Honey Bees and Vengeance

It may always surprise me what it takes to make the news. Apparently there are some little people riding on the shoulders of those who make that decision, arbitrarily deciding which stories makes the cut.

For instance, at the Mt. Echo, farting in a Community Services District meeting calls for, not only, a front page story, but an editorial comment as well. Meanwhile, the local hospital cannot get its District expanded, the local schools are throwing away about two thirds of the food they prepare and the ever vaunted windmills on Hatchet Mountain, when running, force PG&E to shut down the cheapest power producing system on the planet. But somehow that’s not as newsworthy as inadvertent gas passing.

So could it be they are not informed? No, that’s not it either, because both the Record Searchlight and the Mtn. Echo have been briefed on some of these issues, but neither thought them worthy of ink. It could, therefore, be reasonably chalked up to willful ignorance.

Take for instance, last Thursday’s Local Area Formation Council’s (LAFCO) meeting in Anderson. Both newspapers knew of the meeting, because the Searchlight had been given a heads-up of the coming ‘train wreck’, while the Echo is joined at the hip with the LAFCO Executive Officer, Amy Mickelson. The Searchlight either didn’t show up or didn’t care that this government agency was ripping off taxpayers, while the Echo wouldn’t have printed this story even if the meeting involved gunfire.

No, nobody but those that attended got to see several representatives of different Districts emotionally complain that the Executive Officer has cost them tens of thousands of dollars, trying to force her to do her job. Then, counsel hired by Fall River CSD handed the Executive Officer her ass with a detailed, points and authorities, repudiation of recent demands she had sent the CSD, to which LAFCO counsel agreed. A LAFCO council member even quizzed the EO and got her to admit that she was imposing these illegal demands without advise of legal counsel. Ooops.

No, we won’t be reading any of this, because the Echo is emotionally invested in the destruction of the CSD. And the Searchlight didn’t have space left after announcing the upcoming Honey Bee Festival. Call them what you want, but don’t call them newspapers. Dumbplumber