The Larely Beagle – The Community Newspaper of Larely, California

Larely, California – A writers’ strike lasting six long months ended today after an agreement was reached between “Larely Beagle” writers and its Board of Directors.

Though the terms of the agreement are not being made public, it is being widely speculated that the writers caved after being notified that the Board intended on bringing in scab writers from Larely High School, though neither the writers nor the Board are commenting on that assertion at this time.

What is known for sure, however, is that the largest disagreements and the most heated discussions involved Beagle management wanting its writers to begin verifying their research and sources as well as whether or not members of the board were allowed to siphon funds from the paper for personal expenses.

These differences were chronicled by the “Los Angeles Times” in December, 2009, and at the time, Phil Buckridge, the Beagle’s Editor-in-Chief as well as its longest tenured writer was quoted as saying, “Their asking us to begin verifying our sources and research is absolutely ridiculous.  If they can squash a story because it appears to be unsubstantiated, it gives them the ability to control what we are reporting, and when I was majoring in Dendrochronology at  UC-Larely, I learned that’s not how journalism works.”   He also added that a verification policy would “ruin the integrity of this fine newspaper.”

The article also addressed the issue of board members using newspaper funds for personal expenses after it had been reported that an anonymous board member purchased a 32 foot, multi-million dollar Lagoon luxury catamaran using newspaper funds.  The resulting drain on the Beagle’s bank accounts led to all writers and support staff foregoing two months of pay.

The anger at the time was palpable and Beagle opinion and automotive columnist Keith Camshaft, was the first to go on record over the issue saying, “That son of a bitch took our money and bought that fuckin’ catamaran.  Now don’t get me wrong, he did name it ‘The Rick CataMoranis’, which is pretty awesome, probably awesome enough where I’d forgo a month’s worth of pay, but not two.”

The article concluded by saying that while the two sides were talking regularly, they were each holding steadfastly to what they believed was right, which didn’t bode well for the strike to be settled in a timely manner.

That prediction proved to be dead-on accurate, and now that the writers are heading back to work, people will undoubtedly be very anxious to learn which side gained more from the strike.  Hopefully, these questions will be answered sooner rather than later as the Larely Beagle Board of Directors has scheduled a press conference for later this afternoon.  However, for now, people are just glad to have the “Larely Beagle” up and running once again.