FREE SPEECH
Alaska Daily is a new drama starring Hilary Swank as a high-profile reporter reinventing herself in Alaska after being “canceled” in New York City for, among other things, bullying her staff. While fictionalized, the story is based an a real investigation into the high rate of sexual assaults against Indigenous people in Alaska, and how a lack of law enforcement meant cases kept rising and women kept disappearing. The reporting job was done by Anchorage Daily News and ProPublica’s Local Reporting Network, published in 2019 under the collective title of “Lawless.” The series featured dozens of articles reporting on the systemic issue and interviews with survivors of sexual assault. While it’s just a TV show – with many nuances of the profession flattened and stereotyped – Alaska Daily provides a window into the work and challenges of contemporary local journalism: downsizing, lack of resources, lack of cooperation with local law enforcement, and the role of social media and data journalism in investigative breakthroughs. If you are curious how newsrooms work, watch on ABC or stream on Hulu.
QUOTE OF THE WEEK
“Justice delayed is not justice denied.” - San Luis Obispo County District Attorney Dan Dow speaking in Salinas on Oct. 18, after the conviction of Paul Flores for the 1996 murder of Cal Poly student Kristin Smart. The trial happened in Monterey County Superior Court. A separate jury acquitted his father, Ruben Flores, of accessory changes. (See story, mcweekly.com)
GOOD WEEK / GREAT WEEK
GOOD:
One thing visitors to Big Sur’s backcountry might not know is that the trails that exist are largely maintained by the Ventana Wilderness Alliance, a nonprofit that seeks to both protect the backcountry, and make it more accessible. And it’s volunteers who make that mission possible. So it’s nice to see Betsy MacGowan, a longtime VWA volunteer (also a board member), be one of eight volunteers the U.S. Forest Service recognized nationally with the agency’s 2021 volunteer awards. MacGowan, fittingly, was recognized for her “enduring service” – she’s logged more than 15,000 volunteer hours, and has led more than 250 trail crews that have cleared a total of more than 63 trail miles. She will be honored Saturday, Oct. 22, at a private VWA gathering at Toro Park, in a ceremony that will include Los Padres National Forest Supervisor Chris Stubbs.
GREAT:
Monterey County’s rural hospital, Mee Memorial in King City, is one of six organizations in the country selected to learn strategies in eliminating racial and ethnic disparities in health care. Its leadership team will take part in the one-year Disparities Leadership Program now in its 15th year. It’s the first program of its kind in the U.S., led by the Disparities Solutions Center based Boston. The program is designed to equip leaders at hospitals, health insurance plans and other health care organizations with strategies to overcome inequalities. Last year Mee Memorial unveiled a new mission statement that says it is “committed to providing culturally sensitive and patient-centered healthcare, delivered with the highest quality of service.” The latest data shows the population in Mee Memorial’s service area is 70-percent Latino, and 54.5 percent of the population lives under the federal poverty level.