Trying to solve the equation

February 1, 2014

I’m confused.

Last week we saw several local school superintendents sign a document asking the state board of education to reinstate algebra II as a high school graduation requirement state-wide.

According to a state official, the local districts have the right to continue to require the course.  Evidently local districts can stipulate more stringent graduation requirements than the state does.

If that is the case, then what’s the problem?  The local districts can simply elect to continue to make the course a graduation requirement.  Reading the Times did not clear up the matter for me.

Is this somehow about money?

We deserve better

Brutus

1 Comment | El Paso Independent School District, El Paso Times, State Government | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

Seventh inning stretch

January 29, 2014

I don’t know where to start.

I guess the old seventh inning stretch common in baseball is taking on a new role in our ball park construction.  It seems to me that someone is stretching the truth.

El Paso Inc. published an article Sunday, January 26, 2014 telling us that the city’s project manager for the ball park is taking a new job with the city’s water utility.

What’s wrong here

As of Tuesday the Times is silent about this.  Dead silent.  How did the much smaller weekly scoop our daily newspaper?  Can this lack of coverage be deliberate?

As the article points out, two weeks ago the project manager was happy to be working out in the field again.

The city says that a finance man will postpone his city retirement for 60 days to manage the completion of the project.  One of the problems with this is that the contract the city signed says that the ball park will not be complete until the end of August.  There has been talk of playing games during the season if the city will grant certain occupancy variances temporarily.

Who will our finance man consult with when dealing with the construction people?  What does he know about construction other than where to sign the check?   Who will be watching the chicken coop?

The city manager was quoted as saying the project was in it’s last quartile.  The article says the project is 70% complete.  The last quarter starts at 75%.  Then again accurate numbers have never been a part of this project.

Where is city council on this?  The water utility is a city department.  Why not tell the project manager that his new job will start when he finishes the ball park?  Do they want him to go?

Why?

Why would the project manager leave an important project like this and leave us in the lurch?

Could it be:

The project manager was in the way?  Was he insisting that corners not be cut?  Will this give the ball team owners more control over how the park is built like they have publicly have asked for?

Is the ship sinking?

The project manager wanted to get out from under the “sharp elbows” of the city manager?

The project manager giving too many interviews and the city wanted him to shut up?

What looked to me like a case study in how not to build a project seems now to be getting even worse.

We deserve better

Brutus

1 Comment | Ball park, City government, El Paso Inc., El Paso Times | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

Timely irony

January 28, 2014

I don’t bring you good news today, in fact to me this is sad.

Brutus let me know that one of our alert readers had spotted the same editorial in two different newspapers.

The El Paso Times published this editorial Sunday January 26, 2014.  I am including the screen shot below just in case the Times somehow has difficulty with the web link sometime in the future:

cheatingeditorial

The Dallas Morning News originally published the editorial three days earlier on January 23, 2014.  I had to break their editorial into the two screen shots below because of their picture:

dallascheating

dallascheating2

The El Paso Times did not attribute the editorial to the Dallas newspaper.  They ran it under their byline “El Paso Times Editorial Board”.

Isn’t that plagiarism?  Aren’t we taught that plagiarism is cheating? Who are they to point their finger about cheating?

To me this is a new low for the Times.

I should have asked Brutus to write about this because we deserve better.

Muckraker

47 Comments | El Paso Independent School District, El Paso Times | Permalink
Posted by Muckraker

The rest of the story

January 25, 2014

We learned last week that the founder of Helen of Troy stepped down last week after spending 46 years building the company.

Mr. Rubin started his company with almost nothing and built it into one of El Paso’s few publicly traded companies.  In the process he gave generously to the community, the Sun Bowl, his church, and untold numbers of charities and individuals.  El Paso is better because of him.

In the process he also built another business and is one of the handful of individuals that essentially own commercial real estate in El Paso.

The Times told us that the departure was part of a management succession plan.

Maybe that will turn out to be true.  I certainly hope so.

What bothers me is the timing.  The departure came in the middle of a month.  A new CEO will take over March 1.  There will be an interim CEO for the intervening 45 days or so.

That does not sound orderly to me.

What the Times did not tell us is why this is happening.  Maybe it is none of our business but the company is publicly traded and the stockholders have the right to know if the departure had anything to do with the operation of the company.

If it relates to his personal health and he is out of the company then I feel that this is not our business to know.

It would be nice if the Times reporters asked questions and then wrote pieces of their own instead of reprinting publicity pieces.

Muckraker

5 Comments | El Paso Times | Permalink
Posted by Muckraker

Troubled Times

January 24, 2014

I got a bill for my subscription to the El Paso Times.  I buy the 7 day home delivery option.

They bill me for 24 weeks at a time.  The previous bill was for $105.60.  The new bill is for $152.40.

That is almost a 45% increase.  No notice.  No explanation.

Rip off

I don’t mean to start a discussion about the value that paper provides or their editorial positions that seem to be anti tax payer.

What I did do was go to the online site to see what my subscription options are.  The closest offering I could find to the one that I have now is called “7-Day Home Delivery + ALL ACCESS”.  Evidently I would get a code to enter to access the online version in addition to getting the paper delivered.

The site only offered a 4 week option.  The price?  It is $4.87 per week.

Ok, $4.87 times 24 weeks comes to $116.88.

Why did they bill me $152.40?

I could not help but notice that the payment needs to be sent out of town.  Local labor need not apply.

Muckraker

6 Comments | El Paso Times | Permalink
Posted by Muckraker

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