company to save $1.

1 million. Unfortunately, that decrease was more than offset by a $2.1 million increase due to new acquisitions.

Operating income was $8.8 million for the six months ended June 30, compared to $14.4 million for the same period in 2004, a decrease of $5.

6 million, or 38.8 percent.
In the filing, company officials continue to insist they will not be affected much by the current battle over retransmission rights has removed Nexstar stations from Cable One in Joplin, Independence, and Miami, as well as from Cable One and Cox in communities in Texas and Louisiana.

Sen. Gary Nodler, R-Joplin, tells his story about the theater incident in a comment left on The Turner Report this morning.
You can find the comment at:

Finally, fee office manager chosen for Lamar

Joyce Moser has been named by the Missouri Department of Revenue to manage the driver's license fee office in Lamar, according to a news release issued Tuesday.

The current office will close at the end of the day Thursday, Aug. 11, with the new site, No. 7 Gem Tree Plaza, opening for business on Monday, Aug.

15, the news release said.
This should bring an end to one of the sorriest fiascos (though it has a lot of competition) in the early months of Governor Matt Blunt's first year in office.
Initially, a news release was published earlier this year saying that the contract office had been awarded to Bubs Hohulin.

Since Hohulin, who served with Blunt in the House of Representatives, was already employed by the state government as an assistant to Sen. Carl Vogel, R-Jefferson City, the Missouri Democratic Party filed a complaint with the state Ethics Commission. That complaint was dismissed when the Commission ruled that Hohulin had not been officially appointed to the position.

After that, a Department of Revenue spokesman told The Joplin Globe that Hohulin's name was no longer under consideration for the position. Shortly after that, Hohulin's wife, Marilyn, was appointed. She later also turned down the position.

Hohulin explained on Lamarmo.com, saying, "It wasn't an easy decision to turn down the license bureau after all the work we did and the money we spent, but it got to where it wasn't worth the hassle for what it was going to pay."

Star, Post-Dispatch pick up Nodler story

The Gary Nodler theater meltdown has spread across Missouri, thanks to Associated Press.

If you remember, our state senator had a public argument with a caregiver after complaining because the developmentally disabled adults she had taken to the theater were too loud and were not letting him enjoy "Fantastic Four."
The Nodler story has been picked up by the Kansas City Star and the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

And if you check the original story in The Joplin Globe and the comments that have been posted by readers, only a handful are backing Nodler.
I will reiterate my original point; it really does not matter who was at fault in the initial incident, it is Nodler's reaction that has blown this into a full-scale embarrassment for the Joplin Republican.
Nodler's attempts to bully a 20-year-old college student smack of abuse of power.

And his ludicrous claims that he was set up smack of either desperation or paranoia. If someone was really out to get him, this would have happened next year when he is coming up for reelection.

Administrator, P.

R. guy ripped off taxpayers

The Dade County audit, released today by Missouri State Auditor Claire McCaskill's office, definitely makes it appear that two Health Department employees were ripping off Dade County taxpayers.
You can find some of the information in the last post.

The audit indicated that the administrator continued to pay the public relations director exorbitant amounts even at a time when the department was going deeply into the red.
"It is unclear why the board allowed this employee, who served in a public relations capacity to work excessive and unusual hours when the health center was deteriorating," the audit said.
You might chalk it all up to poor management, except for some of the outlandish payments that were made.

For instance, on April 24, 2003, the public relations director put in for 24 and a half hours of work and on other instances, public relations work was going on for 14 to 16 hours on Saturdays and Sundays.
And it wasn't just the public relations officer. The former administrator "was double paid for half a month's salary in March 2004," according to the audit.

And "the board approved mileage reimbursements for the former administrator during 2003 and 2004 totaling $2,317 although supporting documents could only be located for $124 of this amount."
And at one point, as mentioned in the last post, the Health Department Board traded some of its furniture for furniture owned by the public relations director..

.but made the decision illegally during a closed session. In her column in Wednesday's edition, Lamar Democrat editor Rayma Bekebrock Davis criticized The Joplin Globe for its Sunday page one rumorfest about O'Sullivan Industries.

She started her column by saying, "Every newspaper, and I don't care what the size, has slow news days, but I have never seen a non-tabloid newspaper use gossip to create a front page so-called story before, until an area paper recently used gossip concerning O'Sullivan Industries as the lead on the front page."
Now Mrs. Davis is an expert on slow news days, but she is right on the money about the quality of the Globe story, though her ridiculous refusal to tell what newspaper she was talking about limited the column's effect.

There were other parts of the column that made me cringe. "It is no wonder O'Sullivan's president, Bob Parker, has said he will not comment on rumors. Why should he?

