Grumpy Editor

Obama commutes sentences of 688 inmates this year

As the U.S. crime rate edges up, President Barack Obama last week commuted the sentences of 98 federal inmates, with 42 of them serving life sentences, notes Grumpy Editor.

So far this year, Obama has commuted sentences of 688 inmates.

One wonders how many of them will wind up in legitimate jobs such as accountants, salesmen, plumbers and such.

The action illustrates why law enforcement folks get more edgy.

Look for more commutations --- especially in December --- before Obama leaves the White House on Jan. 20.

The Brennan Center for Justice at New York University School of Law in September projected the overall crime rate in 2016 rising by 1.3 percent, with violent crime projected to rise 5.5 percent and murder up 13.1 percent,

Associated Press writer Josh Lederman points out that Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump “has warned Americans that their safety could be at risk because of Obama’s move to set prisoners free ahead of schedule.”

IN CASE YOUR FAVORITE NEWS OUTLETS MISSED THESE...

Capitol Hill support was building late last week for a law that could absolve Army National Guard troops from repaying re-enlistment bonuses (as reported here on Oct. 24) doled out during the Iraq and Afghanistan wars…Those in military uniform and their families are exposed to health and safety hazards at base housing worldwide that could be alleviated by inspections and better maintenance, says the Defense Department’s Inspector General…CNN's Wolf Blitzer pleads with Donald Trump's campaign manager Kellyanne Conway to ask the GOP nominee to dial back his harassment against the media, saying it endangers reporters…Socked by ongoing print-ad declines that have hurt the broader newspaper industry, USA Today publisher Gannett, is cutting 2 percent of its staff as it reported a loss in its latest quarter…Electric car maker Tesla Motors posted a surprise $21.9 million profit in the third quarter…Nizar Zakka, a Lebanese citizen and permanent resident of the United States, through his attorney says Iranian officials in April told him it would take as much as $2 billion to ensure his release from captivity…90-year old actor-comedian Don Rickles, who played Las Vegas last week, appears in a TV spot as part of a Best Buy ad campaign…Personal finance website WalletHub expects Halloween spending this year to reach $8.4 billion. That’s $1.5 billion more than last year. It also lists its top 20 cities for Halloween:

	1	Santa Ana, CA		11	Irving, TX
	2	New York, NY		12	St. Paul, MN
	3	Jersey City, NJ		13	Anaheim, CA
	4	Newark, NJ		14	El Paso, TX
	5	Laredo, TX		15	Tampa, FL
	6	Gilbert, AZ		16	Philadelphia, PA
	7	Chula Vista, CA		17	Garland, TX
	8	Plano, TX		18	Honolulu, HI
	9	Chicago, IL		19	Fort Wayne, IN
	10	Las Vegas, NV		20	Pittsburgh, PA

 

A Sept. 12, 2001 New York Times front page --- topped with U.S. Attacked headline --- signed by presidents Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton and George W. Bush sells for $11,000.

The full headline above a photograph of the burning Twin Towers reads: “U.S. Attacked: Hijacked Jets Destroy Twin Towers and Hit Pentagon in Day of Terror.”

Pentagon seeks decade-old bonus returned from troops

Grumpy Editor notes this is how the Pentagon these days treats thousands of troops who fought, some multiple times, in Iraq and Afghanistan, a decade ago after those in uniform received enticing bonuses of $15,000 or more to go overseas:

Washington wants its money back from the troops who saw battle.

A Saturday Los Angeles Times story by David S. Cloud reveals not only are the troops ordered to repay the enlistment bonuses, but they are “slapped with interest charges, wage garnishments and tax liens if they refuse --- after audits revealed widespread overpayments by the California Guard at the height of the wars last decade.”

Cloud points out; “Investigations have determined that lack of oversight allowed for widespread fraud and mismanagement by California Guard officials under pressure to meet enlistment targets.”

He adds, “Soldiers say the military is reneging on 10-year-old agreements and imposing severe financial hardship on veterans whose only mistake was to accept bonuses offered when the Pentagon needed to fill the ranks.”

Meanwhile, also being mistreated is Boston area Army reservist Capt. Shane Morgan, an Afghanistan veteran, who is struggling to pay his medical bills after he had a heart attack during a fitness test.  Now he's fighting to get health benefits from the Army.

Remember the old enlistment slogan, “Join the Navy and See the World?”

The Pentagon now sends Navy personnel, away from ships, to dangerous locations on land.

Such was the case last week in Iraq when 34-year-old Chief Petty officer Jason C. Finan, of Anaheim, Calif., died from wounds in a roadside bomb blast near Bashiqa, northeast of Mosul in northern Iraq.

