Grumpy Editor

MEMORIAL DAY HONORS, MOURNS MILITARY PERSONNEL

 

Memorial Day today may be a pleasant time to relax and be with family and friends, but it's also a solemn time of remembrance, reminds Grumpy Editor.

 

The federal holiday honors and mourns military personnel who have died in the performance of military duties while serving in the United States Armed Forces. 

 

From the Memorial Day Foundation (its mission is to increase awareness and respect for Memorial Day) here are a few customs aimed at honoring fallen service members:

• Fly the U.S. flag at half-staff until noon
• Observe a moment of silence at 3 p.m. local time
• Place flags or flowers on veterans' graves

IN CASE YOUR FAVORITE NEWS OUTLETS MISSED THESE…

 

OSCARS SLATED FOR MARCH.  After a year of disruption, look for Hollywood’s 94^th Oscars to be held next March 27. It will be broadcast on ABC.

 

NAVY SHIP SHORTAGE ILLUSTRATED.  Shortage of U.S.  Navy ships is illustrated with the USS Ronald Reagan --- the only aircraft carrier based in the Asia-Pacific region --- shifting to the Middle East this summer to cover U.S. and NATO withdrawal from Afghanistan.

 

WORLD WAR II VETERAN RECEIVES COLLEGE DEGREE.  Bill Gossett, 97, from Illinois, who left college to serve in the Army Air Corps in World War II returned to finish his education nearly 80 years later.  He completed his Associate of Arts degree in 2020, but had to wait until recently for a graduation ceremony due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

 

LONG-TERM SHELTER DOG FINALLY FINDS HOME.  An Ohio animal shelter finally finds a home for Mica, a 10-year-old German shorthaired pointer/Labrador mix in a shelter for six and a half years, reports the League for Animal Welfare.

EIFFEL TOWER REOPENS JULY 15.  Paris’s Eiffel Tower, one of the most recognizable landmarks in the world, will reopen July 15 after being shuttered for a second time due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

 

EXPENSIVE SANDWICH TO DEBUT IN DISNEYLAND.  The Disneyland Resort, Anaheim, California, on Friday introduces one of the most expensive sandwiches in the world: $99.99.  But the panini sandwich will serve six to eight guests.

 

HUGE ANTARCTIC ICEBERG BREAKS OFF.  The world's largest iceberg breaks off the western side of the Ronne Ice Shelf in Antarctica's Weddell Sea. The iceberg measures around 105 miles in length and 15.5 miles in width.

NORWEGIAN CRUISE LINE SET TO RESUME TRIPS.  Subject to approval by obtaining a conditional sailing certificate from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Norwegian Cruise Line plans a return to sailing in the United States from Aug. 7, more than a year after the COVID-19 pandemic brought the industry to a virtual standstill.

U.S. HOUSING MARKET SIZZLES, TRIGGERING BIDDING WARS

House prices are skyrocketing around the nation, bidding wars are the norm and supply is scarcer than ever, notes Grumpy Editor.

Bloomberg also finds the market is too hot even for homebuilders.

“Demand is so fevered and construction costs are climbing so quickly,” observes Bloomberg, “that overwhelmed builders are suppressing orders and shifting away from fixed prices.”

Bloomberg adds, “In a global economy roiled by supply shortages, the U.S. housing market is struggling with a collision of pandemic-related forces that’s holding back new inventory just when it’s needed most. Buyers are stampeding for new homes as remote work upends employment, while soaring lumber costs and a shortage of workers are slowing construction. The result is home prices, already reaching unaffordable levels for many Americans, are set to keep rising.”

 

About 19 percent of builders are delaying sales or construction and 47 percent have added escalation clauses into contracts, allowing them to lift prices as costs increase, according to an April survey by the National Association of Homebuilders.

 

IN CASE YOUR FAVORITE NEWS OUTLETS MISSED THESE…

 

AP MARKS 175TH YEAR.  The Associated Press is celebrating its 175th anniversary this month.  The AP was formed in May, 1846 when five New York city newspapers funded a Pony Express route through Alabama to carry news about the Mexican War to the northern part of the country. Today, it has bureaus in 250 locations in more than 95 countries and produces 2,000 daily stories and more than a million photographs a year. 

MEDAL OF HONOR AWARDED --- FOR KOREAN WAR ACTION.  President Joe Biden awarded the Medal of Honor on Friday to Ralph Puckett Jr., a 94-year-old retired Army colonel who led the capture and defense of a hill during the Korean War against an overwhelming Chinese attack.

