Off the I-15

My cell phone rang while I was out getting the police logs today. The man on the other end of the line had a heavy accent and seemed agitated. He wanted to know why I had never responded to a letter and an email he sent me “regarding my relationship with my brother.” I get a lot of emails from people about a lot of different things, including people’s relationships with their family members, but this one didn’t ring a bell at all. We went back and forth for several minutes, while I was trying to figure out what he was talking about, and he was clearly convinced that I was beating around the bush.

“I don’t quite understand what it is you’re looking for,” I told him. “Is this a letter to the editor, or something you think I should write a story about?”

“I want you to print my letter in the paper!” he said.

“Okay,” I said, thinking I understood. “If it’s a letter to the editor, you actually need to send it to Scott Shackford. He’s our editor.”

“I want you to print my letter in Dear Abby!” he replied, growing more and more excited.

Suddenly it all became clear. It’s not the first time someone has been under the impression that I am the Abby who pens the regular Dear Abby advice column in the paper. For the record, I am not. Dear Abby is a widely syndicated column written by Jeanne Phillips under the pen name Abigail van Buren. It was founded by her mother, Pauline Phillips, some time in the 1950s, I believe.

Apparently this guy had sent his letter to the contact address listed with the column, and after becoming frustrated with waiting for it to appear, called the newspaper to complain to Abby and got transferred to my extension.

So, just to set the record straight, I’m not Dear Abby — just a lowly reporter. You can write to me for advice if you really want to, but it won’t end up in the paper.

Just started compressing the first batch of videos from the BHS candidate forum. Mark Hassell and his government students did an excellent job with the forum. The questions asked were new, and I think they challenged the candidates to think on their feet. Before and after the forum, the candidates were swamped by students asking questions.

Video from the entire forum will be up on www.desertdispatch.com by Friday evening.

What was also impressive was the turnout Thursday night. Almost the entire home bleachers of the new gym were full of students, parents and people from the community. Hassell remarked they don’t get this big of a crowd for basketball games.

Hassell shared a few secrets with me to ensuring a good turnout, well really one, tie it to the students’ grade. Students from several classes got credit or extra credit for attending the forum. Hassell said he offered even more credit if a student dressed up (many were in shirts and ties, skirts and blouses) and brought someone of voting age. One student made sure that Hassell met his step-mom, a registered voter.

It was a gimmick, yes, but it got people out; it got people together, and maybe someone learned something Thursday night.

Aaron Aupperlee | city editor

While filming in Mr. Bonvillain’s 6th period class this week, a student pulled me aside.

“Are you with the local paper?” he asked.

I had a notebook in my back pocket, a camera around my neck, a pen behind my ear and video camera in my hand. As young as I look, I hope I can’t still pass for a high schooler. My cover was blown.

“Yeah.”

The student wrote for the Aztec Warrior, the high school paper, and wanted to know if journalism was still worth going into. Without even thinking, I responded.

“Definitely.”

He asked why, and here was my response. I pointed to the newspaper he was reading (he was looking at stock prices) and said even if we aren’t writing for these things, tapping my pen against the paper, we will still be writing. Journalism is changing, evident by the video camera I now carry in my bag. I told him some of the things going on in the Desert Dispatch newsroom with video, online and multimedia are changing the way we tell stories.

“It’s exiting,” I said. “And fun.”

Then I said that even all that information he gets “for free” on the Internet probably comes from journalists in some way. CNN.com, the New York Times Web site and even your favorite celebrity or music blog does not write itself. Somewhere, maybe hidden in their parents’ basement or at an uneven table at the local Starbucks, there is a person typing away.

But the real reason to still go into journalism, and this reason escaped me at the time, is that without journalists, without the local newspaper (regardless of how you regard us) there would be no one else to tell the community what was going on in that classroom, or what was said at the candidate forum at the high school tonight, or how the volleyball team does on Friday.

I invited the student to drop by the Desert Dispatch office to see what goes on in our newsroom. I open the invitation to any prospective journalist. Give me a call and I can show where journalism is heading at the Desert Dispatch.

Aaron Aupperlee | city editor

School board consent agenda items are usually bland — approval of conferences, acceptances of donations, consultant agreements — they are supposed to be; they are items that would probably receive the full consent of the board and not require discuss. However, sometimes something interesting pops up.

At Tuesday’s Barstow Unified School District board meeting, there was an item to approve a Barstow teacher as a long-term substitute teacher in her own class. The item was part of a list of several substitute teachers needing approval for the year, but one board member how this teacher could be a sub for her own class.

Susan Levine, the interim superintendent with the district, said it was an unusual occurrence. The teacher had apparently not kept up her teaching credential. As such, the district could not employ her as a full-fledged teacher but as a sub. So, they allowed her to sub in her classroom, for a max of 30 days due to the state education code, until she got her credential up to speed.

Unfortunately, she wasn’t able to update her credential in the 30-day window. A new substitute teacher took her place, and she will continue to work in the district as a sub in other classes.

The board then voted to approve this particular teacher’s substitute time, which began at the beginning at the school year, and the entire list of other substitutes.

Aaron Aupperlee | city editor

A man named Tim called me the other day to pitch a story.

He is an actor, An actor from Houston who has spent most of his time doing community theater but who dreams of the glitz and glamour of Hollywood. He is an actor on mission, a mission to get from Houston to Hollywood with virtually no money and a lawnmower.

Tim told me he set out from Houston back in April or May and has been mowing his way across the country. When the gas money runs out, Tim stops and offers to mow lawns until he makes enough to press onto the next city. After around six months of driving, mowing and sleeping in his truck, Tim made it to Barstow and called me.

He wanted the paper to write a story about him in hopes of drumming up some business. He told me that when he first drove into town, he did not see a lot of lawns but thought green grass was out there somewhere.

As we debated whether to write about Tim or not, Tim did some more exploration. He didn’t last long in Barstow. When I called him two days later to see if he was still in town, he had left.

Apparently, he felt there were greener pastures elsewhere.

Aaron Aupperlee | city editor

It confuses me, but I’ve learned a lot about from two podcasts produced by National Public Radio.

Ira Glass, the host of This American Life, teamed up with some smart money guys from NPR to break down the financial crisis. You can listen to the podcasts by clicking on the links below or download them to your mp3 players if you are tech savvy like that.

The Giant Pool of Money

A special program about the housing crisis produced in a special collaboration with NPR News. We explain it all to you. What does the housing crisis have to do with the turmoil on Wall Street? Why did banks make half-million dollar loans to people without jobs or income? And why is everyone talking so much about the 1930s? It all comes back to the Giant Pool of Money.

Another Frightening Show About the Economy

Alex Blumberg and NPR’s Adam Davidson—the two guys who reported our Giant Pool of Money episode—are back, in collaboration with the Planet Money podcast. They’ll explain what happened this week, including what regulators could’ve done to prevent this financial crisis from happening in the first place.

I also subscribe to the Planet Money podcast, linked above, and listen to it on my drive home from work.

If any of you have found good guides or easy ways to understand what is happening with our money, or maybe what is not happening, let me know. I’ll share.

Aaron Aupperlee | city editor