Tuesday and Wednesday

The Cal

I understand Murrieta reporter Rocky Salmon is heading to the Poconos after this week but that is not excuse for the editors to blow off the approval of a new hospital.

NC Times reporter Nelsy Rodriguez was there and got the scoop.

That story redeems her for Tuesday’s mistake. I glimpsed the Murrieta City Council agenda and saw an array of interesting options for stories. PE reporter Rocky Salmon did a quick take on new projects coming to town. Not a bad story because it is news.
Instead of writing about that or doing a bigger take on the hospital in Murrieta, Rodriguez did this feature on a glasses and hearing aid drive.

I have never been a Jennifer Kabbany fan. This stems from my problem with Kabbany once quoting “a person at a meeting” during a school district hearing on the high school’s new mascot. She didn’t name the person who was quoted. After asking some of the district officials I learned why. Kabbany was quoting John Hunneman who is a columnist at the Cal. Disturbing. Hunneman also serves on a Murrieta commission. This should not be happening people. Why doesn’t the PE do a story about this?
But I digress. The Cal finally came back at the Bobcats in the home story --- why? It’s too late and the lede is stale.
As officials work to scare away a family of bobcats that has taken a liking to the backyard of an abandoned home in the Tuscany Hills neighborhood, several residents said they aren't too worried ---- yet.
She kind of writes like me doesn’t she ---yet?
Here is the actual story.

I really missed Nicole Sack. I know, I know, Ms. Sack has been covering Temecula but she has tucked away her feisty and creative ledes that she used to write when she first started. She was back in form Tuesday with this story about the Temecula Children’s Museum getting some money to improve. I’m not saying this is the perfect lede but you can’t help but read it can’t you. It’s like a terrible car wreck – you want to look away but you can’t. Thank you Ms. Sack.

Part of the lore at the Temecula Children's Museum is that, among the three-dimensional and touchable exhibits, lives the illusive Professor Phineas T. Pennypickel.

The professor is so reclusive ---- not to mention fictional ---- that he can't do his own shopping. Luckily, he's got friends.

And those friends will receive $15,000 as the City Council agreed Tuesday to help spruce up the quirky museum.

Newspapers carry weight in this world because the good ones provide in-depth analysis and also emotional stories that can leave a grown man near tears. Teri Figueroa writes a gem.
The lede is poetic and perfect:
The body that made Scott Eveland a varsity linebacker a year ago now holds him captive. Much of the time, it will not respond.

It's through his eyes that he lives now. Eyes that serve as his primary means to communicate, to answer questions.

Three blinks means yes. No blinks, no.
Read this reporters to remember why you got into this business. Now go change the world.


The PE

Julissa McKinnon has been a busy reporter and the local section was plugged with her work. If this is what readers have to look forward to when the next week hits then it’s not too bad. McKinnon seems to do a good job balancing news stories and feature stories and mining the community for interesting bits, including her story on Perris using high schools kids from an alternative school. Nice little centerpiece to pass my time while munching my Frosted Flakes.

Tammy McCoy is good about getting the minutae correct in her stories. But her short story on a Perris mother sentenced in the death of her kid left me with the simple question: What type of injury did the child have that the parents ignored?

Laurie Lucas had an interesting story about one of LBJ’s descendants buried in a Riverside graveyard. Not earth shattering because many people could give a grape’s raisin about LBJ but it makes a cute read. The lede is too convoluted though. “Unbeknownst” is not a great word to start any story off with.

John Asbury must be racing with McKinnon and LaRocco for hardest working reporter. He digs up a horrifying tale of a body found in concrete. Good details and interesting read.

Reporter Tip of the Day
Stop using “But” at the top. Quit taking readers one way then flipping them another. Sometimes it works, as with Doug Quan’s outrageously funny story on $35 a ticket movie theaters.
But Alicia Robinson uses but in the first sentence and I shut down. I couldn’t keep reading.
Norco could build a plant to turn its horse manure into energy, but the city might have to scramble to meet a federal deadline for an energy loan program, according to preliminary results of a study.
Speaking of Ms. Robinson but what does it say about society when one of the most popular stories is that stupid deal with the two dogs. And Ms. Robinson’s follow up doesn’t help much. Just read the lede and tell me what you think because when I started reading the story it was “In the trash at first graf.”
It was love at first lick when shelter dogs Yogi and Boo Boo met their new family, Riverside couple Sandy and Keanon Alderson.