"That is the noir character. Alone, a loner in a world he knows he can’t fix.
Alone in a world that has turned bad, full of betrayal, deceit, dishonesty,
crime, and vice. Maybe it always was bad. Yet, he keeps his own personal code of honor. It is the only useless thing left for him to hold onto."
The Fireworks Over Central New York celebration was a nostalgic event for many.
After a decade-long hiatus, the event drew hundreds Saturday to the Herkimer County Fairgrounds.
They were probably even more nostalgic for the classic "Fireworks Over Utica" shows that used to draw thousands of people to the parkway back in the 80's. (Old guy mode on) I can remember when the entire Conkling Park area was filled with so many people there wasn't room to squeeze in another lawn chair. (Old guy mode off) It's too bad that the days when Utica had the population to support an event like that are long gone.
It's also a little sad what's happened to WOUR. It used to be a uniquely Utica radio station that was famous across the northeast for it's programming and personalities. Now, with the notable exception of Genesee Joe, it's essentially a Syracuse radio station trying to sound like it's in Utica. The old 'OUR was a huge part of my youth in Utica, so much so that I spent way too much money on a motherlode of insanely cool WOUR memorabilia that was on Ebay earlier this year.
Shares of Gatehouse Media, the Observer-Dispatch's corporate parent, reached a high of 75 cents earlier this week, but they've since slipped back down to 57 cents. You can keep track of the continuing saga at Google Finance.
As to the O-D itself, the departure of award-winning reporter Renee Gamela for the campaign of Richard Hanna doesn't bode well. She was a bright spot in the paper's line-up, consistently producing well written and researched pieces that transcended the OD's normally shallow work. There are still some solid reporters in the paper's stable, but at this point I don't think anyone is setting their expectations very high. On the bright side, they haven't fallen to the pathetic level of WKTV, where they don't even bother to re-write press releases before passing them off as stories
Update: A kind emailer suggest we're going to be seeing some more departures from the OD's lineup of talent, such as it is, in the near future.
Morningstar repeated its judgment that the GateHouse Media Inc. (NYSE: GHS) is essentially worthless, assigning it a fair value of zero. Monday morning it was trading at 69 cents, down 2 cents, or 2.82%.
GateHouse Media Inc., a chain of newspapers about 40%-owned by Fortress Investment Group, said it will suspend its dividend and raise more funds from Fortress to avoid running afoul of its lenders.
GateHouse Friday reported a second-quarter operating loss of $429.7 million, stemming from a charge of $443.1 million to write down the company's market value.
The impairment charge reflects the steep drop in the stock price, from $18 a share at its initial public offering less than two years ago to 64 cents at 4 p.m. Friday in New York Stock Exchange composite trading; the stock fell five cents, or 7.3%, from Thursday.
As always, you can follow the stock's ups and downs at Google Finance.
On the Gatehouse Media front, there's good news and there's bad news. The stock is still trading at less than a buck, but it's been slowly climbing up from the disastrous 40 cent level. Google Finance has the details.
GateHouse, based in Fairport, N.Y., posted an operating loss of $429.7 million, or $7.77 a share, during the second quarter, compared with a loss of $1.96 million, or 5 cents a share, in the second quarter of 2007.
But revenues, the company said, grew by 16.5 percent over the prior year to $184.1 million, which it said outperformed other newspaper companies.
GateHouse recorded a second quarter non-cash impairment charge of $443.1 million in the quarter, which decreased the earnings by $7.50 a share. The impairment was largely from the precipitous drop in the company’s stock value; in the second quarter alone it fell from about $6 a share at the start of the period to below 50 cents a share a week ago.
Ironically, I believe this article is the first time a Gatehouse-owned paper has reported on the company's financial misfortunes.
Our airport commissioner contacted the same firms that he contacted when he was commissioner in Plattsburg, and produced the same results: one bid [8:00]. Mr. Joseph interviewed a prospect in Syracuse, who did not submit a bid. Meanwhile the County advertised its RFP in only one trade publication on Feb 8th, and set a deadline for inquiries on February 10th [9:00]. One proposal was received in response to the RFP.