He was assigned to a land-based explosive-ordnance-disposal mobile unit.

 

IN CASE YOUR FAVORITE NEWS OUTLETS MISSED THESE...

Social Security recipients for 2017 will get a cost of living adjustment (COLA) of about $4 a month --- because "inflation is low"...Most voters aren’t buying the story that the Russians are trying to manipulate the election for Donald Trump but think the U.S. media is trying to swing things for Hillary Clinton, finds a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone and online survey...Vogue, the fashion magazine, endorses Hillary Clinton for president.  The publication has never endorsed a candidate until now...California State University, Fullerton, says “secretary” is an exclusive word that’s inappropriate to use.  Better to say “administrative assistant."  It also frowns on words containing "man" such as “mankind"...A U.S. Postal Service worker last week dumped his mail in the woods behind a subdivision in Decatur, Ga.  How much was tossed? The Postal Service sent five investigators to retrieve the discarded mail.  It took more than two hours to get it all out of the woods...Newspapers are being squeezed by an accelerating drop in advertising.  So there is a growing focus on trimming staffs...MetLife, the 148-year-old insurance company, is dropping Snoopy, the Peanuts cartoon character, in its advertising after 31 years.  

Oops!

A Richmond, Va. TV news anchor finds out the hard way that one letter can make a blushing difference when reading the teleprompter.

A typo causes him to say “check your panties" rather than "check your pantries."

Tiny increase seen in 2017 Social Security monthly checks

Seniors receiving monthly Social Security checks will continue to be squeezed as announcement this week of 2017's cost of living adjustment (COLA) is expected to be a slim 0.3 percent --- or even 0.2 percent --- lowest annual increase on record, forecasts Grumpy Editor.

Eating into that tiny raise, amounting to a few dollars a month (following no COLA for 2016), will be a boost in Medicare Part B premiums for about 39 million people 65 and up.

Medicare part B covers doctors' visits and outpatient services.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics averages consumer price indexes from July, August and September to determine next year’s COLA for Social Security and Supplemental Security Income recipients.

As comparison, the 2015 COLA was 1.7 percent.  It followed increases of 1.5 percent for 2014, 1.7 percent for 2013 and 3.6 percent in 2012, after two years with no raises.

 

IN CASE YOUR FAVORITE NEWS OUTLETS MISSED THESE...

While media usually use the word "allegedly" in reporting an incident or event not confirmed, that word is missing in most of the vast coverage of Donald Trump and womens' claims of inappropriate behavior.  "Let’s be clear on one thing, the corporate media in our country is no longer involved in journalism --- they are a political special interest no different from a lobbyist,” says Trump in a  speech in West Palm Beach, Fla. “Their agenda is to elect crooked Hillary Clinton at any cost, at any price, no matter how many lives they destroy"...An Associated Press story out of Los Angeles reports on a fire at a 15-story home for seniors that left three elderly residents with burns and smoke-inhalation injuries --- but fails to pinpoint the exact location in the vast metropolitan area...A new Rasmussen Reports survey finds just 29 percent of likely U.S. voters trust media fact-checking of candidates’ comments while 62 percent believe news organizations skew the facts to help candidates they support...What are military commanders reading these days? A new 72-page volume via the Pentagon covers: “Transgender Service in the U.S. Military: An Implementation Handbook”…HP Inc. (the former Hewlett-Packard Co.) plans to cut 3,000 to 4,000 jobs within the next three years…In a Wall Street Journal newsroom overhaul to cut editorial flab, Editor-in-Chief Gerard Baker advises staffers that unnecessarily long stories would be trimmed amid a focus on digital journalism.

 

A headline over an Associated Press story in the no-kidding department from Washington:

       Government says colder weather will boost winter heating bills

Vietnam vet provides free air transport to soldiers

Interesting story that Grumpy Editor spotted only in the November issue of Kiplinger’s Personal Finance --- dealing with Walt Fricke, a former Vietnam helicopter pilot who now heads Veterans Airlift Command (VAC), St. Louis Park, Minn., that provides free, private air transport to soldiers and their families.

VAC refers to a database of 2,500 volunteer aircraft owners and pilots to handle trip requests. Fricke says, “Although it can cost $5,000 an hour to operate an airplane, our volunteers pay for everything.”

Too bad major media, which thrive on gloomy material these days, don’t run with this stellar effort and give it a boost.

Fricke, who contributed $200,000 to launch the transport service, says VAC has flown 13,000 passengers so far, some multiple times.

