Grumpy Editor

N.Y. school officials revoke ‘sensitive’ words list

After getting much static, New York City school officials have shelved the idea (reported here on March 29) of banning “sensitive” words such as birthdays, dinosaurs, poverty, dancing, terrorism and Halloween, applauds Grumpy Editor. 

Also targeted to be scrubbed were references to “creatures from outer space,” divorces, diseases, celebrities, and homes with swimming pools and computers. 

The unmentionables, among 50 words and terms frowned on, were disclosed in a request for proposals to companies competing in providing various tests designed to measure student progress.

The N.Y. Education Department document pointed out the subjects were listed because they “could evoke unpleasant emotions in the students.” 

The nutty action was revealed late last month by Yoav Gonen, New York Post education reporter, who called it “a bizarre case of political correctness.” 

At that time, an Education Department spokeswoman, insisting the routine is not censorship, declared, “This is standard language that has been used by test publishers for many years and allows our students to complete practice exams without distraction.” 

This week, Shael Polakow-Suransky, the New York City’s chief academic officer, said: 

“After reconsidering our message to test publishers and the reaction from parents, we will revise our guidance and eliminate the list of words to avoid on tests.

“We will continue to advise companies to be sensitive to student backgrounds and avoid unnecessary distractions that could invalidate test scores and give an inaccurate assessment of how students are doing.”

 

Las Vegas unveils glittering $146 million non-casino

Las Vegas quietly added a new attraction last week:  a sparkling $146.2 million, seven-story building with high-tech features and Italian marble floors and walls inside the main entrance --- but no slot machines or craps tables, thus not much appeal to tourists from around the world, notes Grumpy Editor.

Without glittering casino action, the unveiling didn’t get much media attention outside of Southern Nevada.

And it will be a while before tour books include it as a Sin City sight to see.

It’s the new Las Vegas City Hall, owned by taxpayers in the city.

City fathers, in the U.S.’s foreclosure capital, went all out to build a monument to local government.

It replaced an “old” city hall built in 1973.

Cost of the 310,000-square-foot building compares with $24.7 million for New York City’s 102-story Empire State Building that opened in 1931 during the Great Depression.

The City Council chamber has a Vegas-like ambiance, similar to a Strip casino sports book --- namely, several 103-inch flat-screen displays above the council dais, making it easy for up to 450 people seated in the room to view displayed information.

First Las Vegas City Council meeting in the new quarters is scheduled for next Wednesday.

Don’t be surprised if showgirls appear at the debut.

Then media will be on the scene.

That’s Vegas, baby.

 

San Diego Union-Tribune name change triggers confusion

With the San Diego Union-Tribune changing its name to U-T San Diego this week, some confusion has popped up, especially outside of Southern California, finds Grumpy Editor.

Seems that the abbreviated title --- UT --- has a collegiate flavor since it also stands for:

University of Texas

University of Toledo

University of Tennessee

University of Tampa 

Hotel owner Doug Manchester, who acquired the newspaper late last year, declares, “This change marks a new era in our company’s history.”

The change also affects everything from the newspaper’s business cards to its website. 

Manchester purchased the Union-Tribune from Platinum Equity, an investment firm, which acquired it in May, 2009 from long-time owner Copley Press Inc. 

(During the acquisition process, Manchester said, “Taking ownership of a 143-year-old Pulitzer Prize-winning news organization comes with great responsibility. We believe San Diego is the finest city in America and pledge to be strong advocates for the city’s interests and conscientious caretakers of the Union-Tribune and its legacy.”)

The name change is being accompanied by a requested new look of staffers.

In an area noted for casual California lifestyle and far from New York’s Madison Ave., management is asking employees to dress in “sharp business attire.”

Of course, the new “dapper look” will cause problems when reporters cover such events as sooty brush fires, high surf action at beaches and aftereffects of downpours.

But they will be among the best dressed at ribbon-cuttings. 

