Good news re signature petitions, Florida Hometown Democracy

Just received some good news this morning from the Central Florida Political Pulse blog of the Orlando Sentinel about a subject I wrote about a while back: petition gathering and the effort by some in Tallahassee to make that even harder.

I later found similar stories in the Herald and Sun-Sentinel, but as usual, Aaron Deslatte had more context.

In the next few days, I'll be posting some thoughts and observations on that Broward County Charter Review Commission meeting I attended two weeks ago, especially on the MTA proposal, which I spoke in favor of, recounting some anecdotes about Broward transportation
you really need to know about.

I'll also connect-the-dots on the City of Hallandale Beach's effort to prevent the proposal's adoption by the 19-member panel.

Trust me, it's more of the same classic "Only in Hallandale Beach" moments you've come to expect from the crowd at 400 S. Federal Highway, Hallandale Beach 33009.
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http://blogs.orlandosentinel.com/news_politics/2008/04/hometown-democr.html

Hometown Democracy wins a court victory
posted by Aaron Deslatte on Apr 23, 2008 10:56:29 AM

In the lingering legal fight between Hometown Democracy and the business lobby, the anti-sprawl Hometown crew finally notched a win Wednesday when the 1st District Court of Appeal ruled that a signature-petition revocation law the Legislature passed last year was unconstitutional.

After the law passed, Associated Industries of Florida formed a group called Save Our Constitution that targeted thousands of voters who signed Hometown's slow-growth amendment with mailers, asking them to revoke their support with claims that it would destroy the state's "scenic beauty."...

Go to the URL above to see the entire story and the court ruling in a pdf. format.

Reader comments are at:
http://blogs.orlandosentinel.com/news_politics/2008/04/hometown-democr.html#comments
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http://www.miamiherald.com/775/story/506679.html
Miami Herald
State appeals court rules in favor of citizens group
April 23, 2008

An appeals court says it is unconstitutional to revoke signatures on petitions to get citizen initiatives on the ballot. The 1st District Court of Appeal decision Wednesday in Tallahassee reversed a lower court ruling. The higher court supported so-called Hometown Democracy proponents.
They seek voter approval for changes to plans laying out where new roads, homes, businesses and other development can be built. The decision rejects efforts by the Legislature and the Florida Chamber of Commerce, who have backed several new laws in recent years making it more difficult to pass initiatives. They contend such moves could limit growth and the state's economy.
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A week earlier, the Sun-Sentinel was reporting:

www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/florida/sfl-flfxgr0416sbapr16,0,6475734.story
South Florida Sun-Sentinel
Legislation limiting citizen initiatives advances in House
The Associated Press
April 16, 2008

TALLAHASSEE
A bill that could make it harder for citizens to change the Florida Constitution using petitions has won approval from a House panel.

The bill does that in part by reducing the time signatures are valid for — two years instead of four. Also, cards with the signatures would have to be turned in within 60 days after they are signed. Right now, there is no time limit.

Gov. Charlie Crist last year vetoed a bill that would have required signatures to be turned in 30 days.

Another provision would require criminal background checks for people who get paid to collect signatures.

The bill's opponents, including Common Cause, labor unions and the League of Women Voters, argue that background checks, which can cost up to $85, and other provisions are designed to prevent average citizens from having a voice in government.

Only the wealthy and powerful would be able to afford to sponsor a petition drive, they contended.

Chamber of Commerce lobbyist Adam Babbington said background checks would enhance public safety because "this is an industry that operates in the shadows by and large."

The Chamber supports making it harder to amend the constitution.

Sen. Larcenia Bullard, D-Miami, was hoping for a rare sweet moment Tuesday in the largely bleak legislative session when she served Key lime pie at the Capitol.

"I hope it helps sweeten up the bitter session," said Bullard, who tasted one of the scores of pies available.

"Let people feel good about something."

Across Capitol meeting rooms, firefighters, corrections officers and social workers were tracking down lawmakers in efforts to save jobs and health care for thousands of children.

Lawmakers are poring over budgets passed by the House and Senate and trying to come to agreements over cuts.

