Friday, July 27, 2012

Open Blog - Friday


And a Wacky Weekend.
Posted by at
Labels:

16 comments:

lizardmom said...

here's hoping for a good and fast work day, bring on the weekend 0 and sleep!!

July 27, 2012 at 2:03 AM
OKIE said...

I would have to agree with LM - fast work day and then the weekend.
Happy Friday everyone.

July 27, 2012 at 8:18 AM
SER said...

Happy happy happy Friday.....

My dang comuter is overlapping things again.......grrrrr

July 27, 2012 at 8:56 AM
Tender Heart Bear said...

I am getting ready to go to work. I hope everyone has a great weekend!

July 27, 2012 at 10:24 AM
jedwis said...

I be 5th...fancy that. I hope everyone has a wonderful day & weekend. Forget about being P & P for awhile.

Can anyone tell me why
" monosyllabic" is 5 syllables?

July 27, 2012 at 1:07 PM
jedwis said...

BTW I asked the librarian the other day where I could find the "self help" books...she wouldn't tell me.

July 27, 2012 at 1:43 PM
OrbsCorbs said...

Happy Friday.

July 27, 2012 at 1:50 PM
kkdither said...

Hello. Monday, Friday, it is all the same. I want it to last forever. Mary, new picture I notice. Are you using the square foot gardening method?

July 27, 2012 at 2:11 PM
OKIE said...

Truthfully KK, the garden is my husbands; I just water and water and water. The bushy stuff is the asparagus which is done for the year but you have to keep the bush until fall.

July 27, 2012 at 2:33 PM
TSE said...

Lee Enterprises Flagship Newspaper, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch lays off 23!

St. Louis, MO (KSDK) - The St. Louis Post-Dispatch laid off nearly two dozen employees, 14 of them from the paper's newsroom, NewsChannel 5 Sharon Stevens has learned.

Speaking to Post-Dispatch employees Friday afternoon, Stevens learned the newsroom employee layoffs included: 3 reporters, 1 photographer, 1 cartoonist, 2 copy editors, 4 photo editors, 1 deputy managing editor, 1 news editor and 1 food editor. The remaining cuts were made in other departments.

David Sheets, a writer and editor at the Post-Dispatch, was among those laid off Friday.

"Just got the call: I've been laid off from the Post-Dispatch after 14 years," Sheets wrote on his Facebook page. "Shocking, though not really a surprise, given all the staff cuts being made today. But I'd like to say here now how much I enjoyed working with an excellent group of journalists at one of the best newspapers in the country..."

Food editor Judy Evans tweeted, "Along with far too many colleagues, I've been laid off from the Post-Dispatch. I'm still in shock, and pondering my future."

NewsChannel 5 reached out to the Post-Dispatch for comment, and Tracy Rouch, Public Relations Manager released the following statement:

"The St. Louis Post-Dispatch had a work force reduction today of 23 positions from the newsroom, advertising and production."

July 27, 2012 at 8:57 PM
TSE said...

Meanwhile, Lee Enterprise CEO Mary Junck receives 500,000 shares of Lee Ent. Stock!!



"Lee Enterprises Chief Executive Mary Junck was given a restricted stock grant of 500,000 shares, according to a regulatory filing this week. The stock had a value of $655,000 as of Monday, the date when the grant was made.

This was Junck's first restricted stock award since fiscal year 2007.

A Lee spokesperson said details on the award would be released with another regulatory filing on Friday.

For the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30, the CEO earned $1.15 million, which included a $809,100 salary and $329,700 in stock options.

Earlier this year, Junck received a $500,000 bonus for getting Lee, publisher of the Post-Dispatch and other newspapers, through a prepackaged Chapter 11 bankruptcy that allowed the publisher to refinance its debts."

July 27, 2012 at 9:00 PM
TSE said...

The Daily River Front Times take on Mary Junck!

Bidness

"Mary Junck, CEO of Lee Enterprises, Gets a $500k Bonus

Lee Enterprises, parent company of the Post-Dispatch, gifted $500,000 to its CEO Mary for refinancing almost a billion dollars of the company's debt and successfully guiding the company into and out of bankruptcy court. Meanwhile, down in the trenches of the newspaper business, the P-D's total staff has been slashed almost in half through buy-outs, layoffs and attrition during Lee's ownership.