It's obvious that personal connections were counted upon to secure the vendor rather than the bidding process. Calling for inquiries within 2 days of RFP publication strongly suggests that the County already found a vendor ... that no one else need apply ... that the publication was only to make things "legal." This style of solicitation makes it appear that you have to know someone if you want to do business in Oneida County. Could that explain why so many stay away?
Read the whole thing, and weep.
On a related note, CNY Homepage once again deserves kudos for hosting a full recording of WIBX's "First Look" discussion of the issue. I think this demonstrates two things: One, an adversarial interview session is a lot more informative than WIBX's normal softball format. Two, there's a demand for this kind of thing.
Sadly, at this point Gatehouse could probably double it's market cap by converting each share of stock into a tin of Altoid breath mints. Heck, even a Bubblicious Bubble Gum Party Pack goes for $2.74.
Congress officially kicked off it's annual five week long summer vacation yesterday. Hopefully, that means we can look forward to Congressman Arcuri using some of that time to take questions from his constituents, but you probably shouldn't get your hopes up too high since his congressional website doesn't list any upcoming appearances.
On the bright side, the Congressman has committed to an open interview on WIBX sometime during August. Unfortunately, he's still dodging a radio interview with Bill Keeler, a venue where, unlike WIBX, he probably won't be asked about the morality of wearing baseball hats inside a restaurant.
Gatehouse Media closed at a feeble 63 cents today, and it's fallen even further in after hours trading. As always, you can follow the action at Google Finance
In addition, the company will be holding a conference call before the market opens tomorrow morning. CNNMoney has the details:
GateHouse Media, Inc. (NYSE: GHS) announced today that it plans to release its second quarter 2008 financial results before the market opens on Friday, August 8, 2008. The Company has scheduled a conference call to discuss the financial results on Friday, August 8, 2008, at 10:00 a.m. Eastern Time. The conference call can be accessed by dialing (877) 545-1409 (from within the U.S.) or (719) 325-4910 (from outside of the U.S.) ten minutes prior to the scheduled start and referencing the "GateHouse Media Second Quarter Earnings Call."
A webcast of the conference call will be available to the public on a listen-only basis at www.gatehousemedia.com. Please allow extra time prior to the call to visit the site and download the necessary software required to listen to the internet broadcast. A replay of the webcast will be available for three months following the call.
Still not a peep from any of the local Gatehouse newspapers, which strikes me as being particularly ironic. Traditional print newspapers are dying exactly because people can find content online that they can't get in their local paper.
The nice folks at CNY Homepage have posted a full recording of Congressman Mike Arcuri's appearance on WIBX Wednesday morning over here.
One of the things I found interesting about the Congressman's comments was his tacit acceptance of the success of the troop surge in Iraq. Mr. Arcuri was a strident opponent of the surge, going so far as to issue a press release excoriating Gen. David Petraeus, yet he admits that the primary problem in Iraq today is political and not military. That certainly sounds like the surge did what it was intended to do, which probably isn't a surprise considering Gen. Petraeus, quite literally, wrote the book on counter-insurgency operations.
As to the fractious nature of the Iraqi government, I think Mr. Arcuri should place more emphasis on his own experiences during one of his much-publicized trips to Iraq. While he spent around two days in Iraq he also managed to squeeze in a three-day stay with his wife in beautiful Rome, Italy. You know, the capital of that boot-shaped European nation that has been through over 60 different parliamentary governments since World War II? The one where yet another government collapsed earlier this year? The country where underground tribal groups infiltrate the government, assassinate law enforcement officers and peacekeepers, and target journalists for elimination? The nation where entire regions are under the control of criminal terrorist organizations?
In Italy's case the "tribal groups" are the brutally effective 'Ndrangheta, Cosa Nostra, and affiliated crime families, not Al-Qaeda, but it's still interesting that Mr. Arcuri would consider Italy a vacation spot and Iraq a "political quagmire" when the former has a far longer, and more devastating, history of governmental instability.
Go take a listen for yourself. I'm sure I'll have some more thoughts on it once I've had a chance to hear the whole thing.
