Day 1
I don't know what I expected. What I got was boredom. I woke in the morning and trolled the New York Times and another large regional paper and found a few national stories I thought I could localize. Two fizzled, and one got deferred.
I thought it would be a good idea to write a story pegged to the announcement that the U.S., even if it reduces the troop count in Iraq, will maintain the current levels in Western Iraq--where most of the nastiest business is going. I hiked over to the local national guard unit and asked how many of our men were in Western Iraq. None, he told me. Well, how many are in Iraq. None still. They all came home recently. Another cluster will go out in a few weeks, but he couldn't tell me what part of Iraq they were headed to.
I chased the story a little further by calling the National Guard public affairs guy. He repeated what the first one said. My story washed.
The other story went much the same way. I thought I had a local angle on the town, but I didn't. I thought the contractor might provide a local angle, but they're based too far away.
I spent most of the day bored, but I did learn a few things. First, if you go through the citizen's police academy in this area, you get to shoot an AR-15. That's pretty cool. Second, I'm drastically over-dressed to work in this area. My editor tossed on a beat-up baseball hat to go to lunch, and one guy showed up to the town meeting I covered tonight in jeans, suspenders and sandals.
The meeting proved to be the biggest point of legal interest. A local was driving across a bridge one night when the bridge broke. A board snapped up and ripped open her oil tank and transmission fluid reservoir. Her car was toast, and she asked the town to pay for it. Her insurance wouldn't cover it because she didn't have any, but the town's opted not to cover the accident either.
There are a number of personal elements here that make this woman the picture of "the little guy," but we won't go in to that. The legal question remains, who should be at fault? The town owns the road and has a responsibility to maintain its bridges... So shouldn't the town be responsible? But how can you hold them responsible for a freak accident? Ponder that one.
One last note. I bought a pound of turkey, a loaf of bread and a jar of pickles to take to work. I planned to keep this in the fridge and eat it for lunch for the rest of the week. Half way to the office, I realized I forgot my food. I cursed myself, but it turned out to be a happy accident. They hadn't installed the fridge yet. The turkey would have spoiled.
I thought it would be a good idea to write a story pegged to the announcement that the U.S., even if it reduces the troop count in Iraq, will maintain the current levels in Western Iraq--where most of the nastiest business is going. I hiked over to the local national guard unit and asked how many of our men were in Western Iraq. None, he told me. Well, how many are in Iraq. None still. They all came home recently. Another cluster will go out in a few weeks, but he couldn't tell me what part of Iraq they were headed to.
I chased the story a little further by calling the National Guard public affairs guy. He repeated what the first one said. My story washed.
The other story went much the same way. I thought I had a local angle on the town, but I didn't. I thought the contractor might provide a local angle, but they're based too far away.
I spent most of the day bored, but I did learn a few things. First, if you go through the citizen's police academy in this area, you get to shoot an AR-15. That's pretty cool. Second, I'm drastically over-dressed to work in this area. My editor tossed on a beat-up baseball hat to go to lunch, and one guy showed up to the town meeting I covered tonight in jeans, suspenders and sandals.
The meeting proved to be the biggest point of legal interest. A local was driving across a bridge one night when the bridge broke. A board snapped up and ripped open her oil tank and transmission fluid reservoir. Her car was toast, and she asked the town to pay for it. Her insurance wouldn't cover it because she didn't have any, but the town's opted not to cover the accident either.
There are a number of personal elements here that make this woman the picture of "the little guy," but we won't go in to that. The legal question remains, who should be at fault? The town owns the road and has a responsibility to maintain its bridges... So shouldn't the town be responsible? But how can you hold them responsible for a freak accident? Ponder that one.
One last note. I bought a pound of turkey, a loaf of bread and a jar of pickles to take to work. I planned to keep this in the fridge and eat it for lunch for the rest of the week. Half way to the office, I realized I forgot my food. I cursed myself, but it turned out to be a happy accident. They hadn't installed the fridge yet. The turkey would have spoiled.
posted by Matt Casey at 8:38 PM
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