Behind the Headlines

By Paula Wethington / paula@monroenews.com

One week ago today, a pancake breakfast was taking place at Fremont Progress Airport in Fremont, Ohio; which is about an hour away from Monroe, Mich. Airport owner Gene Damschroder was giving airplane rides during the pancake breakfast. The plane crashed on one of those flights, killing him and five passengers.

There was a photo and AP story in Monday’s edition of The Monroe Evening News about the wreck. Many of you also got the headlines from Toledo, Ohio, media that day and during the week. I’ve been told it hit the national wires within hours that day.

Here’s a detail that I only recently caught - plane crash victim Matt Clearman, who recently lived in Maumee, Ohio, was previously from Livonia, Mich., and has been buried in Redford Township. See story in The News-Messenger, Fremont, Ohio.

Some of you know that I grew up in Fremont and worked at The News-Messenger and its sister paper, the News Herald in Port Clinton, Ohio, before arriving at The Monroe Evening News.

That being said, I didn’t have any personal stories to tell about Gene and the other plane victims. I knew many people who had worked with Gene or met him over the years, but had no personal stories to the discussion when the accident got news attention locally. Besides, stormy weather and lengthy power outages quickly became the news of the week here in Michigan.

But I spent the day in Fremont yesterday visiting family. The exit to get off the bypass to my parents’ home is right by the airport.

And here are some tidbits I can share:

• My parents live close enough to the airport that they do hear the planes buzzing in and out. Somehow, the crash itself didn’t get their attention - they learned about it on Toledo TV. When my mother had a chance to go look for the crash site, she realized it was only two blocks of her home. It was one of the few open spaces where Gene could have tried to land a plane in distress, and my mom’s theory is, that as an experienced pilot, that’s where he was aiming.
• My mother hosted a garage sale yesterday and I helped her staff the sale. One of the customers started talking to us about the disaster because of how close we were to the crash site. The man told us his family had attended the pancake breakfast. He had sent his children up on Gene’s plane for rides, and they were the flight just before the fatal crash. “Fifteen more minutes, and I’d be burying a child myself,” he said.
• A Facebook group has been created in memory of the Fremont plane crash victims.
• And if you’re interested in following the stories about the plane crash, the reader forums and photos, do check out what The News-Messenger has posted on its web site. It’s a Monday-Saturday newspaper, with a newsroom staff much smaller than we have at The Monroe Evening News. While the N-M had a definite disadvantage on Sunday afternoon competing with the Toledo media for initial coverage, the staff has more than made up for its initial limitations by staying on the story all week. For example, my former boss, now retired N-M editor Roy Wilhelm, wrote about how Gene always had something to say about planes in the news, and what it was like to cover another fatal crash years ago at the airport.

By Paula Wethington / paula@monroenews.com

Power came back on to my home in Monroe about 8 p.m. Wednesday - nearly a 48-hour run.

If you’d like to read up on how we got by, there are follow up stories at Monroe on a Budget.

By Paula Wethington / paula@monroenews.com

What an interesting headline to wake up to: an earthquake at 5:30 a.m. today that could have been felt here in southeast Michigan, …. that is …. if my husband and I had been awake and realized what was going on.

Anyway, the Red Cross does have a list of tips about earthquake safety. You’ll find the pdf file here.

A couple things about the story that ran today on the alleged “secret” settlement deal. (Read the story here)

Jerry Oley was not questioning whether Mr. Berns was fired. It was pretty clear that he was fired and Mr. Oley said something to the effect of it was a pretty sweet deal for someone who was an at-will employee (no contract) who had been fired. There was a little mix up in the editing process. It was my fault - I wasn’t clear about what I was saying in the story.

Also, in the web version of the story, the sidebar with details of the contract didn’t appear as they did in the print version. Here is what the sidebar said:

“The agreement stated that Mr. Berns could not seek any legal retribution against the county or the 911 board authority for any reason if he signed. Here are some of the provisions of the settlement agreement:
• The county will pay $50,000 in severance, minus state, federal and local income tax withholdings to Mr. Berns.
• The county will also pay $10,126.37 for accrued but unused vacation and sick days as of Dec. 31, 2007.
• Should Mr. Berns participate in the county-sponsored health, dental or vision plans, the county will pay the monthly COBRA premiums for up to eight months, starting in January of 2008.
• He will remain on paid administrative leave until Dec. 31, 2007.
• All records of discipline will be purged from the personnel file.
• Mr. Berns can still call on the county for written or phone references.
• The county agreed not to oppose his application for unemployment.
• Mr. Berns agreed not to disparage or demean the county or the people outlined in an earlier provision.
The agreement was signed by Charles Londo, county administrator and chief financial officer, Sheriff Tilman Crutchfield and Mr. Berns and went into effect on Dec. 28, 2007.”

