Grumpy Editor

Fuzzy math employed in wrangled funds for Hillary

Most print and broadcast media --- from Associated Press to the New York Times to ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox TV network news  --- yesterday reported presidential candidate Hillary Clinton (D., N.Y.), will give to charity the $23,000 in donations she received from fundraiser Norman Hsu, who is wanted in California stemming from grand theft charges.

That seems like a nice gesture to close the book on shady donations.

However, Grumpy Editor noticed only The Wall Street Journal mentioned “Hsu had raised well over $1 million for Mrs. Clinton’s presidential campaign.” 

It appears that no news outlet sought to ask the status of the rest of Mrs. Clinton’s hefty campaign funds coming from Hong Kong-born Hsu.  Will those donations also be rerouted to charity?  If so, which organization(s) will be on the receiving end?

Hsu’s efforts funneled funds to other Democrats in the House and Senate, including Senators Edward Kennedy and John Kerry of Massachusetts, Senators Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein of California and Sen. Tom Harkin of Iowa.  New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson also received funds.

Natural gas traders, TV crews ready for more wind

When billowing clouds form over the eastern Atlantic, off Africa’s coast, traders in natural gas futures start eyeing weather forecasts.  Anything with wind developing stirs up action.

Traders aren’t alone in looking at the distant horizon.  Mention a possible hurricane brewing and major media start dusting off cameras and transmission gear, notes Grumpy Editor.

Seems a tropical depression is developing in the far eastern Atlantic storm-spawning area.  That triggers jitters (so they say) with traders and enthusiasm with TV crews.

The weather disturbance, small enough not to carry a name, is simply labeled Ten-E on weather maps by meteorologists. 

Even though a storm path is impossible to determine at this point, fretting traders fear a strong storm or hurricane can mess up the Gulf of Mexico --- home to 13 percent of domestic natural gas output --- elevating prices.

Fresh in the minds of traders is that natural gas prices jumped in early August with Hurricane Dean swirling toward the gulf.  However, it skirted production areas, making landfall in Mexico.  Then, natural gas prices tumbled.

But Dean, during news-starved August, provided several days of on-scene TV footage showing water-logged cars, damaged buildings and splintered trees as it swept through the Caribbean and into Mexico.

Southern border fence erection moves at snail’s pace

With all the cries in Washington and elsewhere about beefing up border security, less than 18 miles of border fence has been erected out of 854 miles authorized last October by Congress, hears Grumpy Editor.

On Glenn Beck’s CNN program, Rep. Duncan Hunter (R., Calif.) revealed only 17.9 miles worth of double fence along the U.S.-Mexico border has gone up.

Seven weeks earlier, also on CNN, Hunter --- a Republican candidate for President --- mentioned President Bush expressed surprise when the congressman informed him that only 13 miles of fence had been constructed along the southern porous border.

At that snail’s pace, the remaining 836 miles of fence construction will take 1,171 weeks to complete.

Translation:  That’s by 2030, figuring there are no hitches.

Dingell seeks to omit tax breaks on larger homes

Owners of homes spanning more than 3,000 square feet should be a bit excited over legislative plans of Rep. John D. Dingell (D., Mich).

An easily overlooked small Associated Press story appearing in newspapers over the weekend said Dingell plans to introduce legislation next month that would eliminate the tax deduction on mortgage interest on the larger homes. 

Dingell’s reason behind the proposal:  Discourage excess energy consumption and lessen emissions linked to climate change.

Called “Dean of the House” in serving the longest tenure in the 435-member body, Dingell, 81, represents Michigan’s 15th district.

With all the current fretting over mortgages and payments, this planned legislation will not be greeted happily by squeezed homeowners.

Grumpy Editor predicts Dingell’s proposal will trigger critical newspaper editorials around the country and cause unhappy homeowners in his district to grumble and point to commercial and industrial construction --- including manufacturing plants, office buildings and hotel expansions --- that gulp far more energy.

Most media ignore nation’s top restrooms tally

A splendid way to measure the cleanliness of an operation --- whether restaurant, bar or hotel --- is to check out the restroom.

One of last week’s more interesting news releases in these dog days of summer ranked restrooms in America, based on votes cast online by the public.  Other than the Contra Costa (Calif.) Times, Dayton (Ohio) Daily News, Cincinnati Post and a few TV newscasts, the restroom results didn’t get much print or broadcast play, finds Grumpy Editor.

Top five restrooms, based on exceptional hygiene, style and open access to the public :

1. Jungle Jim's International Market, Fairfield, Ohio.

2. Catch 31, Virginia Beach, Va.

3. Mix Lounge at Mandalay Bay, Las Vegas, Nev.

4. Vermont Marble Museum, Proctor, Vt.

5. Fandangles', Flushing, Mich.

See photos, descriptions and features at www.bestrestroom.com

“The important message here is restroom hygiene matters, for good health and good business," said Kirk Kirssin, marketing director, Cintas Corp., which tallied the results.

