Chad’s Morning Brief: More on Beane vs. Gerlt, City Council Meeting News, & More
Here is your Morning Brief for the morning of May 4, 2012. Give us your feedback below and tune in to Lubbock’s First News with Chad Hasty for these and many more topics from 6-9 am.
1. Paul Beane vs. Jim Gerlt and the AJ
I almost feel bad for Jim Gerlt in this whole thing. Jim Gerlt slapped an ethics complaint against Paul Beane because of Beane's commentary, which he pays for out of his own pocket, on KFYO. Gerlt did so at the advice of David Langston who tends to lean on the more liberal side of things. Langston is also backing Latrelle Joy in District 6 against Randy Sanders. I've always said it's important for people to take a look at who supports each candidate. More and more we are seeing some of the city's most out-spoken Democrats line up with Jim Gerlt and Latrelle Joy. Glen Robertson is also getting a lot of support from the Democrats, but he is pulling in a lot of Republican support as well.
As I wrote yesterday, I think Jim Gerlt is a nice man, but I think the water is above his head right now. He isn't a politician and those advising him are doing so because of personal reasons. I question how much Langston and Miller truly support Gerlt vs. wanting to see Beane destroyed. The advice he is getting is bad and will only hurt Gerlt at the end of the day.
In Thursday's paper, Paul Beane brought up an interesting angle to all of this that includes the Avalanche-Journal.
On Wednesday, Beane said he believes The A-J blew the Buddy and Maria Elena Holly Plaza talks out of proportion in articles published in 2009.
He also questioned if A-J Publisher Steve Beasley’s wife, former District 4 council member Phyllis Jones-Beasley, puts any ideas in her husband’s head regarding coverage.
Beane said Jones-Beasley has never supported him. She has donated $150 to Gerlt’s campaign.
“I have always been honest and forthcoming with The Avalanche-Journal,” Beane said. “I hold it in my heart they have not done the same with me.”
The A-J’s editorial board recently endorsed Gerlt, although it lauded Beane’s tenure and focus on fiscal constraint and core services.
Interesting for sure. For their part, Editor of the AJ Terry Greenberg denied that the former Councilwoman had any influence. But is that true?
There is no way to really know, but I can see where many including Paul Beane could see this happening. Don't fool yourselves, there is a big rift still between the Martin camp and the Miller camp. It wouldn't be the first time that a news outlet was slanted. Hello national media.
Here is an idea, maybe we should know who writes and decides the endorsements and then for the sake of transparency, have the editors tell us if they donated to anyone's political campaign. What would be wrong with that?
Keep watching this story. I have a feeling it will get even bigger.
2. Lubbock City Council Meeting (link)
It was Councilman Jim Gilbreath's last meeting. Here's what happened.
At their meeting this week, the Lubbock City Councilapproved a resolution authorizing funds for design services regarding the expansion of an important well field.
The Council unanimously approved design services with Parkhill, Smith, & Cooper to design the expansion of the Bailey County Well Field, which provided 41 percent of the City’s total water usage for April 2012.
This expansion would allow the wells to be cycled for recovery periods, rather than the constant use which they are currently experiencing.
Also approved by the Council Thursday morning is a resolution for new park playground structures for four Lubbock parks.
The Evos play structures, swing structures, safety surfacing, site preparation, and demolition of the existing structures will cost $518,855.
Lastly, the Council unanimously approved the purchase of new pickup trucks for different departments within the City.
The contract resolution item originally recommended purchasing the vehicles from Sam Pack’s Five Star Ford of Carrollton, Texas, but outgoing District 6 Councilman Jim Gilbreath moved that four of the six vehicle purchases be made from Scoggin Dickey, a local dealership, since their bids on those items is within 5 percent of Sam Pack’s, allowing the council to choose the local option if they wish.
Scoggin Dickey’s bid was not within five percent on two items, requiring the Council to choose the out-of-town dealership for those particular purchases.
Lubbock Mayor Tom Martin will join us on LFN Friday from 7-8am.
3. Julia (link)
The Obama campaign has released their latest pitch to women out there, and let me tell you... this is the life ladies. Republican's, Conservatives, Mitt Romney, and pundits have all joined in on deriding the slide show. How much government assistance does Julia need?