"We see all these people leave here feeling so out of sorts, hopeless, like nothing's going to happen," Bullard said.

"The Key lime, I thought, would be perfect to take their minds away from that for the moment."

Reader comments are at:
http://www.topix.net/forum/source/south-florida-sun-sentinel/TL9MA357DKHND42EC
__________________________________________________________________ Below are some excerpts from some older germane links about this subject.

http://blogs.orlandosentinel.com/news_politics/2008/04/senate-election.html

Senate elections panel tries to undo petition-gathering ruling
posted by Aaron Deslatte on Apr 1, 2008 2:02:54 PM

A Florida Senate panel advanced a package of election-law changes Tuesday that critics said was an attempt to undermine a recent court ruling against the state regarding the way signature-petitions are gathered.

An administrative law judge in late February ruled the state Division of Elections had overstepped its authority when it tried to ban signature groups from "bundling" multiple signature-petitions together when they're presented to voters to sign.

A group called FairDistrictsFlorida.org, which is trying to make it harder for Florida lawmakers to gerrymander their legislative districts, had been circulating several petitions related to its drive to place the re-districting issue on the 2010 ballot...
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http://blogs.orlandosentinel.com/news_politics/2008/04/booker-and-dorw.html

Bucher and Dorworth get a timeout
posted by Aaron Deslatte on Apr 1, 2008 4:46:36 PM

In the middle of a hearing over his bill restricting the rights of felons to work as paid signature-gatherers, freshman Rep. Chris Dorworth, R-Lake Mary, was getting a grilling by veteran Democratic Rep. Susan Bucher.

The bill, a priority for business groups this year, would also require paid signature-gathers be Florida residents and cleared a Senate panel earlier in the day. But Bucher, D-West Palm Beach, wanted to know how the Department of State was supposed to police thousands of signature-gatherers across the state, who would be required to register with the state under the bill.

Dorworth said he didn't know, then told the panel he was sick, had been curled up in a ball just before the House Economic Development and Infrastructure Council meeting had started, and had been heavily medicated. "Forgive me if I pass out," he said...

This is the one from one of my other daily must-read's, the St. Petersburg Times' political blog, The Buzz. Go to the URL to see the reader comments, as they're 100% spot-on!

http://blogs.tampabay.com/buzz/2008/04/targeting-paid.html
April 01, 2008
Targeting paid petition-gatherers

Mindful of Florida Hometown Democracy's near-miss in its slow-growth ballot initiative, business groups and their legislative allies have a new idea.

They want to require all paid initiative petition signature gatherers to pay a fee, register with the state and be assigned a registration number to appear on petition forms (volunteers would not be affected)....

Will the Avenaim family finally get justice?

South Beach Hoosier posted this the other day on Hallandale Beach Blog, and meant to link to it here, but realized in the afternoon that it might be better to copy all of it here on the chance that someone who'd be interested in the subjects might come across it.

It's probably my longest post to date since starting SBH last year, but I think you'll see why that's so if you closely follow the dots.
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So, what's going on with Brian Bethell, the man who murdered Albert Avenaim of Aventura in Hallandale Beach -and two other innocent South Florida men- in 2006?
http://cbs4.com/video/?id=13909@wfor.dayport.com

The Brian Bethell who turned 43 recently.
You know, the man who brought two small kids with him and his girlfriend when they decided to go on a shopping spree with the dead men's credit cards at a Coral Springs Wal-Mart, as they had done before?

The man who was caught NOT due to anything in particular the Hallandale Beach Police Dept. had done, but rather because Mr. Avenaim's family had the good sense to take the initiative and put-up fliers at the store about the suspect, along with reward information.

This was why store employees recognized Bethell when he swung back by the store.

CBS-4's excellent reporter Ted Scouten did this report on the reward on March 3, 2006
http://video.aol.com/video-detail/wal-mart-employees-who-led-police-to-killer-get-reward/450206456

Yeah, the Hallandale Beach Police who were so concerned about the safety/conditions of the 2500 Hallandale Beach Blvd./Millennium complex for employees and visitors, that they provided evening security -from the comfort of their squad cars- for a few weeks after the murder of Mr. Avenaim.

