Reply With Quote
Happy Birthday.
Cheers!
Happy Birthday bro.
Konichewa! :p
Happy Birthday to the man responsible for all the news that's fit to print in San Angelo...
Happy Birthday!!!
Many thanks to everybody for the well-wishes.
I just walked into my apartment after a nice little 12.5 hour shift at the paper. It's all good, though...did all the legwork for a 35-inch story running A1 tomorrow and sat on my ass trying to get sources for another two stories due tomorrow to call me back.
Anyway, I really appreciate all the thoughts. They mean a lot.
Especially when I get to type "Lachino" into the search box and get a ton of threads...
Some job news, I accepted a position as a sports stringer for the Express-News, so at least for the time-being, I will be back in San Antonio beginning August 23. It's not the best, it's PT, but it's my foot in the door while I search for the job I want rather than settling for some place I don't want to be.
Happy Birthday man and congrats on the Express News gig. Early Welcome Home!
Yay, Joe! Congrats and welcome home!
Happy Birthday man and congrats on the Express News gig. Early Welcome Home!
and what about you
when are you coming home?
Why? Do you miss his sweet, gentle touch or that special feeling you get when he breathes in your ear...?
An Excuse-For-News job for your birthday? Way cool! Congrats man!
That is so wrong on so many levels...
And for the record, I miss that...
Don't feel bad...Zak's not really a player, he just crushes a lot.That is so wrong on so many levels...
And for the record, I miss that...
That's ok...I don't hate the player...
i turn 24 tommarow....
actually im 24 now EST
dunno if i get pictures or not cose i cbf takin digicam to n restraunt, but i hope i get a bigger present sumtime this week, waitin for reply for this job....
If you mean S.A., Big Zak's been back in here for a couple months.
Joe, congrats on the E-N gig. Do you get to go to Spurs games?
Happy Birthday to you too.i turn 24 tommarow....
actually im 24 now EST
dunno if i get pictures or not cose i cbf takin digicam to n restraunt, but i hope i get a bigger present sumtime this week, waitin for reply for this job....
thats why I dont let him be on top anymore!
Nope. Initially, I'm just going to be taking stats over the phone for HS/College volleyball and football on Tuesday, Friday and Saturday nights.
Occasionally, I'll get to write briefs based on scoring summaries and I might get a gamer/feature if they really need somebody.
This is a stop-gap job until I find something FT, and who knows, by some miracle, it could be the E-N.
My son's baseball coach is the head sports photographer or something like that at the E-N ... and now our sons are playing football together. Maybe he knows someone who knows someone who can hook you up ...?
That's all this job is for me is meeting the people there. It'd be really great to be able to come back home (or never leave) and cover my city for my paper.My son's baseball coach is the head sports photographer or something like that at the E-N ... and now our sons are playing football together. Maybe he knows someone who knows someone who can hook you up ...?
I already know two sports reporters, found out there's a third that used to run at the Standard-Times, a longtime editor, and of course, there are a bunch of Chips Quinn Scholars alumni that work there, too.
This post is total venting about something unrelated (kind of) to my birthday, so bear with me.
Yesterday, I worked my ass off to get this story. It was probably one of my longest news stories since I've been here and it had a lot of research, some conflict and even though I was budgeted for 15 inches, I got it to about 35 with no issues from my editors because of how well it was written.
Now, I don't know if I made this mistake and it wasn't caught, or in editing, somebody deleted an "S," but there goes one more god-damned clip out the ing window.
(BTW, I can find out if I made the mistake once I get into the system and see what I submitted to the editors before any extra work or edits were put in. I'll come back and fess up if it was me.)
If you don't want to read the whole story, here's the PDF of the front page...it should come out and hit you in the face right away...
http://web.sanangelostandardtimes.com/images/SAST1A.pdf
----------------
http://sanangelostandardtimes.com/sa...893225,00.html
Police seek to add officers
By JOE RUIZ, [email protected] or 659-8262
August 4, 2006
In an effort to create more specialized units within the San Angelo Police Department, Police Chief Tim Vasquez is researching the costs of adding officers to the department and will formally ask the city for additional funding.
Vasquez said he plan to approach the San Angelo City Council at the beginning of 2007. While he does not have a specific proposal completed, the chief said he could staff an additional eight officer positions with $250,000. That money would pay for salaries and benefits of new personnel.
One of the programs the chief said he would like to create if he receives additional funding is a specialized unit that uses observed trends in crime across the city to specifically direct the unit's resources to target those crimes.
The city's tightening budget means this might be the wrong time to ask for additional funding, District 3 Councilman Daniel Cardenas said.
''Looking from the outside in, (Vas-quez) might need to do some reorganization,'' Cardenas said. ''At this time, I don't think the city's in any condition of adding any more police officers unless we get some
kind of grant from the federal government.''
