COMFLM REGISTRY NEWS-SUNDAY-VIEWS-ONLINE-WEEKLY-WRAP-UP 2009-2016

Catch of the Day Video News

Posting June 12, 2009 10pm.. while waiting on callers to the new conference line 712 432 0080  please call Fridays at 10PM and discuss the weekly Press events you covered..

This past week was a week I want to comment on.  I taped a ton of Hearings in the past two weeks.. I am persisting in my public Hearing goal of getting the Statehouse to video archive capture the Public Hearings.  So I press on.

I am called wonderful, glared at by guards, and on any given day the pendelum swings all ways.. no kidding, This week the static got so bad I really thought I was having an out of body experience.   I attempted to tape three days. The third day the Veterans were having a Hearing at 10AM and the same day a Revenue Committee hearing appeared. Well, as I delivor the Tapes I ask about hearings and so I discovered a hearing along the way.  I attempted to send an email but one of the email addresses bounced back.  This is how it is sometimes.  It only made me more nervous when the clip on the camera got lost in my bag and I had to set one up make shift with tape.  Can you believe the stress I was feeling. Then the Hearing starts flag swearing and all and I am fumbling with a barage of stuff everywhere looking ridiculous. I get that one set and organize the pile for the second room of gear and leave.  I am detained however as the door to 222 is locked.

Well, I wait a while talking to the weather people from another station.. the ones who give traffic reports and were planning to testify in the Hearing.  Time is still not bringing the guard to open the door so I call the security and tell them.  A polite answer on the other end says they will take care of it.  Time is still passing and no door opens the media are all over and more people are showing up then I call again..no help.. then the Committee staff comes and I hand him my phone to call and they challenge him because it is my phone and he tells them he is the Committee and they still drag their feet another 5 to 10 minutes .. Finally when they come the stampede is a difficult impass to set up but my camera goes up tape and all bungied to the chair I found to corner in my set up and I planned to leave to go check on the other room downstairs with camera 1.. I put a bucket on the chair and expect that a good deterrant to stop comotose attendees from sitting on the not so stable setup.. and leave..camera running..meeting started..

I am a little frantic and hope the first meeting ends so I can set up that camera in the second room..but get downstairs open the door to see two guards not one leaving my camera area and the camera not on.. oops up to the old tricks I say and I look to find the timing is only 11 minutes and off.. now I am really getting red hot upset.. I set the camera on and leave to see if there is a switch outside the room and even ask a maintenance person if power can be switched off outside.. I have seen the power go off too many times in those rooms the past 6 years to not suspect mischief.. but then the whole thing seems to settle down.. and i go upstairs again to meeting 2.. open the door and you will not believe this.. a woman around late 20's is sitting on the chair my camera above her head..lucky for her it did not come down and hit her..and guess what power is off.. so I say to her...fuming but balanced your sitting on my camera.. she is so embarrassed she leaves the room...lucky for her.. what an ........... the camera will not come on.. and so I now have no camera.. I check the floor the plug is out of the camera and the floor plug is not working.. I am really having to climb all over the place to fix iit and I do.. and the camera is back on.. running so I leave and go to the camera 1 again and that meeting is closing down.. and I am able to clear out hoping I can set up that one in the room 2.. I get to talk to the chairman to inform him I had some camera problems and he is so empathetic.. you would not believe.. and I explain the guards that were in that room are somewhat difficult to deal with and they harrass me always thinking i am harassing the committees by wanting to tape.. and he opens the door and tells all This woman can tape these hearings anytime..she has my permission to tape..permanently.. wow.. what a comeback..

I go upstairs and that meeting is also closing down so I am done for the day really, and I get to tell that committee who also explains I can tape anytime.. and then sends an email to me as well stating so.. I am blown away.. what a victory in such a lopsided messed up day..

Having a late plan for a dinner in Copley I have a few hours to wait I decide to visit the Library and find a comfortable place to just pack up my stuff for the ride home.. but it does not stop here.. I get to speak to one of them about my project and she is listening intently completely sympathetic to my resolve to tape and the resistance I meet on any given day in the statehouse.. Then she explains the researchers need the information I have and are searching all the time to get it.. we make a plan to somehow pool our efforts and I say to myself there is another victory in a maddening day..