VANDENBERG GETS NAME CHANGE.  Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, gets a periodic name change --- this time to Vandenberg Space Force Base. Space Force in 2019 was created as the sixth uniformed military branch.

 

NEW MISS UNIVERSE.  Andrea Meza, who holds a software engineering degree, is the new Miss Universe.  She edged ahead of Miss Brazil.

 

FOR DOGS...NO BARKING?  North of the border, Calgary's pet ownership bylaws are being updated and some of the proposed changes have some dog behavior experts worried...namely no barking.

 

GREENLAND OFF THE MARKET.  The U.S. is no longer interested in buying Greenland, says President Biden’s secretary of state, Antony Blinken.  “I can confirm that’s correct,” he tells reporters.  Former President Donald Trump eyed purchasing Greenland, a self-governing part of Denmark, even as its leaders said it wasn’t for sale.

 

 

AP's BUZBEE BECOMES EXECUTIVE EDITOR OF THE WASHINGTON POST

Sally Buzbee, senior vice president and executive editor of The Associated Press, will become the new executive editor of The Washington Post, succeeding the recently retired Marty Baron, notes Grumpy Editor.

As AP’s top editor since 2017, her emphasis on live coverage of breaking news events in all formats, augmented by deep enterprise reporting, has helped yield top awards.

Along with Buzbee’s new post, Paul Farhi of  The Post notes women are now in charge at CBS News, ABC News, NPR, MSNBC, Reuters, Financial Times, Guardian and the Economist.

Selected after a wide search of potential candidates, Buzbee starts her new job on June 1. 

Meanwhile,  AP is searching for a new executive editor.

Fred Ryan, the Post’s publisher and chief executive, says “Sally Busbee has an exceptional record of achievement and a tremendous wealth of experience in leading a global news organization.”

 

IN CASE YOUR FAVORITE NEWS OUTLETS MISSED THESE...

 

ELLEN DeGENERES GRABS MAJOR SPACE.  Getting more print space than the president in the past week:  Ellen DeGeneres on departing her daytime talk show next year. The announcement even grabbed a chunk of space, with photo, in The Wall Street Journal.

SUPPORT DOG GOES ON THE RUN IN NEW YORK CITY.  Lucy, an emotional support dog that escapes a Manhattan home, is rescued after 10-hours on the run in New York City that takes her across busy streets and into the New York subway system where she is safely rescued before going into a tunnel.

NBC CANCELS GOLDEN GLOBES.  The Golden Globes awards show, with sagging ratings, is an endangered species as NBC cancels next year’s presentation.

BEAR CLIMBS UTILITY POLES.  Downtown Douglas, Arizona, sees a bear climb two utility poles.  The bear eventually descends and scampers off, sending about two dozen onlookers scattering. 

 

TEA DRINKERS GETTING UNEASY.  Tea-drinking British (and many in the U.S.) are getting uneasy over reports that climate change --- namely rising temperatures and erratic rainfall --- is hitting tea-growing countries.  For example:  Kenya, as the world's biggest exporter of black tea, is suffering more floods and droughts than ever before.

AUSTRALIAN DESTROYER DISLODGES WHALES.  Two dead endangered whales are dislodged from the hull of the Australian destroyer HMAS Sydney, after it docks at U.S. Naval Base San Diego.

FOX NEWS ADDS TWO COMMENTATORS.  Fox News Channel will debut weekend shows for commentator Dan Bongino on June 5 and former U.S. Rep. Trey Gowdy June 6.

 

U.S. PLANES FLY NEAR NORTH KOREA, SORT OF LIKE THE EARLY 1950s

Reminiscent of the Korean War days in the early 1950s, U.S. Navy and U.S. Air Force spy planes fly near North Korea several times in recent days, as Pyongyang condemned Washington's North Korea policy and the latest satellite imagery showed activity at Nampo shipyard, notes Grumpy Editor.

 

It was during the Korean War that the newly-independent U.S. Air Force became involved.

But in those days U.S. aircraft could chase the “bad guys” only to the Yalu River, thus allowing enemy planes to escape into China.

At that time it was common for F-86 Sabre jets to tangle with Soviet MIG-15 fighters.

World War II-era prop-driven P-51D Mustangs were pressed into ground-air support role and large formations of B-29 Superfortresses were used on strategic bombardment missions.

IN CASE YOUR FAVORITE NEWS OUTLETS MISSED THESE…

BROADWAY GOES 100 PERCENT SEPT. 14.  New York City’s Broadway, closed since March, 2020, because of the coronavirus pandemic, is set to resume shows at 100 percent capacity on Sept. 14. 

