Grumpy Editor

$250 MILLION SOUGHT FOR EVERGLADES RESTORATION PROJECTS

It’s interesting to note that while a federal budget request seeks to cut about $15.5 million a year from Stars and Stripes, the daily newspaper produced for U.S. military personnel around the world, president Donald Trump included $250 million for Everglades restoration projects in his proposed $4.8 trillion budget for fiscal year 2021, observes Grumpy Editor.

As pointed out here last week, Stars and Stripes receives about $8.7 million annually in operations and maintenance funds and about $6.9 million in contingency operations funds to support news reporting in places such as Afghanistan and Iraq.  The Pentagon wants to reinvest funds in functions it considers more critical for warfighting.

Everglades National Park, a 1.5-million-acre wetlands preserve on the southern tip of Florida, is made up of coastal mangroves, sawgrass marshes and pine flatwoods that are home to hundreds of animal species, including the endangered leatherback turtle, alligators, Florida panther and West Indian manatee.

Maintenance of the wetlands preserve is provided by entrance fees that range from $30 per vehicle to $200 per commercial motorcoach.

 

So an additional $250 million injection for the Everglades would be quite a boost.

 

 

IN CASE YOUR FAVORITE NEWS OUTLETS MISSED THESE…

BLOOMBERG SAYS HE'LL SELL COMPANY IF ELECTED PRESIDENT.  Michael Bloomberg, latest on the Democrats' presidential campaign list, says he will sell Bloomberg LP, the financial-data and media company he co-founded in 1981, if he is elected president. 

WELLS FARGO TO PAY $3 BILLION.  Wells Fargo plans to pay $3 billion to settle criminal and civil investigations linked to when the bank opened millions of unauthorized accounts — which came to light in 2016 — in efforts to meet unrealistic sales goals.

 

CHINA EXPELS THREE REPORTERS.  Beijing’s expulsion of three Wall Street Journal reporters comes a day after the State Department said it was imposing restrictions on five Chinese state-run news organizations operating in the United States, saying they would now be treated as the equivalent of foreign government missions.

 

IWO JIMA BATTLE OBSERVED.  The nation's top military officer pays tribute last week to thousands of Marines and Navy corpsmen who took part in what was called "the bloodiest campaign in American history, per square mile” — the World War II battle of Iwo Jima.  It began on Feb. 19, 1945 and lasted through March.  Nearly 7,000 U.S. service members died and over 19,000 were wounded.

VIRUS TRIGGERS GARLIC PRICE RISE.  As the coronavirus outbreak widens, garlic prices are rising because of disruptions in the supply chain from China. The Wall Street Journal reports China, in recent years, is responsible for up to 80 percent of the global garlic supply and more than two-thirds of garlic U.S. imports comes from China.

COMEDIANS SET FOR CORRESPONDENTS DINNER.  The White House Correspondents’ Dinner on April 25 will see the return of comedians.  The White House declines to say if President Donald Trump will attend this year.  He has skipped the annual event throughout his presidency.

 

KEEP SMILING SAYS OLDEST MAN.  Oldest living man, nearing 113 years living in Japan, says his secret to longevity is “don’t get angry and keep smiling.”

 

McCLATCHY FILES FOR BANKRUPTCY PROTECTION.  McClatchy Co., second largest newspaper operation by circulation, files for bankruptcy protection as it struggles to pay off debt as revenue shrinks, stemming from more advertisers and readers going online.

 

RING LOST IN 1973 FOUND IN FINLAND.  A woman's class ring lost at a Portland, Maine, high school in 1973 is found by a welder while metal detecting in a Finland forest.

STUDY:  MAJOR TV NETWORKS GO DEEPLY NEGATIVE ON TRUMP COVERAGE

 

Nightly TV news broadcasts from June 1 to Aug. 31 were 91 percent negative in covering President Donald Trump and his administration, tallies the Media Research Center, notes Grumpy Editor.

MRC adds ABC's World News Tonight, the CBS Evening News and NBC Nightly News presented just nine percent positive coverage of Trump and his administration.

This compares with 89 percent negative coverage by the three major networks in the first three months of the Trump presidency.

During the summer, MRC calculates 415 minutes of broadcast time was spent covering the investigation into whether the Trump campaign colluded with Russia, with 94 percent of that negative.

Repealing and replacing Obamacare and Trump's response to the Charlottesville riots last month each brought 97 percent negative coverage, adds MRC.

 

IN CASE YOUR FAVORITE NEWS OUTLETS MISSED THESE…

 

BIG WIND ON OTHER SIDE OF U.S.  With broadcast and print media focusing on hurricane activity from Texas to the East Coast, overlooked is an unusual 100 m.p.h. wind and flooding from a thunderstorm that tore the roof off a historic building and damaged a half dozen other structures in Death Valley National Park. It also blew out windows of several park employees' vehicles.

