hey, part 2

Sent: July 1, 2004 @ 2:55 p.m.

I'm still alive, for those who are wondering...

So, I didn't get to zoom around the racetrack, but I managed to spark a
legal debate between our paper and the sheriff's department. After
coming back from the racetrack, I was sent to the court house where they
were picking grand jurors for some trial. I was supposed to take
pictures of the jurors being sworn in, but when I pulled out my camera
the bailiff approached me and asked what paper I was from. Naturally, I
replied, "The Valley Mirror," which tends to make people either really
like you or really hate you. (The paper covers a lot of controversial
issues and does a lot of expose pieces. Tim's a very liberal editor.)
The bailiff then asks, "Do you have a waiver form that permits that
camera to be here?" to which I replied, "I was not aware that I needed
one. My editor sent me down here and didn't mention it at all." He
explained that I could take notes but no photos.

By this point, the judge proceeded to read some official something or
rather, so even if I wanted to take pictures, the interesting part had
already passed. So I went back to the office, and told Tim what had
happened. He was really disturbed by what had happened because not only
did we have an official invitation from the court to cover the event,
but the bailiff asked for a waiver form only AFTER I told him what paper
I was from. He called up the court, and talked with some woman in
charge of the proceedings, and she was surprised as well. Tim surmises
that the bailiff was acting out of his own dislike of The Mirror...

Today I got to take pictures of dead dogs. They were lying alongside
Hwy 99, and because the budget for Animal Control has been cut, no one's
working at the office today. (Not sure if it's because of that or the
fact that it's a national holiday.) Anyways, it was 105 degrees in the
shade, so the dogs got kind of bloated. (I'm sure you're just dying to
hear all about this.)

I also got to visit Farm Sanctuary today. It's run by some vegan
psychos (a woman got fired for bringing in a tuna sandwich) (Sara just
asked Tim, "Do you think it's illegal to fire someone based on dietary
preference? Isn't that discrimination?" Tim responds, "Yeah, that's
why we don't hire vegans here.") and they try and rescue a whole bunch
of farm animals from inhumane treatment. They don't seem to care much
about dogs and cats. There's a pig that weighs over 800 pounds. It's
so fat that it can no longer walk on its hind legs. And somehow, they
think that they're doing it a favor by keeping it alive. The girl who
gave us a tour didn't seem to know very much, despite being the
"Education Coordinator." She claims that a bunch of turkeys and pigs on
farms have been "genetically modified and selectively bred" to gain
weight really quickly. I asked her what they specifically do to
genetically modify these animals, and she replied, "I'm not quite sure,
but they inject something into the embryos." I don't think she knows
what she's talking about...

Oh, and dad/mom, you'll be happy to know that Tim is running one of your
fireworks shots in the paper.

Hope your fourth of July went well,
Courtney