Keep Local News Local (the fight continues)

Vowing to fight back, newsroom employees at WEEK-TV Channel 25 and WHOI-TV Channel 19 led a protest rally Friday attended by some 50 people on United Auto Workers Local 974 property, 3025 Springfield Road in East Peoria.

"We're filing charges with the National Labor Relations Board," said Garry Moore, WEEK newsman and president of the Peoria Local of the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, on the day before a contract is imposed on AFTRA members.

"We're hoping that the NLRB will send both sides back to the bargaining table," he said.

Negotiations broke down earlier this year between AFTRA and Granite Broadcasting, the New York-based firm that owns WEEK and manages WHOI. AFTRA voted down a contract offer in April, citing language that would allow for the outsourcing of news and weather broadcasts.

Moore added that AFTRA hopes to meet with U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., to enlist his help in getting Granite back to the bargaining table.

Speakers at the rally included Mike Everett, president of the West Central Illinois Building Trades Council; state Sen. Dave Koehler, D-Peoria; and Mike Matejka, a member of the Bloomington City Council.

While AFTRA Vice President Josh Simon outlined a Twitter campaign that supporters can join through the AFTRA Facebook page, Moore said there were "other cards" that AFTRA members could play but were "holding back on" pending action by station management.

"We might be forced to ask station advertisers to pull advertising, and there's the possibility of a strike or walkout. The company might lock us out. Hopefully, we won't have to resort to either of these things," said Moore.

[story by Steve Tarter of Peoria Journal Star
http://m.pjstar.com/jstar/db_/contentdetail.htm?contentguid=mOh2lU4P&full=true#display

Gardening ~ Predictably Unpredictable

When you try a new flower that hasn't been on the market very long, you never know in one, three, or five years what might happen to it. They can be very unpredictable at times since the creators usually try to rush them out to retailers as the "next best flower" ... Only to find out through feedback that, due to playing with the DNA of the plant, the flower reverts back to it's original color (some summer phlox have done this) or blooms into a strange mutated ugly color (orange cone flower did this), or becomes less hardy in colder zones (red potentilla is known for this).

A year ago I seeded a tray of Rudbeckia 'cherry brandy' in the greenhouse... I had heard of it, but hadn't seen it available for purchase at garden centers. It had a rough go of it in my gardens the first year, growing shorter than expected and very sparse in blooms. Then, after talking to a couple garden center employees, I found out it was probably "iffy" on whether it would come back or not.

So, needless to say, I really wasn't expecting the plants to come back this year. But... Sure enough, four of the six plants I had at my own house survived and have done very well this year.

However... Each of the four, even though they came from the same seed pack 18 months ago, looks different from each other.

• one plant is a deep deep red with a very broad flower head and tall middle
• another plant is the same deep deep red but the pedals are less rounded at the ends and the center isn't as large
• the third has some yellow on the outer half of the pedals and are smaller flower heads.
• the fourth has a definite two color look with deep deep red on the inside of the pedals and yellow/gold on the outer half (see below)

I'm pretty sure the deep deep red is what they're suppose to look like (hense the name 'cherry brandy'), but if (and I'm assuming this is the case) the flower was developed from Rudbeckia 'black-eyed susan' - guess where the yellow comes from.

Unpredictable... What made some revert halfway and others not at all? What will happen next year?

Gardening as a whole is predictably unpredictable... But, add man's desire to play with the DNA of plants and you never know what you might get.

However... I'm not complaining... This is how we learn about the life of plants. And... maybe us gardeners thrive on this challenge of "predictably unpredictable."

Hmmmmmmmm... Maybe that's why I left banking management a few years ago, too. Interesting what you begin to learn about yourself if you start thinking about things too deeply.

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Rudbeckia 'Cherry Brandy' ~ Colossians 1:16

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