Newspaper job? Um, no thanks...

The process of finding my "next step" after Antelope Christian Center has been interesting. I have lots of "lines in the water" and have been pursuing various options, all the while waiting for God to make it clear what that next step will be.

A few friends have asked me if I've thought about returning to daily newspapers. The answer is no. My heart left that world many years ago. And logically, here's a good reason to avoid daily newspaper jobs these days:

Sacramento, Calif. (AP) -- The Sacramento Bee and The Fresno Bee offered voluntary buyouts to a majority of their full-time employees Monday in the latest round of cost-cutting at the newspapers.

Buyouts are being offered to 55 percent of The Sacramento Bee's full-time employees and a smaller number of part-timers, including most editorial employees, according to Sacramento Bee publisher Cheryl Dell. Reporters in the newspaper's state capitol bureau were exempt from the buyout offer.

The Fresno Bee's offer is being made to most of the company's full-time employees and includes severance pay and extended medical coverage, Fresno Bee publisher Ray Steele Jr. said.

Both publications are owned by McClatchy Co., which has seen advertising revenue at its California and Florida newspapers drop 22 percent this year, Dell said.
Sacramento-based McClatchy owns 30 daily newspapers nationwide. It imposed a companywide wage freeze two weeks ago.

The Sacramento Bee's move to cut staff Monday comes after that paper eliminated 86 jobs in June. The Fresno Bee cut 44 workers in June.

The McClatchy-owned Modesto Bee offered all its full-time employees buyouts last week.

More coverage on killing of a Turlock toddler.

Couple new stories online about the weekend murder of a 2-year-old just outside of Turlock, where I grew up and where my mom still lives:

Article from The Modesto Bee

Article from The San Francisco Chronicle

Tragic news from my old hometown.

There's been a bit of covering in the last couple days about the brutal beating of a toddler in Turlock on Saturday night. I grew up in Turlock and worked there (twice) after college. Here's coverage from two media outlets:

The Modesto Bee article

The San Francisco Chronicle article

As of 5:45PM Monday, the Turlock Journal had nothing on its website about the incident. This isn't a surprise, because the Journal is a joke. It has been for many years. I'll admit it was a joke when I worked there, but it got worse when the paper was sold and went to twice-a-week publishing, instead of six days a week.

I love typos.

Having worked in the newspaper business for about 8 years, I understand how errors happen in a daily news environment. Sometimes the typos are just plain funny, like this one from a report about Barack Obama receiving an endorsment from the Teamsters:

According to AP, Ohio and Pennsylvania have some of the highest levels of unionization in the country. More than 15 percent of the Pennsylvania's workforce are union members, and over 14 of Ohio's workers are unionized.

Wow, glad to know that more than 14 people in Ohio belong to unions. That's power...

Best news hour on TV.

If you're looking for a good one-hour news program that isn't filled with a bunch of idiots yelling at each other or non-significant news stories, check this out: Watch CNN each day at 9AM Pacific (noon Eastern), for "Your World Today." It's actually a broadcast from CNN International, which I've fallen in love with during my various trips to Europe. CNNI has a calmer tone than its American counterpart, which I find obnoxious (I also find Fox News and MSNBC obnoxious). Anyway, it's not quite as "serious" as the "NewsHour with Jim Lehrer" over on PBS, but "Your World Today" is a good, internationally focused program that helps Americans remember that we aren't the only country of significance in the world.

Wild wildfires in Greece.

Came across this image online as I was sifting through some news websites. Pretty incredible view of all the wildfires in Greece.

Buncha fires in Greece.

I'm going to Greece next month with my mom and brother, but it sounds like the country is having all kinds of problems with fires right now:

Fires pushed by gale-force winds tore through more parched forests, swallowed villages and scorched the edges of Athens on Saturday with ashes raining onto the Acropolis. The death toll rose to at least 49 as the government declared a nationwide state of emergency.

Soldiers and military helicopters reinforced firefighting forces that were stretched to the limit by Greece's worst summer of wildfires in decades. In the most ravaged area — a string of mountain villages in southern Greece — rescue crews picked through a grim aftermath that spoke of last-minute desperation as the fires closed in.

Dozens of charred bodies were found across fields, homes, along roads and in cars, including the remains of a mother hugging her four children.

And new fronts emerged. Dozens of fresh fires broke out across the country — including some blamed on arson — with the worse infernos concentrated in the mountains of southern Greece.

Quite a fire.

Life in the Sacramento area got a little exciting last night. Around 5:45PM, a huge fire erupted along a train trestle near Cal Expo, which you could define as being right in the middle of our metro area. It created a huge plume of smoke that people could see for miles and miles. It didn't represent any real risk to people or property, but it was an incredible sight -- especially with local news coverage.

The NBC affiliate, KCRA, interrupted the network news right around 5:45, as the fire began, and didn't really stop until 8:30. The ABC affiliate began its coverage at 6PM, and eventually broke away around 8PM for its evening programs. CBS, however, was caught in a predicament: Thursday was the first day of the first round of the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament. So, the folks at CBS interrupted games with updates throughout the evening. But man, you KNOW the news people there were mad that they couldn't do wall-to-wall coverage. This was a big fire, talk of the town, and they're unable to do true live coverage.

On a related note, the Goodyear blimp flew overhead this afternoon, perhaps on the way up to the Sierra to get some video footage for later in the day. The arrival of a Goodyear might not be a big deal to some of you mega-metropolis people, but we don't see it everyday.