Grumpy Editor

Hocus-pocus: ‘Atlantic Bank’ in Delaware disappears

A Chinese businessman’s claim of buying Atlantic Bank in Delaware --- where there was no such financial institution --- points out that business news out of China has to be verified before hitting print or going airborne, reminds Grumpy Editor. 

With China’s rising economic power, such announcements don’t raise too many eyebrows these days. 

However, with Chinese acquisitions mounting in North America, major media should be devoting a chunk of time on fact checking --- as they should with other announcements. 

Chinese businessman Lin Chunping grabbed attention in January when he announced the purchase of “Atlantic Bank” in Delaware for $60 million.

Lin told media the 85-year-old U.S. bank went bankrupt in 2008 as a result of the global financial crisis and that he planned to rename it the (mouthful) USA New HSBC Federation Consortium Inc. 

Media in China called his business experience "legendary."

His hometown, Wenzhou in east China’s Zhejiang province, gave him a prestigious municipal-level political appointment.

Later, it was found that there was no Atlantic Bank in Delaware.

Lin, 41, a rice trader, was arrested earlier this month but for an unrelated fraud. 

With that action, he was forced to give up his appointment to the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, a top advisory body.

And Atlantic Bank in Delaware remains a dream that some say underscores the fakery --- from iPhones to fancy bags --- coming out of China.

 

Both Obamas see $$$ signs in multi-visits to Las Vegas

President Barack Obama and the First Lady this year continue to see Las Vegas as the alluring place to visit, campaign or harvest funds despite earlier slaps at Sin City as the destination to avoid, notes Grumpy Editor. 

Michelle Obama today visits the Las Vegas area to rally campaign supporters in nearby Henderson. 

It marks her third trip to the area in 11 weeks. 

The three trips are on par with the number of presidential visits this year, most recent being on June 7.

Following a “private family trip” to Las Vegas on  March 28 with her two daughters, Sasha, 10, and Malia, 13, Michelle Obama returned to Sin City on May 1 for a private fundraising where each guest paid $2,500 for breakfast. 

What is noteworthy is that twice in recent years the president shot arrows at Las Vegas, scaring off tourist and convention activity.  

In a message directed at business gatherings, the president in February, 2009 declared, “You can’t take a trip to Las Vegas or down to the Super Bowl on the taxpayers dime.” 

Then a year later, he warned:  “You don’t blow a bunch of cash in Vegas when you’re trying to save for college.” 

Las Vegas’ economy then soured, with thousands of casino workers losing jobs, placing the area’s unemployment among the highest in the nation.  Las Vegas soon rose to first place in U.S. home foreclosures.

But media traveling with the president or First Lady don't mind the repeated opportunities to get close to Las Vegas' latest irresistible slot machines. 

 

 

Burger King revs up to go public, adds bacon sundae

Will New York media ask mayor Michael Bloomberg --- who frowns on sugary sodas larger than 16 ounces served in restaurants, theaters, delis and vending carts --- what he thinks of today’s Burger King unveiling of a 510-calorie bacon sundae, wonders Grumpy Editor. 

The dessert is composed of vanilla soft serve with a mix of fudge, caramel, bacon crumbles, topped with a vertical slice of bacon. 

Along with its high calorie count, the dessert also contains 18 grams of fat and 61 grams of (attention: Mayor Bloomberg) sugar. 

Burger King today also is debuting several pork, beef and chicken sandwiches. 

Meanwhile, investors who remember Burger King on the New York Stock Exchange until it was taken private in October, 2010 by global investment firm 3G Capital, with offices in New York City and Rio de Janeiro, will have an opportunity again to buy into the world’s second largest hamburger chain later this month. 

That’s when 3G Capital expects to take Burger King public on the NYSE --- where traders, in celebrating the event, might be downing bacon sundaes against the mayor’s wishes.

 

Cartoonists, talk shows rake Bloomberg’s anti-soda plan

New York mayor Michael Bloomberg’s proposed ban on large-size sodas gave newspaper editorial cartoonists and talk show hosts a field day on Friday and over the weekend, observes Grumpy Editor.

Bloomberg’s idea ran into a hornets nest. 

Look for it to get another round of heavy print/broadcast coverage when his proposal is introduced at a June 12 New York City Board of Health meeting. 

Apparently the mayor --- an independent for five years, after switching from Republican for six years after being a Democrat --- feels Gotham has no problems with crime, potholes, traffic, Wall Street or New Yorkers departing the tax-heavy area.