One reader emailed me after reading the story and asked a great question. He wondered where the funding for the 911 board comes from - i.e. is the county contributing to it, “which would justify Mr. Oley’s concerns”?

Here was my reply:
“From what I understand, the county board does supply the Central Dispatch department with budgeted funds and, as listed in the line item budget, the position was considered a central dispatch position. Essentially that means the county supplies the money for the job. However, once money is allocated to an authority – which falls under a different class of organizational structure – the county doesn’t really have much say in what they do with it. So, it’s not a very straightforward answer. This is just what I’ve found out and I need to verify it to see what is the real deal here.”

To take it further, the Ambulance Authority is a separate budget item, but is also supplied money through the county. As an authority it has certain autonomy, very much like the community mental health board authority. The county commissioners appoint the board members but don’t have direct oversight like they would a committee.

By Paula Wethington / paula@monroenews.com

A story was on page 1A of the Feb. 12 print and e-editions of The Monroe Evening News about a 13-year-old Hamtramck girl who called 911 to tell Monroe County Central Dispatch that her dad was driving drunk southbound on I-75. After the Monroe Police Department pulled over the driver, the girl was taken to the police station where another relative picked her up.

And a court date has been scheduled in Monroe County District Court for the driver.

After the original story was in our newspaper and on www.monroenews.com, the article was picked up by the Associated Press and made headlines in many other newspapers. Someone in Niagara Falls, Ont., saw the story and wrote a heartfelt letter that you’ll see on page 4A of today’s print and e-editions of The Monroe Evening News.

A snippet:

Having no way to contact this young woman personally, I wanted to reach out to her through your publication, if at all possible, and tell her how proud I am of her bravery and clear thinking.
She must have been frightened of the consequences on many levels, but in the end she probably saved her own life and that of her father’s. She is to be commended for her courage, especially now when her father has been arrested and the long-term consequences to her family may be severe. …

Wherever this young lady is, I am so very proud of her.

By Paula Wethington / paula@monroenews.com

For more than 20 years, Kaye Lani Rafko Wilson of Monroe has been known as “the last Miss Michigan to win the Miss America title.” (See “I just wanted to be me” at monroenews.com)

While Mrs. Wilson wasn’t in Las Vegas Saturday night to see Miss Michigan Kirsten Haglund receive her crown as Miss America 2008, she did get to congratulate the new national queen by phone that night. Here is how that came about: (more…)

By Paula Wethington / paula@monroenews.com

One of my assigments for Monday’s edition of The Monroe Evening News was to follow up on the headlines out of Toledo of a multi-fatal accident Sunday night on I-280.

While we had an Associated Press version of the story, additional details such as the names of the victims were just becoming available as our newspaper was on deadline. It took several phone calls to pin down which Toledo Police Department office had the latest press release that the Toledo TV reporters were reporting on. (Monday’s story in Monroe Evening News)

That’s part of the routine for following a major story that’s just outside a newspaper’s main coverage area: you’re one step behind the reporters who are on the scene, but looking for angles that need to be emphasized for your audience. And sometimes, the rewrite includes translating local landmarks to something that makes a bit more sense to a regional audience.

The weird thing about that story landing on my desk is I know that part of Toledo very well. (more…)

By Paula Wethington / paula@monroenews.com

In Feb. 1, 2004, I wrote a story for The Monroe Evening News called “Married but not always Mrs.” that reviewed the local court records to see what last names local women were choosing at the time of marriage and divorce … and asked local women what they did with their names and why.

Snippet:

“For women who are getting married, the question of “Will you change your name?” is a big one. It’s one answered through a lifetime of introductions and a slew of legal documents. Whether a name changes, married women often find it difficult to explain who they are and to whom they are related. …

While there are other options, Monroe County women overwhelmingly switch their last names upon marriage. …”

As the story went on to explain … there are a lot of reasons why someone prefers to be known by one name or the other. Some were already well-known under a name and didn’t want to change it, others wanted everyone in the family to share the same last name.