 

Coeur d’Alene top dog-friendly city, barks Dog Fancy

With front-page headlines today on Libya, East Coast earthquake and Hurricane Irene in the western Atlantic, some overworked (and short staffed) editors may have missed news from Dog Fancy magazine that the most dog-friendly city in the U.S. is Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, mentions Grumpy Editor. 

The revelation comes, appropriately, during “dog days,” defined as the hottest and most sultry summer days between early July and early September. 

In naming the winner of the 2011 DogTown USA competition, Ernie Stone, Dog Fancy editor, relates:  “What we discovered is that whether a dog likes a place to run and hike, loves to mingle downtown, or needs a new home, dogs and their owners have it made in Coeur d’Alene, a little slice of dog heaven.”

Coeur d’Alene, with a population of about 45,000, is 30 miles east of Spokane, Wash. 

Criteria used to select the winning city include an abundance of dog-friendly open spaces and dog parks, events celebrating dogs and their owners, ample veterinary care, abundant pet supply and other services, and municipal laws that support and protect all pets, cites the magazine. 

Four regional winners are: Northeast, Doylestown, Pa.; Southeast, Knoxville, Tenn.; Northwest, Bend, Ore., and Southwest, Santa Cruz, Calif. 

Full story on DogTown USA is in the October issue of Dog Fancy.

 

‘Daisy Carnival’ near riot in L.A. not news in Las Vegas

While the Las Vegas Review-Journal and Las Vegas Sun provided pages of coverage relating to late June’s three-night Electric Daisy Carnival --- already booked to return in 2012 --- that drew up to 85,000 generally “well-behaved” attendees each night in Las Vegas, both dailies spiked news reports of a near riot by several thousand rowdy revelers in Hollywood last Wednesday night during a film premiere of the “Electric Daisy Carnival Experience,” notes Grumpy Editor.

Action on famous and busy Hollywood Blvd., where a massive traffic jam developed, showed unruly young people defying police orders to disperse, throwing bottles and stomping on several police cars, damaging roofs and windshields.

The Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority --- eager for any gathering involving 100 to 100,000 attendees --- was delighted when Electric Daisy Carnival backers selected Las Vegas for this year’s music festival. 

The LVCVA cheered even more when EDC announced plans to return to Las Vegas next year, despite some negativeness associated with the mostly young crowd.

The EDC moved its music festival to Sin City this year after Los Angeles banished it following the death of a 15-year-old girl last summer.  Two others died at an EDC event in Dallas in early June.

At the June festival in Las Vegas, police were busy booking some attendees at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway grounds, site of the event.

Twenty-seven felony and 31 misdemeanor arrests were made in Sin City, according to a Las Vegas Sun tally.

The festival each day started around 6 p.m. and concluded at dawn. 

Last week’s near riot on Hollywood Blvd. where the screened film at Grauman’s Chinese Theatre documented one of the nation’s largest electronic dance parties, didn’t get much coverage in U.S. dailies either, although Los Angeles television stations were on scene.

The screening was a private, invitation-only affair.

The near riot in Hollywood was triggered following a Twitter invitation to attend a block party outside Grauman’s.

 

 

Joplin receives promises but scant rebuilding details

While the devastation by a massive tornado at Joplin is getting much coverage, little has been reported on aid --- financial and other --- from the Missouri city of 50,000, nine days after the twister struck and even after a Sunday visit by President Barack Obama, notes Grumpy Editor. 

About 8,000 homes and business are destroyed or damaged. 

Many soothing statements and promises from officials are reported, but much concrete information on getting Joplin back on track is missing.  Print and broadcast media should ask more questions starting with when and how.

Associated Press quotes President Obama, after touring the smashed area, vowing, “We’re not going to stop ‘til Joplin’s back on its feet.”  The New York Times reports Obama declaring, “The cameras may leave.  The spotlight may shift.  But we will be with you every step of the way until Joplin is restored.” 

