Behind the Headlines

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

Update: The story of Margaret Stevens, the woman whose golf cart was nabbed, seemed to reach all kinds of different people. Margaret’s daughter, Kathleen, originally wrote a letter to the newspaper on what was lost during the burglary and we thought it would make a good story.

I liked the idea of doing the story because, while we often report on crimes that happen, it’s rare that we report on the other side of that unless the person is physically harmed. Even then, it’s usually just the straight facts, though occasionally we’ll get an in-depth perspective from a victim. So the end result was what I suspected would happen.

Kathy and Margaret were contacted by different people - all wanting to either offer sympathies and to tell them to keep faith or to offer them some sort of transportation for Margaret since she couldn’t get around as well without the golf cart.

Eventually a couple donors came up with another golf cart. A year older than the original, but just as zippy and just as liberating than the one that was stolen. Though they had to go through the ordeal, they ended up with their faith in people reinvigorated.

Read more about it soon in the MEN.

I just submitted a story for the health page on Lyme Disease. Nothing out of the ordinary. Except, working on this story has intersected with my life. Each of the symptoms, the prognosis - it wasn’t just something that happens to other people; it was something that will or has happened to one of my people.
Someone close to me has Lyme Disease. He contracted it a few years ago as an employee of a state’s DNR department. It started with really sore muscles, a sore neck he couldn’t move, heart palpitations and eventually Bell’s Palsy - paralysis of his facial muscles. All this and the guy was still commuting 7 miles each way on his bike to and from work, digging holes and clearing paths in the mid-July weather.

Since he was on the east coast where they’re a little more familiar with the disease - it was named after a town in Connecticut where most of the population complained of similar health problems - it was a somewhat quick diagnosis. However, the nature of the beast is that it’s never truly gone for some people.

The more I researched, the more I cringed. Of course I had researched it then, when he first came down with it, but in the last few years more information has become concrete. Advances have been made. The uncertainty, the maybe it could do this horrible thing to you is the worst part.

After meeting with Tammy Soncrant and her mother, and seeing the pain she was in and the degeneration of her health that she credits to Lyme Disease, it became a very real thing. I thought about all the regular aches my person has. All of the tiredness. The irritability and mood swings - which is considered a side effect of LD. It brought it all under a microscope. For the last week, it’s been at the top of my mind. I guess, to a degree, I’ve become more sympathetic, a little less annoyed with the frequent “but my legs feel weird” complaint.

Tammy has been planning her funeral as a result of her current state of health. She contacted the news because she said she wanted to create more awareness of the disease and let people know it happens here. If one person, she said, was able to benefit from her story, then it was worth telling it.

If I count, then it’s already worked.

Who knew that Rauch Road had been built in the 1930’s? To me, that just sounds so crazy. At the road commission meeting the other night, I learned more about roads, Rauch and Samaria specifically, than I ever knew I wanted.

Crushing, chipping, sealing, grinding - it all sounds a little like a bad trip to the dentist. It was pretty informative though.

They estimate that about 500 cars go through Rauch on any given day. But that number would jump significantly if the road weren’t so horrible. No action was taken (and no one threatened to shove anything anywhere), but hopefully it’s the start of the movement to make positive changes.

What’s the general consensus? Do you think the road commission is just paying lip service to the Rauch situation or will this road actually get fixed in the next year or two?

I just spoke with another person about possible dog-napping. Since the story ran two weeks ago - Lost but Not Forgotten - I’ve gotten tons of emails and calls. Some people were just curious about what was happening, if the police were investigating, if the woman found her dog, etc.
Others were reporting their own experiences. A few reported incidents with a blue van.

The call I just got was about a white van, following alongside a dog. An astute neighbor noticed the scene and asked the kid involved if the dog was his. He said it was, but she jotted down the license plate info anyway. It was a white van with black stripes trying to coax a small dog inside. She said it was likely nothing, that the dog was probably theirs, but just in case.

It’s fascinating to me that so many people have become involved in this. Have you been on the lookout for anything suspicious as a result of this? Have you more closely watched your dog? I’m just curious how others are reacting - if they are reacting. My advice to the woman who called, as well as anyone else who suspects something is amiss with their missing dog or a neighbor’s is to call animal control and the humane society and provide as much detail as possible. (Of course, also letting me know so I can stay on top of what’s happening!) If animal control or the state police get enough reports of suspecting dog-napping, they’ll launch an investigation.
So, what’s the word on the street?