One woman I spoke to was a former local resident who had moved to California. She took her maiden name as her middle name, took her married name as her last name, and answers to both. Double naming is not common in Monroe County, although some local women do that or hyphenate to a new last name. But her choice also was considered unusual where she was living. Almost all the married women she knew in California never changed their legal name at all from their maiden names.

Now for the local numbers: Statistics from the 712 divorces and annulments reported by Monroe County Circuit Court in 2003 showed 96 percent of the women had used their husband’s last name during the marriage. About 2 percent kept their maiden name throughout the marriage, and about 2 percent hyphenated both names.

During that same year, 30 percent of local women who took their husband’s name returned to their maiden name at divorce. A handful made other name changes, such as hyphenating both names.

I have not run the numbers for an update, but it appears from the recent court records that the number has increased to about two-thirds of local women taking a previous name back upon a divorce.

By Paula Wethington / paula@monroenews.com

One of the bloggers at an unofficial Funky Winkerbean fan site that I like to hang out at has posted a link to a New York Times health blog, A Death in the Funny Pages Causes Controversy, that was written Oct. 12.

The article gives an introduction of what happened to the character Lisa Moore as she died of cancer, and includes a few of the clips. There’s a huge list of comments from readers across the country about their reaction to the story line.

by Paula Wethington / paula@monroenews.com

A Fair Trade Fall Festival, hosted by the Monroe Vicariate Peace and Social Justice Committee, was held Saturday at St. Mary Catholic Church in Monroe. (See Monroe Evening News story.)

If you would like to follow up on the discussion and ideas that were introduced at the event, here are some of the web sites recommended by the Monroe Vicariate Peace and Social Justice Committee and the Sisters, Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary:

Higher Grounds Trading Company

www.javaforjustice.com

The Catholic Relief Services Trade Program

www.crsfairtrade.org

Fair Trade Federation

www.fairtradefederation.org

Global Exchange

store.gxonlinestore.org

Ten Thousand Villages

www.tenthousandvillages.org

TransFair USA

www.transfairusa.org

Equal Exchange

www.equalexchange.com

Friends of the Third World

www.friendsofthethirdworld.org

This morning I was out covering a prayer thing - the annual See You at the Pole event. When there I ran into a kid who I had met before. I’ll admit I didn’t remember him, but he remembered me. When he said that, I was a little nervous. This could go either way, I thought, depending on the situation. I always try to be respectful and sensitive to those I work with, but sometimes, just being a member of the media and being present is enough to leave a bad taste.

It turns out I had come across him and his family in April of 2006. It was one of my first weekends working at the News, covering the police beat. When I came in that Saturday some of the copy editors had just overheard on the scanner that a man had an accident with a tractor. Only his legs were visible and the tractor was on his head and chest. I had to go out to the scene. I was terrified. I didn’t know what I would find, how badly he had been injured (the helicopter was called in), how his family would react, how I would get information from the rescue workers without getting in the way, etc.

I had done spot news before, but it had been awhile. And it was usually something where I knew more about what to expect. So I went out there.

The story read:
“Blue Bush Rd. in Frenchtown Township was closed for about an hour Saturday afternoon when a man was pinned under a tractor on a plot of land just off the road.
The road was closed from about 3:45 p.m. to 5 p.m. to allow an emergency response helicopter to land and take Mark Harper to the hospital. Rescue Crews from Frenctown Fire Department and the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office responded to the call.
Mr. Harper, 45, was listed in serious but stable condition Saturday night at Toledo Hospital.
According to his uncle Tony Czuchra, Mr. Harper suffered broken bones in his face and a large gash across his scalp when the machine flipped. He is expected to make a full recovery.
“He’s going to have to have some surgery, but he was very lucky,” said Czuchra said during a phone interview, family members laughing in the background. “We’re actually very relieved. It looked a lot worse when it happened.”
Mr. Harper was helping his neighbor cultivate a patch of land at the Taylor Orchids farm around 3 p.m. Saturday. Neighbor Ron Ciesinski, the owner of the farm, was the first person to notice something was amiss…”

A few calls to the hospital after the ordeal didn’t really provide any insight into his condition. I talked with the family again later that weekend, but not since. The kid remembered me from the scene. I’ve always wondered about Mr. Harper and what happened - they predicted he would be fine, but you never know. So I asked. He apparently received some stitches and surgery to help repair the broken bones in his face, but is now fine.

