New Planned Parenthood Location

Planned Parenthood of Southern Nevada to Celebrate Grand Opening of its East Flamingo Health Center Open house to feature award-winning actress Lupe Ontiveros and regional Planned Parenthood CEO/President Vicki Cowart as they announce the launch of the Latino Outreach Initiative

WHAT: On March 12, Planned Parenthood of Southern Nevada will celebrate the grand opening of its East Flamingo Health Center by hosting an open house for the public. The health center is a testament to Planned Parenthood’s commitment to the community as a dependable provider of affordable, quality health care. “We encourage Nevadans to visit our welcoming health center and learn about our comprehensive services,” said Kristina Trejo, East Flamingo health center manager. The unveiling of the Latino Outreach Initiative, a program led by Planned Parenthood Federation of America, will also take place. This pilot initiative seeks to increase awareness in the Latino community about sexual and reproductive health risks; increase awareness and access to services; and organize and mobilize Latinos to advocate for reproductive health policies that impact them. It is known that Latinos suffer disproportionately from sexually transmitted infections among other sexual health risks. Lupe Ontiveros, an award-winning actress, will remark on her work in Latino communities that includes educating and informing audiences about HIV/AIDS. She will also discuss the importance of affordable and quality health care in the Latino Community.

WHERE: Planned Parenthood of Southern Nevada 3300 East Flamingo Rd., Ste. 25 Las Vegas, NV 89121

WHEN: Thursday, March 12, 5:30 – 7:30 p.m.

WHO: Planned Parenthood of Southern Nevada supporters, volunteers, activists and interested members of the public. RSVP requested to attend, contact Allison Rodacker at 702-878-3622.

Redefining Conscience Could Have Negative Effects on Birth Control

To what extent a doctor or pharmacist can exercise his or her personal beliefs on patients is being heatedly debated. 

A new regulation is coming up that would redefine what medical conscience is. 

On one side, the Secretary of U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Michael Leavitt’s side, there is a concern that doctor’s will be “forced” to perform certain surgeries – like abortion or to hand out certain medications – like birth control. 

On the other side, what right does a doctor have to deny someone a procedure and medication that are perfectly legal? How far can a physician go in using his/her personal beliefs to deny someone care? 

Leavitt’s personal blog has pages of comments that you can read through here: http://secretarysblog.hhs.gov/my_weblog/2008/08/physician-consc.html

The National Organization of Women has an issue page here: http://www.capwiz.com/now/issues/alert/?alertid=11958671

Leadership in a Newsroom

Imagine you’re a managing editor – you are responsible for all the reporters in your newsroom. What do you do when one of your own gets unlawfully arrested?

It’s only when you’re in a crisis situation that you pull your head out of the sand, look around and say, “Where is my fearless leader?”

In this post, I won’t go into the litany of crimes against reporters my alma mater’s newspaper has committed. What I want to explore is what leadership means in the news business.

According to the Oxford English Dictionary (the end-all and be-all of the English language), it defines leadership as:

The dignity, office, or position of a leader, esp. of a political party; ability to lead; the position of a group of people leading or influencing others within a given context; the group itself; the action or influence necessary for the direction or organization of effort in a group undertaking. Also attrib., as leadership behaviour, school, skill.

That means when one of your reporters gets arrested, it’s up to you to find out the whos, whats, wheres, whys, whens and hows. Then, based on that information, act. In this case, a letter to the police department explaining your reporters lack of press credentials and a personal phone call to your reporter.

It doesn’t take a lot of philosophizing to be a good leader. All you have to know is how to listen, how to be accountable and responsible. Responsible – ability to respond.

In a research colloquium, Dr. Ryfe at UNR’s School of Journalism said that managing editors do not know how to manage people. All they know is how to do a damn good job of reporting and editing. The context was on the dying newspaper industry and the rigidly hierarchical structure of a newsroom. When a managing editor doesn’t listen to his/her reporters, everything goes to pot.

In my experience, I’ve had a few leadership opportunities and been to a few leadership seminars. Making lists of what a leader is out of the letters in the word (‘L’ is for lazy…’E’ is for easy…), memorizing the 12 steps to becoming a leader or sitting around in a circle discussing the ills of society never taught me how to be a leader. It wasn’t until I was faced with a horde of rambunctious 11-year-olds that I felt what it was like to be in charge.

It wasn’t long before I had a grasp of how to influence, lead and manage my students.

It shouldn’t be that difficult when you have a room of college age students working for you. It does take time, practice, failing a few times and rising up from those challenges. But in the end, you’ll having a well oiled machine that can change when necessary and easy to manage.

To the editors of the Rebel Yell and managing editors everywhere- learn how to be a good leader. The first step is L for Listen.

OMG My Boyfriend Was Arrested At The RNC!

My boyfriend, Mark Skinner, was sent by the University of Las Vegas’ campus newspaper, The Rebel Yell, to cover the Republican National Convention. While there, he decided to cover a student protest group. Because the Yell couldn’t get him press credentials (missed the deadline), he was arrested along with the others.

You can go to my UTTERZ BLOG to listen with embedded players. You won’t have to listen to each link on a different site.

Update: Mark was booked with a misdemeanor for unlawful assembly.

Documenting the arrests (including his own):
Appx. 7:00 PM CST: Getting Dragged From Media Line
Appx. 9:00 PM CST: Being Asked to Sit Down and Put Hands on Head
Two Hours Later – Still Sitting
Appx: 5:00 AM CST: After Spending the Night in Jail

“Highlights” of the protest:
Background on Student Protesters
Tear Gas and Concussion Grenades

Here is Mark’s page: Utterz: MarkSkinner.

I seriously hope the Yell compensates him for this…

Additional Information on the Events of Last Night
Poynter has article on two credentialed photojournalists who were arrested.

KARE 11, St. Paul, Minn. affiliate of NBC reporter arrested – this is a blog on the events.

Refueling

So, this isn’t my personal blog but I thought I’d update those of you who care to read on the haps in my life and why it’s been a while since I’ve last posted.

I spent this summer hustling for cash before I made the big move up to Reno (ok, it wasn’t that big a move). I’m doing my M.A. in environmental and interactive journalism at UNR. And I’ve already got an assignment! I havent had time to rest yet or settle in and it looks like I won’t anytime soon.

Therefore I thought I may as well get back into blogging now before I start griping about not having enough time to align my chakras to write the grand first blog post after hiatus.

Some obvious changes will need to made – I’m refocusing my beat on women’s issues to the entire state of Nevada. Because of my great locale so close to the state’s capital, I’ll be able to actually sit in on important meetings. Won’t that be cool?

Also – I may have to change blog hosts. I don’t know yet how that will work. The reason being that I’m going to be learning how to use Flash and wordpress.com doesn’t support flash. Eep! I’d really like to use Flash here because it would make feminism more fun. Who doesn’t want to play a feminist Flash game?

What will remain the same is my dedication. Right now, I’m working on make the connections. Soon I’ll hopefully be putting up some in-depth, fun, informative articles on women’s issues in Nevada!

Thanks to all of you still out there reading my blog!

WordPress Keyword Search

It’s funny that bewildered net surfers looking for “naked women” come across my blog post on feminist art.

Is this irony?

The Good Old Girls Club: National Education for Women’s Leadership Nevada Dinner

In audio:
Catherine Cortez-Masto, Attorney General of Nevada
Dawn Gibbons, First Lady of Nevada
Diana Rhodes, NEW Leadership Nevada
Linda Rivera, Bureau of Reclamation