Catch of the day, Video News, Freelance Reporting

December 17, 2008 posted JAldrich

This week has been tough for me, not feeling to great, however, yesterday I was at the Statehouse to capture one hour of the Health Committee Hearing, a short audio of the new Judge being interviewed to replace Granger, whom I wish to make a remark on here.

He seems to be qualified as the group repeated round the table, but the one point that struck me was a question on Interstate Compact regarding Juvenile cases.  This he seems a little aloof on.  I did not like that at all. After going through the court system in the 80's to 90''s with interstate issues on a divorce case.. I find that alarming he does not have a pistol clear answer.  It shows me he is not going to be effective on crucial areas where kids act out all over the place, get themselves cori's and find that the system will filter them through the DSS system quicker than you can say s....t.. so please I did not see my children have that happen but the ominous threat was something I lived with on every day basis as in divorce especially, one party is usually out to kill the other..and this is only felt at the court level.  It cannot be predicted pre divorce any more than the rotten marriage is predicable pre nuptual.  So please ask more questions on this topic and get the guy to come up to the plate before the decision is made soon and very soon.  This one area is a judicial nightmare zone..

^{Posting December 5, 2008 JAldrich, Catch of the Day,}

^{Well, this week I forced myself to come out of my video stupor and go to the Statehouse.. for Senator Stan Rosenburg and Rep Donato's public hearing on Municipality debt.. 6 hours later I strolled in on the Governors Task Force on Ethics Public Hearing and with permission for both taped quite a day of news.. Both tapes can be ordered by calling 978 388 2457.. I will be bringing in the Statehouse Copies on Monday.. as this will be time consuming to produce.. 10hours of minutes not recorded in dictation still requires 10 full hours of watching again.. do you read me???}

^{Yesterday the 4th I made myself appear again for the exit of Sen Robert Creedon, Sen Augustus, Sen Antonioni, and Sen Pam Resor.. All but one are user friendly with being video recorded... but in the talk by Sen Creedon I suddenly realized Senators are in for 6 years.. the entire time I have been taping.. so you might say I have covered these people the entire time they have been on board.. Quite a revelation I would say.}   

^{No, I am not a history major or Poly-Sci major I just find the need to be informed vital to my Constitutional Health.. and find the exercise of my free speech and public access to be essential to the general good.  So I continue on in my educational documentary project, encumbered on any given day,  by the new venomous cobras in the brew that would tantilize me again for my efforts, and there are many...}

^{Which actually, happened on Thursday after the Senate adjourned.. I made my way down to the doorway expecting press to arrive there also and surprisingly found I  was the only one so I said to myself, this is strange??? what does this mean??? where is the press??? soon to be put under the guard squeeze to push my buttons or me out whatever?? I did not know.. but was soon approached by the Senate Presidents Press person, to say she would get senator Creedon for me if I wanted.. I said no as the whole experience was really wierd.. and instead said I had spoken with him as he entered.. and was satisfied.. I gave him a gift , a book as a card that he could keep as a thank you from Comflm, Registry, for his extraordinary help on many occasions to be able to tape.  Well, who did I want to see?? she asks?? I said I was just waiting to see who would exit as I know many and wanted to ask them a few questions concerning the new challenge to have video a part of the picture. Senator Creedon in all his liberal philosophies was adamant on transparency and so I can excuse his views as we all answer someday to the Higher Power.. but when one  contributes to the darkness of the truth and not the light, then I have a problem.  I was told in a sort of huge way that the members were in a party that was private and would not be exiting as I had wished and so would not be available.  I then decided to just wind up and leave the scene of the next Statehouse crime.. that would have happened if I had stayed.. and mosied on to the common where the Santa scene was ongoing.} 

^{At that note I will say the Christmass event was cute but surrounded by stuff, trucks, tents, huge lighing apparatus, and the crowds were unable to see the thing which seemed like a cracker in a bowl of soup lit up.. I left going to the trains picking up some dvds at Staples while they wished I had not entered the store.. and spent the next two hours waiting at north station for the 930 train to Newburyport.. I arrived home to catch up on phone calls like everyone else at 11pm.. long day.. really.. but that is what happens when you travel by rail, bus or subway.. you spend at least half your time traveling.. and the other half taping..sela..}