A right discovered

The U.S. Supreme Court last week discovered a right that we thought was clear, i.e. the right to own guns. As the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported:

Writing for the majority, Justice Antonin Scalia said an individual right to bear arms exists and is supported by "the historical narrative" both before and after the Second Amendment was adopted.

President Bush said: "I applaud the Supreme Court's historic decision today confirming what has always been clear in the Constitution: the Second Amendment protects an individual right to keep and bear firearms."

Missouri political leaders hailed the decision. The St. Louis Post Dispatch reported:

The victory for the pro-gun community was punctuated in Missouri on Thursday by Gov. Matt Blunt signing legislation to seal records of people with a permit to carry concealed weapons, to eliminate a waiting period for new residents with permits from other states and to protect gun ranges from local anti-noise ordinances.

Jeff Mardis, who was at Bull's Eye on Thursday for target practice, said he likes to hunt but has a different reason to own a handgun: "Protection is No. 1."

Pointing out that Washington remained a violent city despite the tight limit on handgun ownership, Mardis said, "The effect is you disarm honest citizens who might come to your aid."

Of course, not everyone is happy. Already, the New York Sun is already fretting that felons will be allowed to carry guns.

But little attention has been paid to the effect that the court's decision could have on regulations defining which groups of people can be excluded from gun ownership.

"The Court might decide there are some classes of felons that ought to be treated differently from other classes of felons," a former solicitor general, Theodore Olson, said in an interview on Thursday about the prospect that the Supreme Court may eventually permit felons to own guns.

Crimes ranging from murder to writing a hot check can count as felonies. The felon-in-possession law applies to people convicted of state crimes as well as federal crimes.

We'll hear more of this kind of "sky-is-falling" rhetoric, but I doubt that an affirmation of a right that has existed since the founding of the country is going to make a difference. People will kill people no matter what. You can take away every gun; crazy people or evil people will find a different way to kill.

Freedom to worship

The young people were in charge of the worship service at our church today, and they led us in a patriotic theme on this Sunday before Independence Day. The call to worship hymn was the National Anthem. We also said the pledge of allegiance to the American flag and the Christian flag. The message was given by the youth leader, who noted that when the nation was founded there was a much stronger commitment to God than there is today.

Our little church is unabashedly patriotic and pro-American. We pray each Sunday for our nation, our government and our military. We appreciate our freedom and rights to worship and serve our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

I am proud that the youth of our congregation are continuing with their commitment to Christ and to freedom.

GateHouse makes cutbacks at another paper

GateHouse Media, which owns papers in Rolla, St. James, Waynesville-St. Robert and elsewhere throughout the Ozarks and Missouri, is making some changes on a paper in Illinois because of the soft economy.

The Marion Daily Republican reports that it will drop the Monday issue and go to a Tuesday through Saturday publication.

Over at St. Robert a couple of years ago, GateHouse dropped one issue of the Daily Guide. Even though the paper comes out just four days a week, it's still considered a daily newspaper.

Our Rolla paper used to be a Sunday through Friday paper. Now it's a Monday through Saturday paper. The vast majority of readers seem to like it, though, and you hear hardly any complaints about the Rolla paper. Thanks to the website, you don't even need to subscribe to it.

What's the GateHouse paper like in your town?

Growing tomatoes

We've had so much rain here in Southern Missouri that I didn't get a garden planted. I've only got Saturdays to work on it, and we've either had rain, wet ground or a scheduling conflict every Saturday.

Consequently, our gardening this year is limited to containers. We've got some squash, cucumbers and tomatoes in containers. Let me tell you: I am sold on Earth Boxes. At least for now. We bought three Earth Boxes at Sands Farm and Home in Rolla and followed the directions to plant two tomatoes in each one. We planted six heirloom varieties, and they are full of blooms and small tomatoes. If these Earth Boxes continue to perform well, I'm going to buy some more of them.

The Earth Box tomatoes are doing much better than the plants in big pots. The Earth Box is a simple system of delivering moisture and food to the plants. With the Earth Box, the watering remains even. I like these boxes, and I'm hoping to have many pounds of tomatoes off these plants.

I'll keep you posted, and I'll try to get a picture up here to show how these plants flourish in the Earth Boxes.

Gasoline ups and downs

I'm pretty sure gasoline reached $3.899 a gallon in Rolla last week, but I may have been wrong, for when I filled up yesterday I paid "only" $3.859.

Maybe we won't see $4 per gallon by the Fourth after all.

Goldman Sachs "neutral" on GateHouse

Goldman Sachs says the newspaper industry is hurting. Some excerpts from the website:

This year is a record-breaking one for the newspaper industry -- but not in good way. In a short note issued by Goldman Sachs analyst Peter Appert, he and his team point to three unsettling trends: three consecutive years of advertising revenue declines (two was the previous record); double-digit drops in ad revenue; and likely big dips in operating margins.

The companies that have reported May results show that the downturn is even sharper than previously thought. Goldman Sachs estimates that in May, ad revenue plummeted 14.6% compared to the same period a year ago, after April's 10.7% drop.

Of interest to Ozarks newspaper readers is this notation:

Goldman Sachs maintains its "neutral" rating on A.H. Belo, Gannett, GateHouse Media, Journal Communications, and Scripps. McClatchy and The New York Times Co. are still rated as "sell."