Only in the business world that you can "earn" a half-million dollar bonus for going broke.

Carl Schmidt, Lee's vice president, treasurer and CFO, was granted a $250,000 bonus for his work during that same period. I can't imagine any private citizen making his or her way out of bankruptcy and having someone give 'em a cash bonus for pulling it off -- if that's happened to any of you, please correct me in the comments -- but then I'm carrying two dollars and change today, so the practices of corporate high-finance elude me.

Of course, if I spend that cash today I'll be broke until payday, but perhaps a kindly CEO will give me a couple bucks to tide me over. "

July 27, 2012 at 9:05 PM
TSE said...

More reports from the River Front Times on the nature of the layoffs!

UPDATE 5: Latest news out of 900 North Tucker is that 23 people have been laid off at the Post-Dispatch today, 13 in the newsroom and 10 more in advertising. Absolutely brutal news for our daily paper, and for the St. Louis community today.]

[UPDATE 4: The current tally, according to social media dynamo Erica Smith: "four editors, three reporters, three copy editors, a photographer, a web editor and the editorial cartoonist." Thirteen newsroom employees so far, all because of "economic issues," in a memo sent to remaining staff by editor Gilbert Bailon. Former RFTer Amir Kurtovic tweeted this right before I hit publish:

WHOA!!!!

PD Managers who were laid off worked all day at office, then informed via phone call at home after work they were laid off. #coldhearted

July 27, 2012 at 9:10 PM
TSE said...

HEY! When does Dickert and Friedel resign?


"Typically, politicians who get caught misappropriating municipal funds, or have substance issues, or have a run-in with the law, or just don't do their job at all will step aside once they're called out for it. It's less typical for a politician who's caught doing all-of-the-above to try to ride it out.

We haven't even gotten to the stripper yet.

Just before an emergency meeting of the board of aldermen last night, Grellner appeared long enough to tender his resignation.

According to the Post-Dispatch, the five sentence note read, "Recent personal issues that have cast a negative light on both the City and my family have caused a tremendous amount of undue stress on the people and the City that I care about."

The 27-year-old Grellner stopped showing up to city meetings months ago. While the behavior was irksome to his aldermen, the evening of June 5th proved to be his undoing.

Grellner was pulled over near midnight going 73 miles per hour in a 60 zone. The cop noted "the distinct smell of intoxicating beverage" on Grellner before he walked back to his squad to run Grellner's ID. Grellner peeled out and had to be chased down again, cornered at a dead end street. It then took two deputies and a dose of pepper spray to subdue the mayor.

Grellner was taken to a hospital where he continued to be combative and then mysteriously disappeared. Then (former) City Attorney Eric Martin says he was summoned to the family residence to help track Grellner down, where he found the mayor safe at home. But Martin also noticed a lot of really nice new tools and appliances lying around. A quick check back at City Hall revealed the items had been purchased on the city's credit card.

That included a bunch of restaurant and bar tabs, including a stop at the Penthouse Club.

A day later, Grellner checked into CenterPointe Hospital for "exhaustion," but documents later revealed he'd been admitted for "methamphetamine abuse."

Martin has been fired. Grellner has finally stepped down. And everyone is under investigation for everything. Exhausting.

The resignation should be a relief to the contingent of citizens who were baffled they couldn't throw the mayor out of office. However, the results of his toxicology tests and the audit of city expenses and the criminal charges are still all pending.

Check out the arrest report that started it all below:


YOUR TIME IS GONNA COME...

July 27, 2012 at 9:19 PM
MinnesotaChick said...

Well..... happy friday night to everyone!
I have picked my first cuke (delish) have 4 more ready to go, my Roma tomatoes are getting riper every day, cherry tomatoes are almost done (have to get more next year, I like to share) onions are bitey and my jalopenos are a poppin!
Note to self: don't buy any thing Burpee anymore..

Just glad I have a garden and most things are growing and producing!

July 27, 2012 at 11:16 PM
OrbsCorbs said...

Congrats, MC.

July 28, 2012 at 12:12 AM

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)