At what point does a regional newspaper die, fade away or simply get killed off by its inept editor?

The Daily Examiner out of Grafton on the NSW North Coast has been around a long time. Since 1859 in fact.

It has had its ups and downs, but is still strongly supported and rather affectionately known as The Egg Timer - because local wags are convinced that you can always read it cover-to-cover in under three minutes.

If one local is any indication, that affection has begun to slip since Peter Chapman became this newspaper's editor.
With what could only be described as indignation, Tuesday's opinion page was pushed under my nose that day and, one of the many inconsistencies of the 'new' editor pointed out to me.

I have to say that I see the point.

The Daily Examiner had previously begun a juvenile, weekly name and shame file for DOI drivers convicted by the court.
Convictions, names, street addresses, and up until now professions or job descriptions if available, were published with gay abandon.
It seems that the editor subscribes to the notion that convicted persons should be punished twice - once by the court and once by his good self. All in the name of a supposed push to curb local drink driving.

So it was rather surprising to see the editor on that particular opinion page both defend his DOI file and at the same time encourage people to go forth and gamble at the Pacific Hotel in Yamba and "cheer on the long shots. Two hours of free booze is just as good as backing the winner yourself." [The Daily Examiner,Grafton,Tuesday October 21 2008,p.8]

Yes, there it was, the editor encouraging a booze up.

I wasn't surprised when my friend's observations ended with words to the effect that Chapman had been doing the rounds of the Clarence Valley in a meet and greet exercise obviously looking for positive strokes like 'you're wonderful, Peter', but that she was damned if she was going to go up and give him what he wanted.

This little incident occurred in the same week Chapman was being taken to task in the letters column for his 'advertorials', a recent downer on a Lower Clarence festival and for proclaiming the death of a village which knew itself to be alive and kicking.

But then, since Chapman arrived on the scene, proclaiming a death ahead of time is not unknown in The Daily Examiner.

Personally I'm looking forward to hearing the hiss of collectively indrawn breath when it is realised that, in defending yet another of his recent by-line pieces yesterday, Chapman incorrectly cited Clarence Valley Council rules and regulations regarding domestic animals as a justification for his little spit.

NSW North Coast storm season safety check list

Northern Rivers storm, January 2003

Courtesy of The Northern Star on Thursday:

A BLIZZARD of flying hail and roaring wind so loud it masked the sound of a falling tree marked yesterday’s arrival of the storm season.

Scenes of destruction were most obvious just south of Byron Bay, at Suffolk Park, where stripped vegetation littered the ground and the smell of eucalypt and pine wafted in the air.

Be Storm Safe!

Before Storm Season

• Ensure you have an emergency kit with first aid supplies, tinned food and clean containers for drinking water ready just in case.
  
• Prune tree branches well clear of your house or fences.
  
• Have a portable radio and torch with fresh batteries handy.
  
• It is good to have some emergency supplies such as masking tape for glass and plastic sheeting for emergency rain protection.
  
• Clear your yard of loose objects that could become airborne.
  
• Check and clear roof, guttering and downpipes of leaves and debris.

Keep yourself informed as the storm approaches

• Listen to your local radio for updates.
  
• Make sure your pets and animals are safe and protected from the elements.
  
• If possible put your cars under cover or protect them with tarpaulins.
  
• Disconnect all electrical appliances at the wall to avoid electrical surges.
  
• If the storm is severe take precautionary action and put tape across large windows in an X pattern.

When the storm hits

• Stay inside and keep clear of windows. Don't venture outside as you may put yourself in danger unnecessarily.
  
• If you find yourself caught outdoors when the storm hits, find emergency shelter but not under a tree. Stay away from any fallen powerlines and fallen trees.
  
• Listen to your portable radio for storm updates.
  
• Avoid using a land-line telephone during a storm.

When the storm subsides

• Listen to local radio for official warnings/advice.
  
• Check to see if your house has suffered any damage.
  
• Make sure your neighbours and friends are unharmed and see if they need any help.
  
• Beware of potential dangers such as fallen power lines, damaged buildings and trees or flooded watercourses.

Emergency Contacts

State Emergency Service:
For emergency assistance with house damage, and/or advice about temporary accommodation, food and clothing, phone the State Emergency Service on 132 500.

Country Energy
For power failure, water leaks and blockages, fallen power lines, or other electrical problems contact the Country Energy customer service centre at 81-83 Molesworth Street Lismore or phone 13 20 80.

Storm tracker here.

Malcolm Turnbull turns and trips over his ego

Well, you just gotta hand it to Truffles - it isn't always easy to make such a pig's ear of the job of Leader of the Opposition but he managed it this week.

Under attack by the banks and the Rudd Government over his past statements of the economy, he goes on to suggest that the global financial crisis is being hyped up, gets into an internal party cat fight, makes a cake of himself with an attack on a senior public servant the substance of which (to his embarrassment) is not actually supported by Reserve Bank of Australia Governor Glenn Stevens, and finally tops it off by ignoring the House of Reps call for him to apologize.

Truffles obviously thinks that we are all dumb and some of us even dumber.
That we didn't see that there had been no significant movement of money (out of non-guaranteed into deposit guaranteed Australian financial institutions) until Malcolm Turnbull & Co starting crying that the sky was falling.
He forgets that these days not only can we follow breaking issues on the World Wide, the ABC provides us all with a 24hr news radio station as well.