He and other members of the O'Sullivan management team have commented and made announcements whenever something was occurring." That quite simply is a Pollyanna attitude that has no basis in fact. Everytime bad news has come from Parker or other O'Sullivan officials, it has been accompanied with the caveat that it is all of part of some master scheme.

We lost $10 million, but that just means our plan will start bearing fruit during the fourth quarter.
We laid off 150 workers, but look at the sleep they will be able to catch up on.
I don't blame Bob Parker or the other O'Sullivan officials.

It is the media's job to report on what happens, and that cannot be done when you simply sit around the office waiting for the next news release and then print it verbatim without any independent reporting. It has been almost a year since Daniel O'Sullivan, the son of O'Sullivan Industries founder Tom O"Sullivan resigned his position as chairman of the board and wrote a letter, which is a public document filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, outlining some his reasons. If I remember that, that letter at one time was accessible (and may still be) through the O'Sullivan website.

Now Mrs. Davis makes an interesting point when she notes that the story coincided with a Globe telemarketing effort in Lamar, but this column comes off as sounding rather hollow. Neither the Globe nor the Democrat has done much of a service to Lamar with recent reporting on this subject.

***
This reminds me of another time when the Democrat took a strong stand against a Jasper County newspaper coming in and doing a scandal story about Lamar. In 1993, my fellow Carthage Press reporter Glenita Browning and I did a story about Lamar city officials wining and dining city officials across the state at the Thiebaud Auditorium and doing it illegally without a proper liquor license.
The story was interesting, though not earthshaking.

There were people who were concerned, and rightfully so, about taxpayer money being spent on booze. We would not have sold many copies in Lamar, most likely, except that one city councilman went ballistic when Glenita interviewed him, taking the paranoid approach of "You're just an outside agitator causing to cause trouble," and "I don't have any comment on that," and other non-productive comments. Other city officials took the time to explain their reasoning, but the one with the problem, Councilman Doug Davis, Lamar Democrat publisher, took it further.

He wrote a page one commentary "From where I stand" in the next Lamar Democrat, using some of the same kind of words used in Mrs. Davis' column Wednesday. "It looks as if there is a smear coming.

" The rest of the column was in the same vein. He didn't mention The Carthage Press, but it didn't take long for people to find out what he was talking about. After that, we started selling papers briskly in Lamar and did for the next six years.

NRA Convention coming to St. Louis

The National Rifle Association will hold its annual convention in St. Louis April 13-17, 2007, media outlets are reporting.

Gov. Matt Blunt said the convention will “bring a significant economic boon for hotels, restaurants and other merchants,” according to Associated Press. Beverly Enterprises, which has a nursing home in Anderson, posted a second quarter profit, according to Arkansas Business.

The Fort Smith-based company, which is on the auction block, had a second quarter net income of $46.1 million, or 37 cents per diluted share, compared with a loss of $25.9 million or 24 cents per diluted share, during the second quarter in 2004.

Second-quarter revenue was up to $564.1 million, 17 percent higher than the $483.6 million recorded during the same quarter last year, according to the article.

What's new? Wal-Mart sales up

The world's largest retail store chain, Wal-Mart, said sales in its stores were up 4.4 percent in July, according to Forbes.

Wal-Mart stores had a 4.2 percent increase, while increases at Sam's Club were at 5.1 percent.

Second quarter revenues at Saga Communications were up 6.9 percent to $37.6 million, according to Television Business Report.

Saga owns KOAM and KFJX, the Joplin's areas CBS and Fox affiliates. Operating income, however, was down 6.2 percent to $8.

6 million.
Saga CEO Ed Christian predicts third quarter revenues will be up one to three percent, according to the article.
The company primarily owns radio stations, but its TV stations revenues increased 4.

9 percent to $3.9 million," the article said.

Saga CEO: Joplin Cable One may lose KOAM, KFJX

The eyes of television business will be on Joplin at the end of this year when retransmission rights for KOAM and KFJX, the area's CBS and Fox stations, both come up for renewal.

A Television Business Report article has Ed Christian, CEO of Saga Communications, which owns both stations, hinting there is a possibility that Cable One in Joplin may be without all of its local network affiliates since it has already lost Nexstar Broadcasting's KSNF and KODE after it refused to pay for retransmission rights.
The article says, "Saga has been supportive of Nexstar CEO Perry Sook's hard line on cash compensation and Christian says his stations haven't tried to take advantage of Nexstar's audience declines with Joplin advertisers. Besides, he notes, the audience numbers are coming back as consumers move to satellite TV - - held back only by Dish Network not having enough installers to meet demand in the Joplin area.

According to Christian, the Cable One cable system is suffering 'a tremendous number of disconnects.' Meanwhile, the Saga CEO says some other cable systems in the area have been trying to game the system by trying to get the DMA changed so they can carry an NBC station from Tulsa, Okla., rather than make retransmission consent payments to Nexstar.