A forum for lively discussion about interesting newspaper topics and a look at the behind-the-scenes workings of the Press-Republican newsroom.
By JACK DOWNS
Design Editor
The more I look at issues around global climate change and our first, few, feeble attempts to do something about it, the more I realize that green is a complicated color.
Here's an example: You are a green go-getter. You're reading this under the illumination of a compact florescent light bulb. In your driveway is a new flex-fuel car. And what's that in the back yard? Oh, it's a giant industrial wind turbine. Good choices, right?
Yes and no.
Continue reading "It's not easy being green" »
By ROBIN CAUDELL
Staff Writer
During my daughter’s freshman year at the College of Sante Fe, Nikki did a semester abroad in Belize.
It was highly unusual for the college to allow freshmen to participate in the fledging program, but they were so short of students, the program would be cancelled otherwise.
And, my daughter was desperate to depart an unusually dry New Mexico.
I always told Nikki she was a water baby. She was born on Pensacola Bay and subsequently lived along the South China Sea, Subic Bay, Chesapeake Bay, Atlantic Ocean, Lake Champlain and back to our ancestral homelands on Maryland’s Eastern Shore. She and the desert were not a good mix, but Sagitarians chart their own course. It was a battle she won at 2.
Continue reading "An odyssey between Lake Champlain and the Caribbean Sea" »
By GERIANNE WRIGHT
Staff Writer
I’m behind the times, I’m not “with” it. I don’t own an iPod, a Blackberry, a Wii, Me or You. I barely own a cell phone. I pay as I go, contributing to Richard Branson’s Virgin empire.
But I doubt there’s anyone who could come up with a legitimate answer when I ask what could possibly be so important that you’d have to bring your cell phone into the bathroom stall with you?
Continue reading "It's not a phone booth; it's a restroom" »
By LOIS CLERMONT
News Editor
Covering the car-fire death of a Plattsburgh man presented us with all kinds of ethical challenges.
We first heard something had happened when the call went out over the scanner Wednesday afternoon. Photographer Mike Betts headed over to Sharron Avenue and called from there to say he could see the charred car and told us police said someone had died.
Our crime reporter, Andrea VanValkenburg, was at County Court, so I sent Rachael Osborne over to start reporting the story. She hadn’t been there long when a distraught woman pulled up and told Rachael she had heard her brother had died. She was shouting about someone trying to kill him.
Rachael asked the woman what her brother’s name was. Keith Primard, she was told. Rachael heard police confirm to the woman that it was her brother who had died.
Continue reading "Tough decisions about coverage of car-fire death" »
By JACK DOWNS
Design Editor
Brimming oceans wash away Manhattan; monster hurricanes strike deep into the continent; vast droughts parch the South and West; killer heat waves bake the nation.
The apocalyptic predictions of global climate change have the feel of a Hollywood blockbuster - a cast of billions, great special effects and a plot line just strange enough to make it all feel unreal.
Continue reading "Does global warming bug you?" »
By GERIANNE WRIGHT
Staff Writer
OK, I’ll admit that I’m getting a bit long in the tooth. I haven’t been in Plattsburgh long enough to recognize items in the weekly “Look Back” column yet, but I’m getting close.
That still doesn’t make me eligible for membership in the AARP. According to the association’s Web site, membership is extended to “people age 50 and over in the United States” or, apparently, anyone who will pony up the $12.50 annual dues.
That’s not me. At least not yet, anyway, but AARP wants to hedge its bets and court me a few years early.
Continue reading "Not ready to join AARP" »
By JACK DOWNS
Design Editor
With winter reluctantly giving way to spring, I've been thinking about what our winters, and overall weather, will be like in the North Country over the next 10 and 20 years as global warming gradually but inexorably takes hold.
In some ways, we live a charmed weather life in our corner of the Northeast: tornadoes are very rare and seldom fatal; hurricanes peter out long before they get here; mud slides are almost unknown; avalanches are rare, remote and small; floods are isolated and usually well predicted. Sure, we have snow and cold, but we're ready for it.
But that charm may be wearing off.
Continue reading "More severe weather events are in our future" »
By JOE LoTEMPLIO
Staff Writer
Well, I guess I’m probably not going to get my case of beer.
Yes, Eliot Spitzer owes me a case of beer going back 10 years.
Continue reading "The beer that won't be delivered" »
By JACK DOWNS
Design Editor
Here are two news tidbits for you:
Some of the big investment banks are downgrading coal-company stocks, predicting a long-range slump in the carbon-heavy industry.
New York is trying to decide how many miles of snowmobile trails to allow on state land in the Adirondack Park.
Random headlines? Maybe not. For me, these two stories converge on a question: How should we _ as individuals, families and society _ invest in the future of outdoor recreation?
Continue reading "A green future for outdoor recreation" »
By ANDREA VANVALKENBURG
Staff Writer
PLATTSBURGH — And I thought I knew what being a state trooper was all about.
I knew law-enforcement was a dangerous, yet much-needed job, one that brings authorities into a daily world of uncertainty — tumultuous situations, abrupt violence, car accidents, traffic stops and the potential for danger around almost every corner.
I knew state troopers serve and protect.
I knew they would go out of their way to lend a helping hand to those in need.
But come to find out, there was a lot I didn’t know, or fully realize at least, and I’m sure there’s still plenty I don’t.
Continue reading "A day at State Police barracks" »
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