This ABC TV Lateline exchange on Wednesday says it all:
"RAFAEL EPSTEIN: Louis Christopher says the leakage of funds may have started only after only it became an issue in Canberra and the media this week.
LOUIS CHRISTOPHER: I think that that's a fair call. I believe, yes, that the redemptions before this week were on the uptick but it was in our opinion something that the sector was handling reasonably well, barring a few exceptions.
However, given the recent media attention over the past 48 hours, well now it has become quite a problem, and redemptions have certainly accelerated."

No wonder that one Oz letter writer opined:
Listening to Malcolm Turnbull's statements over the past few days, it appears the Opposition Leader considers the international financial crisis to be either a figment of Kevin Rudd's imagination, or a Labor plot to gain political advantage, ultimately denying Mr Turnbull his rightful place in the Lodge.
Isabelle Wharley
Willoughby

I think that Isabelle has hit the nail squarely on the head - Turnbull's massive ego and belief in the divine right to rule is betraying his practical political ambitions.
In hindsight it was mildly amusing to realise how Truffles made a train wreck of the Australian Republic campaign.
His continuing hubris which now sees him willing to wreck the national economy is another matter all together.

US08: Something to keep international interest from flagging after the presidential election is over

The accusations from both sides of the US presidential race about 'registration fraud' and possible 'voter fraud' are bubbling along.

Together with complaints beginning to surface about pre-poll electronic voting, this should ensure that whoever wins the White House in November will be dogged for months with claim and counter-claim about the legitimacy of their win.

If nothing else, media coverage of this looming dog fight should divert our attention from whatever gloomy new global financial crises rear up next month.

Black America Web reports:

Sen. Barack Obama's campaign has asked the Justice Department to turn over its investigations of possible voter fraud or suppression to the special prosecutor investigating the U.S. Attorneys firing scandal.

It's the latest move in the ongoing battle between the Democratic and Republican campaigns over who will be allowed to vote.

Part of the problem is the switch by states from locally managed voting lists to statewide database operations -- required under federal law -- that was designed to be more efficient has instead led to the flagging of discrepancies between voting registration information and other official records, sometimes because of mistakes outside of the control of voters.

The Help America Vote Act, passed by Congress in 2002, was intended to upgrade voting equipment and procedures to streamline the registration and confirmation process following reported problems in the 2000 presidential race that resulted in the U.S. Supreme Court upholding the election of George W. Bush.

CBS News reveals:

The owner of a signature-gathering firm has been arrested on suspicion of voter registration fraud, authorities said Sunday.
Mark Anthony Jacoby, who owns the firm Young Political Majors, is accused of registering himself to vote twice - in 2006 and in 2007 - using the address of a childhood home in Los Angeles where he no longer lived.
The Secretary of State's Office said Jacoby used the address to meet a state requirement that signature-gatherers sign a declaration stating that they are either registered to vote in California or are eligible to do so.

While The Wall Street Journal ran with this:

The U.S. Supreme Court quashed attempts to force hundreds of thousands of newly registered voters to undergo added scrutiny in Ohio, potentially dealing a setback to John McCain less than three weeks before the election.
The unanimous decision set aside a lower-court order that would require election officials to examine more closely the legitimacy of many new voter registrations.

The Washington Post went thus:

Thousands of voters across the country must reestablish their eligibility in the next three weeks in order for their votes to count on Nov. 4, a result of new state registration systems that are incorrectly rejecting them. The challenges have led to a dozen lawsuits, testy arguments among state officials and escalating partisan battles. Because many voters may not know that their names have been flagged, eligibility questions could cause added confusion on Election Day, beyond the delays that may come with a huge turnout.

The Charleston Gazette weighed in with:

At least three early voters in Jackson County had a hard time voting for candidates they want to win.
Virginia Matheney and Calvin Thomas said touch-screen machines in the county clerk's office in Ripley kept switching their votes from Democratic to Republican candidates.
"When I touched the screen for Barack Obama, the check mark moved from his box to the box indicating a vote for John McCain," said Matheney, who lives in Kenna.
When she reported the problem, she said, the poll worker in charge "responded that everything was all right. It was just that the screen was sensitive and I was touching the screen too hard. She instructed me to use only my fingernail."
Even after she began using her fingernail, Matheney said, the problem persisted.
When she tried to vote for candidates running for two open seats on the Supreme Court, the electronic machine canceled her second vote twice.
On her third try, Matheney managed to cast votes for both Menis Ketchum and Margaret Workman, Democratic candidates for the two open seats.

Finally, Portfolio.com reveals:

The electronic voting machines used in 18 of New Jersey's 21 counties can be hacked into in as little as seven minutes and manipulated to alter votes or fix elections, a new report by a Princeton University professor shows.
The report, by Andrew Appel of the Center for Information Technology Policy at Princeton, was released Friday following a hearing in an ongoing lawsuit to void the machines as unreliable.
"The AVC Advantage is too insecure to use in New Jersey," Appel concluded of the machine he tested over the summer. "New Jersey should not use any version of the AVC Advantage that it has not actually examined with the assistance of skilled computer-security experts."
Appel, a computer expert, tested New Jersey's most often-used touch-screen voting machine over the summer after questions arose about the accuracy of vote totals on some machines used in the Feb. 5 presidential primary.
His tests involved two machines that were used that day, including one that malfunctioned, said Penny Venetis, a law professor at Rutgers School of Law-Newark and co-director of its constitutional litigation clinic. Venetis represents the Coalition for Peace Action and others who have sued to force New Jersey to scrap its 10,000 electronic voting machines and return to paper balloting.
"We want these machines to be decommissioned. Enough is enough," Venetis said.