Ron Ross

An iPhone or a Smartphone can be a wonderful thing. You can do…well, darn near anything with it…including record for posterity any event within eye-range or should I say, I-range. Unless you want to become famous (or infamous), don’t lose your temper at the check-out stand or yell at your kid in the WalMart parking lot. If you do, soon 145,329 (more or less) people could view it on the Internet because some guy caught it on his Smartphone, uploaded it to YouTube, then tweeted and Facebooked it even before you got to your car. From this day forward, politicians at every level, classroom professors, town cops, TSA agents, and even FedEx delivery folks must be on their best behavior at all times. If not, their misadventures will be caught on tape and published for posterity. We used to complain that Big Brother was watching us. Well, he is – security cameras are now ... (more)

Are iPhones and Citizen Journalists Good for Each Other?

An iPhone or a Smartphone can be a wonderful thing. You can do...well, darn near anything with it...including record for posterity any event within eye-range or should I say, I-range. Unless you want to become famous (or infamous), don't lose your temper at the check-out stand or yell at your kid in the WalMart parking lot. If you do, soon 145,329 (more or less) people could view it on the Internet because some guy caught it on his Smartphone, uploaded it to YouTube, then tweeted and Facebooked it even before you got to your car. From this day forward, politicians at every level... (more)

Warren Buffett Invests in Newspapers

Besides mowing lawns and shoveling snow, my very first job as a lad was an Omaha World-Herald newspaper route.  I delivered the paper every day to about 40 customers in the south end of Council Bluffs, Iowa. That’s why the headline that Warren Buffett has purchased the OWH attracted my attention. The price, reportedly, is $150 million plus the assumption of $50 million of debt. Two-hundred-thousand bucks for a business that Buffett once told his shareholders has a “potential for unending losses.” The biggest problems newspapers face are 24-hour cable news outlets and Internet new... (more)

Do you want to be a sports reporter?

It is possible that you can be a citizen sports reporter in your town.  KHQA-TV, an ABC affiliate in the Keokuk, Iowa, Qunicy, Illinois, and  Hannibal, Missouri area, actively recruits citizen journalists as sports reporters. Here’s the ad from their website: Are you interested in being a sports reporter?   If you are a high school senior in the Tri-States, then here’s your chance to be on the side lines with KHQA Sports Reporters and help report the best local sports on “Overtime with Chris Duerr”. To see the KHQU-TV web page, CLICK HERE. Many local broadcast and print news opera... (more)

Warren Buffett Invests in Newspapers

Besides mowing lawns and shoveling snow, my very first job as a lad was an Omaha World-Herald newspaper route. I delivered the paper every day to about 40 customers in the south end of Council Bluffs, Iowa. That’s why the headline that Warren Buffett has purchased the OWH attracted my attention. The price, reportedly, is $150 million plus the assumption of $50 million of debt. Two-hundred-million bucks for a business that Buffett once told his shareholders has a “potential for unending losses.” The biggest problems newspapers face are 24-hour cable news outlets and Internet news ... (more)