I'm coming down with political fever

As a journalist, it is natural to get wrapped up in your work when your passionate about what you do.

One of the things that appealed to me as a young aspiring journalst was the thought of being right in the middle of the action, reporting on the truth and meeting all kinds of interesting people. And so far, I've accomplished that and more going into my sixth year at The News.

I was hired here in 2002, following a widely-covered presidential election that saw for the first time a candidate win the popular vote, but lose the overall electoral vote. Crazy stuff, but how lucky was I to have witnessed that part of history?

I didn't really miss out; I was working for the University Press at Lamar (www.lamaruniversitypress.com) and did get my hands wet in some election coverage. I believe that entire ordeal, along with the events of 9-11 had a hand in waking the country up from a political empathatic slumber, of which now we pay attention to those pulling the strings and how we have a say in who's doing it more than ever.

The 2004 presidential election was, okay. But, again the front runners were decided far in advance. Think about that...that's like knowing who's in the NCAA basketball championship game without going through a 64-game bracket.

This political season has been well in the making for over a year now, and polls all over our smorgasbord of 24-hour news sources tell us that people are paying attention in record numbers. So to the point that the final vote is nine months away and we're yet to decipher who of which of five viable candidates will even be up for the job.

As if almost a Godsend to us Texas journalists, that determination may just about come down to our state, sending the candidates in a mad scramble down in our neck of the woods from now until the March 4 primary.

It began sometime last week or so, when I saw Barack Obama in the first political ad on TV. Slowly but surely, Texas has risen to the occaision, welcoming the campaign trails, eager to listen and participate in the process.

Monday morning, I took the first pictures of what will soon envelope our coverage as we take part in informing our readers on the campaigns. Senator John McCain received an official endorsement from former President George H.W. Bush, or Bush 41 as he's being referred to as. The event took place at press conference at Hobby Airport.

At least, that's where I thought it was going to be...because that's where it said on McCain's website. However, after parking in the garage and walking up to the info booth, I was then told the press conference would be at the adjacent Million Air terminal on Telephone Road.

I had no problem getting in, as I expected. I was however subject to being thoroughly frisked and sniffed down by bomb dogs.

Bush 41 arrived first, accompanied by Barbara and a small entourage. He looked in good health and sounded very sincere in his intentions while speaking.

McCain then showed up, and I know he's up there in age, but his wife, Cindy, clad in all white, stood out like an angel while walking on the tarmac to the hangar where the event was to take place. What a lucky old man.

Bush 41 spoke first, calling McCain his 'old friend,' citing things in common like both being shot down in combat. McCain spoke next, humbly accepting Bush 41's endoresement.



During the Q and A period, Bush 41 took the time to do a little wrist-slapping of Republican party members, who's bickering and interparty politics 'threatened to tear the party in half,' in a time when unity and working together are key components to being successful in their endeavors. He also attacked what he called unfair criticism of McCain by Republicans. In a way, his move on Monday seemed to be that of the church elder, turning to the congregation and giving them a good talking to, saying wake up. Stop what your doing, and listen to this man because he's the one who'll be ready to work on Day one.



After the event was over, the two walked back onto the tarmac, exchanged pleasantries, and went their separate ways. It was one meeting I won't forget, and the first of many in my journalistic journey of what will surely be the greatest race for the White House in history.

Quiet week? You spoke too soon...

Yes, well, in the news business, everyone seems to know when business is good.

Last week, Southeast Texas was inundated with fires, which broke out in homes and businesses all throughout the area. I saw a car literally drive through a restaurant. Before that, I had only been witness to the aftermath of a car driving through and down the aisle of a convenience store.

Okay, I thought to myself, maybe things will settle down once the normal work week comes back this week. And I was right, for the most part things this week were quiet and rather mundane.

But what's fun about mundane?

Then yesterday, Thursday, rolls around. My day starts with routine feature assignment...Dana Melancon at the old Port Arthur studio, posing with the Channel 4 Mardi Gras float for a Mardi Gras feature.

That was pretty early in the morning. I get back to the newsroom right after, and my editor, Roger, tells me...we need something for the front page.

I didn't get done shooting untill nine o'clock that night.

First, I went to Lamar State College-Port Arthur, where registration was going on. Then, I drive out to Major Drive in Beaumont where Myrtle Smith turned 100 year old. Then, back to Mid-County where I encounter a wreck, which included four cars and one that ended up in a ditch trying to get the license plate of the truck that wreaked the havoc and tried to flee.

After that, off to the Chamber of Commerce for a group shot of the Chamber staff...then to Valero to get a few shots of the Port Arthur Chamber incoming president, Morris Carter.