But who, when asked, specifically, refused to say whether or not they were off-duty while they were parked in their squad cars, and when asked about all the self-evident missing, broken or obscured parking lot lights near the crime scene, acted like they couldn't quite hear you, even though you were just inches away.

This being HB, the squad cars were up near the Hallandale Beach Blvd. entrance, rather than being near the actual Avenaim murder crime scene.

(Not that their superiors higher up the chain were any more forthcoming with information, as Chief Thomas Magill and Capt. Robert Rodgers both played dumb about that whole situation after I specifically asked them about it last June.)

Yes, the Hallandale Beach Police whose concern for public safety was such that, according to Capt. Rodgers, they wouldn't specifically ask, encourage or nudge the owners of the complex towards fixing their longstanding safety/lighting problems.

As it happens, those self-evident problems are ones I've discussed at length over the past two years with a few print and TV reporters here in South Florida, and which were NOT addressed by the complex's owners until only 3-4 weeks ago.

Yes, the Hallandale Beach Police Dept. led by the still-serving Chief Thomas Magill, whom as I've chronicled here, is a man who tried to have two innocent Hallandale Beach Police officers criminally prosecuted -for something they didn't do.

See http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2008/04/dial-m-for-magill-and-mendacity.html

According to a recent check of the rather poky Broward County Clerks Office website, http://www.clerk-17th-flcourts.org/bccoc2/pubsearch/case_summary.asp?FMCE96017183=CIV&FMCE96017183=CIV&01017198CF10A=CRM&05116917TC30A=CRM&06006136MM10A=CRM&hidCaseNumber=06003321CF10A&06003321CF10A=CRM&06005634CF10A=CRM&06003572CF10A=CRM&06005168CF10A=CRM&CACE01010726=CIV&hidSendingPage=search_results&hidCourtType=CRM&hidGeneralType=CRM&hidS=party_public&SearchT=&mscssid=&user_type=&hidPageName=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.clerk-17th-flcourts.org%2Fbccoc2%2Fpubsearch%2Fpublic_search.asp%3F&btnSummary=View+Selected+Case

Brian Bethell will FINALLY go on trial on the 28th of April.

Key Dates - Future Scheduled Events
04/28/2008
JURY TRIAL
Judge: PAUL L BACKMAN

You'd think that as the trial phase was getting closer, you'd see something about it in local media, but I've read nothing in the newspapers, seen nothing on TV, or, shocker, heard nothing about it on radio, in the South Florida of 2008, where a niche apparently exists for Mexican music, but NOT an all-news radio station.
Que pasa?

Over the next few days, if everything goes according to schedule, I'll be cobbling together all the things that I already know and have already written about the Millennium situation -and kept in the deep freeze Draft for months- which, along with some photographs I've taken over the years, will buttress my points.

I'll post them to both Hallandale Beach Blog, and parent blog, South Beach Hoosier, too.
You can then draw your own conclusions.
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Speaking of the curious lack of media curiosity down here with regards to the upcoming Bethell murder trial, below you'll find a series of emails and notes which I've put together, which, taken in toto, paints a very accurate but damning portrait of the local news media as they currently choose to practice their craft.

It also includes a bad memory for yours truly on a summer that might've been spent so much better.

What will soon follow is an excerpted copy of an email that I sent on February 8, 2008 to about a half-dozen or so Local 10 TV reporters, including Roger Lohse.

In case you don't recall the specifics of the news story under discussion below, it was Lohse's Local 10 news report on February 7th concerning the curious circumstances of the July 2007 accidental death of Myron Kafka of Hollywood, in the lobby of Millennium's HQ at 2500 Hallandale Beach Blvd. http://www.local10.com/news/13750861/detail.html

Perhaps this might help jog your memory a bit:

Excerpted from:
AROUND SOUTH FLORIDA
The Miami Herald
July 24, 2007
Miami Herald Staff Report

HALLANDALE BEACH BODY FOUND TRAPPED BETWEEN ELEVATOR, GATE

An employee at a Hallandale Beach medical office discovered the body of an 81-year-old man early Monday morning, police said. The man, identified as Myron Kafka of Hollywood, was trapped between an elevator and a metal gate. The incident happened inside the Millennium Building, 2500 E. Hallandale Beach Blvd.