Republicans, conservatives and aides to Gov. Mitt Romney are deriding the Obama campaign’s latest pitch to women — a video slide show that describes how progressive politicians aid a fictional woman named Julia throughout her life.
The slide show follows an apparently unparented Julia who is enrolled in Head Start, gets free contraceptives while she works as a 20-something web designer, has one child, retires around age 65 and finally volunteers in a community garden.
“That’s their dream for women?” asked Wendy Wright, a social conservative leader and acting director of the conservative Catholic Family & Human Rights Institute. “That she be alone, without family, struggling as a single parent, dependent on a government that is going broke?”
“This is not the American dream,” Wright told The Daily Caller. “It’s creepy. … It’s what China promises its people.”
“The fact that President Obama’s campaign has to create fake people to distract from how his abysmal policies have failed real people is sad and extremely pathetic,” added Ryan Williams, a spokesman for the Romney campaign.
The Obama campaign’s online pitch is part of its overall effort to boost turnout by single women, who are a vital bloc of the Democrats’ coalition. Single women tend to vote for Democratic politicians who are eager to provide them with money, security and personal autonomy.
4. Abortion Backers Want iPods for Women (link)
Abortion supporters hate that women now need to listen to an ultrasound before deciding to have an abortion. So now a Texas women wants women to have iPods so they can drown out the ultrasound.
A Texas woman’s novel way of dodging abortion regulations may be music to the ears of pro-choice advocates, but it highlights the abortion movement’s selective desire to conceal truth.
In many states, pro-life groups have successfully enacted laws requiring women to receive an ultrasound before an abortion procedure. Texas law goes one step farther, requiring women seeking abortion to hear their children’s heartbeats and a medical explanation of the sonogram. Denise Paolucci, 35, has decided to combat the new law by providing iPods to women seeking abortion – enabling them to tune out the required information. Irin Carmon reported for Salon:
[Paolucci] contacted several Planned Parenthood branches to check that they would be up for her plan, and heard back from a few of them. Last night, she posted about the idea on her blog at Dreamwidth, the site she co-owns and helps run. “It took about nine hours, overnight, to reach the goal,” initially set at $1,060, she says. If there’s more interest, she’s looking for help in finding independent abortion providers in Texas who’d be up for it, and has encouraged her readers to donate directly to Planned Parenthood or to the National Network of Abortion Funds.
This reminds me of what we did when we were children. We knew we were messing up and we didn't want to hear it, so what did we do? Put our fingers in our ears and started singing or going "blah blah blah". Same basic concept here.
5. Dumb story of the morning (link)
This shirt just went too far.
A Christian student suspended from a high school in Nova Scotia for sporting a T-shirt with the slogan "Life is wasted without Jesus" vows to wear it when he returns to class next week.
William Swinimer, who's in Grade 12, was suspended from Forest Heights Community School in Chester Basin in Lunenburg County for five days. He's due to return to class on Monday.
The devout Christian says the T-shirt is an expression of his beliefs, and he won't stop wearing it.
"I believe there are things that are bigger than me. And I think that I need to stand up for the rights of people in this country, and religious rights and freedom of speech," he told CBC.
Officials with the South Shore Regional School Board plan to meet with Swinimer to hopefully reach a compromise.
Nancy Pynch-Worthylake, board superintendent, said some students and teachers found the T-shirt offensive.
"When one is able or others are able to interpret it as, 'If you don't share my belief then your life is wasted,' that can be interpreted by some as being inappropriate," she said.
6. Good Brews Good News of the Day (link)
An all-around great story.
The Japanese owner of a Harley-Davidson motorcycle that was washed out to sea in the tsunami of March 2011 says its discovery on a remote beach on the West Coast of B.C. last week is a miracle.
The owner, Ikuo Yokoyama, a 29-year-old resident of the town of Yamamoto, in Miyagi Prefecture, was tracked down by a Harley-Davidson representative in Japan who saw the story, first reported by CBC News, in the media.
A company spokeperson told CBC News they are now hoping to pay for the return of the bike to Yokoyama and to see if they can restore it for him.
Everyday, Good Brews Coffee & Tea Lounge brings you the Good News of the Day!
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