Mike Ramsey

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Mike Ramsey

Well, since the dawn of the blogsphere, things have changed. Now, a large amount of the news that people read on a daily basis are from news blogs that are written by non traditional folks. The reporting is fresh, honest, opinionated, and exciting. The best part is that the journalist are usually just really “into” what they are talking about, and that passion is spread like wildfire to the readers.

So, why am I writing this? Originally, GoBurley was going to try a more traditional approach to reporting news and stories, the only problem is that I am about as nontraditional as it gets in my opinion of how news, politics, and opinions should be presented. I also feel that our community really needs some diverse publications to balance out the local news coverage of places like The Weekly Mailer/Journal, Times News, and KBAR. I have learned by experience that diversity is the true blessing of democracy.

With all that in mind, GoBurley has taken a change in direction.

First: We have teamed up with the Burley High School Student Council To Diversify Reporting. You are going to start and see more and more students from the community covering sporting events, local happenings, and even writing columns like Kolby’s Corner.  This is going to serve as a great business learning experience for the youth, and also prove the level of quality that our local students truly have. With Budget cuts to schools on the horizon, this will also help to give some money back to the school system on a donation basis from GoBurley’s Ad Revenue. This site will never make anyone rich, but if it can help a few kids go on a field-trip, or even have a pizza party for work well done, then it is worth the effort.

Second: The reporting is going to real. Packed full of personality, facts, and opinion. Burley Sporting events are going to be written like we want the other team to lose and ours to win, bad politics are going to be called out, good acts in the community are going to be commended. Journalism 2.0 has swept our nation by storm and proved that people area ready for a different style of reporting. The wonderful thing about the internet is that literally everyone can have their voice heard. If you don’t like Journalism 2.0 practices, you don’t have to visit the website. I am not in the business of bombarding every mailbox with a paper on a weekly basis (though I have thought heavily about it) and anyone always have the option to start their own blog and report how they would like. That is the wonderful thing about this nation, freedom of speech is for everyone and not just mainstream media.

Third: GoBurley would love for a large amount of the websites content to come from the community. I am asking for people to talk about real issues, real awards, real recognitions, real opinions, and use real names. I think there is a place for disagreement, and I will personally agree/disagree with a lot of things. But, I will make sure that you know it is my opinion. The best part is that every article published on this site has a comment section that can be used to express understanding and opinion, and balance out issues. We saw a great example of that when the Weekly Mailer Boycott was covered on this site. There were people that agreed, disagreed and everything in between. But, the comments were civil and “ideal” based.  So, if you have a story that you want to see on GoBurley.com, send it in to goburley@gmail.com.

Overall, I am looking forward to an exciting year with GoBurley and other news projects. I want to thank you for your support through this last 4 months that brought in a total of 17, 411 pageviews. I look for that number to go up, and for GoBurley to become the place to visit for anything happening in our great community.

Mike Ramsey

Mayor:

Terry Greenman 908 votes

Jon Anderson 449 votes

City Council:

Casey Andersen 997 Votes

Steven McGill 677 votes

Gordon Hansen 602 votes

Dennis Dexter 535 votes

Donald Dean 475 votes

Randy Golay 438 votes

Number of voters… 1366

New Registered Voters… 72

Absentee… 56

The information is public knowledge, but seemed to spark a large amount of public anger towards Weekly Journal and Mailer. Last Friday, a petition started to emerge in select places around the Mini-Cassia area. The petition was put together by citizens who were less than thrilled with seeing their salaries as a newspaper headline. From early reports, it is stated that there are currently 100’s of people who have signed the petition. Here is what it says…..

To Whom It May Concern,

We, the public employees of Cassia and Minidoka Counties, surrounding cities, school districts, local hospitals, friends, and relatives, in response to the recent edition of the Weekly News Journal’s article “What People Earn” do hereby declare that we will no longer be patrons or supporters of the advertisers of the Weekly News Journal or its companion paper the Weekly Mailer. We feel the recent publication, although, a matter of public record, was written with intended malice and retribution toward specific ‘public employees’ for the sole purpose of the publisher’s self gratification.

That is the letter in it’s entirety. The only thing not copied from the letter are the spaces for people to sign.

I am interested to know your thoughts on this Boycott. I am sure there are a lot of people for and against for various reasons, and those points can be discussed below in the comment section. Just follow the comment guidelines!

Reported by Mike Ramsey

Oct 22nd 2009 note from Mike — I removed the list of businesses because I don’t want GoBurley.com to become the place for people to come for a list of companies to boycott. Though it was part of the document, I felt it would help in our unbias approach to covering this topic if we were to remove the companies.

The Burley Bobcats improved their record to 2 wins 3 losses with a 35 to 14 win over the Wood River Wolverines.  The Bobcats came out strong and scored quickly on a pass from Jake Mills to Christian Winmill who was all alone on the 10.   This touchdown was followed up quickly by another pass from Jake to Alex Greener.    Alex and Jake went on to connect on another score following an interception by Skylar Tolman who got two picks for the night.  Putting the Bobcats up 21 to 0 at the first quarter.   The second quarter started with a series of turnovers and dropped passes.   Wood River gained some momentum scoring on a nice run by  Tyler Peters just before the half. A broken play, a last ditch lateral and some quick feet allowed Wood river to capitalize on the 2 point conversion.  The half ended with the Bobcats being up 21  to 8.

A blocked Burley Punt on Burley’s first possession of the second half was recovered in the end zone for another quick Wood river score.  The two point conversion failed.  Later in the quarter Branson Handy scored on a 3 yard run following an earlier score by Bill Blauer that was called back for a holding violation.   Mills connected again with Alex Greener for the final score of the game with ended the game at Burley 35 and Wood River 14.

The final quarter was fun for all as both teams substituted liberally and everyone got to play.   Coach Kramer even played a few Sophomores that looked no bigger than the little league half time expo.   Some of the lineman got to run the ball and Wesley Finch was able to score a touchdown, and he crossed the goal line with a forward flip only to have it called back.  For the fans that went it was a great night.

Clay Handy

The car that was struck spun a number of times before it crashed into the wooden pole and stopped in the yard of a nearby home. Officials released the teenage driver and a teenage passenger to one of their mothers to be taken to the hospital for possible injuries. The driver of the other car was not hurt. The impact caused a water line in the yard to erupt as well as leave the live power cables dangling over the sidewalk parallel to the street. Burley electrical crews worked for about an hour to restore power to Burley residents near the intersection of 16th street and Overland Avenue.

Reported by Kim Seely