Jamesian Philosophy Refreshed

This story strikes me harder than most of the many stories along the lines, "idiots kill innocent people" with which newspapers, TV news, and the internet sites dedicated to such stuff are always crowded. Alison Parker and Adam Ward died Wednesday morning, August 26, covering a story. Not a BIG story. Nothing involving ISIS or extreme volatility on the world's stock markets or exposing corruption or fraud. No, these two young journalists at Roanoke Virginia's teevee station WDBJ were doing what it is fair to call a routine interview with a woman on a local Chamber of Commerce (the Smith Mountain Lake Regional Chamber of Commerce) about lake-front tourism.  Journalists sometimes do die covering the Big stories. The guys at the Charlie Hebdo office in Paris were killed for their satiric take on contemporary Islamofascism, as big a story as there is. But this? It reminds me of the way Alexander Hamilton died, not for any reason connected to his political or financi...

Villamaino's pre-trial hearing date, last I knew, was set for December 3. Whether it will actually generate any news, I have no idea. Unless you keep up with the news of certain suburbs of Springfield, MA, you likely have no idea who Enrico ("Jack") Villamaino is. The chap pictured above. Splashy voter fraud case, though., With an odd twist -- but we'll get to that. Villamaino was a Selectman in East Longmeadow, Mass. He wanted to move up the political ladder and become a state representative (as a Republican.) The state alleges that he sought to do this through an elaborate scheme for tampering with ballots. He had help from a town employee, Courtney Llewellyn. In a Hollywoodish touch, Villamaino was actually arrested on October 16th with a passport and a bag with personal effects. He had apparently told witnesses his planned destination was Switzerland. Dude! That sort of thing makes it tough for your lawyer to argue for low bail. Here's the neat twi...

I check with some regularity with the event calender of BusinessWest, sometimes with an eye to a story that will work for the Agawam weekly paper. In that way I became aware of a Western Mass Business Expo to be held October 11 (the second Thursday of that month) at The MassMutual Center in downtown Springfield. I probably won't be able to pitch that as a story unless there is a more specific Agawam/Feeding Hills connection. But there will be "hundreds of exhibitors," so chances are I can work the micro-local angle Jenn likes. Here's to you, Jenn!    I'm always thinking.