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The Richmond SPCA’s Robin Starr sent out another update about the cat colony living behind WRLH-Fox Richmond and the ongoing disgraceful actions of that shiny, sugary, and apparantly predatory bauble of a local broadcast station, whose news division has been voted “The mid-South’s Most Sycophantic News Team” two years running, by the way. The email from Robin Starr is below. If you care about these cats, and appreciate the work of the local humane groups, consider donating your time and some bejamins to these groups.

After we made our supporters aware of the horrifying steps taken by WRLH Fox Richmond to destroy a colony of feral cats living behind their television station last week, we were overwhelmed with the heartfelt support expressed to us in so many ways.Your swift and powerful backing of our defense of these innocent animals has made a great difference in their prospects for the future.I now want to provide you with an update on their situation.

History
The feral cat colony in question has lived behind the businesses in the 1900 block of Westmoreland Street for at least 30 years and has been well cared for by at least two caregivers.Many had already been trapped, brought to the Richmond SPCA’s spay/neuter clinic for surgeries and given appropriate inoculations.While most of the adults are feral and run from direct human contact, some of the adult cats are sociable and were probably strays that somehow wandered into the colony over the years.

What Happened to Them
We have had confirmation that Critter Control, the pest control company that was hired by Fox, trapped and killed three adult cats before we were ever aware of Fox’s efforts to destroy the colony.Critter Control wisely decided to cease its trapping activities.That was when Fox undertook to bulldoze the habitat in which the cats have lived for decades.When I heard from the station manager that the bulldozing was underway, we asked local media to come to the scene.They filmed the destruction in process and, I assume due to the discomfort of conducting this brutality in front of television cameras, Fox decided to stop after having destroyed about half of the cats’ home.

What is Happening Now
Since that time, Fox has continued to tell the story that they are working with local humane groups to trap and remove the cats but they have never contacted the Richmond SPCA nor any other humane organization of which I am aware for such assistance.Henrico County has said that they are investigating the matter and whether criminal charges will be brought.We are working in a strong partnership with SOS, Somebuddies and other humane organizations and volunteers to care for and manage the colony in the proper way through a trap-neuter-return program.

Kind volunteers are trapping the cats, taking them either to Prevent-A-Litter or to the Richmond SPCA for spaying and neutering and for basic veterinary care and inoculations.The cats that are not truly feral but exhibit sociable behavior will be adopted to responsible and loving homes and the same will be true of the kittens that are small enough to socialize.The feral adults will be returned to the colony to live there and be managed under our ongoing partnership trap-neuter-return program.That is, unless Fox takes further steps to remove or kill them.

Our Approach
Relocating a feral colony is a difficult proposition that is usually not in the best interests of the cats.The cats are usually very frightened and disoriented and will not stay in the new location unless they are provided with a large condo unit to keep them there until they recognize it as home.This often takes a long time. If they are not kept in such a unit, they will run away and find themselves in a location where they do not know how to take care of themselves.The well recognized best practice is to allow the colony to remain in place and be managed in a TNR program. Since there are a number of other feral colonies in the area, relocation is likely to be totally unproductive since the other cats will probably just move into the vacated territory.

We have released a joint statement with our partner organizations working on this matter explaining our approach to the public. Click here to read the statement >>

What Happens Next
We do not know what Fox plans to do next. If any further steps are taken to hurt the cats or destroy their habitat, you may be assured that we will be there to do all in our power to protect the animals.And, we will ask for your help. If you are interested in adopting one of the kittens or sociable adult cats from the colony, please contact SOS or visit their website for pictures and adoption information (http://www.saveourshelters.com/ or http://www.sos-penpals.com/).

Your compassionate response to this situation through your massive numbers of outraged calls to the media and to WRLH, signing of online petitions, blog postings, and expressions of your heartfelt support to us has been incredibly powerful.I have received copies of numerous messages from local businesses saying that they will be pulling their advertising from WRLH because of their treatment of these innocent creatures.Because of your support for the Richmond SPCA and your deep caring concern for the companion animals that share our world, we are a force for animals.

