One Proud Papa
There have been few days I have been more proud of the Daily. I don't write or edit much more these days, particularly in the waning days of my daily career, but today's stories made me feel pretty damn good about my favorite scribes.
The recap: A little controversy -- the good kind where people don't flood the newsroom with angry phone calls -- was discussed in two stories, including one of the best indepth news stories in months. We also had a little hard news, though I do feel bad for the victims. Then a good community feature about a unique school with ties to Minneapolis and U students. As for what you won't see on A1, we had a nice obit and humbling story on a young alumnus who died Saturday and a story on a well-attended campus debate on the legalization of marijuana.
Publishing a newspaper is tough to do. Today we did it well, got positive reviews, and got the job done the right way. Call it one small victory.
posted by The Divoteer at 12:28 PM
1 Comments:
I took a spin through the heating story and I have to say it was pretty comprehensive. Kudos to Emily. Pretty much every question I had -- be it about cost, why the MPCA is reviewing the permit, how the neighborhood is reacting, how the change would affect students -- was answered in some way shape or form.
I wonder, though, that given the MPCA's wariness of biomass and oat hulls, if the University is simply reverting to penny pinching. There are questionable issues with biomass and the question has to be raised -- in an attempt to cut costs quickly is the University simply going with something that sounds good on paper but maybe isn't so good in the long term? Carbon dioxide is dangerous, but nitrogen oxide (I think) has more serious environmental ramifications that could affect the way the steamplant operates anyway. Test results show that nitrogen oxide levels increase slightly -- but over a period of five, 10, even 20 years what does that mean for the ozone layer or smog or acid rain? If global warming contributes to higher temperatures, would there be less reliance on the steam plant? Or if there was still reliance, what about the matter that would be used? Wouldn't a poor environment lead to less material for use? (And I wholly realize this is speculative nonsense but I'm just thinking via writing.)
But back to the story -- I like to think stories such as these get people riled up so they develop and opinion and go out and seek for some change if they're not happy. With the public comment period opening soon, I would hope that's what happens.
In any case, I think you guys can say you produced a comprehensive package detailing the who, what, when, where, why, how and why I should care. Looks like it was a ton of work but it all paid off nicely in the end.
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