Tallahassee violence is real

I’ll admit I know nothing – as a young staff member pointed out yesterday – about the night life on the streets of Tallahassee.

But I do know this: Curtis Brown, 26, died in the parking lot of McDonald’s/Circle K at 811 Lake Bradford Road Sunday morning.

And now his mother, Mary Brown, and other family members and friends are grieving for the man Leon County Sheriff’s Office deputies called “an innocent bystander.”

I know all of that and this, too:

Nothing good can come of 150 people, ages 15 to 34 – at least some of whom are apparently coming from an “after-hours club” and some of whom are carrying guns – congregating in a parking lot at 4:30 in the morning.

And nothing did.

I’ve seen the pictures of what came from it. They are on Tallahassee.com.

Controversial? You bet. We’ve gotten several phone calls calling us insensitive and uncaring. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Too many people are being shot in our community, and too many people’s lives end in text-only reporting. There is too much grieving that we never see. It is time to humanize the violence, to tell it in full color.

Headline: TPD arrests 19-year-old in shooting.

Headline: LCSO: Handyman fought intruder.

Headline: Madison Co. sheriff seeks two in homicide (of Leon County woman).

Headline: Woodville woman’s death now considered a homicide.

Headline: Three charged in Holton St. killing.

Those are just some of the headlines that have appeared in the Tallahassee Democrat in less than three months since the beginning of the year. These are real stories, not make believe on TV. All of them should make you cry.

See the full blog on this link.

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Posted by Bob Gabordi at 7:07 AM 0 comments

Monday, March 30, 2009

Yes, it IS my job to stir trouble

Sometime fairly recently, the question has changed. It no longer seems relevant to ask people how they prefer to consume news and information, that is, in printed newspapers or on digital sites.

Now what seems more important is how well sourced our news will be and, just as importantly, whether it will be vetted.

Let me give you an illustration from this weekend:

About 5:30 Sunday morning my cell phone rang. Leon County Sheriff Office deputies were on the scene of a shooting on Lake Bradford Road.

I woke Local News Editor Rebeccah Cantley, who headed to the scene while I posted breaking-news alerts and initial reports on Tallahassee.com, Facebook.com and Twitter.com.

Let’s face it: As a trained journalist with 30-plus years in the business I simply did what you or any other citizen could have done on that first report or, for that matter, a deputy could have done himself on a government Web site.

But in a short while, Cantley was on the scene, and that’s when the paradigm changed. It was at that point the journalist used her training to ask and gather information that official sources may not have provided as readily. She called me often to add greater detail as I updated the story on the Web. That process has continued since that story broke, with other reporters, editors and photographers taking over.

When she arrived, Cantley found about 150 people on the scene of the shooting, most – if not all, these days – with the ability to post quickly to any of a myriad of Web sites the same information I had posted in my initial report. No doubt, some did.

During the course of our reporting on this story – and most others, for that matter – our reporting moved quickly away from reliance on official sources for all our information, asking ourselves what are we not being told, what is missing, what makes sense and what doesn’t.

At the same time, on Tallahassee.com, our readers – armed with our reporting – did the same thing with us, questioning and discussing our reporting.

But it didn’t have to be that way, did it? Is an independent, mass-audience news source such as Tallahasse.com that important anymore, what with everyone able to report local news these days?

See the full blog on this link.

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Posted by Bob Gabordi at 6:07 AM 0 comments

Wednesday, March 18, 2009

Judge infringes on free speech in Hoffman case

Statements made by Leon County Circuit Court Judge Kevin Davey during a pre-trial hearing in a civil case brought by the parents of Rachel Hoffman against the city of Tallahassee drew an immediate and strong reaction from First Amendment advocates.

“We don’t see the justification for the gag order in this particular case,” said Adria Harper, director of the Florida First Amendment Foundation. “It seems too broad.”

The ACLU and the Tallahassee Democrat are considering a challenge to the order.

Davey not only prohibited parties in the case from talking to the media – and anyone else – about the civil case, but he also prohibited Hoffman’s parents from speaking publicly on legislation known as Rachel’s Law outside of legislative hearings.

Davey is an experienced judge, but this decision – so far there is no written order, only oral instructions on how the order should be written – is poorly done and not well researched.

How could it be otherwise? Davey said during the hearing he had only gotten the case a few hours before the hearing.

“But, you know, I try to sort of avoid things that I think might be mine. You know, if you’re a criminal judge, and there is a crime, you know that’s going to be your case probably. You’ve got a 50 percent chance of getting it,” Davey said, according to a transcript of the hearing.

He didn’t bother to hear arguments from either side before making his decision or consider whether the case meets any of the high standards the courts have imposed for issuing gag orders. There was no careful examination of the facts, maybe not any examination of the facts. The judge appears to have been acting on information he thought he knew from outside of the courtroom.

I say that because the judge said so.

See the full blog on this link.

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Posted by Bob Gabordi at 6:31 AM 0 comments

Tuesday, March 17, 2009

Note to reader: Back off the mustache, pal

Maybe it’s the stock-market crash or the economic crisis. It seems one or the other is blamed for every malady coming down the pike these days.

It has to be something. Maybe something is in the air or the water. Or maybe somebody slipped Stupid Pills into the vitamin jar.

I mean what is wrong with some people?

Let me give you an example:

Last week, I wrote a blog in reaction to state law-enforcement officers protesting at the Capitol over possible state budget cuts. I said we have to be able to support the basics as a state, in particular our police agencies and schools. If we can’t do that, I asked, what is the point of government?

In reaction to that I got an angry e-mail from Ruth on Saturday when the blog appeared in the Tallahassee Democrat. You could tell the anger by the use of all capital letters. The e-mail suggested LEO’s unions have gotten a grab bag of generous “goodies” for the officers and that LEOs are overpaid.