Sure, it’s a PR gimmick for Cincinnati-based Cintas which happens to provide restroom hygiene products and services, but it serves to point out high-ranking facilities, important to hygiene-conscious patrons.

Pravda twists AP lead; Bush cites 600-plus hearings

Deftly twisting a lead around shows where Russia's Pravda Online puts the emphasis.

Grumpy Editor illustrates that with two versions of an Associated Press story out of Washington by Charles Babington.

Original text: Congressional Democrats are using subpoenas and other investigatory powers to expose Bush administration missteps and push for policy changes even as they struggle at times to enact legislation.

Pravda Online version of the same AP story:  Even struggling at times to enact legislation, Democrats in the U.S. Congress are using subpoenas and other investigatory powers to expose missteps by the administration of President George W. Bush and push for policy changes.

Aside from that, of interest to readers is what is buried deep in the AP story:  Commenting on the many hearings in the current session of Congress, President Bush said:

“I would hope Congress would become more prone to deliver pieces of legislation that matter as opposed to being the investigative body. There have been over 600 different hearings and yet they’re struggling with getting appropriations bills to my desk.”

Looks like Pelosi’s global warming bill put on ice

Unusual cold air descending on New York City Tuesday and yesterday triggers Grumpy Editor to wonder whatever happened to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s goal, declared last Jan. 18, to create a special committee to focus on global warming.

The California Democrat announced that desire at a time when the nation was in a deep freeze, including four consecutive nights of subfreezing temperatures that smacked the speaker's home state citrus crop, causing nearly $1 billion in losses.

Pelosi had hopes of producing some sort of global warming bill by July 4 --- seven weeks ago.

Tuesday’s high temperature in New York City’s Central Park reached a cool 59 degrees.  That tied the record for August's coldest maximum temperature.  Normal high on that date is 82.

Meanwhile, on the other coast, the temperature today in Pelosi’s San Francisco Bay Area district was expected to reach 70.

Possibility of virus linked to obesity grabs attention

Mention the dreaded word virus and readers or listeners perk up.  Then say virus as a possible cause of obesity and that grabs worldwide attention and major play in most U.S. newspapers, radio and TV news, and health and science publications.

That was a key news item yesterday, competing for print space or broadcast airtime with the space shuttle landing and Hurricane Dean.

But Grumpy Editor finds there was some hocus-pocus to the revelation that lab tests showed exposure to adenovirus-36 (Ad-36), which causes respiratory and eye infections, also causes stem cells to develop into fat cells.

Lead researcher Dr. Magdalena Pasarica, an obesity researcher with the Pennington Biomedical Research Center at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, who presented the information Monday at the American Chemical Society meeting in Boston, cautioned that it's not yet been proven that Ad-36 actually causes obesity.

But most stories in print or on air never got that far.

In cautious Great Britain, BBC mentioned United Kingdom experts said the idea of obesity as an infectious illness was unlikely.

With that data under the belt, hungry readers/listeners can shuffle off to a buffet with less worry.

Sex industry veteran backs Hillary for president

Looks like upcoming weeks will see endorsements of presidential hopefuls from all over the place: mayors, ranchers, oil executives, maybe even down to dogcatchers and laundry operators.

In fact, it’s already reached the latter.

Making print yesterday and picked up by CNN, observes Grumpy Editor, was the revelation that Heidi Fleiss, former Hollywood madam who currently runs a coin-operated laundry in Pahrump, Nev., is backing Sen. Hillary Clinton (D., N.Y.).

This word comes after the sex industry veteran was turned away from attending Clinton’s appearance last week in the community 60 miles west of Las Vegas.

“I’m a big fan of Hillary,” boasts Fleiss, a registered Democrat, who has plans to open a brothel --- catering to women --- in Pahrump.

Her endorsement was greeted with silence from the local Clinton campaign office.

Most editors miss huge Pentagon overpayments story

Other than USA Today, Detroit Free Press and a few other newspapers, most editors missed a Friday Bloomberg News story by Tony Capaccio revealing how the Pentagon paid a Lexington, South Carolina, parts supplier a whopping $998,798 for sending two 19-cent washers to Fort Bliss, Texas, notes Grumpy Editor.

Many other taxpaying readers would have appreciated the revelation, as the Pentagon’s budget expands.

That wasn’t the only overpayment.

The parts firm, C&D Distributors, collected about $20.5 million over six years from the Pentagon for fraudulent shipping costs, say federal investigators.  That includes $455,009 to ship three machine screws costing $1.31 each to Marines in Iraq and $293,451 to send an 89-cent split washer to Patrick Air Force Base, Cape Canaveral, Fla.

The Pentagon’s Defense Finance and Accounting Service, which made the payments, said changes have been made in its payments procedure following overcharges from the rogue contractor.