WTOP went digging through Metrobus records and concluded yesterday that D.C. should ride at its own risk. In the last five years, there were over 400 violations for running red lights, and one driver was even disciplined for watching television while driving (are you feeling lucky?). Ward 1 Councilmember Jim Graham told the station those riders that notice problems should “Just Google Jim Graham” and email him. Just in case I catch my bus driver watching "It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia" on the way home, I ran a Google-Graham-drill. Unfortunately, the first item that came up was Graham’s decision to give up oversight over the D.C. taxi industry. Old news, but it’s worth checking out again just to note his scarlet bowtie and fluorescent orange grandma glasses. I may be walking home, but that is one dapper man.

Read More "Our Morning Roundup: The “Google Jim Graham” Edition" »

Fortune magazine has named some folks who might try to get control of the New York Times from the Sulzberger family.

The piece has some likely suspects -- David Geffen and Google, among them.

But the most intriguing and, for us locals, scariest of the alleged Times takeoverers?

Howard Milstein.

Yes, THAT Howard Milstein.

The Howard Milstein who a decade ago tried to buy the Redskins at the Jack Kent Cooke estate sale! The Howard Milstein who brought Dan Snyder into the fold to give him the local color he thought would get him approved! The Howard Milstein who had too many enemies at NFL headquarters and got kicked out of the buying process! The Howard Milstein who then stepped aside and watched as his former partner took over the buying process!

THE HOWARD MILSTEIN WHO IS RESPONSIBLE FOR DAN SNYDER OWNING THE REDSKINS!

Whew.

According to the Fortune piece, Milstein, identified simply as "a New York-based financier," has been "buying shares" of NY Times stock.

Run for your lives, New York Times readers!

Or, maybe, just renew your subscription and give subscriptions to all your relatives so the Sulzbergers don't have to sell.

Just don't say we didn't warn you...

***

Those streaky Nationals are at it again!

Read More "Cheap Seats Daily: The World’s Greatest Beer Man, Milstein Resurfaces, Ficker Running Again" »

If Jeff Jarvis had his way, this post would not exist. In his new book "What Would Google Do?," Jarvis lays out a number of rules to help dead tree newspaper types and corporations in general face the new online reality--including "do what you do best and link to the rest."

Just like the newspaper industry he criticizes so frequently, What Would Google Do? seems like an attempt to make money off of content Jarvis previously gave away for free (his blog Buzzmachine apparently wasn't generating enough Google Ads revenue to pay the bills). Reading the book, one can almost imagine Jarvis opening up Google Docs, pasting in a series of blog posts, whipping out the thesaurus (or rather, firing up the search engine) and tapping out awkward transitions between each topic like a co-ed writing a thesis paper. That "link to the rest" rule, along with many other ideas Jarvis lays out, now has a catchier title then when it was a blog post titled Cover what you do best. Link to the rest. The general point is the same - in the age where everyone is a critic, why does every paper need a local critic? The link, writes Jarvis, changes every business and institution, but it's "easiest to illustrate its impact on news.

Read More "Attention Google Crawler Bot: JEFF JARVIS, WHAT WOULD GOOGLE DO?, READ THIS IT’S IMPORTANT" »

So I guess I could have just gone to the big man himself. Earlier today I posted about the confusing, and concerning, documents filed by Creative Loafing, our parent company, in their application for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. Well, blogger Rob Capriccioso, aka Big Head Rob, took it upon himself to forward my post to the Loaf's main man, Ben Eason, who CC'ed me on the reply. Thanks, Ben. But I still don't quite get it.

I'd joked that I didn't understand the lingo in the filings. I never took Latin, for one. Turns out Ben doesn't get it either:

I think we’re all getting used to this Chapter 11 lingo. Not sure I know what nunc pro tunc is either. The filings are a little confusing due to the fact that we’re current with all our bills, taxes and payroll but when this weeks bills come in the mail, we’ll update the filing. Additionally, the law requires you to list all the taxing authorities and all the sister companies so this quickly becomes confusing to those who aren’t used to these proceedings.

I'd also expressed some concerns about Eason getting dinged by the court for failing to include a complete list of his creditors and debts. He doesn't explain to the blogger. The way he tells it, we've just run into a bit of a rough patch.

All our pubs are profitable and we’re growing nicely online – we just ran head first into a brutal economy that isn’t showing any signs of getting better anytime soon. The City Paper and CL are doing fine – this just gives us the time we need to keep building out our digital strategies.

In general, the future looks bright. (This is from an earlier email to Rob.)

The trust and presence that City Paper has in the DC market is phenomenal and we think that the combination of DC and Chicago with the CL company give us the national reach to play a significant role in emerging media across the country. We're now able to really get deep into 3 of the top 10 markets in the country and with our brethren in the alternative industry, we're able to compete against the Silicon Valley funded dot coms that are challenging traditional media companies.

Here we come Google, watch out.