Final Blog

Well here is my last blog. It has been interesting, I fought it the whole way, and finally it's over with. I have decided to write my crisis communication paper on both the Valley City community and the VCSU community. I want to do both because i feel that you can not get the whole picture only from one view point of the crisis. Therefore i plan to write my paper from both angles. I want to find out how people from the community received their information about the happenings. I also want to analyze how the VCSU community as rallied compared to the Valley City community. Here at VCSU we are all connected through email, it is very easy to send mass emails to everyone attending VCSU. I want to explore the hurdles Valley City officials faced in rallying troops for the sandbagging effort.
I was lucky enough to have moved out of Valley City in January to Devils Lake before all of the melting of snowing and flooding of rivers had started. So i feel very fortunate because i just heard that the house I was living in while in Valley City had contingency dikes on both streets in front of it. Sounds like my old roommates are having a heck of a time trying to get in and out. My goal is to get the views of those directly affected by the water and or dikes and to see if they feel that Valley City did a good enough job in protecting them. This project will be good for me to help see what a great community Valley City is.
It's been fun blogging with everyone. Hope you all have a great summer!

Dallas Officer Delays NFL Player as Relative Dies

It seems like you hear more and more about police officers making more and more mistakes in the line of duty. These people are suppose to our protectors and our “watchmen”, not the ones that hurt us. I was reading a story today about a Dallas, TX police officer Robert Powell that stopped Houston Texans running back Ryan Moats' in a local hospital parking lot for supposedly rolling through a red light. Moats exited the vehicle exclaiming that his mother in law was inside the hospital dying and that he had to get into the hospital immediately to be by her side.
Now I’m no police officer, but I am a compassionate person. Most people in this situation would find that letting this man hurry to the hospital room to spend time with his dying mother in law during her last few moments on earth. Officer Powell did exactly the opposite of what most people would do. Powell immediately became very controlling and pointed his firearm both at Moats and his wife as his wife left the vehicle and ran inside the hospital to be by her mother. There is nothing more that irritates me is when an officer pulls his weapon on someone that is obviously not carrying a weapon. Accidents happen all of the time with loaded weapons, and officers are not immune to such accidents.
This particular officer has had some issues in the past, giving the Dallas police department some bad PR. During his 3 years with the force officer Powell has received complaints and corrective action for violation of the department's sick leave policy and for failing to contact a supervisor. I think that the Dallas police force made a good decision on taking Moats’ side of this whole ordeal. "I think even someone who has never been through police training should know how to handle this incident. This is an area of common sense," Dallas police chief David Kunkle said. A good example public relations taking place in the police force.

Man flying is tested positive for Tuberculosis.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says a passenger on a Northwest Airlines flight from Frankfurt to Detroit has been diagnosed with tuberculosis. The passenger was on Flight 51 on March 10th to Detroit Metropolitan Airport. The 17 passengers sitting near the man on the plane have been contacted and advised to be tested for tuberculosis. This is just another PR dilemma for airlines around the world. Security checkpoints can only detect obvious threats. When the threat is microscopic, not much can be done to protect the health of fellow airliners.
What does a PR practitioner do to make a situation like this keep their airline in good light to the public? I have a feeling that the only way to keep our bacterial and viral enemies off of our flights is to make every passenger carry immunological records with them to show proof of being vaccinated for all common diseases. I have no idea how this would go over with the nearly 400 million people that took the air last year. I know I would be pretty upset if I had to renew my shot records just to fly to my destination.
The sad thing is that with the population of people in the world today, steps will soon have to be taken to make sure diseases do not spread throughout the world and kill millions.
There are tons of examples of animals coming and going to other countries and infecting those citizens with disease. Take the rat for example, it carried Black Plague and was transferred from Asia to Western Europe and North Africa killing an estimated 75 million people. Northwest Airlines PR reps will have their hands full if the people in the plane with the sick man all contract TB. Lets hope that no one else contracts the disease and some steps are taken to protect the health of all passengers.

Roxana Saberi, former Miss North Dakota, is being held in Iran for allegedly purchasing a box of wine. According the Iranian law, it is illegal to purchase or sell alcohol in the country. Roxana has lived in Iran for the past 6 years and I find it hard to believe that she did now know of this law before buying the alcohol, just like minors know that its illegal when they decide to drink alcohol. After this story had been released to the press and Iran was pressured for more information, Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesman said she was detained for working as a journalist in that country after her press credentials had been revoked which happened in 2006. To me this just seems to be a case of getting into trouble for a small thing than the authorities find out about a bigger thing. Believe me, I have been in the situation!
I can understand the feelings of Roxana’s parents. Their daughter is being held in a prison of a foreign country. What parents wouldn’t be upset? Knowing the conditions of the Middle East right now with wars going on in Iraq and Afghanistan, any parent would be fearing for the safety of their child being held in a prison.
There are examples of multiple forms of public relations issues between the US and Iran. The United States has to be careful not to push the release of Roxana without her serving her sentence for any crimes she may have committed. If the US forces to release Roxana without her doing her time than the US may gain the image as a “big bully” that bails its citizens out of any international problem. Iran has made some bad PR mistakes for not providing Roxana’s family with all of the information pertaining to her arrest. Roxana’s family and the media do not have all of the facts pertaining to her arrest and are still in the dark to the condition of their daughter. Everyone hopes for Roxana’s good health and fair treatment. I feel that she should be responsible for any laws she may have broken. After all is said and done I hope she returns home safely and can leave this experience behind her.

