RIP Daniel Schorr

They don't make 'em like Daniel Schorr, the veteran CBS journalist, anymore. Schorr, whom I knew from his acerbic but incisive commentaries on NPR, died today after a long life well-lived.

It's especially poignant to hear that Schorr is gone this week, when the whole nation is learning about the scandal in the City of Bell.

I don't know much about South Los Angeles communities and doubt I've ever set foot in Bell, despite being a lifelong SoCal resident. But I have to wonder: Where were the reporters?

How can city and elected officials get away with this disgusting behavior if there is a bona fide news outlet somewhere in town or in the region keeping an eye on them? Back in the day, when I was a reporter for a small (and then a medium-sized) community newspaper, our main task was to keep tabs on elected officials. Rooting out corruption was the journalist's highest calling, and anyone who could pull back the screen to expose pigs feeding at the trough got high praise and monumental street cred.

Just having a reporter hanging around city hall, attending every city council meeting, requesting planning agendas and writing endless stories about budget wrangling kept would-be crooks in line. I'm not saying there was no corruption, but dull and dreary as it might have been, I have to believe that public service reporting discouraged a lot of hanky-panky.

But what about now? I confess I don't know about the state of local media in Bell. But frankly, the small newspapers in my area stink. They reprint Chamber of Commerce press releases and feature local pablum instead of real news stories. No one sits into the wee hours at the council meetings unless there's a brouhaha brewing. The Los Angeles Times, where my old friend Jeff Gottlieb broke the Bell story, used to have staff writers covering all the local cities. Then they hired stringers (my first job as a freelancer) to do it. Then they stopped altogether, deciding it was "no longer their mission" to cover local news.

Never fear, say the detractors of old-school journalism. Those dinosaurs aren't necessary. Our "citizen journalists" and community bloggers will step in to do the job even better than local papers did. My questions: Who's going to train these community journalists to investigate and cover public agencies? Where will they get the clout to stand up to surly, arrogant officials like those in Bell?

And most importantly, who's going to pay them for the considerable time and energy it takes to keep our public servants honest? This is not something one does as a hobby, no matter how much we'd like to believe it can be.

As we lose local journalism, we're all losing something precious. What will fill the gap is anybody's guess.

A Ray of Sun(flower) Shine

Aren't sunflowers cheery? It makes me happy just looking at it.

Health Care Resource

I wrote recently about the top health care reform myths and realities.

As with any health care reform articles, additional questions and concerns (along with a fair share of rants) cropped up in the follow up comments.

I'm sure I'll write about reform again, but meanwhile a new, interactive forum aims to continue the discussion. HealthyChat, created by insurance giant WellPoint (parent company of Anthem), is an "effort to engage consumers using technology and social media to help improve their health IQ, help them work toward improving their own health as well as the health of those close to them," according to the company.

Check it out and let me know what you think.

Dog Days of Summer

As I confessed here recently, I had some trouble gearing-up for work after my vacation.

But small business owners don't have to lose their edge this summer if they have employees who tend to be slow getting back in the groove. They can take the stellar advice presented in my Smart Answers column this week.

Just don't crack the whip too hard on your vacation-addled employees. We all need a little break now and then.

Harvest Time

We've been picking green beans, cucumbers, basil, peppers and tomatoes from our summer veggie garden for a while now.




But yesterday was the first time we picked some corn. Test for readiness by stabbing your fingernail into a kernel. If it just sits there, no dice. If the kernel squirts milky fluid in response to your stab, you're good to go.



We ate these ears a few minutes after we harvested them. Yum!



The sunflowers must be over 8-feet by now (Andy is over 6') but the flowers haven't opened yet. What's the matter, guys - not hot enough for ya!?



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Facts vs Fantasy on Health Care

The small business world is in a tizzy over health care reform.

This week's Smart Answers column aims to sort the myth from the reality.

Last week (while I was recovering from vacation - something I'm writing about for next week!) I did a take on how to choose a web designer.

Take a look; I hope you find these tidbits helpful.

An Elephant's Eye

Summer is here, and so is garden blogging!





That's my corn, which looks like it will be yielding about 10 bushels by Labor Day. (Of course I can say that, since I have no idea how much a bushel actually is!)

This is the first time I've grown corn in about 12 years. Last time I tried it, I learned that you have to plant a bunch of corn seedlings in a grid plot. That's because corn is a wind pollinator, so the wheat-like pollen at the top has to blow down onto the silk tassels on the ears in order for the kernels to form.

I also learned that if you mist the tassels with a little oil (or Pam spray), it prevents those fat, nasty corn worms from growing in (and eating) your corn cobs. The tassels get slippery, and the worm eggs don't stick! Organic farming solutions: Gotta love 'em.



I'm also growing green beans (the star of last summer's garden), cucumbers (the clown of last year's garden), zucchini, sunflowers, three kinds of peppers and honeydew melon.

Tomatoes, you ask?



My tomatoes were disappointing last year. Low yields, mostly. This year's crop doesn't look much better, though one small fruit is starting to ripen. I do have some heirlooms planted, however, so I'm pinning my hopes on them.

The big addition this year is a blueberry bush that I picked up at the L.A. Arboretum garden show a month or so ago. You aren't supposed to be able to grow blueberries in Southern California, but this is a new variety developed for our hot summers and mild winters.

We'll see. So far, the ripening berries are pretty tart. If I leave them on the bush too long, they disappear. I fear that a raccoon is plucking them with his little prehensile fingers. A couple of my early zucchinis were severed from the vine, gnawed up and dumped in the dirt last week.

Anybody have organic farming critter control solutions?