The 5,000-square-foot structure houses several medical offices, authorities said. Police believe the slender man got caught between the gate and the elevator. He did not appear to be crushed, police said. "We don't know how he died or how long he has been there," said Andrew Casper, a Hallandale Beach police spokesman.
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A later report from AP: http://abcnews.go.com/US/wirestory?id=3412355

Man Dies Trapped Between Elevator, GateElderly Man Dies After Becoming Trapped Between Elevator, Security Gate at Medical Building.
The Associated Press

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla.
An elderly man died of a heart attack after he became trapped between an elevator and a security gate in a medical building, authorities said.
The death of Myron Kafka, 81, was considered accidental, Hallandale Beach spokesman Andrew Casper said.

Broward County Medical Examiner Joshua Perper said Tuesday that Kafka had been dead at least two days when staff from the building discovered his body on Monday.

Kafka was trapped in the 14-inch space between the elevator doors and a locked, illegally installed security gate, authorities said. Perper said Kafka may have been there since Friday afternoon, when he was last seen alive. According to the medical examiner's report, Kafka had been at his doctor's office, located in the building.Officials ordered the gate removed and cited the property for installing it.
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Long ignored public safety problems at 2500 Hallandale Beach Blvd.; HB Police ignore problem
Friday February 8th, 2008

I would like to speak with you soon -and possibly meet with you if possible- so we can talk about some other serious public safety problems I know about concerning the 2500 Hallandale Beach Blvd./Millennium complex, the subject of Roger Lohse's Thursday night report on Local 10's 11 p.m. newscast.

They consist of some first-hand observations I initially noticed in the aftermath of the Feb. 10th, 2006 murder of Albert Avenaim of Aventura, outside of Padrino's Cuban Restaurant, in a particularly senseless death, even by South Florida's grisly standards.

See www.local10.com/news/7000578/detail.html and http://www.websleuths.com/forums/archive/index.php/t-36379.html

This Sunday will mark exactly two years since Mr. Avenaim's untimely murder.

What do you suppose has changed about the Millennium complex, safety-wise, in those two intervening years?
Nothing.

And if you count the responsible property owners STILL not doing the minimum to do right by the public, and I do, it's actually worse than nothing, it's negligence.

In the days after the murder, I saw some things that just didn't make any common sense, but which, to me, were self-evident signs of negligence -dare I say gross negligence?- by the property owners and management, abetted in part by the City of Hallandale Beach's own incompetence, which, typically, responded with a fig leaf, rather than employing a pro-active
approach that showed some common sense and foresight.

Frankly, I suspect most of what I know to be completely unknown to the various insurance companies that cover the myriad owners/investors of that particular property, since the insurance companies probably assume that there's no way their clients at Millennium would intentionally put people in harm's way, whether employees or patrons of the various business establishments renting space there.

Through photographs I've taken of the property since Mr. Avenaim's murder two years ago, I can show that is NOT the case.

If anything, a reasonable person might infer from the preponderance of evidence that their inaction fell far below the standard that one reasonably expects, and actually shows a callous disregard for public safety, since it's clear they haven't maintained the property in a safe manner.

As you may already know, Millennium and their various partners have some rather lofty -I say grandiose- plans to transform that property into a huge office/condo complex showplace, complete with all sorts of amenities for their tenants and the public.

And who's leading that effort?

Well, none other than garrulous State Senator Steve Geller, the FL Senate Democratic leader, and someone I'm very open about regarding as a cancer on Broward County's political system and public policy arena, as my blogs make clear.

Yes, the Steve Geller that has his office located at the HB City Hall.

(Geller is one of the individuals I hold most personally responsible for the State of Florida moving its presidential primary from March to last week, despite the perfectly predicted downside of losing all Democratic delegates to the Denver DNC this summer.)

How do I know that Geller represents Millennium?

I was one of the select few to attend a sparsely-attended public meeting that Millennium was forced to hold, in December of 2006, in HB's Cultural Center behind their City Hall.