The e-mail then made fun of my mustache. “Have you ever considered getting rid of the hair under your nose?”

Swell. That really improves the quality of your argument. I don’t know what their mammas taught them about the rules of proper behavior, but I get e-mails from people all the time who make fun of my height, how I talk, the way I dress, where I grew up, my athletic ability, etc. Mustache comments are rare, I guess because there are so many other things to not like about me.

I get it. When you put yourself out there in public, you open yourself up to the whackos. So I sent a fairly standard response back.

“The job of being my wife is taken,” I wrote back. “But thanks for the suggestion.”

Ruth wrote back, and I’m now cutting-and-pasting directly from the e-mail because you won’t believe it otherwise.

See the full blog on this link.

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Posted by Bob Gabordi at 4:24 AM 0 comments

Monday, March 16, 2009

Remembering the Holocaust in the digital age

Barbara Spiegler Goldstein is particularly moved by photographs of train tracks that led to the camps where 6 million Jews and others were murdered.

The tracks show that the Nazi’s genocide was carefully planned. The builders of the tracks, the planners of the routes and others – all had to know.

The photographs overwhelm emotions, but also teach us important lessons from that horrible period of time, 1933 to 1945, and our own time as genocides occur around the globe.

This year, Yom Hashoah – or Holocaust Remembrance Day – is observed April 21. Candles will be lit around the globe in remembrance.

Locally, the Holocaust Education Resource Council is planning a series of educational opportunities from March to May not only to help us remember, but also to help the schools meet state mandates.

In 1994, the Florida Legislature passed the Holocaust Education Act, which requires all school districts to incorporate lessons on the Holocaust as part of public school instruction, an unfunded – or barely funded – mandate.

To get the conversation started in the community, Goldstein has set up a HERC Facebook page.

HERC’s third annual Student Essay/Art Contest is being formally announced in the schools, in the Tallahassee Democrat and on the HERC Web site this week as part of the activities. The deadline for submissions is April 24.

A series of programs and speakers will take place around town as well. The first is the Afikim Exhibit at the LeRoy Collins Public Library from April 17-22 to honor liberators from World War II. The exhibit recognizes American soldiers who liberated concentration camp survivors and nurtured them back to life. A multimedia installation, it features photographs and interactive kiosks with oral histories.

And an awards ceremony is planned for May 17 at the Challenger Learning Center.

But the centerpiece of the HERC offerings will be photographs.

See the full blog on this link.

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Posted by Bob Gabordi at 8:14 AM 0 comments

Sunday, March 15, 2009

Happy birthday, Toney Douglas: Bring the ACC trophy home for your party

Tomorrow is Toney Douglas’ birthday. This one is his 23rd. None would be better than this one should he work his magic for the Florida State Seminoles one last time in the ACC Tournament.

Mr. Defense. Mr. Offense. Mr. Desire. Mr. Clutch.

Click here to see our special online-multimedia project on Douglas. It was begun weeks ago, before anyone dared dream FSU would be this close to history, before Douglas was named first-team All-ACC and ACC Defensive Player of the Year. You can see a 50-photo gallery on his FSU career by clicking here.

Douglas has taken this ’Noles team places none has gone before: to the ACC title game.

Sure, there are a bunch of great and very good players on the team. But ask them why they’ve accomplished so much more than expected this year. I’d bet they’d say T.D., taking nothing away from ACC Coach of the Year Leonard Hamilton, or Derwin Kitchen or any of the fabulous freshmen.

After shocking No. 1 ranked North Carolina in the semi-finals, probably costing UNC the No. 1 overall seed in the NCAA tournament, but not much more, Douglas fell to his knees in the Georgia Dome. Afterwards, on national TV, the Georgia native said: “I’m so happy I’m about to cry.”

FSU’s opponent in the championship game is one of the teams always there: Duke, a team that is a media darling for a good reason. It is always THAT good.

Duke seems to own a spot on the cover of Sports Illustrated magazine, a permanent spot on ESPN’s SportsCenter show.

FSU, on the other hand, was picked to finish 10th in the ACC. It came within a hair of beating Duke once in the regular season and took a whipping in the other game. The only time an FSU basketball player is on the cover of Sports Illustrated is when he needs extra cushioning for the bus ride.

See the full blog on this link.

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Posted by Bob Gabordi at 6:46 AM 0 comments

Friday, March 13, 2009

Jobs, jobs, jobs: You ideas can make them work

Home Cooking

Our Jobs ·Our Economy·Our Future

Real Ideas from Real People

CLICK HERE TO TALK ABOUT YOUR IDEAS

CLICK HERE TO SEND YOUR IDEAS TO THE MAYOR

OK, so what do you have to lose by taking the Home Cooking campaign seriously?

Our community is facing a triple whammy: government jobs are being lost, the undersized private sector is losing jobs, and it’s harder to bring new jobs to this community than to find Osama bin Laden.

So a few people got together with Mayor John Marks to talk about how we – that is, the community – could change the last of those three things, or at least get a start at it.

All that is needed are your ideas for things the community can do to create jobs. Now.

Think about this: Tallahassee and Leon County governments; Leon County Schools; media outlets including WCTV, Fox49, WFSU, the Capital Outlook and the Tallahassee Democrat; Capital City Chamber of Commerce; Greater Tallahassee Chamber of Commerce; and the Florida Retail Federation are all working together, collaboratively to generate ideas.

Has that ever happened before on ANYTHING?

All that is asked of you is your ideas.

The concept is this is a very smart and well-educated community (those are not always the same things, as you know). Working together – brainstorming, if you will – maybe something will bubble up and really happen. And so what if does?

See the full blog on this link.

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