Not everyone wants to watch a football game just to see a few advertisements. For those people. Lakeland Local offers you a simple way to see all of yesterday's Super Bowl ads. View them one at a time, or just click play to see all 66. Careful, there's a 14 minute Chevy Chase ad in this bunch. (Watch too many and you will get sick of hearing "The following clip is brought to you by....")
This evening, PolkVoice.com contributors were informed of the pending closing of their local blogging host. The service was supported by area newspaper, The Ledger and the notice was written by Ledger Managing Editor/Digital Barry Friedman and Digital Advertising Manager Scott R. Girouard. Since 2006, community bloggers, businesses, and organizations have used the free service to [...]
Most of the Lakeland Local contributors have moved the majority of their work to MetroI4News.com. The reason is simple: we're expanding. At Metro I4 News, we present articles and commentary for the entire Central Florida region. That doesn't mean everyone is abandoning Lakeland Local. Just the opposite, as we're concentrating coverage of Lakeland and adding a few new features over the next few months. To follow the writers at Mi4, you can add the site to your bookmarks, follow it through your feedreader, and on Twitter. Highlights this week on Mi4: Staccaco, the new column by Alex Santiago Billy Townsend on District 9, and why you'll like it Robert Pickering's guide to the Sunday editorial pages Chris Craig's latest Religion in the City column and Darby Critendon finds who makes mean martinis at Linksters
WrongTrack4Florida.com, a site concerned with the CSX ILC/Orlando Commuter Rail Project, debuted with a bang recently. Lakeland Local has a short interview with the site's publisher, Rosemary Goudreau...
Today is Buy A Newspaper Day. The effort is an attempt to get readers back to purchasing their local newspaper. The fact the campaign was conducted entirely online doesn't escape me. Nevertheless, I bought a newspaper today. In fact, I purchased two. The Ledger and the News Chief. The former, based in Lakeland, covers Imperial Polk county and cost $.75. What did I find?
On TheLedger.com this morning I discovered an unexpected gem. The paper's editorial writers had crafted a column on a subject near and dear to the hearts of every Florida resident.
Metro I4 News is a mixture of bloggers, columnists, and news links delivering information of interest to the residents of the Interstate 4 corridor. This morning, with Madoff and Sons - a Paternal Sacrifice? MI4 debuted the first local publication of writer James MacMeekin.
On my way to meet Darby Critendon, I saw that Bennigans caught fire this morning. Stopping to check, I found Ledger reporter Rick Rousos on the scene. Make sure to catch tomorrow's Ledger for the details. I'm sure Bay News 9 will have the film at six. Update: The Ledger had the story online just a little after midnight: The inside of Bennigan's on South Florida Avenue was badly burned when the vacant building caught fire before noon Friday, city firefighters said. The cause of the fire has not been officially determined. And so on...
The Tribune had quite a local front in Sunday. First, and most remarkably, Executive Editor Janet Coats and Publisher Denise Palmer co-wrote (one wonders how much co-writing was really involved) a top of the page declaration that the paper would not cease to exist after the Super Bowl, as various rumors have suggested in recent weeks. But it didn't stop there.
I've been a little busy, a little sick, and, frankly, a little mentally worn out (a condition I brought entirely on myself, I must acknowledge), so I apologize for the dearth of posting. I'm sure both of my fans have missed me. You may have heard about the truly devastating Tribune layoffs that occurred Monday. A very good friend of mine, and a number of friendly acquaintances, were among the casualties. Here's a decent rundown from Eric Deggans at the St. Pete Times. Notice his distinct lack of gloating. This can be anyone's fate at any time. I don't have much to offer beyond that, except to say that everything that I wrote here holds true and appears to be accelerating. These are the most significant layoffs - in terms of specific positions eliminated - I've ever heard of at a newspaper. The Trib let go arguably its lead metro columnist, its editorial page editor (who had much to do with the paper's forceful stances on CSX and USF-Lakeland), a long-time senior editor, its business editor, and a whole host of other core functions. People in these types of positions have taken buyouts in the past, but I've never heard of a paper actually laying them off. Think of them, and all of us. Tough time are ahead. As a country, we're going to need each other.