But wait...I almost get a second to breathe, when on my way back to the office, I'm telephoned by Bob West, telling me that we are a go to cover the Memorial High School football banquet, where injured Buffalo Bill tight end Kevin Everett (a Port Arthur Jefferson graduate) and other Memorial grads (Jamaal Charles, James Johnson and Danny Gorrer) were set to appear.

The big deal about that, of course, being how Everett went down during a game on the national stage and game level, only to endure one of the most miraculous recoveries in sports history. He's kept out of the public eye since injury, even in New York, where he plays professionally. So, it wouldn't be hard for him to come through town unnoticed if he tried hard enough.


Grrrrrrrrrr.

Out the door I go, with Mary Meaux shortly on my tail. Port Arthur Police (more specifically, my brother-in-law patrol officer) was on the scene, interviewing witnesses. I'm trying to get a clear, decent shot. Mary's trying to figure out what happened. Then, off several officers go into the dark and a minute later, the call over the radio comes..."one suspect in custody."

I nabbed my shot, got back to the paper, finished all my day's work, gathered my gear and next day's assignments from the book, and was on my way out the door...

...and I realize I still had to hand in my time sheet and mileage forms.

Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Till next time...

It's already a fiery new year!

It's always good to get a little time off work.

With the Christmas season comes two holidays, three if you count Christmas Eve. Because of this, we change our work schedule slightly to a skeleton crew, who volunteer well in advance.

Because we also know that individuals who would normally be around to chat during the day are also on vacation, for this two week period of time we all sign up and prepare feature and timely news stories to get us through the lull of information.

The Christmas stretch came and went without a hitch, and as I left work on Saturday, all was left in place for New Years to come and go without problem as well.

For the most part it did. I didn't receive one phone call from the office while I was out of town with Paige. Along with planning for content, Amy and I were slated to seek out the mother of the first area baby born on New Year's Day. So, as I'm driving back in from Houston, Amy calls and tells me we are going to the Medical Center of Southeast Texas at 3 p.m.

I had not even dropped Paige off at home for about a minute when I get another call from Amy telling me of a fire in downtown Port Arthur.

In our line of work, there's always room for a little breaking news. I get down to the corner of Beaumont Avenue and 6th Street, though I could see the smoke billowing over the neighborhood from well away from the scene. Police had the roads blocked, fire trucks were scattered around the building that just seemed to be pumping out smoke like despite the PAFD's best efforts to douse it with their bucket truck.

Which was the image I was after, after all. I always feel I'm better when there's something going on, so how stoked was I, going back to work with this literally handed to me.

The hard part was picking a picture. I went all over the building, behind the fire trucks, in front of the fire trucks. I could not get over the amount of smoke coming from this building, and at one point, I was taking pictures of the fire fighters coming out and around the building and into the street, where a fire truck was sitting when all of a sudden the flames grew more intense and started coming through the roof.

This led to greater, darker, and thicker plumes of smoke, which were carried through the air by the wind. The cold air in the sky kept the smoke on a low level and at one point, stamped out all visibility down on the intersection of Beaumont and 6th, with exception of the face of a fire truck. It just so happened, I was taking pictures when this happened and came up with my personal favorite of the whole ordeal.

It really is THE MOST wonderful time of the year

Merry Christmas, y'all!

Or as they say in Cockney streets of England, Happy Crimble.

The weather is chilly, and by now most everybody's off work and going home to their loved ones for the Holiday season.

Following a torturous last week of school prior to vacation, Paige came home Saturday afternoon. We got together and made an appearance at her Aunt and Uncle's Christmas get together, before I had to leave again and shoot Lamar's game against Rice.

I was all set to spend Christmas, really, with her, her family and my brother, seeing as though my parents weren't planning on making the journey over from New Orleans. They are currently in the process of moving out of their temporary apartment to a townhome, and were at the mercy of those completing work on the new place.

But as I drove around last night, completing several last minute tasks with Paige, I get the call from my parents (that by now I should have expected) that they indeed were coming over.

And now, really, Christmas will be complete. It's nothing without family.

There are those in the area who will try to make the best of Christmas. Those less fortunate, who either have no family or the means to have Christmas as they might like.

And in our area, there are organizations that do their best to make a Merry Christmas come true for those that can't do it themselves. They do it via toy distribution, Angel Tree, Salvation Army, United Board of Missions, Blue Santa.

So how utterly sick and disgusting is it when one of the distribution sites, with toys waiting in numbered sacks for hopeful families, is robbed just days before Christmas?



We got the call Friday evening, just as our day in the newsroom was wrapping up. I believe her name was Sue Byers, with the Salvation Army. Who told us what had happened and that the Port Arthur police were on the way.