Nice words.  But missing are details on a battleplan pointing the way on how Joplin gets back on its feet and is restored soonest. 

Closest to indicating financial help is a Wall Street Journal story last Thursday that mentions the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) “opened a mobile disaster recovery center in Joplin on Wednesday to assist tornado-tossed residents with requests for federal aid.”

Unlike hefty grants or billions in foreign aid, however, is that filling out FEMA paper work may lead to low-interest loans up to $200,000 to homeowners for repair or replacement of property.

Not much is being said about assistance to Joplin businesses.

Other than St. John’s Hospital, badly damaged by the tornado, storm-hit businesses in the city get scant coverage.

Over the weekend, St. John’s --- in action reminiscent of M*A*S*H, the 1972-1983 CBS-TV series about Army medics in a field hospital during the Korean War --- set up a temporary medical facility close to its badly damaged 10-story building.

Other research by Grumpy Editor finds the twister closed:

• Three Wendy’s/Arby’s Group restaurants.
• Two Walgreens stores.
• A McDonald’s restaurant.
• A Wal-Mart store with a lost roof.
• Two Commerce Bank offices.
• A Home Depot store.

Meanwhile, a General Mills plant experienced minor damage.

On the prompt progress side, a destroyed hair salon structure is being rebuilt, framing already in place --- with work started before FEMA came on the scene.

 

With Joplin in wreckage, Obama seeks roots in Ireland

After a monster tornado sliced through Joplin, Mo. Sunday night, leaving three fourths of the city of 50,000 in rubble, thousands of those affected were eagerly awaiting word of prompt federal assistance, notes Grumpy Editor. 

As the Joplin death toll yesterday passed the 100 mark, President Barack Obama was monitoring the situation --- from the tiny village of Moneygall in Ireland where he sought information on family roots, part of a week-long tour of Europe. 

Only reference to possible federal aid to Joplin, 160 miles south of Kansas City, was found in an Associated Press story reporting the president said the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) was working with state and local agencies. 

But there were no reports Monday that FEMA, with more than 3,700 full-time employees, had promptly dispatched a team to the Joplin disaster site where the massive twister sliced a path a half-mile wide and six miles long, smacking homes, businesses, churches, schools and a 10-story hospital. 

However, FEMA released a news release yesterday that mentioned, “At the president's request, FEMA Administrator Craig Fugate will travel to Missouri to ensure that the state has all the support it needs, and today FEMA Deputy Administrator Rich Serino will also travel to Joplin to tour the damages and meet with state and local officials.” 

Other killer twisters Sunday hit Kansas and Minnesota.

Today from London, Obama said he will visit Joplin on Sunday, one week after the massive tornado struck. 

 

No TV truck in sight? In L.A., it means a parking ticket

Some Los Angeles reporters and photographers vehicles appear to be easy prey for city parking citation writers, notes Grumpy Editor. 

Despite placards for news folks that cost $100 a year that allow parking at expired meters and preferential parking zones, city parking officers have been ignoring the permits and writing tickets, reports Kevin Roderick who keeps his eyes on the City of Angels with LAObserved. 

In a city known for stellar parking problems, especially in the downtown area, at least nine reporters or photographers recently have been on the receiving end of citations. 

One newsman mentions he has been cited “too many times to count, maybe 10 tickets.” 

The parking placards for journalists have “been around since 1994, but recently city parking officers have been ignoring the permits and writing tickets anyway --- apparently arguing that if they don’t see TV trucks around, there must not be real news being covered,” mentions Roderick.

Much time and expense are involved because “tickets are tending to be dismissed on appeal,” points out Roderick. 

What’s interesting here is that the L.A. “Department of Transportation says it’s trying to get its officers to stop writing the bogus tickets, but without success,” according to Roderick. 

Looks like the parking ticket writers should be getting citations --- from their bosses.