Six or so years ago, my Glendale News-Press coworkers and I were so sick of hearing about the proposed Americana at Brand. We’d done seemingly millions of stories abut the project — traffic impact, projected revenues for the city, and most importantly, the conflict with the company that owns the neighboring Glendale Galleria. The project was so controversial in Glendale, they had a special election about it.
Maybe we had just finished an assignment together. But Tammy Abbott, who worked as a photographer at the Glendale News-Press toward the tail end of my stint at the newspaper, and I had decided to stop at a Coffee Bean to enjoy a quiet moment before going back to the newsroom. That was when she told me she was fighting cancer, and even though she was so exhausted from the job and so stressed out from the constant berating she was getting from our managing editor at the time, she was grateful for her job. Not only did the job give her much-needed health care benefits, she was able to do something she loved — photography.
I’ve kept in touch with most of my News-Press cohorts, through Facebook, and have managed to have lunch with one or two and even attend the wedding of another. But it grieves me to say that since I left the News-Press, I haven’t seen Tammy. I did keep up with her and news of her health thanks to another former coworker, Jacqui Brown. Jacqui posted this message early Sunday morning:
Via LAO, it turns out Jill Leovy is launching the Homicide Report, a new blog detailing all of L.A.’s homicides. I love the idea, and a blog is the perfect vehicle for it. Because, let’s face it – unless its a celebrity or its done in a really public manner, not all homicides are alike.
It’s an unfortunate, but true, fact of media life. When I was a reporter, every homicide in Glendale was big news, but that’s Glendale. In L.A.? Shoot. Like I said, unless its a celebrity or done in a public manner — like the black lady whose body was found burning in Playa del Rey — it won’t end up in “the news” (depending on whether your news is TV News or Newspaper News). It really sucks – I’m sure there are outraged parents or relatives who can’t figure out why their child or kin’s killing is less newsworthy than another person’s, something that Jill Leovy alluded to in an email to Kevin Roderick.
As an aside, I kind of wish L.A. had coplogs, just for the off-beat and unintentionally funny things that don’t have to do with homicides or another major crime. The closest thing that we’ve got so far is Stephen Blackmoore’s very excellent L.A Noir, but since its mostly based on TV news, I know for a fact he’s only getting the tip of the iceberg. There’s also IncidentLog.com, which is really super cool, but just doesn’t have the meat that good old fashion police reports have. Unfortunately, the LAPD does not do coplogs (which I found out via my buddy Josh when he became the Daily News police reporter long ago), and I suppose I understand that they have a huge number of cases every day – but still.
Case in point: I once found a gem in a Glendale police report that never saw the light of day in the Glendale News-Press. And this was way beyond its current regime, thank you very much. Anyway, a woman had reported that someone had broke into her house. I think I remember that the only thing in the house that had been disturbed was her bed, and she knew this because there were “naughty-sauce stains” on it.
I kid you not. Naughty-sauce stains! Augh! Priceless!