Some big news about the other Hesperia paper:
Weeklies’ publisher seeks bankruptcy protection amid lawsuit
RIVERSIDE – The publisher of the Hesperia Resorter newspaper and other high desert-area weeklies has filed for bankruptcy protection to try to shelter his assets should a court order him to pay damages in a $4 million defamation lawsuit.
Raymond Pryke, 82, said Thursday he opted to seek bankruptcy protection because he fears the court might issue a judgment against him that would be too large for him to make bond on pending an appeal, tying up his holdings.
Advertisement He listed assets of between $10 million and $50 million in his filing to the California Bankruptcy Court in Riverside on Friday.
The lawsuit against the Hesperia Resorter was filed in June 2000 by Nancy Bohl, wife of San Bernardino County Sheriff Gary Penrod.
In the complaint, Bohl accused the newspaper of publishing falsehoods about her and her psychological counseling firm in three stories published in 1999 and 2000.
The stories alleged that Bohl, who was a counselor for the sheriff’s department and married Penrod in May 2000, divulged private information about deputies she had counseled and that her firm received preferential treatment in San Bernardino County’s bidding process.
The allegations were attributed to anonymous sources. Pryke said a judge issued a default judgment against the newspaper after the publisher refused to have his reporter reveal the sources.
“I never knew who the sources were because I didn’t want to know,” Pryke said.
In addition to the Hesperia Resorter, Pryke is also publisher for the Antelope Valley Journal in Palmdale and five high desert weeklies: Adelanto Bulletin, County Legal Reporter, Apple Valley News, Victorville Post-Express and Lucerne Valley Post.
Although the papers have different mastheads, from what I can tell, the contents of his Valley-Wide papers are identical.
Ray Pryke upsets a lot of people with his coverage and how his paper goes about it. (An amazing number of people I know have been fired by Pryke over the years, and they’re eager to share their opinions.) To me, though, there’s something wonderfully American about the British-born Pryke and his paper: Only in America (or practically) can a pissed-off old man with money publish a newspaper to “get” the people he thinks need getting. In a way, this is what the First Amendment is all about.
A press release from the City of Hesperia:
Code Enforcement enlists help of local angels
HESPERIA – On September 22, 2005 the City of Hesperia Code Enforcement Supervisor Tony Genovesi received a call from a San Bernardino County Sheriff’s dispatcher to respond to a residence in the 16000 block of Allthorn Street regarding a health and safety issue. Upon inspection it was discovered that the owner, sixty-year-old Clare Lindsay was housing over 100 cats, most of which were kept inside the house. After inspecting the residence it was found to be uninhabitable due to heath issues and all the cats were removed by Hesperia Animal Control and taken to their facility on Santa Fe Avenue. After evaluating the health of the cats, the Animal Control Department found that most of the cats removed were either feral, sick or both.Â
Because of the unhealthy/unsanitary living condition inside the residence, Hesperia Code Enforcement, posted the residence as inhabitable. Lindsay, was told that she could not return to the residence until it was cleaned and sanitized which meant, removing all of the carpet and padding, sealing the concrete, removing any unsanitary furniture and repainting the interior which would be impossible on Lindsay’s monthly disability check. Lindsay informed Hesperia Code Enforcement that she did not have the monetary means to make the necessary corrections to her residence.Â
That’s when Hesperia Code Enforcement stepped in. Upon contacting Dennis Nicklaus, owner of a local glass and screen shop volunteered to recruit a group of members of his LDS church, to remove all of the carpet and padding, bleach all other surfaces, remove unsanitary furniture, scrub all bare surfaces and walls and repaint the interior. After the interior of the residence is suitable for rehabilitation, another group of members is going to clean and remove all weeds on the property.
The project began on Thursday, October 12, 2005 at approximately 3:00 p.m. The roll-off trash container is being provided by the City’s franchise waste hauler Advance Disposal and the paint is being provided by Deputy Doug Combs of the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department.
I now feel much better about my single leaky 20-year-old cat.
My friend Kris sent me this eBay link, asking if perhaps I was the seller:
You are bidding on a mistake.
We all make mistakes. We date the wrong people for too long. We chew gum with our mouths open. We say inappropriate things in front of grandma.
And we buy leather pants.
I can explain these pants and why they are in my possession. I bought them many, many years ago under the spell of a woman whom I believed to have taste. She suggested I try them on. I did. She said they looked good. I wanted to have a relationship of sorts with her. I’m stupid and prone to impulsive decisions. I bought the pants.
