Ginny from the Blog

So I’m sitting at my desk in the NBC17 newsroom, when body guards usher in Gov. Mike Easley. The state’s top elected official was appearing on MSNBC to speak about his choice to endorse Sen. Hillary Clinton for president.

Anyway, Easley was nice enough. He thanked our staff for getting him situated in front of the camera. His body guards stood just to the right of him and looked out the window, whispered among themselves and occasionally glanced at the TV hanging above my desk to see how the interview was going.

Easley’s endorsement comes on the heels of Sen. Barack Obama’s well attended rally at the Dean Smith Center in Chapel Hill (reportedly, about 18,000 people showed up). Do you think Gov. Easley’s endorsement will help Clinton’s chances in North Carolina (Raleigh-based Public Policy Polling showed Clinton trailing Obama in North Carolina by 12 points as of Monday)?

The finalists for Durham’s vacant city manager post will be announced Monday, April 28, according to a news release from city officials. This is exciting news for anyone who pays attention to Durham city government since it’s been a little over four months since city manager Patrick Baker announced that he was resigning. At the time, Mayor Bill Bell pledged to fill the post by the end of June 2008, the Independent Weekly reported.

Also on Monday, the city is also inviting the public and city employees to a forum to ask the finalists questions from 7 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. at City Hall.

Here’s what annoys me a little (this is my reporter side kicking in). Why is the city choosing to release the names of the finalists on the SAME DAY as the forum? That doesn’t really give the public and employees time to Google the candidates and find out information about their backgrounds that may not be included in their resumes.

Back in 2005, when the city was looking for a city manager to replace Marcia Conner, it announced the finalists two days before the public forum, giving the public (and reporters) ample time to research the finalists before asking their questions. Here’s the article I wrote(PDF) following the ‘05 forum back when I was a reporter for the Herald-Sun.

On the bright side, I think it’s impressive that city leaders are keeping the process somewhat open to the public. Often hiring decisions like these are made with little to no input from the public, so it’s cool that Durham continues to let residents participate in the process.

That being said, does the public really get to help pick Durham’s next city manager? Not really. That’s up to the city council to decide. I guess, in theory, if the public made a big enough stink about one of the candidates that the council may bow to pressure and not pick that candidate.

Still, I wonder how much value the folks in Durham place on having a finalists forum? In 2005, about 120 people showed up. How many do you think will come Monday night?

We found out yesterday (thanks to a front page article in the News & Observer) that the city of Raleigh is incapable of picking out a decent logo for water conservation. Today, the N&O announced a contest asking readers to submit ideas for a mascot that could represent local civic issues. Here are some examples the N&O offered to get us thinking:

Invent a mascot for a civic issue in Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill or elsewhere and send it to us. Here are a few examples to get you going:

* Terry the Central Raleigh Teardown
* Gus the Wake Reassignment Bus
* Norv the Blueprint, emblem of the Carolina North planning process.
* Crumbles, the DOT Rubble

This is a pretty clever way to engage readers. I’m glad to see the N&O redeeming itself after running the raindrop mascot on the front page yesterday. In fact, that’s probably the reason they ran that ugly thing on the front page, just so they could promote their contest today.

Hmmm. Wonder what a good mascot would be for Ginny from the Blog?

I’m not sure which of the following is more annoying:

1. The city of Raleigh has announced the creation of the ugliest mascot to help urge residents to cut back on water usage.

OR

2. That the News & Observer chose to feature the poorly-designed mascot today on its front page .

The mascot’s name is “Rainy” and he’s an ugly, blue raindrop with a creepy, toothy grin. The N&O reports that the mascot was made by a graphic designer in the city’s public affairs office. It doesn’t look like the graphic designer logged a lot of time working on it because it’s so poorly designed. I guess that’s a good thing since the designer’s salary is most likely paid through taxes. A better idea would have been to have a contest and see what local high school and college students could have come up with.

OK. Turning to the N&O. Why is this on the front page? Sure, the story is cleverly written and actually features a little background on mascots in other cities. And it’s always nice to balance out the front page with a lighter story. But come on. A poorly designed mascot does not deserve front page play. Put it in the City/State section.

But props to writer David Bracken for this description of the mascot: “Dressed only in boots, gloves and a floppy hat, Rainy bears a striking resemblance to Mr. Potato Head caught in a downpour.”

What do you think? Does the creation of this mascot deserve to be on the front page? And do you think this raindrop makes a good mascot for the city’s water conservation efforts?

Our sports director, Penn Holderness, wanted to find a way to get around an NCAA regulation that says you can’t show highlights from the tournament until all games are over. So on March 20, when Duke beat Belmont in the final seconds of the game, NBC17 couldn’t show highlights on our 11 o’clock show.

But Penn wasn’t going to stand for that. So he recapped the game using dolls including making a stuffed frog play the role of Duke’s Gerald Henderson. You have to see this.

This may not be a news flash, but it was on the front page of the News & Observer today. Apparently, local residents are turning to craigslist.com and usasexguide.info for prostitution, the N & O reports.