From today's Ledger article: Final CSX Hearing Set for First Stage Q. I've heard about plans for the Central Florida Commuter Rail project. How is this connected? A. It's not. The Central Florida Commuter Rail project is planned for the Orlando area, but has yet to receive approval from the Florida Legislature. Come on Ledger. You know better. "$9 million to build access roads to the new Integrated Logistics Center in Winter Haven - the mother of all rail yards - which will be built by CSXT." -- All Aboard Plan to Bring Commuter Rail to Central Florida Aug. 2, 2006 "By building the Winter Haven terminal, we can move our terminal operations out of Orlando and make available a 61-mile stretch of our A-Line for commuter services." -- Letter from CSX VP Richard M. Hood July 6, 2007 As a service to Tom Palmer, author of the piece, I present the following snippit from dictionary.com: Connected, adjective 1. united, joined, or linked. 2. having a connection. 3. joined together in sequence; linked coherently: connected ideas.
Let's hearken back to the "old days." The 1990s. Television handled breaking news. They called it that because they always broke into your favorite program. Newspapers didn't cover "breaking news." At best, your morning paper might include a story that happened late the night before. Oh sure, newspapers in the 1930s had special editions. Those were gone along with evening newspapers. Anyway, newspapers today are online and they feature breaking news. That's fine -- except when the still listed breaking news is 18 hours old. Saturday night and Sunday morning, the Ledger online had some problems with breaking news...
The St. Pete Times, on Aug. 31, ran a huge, mulitmedia investigation and story concerning the 2002 East Polk car crash that killed 16-year-old Miles White; left Adam Jacoby, son of state representative Marty Bowen, facing criminal charges; and led to the arrest of Deputy Scott Lawson on a variety of sex charges not related to the crash. You can read the piece yourself. I recommend it. It alleges that Lawson likely caused the crash by ramming the car Jacoby was driving during a dubious early morning pursuit in his unmarked police vehicle. It further suggests the sheriff's office sought to avoid liability in the case by doing a slipshod investigation. The sheriff's office denies that and says Lawson did not ram the car. Here's the Times' piece tagline: "Two teenage boys are in a car chase with a reckless, sexually perverted Polk County sheriff’s deputy. The boys crash, killing Miles White, 16. But the sheriff’s office does not investigate its deputy’s involvement. Why?" The reporter is Meg Laughlin, who has made something of a specialty beat out of critical examinations of Polk law enforcement behavior in specific cases. She's dissected one murder trial and looked hard at the resignation of Arlie Smith, a former high-ranking State Attorney's Office. She's done far more work on this case, and reviewed far more documents, than anybody else I know of. I'm not in a position to dispute or echo her conclusions, and I'm not going to do that here. Rather, I think this piece - and who chose to run it or talkabout it or cooperate in its production - says quite a bit about the state of complex investigative journalism and the challenges it faces in an era when media consumers increasingly use it to form and reinforce quick, simple, visceral perceptions.
A recent Ledger article lead with "The city will keep its $200-per-hour Tallahassee land-use lawyer as it attempts to halt or slow the permitting of a huge CSX freight train terminal in southern Winter Haven." I have a few questions that didn't make the article...
You might have missed this on the Ledger Web site: The Gainesville Sun and Ocala Star-Banner will merge news operations, according to an announcement by executives of both papers Monday. News and copy desk functions, design, layout and pagination for the two papers will be done in Gainesville. Now, why is that important to readers of the Ledger and the News-Chief? Read on...
This is a little long, so bear with me – or don’t, depending on your taste. It’s more timely now with the news of The Ledger’s job cuts and religion editor Cary McMullen’s column last Saturday lamenting the demise of religion reporting and the specific layoff of well-known and respected Orlando Sentinel religion reporter Mark Pinsky. [...]
(See Update) Breast Cancer is a serious health issue touching the lives of nearly everyone who reads Lakeland Local. While there are numerous programs raising funds to find a cure, one of the more respected and visible is the Susan G. Komen for the Cure Three Day Walk. In select cities, teams walk 60 miles in [...]
Bio: The short line? Father, husband, writer. My online presence is primarily through as the editor, writer, and occasional photographer for the news sites, Lakeland Local, a sampling of the news, concerns, and events for Lakeland, Florida, and Metro i4 News, which covers the Interstate 4 corridor in Central Florida. Both sites feature the work of myself and other contributors. As a hobby, I manage a forum and some web sites that feature a pulp fiction series written by Lester Dent -- Doc Savage Organized, Doc Savage Info, and Flearun.