The relationship, probably for better, never materialized. The girl, whose name I can’t even recall, is a distant memory. I think she was short.
Ultimately the pants were placed in the closet where they have remained, unworn, for nearly a decade. I would like to emphasize that: Aside from trying these pants on, they have never, ever been worn. In public or private.
I have not worn these leather pants for the following reasons:
I am not a member of Queen.
I do not like motorcycles.
I am not Rod Stewart.
I am not French.
I do not cruise for transvestites in an expensive sports car.
These were not cheap leather pants. They are Donna Karan leather pants. They’re for men. Brave men, I would think. Perhaps tattooed, pierced men. In fact, I’ll go so far as to say you either have to be very tough, very gay, or very famous to wear these pants and get away with it.
Again, they’re men’s pants, but they’d probably look great on the right lady. Ladies can get away with leather pants much more often than men can. It’s a sad fact that men who own leather pants will have to come to terms with.
They are size 34×34. I am no longer size 34×34, so even were I to suddenly decide I was a famous gay biker I would not be able to wear these pants. These pants are destined for someone else. For reasons unknown – perhaps to keep my options open, in case I wanted to become a pirate – I have shuffled these unworn pants from house to house, closet to closet. Alas, it is now time to part ways so that I may use the extra room for any rhinestone-studded jeans I may purchase in the future.
These pants are in excellent condition. They were never taken on pirate expeditions. They weren’t worn onstage. They didn’t straddle a Harley, or a guy named Harley. They just hung there, sad and ignored, for a few presidencies.
Someone, somewhere, will look great in these pants. I’m hoping that someone is you, or that you can be suckered into buying them by a girl you’re trying to bed.
Please buy these leather pants.
Although I think of myself as brave and am, perhaps, a teensy bit famous, I do not own and have never owned leather pants.
Having said that, I did, in fact, wear leather pants in a college production of “Romeo and Juliet” my freshman year. I played Benvolio in an martial arts-fighting, knife-swinging, rock and roll version that sounds a lot more interesting than it really was. In reality, it was mostly a lot of college kids in leather pants who didn’t have fight training and who came dangerously close to putting out each others’ eyes and, in my case, getting their ribs broken by the male ballet dancer who played Tybalt. That guy was strong!
I did once get suckered into buying unfortunate pants, though, by a sales girl at Britches Great Outdoors in Tysons Corner when I was in high school. But they were merely corduroy.
Spinning out of skater kids coming to the Hesperia City Council meeting a few months ago, the Hesperia Recreation & Park District is having another meeting to gauge interest in a local skate park in the city tonight.
The new Hesperia reporter for the Daily Press, Tracie Troha, has the story in today’s paper.
Very few police dramas expand or redefine the genre. Dragnet, Hill Street Blues, NYPD Blue and CSI are among the few that have. Add to that very select list, The Shield .
Although Hill Street Blues and NYPD Blue featured police officers straying into gray areas of morality, in The Shield, cops operating outside the law are the center of the action. Like in the Sopranos, viewers are challenged by these characters: Vic Mackey (Michael Chiklis) isn’t a good guy, he isn’t a bad guy, he’s something in between. To Vic, his rogue behavior serves the public interest. To everyone else, a cop with a pet crack dealing operation who murders, plants evidence and savagely beats suspects is a danger who needs to be taken off the street. But Vic is an old pro at this, and viewers get to watch him attempt to out-maneuver the forces trying to take him down, and not always for the best of reasons.
But the show is an ensemble, as the best cop shows have been, and everyone from beat cops to detectives to the police captain get their moments to shine. Especially impressive is Detective Claudette Wyms (CCH Pounder), who radiates morality, maturity and wisdom. Claudette has to deal with an over-eager partner (who, on paper, the audience should love, but who in practice practically invites the abuse the other officers heap upon him), a politically minded captain and, of course, the Strike Team, led by the obviously corrupt Vic Mackey.
Bear in mind that the series, which will begin its fifth season in January 2006, is constructed in 13 episode arcs. At times, the first few episodes will seem slow, but it’s always building to a shattering conclusion at the end of each season.
This is one of the few television shows that can justly be called a classic. More importantly, The Shield redefines what audiences can and should expect from police dramas in the years to come.
Strongly recommended to fans of police dramas. Be warned that The Shield skirts an R rating much of the time, especially in the adult and dark subject matter.
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