Bismarck/Mandan flood research.

Well as I was doing some digging into the flooding of Bismark I able to locate some pictures of the flooding that was happening around Bismarck/Mandan and around the western areas of the state. I also found the Bismarck website that had press releases during the time of the flooding. For people that have not heard much about the Bismarck/Mandan flooding. Bismarck was hit hardest of the two cities, with one of the more wealthy part of the city underwater. The area is called Fox Island it is on the south west side of Bismarck right next the Missouri River, this area is considered part of the flood plane of the Missouri River. Fox Island also houses a marina that is relatively new with some really nice houses. The Bismarck website has a list of press releases that concern the city of Bismarck, the website has released information about the flood and sandbagging that was happening in Bismarck. This website featured the same articles that the Bismarck tribune released during the flooding so it leads me to believe that these are the one and same articles that where release to the news organizations in Bismarck. Bismarck tribune did something that was really cool during the flooding, they had a running slid show of pictures and some videos of the flooding that was going on also the Bismarck Tribune had a page dedicated to the flooding/press releases for Bismarck/Mandan. I learned through some informal interviewing that the areas of Bismarck/Mandan that were in danger received the reverse 911 phone calls to inform the residents of Fox Islands of mandatory evacuation, this was also done for the area of Mandan but was a voluntary evacuation. I also looked up the flooding on YouTube to see what type of videos of the flood were out there, I found 147 videos dealing with flooding in Bismarck/Mandan and other areas of North Dakota. You can find the video of the demolition crew and National Guard setting off C4 on the ice jam that was backing the water up south of Bismarck/Mandan. This was really interesting looking at the videos, when I was working on the project I got side tracked looking at the videos, so if you got some time I say check out some of the videos.

crisis communication town

While I was not in Bismarck when the flooding and threats of flooding were occurring, I was kept informed of what was occurring by various means.

Mayor John Warfard held numerous press conferences along with Mayor Tim Helbling of Mandan, an official from FEMA who was assigned to Bismarck to monitor the impending flooding damage, and officials from the demolitions company that was brought in to assist Bismarck/Mandan in their fight to demolish the ice jams that were building on the Missouri River. Governor John Hoeven was also televised on several occasions to speak to the communities to keep everyone informed of the latest developments in relation to progress made by the demolitions team in blowing up the ice jam threatening the cities of Bismarck and Mandan. In addition to the press conferences, the local television and radio Medias kept the public informed via newsprint and radio announcements. The local newspaper, The Bismarck Tribune, published daily updates along with maintaining a photo journal of all that was occurring in both communities as well as surrounding communities that were also impacted by the spring flooding along the Missouri River. They also maintained a separate webpage devoted to flooding updates and news. And of course, I was in touch with many family and friends to hear first-hand accounts.

I will be interviewing some of the people that I know living here in Bismarck/Mandan about how effective the methods used during the Bismarck Crisis.

Got Flu?

If you traveled to Mexico or Texas or California recently and you feel crappy, flu symptoms you mite want to get yourself checked out. This is because the Swine Flu has spread around in Mexico, Texas, California, Kansas, New York, and now Canada. Canada confirmed Six cases in two provinces, two in the western province of British Columbia and four in the Atlantic province of Nova Scotia. Swine Flu has killed as many as 81 and sickened possibly 1,300 more in Mexico. It first spread outside Mexico to Texas and California, where there have been at least eight reported nonfatal cases. Yesterday, two new cases were reported in Kansas, and there was a suspected outbreak in New York City which was confirmed today Sunday 26th. Most of Mexico's dead have been young, healthy adults, and none were over 60 or under 3 years old, this is a cause for alarm because this shows how deadly this flu could potentially be. The new Swine Flu strain contains gene sequences from North American and Eurasian swine flu viruses, North American bird flu, and North American human flu according to the CDC. Cases of the Swine Flu popping up across the North American continent has caused the WHO, World Health Organization, to call a meeting of specialists to decide what steps should be taken to contain the virus. WHO is also considering a recommendation for a declaration of an international public health emergency, which could have major implications on travel and trade. It could also raise its "pandemic alert level," currently at level three. It is the first time the committee has been called upon since it was created two years ago to handle disease outbreaks. This new flu has the WHO worried because it resembles the pandemic influenza, like the 1918 Spanish flu and the 1957 and 1968 pandemics often strike young, healthy people the hardest. The communication that is happening with this crisis is a good early out reach to the public by having the press present stories about the flu and the WHO, CDC, and NY state setting up informational websites and a 24 hour hotline for questions about the flu. The CDC also has a section on actions people can take to stay healthy. This Shows a active participation from the CDC and WHO with handling the possible outbreak and crisis.

