Congrats to ACES Scholarship Winners

Well, once again, I've had to miss the ACES conference, and once again, miss it deeply and regret that my need to piece together a living at the moment is interfering with attending the conference.  I was hoping to catch up with several of the scholarship winners, especially Emily Ingram from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, who I know over the phone from the  ABC's On Campus program.

When the scholarship selection team submitted its recommendations to the Education Committee for final approval, it was amusing to discover that most of the winners was known to at least one of us, and we would weigh in with a comment to the effect that, yes, hooray, they all look great, but so-and-so is especially deserving. In my case, that is Emily, though to repeat, they ALL look terrific. 

As a print major and a copy editor, she runs the UNL On Campus bureau of broadcast students, a really remarkable arrangement that attests to her leadership and her skills across several platforms. It says a lot about her future in the journalism world, whatever it becomes in the near and distant future.

So congrats to all. Should I be fully employed next year, I will turn up at ACES, I swear.

And, not incidentally, that ACES is able to attract more than 300 participants in such doom and gloom time is nothing short of miraculous.

Congratulations to Chris and the ACES team, again.

Not What They Meant

But, but, won't the Pacific Ocean get in the way?

China Offers High-Speed Rail to California

What this story says is that China, with its superior tech abilities, is looking to build high-speed rail lines in California or at least contribute some technology.

Editors who write headlines like this aren't stepping back for a moment to make sure they make sense and to avoid ambiguities.

Those Dangerous High School Bands

   What? Aside from the dangler introduction, which seems to refer to the Hutaree leader, I am confused. A former marching band member? A former teen driver? A former kindergartner?

   Ah, yes, later, we discover the reference is indeed the Hutaree leader, who is 45 years old. That marching band must be one hell of an influence to warrant mention this way.
 

Led by a former high school marching band member, nine people in the Hutaree group have been arrested in raids since Saturday, linked to what federal law enforcement officials said was a plot to kill a police officer and then foment violence at the ensuing funeral. Eight pleaded not guilty at a court hearing in Detroit on Wednesday.