A (sometimes) tongue in cheek review of the news published this week regarding Wise County.
Normally posted every Sunday around 6:00 p.m.
For the week ending 7/29/00:
| The Story | A portion of Decatur went without electricity for two hours on Monday due to a dead "squirrel on top of a transformer on Hale Street". |
| News worthiness (on a scale of 0 to 5) | *** |
| The Spin | Officials pinpointed the problem when they noticed the squirrel was sitting in a miniature bath tub holding an electrical hairdryer in its dead squirrel hand. |
| The Story | Traffic signals became inoperative because of the suicidal squirrel. |
| News worthiness | *** |
| The Spin | After a near death experience, The Spin would like to point out that a traffic signal that has lost power should not be interpreted as permission for everyone to drive through the intersection like a bat out of Hades. |
| The Story | The Decatur City council discusses hiring a food service inspection firm for the city's many restaurants. |
| News worthiness | ** |
| The Spin | There are some things we'd rather just not know. |
| The Story | Wednesday's Messenger page 4A: A letter to the editor by Mike Cole complains about the low salaries for police officers noting that "we are currently eight to ten patrolman short" because of the low pay. |
| News worthiness | *** |
| The Spin | Wednesday's Messenger page 2A: The County Attorney's salary was raised to $74,325, the County Court at Law Judge's salary was raised to $79,000 and the County Auditor's salary was raised to $35,000. |
| The Story | Noting that it was not "taking nothing away from Tiger Woods' accomplishments", the Wise County Messenger touts that it won the Sweepstakes honors at the West Texas Press Association convention for "twice weekly newspapers" in Texas. |
| News worthiness | ** |
| The Spin | The Spin is an obvious fan of the Messenger, but we were wondering: How many "twice weekly newspapers" are there? |
| The Story | After a few weeks layoff, the public assault on manufactured housing begins again when New Fairview enacted an ordinance requiring any new trailer homes "brought into the city [to have] a storage shed of a least 144 square foot on the property". |
| News worthiness | **** |
| The Spin | Council member Trudy Sales remarked "At least that will give residents somewhere to put things besides the front yard." |