While the story provides some insight into the local online sex scene, I was left wondering why the editors chose to feature this on the front page today. I read the whole article while eating eggs and drinking coffee, and it was definitely a lighter read. But there didn’t seem to be a strong reason to elevate this story to the front page (at least it was below the fold).

Here’s the nut graph (that paragraph us journalists use to give context for why the story is being written) from the story:

Once a hush-hush trade, prostitution thrives openly on sites like craigslist, buoyed by the flood of online information about how to buy sex cheaply — and avoid getting caught.

Economists and sociologists say the Internet provides the information and anonymity to hire prostitutes in secret, fueling the illegal sex business.

There’s also some information about how local police have bolstered Internet patrols, yet local police officials wouldn’t speak to specifics. I’m glad the N&O did the story. It’s cool that the local newspaper is willing to tackle topics that might turn off (or in this case, turn on) some readers. Still, I’m left wondering whether this is really front page worthy.

What do you think?

Also, I found the picture above pretty amusing. It ran on the jump page beside the N&O’s online sex story. The photo ran under a headline that says: “China’s sex revolution is private.” The caption for photo says: “A Chinese couple walks in a district known for its budget motels near a university in Beijing. The motels are often used for sexual trysts.”

But if that were me and my non-existent boyfriend featured in a picture below a headline like that, you better believe I would not be a happy camper. How would you feel if your picture ran under a headline like that?

When someone goes to the hospital after being raped, doctors use a rape kit to test for evidence. Who would have thought those same rape victims would later receive a bill in the mail for that test?

The News & Observer’s Mandy Locke highlighted this burden today in a well-researched article that left me sad and angry at the system:

The vast majority of the 3,000 or so emergency room patients examined for sexual assaults each year shoulder some of the cost of a rape kit test, according to state records and victim advocates. For some, it’s as little as a $50 insurance co-payment. For those without insurance, it’s hundreds of dollars left when a state program designed to help reaches its limit.

The average hospital bill for a rape kit is $1,600, according to the article. Could you imagine how haunting it would be to receive a bill for those services when you’re trying to put such a horrible violation behind you?

I noticed the N&O posted a follow-up article on its Web site this afternoon saying state leaders are looking for ways to cover the costs not covered by insurance and other reimbursements. It appears that declaration is a direct result of Locke’s article.

It’s important to note that in some cases, Locke reported, hospitals will forgive the balance of the bill for rape victims. But what if a rape victim doesn’t realize this and shells out a few hundred bucks of their hard earned money just to put the past behind them? Or worse, what if a rape victim can’t afford to pay and the bill lingers on their credit report? I’m so glad Locke brought this to light and I hope state lawmakers make good on their word to find money in the state budget to make sure this no longer occurs.

I’m one of those people who doesn’t really watch American Idol (I say really because I’ve been sucked in a few times before while flipping through the channels). But I sorta pride myself on not being addicted to the show. I like that the TV gods haven’t been able to spoon feed me their latest reality show creation (even if they’ve snagged 30 million+ other people). I like that when one of my co-workers declared she was super excited that Jordin Sparks was singing the National Anthem at the Super Bowl this year, that I had to ask whether Jordin was a guy or a gal.

But, alas, I’m going on day four with the flu. And in case you haven’t noticed, there is absolutely nothing worth watching on TV in the wake of the writer’s strike. And while the strike is officially over, it will still be couple weeks before we’re back to semi-decent programming. So last night, I watched Simon, Paula and Randy (I just had to Google his name, I started to type Ruben, but that didn’t seem quite right) narrow down the season’s contestants to 24. I have to admit, the show is kinda catchy, but I don’t think I’ll be seeking it out anytime soon.

Other shows I’ve watched while sick include:

Married with Children, Flip this House, King of the Hill, the Home Shopping Network (I haven’t bought anything yet, but have you seen these creepy stuffed bunnies Marie Osmond is trying to peddle, creepy and cute), Beverly Hills 90210, Melrose Place, the Andy Griffith Show ( in color *yuck*) lots of CNN, Fox News and C-SPAN (I sat through about 15 minutes of an Ann Coulter speech, which may actually have made me more sick) and my final confession … I’ve watched about two full episodes of Janice Dickinson Modeling Agency.

Oh, and I’ve also discovered this weird little show on Nickelodeon called “Wonder Pets.” If you haven’t seen it before, let me tell you what just happened. The baby chick was happy they helped the bullfrog, so he said something along the lines of “let’s celebrate with some celery” and pulled a piece of the vegetable out of thin air and then the bullfrog said “wait, try it with some Louisiana hot sauce” and pulled a bottle of the sauce out of thin air and poured it on the celery. Then they all ate the celery and lived happily ever after. I may have been hallucinating because of my fever, but I swear I just saw that happen.

I’m heading to Atlanta with co-worker and fellow blogger Wayne Sutton. I’ve already read the latest issue of Glamour, blogged about the circus and filled out Valentine’s Day cards. I had to find something else to keep me amused, so I made this video:

Tonight marks an extremely exciting day in the NBC17 newsroom. We’re launching our new set. If you’re reading this blog from outside the NBC17 viewing area, don’t worry, you can still see the changes on our daily Web casts.

Our new set allows us to bring the news to you from many different angles, including this one:

Here’s a sneak preview of our new set: