Four today

1. Four New York Times journalists are missing in Libya, including two-time Pulitzer-winner Anthony Shadid. NYT

2. Pew's State of the Media report for 2011. Pew

3. KPCC is looking for a web designer/developer. APM

4. A neo-Nazi rally is planned for March 19 in Claremont to "respond" to a pro-immigration rally at the Claremont Colleges. Daily Bulletin

AOL Patch hearts leafy cities, continued...*

AOL Patch has an ad out for a reporter/editor to cover yet another leafy Southern California city. Having named a patcher for South Pasadena, the network has listed an opening to cover Claremont, which the Los Angeles Times loves to call "the city of trees and PhDs," because it has trees and colleges and because it rhymes. The listing is here.

Wondering how much a Patch job pays? From the LA Weekly:

Each local editor — who essentially acts as reporter, editor, aggregator and community-outreach manager — is given a website, a MacBook Pro, a digital camera with video and an iPhone or BlackBerry, and reportedly paid between $38,000 and $45,000 with health benefits.

*Update: Here's an even better link (thanks to a reader) that shows the broader scope of where Patch plans to plant roots in California. Duarte, Glendora and Walnut/Industry  are all in SGVN territory and they're looking for an associate editor to oversee all of the San Gabriel Valley. AOL already has people in Altadena and South Pasadena (Altadena launched yesterday).

Some of the listing are wrong - not sure if that's the fault of Patch or the job site. Hawaii Gardens should be Hawaiin Gardens, and Folsom, Fair Oaks, Elk Grove, Citrus, El Dorado Hills and Cameron Park are Sacramento-area cities, not San Francisco. Similarly, Banning-Beaumont, Yucaipa, Redlands, Mission Viejo, Murrieta and Temecula are all well outside of Los Angeles County.

Details such as these matter a great deal if you're going to cast your networks as hyperaware of hyperlocal issues.

NYT skips over Claremont

The New York Times picked up the story about Christine O'Donnell's errant educational background - sort of. The profile, written by Mark Leibovich, mentions the false claim she'd attended England's Oxford University but not the false claim that she'd attended Claremont Graduate University. East Coast bias? Here's the relevant passage:

Ms. O’Donnell has faced charges this week that she lied about her educational record — a claim on two online business networking sites that she had attended Oxford University when in fact she participated in a summer program from the Phoenix Institute, which was housed at the elite British university. “I was never dishonest about my education,” she said. “Whether someone put it there to call me a liar, whatever

I can't stay mad at you

The Republican effort to recall Republican Assemblyman Anthony Adams of Claremont for supporting a budget that included temporary tax increases appears to be losing steam. Proponents have gathered about 20,000 signatures, roughly half of what they need to assure the measure gets on the ballot, Joe Mathews reports at his Blockbuster Democracy Blog.

Mathews writes:

Fearless prediction: this recall won't make the ballot. We've already had another budget agreement since the February deal. And voters effectively have said their piece through the May special election, when five of the six measures that were part of the February deal were rejected. For conservatives still angry with Adams (who represents a rare swing district in California), a primary challenge might be a better strategy. Assembly terms, after all, are only two years long.

Sam Maloof dead at 93

Woodworker and designer Sam Maloof died Thursday at his home in Alta Loma. He was 93.

From the Los Angeles Times:

Maloof, whose career began six decades ago just as the American modernism movement was becoming popular, put usefulness before artistry and turned down multimillion-dollar offers to mass-produce his original designs. He worked out of his home workshop, shaping hardwood, one part at a time, into rocking chairs, cradles and hutches that were shorn of unnecessary adornments. ...

"He was trying to make other people appreciate what it was like to live with a handcrafted object in which there was a kind of union between maker, object and owner," said Jeremy Adamson, who wrote "The Furniture of Sam Maloof," published in 2001 to coincide with a retrospective exhibition of Maloof's work at the Smithsonian American Art Museum's Renwick Gallery in Washington, D.C.

I remember Sam Maloof from my time at the Claremont Courier. We'd often do stories about him - about his work being displayed in the Smithsonian, when Caltrans moved his house (pictured above) to make way for the 210 Freeway, when his first wife died, when he remarried. He was immensely talented, gracious and always down to earth. He represent an artistic movement and ideal born in the Inland Empire that seem to have been swallowed up by a great suburban sprawl.

Inland Valley Daily Bulletin, Press-Enterprise

Turkey tussle*

Usually, Thanksgiving Day animus is contained to airports and dining room tables. But a political correctness battle broke out today over the annual turkey feast celebration at Condit Elementary School in Claremont.

From the LAT:

After a handful of parents complained that the Native American headdresses and vests were demeaning, cartoonish stereotypes, the Claremont Unified School District eliminated the costumes from this year's festivities, but allowed the turkey feast to go forward.

This led parents on both sides to a protest outside of the school, which led to a heated exchange, which led to a call to the police. Police also got an anxious call from Claremont Unified Superintendnet David Cash, who told police he feared for his safety after receiving "hate e-mails."

The Times continues:

"It's been wild," said one woman who declined to give her name. Meanwhile, the kindergartners -- some of whom showed up wearing their banned costumes -- frolicked on the playground, eating, running and chattering with friends, [police Lt. Dennis] Smith said. "The kids were oblivious," he added, "as they should be."

*Updated story from the LAT, story from the Claremont Courier.

Pomona College remembers

Pomona College students, parents and alumni remember David Foster Wallace. The novelist, best known for "Infinite Jest," was teaching writing at the school. He was found dead of an apparent suicide in his Claremont home earlier this week.

David Foster Wallace is dead

Novelist David Foster Wallace, who was teaching writing at Pomona College in Claremont, was found dead in his home. He apparently hanged himself. He was 46. (via LA Observed)