Grumpy Editor

U.S. POPULATION SHOWS SMALLER INCREASE FOR 2021

 

U.S. population increased by only 393,000 people in the year ended July 1, notes Grumpy Editor.

 

That brings the total population to 331.9 million.  That includes 148,000 more births than deaths.

 

Covid-19 became the nation’s third leading cause of death during that period.

 

Birth rates have fallen steadily since the 2007-2009 recession.  But death rates have edged up, especially in states smacked by the epidemic.

 

 

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PASSPORT COST RISES TODAY.  Cost to renew a U.S. passport goes up by $20 today, reaching $130, announces the State Department.  That’s an 18.2 percent increase.

 

SAMARITAN AIDS WOMAN IN STORE.  Deshawn Pressley, an Ohio good samaritan, receives an award after he answers an 87-year-old woman’s calls for help at a grocery store when a man snatches her purse in the checkout line.  He chased the purse-snatcher out of the store in Lemon Township and into the parking lot where he takes down the suspect and makes a citizen’s arrest.

 

AUSSIE PARROTS GETTING 'DRUNK.' Parrots in Western Australia’s Kimberley region are getting “drunk”  on fermented fruit and, in some cases, dying as a result of  eating the fallen produce.

PERSON STEALS FIRE TRUCK.  Orange County, Calif, police arrest  a person suspected of stealing a fire truck from outside UCI Medical Center then driving through several cities before being detained in Anaheim.

 

MANNY AMERICANS FEEL STRESSFUL IN HOLIDAY SEASON.  Nearly half of Americans consider the holiday season more stressful than joyful and report they’re having trouble getting into the holiday spirit this year, finds a Rasmussen Reports survey.

UNUSUAL TORNADO TIME.  There is a high likelihood that December 2021 will end up as being the most prolific tornado-producing December on record once final damage surveys are completed, says AccuWeather Forecaster Randy Adkins. While tornadoes aren't uncommon during December, the likelihood of a tornado occurring on a December day in the United States is 12 to 15 percent, he points out.

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO THE MANY READERS!

DOGS HAVE FAVORITE CHRISTMAS TUNES, TOO

 

A survey in Britain finds dogs also have their favorite Christmas tunes, notes Grumpy Editor.

Research shows 90 per cent of dogs like music, although what they get from music can vary.  In line with their music taste they're most likely to be energetic — wagging their tail (23 per cent) or generally being excitable (15 per cent).

Dog owners note upbeat songs are their pets' preferred choice.

A survey of 1,000 UK dog owners finds the most popular song for pooches is Wham! Last Christmas, edging ahead of Jingle Bells and All I Want for Christmas.

 

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INTEREST RATE HIKES IN 2022.  Federal Reserve officials signal they are prepared to raise interest rates at least three times in 2022 in response to increased inflation, a faster timeline than expected earlier.

PANDEMIC SLICES BALI VISITORS.  The coronavirus pandemic cuts travel to tourist destinations around the world.  One normally popular attraction severely cut by global travelers is Bali.  The Indonesian island, normally receiving millions of international travelers a year, welcomes only 45 in 2021.

 

NYPD GOING FOR TESLAS.  The New York City Police Department is aiming to purchase up to 250 fully electric Tesla Model 3 sedans (at $51,940 each), a move that would put the high-performance vehicles into the hands of the nation’s largest police force.

NAVY TESTS LASER WEAPON.  A U.S. Navy ship successfully fired a new, high-energy laser weapon, destroying a training target in the Gulf of Eden which separates East Africa and the Arabian Peninsula.

FOX NEWS CHANNEL MOST VIEWED.  Fox News Channel closes 2021 --- its 25th anniversary year --- as the most-watched network on cable for the sixth straight year.

 

NEW YORK TO ALLOW NON-CITIZEN VOTES.  New York City officials give a green light to a bill that will allow more than 800,000 non-citizen residents to vote in municipal elections starting with 2023 city council races.

 

NBC FILM CREW ROBBED IN S.F.  An NBC TV sports crew in Oakland, California, is robbed at gunpoint in the entertainment and business waterfront area of Jack London Square.  Three people with firearms confront the crew, stealing a camera from their vehicle.

BEST PLACES FOR CHRISTMAS.  The personal-finance website WalletHub lists Best Places for Christmas Celebrations this year amid the stresses of the COVID-19 pandemic. WalletHub compares the 100 biggest cities based on 32 key indicators of a safe and affordable Christmas with such factors as availability of Christmas traditions, percentage of residents fully vaccinated and city’s overall generosity.