He says he spent more of his own funds “to pay the bills until we started receiving donations, which pay our salaries.”

Annual budget, he reveals, is $4.5 million with $3.5 million of that “donated flight value."

“In Vietnam,” he mentions, “I flew kids into combat. Now I fly vets home."

Read more details at www.veteransairlift.org.

 

IN CASE YOUR FAVORITE NEWS OUTLETS MISSED THESE…

Happenings out of Washington: President Barack Obama cuts sentences of 102 more federal inmates, bringing to 774 the number of sentences he shortened, including 590 this year. Meanwhile, the Obama administration is delaying deportation proceedings for 56,000 Central America immigrants who arrived in the U.S. since 2014, to remain in the country for several more years…Sometimes news reports leave out a key element in a story. Such was the case over the weekend in a story about a boat capsizing and becoming fully submerged in San Francisco Bay, sending five adults and three children to a hospital.  The boat, without a description as to size and whether it was a private vessel or a commercial one, was carrying 30 people…Look for an absence (for now) of scam phone calls with a phony “Internal Revenue Service” agent on the other end threatening legal action unless money “owed in back taxes” is paid soonest. Police in India detain 70 people and are investigating hundreds more after discovery of a group allegedly posing as call center workers in a Mumbai suburb may have been part of a tax scam that cheated Americans out of more than $47 million…Putting your tax money to good use? There used to be a time when the U.S. government relied on public service announcements (PSAs) to get the word out on developments and services at no cost to taxpayers. Now, the federal government spends $1.5 billion annually on public relations. That’s $1 billion on PR and advertising contracts, and another $500 million on salaries for 5,000 federal PR employees, according to a Government Accountability Office (GAO) report…The Los Angeles Times, in a periodic story designed to get readers excited over a possible “big one,” comes up with another “elevated risk for a big San Andreas fault earthquake” piece last week, based on a week-long swarm of seismic activity at Salton Sea. But by the end of the week, the risk faded.

 

Had enough of swaying palm trees on TV over the past week with Hurricane Matthew?

In covering tropical disturbances, television photographers always focus on capturing palm fronds flapping in the wind.  It’s a favorite scene with them and their news editors.

Actually, it doesn’t take much wind to make fronds move. Just a breeze will set them in motion.

Marine Corps set to drop 39-year recruiting slogan

The Marine Corps is thinking of dumping its recruiting slogan --- The Few. The Proud. The Marines. --- used since 1977, notes Grumpy Editor.

The Marines are exploring the possibility of using a new tagline in an advertising campaign slated to launch next year.

So it has turned over the effort to top advertising agency J. Walter Thompson.

“The Few, The Proud does a great job distinguishing ourselves from the other branches and making us prestigious to recruits, but it doesn’t say anything about what we do or why we exist,” says Lt. Col. John Caldwell, spokesman for Marine Corps Recruiting Command.

A new advertising campaign, he adds, “will show Americans how the Marine Corps is different from the other services and reinforce the elite --- almost spiritual --- standards the nation has for Marines.”

Caldwell points out the new advertising campaign will be based on three concepts: fighting self-doubt to become a Marine, fighting the nation’s battles and fighting for what’s right in our communities.

Meanwhile, the Navy says it is updating all 89 of enlisted sailors’ job titles --- many ending in “man.” However, a junior sailor will continue to be called a seaman, a rank steeped in tradition.

 

IN CASE YOUR FAVORITE NEWS OUTLETS MISSED THESE…

If wondering why news out of Washington is rather subdued for a few weeks, it’s because members of Congress are in their home territories and won’t return until after next month’s elections…Adding to further negative publicity for Wells Fargo, the Justice Department says the financial institution would pay more than $4.1 million to resolve allegations of improperly repossessing cars owned by members of the U.S. military…Accurate, long-used mercurial thermometers --- invented in 1724 --- aren’t widely in service these days. But the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency seems to have a secret formula in announcing a study that indicates the world is warmer than it has been in about 120,000 years and is aiming to reach its hottest point in more than 2 million years…The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review will discontinue its print edition Nov. 30 and become a digital-only publication. The move will lay off 106 full and part-time staff and leave the larger Pittsburgh Post-Gazette the only daily print newspaper in town…Also trimming staff is The Honolulu Star-Advertiser. It plans to lay off 15 editorial employees (out of 110) effective Oct. 17…

USA Today, which has not endorsed a candidate in a presidential election in its 34 years of operation, runs an editorial claiming Donald Trump is "erratic," "ill-equipped," "reckless," has a "checkered" business past and is a "serial liar…

Then to be fair and balanced --- Hillary this week?