Since my mom asked. There’s a much larger version here.

Start Slide Show with PicLens Lite

More on the way, but they’ll probably come after I return to D.C., because I’m spending so much time out and about (and eating — please, somebody stop me from eating).

Start Slide Show with PicLens Lite

To me, however, the most important paragraph I’ve read since this whole debacle began was when Chamber board member Arlene Schadel said this:

“We need loyalty to the chamber board,’ Schadel said. “That was a problem with Nicole (Robbins) and with April (Weitlauf) before her.”

That’s the situation in nutshell - the board of directors for the Silver City-Grant County Chamber of Commerce want a pliant figurehead. Regardless of the director’s performance, or whether the membership of the Chamber are trying to remove the board from power, the most important criteria probably is loyalty to the directors.

I still don’t know exactly what’s been happening; I’ve been gone too long and I’m too out of touch to know the entire situation. But after reading that one paragraph, it seems like it’s time for new leadership at the Chamber. The board members, as I said before, are all dedicated residents who have sacrificed time and again for the community. It appears, however, that the circle has become too tight (witness their efforts to eject two board members), and that the same people have been doing the same jobs for too long.

The Chamber needs a shakeup.

Obviously, IOKIYAR - can you imagine the furor that would have erupted had Teague said something similar?

Still, I now know Tinsley should get a pass. Thanks Heath!

I’ve got some strong feelings on this matter - Nicole is one of the most earnest people I’ve ever met, and I’ve never known anybody so dedicated to doing well. Simply put, I can’t understand why anybody would want to ler her go.

At the same time, I’m a practical guy, and I’m not privy to the internal discussions of the board over what is fundamentally a personnel issue. It reminds me of the city council years ago when it replaced Tom Bates as city manager. Bates had some strong support in the coomunity, but the council made its decision and stuck by it.

Finally, I have some personal history with many of the board members, and nothing but respect for them. The board member have consistently stepped above and beyond what their professional careers required to serve with numerous civic organizations within Grant County.

Regardless, it looks like the chamber board have already formed a search committee to look for an interim director. This either conveys a sense that they feel they have enough support to survive the recall election or they don’t care either way, and they’re going about business as usual.

I’d be a bit more interested in learning about the logistics of the vote. Will the meeting be public (I’ll be in town that week)? How will it be tabulated: does a majority of the membership have to be present? Or, does it require a majority (or supermajority) of those members who show up?

Anybody else know of recent developments?

Over at Congresspedia, we’re starting to track the members of Congress who are using Twitter. We’ve compiled a list of 29 members thus far, and we’re always on the look out for others. One neat trick we’re offering: for those members who are using Twitter, you can read their latest posts right on the Congressedia profile.

Rep. Tom Udall was one of the first to adopt the service, and his campaign has been quick to embrace blogging and other aspects of the Web as well. You can see his Congresspedia profile here, complete with his most recent “tweets” from Twitter.

If you know of any other members of Congress using Twitter (or congressional candidates for that matter) please let us know!

It must be August: Congress is no longer in session and the congressional primary season is again heating up. According to our calendar, there are primary elections every week from now until mid-September. Candidates in three states – Kansas, Michigan and Missouri - are on the ballot tomorrow.

As part of our Wiki the Vote project, our citizen-editors have been tallying all the races and building profiles of many of the candidates. We’ll have more on the winners Wednesday, but for now here are some of the more interesting races to watch:

You can find the rest here. If you know something about an interesting congressional race, I’d urge you to head over to Congresspedia and add the information there. You can always ask us for help, and I promise we’ll value your contribution.

It’s entirely possible I gave preferential treatment to Missouri and covered those races first, though I won’t confirm or deny why.

As always, the “Stuff I Wrote Elsewhere” idea is courtesy of John Fleck.

I also had the pleasure of running through the sprinkler with The Coranator. Yes, our hosts sometimes call their 20-month-old daughter, Cora, the Coranator. After spending an afternoon with her, watching as she fell (on her cute little face a couple of times), ran around in the hot sun, and withstand the spray from her brother’s supersoaker, I understood why: she’s one tough kid.

Anyhoo, this is one of my favorite recent photos, so I thought I would share it with you. You can find another picture of Cora, this one of her adorable face, here.

Start Slide Show with PicLens Lite

When I returned from Washington D.C. in August, 2004, I took a position as news director for KNFT radio. My predecessor, Larry Behrens, had just taken a job as KOAT’s local reporter for the Silver City/Southwest New Mexico area. At the Sun News, Levi was working with Tom Baird and sports reporter Matt Miller. The Daily Press was employing Melissa St. Aude, Mary Alice Murphy, and Steven Siegfried, with Vince Kong on sports duty.

The lay of the land has changed completely. Every name listed above has moved on (or is moving on) with the exception of Mary Alice, whose role at the Daily Press has been reduced significantly. KNFT’s news operation was basically scrapped in 2006.

I think the changes have been gradual enough that there’s been no serious loss of institutional knowledge, the statistic is staggering in my mind. What happens to follow through on long-term stories? How does a news organization maintain relationships with the community when its most visible ambassadors are constantly changing?

What do you think? Has the turnover in reporters been good, bad, or a mixed bag?