POVERTY HITS CALIFORNIANS.  The U.S. Census Bureau says one in five Californians lives in poverty, highest rate in the country. It estimates 20.4 percent of Golden State residents lived below the poverty line in a three-year average, 2014 to 2016.

MILITARY PROVIDES HURRICANE AID.  The Pentagon reports it mobilized nearly 30,000 military personnel for recovery operations along Hurricane Irma’s path from the U.S. Virgin islands to north of Atlanta.

OPRAH JOINS 60 MINUTES.  Oprah Winfrey, one of TV’s best-known celebrity interviewers, next Sunday debuts on CBS’ 60 Minutes.  With the TV newsmagazine entering its 50th anniversary year, she will be reporting on America’s political divisions.

POLICE SEARCH FOR STOLEN PET PIG.  Cleveland police are looking for Spam, a 15-pound mini-pet pig that was taken during a home break-in. “It’s just sad somebody would do this,” says its owner who acquired the one-year-old mini pig when he was a piglet.  “He’s part of our family. Keep the electronics, but don’t take somebody’s pet.”

ADULTS GO TO BED WITH STUFFED ANIMALS.  Build-A-Bear Workshop, in a survey of 2,000 Americans, finds 40 percent of adults — many from childhood — take stuffed animals to bed with them.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Trump-media rift escalates with nixing of annual dinner

A top story echoed over the weekend was word that President Donald Trump, in a continuing feud with media, will not attend the White House Correspondents Association dinner on April 29, noted Grumpy Editor.

The annual event traditionally is a night for media and politicians they cover to get together over dinner to share laughs. The dinner in recent years also included celebrities, which some veteran news folks frowned on.

In the past, the routine called for the president to give a comedic presentation (via a speechwriter) followed by a comedian who sprinkled jokes about those at the head table.

In tweeting his non-attendance this year, Trump said, “Please wish everyone well and have a great evening!"  It comes in the wake of the president’s continued dislike of "fake news" and reporters' use of anonymous sources.

Reuters correspondent Jeff Mason, who leads the White House Correspondents Association, said the dinner would go ahead as planned.

Linked to the dinner, Bloomberg canceled its separate annual party.  Bloomberg usually co-hosts the event with Conde Nast's Vanity Fair, but the magazine pulled out earlier this month.

The New Yorker also canceled its event that evening.

Meanwhile, Washington Examiner columnist Paul Bedard tallied the Trump administration has been slammed with at least one fake or distorted news story a day for 33 days.

In his “Washington Secrets” column, Bedard reported, “President Trump’s claim that he’s been the subject of false and ‘fake news’ stories has been mocked by an eye-rolling media, but a Secrets analysis of Trump coverage reveals that Team Trump has been hit with an average of one false, distorted or denied story a day. Starting on the eve of Inauguration Day, there have been at least 33 often widely reported false stories about the president and his team.”

 

IN CASE YOUR FAVORITE NEWS OUTLETS MISSED THESE…

Trump potpourri:  A Quinnipiac survey found that 52 percent of voters trust the media more than they trust Trump, while 37 percent said they trusted Trump more. Among Democrats, 86 percent said they trusted the media more than the president. But among Republican voters, 78 percent said they trusted Trump more than the media, while 13 percent said they trusted the media more…A Rasmussen Reports poll found 63 percent of adults believe most major news organizations are more concerned with getting a story first than with getting it right, although that's down from 84 percent in September, 2013 when the same question was asked. Twenty nine percent think getting it right is the priority for most major media groups, up from 10 percent in the earlier survey…Meanwhile, former White House press secretary Ari Fleischer said "media should calm down" after the Trump White House blocked several news organizations from a question-and-answer session. "Calm down everyone," Fleischer, who served as former President George W. Bush’s top spokesman, tweeted. He added that press secretaries should brief all reporters, but noted that the White House staff often meets with "who they want." He also called on media to "stop hyperventilating" after The New York Times' top editor slammed the White House's decision to exclude multiple outlets, including the Times, from the off-camera press "gaggle”…Nobody called it a Trump market  as the Dow on Friday reached its 11^th straight record --- edging closer to the 21000 level --- in closing up 11.44 points to 20821.76.

 

One of the heaviest reported stories of the year, now in its 14th day, is the death via a nerve agent in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia of Kim Jong Nam, exiled older sibling of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un…While print and broadcast media spotlighted the early spring-like weather in sections of the east, none reported that usually warm Las Vegas hit 32 degrees two days in a row late last week…NBC’s 90^th anniversary special with a look back at some iconic TV moments, hit series and breakout stars failed to mention news coverage of Korean and Vietnam wars and correspondents teamed with photographers who dodged bullets and incoming shells while reporting from battlefields…Adolf Hitler's telephone was sold at auction in the U.S. for $243,000. Bidder’s name was not released. The phone was presented to Hitler by the Wehrmacht and was used by the Nazi leader to issue most of his commands during the last two years.