PR for environmentaly friendly NASCAR

After watching portions of NASCAR’s Daytona 500 with the biggest race fan I know, my grandfather, something came into my mind. I wonder how many miles to the gallon these high power race cars get? Being very concerned with environmentalism naturally I was curious as to how this sport affects the environment and how people were trying to make these cars more friendly to the environment.
Although the Indy Racing Leaguehas switched to ethanol, NASCAR only recently switched from leaded to unleaded fuel and its cars still use carburetors instead of fuel injection. Carburetors do not burn gasoline a completely as cars with fuel injection systems. According to Google Answers, the typical racecar only gets 4 to 6 miles per gallon of gas. With some races that are over 200 miles long and about 40 cars running in the race, that is a lot of gasoline being used (approximately 1600 gallons)! Not exactly environmentally friendly or shying away from our dependence on oil.
NASCAR recently hired a director of “green innovation,” and NASCAR chairman and CEO Brian France has spoken to former vice president Al Gore about making the sport more environmentally friendly. Jack Roush, co-owner of Roush-Fenway NASCAR team, has set out to use propane as a possible alternative fuel for race cars of the future.
Propane is a waste product from the production of gasoline and other petroleum products so it does not eliminate our need for oil. The main upside of using propane is that it burns much cleaner than gasoline, making it better for the environment. Propane get about 13% less miles per gallon compared to gasoline, but the loss in efficiency can be offset when large business fleets take advantage of wholesale propane prices that have been below $1 per gallon this year, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration’s web site.
The Roush propane conversion isn’t cheap, it costs just shy of $9,000 for parts and installation on a Ford pickup, but it is step closer to giving users more options in alternative fuels. Our energy problem will not be solved by one miracle fuel, but by multiple fuels to fulfill each particular need. This seems to be a perfect setting for a public relations situation to keep extreme environmentalists at bay.

Have you ever watched the news and saw a story that just made you think, "wow what was that person thinking?!" Well I saw Dateline Tuesday night and they had a story about a lady named Nadya Suleman that had octuplets through Invitro fertilization. This may have not been such a big deal to anyone because this kind of thing happens all of the time these days. What has so many people in an uproar is the fact that this lady has six other children, is single, and does not have a job. Her only source of income is her excess financial aid from her student loans from going to college. She does not want to take charity from other people, and thinks that she can make it with her financial aid. She is living with her parents in not that big of house and feeding her children with food stamps. Much of the debate is weather the mother will be able to support her now 14 children.
It is not my place to judge this women. It is her right as an American to have as many children as she wants. We have Social Services that will take these children if they feel the mother is unfit to provide for them. I am sure that very few of the people condemning her for having the children do not have a degree in Social Services and do not fully understand all of the options a mother has for taking care of her children. If she does make it through college she will need to find really good job that will pay a lot because finding daycare will be very expensive with that many kids. Through my experience you always need to have a back up plan, and from hearing Nadya’s story it does not seem like she has “plan B” and that is not a very responsible way to be raising 14 children. I hope in my heart that the next headline is not about the death of a women and her 14 children.

lead found in venison leads to questions about safety

being born and raised in the wonderful state of North Dakota, i full fill the cliche of being a redneck and an avid hunter and fisherman. most of my friends share these values with me and every single one of us is proud of it! i am also a firm believer in eating what i kill. my father raised me to take only what i can eat or use, nothing goes to waste. Last year, early December, a study was done to determine the amounts of lead found in venison (deer meat) after it had been killed with high power rifles firing lead bullets. this study found that 5.3% of deer meat tested had trace amounts of lead even after it had been processed into the final product. i wasn't at all shocked when i read about this study. the only reaction i had was to what was going to happen North Dakota's hunting traditions when radicals get ahold of this information? i may be thinking rash but who is to say that there isn't someone out there just looking for a reason to ban hunting? this study could be the basis to someones argument against hunting. the link above isn't some "radical" person ranting about the cons of hunting, it is just an article warning consumers not to eat venison.

From personal experience, i have been eating this stuff since i was able to eat solid foods, and i am just fine! now i know what you may be saying to yourself, "how does he know that he doesn't have high levels of lead in his blood system?" because i have the proof! when venison was found to contain lead from lead bullets i took the initiative to have my blood tested for lead at the local clinic. at the clinic i filled out a questionnaire asking about my average intake of wild game taken by lead bullets. this included deer meat and upland game (pheasants, grouse, partridge, and dove) all of which are commonly taken with lead shot from shotguns. studies haven't been done to confirm, but it is believed that because shotgun pellets are so small, they could be easily ingested. back to my results. i received a letter in the mail about 3 months after my blood test with my results. now it was a long time ago that i read these results so the exacts numbers are fuzzy in my memory, the letter said that more than 10 µg/dL (micrograms/ deciliter) of lead in the bloodstream was dangerous. my results showed that i had approximately 0.25 µg/dL of lead in my bloodstream, far below the dangerous levels.

so there ya have it! no need to worry bout that the lead that may or may not be found in the wild game you got sittin in your freezer. now obviously the amount of lead is mostly dependant on the way your meat is processed. avoiding bloodshot meat and areas of meat located near a bone shattered by a bullet fragment will greatly reduce the amount of lead that ultimately finds it way into your system. North Dakota's Game and Fish department has an extensive PR department that deals with issues like this on a regular basis so i feel that my heritage as a North Dakota hunter is safe for now.