by Jack McCourt of Mason City –
I do not know if John Skiper’s recent article is an answer to my letter to the editor I sent prior to that, but they refused to print my letter. I hear that happens a lot.
My letter asked about the $25,000 deductible insurance policy used in settlement of Maria Ohl case. She got $95,000.
Does that mean the taxpayers paid the first $25,000?
If it does, why doesn’t Mr. Trout just say it and leave out Skipper’s story. Can anyone who reads Skipper’s story even make sense of it? I wonder if this man can clearly speak or write English.
Trout should have said the truth in the first place and none of this would be necessary.
Hey Matt, word on the street is that the Globe is going to become a pay site on or about Dec 6th. Just an FYI for you. Keep up the great work!
Thank you, appreciate it.
@pillar of the community…is that you John Skipper??
Yeah sure I’m John. Some days I’m Obama too. Maybe tommorrow I’ll be mayor Bookmeyer. “rolls eyes.”
JBJ says “You can cater to a few and your friends but they don’t pay the bills.”
No they probably won’t. The other readers & advertisers will. I wonder who’s “top dog” on this sight with so many vying to be….
@formermayor, does calling others names for their view make you feel superior? Doesn’t hurt my feelings but I should warn you that it makes you look like the fool who can’t discuss a subject without name calling.
What little “thriving” MC IS making is due to those who care enough to build MC up instead of letting it rot like it did from the 60’s the 2000’s. Thanks to those who have pushed for money to build MC and bring back buildings WORTH saving so all of MC doesn’t have to look like the North End of Federal.
Next time you want to name call please choose something else. You’re insulting to actual idiots who can’t help their IQ.
And if you want something to do BUILD IT. Instead of sitting around waiting for others to create YOUR entertainment.
I NEVER call anyone names and I have called others out for doing so. I have been accused of being a crony of the mayor and of being on the staff of the Globe Gazette. Neither is true. I was able to understand John’s article about the insurance deductible, but it was not written in a straightforward journalistic manner and people who do not understand insurance may not come away knowing that $25,000 of taxpayer money was spent in addition to the $95,000 the insurance company paid out.
John’s article’s purpose was to explain a previous misstatement by a city official. A journalist should have written this in a manner that presented the facts in a clear and concise manner in the very first paragraph so that it hit you between the eyes, not one that made you wade through the article to make sure what he was trying to say. Even the headline could have stated that the “City spent $25,000 taxpayer money on insurance deductible” instead of it being a $25,000 deductible insurance policy was used. To me, that is misleading and trying to soften the impact. I believe the article was written as a reaction to comments written on NIT and to Jack McCourt’s rejected letter to the editor. I saw this article as being very protective of the City, and Brent Trout, in particular.
It has become easy to predict what the Globe Gazette will write about. When the commentors on NIT were roiled up about BJ Clark, there was soon an article about that. Then there was an article about Judge Weiland. I could go on and on. I expect there will soon be an article about Highland Golf Course. The Globe Gazette has become a reactionary news source.
Hey, we’d love to see a story about the recent sexual assaults in this city and why there have been no arrests when some victims know who the perpetrators are.
“former mayor
December 1, 2012 at 9:55 am
“Keep MC thriving” ? What planet are you from. Look around idiot,”
former mayor posted this response to MY post. If it’s not you then why are you chirping in and acting like it was aimed at you? Attention deficit?
Any taxpayer, homeowner or whoever has had insurance of any kind would understand what deductable means. And instead of blaming John Skipper for public’s brain shortcomings they should get educated or quit whineing & blaming. Not a difficult concept. Beats making excuses.
Good thing you don’t work for the glob you would be broke most of the time and looking over your shoulder wondering when they might bring the cardboard box over and tell you to load up your things and get out.
@pillar-who do you think you are calling idiots?? At least we know how to spell deductible you over educated creep. You and your buddy’s have done nothing but wasted out tax dollars on downtown buildings owned by the “special” few. What ever happened to incvesting in your own property. As far a computers for the schools, if they can afford to do all of that construction they can damn well afford to buy computers without a special tax. Quit giving the overpaid teachers a raise every year for substandard work and they would have the money. I paid for my kids without any help from anyone let them pay for theirs.
What part of $25,000 deductable don’t you people understand? Did John have to spell it out for you? You sound like you flunked reading comprehension. Do you always blame others for all your shortcomings?
And isn’t it odd that only a few choice people seem to always get picked on by the GG. lol. You poor little victims.