 

Going on the high seas: 

A Shanghai shipyard is building China’s first ocean-going cruise ship.

But will it contain a spa?

One singer in 360-member choir gets media attention

Getting an unusual play in print and broadcast media over several days at year end and into the new year was the focus on a single singer who quit the 360-member Mormon Tabernacle Choir because she does not want to participate at President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration, notes Grumpy Editor.

Jan Chamberlin posted her resignation letter to choir leaders on her Facebook page, writing that by performing at the Jan. 20 inaugural, the choir will appear to be "endorsing tyranny and fascism."

Yet no comments were sought from any of the other 359 members going to Washington to sing.

Coverage was extended when retiring Sen. Harry Reid (D., Nev.) jumped into the fray, issuing a statement to The Salt Lake Tribune that he admires people like Chamberlin who "reject tyranny and fascism and do what they can to stand up for what is right."

As one of the oldest and largest choirs in the world, the Mormon Tabernacle Choir has performed before presidents over the years.

The choir has sold millions of records, won scores of awards and enthralled audiences in more than two dozen countries.

Based in Salt Lake City, the choir --- which practices and performs weekly --- is composed of volunteers, age 25 to 60, all members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.

In zeroing in on the one choir member, much of U.S. media missed North Korea leader Kim Jong Un trumpeting his country was in the “last stage” of preparations to test fire an inter-continental ballistic missile.

Kim, in a New Year address, hinted at progress in developing the ICBM while outlining his regime’s military achievements over the past year.

Bloomberg reported Cheong Seong-chang, a North Korea analyst at the Sejong Institute near Seoul, said the regime may test a missile before Kim’s birthday on Sunday or Trump’s inauguration.

 

IN CASE YOUR FAVORITE NEWS OUTLETS MISSED THESE…

Also missing some editors’ eyes was a report that China's lone aircraft carrier Liaoning planned to prowl the Pacific as the communist nation seeks to assert its military might and build up its naval warfare capabilities. In an editorial, China's state-run Global Times said the carrier’s area of operation could soon include the Eastern Pacific --- and the U.S. West Coast…The Washington Examiner reported, "President Obama's lame duck administration poured on thousands more new regulations in 2016 at a rate of 18 for every new law passed,” adding, “while Congress passed just 211 laws, Obama's team issued an accompanying 3,852 new federal regulations”…Among endangered professions tracked by CareerCast.com, newspaper reporters (No. 9 on the top 10 list) are being hit by a shift from print to online medium and the loss of associated revenue. Topping the list: mail carriers…CNN’s Don Lemon was happier than usual on camera during New Year’s Eve coverage. In New Orleans, he spent the night downing tequila shots.

 

Austin Raishbrook, a freelance photojournalist in Los Angeles, rescued a man from a burning car on Interstate Freeway 110 while other freelance photojournalists arrived to film the action.

Washington Post, others focus on 'Trump voice' from 1991

Six months to go before the presidential election and MSNBC and CNN late last week and over the weekend spent chunks of time focusing on a fuzzy tape recording said to be from 25 years ago in which a voice, described by the Washington Post as that of Donald Trump supposedly pretending to be his publicist, observed Grumpy Editor.

The "revelation" spilled over to Fox News Sunday when Chris Wallace brought it up at the program's opening.  It continued to be active on other news channels, too.

Hey, media forget that many corporate executives put on a PR hat to tout company happenings.

Interestingly, the journalist for People magazine who did the interview said in a TV interview aired Saturday that it was not Trump's voice.

With eyes on the Nov. 8 election, the Washington Post has assembled a team of 20 journalists to dig into Trump doings over the years in an attempt to uncover other "gems" like the "pretend PR person."

Writers of the Washington Post story described the voice on the tape as "instantly familiar; the tone, confident, even cocky; the cadence, distinctly Trumpian. The man on the phone vigorously defending Donald Trump says he’s a media spokesman named John Miller, but then he says, 'I’m sort of new here,' and 'I’m somebody that he knows and I think somebody that he trusts and likes' and even 'I’m going to do this a little, part time, and then, yeah, go on with my life.'”

Trump on Friday denied he used to pose as his own public relations representative to handle reporters and place stories, shooting down the Washington Post piece. "It doesn’t sound like my voice at all,” Trump said in a TV interview.

Meanwhile, a shocking headline over a revealing story in Army Times --- Army shrinks to smallest level since before World War II --- did not grab attention of print and broadcast editors.

 

IN CASE YOUR FAVORITE NEWS OUTLETS MISSED THESE...