Mary Meaux and I set out to the distribution site, where we found several of the organization's soldiers just sitting there, in shock of what happened. In shock that someone would be to cruel to steal what good hearted, generous people gave to that others would be happy.

It's horrible, just a horrible, horrible thing.

It's the kind of story you don't want to hear about, because you would wish it would never happen. And there we are, thrust right into it. Driving up to see the police searching the place with flashlights, and looking at the broken faces of the volunteers.

I hope that whoever did this is happy with themselves. According to the Salvation Army, the theft occurred too close to Christmas to have done something about replacing the stolen goods before the holiday. There are now families in the area who will have to wait until later to be happy.

Mary and I were sure if people read the story Saturday, somebody out there might see it and want to act. If someone did, I don't know, but from the looks on their faces, the organization will do everything in their power to right the wrong that was done. It is people like those at the Salvation Army, the Hospitality Center, United Board of Missions, Port Cities Rescue Mission, and all the area charities that truly make Christmas the most wonderful time of the year.

Till next time...

Santa on a motorcycle

It's Christmas time, and in going with the holiday season, we here at The News have been going through our story staples for this time of the year. I think I've shot every Mid and South County Christmas parade so far this year. Four, I believe. So four parades, and one shot run in the paper per parade, means I have hundreds of leftover pictures that probably will never see the light of day.

Well, some of them will get a chance to run this Sunday on our LIFE section cover. I will pull as many of them from every city that I can and give some people who just missed out on me making them famous some face-time in The News.

I don't know how many times I've seen Santa this year, but the 'big man in red' sure gets around. I've seen him at the Central Mall, I've seen him at different parties and festivals. I saw him last Sunday at my church, he's been in every parade at least twice. I've seen him on a fire truck, on a tractor, on a flatbed trailer, and yesterday I saw him on a Harley.

Yup, The News' second annual Wishes Granted event took place here in the news room yesterday, as you already know because you read the story and saw the photo on our front page today. But what you don't know is that Santa and his elf both rode up on respective motorcycles for the festivities.



He proudly showed off his 'hog' after the event was over.

We also had a nice little 'wild art' on the front page today (for those of you who don't know, a 'wild art' is a picture that runs with only a caption underneath; it has no full story with it).

A CYF youth group from the First Christian Church of Port Arthur decided instead of having their usual gift exchange with one another, they would raise money and adopt a needy family for Christmas. Through the Salvation Army of Port Arthur, they found a family with six young children, and the youth groups went out and raised enough money to buy toys for all the kids. They even had leftover money to buy the family a meal.

It's so awesome, but this time of the year is full of stories like this. And working here at The News, we get to see our fair share of uplifting tales. Till next time...

First day on the blog...it can only go uphill from here...

Hello and Good Day to all. This is Mike Tobias, photo editor at The Port Arthur News.

There may never be a point to this blog, but as long as there's news, there will always be a reason to write one. Our faithful readers only get to see the coverage we can fit on our pages. With this blog, I intend to offer a behind-the-scenes look at the stories we cover. Much like DVDs nowadays offer its viewers a blooper reel, or deleted scenes. Yup, this blog will be the equivalent of a cutting room floor.

For instance...

The main story on our Sunday front page was about Christus St. Mary's Hospital in Port Arthur receiving their Magnet certification. And last Friday, instead of my photos from the Houston Texans game donning the sports page, we had to settle for photos from the Associated Press.

Now, what do either one of these things have in common? I'll tell you what...

Last Friday, I was sent to Christus St. Mary's to obtain a photo of a nurse with a patient. Through past experience with a glorious invention known as Hippa privacy laws, we here at The News know better than to just show up at the hospital without first making a few phone calls and having administrators arrange a meeting with a willing patient.

All of this can be made easier, however, when one has a sister-in-law who has just given birth to her first child.

I'm speaking, of course, of my soon-to-be-sister-in-law Brenda, who had just given birth to my soon-to-be niece Kaylynne just hours before the assignment at the hospital. What better way to avoid a little red tape? Kaylynne had just arrived at around 10:30 in the morning Friday, and I had been up there most of the early afternoon taking pictures and being the proud uncle that I am. Then I go to work, and have to turn around and go back to the hospital. Imagine the surprised look on the faces of the proud parents when I walked back into their room with my camera.



So what about the Texans game?

Well, I had to miss shooting my first Texans game of the season when my fiance, Paige, called to let me know Kaylynne was on her way Thursday afternoon. But, I did entertain her family as we sat in the waiting room and watched the NFL Network broadcast of the game from the confines of my laptop (www.nfl.com/live).

And, it's stories like this that I wish to share with y'all through the blogosphere. Till next time...