And if by “labor problem,” you mean a “management-is-trying-to-screw-workers-around” problem, you’re right. WMBD 31 electrical workers recently put out an informational picket describing how WMBD 31 management — actually Nexstar — has them working without a contract.
So, WMBD 31 joins WEEK/WHOI in the not-treating-their-workers-right camp. And then you have the Journal Star, which is working towards the day when not one single non-management employee and all the staff reports will come from press release or mindless story-writing robots, or something.
But don’t worry. We’ll always have public television and public radio … as long as Republicans don’t cut funding too much. But don’t worry, we’ll always have blogs and social media to keep us all informed … as long as Congress doesn’t pass the Stop Online Piracy Act, which would let the Journal Star and the TV stations the ability to demand that the Websites stop publishing on their say-so alone.
Well, we can also scribble the news on the side of empty brown garbage bags and tuck them under peoples’ car wipers. They haven’t illegalized that yet.
Koehler calls it quits in the 17th
Dave Koehler says he is NOT going to run for the 17 District seat in the House of Representatives.
That’s good news for Cheri Bustos, who has been the leading candidate for the seat, and the leading fund raiser. It’s moderately good news for three other non-name candidates in the Democratic Party because now they just have to face Bustos.
It’s bad news for Peoria County Board member Allen Mayer who was planning to seek the Democratic nomination for Koehler’s Illinois Senate seat, but has decided to drop out. Firefighter Rick Waldron was going to seek Mayer’s seat on the County Board, but who knows what he is going to do now.
It’s bad news for James Polk, the former Peoria City Council and current ICC board member. He is going to continue to seek the Democratic nomination for the Illinois Senate seat, but will have to face Koehler in the primary. It’s bad news for Pat Sullivan, who will now have to face the tough-to-beat Koehler (probably). But then Sullivan will no doubt be the toughest foe Koehler has faced.
And Koehler’s decision will have absolutely no effect on Robert Shilling, the current 17th District representative. The Republican has almost zero chances of getting re-elected, whether he faces Koehler, Bustos or a ham sandwich.
So why is Koehler dropping out? He told the Journal Star it’s because he wants to help clean up the mess in Springfield. Which is BS of course, Bustos was killing him in fundraising, and being (temporarilly) the choice of Dick Durbin didn’t mean diddly squat.
Bustos has proven herself to be a solid Democratic candidate and a good communicator. Koehler, on the other hand … well, he marched with a bunch of local Republicans in the Santa Claus Parade. I’m just saying that people who vote and pay attention to politics people notice these things.
Silence is not so golden
Why is it when I am watching local stations on Comcast recently, the sound cuts out, for minutes at a time? Are the managers at the local stations aware of these issues? Have they adopted a “good enough for horseshoes and hand grenades” strategy of product quality? Maybe it will cost more to provide viewers will reliable sound, and the thinking is, well, we’re not losing enough viewers to make it cost effective to actually fix the problem, so why bother fixing it? Or maybe the laziness is all the fault of Comcast?
Who knows.