Category: Media

Bee’s teacher database sidesteps privacy issue

Kudos to the Sac Bee for its newest salary database on all of the state’s teachers. “See how well your school district pays its teachers.” Not “See how much your kid’s teacher makes.” The tool allows you to look up district average salaries and other data, and compare salaries across districts in a region or across the state. A useful tool without any of the privacy issues. This should be the model for all of the Bee’s salary databases.

I do think it is interesting that the spin has been spun somewhat on this one… “Are teachers in your area making what they deserve?” That sentiment is absent from Melanie Sill’s editorial on the backlash to the State worker pay database. Back then it was all about doing a public service, giving us information about worker compensation because “state spending [is] under pressure.” Now, it’s all about making sure your kid’s teacher is getting a good paycheck? Maybe I’m splitting hairs, but I sense that the Bee is making some much needed course corrections here.

Bee’s Crime Q & A is not bad

Via the Bee’s Sacto 9-1-1 program I discovered an interesting feature called the Crime Q & A by Ryan Lillis. Ryan tracks down information related to area crimes in response to reader queries. No question is too small either:

Coming home last night in the Tahoe Park area, 65th street between 14th and 21st was blocked by cop cars. This morning nothing in the paper or other news. Do you know what happened? Where can a neighbor find information about incidents area quickly after the fact?

Give it a read, it’s not as fun as learning how much money your neighbor makes, but it’s informative just the same.

McClatchy to freeze wages

This just in… The McClatchy company is announcing a one-year freeze in employee wage increases.

This means that if you are scheduled to receive a merit or salary review between September 1, 2008 and August 31, 2009, your review will occur one year later than scheduled. For example, if your next salary review date is March 1, 2009, the salary review will be postponed until March 1, 2010.

Ouch. The tough times continue. And two weeks’ notice, that’s rough. However, if you’re working for McClatchy and you’re…still working for McClatchy, this is somewhat of a relief?

Sac Craft Brews on KVIE 6, NPR

on tap promoTomorrow, KVIE’s Viewfinder will feature a look at the Sacramento Craft Brew scene in On Tap. A visit to SacBrew will be featured and area beer journalists will be tasting and talking about Rubicon IPA, Sudwerk Pilsner and SacBrew’s Imperial Stout.

Thanks to Bill, who pointed out that On Tap was discussed on today’s broadcast of Capital Public Radio’s Insight. Click here to access the show archives.

BUZZ: Trethaway Aide Blasts Bee

AWESOME post on Natomas Buzz with an email from a Ray Trethaway aide, Dan Roth, to the Bee’s Mary Lynne Vellinga about Vellinga’s front-page article from last week about crime and low-income housing in Natomas. Roth blasts Vellinga for failing to accurately present her angle, and takes the Bee to task for its racist comment box, go figure

I don’t know what disturbs me more…this comment [from user “sacsforsaps”], or the fact that 4 out 5 people found this comment helpful.

Note to Bee: If you are going to continue with the comments thing, please add permalinks so we can more easily mock you…

The new Bee — what’s the verdict?

So, first impressions of the revamped Bee, anybody? Or do we need a few days to think about it. A few of mine: The narrow page size is “weird”; the color comics every day is great, though it seems like a waste of money; the Top Stories box on the front page is a great addition; the new photos of columnists are a great touch too (wait, that’s Bob Shallit?). I think I can sympathize with the renaming of Metro to Our Region: sometimes you just have to make a change to your product, just for funsies. For example, I think I’ll rename sac-eats. Starting tomorrow, enjoy your snarky food coverage by Tim-tom Happy-pants. Now with double the hyphenation!

Continue reading “The new Bee — what’s the verdict?”

Sac Bee comments must be stopped – UPDATED

This isn’t the first time that the racist idiocy that is the comments box at the Sac Bee has come to my attention. We here at the Rag, and other bloggers like Heckasac have often pointed out the problem.

Today’s racist idiocy comes from this story of the shooting death of a young woman in Oak Park: Continue reading “Sac Bee comments must be stopped – UPDATED”

Sac Bee to publish county salaries?

I have learned that The Bee has filed a Public Records Act for “2007 base salary and overtime records, including employee name, department, and job title” for all employees of Sacramento County. Apparently the Bee is planning to compile a database and release all the information on its website, as it did earlier this year for State of CA workers.

This raises all the same issues as that project, concerning workers’ privacy, safety, and the public benefit of this level of public records releasing by the Bee. Continue reading “Sac Bee to publish county salaries?”