Grumpy Editor

DOES SEN. CRUZ’S TRIP TO MEXICO SHELVE FUTURE PLANS TO RUN FOR PRESIDENT?

With Sen. Ted Cruz (R., Texas) undoutedly considering running for president again, did his trip to Mexico last week dampen that outlook, asks Grumpy Editor.

As USAToday notes:  "Cruz's ambitions could be complicated after flying to Mexico as his home state of Texas was weathering the aftermath of a deadly winter storm that left millions without power and running water in freezing temperatures.”

 "Natural disasters have a way of upending politicians careers,” declares Republican strategist Alex Conant, who points to examples including President George Bush during Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

"For politicians, the first rule of any natural disaster is to show up and Cruz broke that rule.”

Meanwhile, NBC’s Saturday Night Live joins the national roast of Mexico-visiting Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, with Aidy Bryant playing Cruz, saying he's sorry for abandoning his state as millions tried to survive without heat, power and water.

 

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TEXANS GET HUGE ELECTRIC BILLS.   Temperatures last week that overwhelmed Texas’s power grid, triggering rolling blackouts and power outages also bring catastrophic electric bills.  Some Texans are hit with power bills totaling as much as $17,000 for only a few days of electricity.

BIG CROCODILE UNDERGOES SURGERY.  A 350-pound, 10.5-foot-long crocodile undergoes successful surgery at the St. Augustine Alligator Farm Zoological Park in Florida to remove a shoe it swallowed that fell off a tourist’s foot.  

NEWSPAPER ACQUISITION IN WORKS.  New York hedge fund Alden Global Capital, largest shareholder in Tribune Publishing Co., reaches a deal to acquire the rest of the newspaper operation that includes the New York Daily News and Chicago Tribune.

BUFFET ADDS STAKES IN VERIZON, CHEVRON.  Billionaire Warren Buffet’s Berkshire Hathaway investment firm adds stakes in Verizon Communications Inc. and Chevron Corp. to its portfolio. 

WATCH OUT FOR LONG DRIVES.  Drivers who spend more than 20 minutes in their cars are at risk of exposure to formaldehyde and benzene, according to a study from the University of California, Riverside. Drivers may be inhaling those dangerous, cancer-causing carcinogens.

PETA FROWNS ON MARINES GULPING SNAKE BLOOD.  PETA, the animal rights group, petitions the Pentagon to end the practice of Marines and soldiers decapitating snakes and consuming their blood during survival training at the annual Cobra Gold exercise in Thailand.

WILL THE N.Y. STOCK EXCHANGE BID FAREWELL TO NEW YORK?

The New York Stock Exchange warns that it may leave New York City if the state legislature imposes a tax on stock transfers, notes Grumpy Editor.

The tax proposal, which would apply to transfers of stocks, bonds and derivatives, comes as the state  faces a sharp budget shortfall caused by the coronavirus pandemic.

“If Albany lawmakers get their way, however, the center of the global financial industry may need to find a new home,” NYSE President Stacey Cunningham warns in an op-ed piece in The Wall Street Journal.

Cunningham and more than 25 other representatives of the securities industry contact state legislative leaders to caution against a proposal to place a tax on certain financial transactions, including from investment banks and hedge funds.

Democrats behind the bill maintain a tax would help make up for lost revenue and deny that the NYSE would need to move if it were passed.

Cunningham points out that “while New York has remained a center of gravity for the financial industry, many employees of Wall Street firms are migrating to Florida, Texas and other states with hospitable tax policies.”

The NYSE started on May 17, 1792, under a buttonwood tree at 68 Wall Street. Twenty-four brokers and merchants signed the aptly-named Buttonwood Agreement to outline the rules for trading securities. 

First stock listed on this exchange was the Bank of New York.

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U.S. MILLIONAIRES GROW.  More than 8 percent of U.S. adults have assets that put them as millionaires, according to Global Wealth Report 2020 by Credit Suisse.  That’s more than 20 million Americans.

KUDLOW DEBUTS ON FOX BUSINESS.   Former National Economic Council director and Fox News contributor Larry Kudlow is getting a Fox Business show that will air weekdays at 4 p.m. Eastern with an encore at 7 p.m. Eastern.  Fox Business says Kudlow’s show will “feature closing market analysis as well as interviews with major industry leaders influencing Wall Street, Washington and business in America.”

SUPER BOWL VIEWERS SHRINK.  CBS notes Super Bowl LV between the Tampa Bay Bucs and Kansas City Chiefs averaged 96.4 million viewers across TV and streaming.  That’s down from last year’s 102 million across Fox and streaming — and the lowest since 2007. 

BIDEN IN MILWAUKEE TOWN HALL.  President Joe Biden will participate in a CNN town hall in Milwaukee.  “CNN Presidential Town Hall with Joe Biden” airs tomorrow at 8 p.m. Eastern.

WALL STREET JOURNAL COMBINES WORDS.  The Wall Street Journal is combining words.  Rather than health care, it’s now one word:  healthcare.  Also going to one word is daycare.

AUNT JEMIMA BOXES GET NEW NAME.  Aunt Jemima identifying pancake mix is being renamed Pearl Milling Company starting with packaging in June.  Pearl Milling Company was founded in 1888 in St. Joseph, Missouri.

MOUNT EVEREST GROWS.  Mount Everest now tops the globe at 29,031.69 feet above sea level, according to latest survey results.  That is more than two feet higher than the altitude previously recognized by the government of Nepal.

