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Two posts in one!
By LeslieWilber in For your information
January 10, 2008

It's fitting that I delayed writing the first half of this blog for a few days. My biggest public-record concern this week is holiday backlog.

"Emergency responders, their schedules never change," city spokesman O.C. Garza told me today. That means police and firefighters worked over the past couple of weeks.

The support staff does get some well deserved time off though. The PDs lobby was closed at 3 p.m. the Friday before Christmas, Christmas Eve, and of course, the holiday itself. The front doors were locked on New Year's Day, too.

I'm not saying these city employees shouldn't have the time off. But the holidays do cramp the flow of information. Every weekday, a reporter (often me) looks at a clipboard at the police department for assaults, burglaries and other crimes. Reports from last week appeared on that board on Wednesday.

At best, this makes for a stale blotter. At worst, it makes getting basic information about crimes (information that's public record) difficult when departments are shuffling around those cases.

But, hey, as this blog proves I need to catch up after the holidays, too.

This morning, I had unexpected help getting fit in 2008. Ha, no, I didn't go to the gym or go for a long run like I planned (I slept late. I need beauty sleep. A lot.)

I started at the courthouse at 9 a.m. Since I'm still new here, I often go to the wrong place or ask for the wrong thing. I'm one of those nuts who (when reasonable) uses the stairs. So first, I run up to the district clerk's main office, on the third floor. What I need, though is in the criminal court office -- next door,  on the second floor (run, run, run).

Since the judge had the file I wanted to look at, I'm told I can look it up on the computer. Which is in the third-floor office. I just came from. (run, run, run). The info I wanted hadn't been scanned into the computer yet. So I just had to wait anyway after my little workout.

I don't think my quads are any shapelier for it either. Guess I'm running tonight after all.

But if there's someone out there who wants a jump-start on her workout routine, maybe she should jog around downtown in my shoes for a week. (But not heels. They just slow you down.)