5 JUN 07: THE BIGGER DEAL

Columbus Council will try again tonight to settle the library land issue. A preliminary meeting on the Library Board's proposal was held Monday - but one big question remains unresolved. Will Red McDaniel show up this week?

While city activists are divided into "greenspace" and "park" camps, a new report was issued Monday on an issue which seems a little more important. The F.B.I. reported violent crime in Columbus jumped almost 20 percent last year. Considering the national violent crime rate went up 1.3 percent, we look like the central library really should have barbed wire around it.

The F.B.I.'s "Uniform Crime Report" counted Columbus's murder total for 2006 as even with 2005, with 22. But police officers told WRBL that's not quite true, because they only counted 17 homicides last year. So where did the F.B.I. find the other five bodies? Were they floating in the river, and Columbus Police counted them for Phenix City?

Columbus Police guessed the F.B.I. might be including vehicular homicides in its murder count. Which brings us to this reminder: if cars are outlawed, only outlaws will have cars - such as Tony Stewart at a NASCAR race.

The F.B.I.'s report shows robberies are the reason for the big jump in violent crime last year. The number of reported robberies went up 30.2 percent - and who knows how many of those involved people driving off without paying for high-priced gasoline.

When it comes to property crime, Columbus had an increase of about five percent last week. Every category in that division showed an increase -- except for arson, where the F.B.I. number is blank. Perhaps the new Georgia state law allowing sparklers confused the researchers.

Supporters of Mayor Jim Wetherington will look at the 2006 F.B.I. numbers, and say he was elected. The mayor's proposed budget includes money for several new officers and an assistant police chief. Scoffers would say he should give that money to the robbers, and cut out the middleman.

But on Monday, the mayor was analyzing something else - plans for greenspace around the central library. He joined Columbus Councilors and Muscogee County School Board members at a meeting with the library board. I understand news reporters only were told about the meeting 20 minutes in advance - so at least a sunshine law broke out, through a cloudy debate.

Supporters of a park around the central library are wary of what "greenspace" might mean. Councilor Wayne Anthony told WRBL it could refer to meadows and flowers, or could refer to trees. He said nothing about the word meaning green-painted townhouses.

Wayne Anthony said any greenspace plan must include money for three steps: removing concrete around the central library, treating the soil, then "putting something else down." If any Councilors insult Josh McKoon at tonight's meeting, that could resolve the last part.

Whatever is put around the central library, who will make sure it's safe from a higher Columbus crime rate? If trees are planted with either option, will the library security guards eventually turn into forest rangers?

E-MAIL UPDATE: There's another meeting going on today, and our first message refers to it:

I have heard from Channel 9 news this week and they have hired on some new people and they will be coming out to cover our stories soon, in Talbot County. I hope someone is going to cover the Alternative/Charter School board meeting on June 5th. to see what actions if any they are going to take on Mr. Fred Cotton DUI charges. Watch the papers on the updates from this meeting.

Thank you,

Fred Cotton is an assistant principal at Talbot County's charter school, and he was arrested for drunk driving in late March [11 May]. Apparently he's kept his seat on the Talbotton City Council -- so people there are treating him the same way Hollywood is handling Lindsey Lohan.

It's clear that some people think Fred Cotton should be fired from the charter school staff. But the superintendent suggested last month Cotton shouldn't be punished, because the D.U.I. arrest occurred away from the school. It's that sort of "outside the box" thinking which charter schools try to encourage....

We should note this message about Fred Cotton had the title: "What happened to Talbot County Friday?" Given what just happened with Hurtsboro Mondays, it would seem the evaporation process should be the same region-wide.

Speaking of that channel mentioned above, here's an e-mail about the TV feud:

Richard,

Being interested in communications law and having written a paper on the subject, I may be able to clarify what's going on with the Phenix City cable situation.

Cable companies are subject to two sets of regulations applying to local station carriage, must carry and retransmission consent. Under must carry, a local station can demand that a cable system carry that station, but no fees apply. Nowadays, this mostly applies to channels that most people don't want to watch, like ION (the infomercial network). Alternatively, the local station can demand a fee from the cable system for its retransmission consent. This latter option is what WTVM has elected, and it's becoming more and more common. If the cable company doesn't want to pay the fee and drops the channel, their viewers will become outraged because they actually want to watch WTVM's programming.