Cardenas said he hopes Vasquez, whom the councilman praised for the job he has done as police chief, will be willing to apply for grants from the Department of Homeland Security and other federal agencies that give grants to communities such as San Angelo.
''I'm not doing this against him or the police department,'' Cardenas said. ''I'm just looking at our budget.''
Mayor J.W. Lown declined to comment on the chief's expected proposal until he formally approaches the council, saying it would only be fair to withhold comment until he has the official proposal in front of him.
''I know we can do this without raising any taxes,'' Vasquez said. ''Sales taxes will be up. The property taxes will be up. Based on the new adjustments and everything else, it'll be there.''
Any additional monies could easily be earmarked for other projects that many consider to be pressing. In July, the local water utility gave a presentation seeking about $240 million for capital improvements in the water and sewer systems.
This week, the city decided to earmark $470,000 per year for fire hydrant maintenance and inspection in the wake of an apartment fire on Saturday during which a broken fire hydrant and low water pressure caused firefighters problems.The city's budget for the 2006 fiscal year is $81.9 million, and the City Council is preparing to hammer out the budget for 2007.
The police department's budget is roughly $12 million.
As of Thursday, the department has 149 officers: 138 on the street, and 11 cadets in the academy. It is budgeted for 154, Vasquez said.
According to the U.S. Census, San Angelo had 88,439 residents in 2000 and an estimated 88,014 in 2005. The San Angelo Chamber of Commerce estimates San Angelo has 90,000 residents.
In cities with populations ranging from 50,000 to 99,999, the average number of law enforcement officers is 1.8 per 1,000 residents, according to the 2004 Uniform Crime Report provided by the FBI. The 2004 report is the latest with complete data.
The city's police staffing is below the national average, based on Thursday's employment numbers provided by the local police and Chamber of Commerce estimates. Using the highest population estimate, the average number of local police officers is 1.5 officers per 1,000 residents.
The 11 recruits at the police academy are expected to be on the street at the beginning of 2007, taking the city to 1.7 officers per 1,000 residents.
''I would love to see us right along the lines of the national average,'' Vasquez said. ''Because of the growth in population, I believe that it's important that we stay ahead of that curve and not behind it.''
The city is below or near the national average in the frequency of some crimes. According to the 2004 Uniform Crime Report, 5.5 homicides or non-negligent manslaughters were committed per 100,000 people.
In 2004, San Angelo police reported one homicide. Three were reported in 2005. Nationally, there were 136.7 robberies per 100,000 people, according to the Uniform Crime Report. According to CompStat - a software program designed to track crimes and allow the department to notice trends in crimes committed, the time they are committed and other factors - 64 robberies occurred in San Angelo in 2004, and that number decreased to 40 in 2005.Vasquez believes the success of the crime-targeting program was reflected during a July weekend.
On July 19, during a biweekly meeting of department administration and division leaders, the department noticed a trend developing in vehicle burglaries in certain areas of the city. At that time, the chief authorized overtime for two officers to patrol and specifically target vehicle burglaries.
Early on July 23, police Sgt. Mike Hernandez and Officer Marciano Garza found San Angelo resident Justin Lynn Boothe, 18, inside a vehicle in the 2400 block of Lindenwood. The subsequent investigation led police to arrest Boothe on a charge of burglarizing the vehicle, according to a July news release from the police department.
Boothe was charged with burglary of a vehicle and possession of less than 2 ounces of marijuana. He posted a total bond of $1,500 and was released on July 23 - he still faces a court date, but police consider the case solved.
The department reported 1,136 vehicle burglaries for 2005, a decrease of 16 percent from the 1,348 reported in 2004.
Vasquez said the unit, which he tailored based on information and implementation from a study by the New York Police Department, could be directed toward any type of crime trends the department noticed with CompStat.
''If we're seeing a high drug area,'' he said, ''for that couple of weeks, they'll focus on that.''
The directed patrols might not always work immediately, Vasquez said, calling it ''hit-or-miss,'' but he said devoting overtime, which pays officers their regular wage plus an additional 50 percent, is not an efficient use of the department's budget.
''When you're paying time-and-a-half to four officers to go out and work on a hit-or-miss thing, it's difficult,'' he said. ''If you have four officers that are working on regular time, and that's what their focus is, they're going to be productive.''
Vasquez doesn't foresee any major problems if his request for additional funding is denied, but he said it will become harder on his staff.
''We'll do what we've always done - we'll adapt,'' he said. ''The officers in this department are awesome, and they always step up to the challenge.''
Bump for Spurschick and Angel.
A lot of networking is good networking. Thanks!My son's baseball coach is the head sports photographer or something like that at the E-N ... and now our sons are playing football together. Maybe he knows someone who knows someone who can hook you up ...?
So are you actually working at the EN building?
Yeah. Sports department on Tuesday, Friday and Saturday nights initially with a bump in hours hopefully very soon after I start (probably up to 30 in a few weeks once they see what I can do...their words).
There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 1 guests)
Posting Permissions
