Fine print: Many of these items also will appear in tomorrow’s printed edition of the Gazette. Sometimes, however, a story on the budget gets delayed or falls through. Or an unanticipated news event happens after we create the budget.

Developing:

n Fort Carson to honor 15 fallen soldiers today, with updates from morning and afternoon services

n Jury gets case of soldier accused in double homicide, deliberations begin today

Upcoming:

n Chunks are falling from a bridge on U.S. 24

n Looking into when the new texting/driving law takes effect

n Out There-ski fads

n Airport budget discussions

n Utilities budget discussions

n Advance on chamber dinner

n Urban Renewal session

n D-11 board meets tonight

n Focus adoption program

n Watching to see if Rockies have the manager of the year

n Chargers’ view of the AFC West

n CC signings

n Avs tonight; AFA preview

n CU FBC

Post from: The Newsroom

Fine print: Many of these items also will appear in tomorrow’s printed edition of the Gazette. Sometimes, however, a story on the budget gets delayed or falls through. Or an unanticipated news event happens after we create the budget.

Developing:

n Breaking News: El Paso County H1N1 clinic out of vaccine

n Jurors being picked for Bruce trespassing trial

Upcoming:

n Local companies position themselves for recovery, moving to Main

n For Main as soon as possible: Prep volleyball

n Intel plant closure (meanign: the sale of the empty building has closed)

n Possible: City-issued vehicles

n Gazette layoffs

n Ayers update

n Game Day preview: AFA-UNLV

n CC, AFA HKC on the road

n Prep playoff football

n Nuggets late tonight

n Column: Did you ever wonder

n Financial overview of school districts as they prepare for budget cuts

Post from: The Newsroom

Fine print: Many of these items also will appear in tomorrow’s printed edition of the Gazette. Sometimes, however, a story on the budget gets delayed or falls through. Or an unanticipated news event happens after we create the budget.

Developing:

n Long line greets county’s first H1N1 flu vaccination clinic

Upcoming:

n New Chic-fil-A is opening, and there’s a crowd

n Mark Spitz spoke this morning

n Column:  Side Streets

n For Main at 11:30: Out There iPhone becomes the ultimate trail tool

n Broncos look ahead to Redskins; we look at AFA wide receiver

n Prep signings today

n Prep football preview

n Avs, Nuggets tonight

n Straight talk for local kids

n Frog rescue

n More people are using layaway

n Library opening

n Follow on city budget

n Child abuse forum

n Possible: Udall is in town; Dean will talk to him about health care and other issues

n Possible: Defense conference

Post from: The Newsroom

City Hall gets to work on closing a big budget gap. El Pomar writes a big check to help the USOC-retention effort. And the Broncos, stung by Baltimore last week, take out their frustrations on the Steelers tonight.

Fine print: Many of these items also will appear in tomorrow’s printed edition of the Gazette. Sometimes, however, a story on the budget gets delayed or falls through.

Monday at gazette.com

Current/to be updated

El Pomar donating $3 million to keep USOC in city Presser at 11 a.m.; photos planned

LIVE BLOG: City Council faces tough budget choices today Plus photos

Coming up

• Broncos v. Steelers – will blog and tweet etc. Plus photos
  
• AFA punter gets player of week award
• HS athlete of week – gazettepreps.com
• CC women’s soccer on cusp of NCAA tournament: late-afternoon announcement
  
• Courts: Checking on Falu-Vives
  
• Possible: homebuilder arrested out of state; prelim hearing maybe today
• Watching for council-recall paperwork. (Ayers said he’d file on Wednesday)
• Your Space: A man who gives blood. A lot. No, really.
• Medicinal whiskey: A century ago, the local apothecaries dispensed a lot of whiskey for various ailments. Archive photo
• Economic-recovery vignettes: 3 local people discuss how they’re positioned for boom times. Photos TK
  
• Watching: grocery-union update. Asking: when unions would make last/best/final offers
• Haggard folo:  Lots of media interest (won’t be allowed in), but will people show up?
• Holiday giving: Agencies have lots of need. A list.
  
• Intel: building already under contract; deal closes today?

Post from: The Newsroom

Fine print: Many of these items also will appear in tomorrow’s printed edition of the Gazette. Sometimes, however, a story on the budget gets delayed or falls through.

Developing:

n Fort Hood suspect reportedly shouted ‘Allahu Akbar’

n Ritter plans ‘modest decrease’ for school funding

n Springs recall effort launches at noon, targeting Rivera and Small

Upcoming:

n Swine flu vaccine update

n Box tops are being collected for good causes

n Paratransit: nonprofits working together to serve transportation needs of elderly, disabled

n Pizza-gate

n Procurement Center is up and running

n Column: Did you ever wonder?

n Possible: medical whiskey

n Preps tonight

n Broncos’ Stokley hasn’t had much playing time

n CC hockey, AFA hockey

Post from: The Newsroom

Political news has cooled off a bit, for now. It will ramp up again soon, however, as the city gets down to crafting the 2010 budget. The weekend approaches, with reviews of a familiar friend, La Casita, and previews of the women’s film festival. And: Don’t forget to nominate your favorite bartender.

Glossary: Prep = High school; ELN = election;

Fine print: Many of these items also will appear in tomorrow’s printed edition of the Gazette. Sometimes, however, a story on the budget gets delayed or falls through.

Post from: The Newsroom

Most of these stories will appear in Thursay’s edition of the printed G, as well.

Disclaimer: A story might be on the budget, but that doesn’t guarantee it will be written. Sometimes, expected stories fall through.