YAY! another one of these site!

Who loves YouTube? I know I do, but I am not sure that I like Universal. Why I say this is because YouTube and universal joined together to create a new website for music videos called Vevo. Now this new website has some huge finical backers like Google and Vivendi not to mention YouTube and Universal music group. Vevo will be fully owned by Universal Music Group, a subsidiary of French media giant Vivendi, and the technology will be provided by Google. Revenue from Vevo will be shared between YouTube and Universal, as will revenue from Universal content hosted on YouTube. The goal of this website is to bring premium music video content to the viewers; this would allow Vevo to compete with the likes of Hulu. Now I see this as desperate act by YouTube because of the fact Hulu is doing so well with advertisements and the content they play is higher quality then what can be found on YouTube. I could see this new website working out well because many of the music video found on YouTube have been pulled or are poor quality that it’s not worth even watching. most of the people that I know that go to YouTube to “watch” music videos go there to hear the song not because of the video. This new website Vevo will have to use some intense advertising to get the word out to even try to dent the Hulu. This is because Hulu has some big stars in their commercials on the TV and most people that has cable TV most likely seen the commercials. A few of the big stars include Alex Baldwin and Seth MacFarlane (creator/ voices of Family Guy and American Dad). Now some of the ways I could see a massive advertising push for this new website is have Google put ads on their site, ads on YouTube, and the biggest ad push advertisement in Universal productions. I choose this news release to talk about because it has a new website being created, even though we cannot view the website while it is being created. This makes me think about chapter 14 and the steps to create a website and what will the target viewer want when going to this site. I do wonder how cluttered the main website will be with advertising and such, let alone the fact that when they do start advertising, I will not be surprised to see ads on my beloved Google.

GUNS GUNS GUNS!!!!

When I was reading a article in Backpacker magazine, I noticed that the article was talking about how the government was going to change a law that required any gun the will be passing through or in an national park be unloaded and packed away. The new law will allow loaded, concealed firearms in national parks. Well when I was looking for a news release to write about for the 3rd blog, I came across a press release about this. The new law has taken effect as of January 9th which mean that if you wanted to you could be packing heat in a national park provided that you have a canceled weapons permit. The lawsuit to put an injunction against the new law was filed in U.S. District Court by the National Parks Conservation Association (NPCA) and the Coalition of National Park Service Retirees. The new law was pushed by the Bush Administration failed to provide adequate reasons for passing the new law. National Rifle Association was the major backer of the new law which wanted to expand the 2nd amendment, the right to bear arms to include national parks. The Backpacker magazine article talked about how people were more afraid of people in the park then a chance encounter with wildlife and this was shown with statistics within the article. Which stated that more park related deaths accord by human’s crimes then animal mauling accidents. My personal opinion about this new law is that I too think that concealed firearms should not be allowed within the boundaries of a national park. This is because this would cause more problems for the national park staff having to deal with people and guns. The new law would not only cause an increase in cost to the park for more law enforcement. The increase confrontation between camp neighbors would be a direct cause of this law because people when packing heat tend to get bolder with their views…. Throw a few beers in them and you got the next episode of cops. The park staff with their family also lives within the park boundaries and having kids around people with loaded concealed firearms would make me a nervous parent. This press release is in the general format found in chapter ten of our PR book and the handout that we received while we were discussing chapter 10. The press release follows the format of news release by having the required information on the top of the release and has the ### at the end.