Usually all the negotiations happen behind closed doors, and the public doesn't know it's going on. But when either (1) the cable company is too cheap to pay the fee, or (2) the local TV station is demanding too much in the way of fees, the parties will go public and try to make the other look like the villain. In this case, I'm betting on (1), since Phenix Cable is a small company that is more likely to be penny pinching.

Note that most of the other basic cable channels show a lot of ads too, yet the cable company has to pay in order to rebroadcast them. However, WTVM and the other local channels put a signal into the air for free that viewers can get in any case. And they show local programming and local advertisements. If anyone deserves support, it is the local station.

The alternative for the cable company is to show an out-of-market station, like WNCF 32 in Montgomery. If the station is "significantly viewed," the cable company has permission from the FCC to rebroadcast it. I don't think channel 32 is significantly viewed in Phenix City, but I think WSFA, the NBC station, might qualify -- I can pick up the latter in Columbus. However, it is still subject to retransmission consent, and NBC will prevent WSFA from giving consent to be retransmitted within WLTZ's market. Unquestionably, WSFA puts out a better product than WLTZ, but they cannot be carried on local cable. (Incidentally, the owners of channel 38 filed a lawsuit trying to kick WSFA out of Columbus back in the 1970s).

I'm one of those people who have "fired the cable company" and purchased a DTV decoder and an outside antenna. It really isn't that hard, and you get a better picture than on cable. For those of you in Columbus, you'll be able to get the Alabama PBS, which is not on cable, among other stations.

Although I come out on the side of the local stations, I am upset with the increasing consolidation in the industry and the fact that most local stations view their broadcast signal as merely a way to send it to remote cable systems.

Thomas

Thanks for the in-depth analysis, Thomas - the sort of thing you're probably most likely to see on cable, either on The Learning Channel or C-SPAN.

A local television executive told me Monday Cable TV of East Alabama DOES have to show WTVM, under the "must carry" rule for local stations. After all, how are the station employees who live in Phenix City supposed to know if they're on the air or not?

It was indeed Cable TV of East Alabama (which still uses the Phenix Cable name online) which went public first, with its letter of complaint to subscribers. The company claims 70 percent of its customers were willing to accept a blackout of WTVM. Many of them must not realize that station will show the final ten NASCAR races this fall.

To be fair: we need to apologize to Cable TV of East Alabama for something. Its programming does NOT include Bravo, which we suggested last week might be worth dropping. So how about ION instead - as in "I Own None of it"?!

Our last e-mail today has one more note about WSHE's Coach B.R. Johnson:

B.R. stands for Benny Rex and he was one of the good old boys who went to Troy..He was an excellent baseball coach at CVCC..His claim to fame is certainly not on the radio.

So if the coach brings up pro football on his sports talk show, co-host Chris Weber should play "Benny and the Jets"?!

We've covered a wide range of topics here - but the Monday headlines still give us a ways to go:

+ The Muscogee County School Board approved a budget, with about four percent more money for textbooks. Maybe THIS time there will be one for every student in a class....

+ The Russell County School Board had an emergency meeting, in the wake of Superintendent Vivian Carter's death. I understand no one shed a tear during the meeting - and after what the school district saw when Jack Russell was Superintendent, perhaps nothing surprises the board anymore.

+ The original owners of "Hogzilla II" appeared on National Public Radio's "All Things Considered." They say the allegedly wild boar shot at an Alabama plantation was a hog named "Fred" which they raised on a farm. They could have rented it to the Fred's discount store chain as a mascot, and made a fortune.

(The couple which lives near Anniston explained they sold Fred the hog last month, on the understanding it would be used for breeding. Instead, it was shot for sport - and used instead for bleeding.)

+ Instant Message to Alanis Morissette: Wow! Not only did you sing two national anthem before Monday night's Stanley Cup Finals game, you sang "O Canada" in two languages! I'm not sure the late Freddy Fender could get away with that on country radio stations in Columbus nowadays.

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