Developing:

n ELECTION: Results from every race in El Paso and Teller counties, updating with final numbers

Upcoming:

n ELN follows: Now what? We talk to the city and to 2C opponents about plans, reax, etc. Also, many questions about Stormwater

n Possible city council recall campaign

n City is hiring county for maintenance  work; county is privatizing snow plows

n AFA test launch a missile. It might have gone better

n Homeland defense conference

n D-49 follow: A recount?

n Red Kettle launching ambitious campaign

n Possible: bus service cuts

n Possible: home sales numbers

n Out There for Main: Why November is a tough month for outdoorsy folk. Well, except for this week.

n Seeking other reax from Rock Ledge, Pioneers Museum and others who face an uncertain future

n Follow on Focus after Dobson announcement

n World Series tonight

Post from: The Newsroom

Post from: The Newsroom

This paper sucks! Can they ever say anything positive? Alll their writers suck!

Well, that’s a fair question. Have we reported anything positive? Here are some links from the past week. You tell us whether we can report anything positive:

http://www.gazette.com/articles/house-64797-snatchko-bit.html

http://www.gazette.com/articles/chu-64692-shoot-holds.html

http://www.gazette.com/articles/headquarters-64745-mortgage-springs.html

http://www.gazette.com/entertainment/pumpkin-64610-jack-alight.html

http://www.gazette.com/articles/parents-64431-education-army.html

http://www.gazette.com/articles/high-64413-school-rampart.html

http://gazettepreps.freedomblogging.com/2009/10/22/kudos-to-vanguard-cancer-fundraiser/211/

http://www.gazette.com/articles/force-64750-privileges-cadets.html

http://www.gazette.com/articles/brown-62303-jeff-nominated.html

Post from: The Newsroom

Making this change runs contrary to some of the points I made about the database when we posted it last Friday. Namely, by reducing full names to abbreviations, we prevent citizens from scrutinizing city spending to the level of specificity to which they are entitled. Every citizen has a right to know exactly how much she pays Jane Doe, not merely J. Doe, because for all we know, J. Doe could be a fiction. Anything less than complete disclosure that can be verified means we are taking the city’s word for it. Or taking the Gazette’s word for it, which is no better. The Gazette is not a stand-in for government; we are — or should be — a transparent conduit, transmitting government information to citizens. We do not exist to vouch for the government; we are here to enable citizens themselves to hold government accountable.

It is, admittedly, a purist position. I continue to believe that it is, journalistically, the correct position.

Which is not to say it is a comfortable position. We understand that publishing names and salaries makes city employees uneasy. But in the end, it is not any claim of privacy — there is none when it comes to a public employee’s paycheck — that has prompted this change. I’ve made the change after hearing from a small number of city workers with sincere concerns about their safety.

It’s easy to minimize those concerns. Newspapers in Houston; Los Angeles; Albuquerque; Milwaukee; Raleigh; Memphis; Louisville; Phoenix; Tulsa; Columbia, S.C.; Minneapolis; tiny Burlington, N.C. and many more places publish online databases of the full names, job titles and salaries of local and state employees. Indeed, in Iowa it is state law that a complete roster of state workers and their pay be published each year. In Iowa City, you can look up the name and salary for your kid’s kindergarten teacher, your firefighter neighbor, the nurse at the local VA hospital, and the history professor at the university. As far as I know, every last public employee in Iowa City is safe and sound.

I’ve spoken with folks in those places during the past few days. None has reported a single case of harm befalling any public employee as a result of the publicity. In cities where this kind of information has been published for several years, it has become part of the background. No big deal.

Such evidence is not comforting to the few who told me they worry about being that much easier to find by someone who, for example, is the object of a restraining order. It’s easy for me to say they have nothing to worry about; it’s also arrogant. It’s also easy to tell a nurse that, if avoiding detection were truly that important, she wouldn’t seek employment at a public hospital. See: arrogant.

So, a compromise: J. Doe. Call it the “police badge” standard: In Colorado Springs, an officer’s badge displays his or her first initial, and last name.

The Gazette will continue to obtain public-employee salary data and post them in our info center. The lists we obtain will contain full names, and we will shorten the first names to initials. We will spot-check the salary amounts with a number of people on the list, to verify that their pay amounts are correct, and we will report our findings to readers. That’s not complete transparency, but it is our good-faith effort at verification. Anyone who doesn’t believe our database or the city is free to get the same list from the city. My guess is it will be good enough for most people.

Does this change matter? After all, any person can obtain the same list of (complete) names and salaries we obtained. It’s public information. Any person with an Internet connection can post that list, names and all, for all the world to see. In fact, I predict it will happen. The relentless digitization of information, especially public information, makes it inevitable. Eventually, every public employee will have to get used to the idea that his or her name and pay is part of the public realm, searchable and downloadable. If not from us, then from someone else.

Futhermore, haven’t we already let the cat out of the bag? The gazette.com database itself does not cache, so there is no full-name version of it available. If someone has downloaded it and made it into their own spreadsheet, they’ve done something they could do anyway by asking the city for the document.

Some will ask if we made this change because of customer backlash. A few dozen readers have canceled their subscriptions. But we’ve lost more when we’ve modified the layout of the paper or started charging for the Sunday TV programming guide.

As my publisher said to me, we’re making this change not because it feels correct, but because it feels right. Someday, we may conclude that the community is ready for full disclosure. Conditions change. Standards change. For now, we’ve settled on this one.

Post from: The Newsroom