Bloodbath at Pelican Press … 18 names missing from new masthead
In addition to the firing of Stan Zimmerman which I reported on last week, the Observer Group has ousted nearly every writer associated with the Pelican Press. Looks like Paul Roat is gone; Diana Colson who did the Social Notes column — gone. Anne Johnson, who’d been a mainstay at the newspaper — as editor — for many, many years … gone, without even a note of farewell. Film critic Frank Tucciarone, gone. Kathie Moon,, gone. Thrza Jacobs, Robert Frederickson, Jay Davis — think they’re all gone. Don’t know what happened to Rebecca Wild Baxter or Ric Miracle or John Riley the cartoonist. Am assuming they’re gone as well. Am probably missing some names here, but all told, it looks as if about 18 names that were listed in the old Pelican Press masthead as contributors or staff, are gone this week.
It looks like Rachel Brown Hackney is still on board as a managing editor and the Observer seems to have held on to the old Pelican advertising staff for the most part.
In today’s Pelican Press, the sidebar to editor Matt Walsh’s letter from the editor, says, “The opinion page is shifting its politico-economic philosophy to that of The Observer Group’s newspapers, embracing the principals of individual freedom and capitalism and Austrian economics; and the founding principles of the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution.”
Happy Bastille Day — something for Sarasota Francophiles!
In honor of Bastille Day, I wrote about petanque in today’s Sense and the City column — out today in the Sarasota Herald-Tribune TICKET (next to last page!). Or you can read it online at Playing Petanque a Simple Pleasure for Sarasota Francophiles.
Pelican Press Stan “the Man” Zimmerman Ousted by Observer Group
If you haven't seen Citizen Kane ... maybe now's a good time to check it out.
Highly respected and gazillion-award-winning shoe-leather newspaperman Stan Zimmerman was let go by the Observer Group on Thursday of last week.
Zimmerman had just nabbed a 2010 second-place award from the Florida Press Association for his investigative reporting on the FBI’s investigation into former Sarasota County School District employees involved in the purchase of classroom ActivBoards. He collaborated on that piece with another former Pelican reporter William Mansell.
Zimmerman holds an MA in Journalism and Public Affairs from American University, Washington, DC, and is the author of “A History of Smuggling in Florida;” The History Press, 2006. The guy is widely known and respected for his straight reporting and pull-no-punches news-gathering. I know I’m not the only one in Sarasota who will sorely miss seeing his columns and articles in print.
But … good news: Stan let me know that he’s “moving his pen” over to SarasotaPatch.com, where I believe he’ll continue to cover Sarasota County people, government, shenanigans, places, hoopla, and news of import. In fact, I notice he’s got a story up there today — check it out by clicking this link http://sarasota.patch.com/government, and I notice you can do an RSS subscribe to his county coverage so you can count on continuing to receive his excellent reporting.
Good luck, Stan!
Transformation Magazine
Have you ever heard of Transformation Magazine? I hadn’t … until a woman who heard me speak this past spring at the Democratic Club of Sarasota Wine & Cheese Lecture Series, sent me a link to an article she’d written.
You might want to check out the magazine’s site and this article: Gathering at the Choice Point.
Parking meter parody song from 107.9 Sarasota — too funny
Click on the link below to listen to local radio 107.9 WSRZ’s send up on the parking meter situation in Sarasota a la Lady Gaga
Parking Meter Send Up — compliments of WSRZ — just click on the unbagged meter on the page when it opens.
(photos above courtesy of www.morningcrewshow.com.
Thems fightin’ words! …. MC’s counterpoint to Grimes Chutney review
David Grimes is a funny guy — I read him in the Sarasota Herald Tribune every week, but when he recently gave a less than glowing review of my favorite restaurant haunt — Chutney’s on Hillview … my inner grrrrrrlllllll game out.
You can read my counterpoint to the Grimes review in today’s Sarasota Herald Tribune TICKET page 33E, or online by clicking here: Chutney’s Imperfect Perfection.
Ending homelessness? Adam Tebrugge spells out a plan …
Tebrugge addresses the capacity crowd at a meeting held in February at the Church of the Redeemer in Sarasota.
The folks getting behind this ten-year plan are motivated and passionate about solving the problem of
Crowd at February meeting.
To get more info about the event, see lunch options, and register, visit the Dems website.
(Photos courtesy of Ringling College student Karen Arango — visit www.karenarango.wordpress.com for more images and to learn more about her photography.)
Sarasota parking meters suspended!
Yowza — parking meters suspended by Sarasota City Commissioners — read the Herald-Trib story here.
Sarasota libraries hold keys to independence
I’ve been going to the library since I was ankle-high to a grasshopper … here’s my take on the connection between libraries and a democratic, independent America in today’s Sarasota Herald-Tribune.
image courtesy of scgov.net
And if you’re close to a computer or radio later tonight … and concerned about our Sarasota County libraries, I hear Sarabeth Kalajian, General Manager for the Sarasota County Library System, is going to be on air to discuss “everyman’s [and women’s!] university” on Local Matters with guest host Billy Weatherinton — WSLR 96.5 LPFM on your radio dial or just click on WSLR on the Internet to listen from your computer.
Falling for fireworks
Read about my love/hate relationship with the Fourth of July — in today’s Sarasota Herald-Tribune TICKET or online at
Falling for Fireworks