Gratefully,

Robin Robertson Starr
Chief Executive Officer
Richmond SPCA

Peter Griffin, Homer Simpson, Judge Judy, and Charlie Sheen: I couldn’t think of more appropriate company to place the caricatures called the Fox news team. It isn’t enough that Sinclair Broadcasting-owned Fox Richmond violates our community nightly, along with our other local *news* outlets, with superficial and utterly useless broadcasts of weather warnings, traffic alerts, and crime-porn. Now they are inflicting violence and ineptitude on the kittehs, moving to exterminate a colony of feral cats living on their property despite offers of assistance from local animal groups. Here’s the real kicker–after howls of protest from the community, lead by the Richmond SPCA–they lied, and continue to lie, about partnering with local groups to humanely relocate the remaining colony (the ones they didn’t kill).

Go to the Richmond SPCA site for more info. Most of all you can STOP WATCHING.

I should say props to WRIC news for actually covering, and continuing to cover, this local story.

For the past few months I have been working on a project in coordination with the Secretary of Technology’s office (yes, Virginia has a Secretary of Technology) to make a series of popular GED programs available to subscribers of digital cable. Previously, these programs, part of the GED Connection series produced by PBS and Kentucky Educational Television, were broadcast, one episode at a time, on PBS stations at odd times–5:30 am on Sunday for example. Now, Cox and Comcast cable subscribers can access all 39 programs anytime they want. The partnership has gotten some good press–pretty unusual, I think, for adult education. Governor Kaine put out a press release and a brief televised promo on the initiative, and the project got some ink from the Richmond Times Dispatch:

The partnership between the Virginia Department of Education, Comcast Cable and Cox Communications was announced yesterday by Gov. Timothy M. Kaine. Nearly one in seven adults over age 18 in Virginia lack a high-school or equivalent diploma, said Julie Grimes, Education Department spokeswoman.

The most common obstacles to getting a GED are scheduling conflicts, transportation to and from classes and lack of availability of child care or the inability to pay for it, experts say. In a statement, Kaine said the on-demand service “provides convenience and flexibility for adults who want to increase their income potential by earning a GED.”

On-demand adds to the ways people can study for GED certification and builds on the state’s Race to GED program, said Randall Stamper, communications specialist at the education department’s adult education office. Race to GED seeks out folks who may need just to brush up on certain skills before testing, to help them earn certification faster.

People can take classes at adult learning centers, cram via the Web or watch scheduled programs on Public Broadcasting Service stations. The on-demand option lets people watch half-hour lessons — 39 of them — at any time.

Of course, not all adults in need of a GED subscribe to digital cable, but at least this project makes these programs available to those that do. And hopefully the success of this partnership will lead to other coordinated projects between adult education and the business community

Here are 4 promotional spots for the GED created by the Virginia Department of Education’s Office of Adult Education and Literacy. I think they are pretty well-done, and am impressed that the VADOE/OAEL had the foresight to post them to YouTube.

WYSIWYG software like DreamWeaver and Google Pages make it simple for anyone to create their own professional-looking websites. Digital cameras and cheap, easy-to-use non-linear editing software let anyone produce their own digital movies. With a cheap, plastic microphone and iTunes, anyone with something to say (or not) can create their own podcast. And now, anyone with a webcam and a broadband connection can broadcast over the Internet.
Ustream is a free service that lets you broadcast feeds live over the Internet. It’s like a live version of YouTube. You can also record your shows and share them with the public on your own Ustream “channel”. If you want to create a more polished production, you can download free software to your PC or Mac that let’s you overlay text, add PIP (picture in picture) capability, and broadcast a slideshow, computer desktop, or digital movie. You can also embed your Ustream channel’s media player to your website or blog.

Go to Ustream.tv to get a free account.