So citing the measure as a health issue, Bloomberg is turning his focus to curbing large containers of bubbly beverages like Coca-Cola, Pepsi Cola, Canada Dry and Mountain  Dew.  

His “Big Gulp” proposal bans sugary sodas larger than 16 ounces in most restaurants, theaters, delis and vending carts.  It could take effect as early as March.

But milk shakes are okay with Bloomberg. 

Editorial cartoonists, seeing it as something fresh to tackle, immediately jumped on the mayor. 

Among the first editorial cartoonists to spotlight the Big Gulp situation:  Jimmy Margulies who draws for the Record in Hackensack, N.J. 

His syndicated cartoon shows a King Kong-like character atop a skyscraper much like the Empire State building. 

The giant ape is holding a super-size beverage container with a long straw as a fleet of aircraft approach.  From one plane is the message, “You can stay.  It’s the soda we’re after…” 

With broadcast media, Sean Hannity, for example, on his Friday night program on Fox News channel sipped from and waved his large beverage container at TV cameras while discussing events of the day. 

Chatter on Bloomberg’s soda ban spilled over to Sunday talk shows. 

Meanwhile, Coca-Cola smacked the mayor’s proposal in a statement, “New Yorkers  expect and deserve better than this.”

 

Times-Picayune, New Orleans, will drop daily publishing

New Orleans is joining the growing list of cities without a daily newspaper, as The Times-Picayune will reduce publishing to three days a week in the fall, notes Grumpy Editor. 

Major staff reductions will accompany the move. 

Insiders expect the newsroom staff to be chopped by a least a third, to 100 from 150.  Remaining workers will face sharp salary cuts. 

With the shift to non-daily, the focus will be on boosting online news. 

Along with the change, NOLA Media Group has been formed to oversee coverage on the Internet. 

The newspaper will be published on Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays.  Management considered those the “most valuable days for the newspaper’s advertisers.” 

Ricky Mathews, incoming publisher of the newspaper, established in 1837, said the changes were necessary by the upheaval in the newspaper publishing industry. 

A recent circulation tally of U.S. newspapers placed The Times-Picayune, in the Advance Publications Inc. family, at No. 55 with about 141,000 daily.

 

Nevada nixes state-based ad agencies to promote tourism

Nevada-based advertising agencies are grumbling about the Nevada Commission on Tourism selecting four out-of-state finalists for a two-year, $3 million contract to sell the Silver State as a tourist destination, finds Grumpy Editor.

Eight of the 19 companies that submitted a proposal for the job were Nevada agencies. 

Getting an early nod, with interviews expected to start this week --- with a final decision due during summer --- are out-of-staters Aristotle Inc. of Little Rock, Ark.; Daniel J. Edelman Inc.'s Los Angeles office; Fahlgren Mortine of Columbus, Ohio, and Burson-Marsteller, New York. 

“All things being relatively equal, there should be a process in place to use some common sense that would lean toward supporting businesses in Nevada,” says Valerie Glenn, CEO of Reno-based Glenn Group, adding “especially given our economic situation and our governor’s stance on promoting economic development and job creation.”

Bill Marion, principal at Purdue Marion & Associates, Las Vegas, another Silver State firm washed out as a contender, says advertising and public relations firms in Nevada are used to marketing to a global audience and thus have the knowledge to sell the state. 

With the contract destined to go to a non-Nevada firm, Marion reminds that’s $3 million leaving the state. 

He points out a contract to a Nevada agency “would mean the creation of jobs in Nevada, not only for the firms that are selected, but also the firms that they would contract out for printing, for distribution, for other services because you know a Nevada firm would use other Nevada partners that they’ve worked with in the past.” 

Nevada’s unemployment rate for March was 12 percent, 3.8 percent above the national level.

Bethany Drysdale, Nevada Commission on Tourism’s public relations director, trumpets:  “We are looking for the best and the brightest to represent our agency based on the criteria that we ask for. We’re not necessarily looking to market just to Nevadans, we’re looking to market to the entire United States.” 

Adds Drysdale: “It would be wonderful if we could have a Nevada firm.”

 

Children can continue driving tractors on family farms

Credit the Labor Department’s withdrawal of a dopey 85-page proposed rule that would have affected children doing routine duties on family farms to a report by The Daily Caller’s Paul Conner, mentions Grumpy Editor.

 The planned regulation would have drastically changed the extent to which children could work on family farms and learn valuable skills.