It’s well known, yet somewhat boggling, that when we run an animal story it generates a lot of feedback. It’s understandable because many people feel passionately about their pets and furry animals in general, but slightly odd that we get more input on stories like this than say stories about tax increases or people in perilous situations.

So I shouldn’t have been surprised that the story I put together on the woman who thinks her dog was snatched kicked off a slew of emails and phone calls. As far as I know, she has not heard anything specific about her dog as off yesterday afternoon. She has, however, been consulting with two pet psychics to see if they could shed some light on the situation. She thinks one has given her a pretty strong tip.

She’s refusing to give up. I just came across this in our paper, in the lost and found classified section:

“TO THE PERSONS - Who picked up the black & tan female miniature dachshund on Thurs. afternoon, 4/19, on Dunbar Rd., We have offered you a $500 reward to return our little girl. Is she OK? Please don’t hurt her. We want her to come home to us, we miss her very much. Why won’t you return her to us? Have we done something to you that you feel we should be punished for? Do you want to hurt her for some reason? I am trying to understand what would motivate you to keep my little dog from her home. You knew when you picked her up she belonged to someone; she has a family that loves her. It is like losing a child or another valued member of the family, there is a void only their return will fill. Please do the right thing & return her to us. I pray you never have to feel the loss we feel. Sincerely, Bill & Cheryl, 734-384-1315.”

Many people out there are cheering her on. Do you think an ad like this will be effective? Is she going about this in the right way?

My daughter is graduating this year from Monroe High School. Our church has a breakfast and recognition program every year to honor the graduates from our parish, but as it turns out, our family has a schedule conflict with that date. So after some discussion, my daughter and I decided to attend the community baccalaureate service held Tuesday night at MHS and sponsored by the Monroe Evangelical Association.

Inter-denominational events such as this are tricky to script out and program. There is such diversity of tradition, ritual and music among the Christian churches that what one congregation considers completely normal and expected for a special event could easily seem odd or strange to another.

But from our perspective as a Catholic family, the event was very well done.

Yes, the program followed a different format from what I have seen at Catholic high school graduations and parish baccalaureates. And the hymn I jokingly call “the graduation hymn” because having heard it so often at such events in my faith tradition, “Gather Us In,” wasn’t on the program.

But I did recognize and sang along with “Amazing Grace” and “How Great Thou Art.” And my daughter knew some of the praise and worship songs, which are popular among her friends.

The best thing about the music is that most of the performers were themselves talented high school seniors - some of them wearing cap and tassel as they sang into a microphone.

The sermon message focused on how important it is to be a good influence on someone else. You never know who will be that influence in your life, or how you will influence others. The preacher’s story, based on his own family’s experiences, was encouraging for both parents and students.

Something new that was added to the program this year was a scholarship drawing for two students who attended the event.

Thanks to the congregations that sponsored this event - and those who will hold similar programs in area churches or schools during graduation season. A baccalaureate is a nice send-off from the faith community to the graduates!

In searching for information on lost dogs and pets in general, I was checking out different lost pet Web sites. In order to use the sites in the story I’m working on, I wanted to check them out first to see if they are helpful, free, easy to use, etc.

In doing so, I came across one that lists an “additional” line of detail for each pet. Some of the descriptions, well, I’ll let them speak for themselves.

Additional:
“big feet, droopy eyes and bad teeth”;
“sings the andy griffiths theme song, u of m fight song, says hello, what up, prettybird, says and plays peek-a-boo”;
“Talks exceptionally well. Amswers to the name of Elvis”;
“Well-trained, gets along with other animals”;
“Coax with meat or cheese.”;
“Recently been neutered, has/had cone collar, large size testicle due to complications with surgery.”;
“he was wearing a silver chain collar, he has a spot on his eye that looks like eyeliner, muscular, 4 years old, may bite so dont touch”;
“we think its a male. his name is sunny. he is very loud and likes to dance”;
“very friendly and often crying for attention wandered off and is greatly missed. name is Parker but hardly responds to it. responds to food.”;
and my favorite - “Scared of the world”

I wonder what our pets would say about us.