GateHouse Media owns newspapers in the Ozarks, including papers in Rolla, St. James, St. Robert and Camdenton. GateHouse also owns papers north of the Missouri River.

GateHouse stock drops to record low again

The stock market situation for GateHouse Media just keeps getting worse. I found a report on Forbes.com about Friday's new low for GateHouse's stock. Here are some excerpts:

Shares of GateHouse Media Inc. fell sharply and other newspaper publishers' stocks were mixed on Friday after two analysts said that the industry's outlook is continuing to deteriorate. A company representative was not immediately available for comment.

Gatehouse shares dropped 31 cents, or 9.5 percent, to $2.94 in afternoon trading, after hitting a 52-week low of $2.81 earlier in the session. During the past year, the stock has lost more than 80 percent of its value - dropping from a high of $19.60 last June to its previous low of $2.98 on Thursday.

Wachovia Capital Markets analyst John Janedis cut his rating on Gatehouse to "Market Perform" from "Outperform."

GateHouse owns newspapers in Rolla, St. Robert, St. James and Camdenton, plus several in southwest Missouri and others in northern Missouri.

$4 by the Fourth? I could be wrong

I predicted here several weeks ago that we would be paying $4 for gasoline in the Ozarks by the Fourth of July.

I could be wrong.

We might pay far more than $4, for the price has already reached $4 elsewhere, and one television station is reporting the possibility of $5 by the Fourth in California.

News for Ozarks newspaper readers

A significant number of Ozarkers get their local news in print from newspapers owned by Gatehouse Media. In this section of the Ozarks, Gatehouse owns papers in Rolla, St. James, St. Robert and Camdenton. It also owns several papers in the Ozarks of southwest Missouri. Gatehouse also owns papers up north of the Missouri River, too.

The company's stock is not doing well; in fact, it is lower than it has ever been, according to Editor & Publisher:

GateHouse Media Inc. stock hit a new low price Monday as the swooning Dow Jones Industrial Average dragged down nearly the entire newspaper sector.

GateHouse (NYSE: GHS) closed at $3.90, down 29 cents, or 6.92%. It had traded in a 52-week range of $4.12 to $20.15.

Of the 13 publicly traded newspaper stocks E&P tracks, 11 were down on the day, with one, Journal Register (OTC: JRCO.PK) unchanged. The other stock traded on the Over The Counter market, Sun-Times Media Group (OTC: SUTM.PK) was up on the day, closing at 49 cents, a gain of 4 cents, or 8.89%.

Other notable stock price dips included The McClatchy Co. (NYSE: MNI), which ended the day at $8.53, off 27 cents, or 3.07%.

The Washington Post Co. (NYSE: WPO) fell $24.37, or 3.88%, to $604.05.

Monday's biggest percentage loser was the thinly traded American Community Newspapers (AMEX: ANE), which closed at 25 cents, down 3 cents, or 10.71%.

What does this mean for readers of these Ozarks newspapers? Well, at least one analyst, 24/7 Wall St., thinks Gatehouse is headed for some serious trouble:

The next newspaper company to get into real trouble is likely to be Gatehouse Media (GHS). The firm is in bad enough shape that it could be the next Journal Register. JRC, as it was known, hit hard times due to large debt and falling operating income. It was delisted from the NYSE.

It would be difficult for any newspaper shares to be down as much as those of McClatchy (MNI), which is also burdened with debt and owns properties in the economically troubled regions of Florida and California. But, GHS shares are off 80% over the last year compared to 70% for MNI. Shares in industry leader Gannett (GCI) are down 50%.

At the end of the last quarter, Gatehouse had a little over $10 million in cash. Its long-term debt stands at over $1.2 billion. Goodwill is at just below $700 million.

During the last quarter, GHS lost $29 million on revenue of $170 million. Debt service was $24.4 million. Gatehouse has a huge dividend which it will almost certainly have to eliminate, taking away the sole reason for holding the shares.

Watch for GHS to be broken up before the end of the year or to enter Chapter 11.

Blogger reports GateHouse sued by former RDN ad manager

A southwest Missouri investigative journalist reported on his blog Sunday that Lonna Sowers, former advertising manager of the Rolla Daily News, has filed an age discrimination lawsuit against the newspaper and GateHouse Media, which owns several other newspapers in the Ozarks and throughout Missouri.

Randy Turner, of The Turner Report, wrote the following:

In the lawsuit, filed May 5 in U. S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri, lawyers for Lonna Sowers claims she was fired on May 10, 2007, "because of her age."

Ms. Sowers, 62, was replaced by Alissa Martin, who was 33 at the time. Ms. Sowers also claims she had been "treated less favorably than her younger co-worker by defendants."

The company listed the reasons for firing Ms. Sowers in a June 21, 2007, letter sent to Ms. Sowers by a St. Louis law firm, which said, "Ms. Sowers was discharged on May 10, 2004 (sic) after the advertising sales figures were and had been dramatically lower than were acceptable. In addition, in the course of the company's investigation as to the cause of this downturn in advertising business, the company learned that a major part of the problem was significant antipathy toward Ms. Sowers from the advertising public and her co-workers."

Ms. Sowers is asking for damages and a jury trial.

Lonna Stephenson Sowers, is the wife of former publisher Stephen E. Sowers, who is also retired but continues working for the newspaper, writing a daily column of tidbits about local people.