The LuLac Edition #313, Sept. 27th, 2007

PHOTO INDEX: WVIA TV/FM PRESIDENT A. WILLIAM KELLY AND JUDGE ANNE LOKUTA.

VISIONARY

The word is bandied about loosely these days and locally every business/corporate "wannabe" uses the term as often as pre teens say "awesome". But in the case of WVIA's Board of Directors and its President Bill Kelly, the word is not only accurate but a true statement of fact. I took my very first airplane ride with Bill Kelly to a Public Radio conference in Chicago in 1974. Even back then, the man had plans for what Public Broadcasting could be. He always was one step ahead of those who claimed to be the innovators. Tonight, WVIA Public Media was introduced to great fanfare. What was once a cold, cavernous shell of a studio that looked like a clean but non descript factory now has been transformed into a High Definition mecca. (George Strimell and Atty. Chuck Boyle gave me the opportunity as a young kid to actually broadcast from that studio. They might have regretted it, but my mom and I never did!) As a young boy, in 1966 I waited with baited breath for the broadcast of the "new 4th station". It turned out there were technical difficulties but it got on the air. And it stayed. And it flourished. And it grew. That all happened because of one thing: a vision to do more and serve its constituency. Here's a link to the WVIA TV/FM website, check out the progress. We, as a viewing audience are lucky and blessed. http://www.wvia.org/.

BUSH AND AIR TRAVEL

President Bush promised on Thursday to take steps to reduce air traffic congestion and long delays that have left travelers grounded.
“Endless hours sitting in an airplane on a runway with no communication between a pilot and the airport is just not right,” he said. Bush met in the Oval Office with Transportation Secretary Mary Peters and acting Federal Aviation Administrator Bobby Sturgell. The president urged Congress to look at legislation to modernize the FAA, and instructed Peters to report

on how passengers are treated.

Oh great, we are trusting the guy who led us into a war with such competency that now we want him to have the planes run on time. Here's what's wrong, the airlines don't give a shit. Their employees have been stripped of pensions, their salaries have been cut and they fly planes that are overbooked and loaded to save money. If you remember pre 911, those three planes that were highjacked weren't even close to being filled to capacity. A President asking "pretty please" isn't going to improve air travel. The airlines (and I worked for a major online Travel company for 5 years) have been bailed out from bankruptcy, been rewarded for bad behavior and horrible customer service and realize they are the only game in town. What is a lame duck President going to do? Nothing. Only the consumers have the power, but we won't because we need those big birds to get us to our destination. And the airlines know it, which is why nothing will happen.

LOKUTA: DAY 4

A former intern of Judge Ann Lokuta testified she heard the judge and a staff member, Maureen Gushanas, arguing for about half an hour.
Then Gushanas gave Lokuta a request for vacation time. Lokuta denied it, the intern, Rebecca Sammon, testified.
Then there was more bickering before Gushanas "screamed at the top of her lungs," Sammon said.
"Just because I'm not sleeping with you anymore, judge!" Gushanas said, according to Sammon.
"I had no idea anything like that was going on," Sammon said. "I just thought they were friends."
Sammon also said the judge went from calling her "brilliant" one year to calling her "stupid" the next year.
Sammon said Lokuta also called her a "tramp" one day when Lokuta didn't like the shirt Sammon wore one day.
Sammon said Lokuta had her write sympathy notes. That, Sammon said, was the "the most consistent" duty she had one summer.

REACTION

First off, I find it interesting that the person yelling and getting emotional was Gushanas and not the Judge. Was her outburst a planned move to "out" herself and the Judge or was she just feeling some pain?

As for the intern, I thought many young people were attuned to various diversity in sexual preferences, more than in my day. Oh well, if she was sheltered, so be it. But really, it was none of her business. If one thing my former federal government employee Miss Lewinsky taught us about being an intern was is that you want to stay away from even discussing sex. And as for the sympathy notes, boo hoo. One summer, as an intern, and this was at the aforementioned WVIA TV/FM, I spent the summer cataloguing classical records by day and running to the old Mayfair Supper Club on Rt. 315 for sandwiches for the Action Auction crew. As an intern, you do what you are told. God, I'd trade those sympathy notes for what I had to do, but then of course, I did not have aspirations to be a member of the spoiled, ultra sensitive, 20 hour a week legal community in Luzerne County.