Media Watch

While the budget deficit is slowly being reduced, the country's debt continues to climb out of control. U.S. National Debt Clock : Real Time

I find it awkward watching and listening to accounts of the state fair race riots from outlets clearly practicing revisionism. Some absorb and report watered-down police propaganda without challenge. They refer to the incidents as "Fair Fights". I'd like to know in which universe an assault is referred to as a fight. Don't forget more than a week passed between the events and the news reports. We know the assaults were done by one racial group and the victims were of another. When a group of similar racial makeup that bands together and travels to another neighborhood for the common goal of deliberately assaulting people of another racial makeup, that's racial violence. In fact it's a riot by any definition. Numerous witness accounts, backed by at least one police report, articulated scenes with knives, fists and chants of "beat white night", a racially-flavored nod to "east side night". Fact or fiction? I think the evidence is

Reginald White was arrested for his involvement in the Aug 14 state fair riots. "Reggie" White is a Hoover basketball player, along with Dwight Sistrunk, whose mother is Lillie Miller-Sistrunk, Des Moines' first African-American female police sergeant, who asked White's arresting officer to reduce his felony charges (assault with injury) to a misdemeanor and be released. When the arresting officer declined that request, Miller stated she'd bond White out herself, which we've now learned she subsequently did.

I was shocked to discover several fallacies regarding North American law enforcement in reports, studies and court cases. One of the more notable ones is the general belief that a police department is thought to be a good investment. A well foot-noted document by Roger Roots studied the constitutionality of cops generally, and along the way made some significant discoveries about costs, titling the section, "COPS NOT COST-EFFECTIVE DETERRENT". Now that's a pretty blatant statement and one I'm sure most citizens would take issue with. So rather than simply trust the data at wholesale, I looked at Des Moines' police department budget for 2009 in search of some guidance on the issue. The average cop's annual salary exceeds $100,000, not including side jobs where they act as security guards at convenience stores and bars. What's an arrest worth? I found, for instance, if you judge police effectiveness on arrests alone, they come at a cost of nearly $4,000 ea

If you watched the news on Channel 13 last night, you saw Erin Kiernan give the glowing housing numbers. She said Midwest sales figures "jumped 10%" compared to an 8% increase nationally. Kiernan also reported that prices increased by a percentage point and that the National Association of Realtors attributed the "spike in sales" to the $8,000 federal tax credit. The story never mentioned the author of the real estate report, but it's fair to assume the figures were carefully crafted by the N.A.R., a national group that represents real estate professionals, and then regurgitated on the late news. Localize! Journalists are often encouraged to put a local angle to national stories to make them more relevant to audiences. In this case, however, no such work was done. In fact, had 10 minutes been invested in some basic research, we'd have learned that things aren't so bright in the metro, where average February sales are off 15.5% from last year and the tota

I'm not a hydrologist or meteorologist -- or even and engineer, but I can read a chart and I see an unusual and scary trend. The river basins that feed Midwest rivers received up to 400% of normal precipitation throughout the fall and winter months. Couple that with below average temperatures, particularly in February, the stored water potential remained stagnate until the spring melt, and that contributed to record water levels in the Rock Island District. Water at the Saylorville Reservoir has elevated to levels far above those recorded in 2008 for the same period, and heading into the spring shower season. In 2008, Saylorville had reached 840 ft by mid-March and had begun to fall. This year, we see reservoir levels 25-30 feet higher at mid-month and continue rising throughout the month, with an expected volume to reach capacity -- leaving no room for additional precipitation in the watershed without overwhelming flood control systems. In both 2008 and 1993, Sayorville w

I just read part of an article from yet another social media expert. That's right, part. Why? Because I could spend all my time reading peoples' expert advice, so filter by disregarding those that come with an invitation for a free seminar. That may seem arbitrary, but I tend not to trust advice from people who are pretending to give it free while actively tossing me a sales pitch. So as soon as I spotted the pitch, I quit reading and started to write a few thoughts of my own. The article actually touched on a sensitivity of mine. Social media in the corporate world. I am turned off by blatant advertising disguised as conversation in social media. I tell people to either engage in open, honest discussions about issues you're passionate about or, if you have something to sell, just buy a targeted ad on facebook or promote a video on YouTube or get some adsense. Lately I'm seeing a lot of local companies -- or principles of same -- following or friending media accou