The case of the disappearing land!

Coastal erosion in Alaska, who knew?! This was somewhat of a shock to me because I have not heard of this… ever. A study by the USGS showed the annual erosion rates jumped from an average of 20 feet per year in the mid 1950s to 45 feet per in 2002- 2007. The main stretch of coast line that is mostly affected 40-mile long beach line along the Beaufort Sea. This was published in the current issue of Geophysical Research Letters. The lead author and USGS scientist Benjamin Jones “cautioned that it is possible that the recent patterns documented in their study may represent a short-term episode of enhanced erosion. However, they may well represent the future pattern of coastline erosion in the Arctic.” This to me is alarming because if this is the “future pattern of coastline erosion”, future habitat would be loss to the massive erosion as well as historic places and other locations of historic value. The sizes of the chunks that are eroding are huge, as shown in the picture. USGS thinks that the recent increase in erosion rate, is cause by changing arctic conditions (which I am sure is code for climate change), decline in sea ice extent, increase in summertime sea surface temperature, rising seas, increase in storm power, and wave action. These factors could be leading to new “ocean-land interactions that seem to be repositioning and reshaping the Arctic coastline” any increases in erosion will have further ramifications on Arctic landscapes – like freshwater and terrestrial wildlife habitats, and in disappearing cultural sites, and impacting coastal villages and towns. Disappearing cultural/historical sites where documented along the coastal stretch of the Beaufort Sea. The historic sites that where lost include Esook, turn of the century trading post and the soon to be lost, Kolovik, abandoned Inupiaq village site. I see the lost of all the cultural along the coast very saddening because as the human race must learn from history, the lost of the historic/culture places means the lost of a part of what makes Alaskans Alaskans. This press release links back to chapter eight and the section on reports and proposals. This links to this chapter because the organization of the report is close to the “seven major sections” that are associated with this section of the public relation book, along with the readability of this report is aimed at the general public and not the specialized field of geology.

Spying still in the U.S?

Hearing the word spy, most people think back to the cold war and the fall of Russia or maybe some people think of some popular spy movies like the borne series. Let me tell you that the word spy should still bring up images of shadowy figures and crooked government employees, the kind of people that will sell their government, friends, or information for any amount of cash to the right people.

These spies are still active in the U.S. even though we do not hear about them in the news often but they are still here and busy spying. This blog is to let you who read it, realize that spies and spying is still common in the U.S and the world as it was during the cold war. To make this case, I found a press release from U.S Department of Justice that informs the public of a father / son duo that has been cough in the act of espionage. The charges brought against this father / son team are two counts of Conspiracy, one count of Acting as Agents of a Foreign Government, and four counts of Money Laundering. The father was using his son to pass information to agents of the Russian Federation, while the father is in prison, serving time for passed espionage activities. The father was a senior CIA officer that was charged with conspiracy to commit espionage in 1997. The father used his son to pass information and collect dues from past activities. this team was active for about 2 years, 2006 to 2008, during this time his son traveled around the world to meet with Russian Federation agents at varies locations. These locations include some obscure countries like Mexico City, Mexico; Lima, Peru; and Cyprus.

I linked the indictment here if you are interested in reading the court proceedings.

http://www.usdoj.gov/usao/or/PressReleases/2009/NicholsonIndictment.pdf

http://www.usdoj.gov/usao/or/PressReleases/2009/NicholsonAffidavit.pdf

This just shows that our own government employees, trusted with knowledge, can turn against their nation. To betray their nation for financial gains. The fact that the father brought his son into the ring of lies and spies shows that the father has little care for family or national pride. I am glad that the public relations department of the Department of Justice put forth this information because it shows that the government is looking out for the people by letting us know what is going on in the world of espionage. This relates back to PR class in that the public relations of the Department of Justice have the interest of the public and the government within it sight.