 YELLOW LOBSTER CAUGHT.  A lobsterman catches a rare yellow lobster off the coast of Maine and quickly names it Banana, then donates it to the University of New England.  The yellow color comes from a pigment in the lobster's shell and the odds of catching one are about one in 30 million, calculates the University of Maine.

MAJOR USERS OF POSTAL SERVICE FEAR PRICE HIKES COMING

Some businesses are concerned about postage increases expected to be announced in March, notes Grumpy Editor.

Big mail users are asking the District of Columbia’s federal appeals court to block the action.

Major mailers fear the Postal Service will hike prices 5.5 percent to 9 percent this year for letters, magazines and other items, notes The Wall Street Journal.

“Now is not the time to aggressively increase prices when so many businesses are struggling and hanging by a thread,” says Hamilton Davison, president of the American Catalog Mailers Association.  

Postage, adds Davison, is the second biggest expense for many catalog merchants, adding further increases “will force more mail out of the system and contribute to a postal system death spiral.”

Meanwhile, on-time first-class mail delivery dropped below 64 percent in December vs. 92 percent at the start of 2020, according to data from the Postal Service.

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ECONOMY READY TO ROLL.  The U.S. economy this year is set to accelerate its recovery from the coronavirus-induced contraction of 2020, even without further economic stimulus from Washington, says the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.

66 PEOPLE ICE FISHING RESCUED.  The U.S. Coast Guard and others, using boats and helicopters, rescue 66 ice-fishing people stranded on ice floes in a Door County bay in northeastern Wisconsin.

 

NAVY VET TRAINS SERVICE DOGS TO ASSIST BLIND PEOPLE.  Melissa Harrington, since her retirement from the Navy in 2002, volunteers with the nonprofit Guide Dog Foundation in Virginia training 21 service dogs to assist people who are blind.

CONFEDERATE FLAGS BANNED ON N.C. PLATES.  North Carolina's Division of Motor Vehicles no longer issues or renews specialty license plates bearing the Confederate battle flag or any variation of it.

MIAMI HERALD CLOSES CUSTOM PUBLISHING.  The Miami Herald is closing its 20-year-old travel and tourism custom publishing operation that produced award-winning publications for its clients.

WINSTON CHURCHILL PAINTING TO BE SOLD.  A Winston Churchill painting, a gift to President Franklin D. Roosevelt, that depicts a Moroccan landscape is being sold by actress Angelina Jolie next month at an estimated price of $2.1 million to $3.4 million.  

 

JOB PAYS WELL.  Like to get a hefty-paying job and work only about two or three hours every four days?  Then being a major league baseball pitcher is for you.  As an example, with a free-agent right hander, the Los Angeles Dodgers last week made a three-year $102 million deal.

PANDEMIC INSPIRES THIEVES TO RAID ATMS AROUND THE COUNTRY

 

During the pandemic, ATMs got a higher-than-usual workout from bank patrons last year --- also by thieves, notes Grumpy Editor.

 

With unrest in some cities and ATMs containing more than usual cash, attempts to break into ATMs around the country have more than doubled.

 

With some bank offices temporarily closed, ATMs often contain twice the normal $50,000 to accommodate customers.

 

Inspired by this development, thieves seek access to ATMs by using tools, explosives and driving vehicles into the units.

 

 

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WORLDWIDE ICE MELTING FASTER.   The world’s ice, from the Arctic to the Antarctic, is melting faster than ever, finds a global satellite survey indicating a generation of ice lost to rising temperatures.  The survey shows 28 trillion metric tons of ice disappeared between 1994 and 2007 and global melting accelerated 65 percent since the 1990s

 

NEW D.C. STUDIOS FOR NBC.  NBC News debuts state-of-the-art studios inside an expanded Washington bureau that covers six-floors in an 80,000-square foot building.  Seven studios now house NBC News, MSNBC and CNBC plus NBC News Channel, Noticias Telemundo and Sky News Washington.

 

BANK SAVINGS RATES WAY DOWN.  With bank savings rates continuing to bounce around the bottom (with an annual slim 0.05 percent APY), compared to a decade ago, one financial firm hopes to lure savers with a "mighty" 0.50 percent APY.

 

EXPENSIVE BOTTLE OF WHISKY.  A 72-year-old bottle of single malt whisky from Scotland fetches more than $54,000 (in U.S. dollars) in a Hong Kong auction. It marks the first time the 1948 Glen Grant whisky, by independent bottler Gordon & MacPhail, was offered in an auction.

OWL ATTRACTS ATTENTION IN NEW YORK.  A snowy owl, a rare sight in New York’s Central Park, attracts scores of onlookers seeking a glimpse of a bird that is native to the Arctic tundra and migrates south during the winter.  What was so unusual?   It’s the first recorded sighting of a snowy owl in Central Park since 1890.

$1 MILLION BASEBALL BAT?  Baseball great Lou Gehrig’s bat, linked to the 1938 World Series, could sell for as much as $1 million at an upcoming auction, say experts.

BUD WILL MISS SUPER BOWL.  Pitches for Budweiser, synonymous with the Super Bowl, will be absent in next Sunday’s game for the first time in 37 years.

TOM BROKAW RETIRES FROM NBC NEWS.  Legendary Tom Brokaw, 80, is retiring from NBC News after 55 years. Brokaw is the only anchor to lead all three of NBC’s primary news shows and is best known for anchoring the NBC Nightly News from 1993 to 2004.