Silly me. I thought Skipper always used his column to spread the company line. His columns are’t too bad but he only writes what he wants and many times the facts or important information don’t get into his news stories.
A bottom feeder hack being controlled by the third from the bottom rag in Iowa. Can anyone say looser.
Jack, I also have sent letters to GG and they have gotten “lost” in the office email system. Just today I stopped at the lumber yard in Britt and a person asked why so few letters in the GG anymore. I plain a** said they won’t print some or they get lost some how. Trust me GG {I know you read this site} word of mouth spreads. You can cater to a few and your friends but they don’t pay the bills.
JB Johnson
Britt
PS Someday with time to kill I will type out my no reply answers to Peggy’s at GG questions when I ran for Supervisor. Instead of me answering her question I was asking her who at the GG thought they knew the questions Hancock voters wanted. It got funny after a while.
The emails probably get sent to India the same way there ads are being done .
Yes Skipper is covering up the truth. This is why so many people are coming over to NIT. Give us the true facts and we can make up our own minds we do not need to be spoon fed information from the Globe or Skipper. The fact is our administrator tried to pull a fast one on the public and he got caught in a lie.
The way Skipper’s article was written was very sneaky. He never comes out and says directly that the City paid $25,000 cash toward the legal fees. He says a $25,000 deductible insurance policy was used in legal expenses. Hmmm. Murky. That almost makes it sound as if the policy paid for the legal expenses. Then he states that the $95,000 settlement was paid by the insurance company. Then Skipper goes on to say, “Trout said that’s why, when terms of the settlement were announced, he said the settlement did not represent any taxpayer money.” Technically true, but not the entire truth. You have to read farther in the article to understand that the insurance company wanted to settle in order to stop their legal fees because they would not be getting any more money from the City to cover them. It would have sounded way too straightforward for Skipper to have written that the City (taxpayers) paid a $25,000 deductible on the insurance policy that paid the $95,000 settlement. Everyone would have understood that without reading between the lines! I said in an earlier comment to the previous article by Jack McCourt about this article in the Globe Gazette that it couldn’t have been written a whole lot less clearly. That comment was one that was deleted by whoever has been attacking NIT.
Well articulated, Katie. The rag is not fooling anyone anymore.
KatieReply
November 30, 2012 at 2:40 pm
The way Skipper’s article was written was very sneaky. He never comes out and says directly that the City paid $25,000 cash toward the legal fees. He says a $25,000 deductible insurance policy was used in legal expenses.
WTH are “legal fees” if they’re not “legal expenses”. Meaning taxpayers paid the $25,000 deductable. Not hard for anyone that can read to comprehend.
You’re trying to muddy my point. It has nothing to do with fees vs. expenses. It has to do with $25,000 cash vs. $25,000 policy. He just couldn’t bear to say they spent CASH out of the City coffers. He had to say they used a policy.
The GLOB and Skipper are sorry excuses for news paper representatives. They are all one way and will do anything to protect the current so called city government and it’s cronies. They are supposed to represent and support the citizens of Mason City but intead only support the social elite and snobs of the city. They have always been this way but seem to be getting worse.
Let’s not forget about KIMT and Blob Fisher.
Which citizens? The naysayers like Jack that don’t want to build the city up. They just want to sit and watch it rot away like their house and then whine because there’s nothing to do. The same ones that don’t want the schools to have adequate computers to help kids do schoolwork efficiently without having a computer crash daily. The same ones that don’t want to part with a dime to clean MC up.
Or the “progressive” citizens willing to pay to keep MC thriving.
“Keep MC thriving” ? What planet are you from. Look around idiot, this place is dead as dead can be on Friday night. The only place that’s busy is that dump tailgaiters, full of the power drinkers and fight pickers. Jack is one of the few who knows scam when he sees it.
I have not forgotten KIMT. As far as I am concerned they are there for entertainment and that is all. Their news cast are nothing unless you live in Minnesota and they don’t even bother to run a pretend news cast on Sunday evening. We have to watch channel 10 to see what has happened in Mason City and what the weather will be on Monday. What a joke KIMT is. If they ever ran across a real new story they wouldn’t know what to do with it. As far as Bob Fisher, I don’t know him or much about him other than he needs to go on a diet.
Of course the taxpayers are paying the deductible. This is exacty why the Globe wouldn’t print your letter. It is also why NIT DID! AND, it is yet another reason why “they” are attacking NIT…to keep the truth from YOU.