Grumpy Editor

‘Daisy Carnival’ near riot in L.A. not news in Las Vegas

While the Las Vegas Review-Journal and Las Vegas Sun provided pages of coverage relating to late June’s three-night Electric Daisy Carnival --- already booked to return in 2012 --- that drew up to 85,000 generally “well-behaved” attendees each night in Las Vegas, both dailies spiked news reports of a near riot by several thousand rowdy revelers in Hollywood last Wednesday night during a film premiere of the “Electric Daisy Carnival Experience,” notes Grumpy Editor.

Action on famous and busy Hollywood Blvd., where a massive traffic jam developed, showed unruly young people defying police orders to disperse, throwing bottles and stomping on several police cars, damaging roofs and windshields.

The Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority --- eager for any gathering involving 100 to 100,000 attendees --- was delighted when Electric Daisy Carnival backers selected Las Vegas for this year’s music festival. 

The LVCVA cheered even more when EDC announced plans to return to Las Vegas next year, despite some negativeness associated with the mostly young crowd.

The EDC moved its music festival to Sin City this year after Los Angeles banished it following the death of a 15-year-old girl last summer.  Two others died at an EDC event in Dallas in early June.

At the June festival in Las Vegas, police were busy booking some attendees at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway grounds, site of the event.

Twenty-seven felony and 31 misdemeanor arrests were made in Sin City, according to a Las Vegas Sun tally.

The festival each day started around 6 p.m. and concluded at dawn. 

Last week’s near riot on Hollywood Blvd. where the screened film at Grauman’s Chinese Theatre documented one of the nation’s largest electronic dance parties, didn’t get much coverage in U.S. dailies either, although Los Angeles television stations were on scene.

The screening was a private, invitation-only affair.

The near riot in Hollywood was triggered following a Twitter invitation to attend a block party outside Grauman’s.

 

 

Joplin receives promises but scant rebuilding details

While the devastation by a massive tornado at Joplin is getting much coverage, little has been reported on aid --- financial and other --- from the Missouri city of 50,000, nine days after the twister struck and even after a Sunday visit by President Barack Obama, notes Grumpy Editor. 

About 8,000 homes and business are destroyed or damaged. 

Many soothing statements and promises from officials are reported, but much concrete information on getting Joplin back on track is missing.  Print and broadcast media should ask more questions starting with when and how.

Associated Press quotes President Obama, after touring the smashed area, vowing, “We’re not going to stop ‘til Joplin’s back on its feet.”  The New York Times reports Obama declaring, “The cameras may leave.  The spotlight may shift.  But we will be with you every step of the way until Joplin is restored.” 

Nice words.  But missing are details on a battleplan pointing the way on how Joplin gets back on its feet and is restored soonest. 

Closest to indicating financial help is a Wall Street Journal story last Thursday that mentions the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) “opened a mobile disaster recovery center in Joplin on Wednesday to assist tornado-tossed residents with requests for federal aid.”

Unlike hefty grants or billions in foreign aid, however, is that filling out FEMA paper work may lead to low-interest loans up to $200,000 to homeowners for repair or replacement of property.

Not much is being said about assistance to Joplin businesses.

Other than St. John’s Hospital, badly damaged by the tornado, storm-hit businesses in the city get scant coverage.

Over the weekend, St. John’s --- in action reminiscent of M*A*S*H, the 1972-1983 CBS-TV series about Army medics in a field hospital during the Korean War --- set up a temporary medical facility close to its badly damaged 10-story building.

Other research by Grumpy Editor finds the twister closed:

• Three Wendy’s/Arby’s Group restaurants.
• Two Walgreens stores.
• A McDonald’s restaurant.
• A Wal-Mart store with a lost roof.
• Two Commerce Bank offices.
• A Home Depot store.

Meanwhile, a General Mills plant experienced minor damage.

On the prompt progress side, a destroyed hair salon structure is being rebuilt, framing already in place --- with work started before FEMA came on the scene.

 

With Joplin in wreckage, Obama seeks roots in Ireland

After a monster tornado sliced through Joplin, Mo. Sunday night, leaving three fourths of the city of 50,000 in rubble, thousands of those affected were eagerly awaiting word of prompt federal assistance, notes Grumpy Editor. 

As the Joplin death toll yesterday passed the 100 mark, President Barack Obama was monitoring the situation --- from the tiny village of Moneygall in Ireland where he sought information on family roots, part of a week-long tour of Europe. 

Only reference to possible federal aid to Joplin, 160 miles south of Kansas City, was found in an Associated Press story reporting the president said the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) was working with state and local agencies. 

But there were no reports Monday that FEMA, with more than 3,700 full-time employees, had promptly dispatched a team to the Joplin disaster site where the massive twister sliced a path a half-mile wide and six miles long, smacking homes, businesses, churches, schools and a 10-story hospital. 

However, FEMA released a news release yesterday that mentioned, “At the president's request, FEMA Administrator Craig Fugate will travel to Missouri to ensure that the state has all the support it needs, and today FEMA Deputy Administrator Rich Serino will also travel to Joplin to tour the damages and meet with state and local officials.” 

Other killer twisters Sunday hit Kansas and Minnesota.

Today from London, Obama said he will visit Joplin on Sunday, one week after the massive tornado struck. 

 

No TV truck in sight? In L.A., it means a parking ticket

Some Los Angeles reporters and photographers vehicles appear to be easy prey for city parking citation writers, notes Grumpy Editor. 

Despite placards for news folks that cost $100 a year that allow parking at expired meters and preferential parking zones, city parking officers have been ignoring the permits and writing tickets, reports Kevin Roderick who keeps his eyes on the City of Angels with LAObserved. 

In a city known for stellar parking problems, especially in the downtown area, at least nine reporters or photographers recently have been on the receiving end of citations. 

One newsman mentions he has been cited “too many times to count, maybe 10 tickets.” 

The parking placards for journalists have “been around since 1994, but recently city parking officers have been ignoring the permits and writing tickets anyway --- apparently arguing that if they don’t see TV trucks around, there must not be real news being covered,” mentions Roderick.

Much time and expense are involved because “tickets are tending to be dismissed on appeal,” points out Roderick. 

What’s interesting here is that the L.A. “Department of Transportation says it’s trying to get its officers to stop writing the bogus tickets, but without success,” according to Roderick. 

Looks like the parking ticket writers should be getting citations --- from their bosses.