I got there early, expecting some emotional fireworks because of the rather predictable concerns about exacerbating the already bad neighborhood traffic-flow on HBB, the completely out-of-proportion size of the plan, etc., and sat at the table next to Miami Herald reporter Jennifer Lebovich.

Once I got there and had grabbed a donut and some coffee, and returned to the table I had all to myself, my biggest thought while jotting down some thoughts in my legal pad was making sure to leave early enough so that I could get home and not miss a minute of a new episode of LOST.
Really.
I'd forgotten to program my VCR.

But then, quite unexpectedly, to my great surprise, in walked Geller and his retinue with trademark showy boisterousness, with him not waiting even two beats before continuing on a rant/harangue disparaging then-Gov.-Elect Crist in tones that would've been loud enough for everyone in the room to hear if the room had been half-full -wishful thinking- say, 150-200 people.

As it was, counting his Millennium crew and the interested public, such as it was, there were no more than 25 people in that room, so his voice was bouncing off the walls.

To be so self-absorbed as to publicly belittle Crist in front of people -and a reporter- before he'd even taken the oath of office, showed me the side of Geller I'd often read and heard about, but never seen in person for myself.

But I recognized the type, since I'd had dealings with Rahm Emanuel in Washington before he was anybody of note, per se, and he already had that insufferable attitude and ego thing down pat.

Geller's whole shtick was so over-the-top as to be farcical, and I debated back and forth in my head at the time whether I ought to dispense with pleasantries and the subject at hand, and simply drop my knowledge of what hasn't transpired at 2500 HBB on Geller and Millennium, in front of reporter Lebovich, once the presentation was over and the Q&A began in earnest.

In the end, I just didn't trust the judgment of the crowd or Lebovich's ability to synthesize the narrative and connect all the dots in a way that would get all the pertinent facts out.

Given my interests and background, and the fact that I've been to dozens of these sorts of development meetings over the years in Northern Virginia and D.C., I thought I had a pretty good idea how the evening would go.

But after listening to the sheer volume of obfuscation and mis-direction coming out of Geller's mouth, his Pooh-poohing of the patently obvious worsening traffic problems on HBB if the project was approved, as if he could wave a magic wand over them, rendering them invisible, well, it was all I could do to not ask him straight out if he and his colleagues even recognized the name of Albert Avenaim -and then go on offense.

As to the seriousness of the safety issues, this isn't just a hunch or my opinion, but rather something which I've captured with photographs over the past two years, though to their great shame and discredit, the City of Hallandale Beach's response, nothing, is almost as criminally negligent.
(Even today, weeks after the Boca Mall murders!)

I've spoken with great specificity about it with a number of people, including serious newspaper reporters as well as the Hallandale Beach Police Dept., including Capt Robert Rodgers and Police Chief Thomas Magill.

The city and Police have done nothing, and the problems I know about remain much as they did two years ago: waiting for another innocent victim.

You'll recall that Mr. Avenaim's murder was solved NOT as a result of anything the HB Police Dept. did specifically, or even BSO, but rather thru the efforts of the alert Wal-Mart employees, after the guilty party, Brian Bethell, tried to use the third of his his victim's credit cards at their Coral Springs location, which he had previously done.

You'll also recall he felt so confident, he even brought along his girlfriend and two toddlers,which, I think, tells you everything you need to know about him.

(Unlike the situation with the individual who called police per the shooting of the BSO deputy in Hollywood late last year, after driving the suspect in his car to the Pawn Shop near 441, who received a monetary reward from Crime Stoppers, I believe Channel Ten reported that the Wal-Mart employees who thought something was fishy with Brian Bethell did not get any kind of reward from Crime Stoppers.)

I myself grew-up in North Miami Beach, but spent lots of time in both Hollywood Beach and Hallandale, so I recall what it was like physically before the final capitulation to the condo canyons.

When my family moved to South Florida in the summer of 1968, when I was seven, we stayed at the small hotel next to the iconic HB water tower for 2-3 weeks, until my parents found a suitable apt. in NMB they liked.

Because of that fact, and our regular visits there over the years, I distinctly recall the way the beach in Hallandale looked then, with actual dunes of some height, and whispering pines along them.

