Grumpy Editor finds the Los Angeles Times newsroom gets excited over the word “earthquake” and via its website or print version almost daily reports shakers (no matter how small), mostly in California. On Friday the newspaper came up with: Swarm of earthquakes in Nevada desert is intensifying
The swarm’s location, to be precise, is about 525 miles from the L.A. Times building at 1st and Spring Streets in Los Angeles. The report pinpointed the location in Nevada’s extreme northwest corner, 50 miles southeast of Lakeview, Ore., a sparsely-populated area.
The report, by a staff writer, pointed out “about 750 earthquakes, mostly magnitude 2.0 to 3.0, have struck the area” since July.
Deep into the story, John Vidale, director of the Pacific Northwest Seismic Network at the University of Washington, said: “It doesn't necessarily mean anything big is coming, but it does raise the risk there will be a bigger quake in the future. Ninety-nine percent of the time nothing too dramatic happens, but every now and then there is a good pop and everyone asks why we didn't predict it."
Other media picked up the report. But the Las Vegas Review-Journal, Nevada’s largest newspaper, didn’t run the swarms information until two days later. It covered the subject in nine sentences via Reuters.
CNN on Saturday mentioned, ‘The vast majority of the current Nevada swarm's quakes have been undetectable to people walking around on top of them.”
In San Francisco, where talk of earthquakes easily shakes up residents, KCBS radio’s website on Friday spotlighted the event under the headline: Ongoing Earthquake Swarm In Nevada Increasing Chances For A ‘Big One’
USA Today jumped into the shaker act on Saturday picking up, in part, information contained in the L.A. Times and CNN stories.
Most interesting, however, was the earthquake swarms story on Nov. 6 (a day before the L.A. Times version) in the Herald and News, Klamath Falls, Ore. It was written by the newspaper’s editor, Gerry O’Brien --- from a press release.
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This just in: Continuing its focus on earthquakes, today’s L.A. Now section on the L.A. Times website reports a magnitude 4.1 shaker at a depth of 6.8 miles in the Pacific with the epicenter 69 miles from Newport Beach in Orange County.
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IN CASE YOUR FAVORITE NEWS OUTLETS MISSED THESE…
A reminder as frigid Arctic air makes its way today to the central plains and then eastward with temperatures 20 to 40 degrees below normal: A recent Gallup poll found concern over climate change ranked last among 16 issues voters cared about in the midterm elections…In the “huh?” department. The lead to a story in the Nov. 6 Wall Street Journal: "Electric car maker Tesla Motors Inc. reported a wider third quarter loss"… Then the next day in the newspaper's “The Good News” portion of “Stocks in the News” feature: Tesla stock was up $10.25 a share stemming from, as the WSJ put it: “The electric car maker beat earnings forecasts”…A top-of-the-hour ABC News item on radio Friday focused on Home Depot announcing about 53 million customer email addresses were stolen by hackers. That was in addition to earlier reports that 56 million credit card accounts were compromised. That news was followed by a Home Depot commercial…How many times with the same “warning” over the past few months? Federal Reserve officials on Friday warned about market turbulence as the central bank prepares to raise short-term interest rates next year…Reuters decided to stop allowing readers to comment on its online stories…As Thanksgiving approaches, a reminder from the Associated Press Style Book on bread-related items: With breadbox, breadcrumb, breadstick and cornbread, keep it a single word. But not bread pudding…Operation United Assistance, the U.S. military mission to combat Ebola in West Africa, likely will last until 2016, according to Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
After Tuesday’s voting results, Harry Reid (D-Nev.), outgoing Senate majority leader who has shelved hundreds of House-passed bills, declared: “I look forward to working with (incoming Republican majority leader) Sen. McConnell to get things done for the middle class.”
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