It can be such an odd thing at times, coming into a family’s life at its darkest or lightest moments. And then slipping out, as abruptly sometimes as we entered. As readers, I wonder, do you ever feel this way reading stories? Does it feel cut off sometimes? Do you wish we would follow up more on things like the tractor accident? Has anyone, with the exception of Mr. Harper’s family and friends, thought about this accident since that April?

jacob espinoza Says:

1. September 19th, 2007 at 9:34 pm edit“Then, with the aplomb of a prima balleriina, she pulled a silver dollar from her purse and set it spinning atop the beer-and-saliva-stained bar.
   “Gimme another, Sam!” she bellowed at the barkeep.
   The words still were hanging in the air when a sweaty long-neck was slammed down before her, catching the eye of a dry-mouthed, sweaty longshoreman who leered from across the room.
   Undaunted, she picked up the bottle and, in what seemed a single motion, removed the cap with her teeth and quaffed the contents without stopping.
   She wiped her mouth on the sleeve of her kimono, smiled wryly and tottered off the stool.
   ‘Cuse me,” she said. “I have to go castrate some animals.”
   Everyone gave her a wide berth as she strode out the door.
   One she had disappeared into the night, someone had the guts to ask the question that was on everyone’s mind: “Is that the gal that writes all that crap on The Evening News blog?”
   The silence spoke volumes.”

Aside from the bellowing and such, Mr. Espinoza brings up something - albeit a little differently than I was wanting to approach it - I’ve been thinking a bit about lately. (No, not a sweaty longneck or a leering longshoreman.)

The public and private life of a reporter. Tuesday morning when I was on my way to work I got a flat tire on the freeway. A bit of a fluke since I never take the freeway to work, but there I was, stranded since I couldn’t get the lug nuts off. A truck from Jim’s Towing came to assist and I wondered if when I turned over my card, he would recognize my name. (Anyone familiar with the forums a month or two ago will recall an extended discussion on Jim’s Towing and an alleged misdeed that was vehemently denied and subsequently never proven.) I don’t mean that in the celebrity kind of way, but in the oh, so that’s who she is, kind of way.

I also wonder about it when I’m out shopping in the community and hand over my debit card, particularly when I’m looking rather haggard. Or in instances like last week when a guy was riding around on a jet ski on the lake and it died. His dad was going up and down the street looking for anyone who may be able to help. He waited on the shared breakwall, while my neighbors and I looked through a scope, keeping his drifting son in sight. Once the Coast Guard was called, I had to tell the dad I worked for the newspaper and would have to ask him some questions.

Yesterday, a knock on the door was another neighbor, asking if he could put a political sign in my yard. No way, I told him. I hadn’t even considered if it was a candidate I would support, it just isn’t an option either way.

On the flip side, being a reporter lets me in places and allows me to ask people intimate questions I would never dream of asking without the press pass. Even at parties or social gatherings, if I come across someone interesting it probably ends up sounding more like an informal interview than small talk.

Good or bad, it just doesn’t turn off. That’s my perspective on it. But it makes me wonder - do other people think of this? If you were to meet me or another newspaper person whose name you see but not their face, in a non- professional setting, would it be like anything else? What if the person in the crowd you were talking to just happened to be a reporter?

It was right about this time six years ago that hijackers flew planes into the World Trade Center, killing nearly 3,000 people and setting off a whole chain of events that is still being played out.

Like most people, I remember where I was very vividly. I was on the phone with my mom, who called to wish me a happy birthday, and I was checking to make sure my bag was packed since I was driving to Minnesota later that day for a job interview. She had to check the other line because someone kept calling. When she came back she said something like “America is under attack.” File that under chilling words and things you don’t really ever expect your mom to say during birthday call.

So much has been said and felt about Sept. 11. About the people who were killed, about the terrorists, about the war that still follows. I don’t have much to add.

But I was thinking the other day about this. What was I doing on Sept. 10? Or Sept. 9? Or any of the days directly proceeding the event? What shoes was I wearing? What was I thinking about? Just the little things that seem like nothing, but when you can’t remember, feels like something is lost.
Maybe really happy events also leave such marks, but the human brain seems to operate more in the way of remembering negative experiences stronger. I very much remember what I was thinking that day, what happened next and what I did next. I remember what shoes I wore. It’s much more than I would have remembered about any other day that took place six years ago - birthday or otherwise. In some way, the marking of horrible or even less heinous acts (my friend Sue once stepped in dog poop on her way into my house, another regular Sue visit, but I remember it only because she tracked poop throughout before realizing - something I probably would have forgotten without the unfortunate tracking.)