Editorial writers on major city newspapers --- far from rural farms --- were quiet on the development, apparently unaware of the planned rule.

As Conner explained it:  “The rule would have dramatically changed what types of chores children under the age of 16 could perform on and around American farms. It would have prohibited them from working with tobacco, operating almost all types of power-driven equipment and being employed to work with raw farm materials.”

Sen. John Thune (R., S.D.) said the proposal would “ultimately undermine the very fabric of rural America.”

The Labor Department said the decision to withdraw the rule “was made in response to thousands of comments expressing concerns about the effect of the proposed rules on small family-owned farms.”

Appearing Friday on Fox News, Sen. Jerry Moran (R., Kan.) said “farming is a family operation” and that’s where “kids learn the work ethic.”  He said 18,000 comments went to the Labor Department last week.

In a statement from his office, Moran said, “If this proposal had gone into effect, not only would the shrinking rural work force have been further reduced, and our nation’s youth deprived of valuable career training opportunities, but a way of life would have begun to disappear.”

 

Media jump on Wal-Mart’s alleged bribery in Mexico

Word that Wal-Mart Stores Inc. was caught up in allegations of bribing Mexican officials to speed up growth south of the border, then trying to cover up the situation sent most broadcast/print media into overtime yesterday --- as if such activity is unusual in a foreign country, notes Grumpy Editor. 

That sent Wal-Mart’s stock down 4.66 percent to $59.54 a share by Monday’s New York Stock Exchange close. 

A New York Times story Saturday mentioned executives from Wal-Mart’s Mexican subsidiary reportedly used systematic bribery to receive building permits across the country. 

The article reported Wal-Mart executives learned in 2005 about allegations of  “widespread bribery” designed to smooth the path for rapid expansion in Mexico.  

Getting a jump on others, CNBC had Michelle Caruso-Cabrera on scene yesterday in Mexico City reporting live from the parking lot in front of a Wal-Mart store. 

While broadcast/print media --- and Washington officials --- expressed shock at the happening involving the world’s largest retailer, she summed up the matter succinctly in six words: “That’s how business is done here.”

In Washington the focus will be on the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. 

Enacted in 1977, it makes it a federal crime for any company, officer, director, employee or agent of a company to pay or offer anything of value “to any foreign official for purposes of influencing any act or decision of such foreign official in his official capacity, inducing such foreign official to do or omit to do any act in violation of the lawful duty of such official, or securing any improper advantage.”

 

Century-old Laurel (Miss.) Leader-Call stops presses

With the final press run yesterday of the century-old Laurel Leader-Call, Laurel, Miss., another small-town is left without a newspaper, observes Grumpy Editor.

The publication covered Laurel, population about 20,000, and Jones County.

Founded in August, 1911, as the Laurel Daily Argus, the Laurel Leader-Call was owned by Community Newspaper Holdings, Inc., publisher of about 90 daily newspapers and more than 200 non-daily newspapers in 22 states, mainly in the eastern part of the country. 

The Laurel Leader-Call, which operated with a slim staff of 18, saw tough publishing times ahead last September when the daily went to a four-day schedule:  Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Sunday. 

It bowed out with a front page “Special Commemorative Final Edition” with a headline reading:  “Thank you for welcoming us into your lives and sharing your memories.” 

The farewell opening page reproduced 30 front pages from its century of providing news to the community.

 

Stock market slips: ‘China fears’ or simply profit taking?

Sensitivity of the stock market these days, since the Dow Jones Industrial Average recently moved above 13000, was illustrated when wire and broadcast reports throughout yesterday mentioned stocks slip "on China fears” or “worries over China’s economic outlook,” sending the market tumbling 68.94 points to 13170.19,” observed Grumpy Editor.

So what were those worries over China that sent the Dow lower for the second time in 10 sessions?  

The “China fears” stemmed from a comment Monday in far-off Perth, Australia, from Ian Ashby, president of iron ore operations of Melbourne, Australia-based BHP Billiton, Ltd., the world’s largest mining firm (and listed on the New York Stock Exchange).  He said his company was seeing signs of "flattening" iron ore demand from China.

But then, Ashby went on to say iron ore demand would ''grow strongly'' in the next decade and consumption would advance more than 3 percent globally over the next eight years. 

And what about the softening in China demand?

That would not happen until after 2025, said Ashby.

Yet, what investors heard triggered concern, said news reports, sending the Dow averages lower.

In the past, a drop in the Dow from a series of major gains would be attributed simply to profit taking.