Update: A kind emailer points out that while Mr. Arcuri didn't take any questions from his constituents during this appearance he did promise to do so during his next one, sometime in August. Hopefully we'll also be able to question both Mr. Arcuri and his challenger Mr. Hanna with a few townhall-style debates in the near future.
Update: Another kind emailer points out that Mr. Arcuri is still refusing interview requests from Bill Keeler. Beyond that, his press official won't even return calls from Mr. Keeler's booking agent.
Update: Yet another kind emailer claims that the softball questions tossed by Dave Andrews, the primary interviewer in the WIBX segment, are the result of Mr. Andrews long-running relationship with Mr. Arcuri. I'm aware that Mr. Andrews worked for the Oneida County D.A.R.E program until he was fired for reasons I'm still not clear on, but I'd welcome any input clarifying the nature of the relationship, if any, between Mr. Andrews and Mr. Arcuri.
Update: One of Mr. Arcuri's justifications for his opposition to more oil drilling is that it would be ten years before we actually get any oil. I believe noted energy policy expert Jay Leno has addressed that concern:
Heh.
Update: I've received some conflicting accounts about what caused Mr. Andrews firing from his position with the Oneida County D.A.R.E. program that might have a bearing on discussions about the interview. One of the problems I'm encountering with verifying the claims in those emails is that the Observer-Dispatch's archives from the Gannet years are no longer available online.
Retired Col. Joe Bolton, a 28-year Army veteran and native of New Hartford, was the featured guest on WIBX's "First Look" this morning discussing Congressman Mike Arcuri's record on military and veterans issues. I didn't even find out about his appearance until it was already over, so imagine my surprise to discover that CNY Homepage not only taped it, but has already posted the video online. You can view the full interview over here. I understand they'll also be providing a tape of Mr. Arcuri's appearance on the show tomorrow morning.
Constituents of Congressman Mike Arcuri will finally have a chance to ask him some direct questions during his appearance at 8 AM tomorrow morning on Utica radio station WIBX's "First Look" news program. If you'd like to ask a question the call-in number for the studio is 736-0186. You can listen to the interview on the radio at 950 on the AM dial or via streaming audio over here.
Andrew Donovan, who until this morning was a featured sports reporter and blogger on the Observer-Dispatch's website, had a busy Saturday night.
A reporter at Utica's Observer-Dispatch newspaper is in trouble with the law, facing charges in two municipalities.
Andrew Donovan, 20, of New Hartford is charged with leaving the scene of an accident, and DWI. Police in Utica say Donovan clipped a parked car early Sunday morning on Varick Street, ripping off a door.
Police say he then took off.
Police in New Hartford arrested Donovan a short time later at his home in New Hartford, then charged him with DWI, saying his blood alcohol level was .19.
Donovan reports on variety of topics at the paper, including news and sports.
When called for comment, Publisher Donna Donovan of the Observer-Dispatch said she had "no comment."
If the facts as stated are true, Mr. Donovan's blood alcohol level was over twice the legal limit of .08 in New York state. Since he's only 20 it also doesn't seem much of stretch to assume he was in possession of a fake ID.
Oddly enough, I can't seem to find any coverage of the story on the O-D's website.
Update: You can check out Andrew's blog over here. His banner headline homepage at the O-D is here.
A 20-year-old New Hartford man was charged with drunken driving early Sunday following a hit-and-run car accident in Utica, police officials said.
Andrew Donovan was charged with driving while intoxicated by New Hartford police after he pulled into his Silver Birch Court residence around 1:47 a.m. Sunday, police Lt. Timothy O'Neill said Tuesday.
Donovan was also charged with aggravated DWI for having a blood alcohol content level of 0.19 percent following a chemical test of Donovan's breath, O'Neill said.
Donovan is due to appear in New Hartford Town Court on July 22 for those charges. New Hartford police waited for Donovan at his residence after Utica police reported his vehicle leaving the scene of a two-car accident on Court Street near Varick Street shortly after 1:30 a.m. that night, O'Neill said.
Update: I feel sorry for the poor web guy at WKTV, who happens to also be named "Andrew Donovan". Cutting down on the confusion between the two is probably why WKTV had the story up this morning.