It was so peaceful and relaxing late in the afternoon, especially on Sundays.

What's happened to that area of the public beach since then is a disgrace, with the city not even having the common sense to conduct a shadow study before approving The Beach Club project, which happened while I was still in the D.C. area.

In order to keep my sanity, though it's far from the scope I had initially envisioned or hoped for, largely because of time constraints, I actually had to start a blog once I saw how absurd, pathetic and illogical things were done at HB's City Hall, where both "rhyme" and "reason" are unknown quantities.

Honestly, I can't help think that fictional mid-'60's Sparta portrayed in In The Heat of the Night has nothing on Hallandale Beach now in the backwards department.

Though I've lived in lots of different kinds of towns of varying sizes and nature all over the country, I've never heard of a real city where city employees were and are more risk averse to doing their job properly, and management was less reluctant to see to it that they did.

Lax oversight hardly begins to describe it.

Just so you know, that's the bias I bring to this matter.

Not to laugh about it, but I literally saw another prime example just 48 hours ago, right on HBB, where you can see it within spitting distance of the HB Chamber of Commerce.
Hiding in plain sight.
Yes, the forest for the trees.

Please contact me directly when you have some time to talk about the situation.

Sincerely,
DBS
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To give you some better perspective on the above, here's an excerpt from an email I sent on February 21, 2008 and sent to some Local 10 News execs.

Subject: More proof that Channel 10 News isn't what it used to be: the latest sad example
To: "Peter Burke" pburke@ibsys.com, "Michelle Solomon" msolomon@ibsys.com

Some constructive criticism, on the chance that it may do some good... but I won't hold my breath.

Two weeks ago, after watching Roger Lohse's Local 10 news report on Feb. 7th on Mr. Kafka's death alongside the lobby elevator of Millennium LLC's HQ at 2500 Hallandale Beach Blvd., a property I'm very familiar with, I tried to alert him and some of your reporters to the fact that I was aware of information that could show that there was a continuing pattern of neglect surrounding the maintenance of the Millennium property, going back to at least the time of the Albert Avenaim murder at Padrino's Cuban Cuisine two years ago -in the very same retail/office complex.

(Why yes, the very same one that State Senator Steve Geller, the FL Senate Democratic leader represents and lobbies on behalf of. Not that your news reports ever mentioned it)

As it happens, February 10th was the second anniversary of Mr. Avenaim's murder.

Sadly for you two, none of the half-dozen news reporters I emailed at Channel 10 bothered to respond to my query, despite my making it very easy for them to reach me and get the information.

I have to tell you, Mr. Burke and Ms. Solomon, even by South Florida's often shallow-end-of-the-pool news standards, that sort of jaded and apathetic response among reporters still surprises.
But it is what it is.

Frankly, the sad truth is that other than Michael Putney and Glenna Milberg, there's no compelling reason to watch your oh-so-predictable newscasts.

Not that you asked, but I've since spoken to a number of other reporters in town, print and electronic, some of whom immediately saw the facts for what they were, and were able toconnect the dots -just as I described them.

They didn't need to be asked twice.

Having photographs to buttress my points surely went a long way towards assuaging any of their doubts, yet strangely, that didn't seem to cut much slack with your own reporters.

By the way, the last time I checked, Brian Bethell, the man who murdered Mr. Avenaim and two other South Florida men two years ago, on his Friday spree killings-cum-Wal-Mart shopping sprees, was scheduled to go on trial in the not-too-distant future at the Main Broward County Courthouse in Ft. Lauderdale, with Judge Paul Backman presiding.

You might want to have someone check that out if you could tear your reporters away from their steady diet of chick lit lite/yenta-oriented botox/diet/fashion/shopping/pseudo-celeb/Idol stories.

In any case, I'll probably be there in court at first to take the measure of the jury and the D.A. to see how it all plays out.

Also, before I close, since your particular company seems to place such a high value on "relevant and engaging content," you should know that the so-called related links on your website's story, below, are nothing but Walgreens cosmetics commercials -not news!
And that's been the case for at least two weeks.

So much for any sort of quality control.