So when I see those signs - Never Forget - I think, how could we? I know people need to move one and maybe we stop having public events, or the blood drives start to dwindle on years between the milestones. But, we’ve shared an intensely personal experience collectively and it’s not going away anytime soon.

Here is the final information on the Hawaii pension board trip. I’ve tried to post this several times, but had run into technical glitches each time.

Let’s see if this works: Bah!

Let’s try that again :

—- Here’s a look at the expenses by the numbers:
—- Conference registration fees
—- City: $2,670.00
—- County: $8,010.00
—- Total: $10,980.00
—-
—- Hotel fees
—- City: $7,187.26
—- County: $12,014.80
—- Total: $19,202.06
—- Average hotel cost per person: $1,920.21
—- All county pension board members paid: $1,716.40 per attendee (with the exception of William Sisk and Henry Lievens who paid their own hotel, air and expenses.)
—- City pension members costs:
—- Kansier: $3,123.68
—- Paisley: $1,961.54
—- Pinchoff: $2,102.04
—-
—- Airfare
—- City Total $2,220.76
—- County Total $4,731.82
—- Grand Total $6,952.58
—- Average: $695.26
—-
—- Kansier: $794.66
—- Paisley: $703.04
—- Pinchoff: $723.06
—- Charron: $705.10
—- Colpaert: $643.73
—- Elmore: $661.09
—- Jones: $690.60
—- Londo: $691.10
—- Morgan: $670.10
—- Thompson: $670.10
—-
—- Food, valet and parking
—- City total: $454.73
—- County total: $546.05
—- Grand total: $1,000.78
—- Average expense: $125.10
—-
—- Kansier $109.74
—- Paisley $297.59
—- Pinchoff $47.40
—- Colpaert $69.36
—- Elmore $208.76
—- Jones $39.25
—- Londo $151.25
—- Thompson $77.43
—- Charron, Sisk, Lievens and Morgan submitted no expense report.
—-
—- Additional expenses; (tips, mileage)
—- City total: $100
—- County total: $0
—- Kansier $66.00
—- Paisley $7.00
—- Pinchoff $27.00
—-
—- Related charges on city credit card (not already included in total)
—- City of Monroe Employee Retirement System Comerica credit card: $834.78
—-
—- Back to the city - spouse fees (already taken out of totals)
—- Total: $441.00
—- Kansier $200
—- Paisley $100
—- Pinchoff $141
—-
—- Amount reimbursed to attendee
—- Total: $8,426.11
—- Kansier $2,796.38
—- Paisley $2,697.63
—- Pinchoff $2,932.10

I’m still clarifying some of the information, but a story should be coming in the next few days.

Here are the 2007 NCPERS Conference expenses, as obtained through a FOIA to the Monroe County Employee Pension Board. There is an information request in for the City Pension Board expenses also.
The information was provided by Deb Elmore, retirement specialist and the person in charge of expense reports. Each of the attendees had a $890 registration fee for the conference. Hotel costs were $1,716.40 for each participant (7 nights at $245.20 a night).
The costs that varied were airline - ranging from $643.73 to $705.10. And the rest of the money reportedly spent on meals, shuttles and airport parking.
Clayton Charron, total cost: $3,311.50 - Mr. Charron’s expenses include only registration, airfare of $705.10 and hotel. He did not put in for any additional reimbursements.

Nancy Colpaert, total cost: $3,319.49 - airfare $643.73; meals $69.36.

Deb Elmore, total cost $3,476.25 - airfare $661.09; meals $134.76; airport parking $56; and airport shuttle $18.

Pamela Jones, total cost $3,336.25 - airfare $690.60; meals $0; mileage to airport 50 miles at 48.5 cents for $24.25; shuttle from airport $15.00.

Henry Lievens, total cost $890 - paid for own airfare, hotel and meals; reimbursed only for cost of registration.

Charles Londo, total cost $3,448.75 - airfare $691.10; meals 133.25; shuttle $18.00.

James Morgan, total cost $3,276.50 - Mr. Morgan’s expenses include only airfare of $670.10, hotel and registration fee. He did not put in for any additional reimbursements.

William Sisk, total cost of $890 - Mr. Sisk reimbursed the retirement system for airfare and hotel on 7/20/07. Paid for meals; he was reimbursed only for cost of registration.

David Thompson, total cost $3,353.93 - airfare $670.10; meals $77.43.

Grand total for county: $25,302.67