Richmond Free Wireless (RFW) is a new community-based project with a goal of bringing free wireless Internet access to the Richmond area and, eventually, the state. That’s right: free access. The project encourages volunteers (aka heroes) to share a gateway connection from their home or business using a fairly inexpensive and easy to set-up piece of technology called a Meraki repeater. RFW was recently given some virtual ink on Richmond.com:

Explaining how to create a city-wide network can become mind-boggling, but here’s the gist. First, get a few people living on the same city block interested in sharing an common Internet connection. Each person then goes online and purchases a “Meraki repeater node” – a piece of technology that lets the Internet signal “bounce” between other nodes on the community network.

Each person then goes to their home or office, plugs in their node, and registers the node’s unique ID number and their street address on [the] RFW website, richmondfreewifi.org.

With enough participants, the nodes overlap and provide the city with more or less blanket wifi coverage.
It is good to see this exciting project getting some attention, especially this early on in the project. Getting the word out the the larger Richmond community will be an important part of making this project a success. While the wifi acees will be a free public commodity–part of the Richmond commons–it does require a handful of citizens to step up and be willing to support their little piece of the network by buying a repeater and sharing some broadband bandwidth.

The educational implications of this project are especially exciting. Free wireless, especially in and around poorer communities, is yet another way to provide lower-income students with much needed access the Internet.

If you are interested in hosting a repeater, fill out the contact form on the RFW site.

 Bible lesson
One of the Professor Brothers schools us hardcore on what really went down in pre-divine destruction Sodom & Gomorrah. (Don’t watch if you don’t want to hear a cartoon fella say nasty words and describe lewd acts)
[kml_flashembed movie=”http://www.youtube.com/v/4KVVRIpO-kA” width=”425″ height=”350″ wmode=”transparent” /]

 History lesson
George Washington was more than silver dollars, wooden teeth and cherry trees. Did you know he was almost 7 feet tall and had atypical gonads? Find out more amazing facts about the father of our country in this entertaining educational music video (See the disclaimer above)
[kml_flashembed movie=”http://www.youtube.com/v/b0X7-9Wl9jk” width=”425″ height=”350″ wmode=”transparent” /]

If you haven’t already, you should check out the very sincere, extremely wizardly diaries of 30 year old man-boy and Dungeon Master, Babycakes. Read ‘em all at creator Brad Neely’s page at SuperDeluxe.com, including my favorite, I am Babycakes Diary #3. Check out the Professor Brothers while you are at it. Love that Kenny Winker.

Not only does living in a “post-9/11 world” require the suspension of certain constitutional freedoms–you know, habeus corpus, protection from illegal search and seizure, right to privacy, right to a free trial, and um, what’s the other one?–oh yeah, freedom of speech–it also must require each of us to suspend our
sense of humor as well. A guerrilla marketing campaign for the upcoming Aqua Teen Hunger Force movie, in which Lite Brite-like circuit boards depicting “Mooninite” characters from the show were placed in various public locations in Chicago, LA, New York, and Boston, scares Boston officials shitless, causing them to shut down several major expressways and bridges. Apparently officials in the other cities didn’t notice them, or recognized them for what they were: harmless pranks.

The description on CNN says it all:

Authorities have arrested two men in connection with electronic light boards depicting a middle-finger-waving moon man that triggered repeated bomb scares around Boston on Wednesday and prompted the closure of bridges and a stretch of the Charles River.

So, these are the folks in charge of our security in this “post-9/11 world”? They see some cheap circuit board with batteries and wires and a “middle-finger-waving moon man” and immediately leap to the conclusion that the device is some kind of dirty bomb. While the ad campaign does bear some responsibility for not acting sooner to address the growing panic of Boston officials, isn’t it a bit frightening that the we haven’t become more sophisticated in identifying terrorist threats, separating the real ones from pranks? The bluster and indignation surrounding the arrest of the two gentlemen responsible for planting the devices in the Boston area should be embarrassment, and should cause officials to re-evaluate their ability to recognize and contain true threats to public safety. Otherwise, our public spaces are bound to become sterile places, and our creative impulses replaced with fear.