I'm wondering how many people have to die before the story gets on the front page of the Des Moines Register.
Debris has been located in the Atlantic Ocean from an Air France plane that was carrying 228 passengers and crew members.
The plane, which took off from Rio de Janeiro and was supposed to land in Paris, went down in a storm yesterday.
Still, the tragedy wasn't big enough to get the story on page 1 of this morning's Register. Or even on page 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 or 7.
The horribly-underplayed story was on page 8 of the general news section.
From now on, I think Reid Forgrave should be put in charge of news judgement and page layout in addition to carrying on his duties as spokesman for Register reporters who still have jobs in the dying journalism trade.
Frankly, after seeing how the plane crash story was handled, I can see why the newspapers that aren't already dead are on life support.
Forgrave's comments about still being employed by the Register didn't make the paper, but they're chronicled in the American Journalism Review story at the right side of this page.
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All of us know how Shawn Johnson of West Des Moines has taken the gymnastics [and "Dancing With the Stars"] worlds by storm.
She's an Olympic gold medalist, she won the Sullivan Award as the No. 1 amateur athlete in America, she and What's-His-Name-Her-Partner won the dancing, and lately she's been piling up money doing personal appearances -- ranging from auto races to throwing out the first pitch last night at a Los Angeles Dodgers baseball game [read the story and take a look at the pictures on the right side of this page].
But Johnson isn't the only gymnast from this area who is a winner.
Another is Jessa Hansen [pictured at the right] of Clive, who had an outstanding freshman season on the women's gymnastics team at the University of Iowa.
She competed on the bars, beam and in the floor exercise -- taking first places in the floor exercise against both Iowa State and Maryland. She also did well at the Big Ten meet.
Jessa, a Waukee High School graduate, trained at the same Chow's Gym where Shawn Johnson did her stuff.
Jessa, who is studying pre-medicine at Iowa, is the daughter of Marc and Jody Hansen. Marc, of course, is the outstanding columnist at the Des Moines Register.
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Message to me from Damaged Rooster, not his real name, on Twitter: "Appropriate that Shawn wore No. 10, she does resemble the Penguin." [Former Dodgers and Cubs third baseman Ron Cey was called The Penguin].
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I didn't notice, but Biz Buzz said it took last week off because of Memorial Day. After reading what was in the column on the business page today, I think it could easily have taken this week off, too.
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In a Little League-like exhibition, two Los Angeles Dodgers pitchers -- Cory Wade and Brent Leach -- combined to throw five wild pitches last night in a 3-2 loss to Arizona. The five wild ones tied a Dodgers record set on July 9, 1918, at St. Louis. Obviously, the Dodgers then were playing their home games in Brooklyn. To me, it sounds like the catcher should've called in sick last night at Dodger Stadium.