Please don't bother responding to this email, your reporters' actions(!) already speak volumes!

DBS, Hallandale Beach, FL

Lawsuit Filed After Bizarre Elevator Incident
The family of an 81-year-old man whose body was found trapped between a security gate and elevator door at a medical building in Hallandale Beach last year...Article: http://www.local10.com/news/15251505/detail.html
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Despite my specific admonition not to respond, what do you suppose I received on Feb. 21st?

Yes, an email from Michelle Solomon, someone I'd heretofore never heard of before sending an email to her about my experiences with the apathetic and not-so-curious Channel 10 reporters.

Subject: RE: More proof that Channel 10 News isn't what it used to be: the latest sad example
Date: Thu, 21 Feb 2008
From: "Solomon, Michelle" msolomon@ibsys.com

I have sent this to our news director and general manager.
Michelle Solomon Executive Producer Local 10 Interactive www.Local10.com
WPLG WPLG-DT Miami-Fort Lauderdale
305-324-2604
Business msolomon@local10.com www.ibsys.com _________________________________________
And who is Michelle Solomon?

Read this post from a Fort Myers-based blog and judge for yourself.
The title says it all.

Local10.com Miami Steals Blog Content
http://activerain.com/blogsview/292203/Local1-com-Miami-Steals
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So, what do you think of that?

There are some other facts/bias you should know about in making up your mind about all of this media kerfuffle.

First, I sent a bcc copy of all my original correspondence to and from Channel 10, up the news food chain to the Post-Newsweek head News honcho, who is a woman based out of the ABC O&O in Detroit, WXYZ.
I've never heard back from her.

As for Channel 10 itself, I was offered a position as an intern at Channel 10 after my sophomore year at IU, the summer of 1981.

But I got screwed out of this great gig by the then-IU Telecommunications Dept. Chairman and the rules of the Dept. http://www.indiana.edu/~telecom/index.html

As it happens, the Chair back then was actually someone who knew me and my personality reasonably well, since I'd received nothing but A's in all my Telecom classes, including some taught by him, and was a hardcore contributor to back-and-forth classroom debate, which he emphasized in our small-class labs.

And by debate, I don't mean the never ending debate between female students I knew in the Dept. over who was a better role model:

a.) IU's beloved sweetheart from Indy, Jane Pauley, the lovable former Kappa Kappa Gamma, and Pol. Sci. major, then at NBC News and The Today Show, or,

b.) Louisville's very own golden girl, Diane Sawyer, who was then with CBS News and Sixty Minutes, a household name that most of my friends and classmates from the Lou-a vull area leaned towards because of their great familiarity with her.

Classmates like the ever-engaging Rita House, who usually sat right next to me in Telecom classes when my friend Gail Amster and I didn't share the same class.

Straight from memory, Rita could tell you just about everything anyone would ever want to know about Diane Sawyer's life and career.

Back before everyone could be an expert in a minute thanks to Google, that wasn't something to be trifled with.

Frankly, at the time, I think the Telecom Chair was a little surprised that someone who'd just been at IU for two years could've nabbed such a sweet gig, at the #1 local TV news operation in the whole state of Florida -and a Post-Newsweek station at that.

(This was back in the day when Channel 10, under the late Ann Bishop, regularly whipped every other local Miami TV station in sight, at both 6 and 11 p.m., regardless of whether she was doing the newscast solo, or with a co-anchor, like Dwight Lauderdale.)

Naturally, me being me, I already had some 'bright ideas' about how I'd navigate that internship position at WPLG into something better the following summer with the Post-Newsweek mother ship up in DC.

I even had some IU friends in the suburban D.C. area, also Telecom students, who told me that when the time came, if things worked out for me with Kate Graham's 15th Street Crew, at the Washington Post or over at Newsweek, perhaps I could even live with them over the summer.

Being in Washington, D.C. then -even with the oppressive summer heat- would've been heaven for me socially and professionally, plus, I'd have been able to get a first-hand view of D.C. years earlier than I actually did in 1988.

That experience might've led to my being a lot smarter about some choices I eventually made once I got to Washington, for instance, choices on where to live, and not fall for the hype about the so-called 'great living' on Capitol Hill.

