Prime Directive, the Star's General Order #1,

Congratulations on your promotion to your new job! Jim Venney is the new Publisher of the Windsor Star.

I do not know this as a fact but I doubt that a mere finance director at the Star would have been privy to the world of the Star Editorial Board.

Can you picture the scene: he is surrounded by his new colleagues on the Editorial Board, the lights in the Board room are low, the curtains drawn, the secret chants are sung, he is taught the secret handshake, given the key to the Editorial Board's washroom and then is given the envelope with what every Star Publisher must know: "The Prime Directive forbids any effort to improve or change in any way the natural course of a primitive society."

What a huge responsibility to put on the shoulders of any person and according to the Star, it is "effective immediately." It is now up to Venney to ensure that the Prime Directive is carried out. I can imagine the pressure Jim is under so being a Star gazer I wanted to help him out.

The natural course in our Windsor primitive society is for Eddie Francis to remain Mayor for three more years. Let us take today's issue as an example to see how the Directive is being carried out:

Slain nurse's family to sue
Under this headline that will grab our attention, we learn more today "Meanwhile, Windsor police, who recently launched a criminal negligence investigation into the workplace killing, say they have hit a roadblock in obtaining information from the hospital. Insp. Greg Renaud said "certain people" at Hotel-Dieu have "decided not to answer those questions" police would like answered."

Just watch who will be shouldered with that "obstructionism" down the road.

Angry cabbies feel 'betrayed'
Now the Star did not report who voted for or against letting the cabbies speak at Council on Monday during their in camera session. If I know who did, then the Star knows too. It was a 5-4 vote by the way in favour no matter what it looked like in public.

When we get the report on the Licensing Commission we read: "Although commission member Coun. Ron Jones moved that the strikers be heard anyway, he was not supported by other commissioners including Coun. Jo-Anne Gignac.

CAW Local 444 president Ken Lewenza, who also attended on behalf of strikers, angrily accused Gignac of having "distaste" for workers in the city because she did not support Jones's motion to hear the delegation."

Wham, Slam, Bang.... workers of Windsor, you cannot vote for Jo-anne if she foolishly decided to run for Mayor since she is anti-worker and obviously pro-scab! And Joyce, we let you off the hook this time so keep being nice and be part of the team!

Hurst to run for 3rd term
No not THAT one! Just seeing if you are paying attention!

Streetscaping plans to give 'identity'
Well Gord identified it as one of Eddie's big actions for 2006 so we have to do a story on it. You know, Phase 1 just like planting a few trees on the approach to the city was "Phase 1" so Eddie could put a checkmark on his scorecard! That plus the Keg is the start of our downtown re-vitalization remember.

AND THEN THERE IS GORD
I like him. He's fun to read. I love his flipflopping too. He does it without shame where he would have crucified a politician if he/she did that!

I asked his Councillor buddy after Council on Tueday how it felt to have Gord change on him in less than 2 weeks from support for refurbishing the Barn to supporting a whole new arena. He said he had not talked to Gord yet!

Now it is the Sandwich "brownie" baker who feels Gord's wrath! Poor Mary Ann Cuderman. Here is how Gord praised her last summer in a Henderson column as "David versus Goliath was a congenial meeting of equals compared to the challenge Mary Ann Cuderman and a handful of allies face in tackling the immensely powerful Ambassador Bridge company...Hats off to Truck Watch for putting up a brave fight."

Today "Mary Ann Cuderman, a West Windsor activist, told me the city put on a deceitful dog and pony show... "They put the worst possible scenario out there to get people all excited," said Cuderman, Why don't they work with the DRIC instead of wasting our time and money on something that can't fly? I can see now why we don't get anything done in Windsor," she fumed. I admire her passion. But she's off the mark on this one."

[Note: Did you wonder why Councillors Postma and Jones were not mentioned although they support working with DRIC too and have been attacked in camera by their colleagues for doing so. Why not....Council is no longer dysfunctional after Eddie's genius of the group therapy with the Governor's hubby. We don't want the war starting again internally. Eddie needs to be shown as the leader!]

And those damned pesky environmentalists: "I'm all in favour of grasses, rare or otherwise. But sacrificing entire neighbourhoods on their behalf? There must be a better way."

And Sam Schwartz and Marko his assistant, nice job with Saturday. Next time do not screw it up for the Mayor. Do what you said and no mistakes! "it's now clear the Schwartz plan's one mistake was drawing a specific line through the grasslands. He said if they had produced a yellow fuzzy swath like the DRICP did, as many as 50 potential routes could have been considered."

Finally Jim....there is the ultimate. You have my email address if you want to know privately, but then again everyone at the Star knows what that is, even a bean counter!

So Jim, welcome to the new job. Glad to be able to demonstrate to you how it's all done!