 

1. Atlanta, GA	11. Miami, FL
2. Orlando, FL	12. Chicago, IL
3. Las Vegas, NV	13. St. Louis, MO
4. Pittsburgh, PA	14. Raleigh, NC
5. San Francisco, CA	15. Denver, CO
6. Seattle, WA	16. Honolulu, HI
7. Los Angeles, CA	17. Austin, TX
8. Cincinnati, OH	18. Cleveland, OH
9. New York, NY	19. Minneapolis, MN
10. Portland, OR	20. San Diego, CA

 

BETTER DAYS COMING IN 2022, PREDICTS JP MORGAN

U.S. investment bank JP Morgan predicts 2022 will mark the end of the coronavirus pandemic and see a full global economic recovery, observes Grumpy Editor.

New vaccines and therapeutics will result in a "strong cyclical recovery, a return of global mobility and a release of pent-up demand from consumers," adds the New York-based bank.

"Our view is that 2022 will be the year of a full global recovery, an end of the pandemic, and a return to normal economic and market conditions we had prior to the COVID-19 outbreak," says Marko Kolanovic its Chief Global Markets Strategist and Co-Head of Global Research.

 

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NON-CITIZENS IN N.Y. WILL VOTE. New York City lawmakers approve a bill that lets more than 800,000 non-citizen residents vote in municipal elections, thus becoming the largest city in the country to allow non-citizens to the polls.

MEDIA FREEDOM UNDER ATTACK.  The International Federation of Journalists says media freedom continues to be under attack in much of the world this year.  It cites nine working journalists killed in Afghanistan and 102 imprisoned in China.

INFLATION JUMPS.  Consumer prices last month jumped 6.8 percent, boosting inflation to the highest level in 39 years, reports the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

 

ARMY AWARDS 39 PURPLE HEARTS.  The Army will award the Purple Heart to 39 soldiers injured when Iran struck their air base in Iraq with ballistic missiles in January, 2020.  The action follows a CBS News investigation that finds the soldiers had not been recognized with the award and denied medical benefits that come with it.

 

MARIN COUNTY, CALIFORNIA, WATER USE CUT.  Extreme drought in California is affecting 200,000 residents in Marin County.  They face curtailment of water into swimming pools, in washing cars and with outdoor irrigation, among other things, as water usage is being cut to only 55 gallons a day.

 

LOWER GASOLINE PRICES SHEAD.  Retail gasoline prices will average $3.13 per gallon this month before falling to $3.01 per gallon in January, projects the U.S. Energy and Information Administration.  The EIA expects prices to continue to drop, forecasting the annual, national average at $2.88 per gallon next year.

SOME MOVIEGOERS AVOID THEATERS.  Some 49 percent of pre-pandemic moviegoers no longer are going to theaters, according to a study from the film research company The Quorum.  As closed movie theaters reopen, many patrons are still concerned about the risk of gathering indoors with strangers.

GIANT ASTEROID HEADS TOWARD EARTH

Many people will be looking skyward on Saturday, predicts Grumpy Editor.

That’s when a giant asteroid --- a 1,082-foot space rock --- breaks into Earth’s orbit. That will lead to heavy coverage in media.

 

NASA labels it Asteroid 4660 Nereus because it’s well over 492 feet wide and will come within 4.6 million miles of Earth.

It’s expected to pass Earth at 14,700 miles per hour --- at 2.4 million miles distance.

That is considered to be a close pass for an asteroid.

 

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80TH ANNIVERSARY OF PEARL HARBOR TOMORROW.  Tomorrow marks the 80^th anniversary of the Japanese attack on the U.S. Navy base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.  The 1941 event sent the U.S. into World War II.

WORLD WAR II BOMB EXPLODES.  World War II “lingers” in Germany.  Five days ago a 550-pound bomb, dropped from an Allied aircraft during World War II, exploded at a construction site near the main train station in Munich, injuring four people.

VACCINE IS WORD OF THE YEAR.  According to Merriam Webster, word of the year is vaccine.  Just think how many times you heard it on saw it in print.

TEL AVIV MOST EXPENSIVE CITY.  Tel Aviv has leapfrogged Hong Kong and Singapore to become the world’s most expensive city to live in, according to the Economist Intelligence Unit.

 OVERDUE BOOK FROM 1911 RETURNS TO LIBRARY.  A book checked out  in 1911 from Boise, Idaho’s Carnegie Public Library is finally returned. Overdue books there used to carry a late fee of two cents a day.  But the Boise library eliminated late fees in 2019.

 

OOPS!  WRONG LEG GONE.  A 43-year-old surgeon, working in a clinic in Freistadt, Austria, is fined 2,700 euros ($3,050) for “committing grossly negligent bodily harm," in mistakingly amputating the wrong leg of a patient.

 

CLAM FESTIVAL RETURNS.  California’s Pismo Beach Clam Festival returns after a coronavirus-induced hiatus with reports that no one has seen so many clams on the beach for years.  Cal Poly San Luis Obispo researchers counted 35,000 clams in three days of surveying.

 

 SMALL NEWSROOMS SHUTTERING.  Small newsrooms around the country, some more than 100 years old and often the only news source in their areas, are closing under the weight of the coronavirus. Some are merging with nearby publications. But that means loss of local jobs.