Rather unexpectedly, instead of being happy for me or giving off Good Vibrations, the Chair of the Telecom Dept. played the role of 'the heavy.'

He said that the Dept.'s rules were written in such a way that only students who'd completed their Junior year could get media internships, or the credit that might attach.

I was further told that the Dept.'s reasoning was that such a rule would prevent younger students from beating Juniors in the Telecom Dept. to the punch and securing precious internships.

[Of course, the only other IU Telecom student from South Florida I knew or had even heard of was Lisa Abrell, the bright and friendly daughter of WTVJ/Channel 4's Joe Abrell, who had been the station's News Director, Director of Public Affairs, and host of a public policy show called Montage, which I had regularly watched.
In 1984 or so, he became a Dolphins VP under the Robbie family, apparently, being quite instrumental in the building of Joe Robbie Stadium.
Though Lisa and I weren't really friends, per se, since I lived up at Briscoe Quad my first two years and I think she was probably over at Forrest Quad or one of those older dorms east of the IU Library -Terra incognita for most people at Briscoe- because of our mutual interests of South Florida and Telecom, she was someone I'd say hello to and chat a bit with before or after classes we shared, or when I'd run into her on campus somewhere.

Usually, it would be about some (typically embarrassing) news story going on back in South Florida, and the two of us trying to get a bead on what was true, what was speculation and what would happen next.
I'm sure that due in part to Lisa's father's friendly and outgoing personality, the great respect people in the industry had for him, as well as the myriad contacts he had throughout the country, Lisa must've had entree and exposure to industry internships of the sort that I could only dream of.
But I could hardly begrudge her that, since it would've been foolish for her to have passed on an opportunity once she was aware of it, just because her dad was in the industry.]

While I understood the need for general Dept. guidelines, and could see how the Dept.'s idea might make sense for the Indy or Louisville markets, maybe even for Chicago, because of the sheer number of IU Telecom students living there, it made MUCH LESS sense when applied to someone like me, living a thousand miles away from Bloomington.

It's NOT exactly like I was elbowing out an army of older IU students applying for an internship at WPLG on Biscayne Boulevard.

I was fortunate in one respect, in that the Channel 10 Personnel Director at the time had enjoyed very good results with IU student interns at prior TV stations she'd been at.

But I was also very qualified for the position, the PD and I really hit it off personally, and I had a lot of impressive recomendations, so she really, really wanted me working there.

In fact, once I got the bad news, she called me and asked me to come down to the TV station so she could personally call the Chair up on the telephone and lobby/plead my case, because she could see that I'd be a great addition to 3990 Biscayne Blvd.

The same place my friend Roy Firestone had worked years before as the Noon and Weekend sports anchor.

But despite the Personnel Director's powers of persuasion, it counted for little in the end.

Unfortunately, as was so often the case at IU, a rigid adherence to unwieldy rules often counted for more than someone's actual ability and desire.

I suppose it's hardly surprising after what happened to me that summer, that I lost a lot of respect for that professor and could never look at him in quite the same way.

Once I got back to Bloomington, I had the good sense to remain civil with him, but his actions put the kibosh on what had once been our enjoyable, semi-frequent talks in the RTV hallway about current events in the media industry.

The same was true of our group talks where -with other Telecom students- we'd all walk back over to the RTV Bldg. after a Telecom class in another bldg., usually the Business Bldg.

Once I was back, I also made a concerted effort to share the particular details of that incident with other Telecom professors I was simpatico with as soon as possible, since I felt it'd come up eventually, anyhow, and I preferred they hear it from me.

But I can't deny that part of my sharing the news with them was also anger, and an attempt on my part to get these profs to drum it into the heads of the Freshman and Sophmore students in the Dept., that whatever else they may want to believe, the IU Telecom Dept. would NOT necessarily 'have their back,' even if they found themself with a great career opportunity.
Better that they know in advance.

No internship for South Beach Hoosier at Channel 10 that summer meant suddenly having to scramble at the last minute for summer jobs -plural.

Jobs that'd allow him to once again earn enough money for tuition to pay 3X's what in-state Hoosiers were paying for classes.