FORBES IN ACQUISITION TALKS.  Forbes Media enters talks to be acquired by a group led by GSV Asset Management, in a deal that values the business-news publisher at more than $600 million, reports Bloomberg News.

PRESERVING COAST GUARD CUTTER SOUGHT.  A U.S. Coast Guard cutter with an historic tie to 9/11 may be headed to Indonesia, but a former crew member is campaigning to preserve it as a memorial to the terrorist attacks in New York City.

ARMY TO OFFER BONUSES IN SOME POSITIONS.  The U.S. Army, in an attempt to bolster recruiting as the pandemic stretches into a second year, will offer extra bonuses starting next week to individuals who commit to serve in 11 high-demand positions.

GEORGIA WOMAN HEARS LOTS OF BUZZING.  A Decatur, Georgia woman was shocked to find a swarm of at least 100,000 bees living in her house.  It marks the fourth time she has had to remove bees from her home.

PET PYTHON ESCAPES FROM CAGE.  A  28-pound, 11-foot-long pet python escaped from a cage in a Yokohama, Japan, man’s home, prompting a search and sending shudders through the local community.

ORBITING BOTTLE OF WINE SET FOR AUCTION. Up for auction is a bottle of Pétrus 2000, made from merlot grapes in France’s Bordeaux region, that spent 14 months orbiting Earth as part of a privately-funded research study on food and agriculture.

 

U.S. BIRTH RATES SLUMP.  Showing a continuing U.S. fertility slump, birth rates last year were the lowest since the government began compiling them in the 1930s.

 

BULL FIGHTING RESUMES IN MADRID.  Thousands show up in Madrid as bullfighting returns after more than a year absence stemming from the pandemic. 

SCIENTISTS POINT TO CLIMATE CHANGE BEHIND FASTER-MELTING GLACIERS

 

Scientists are blaming climate change for faster-melting glaciers which have lost 31 percent more snow and ice per year than they did 15 years earlier, notes Grumpy Editor.

 

Half the world’s glacial loss is coming from the United States and Canada.

 

A study in last Wednesday’s journal Nature reports scientists from 20 years of recently declassified satellite data calculated the world’s 220,000 mountain glaciers have been losing more than 328 billion tons of ice and snow per year since 2015.

 

The annual so-called melt rate from 2015 to 2019 was 78 billion more tons a year than it was from 2000 to 2004.

 

Global thinning rates, different than volume of water lost, doubled in the last 20 years.

 

IN CASE YOUR FAVORITE NEWS OUTLETS MISSED THESE…

 

CHINA FOCUSES ON TAIWAN.  The U.S. "is coming to fear that it may no longer be able to deter China from seizing Taiwan by force,” reports The Economist, adding, "Taiwan is an arena for the rivalry between China and America...if the Seventh Fleet failed to turn up, China would overnight become the dominant power in Asia.”

U.S. ECONOMY UP 6.4 PERCENT IN FIRST QUARTER.  The economy grows at a 6.4 percent rate in the U.S. first quarter this year as the country emerges from the pandemic.

 

TV NEWS CREW AIDS IN NABBING MURDER SUSPECT.  An Atlanta TV station WSB-TV  news crew spotted an Arizona murder suspect near Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport and flagged police, resulting in the man being taken back into custody after a daylong search.

 

BIDEN PICKS PUFFY DANDELION FOR FIRST LADY.  As President Joe Biden and Jill Biden headed from the White House to the helicopter, on the way to Atlanta, the president suddenly stopped to pick a white puffy dandelion and handed it to the first lady. 

ROBO-DOG ENDS BEAT IN NEW YORK.  The New York Police Department is returning “Digidog,” a robotic police dog, ending its contract with Boston Dynamics.

ALLIGATOR, COW DELAY HOUSTON TRAFFIC.  An alligator along with a cow delay Houston traffic, turning a commute into a nightmare.

 

VEGAS COUPLE FIND ICE AGE BONES IN YARD.  A Las Vegas couple will have to wait to continue building their pool after construction crews unearthed a set of bones dating back to Earth’s most recent ice age.

 

OLDEST KNOWN WHISKEY TO HIT AUCTION.  A bottle of what’s believed to be the oldest known whiskey in existence will hit the auction block next month where it’s expected to sell for betwen $20,000 and $40,000.  Experts say the rare bourbon was likely produced between 1762 and 1802.