Subscribe to the Slantagraph?

Last couple of weeks I've been trying to decide if I should renew my subscription to the local paper, the Slantagraph. (A friend of mine, who grew up here, said the Slantagraph is what its detractors call it. Not many people know what a pantagraph refers to anyway!) It's definitely slanted, heavily to the right, with its selective choice of headlines, articles, syndicated columns and editorial pieces. Some days I've vowed to stop supporting it. I have gotten some important local news from it, but that too doesn't happen often.

I imagine some would say that the local paper just represents the views of the town. However, even though the 13,000-plus State Farm professionals make this on balance a conservative county, the working people and middle-class professionals at the 2 universities easily provide a significant left counterweight.

To subscribe or not to subscribe. The slantagraph does provide some local humor from time to time. Frequently you get the pleasure of reading the lunatic ramblings of wingnuts.

Support the wildwood workers

Today I attended the Latinos United for Change (Latinos Unidos para Cambio - L.U.C.) meeting in which Wildwood workers told their incredible story. The owner of Wildwood Industries here in Bloomington, a guy named Gary Wilder, used the money owed to workers to pay back bank creditors as he ran his company into the ground. How messed up this company was is clear from this article on a sourcing industry website, ttnet. Some workers are owed a week's pay, others are owed money for 3 or 4 weeks. Now he is being investigated by the feds. This Pantagraph article discusses the situation, saying nonchalantly that workers can apply to the state for their back pay (without mentioning that this avenue, still to be tried by the workers, was due to L.U.C. pressure).