JUDGMENT CALLS… Squid was trying to unwind after an arduous day of dodging – er, doing – Squid’s taxes last weekend when KSBW’s evening news rammed its way into Squid’s over-worked brain. The anchor burst in with the top news story of the day: two California condors shot. Squid wasn’t exactly elated that two condors are now reeling with lead poisoning but was at least relieved the top news story on a warm afternoon wasn’t street violence.

Break to story number two: fugitive from Colorado shoots himself. Cut to story number three: two Salinas shootings, one victim air-lifted to a Bay Area hospital in critical condition.

I DON’T SEE WHY THERE MUST BE TWO CONSERVATIVES ON THE PAGE.

Squid had to rewind. Were two shootings – and the life of one in the balance – actually trumped by two birds and a suicide?

Irritated, Squid decided to shred paper, fiber by fiber, for the cat box. Lo and behold, the headline was newly-anointed Salinas Police Chief Louis Fetherolf’s quote about the city’s newest mind-boggling drench of violence: “Judgment Day is Coming!”

Ah, yes, because testosterone-filled Hollywood-style comments like that are surely going to fix what fasting and praying haven’t. Squid hopes Fetherolf’s got a back-up plan.

UNION BUSTING?… It isn’t often that Squid finds squidself and oceanic friends in the news. So it was with considerable pride that Squid received this link from KION (www.1460kion.com/pages/Mark&JimShow.html): “A KION staffer took these pictures of a photographer who identified himself as a ‘representative of the Monterey County Weekly’ newspaper taking pictures of people signing a petition to force a public referendum vote on a Wal-Mart SuperStore in Salinas. Our photographer indicated that while the Coast Weekly rep took pictures, people stopped signing the petition(s).

“Our question for you… ‘Was this the legitimate covering of a news event by a local journalist or was it an attempt to intimidate voters from signing the petition?’ You make the call.”

The Weekly representative referred to was none other than staff photographer Nic Coury, who was, indeed, taking a picture for a news story about the petition effort. Although Coury is well-known for his strong-arm tactics – don’t get between him and a clicking lens at a press conference – Squid more than rises up in defense of Squid’s colleague and issues this throw-down to Mark (and Jim): Was this radio report the legitimate covering of news, or was the KION staffer trying to intimidate the Weekly staffer because of jealousy over Coury’s bicep tattoo? You make the call. And, oh yeah, it hasn’t been the Coast Weekly for more than five years.