Something that would never happen on TV a decade ago: soccer coverage boots NBC’s “Meet the Press.” The hour-long Sunday morning public affairs program that first aired on Nov. 6, 1947 --- making it the longest-running program in U.S. television history --- was pre-empted yesterday for English Premier League soccer…More on media's pre-election breathless behavior:  TV folks were excited for several days prior to Trump's 45-minute meeting Thursday with House speaker Paul Ryan. MSNBC even ran a countdown clock leading up to the meeting and at one point Fox News, CNN and MSNBC were live showing the large gathering of reporters, cameramen and producers outside the building as part of wall-to-wall coverage...Word creeped out that McClatchy Co., which operates 29 daily newspapers in 14 states, will replace 120 to 150 information technology U.S. workers, shifting the talent to an India-based IT services provider...Google said it will ban ads from payday lenders, calling the industry "deceptive" and "harmful"...American Banker reported hackers believed to be working from China accessed computer systems of top officials at the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., according to a top House lawmaker investigating the incident...While financial writers cited Macy's worst quarterly sales since the recession, they failed to note another announcement on the same day ---  a Macy's dividend increase to 37.75 cents a share from 36 cents...Despite a hefty precipitation boost in recent months, California Gov. Jerry Brown said the Golden State needs to maintain a permanent readiness against what he termed the likelihood of more droughts fueled by --- climate change.  For example, that means banning the hosing of sidewalks and driveways.  Meanwhile, some cool weather news in this era of global warming:  La Nina, a weather pattern marked by a cooling of the Pacific Ocean’s surface, could begin as soon as summer in the Northern Hemisphere. Then there was a cold front that moved across the northeast over the weekend resulting in temperatures 15 to 25 degrees below average.  Yes, the climate is always changing.

A play on words in a Drudge Report headline --- referring to Hillary Clinton and West Virginia -- brought a laugh to Grumpy Editor:

NOW MINERS GIVE HER THE COAL SHOULDER

Media focus heavily on disruptions at Trump events

Grumpy Editor asks if you've had enough of the same video footage --- focusing on noisy, disruptive protesters at Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump's Chicago rally --- that has been repeated over and over since Friday night.  Clips are still running today. 

Enough already.

That's why TV news watchers are switching to the Animal Planet channel.

Newspapers joined in with a parade of action photos of protesters at the University of Illinois-Chicago. Many of the protesters, including students, jumped up and down with their arms in the air.  TV news directors relish such animation coupled with some physical confrontations. 

A typical protester, facing a Fox News Channel camera Friday night, was asked why she was among protesters.  She replied that she had no idea why she was shouting against Trump, who cancelled the rally.

MSNBC, Fox News and CNN mostly went wall to wall with the yelling and fist-waving action while NBC, CBS and ABC used the Chicago (and later other protests over the weekend) to lead off network news programs.

Associated Press on Saturday fed a lengthy report --- Analysis: Chicago chaos tests Trump promises of unity.  It contained the line: "The Chicago chaos presents the biggest leadership test yet for the Republican outsider, the deeply divided Republican Party and an even more sharply splintered nation that he seeks to lead."

(What do trouble-seeking protesters have to do with Trump's "biggest leadership test"?  And note how "deeply divided Republican Party" was worked in, while "more sharply splintered nation" is pinned on a GOP presidential candidate rather than the current White House occupant. )

Another AP story ended with:  "But many of the protesters in Chicago said they were there specifically to stop Trump from speaking." 

Just think how some political writers would treat a baseball game with some fans shrieking at an umpire's call in a crucial matchup leading to a brawl by the home team at second base. They probably would blame the team’s owner.

Many observers agreed with Trump that the Chicago ruckus was "a planned attack."

 

IN CASE YOUR FAVORITE NEWS OUTLETS MISSED THESE...

Defense Secretary Ashton Carter approved plans from the military services and Special Operations Command to open up all combat jobs to women, and authorized the military to begin integrating female combat soldiers immediately…A CardHub.com study found Americans in last year’s fourth quarter added more than $52 billion in credit card debt, making it the largest pace of credit card debt increase since the Great Recession…While going on for decades, the Washington Post brought it up again last week with: Pay doesn’t look the same for men and women at top newspapers…Sleepy state? Centers for Disease Control found residents of the Great Plains states have the highest prevalence of “healthy sleep duration” --- especially in South Dakota, where 71.6 percent of residents sleep more than seven hours a day…Not so bright earnings picture? Bloomberg View noted corporate profits have dropped three out of the last four quarters, adding that usually means a recession for the U.S. economy…Lawmakers introduced a bill that would limit airline fees for checked bags, ticket changes and cancellations, claiming the practice is similar to price gouging.

Surveys galore:

Americans are getting fed up with surveys (asking “how are we doing”?) that come via telephone (quizzers say “it will only take three to five minutes”), e-mail and snail mail.  Newspapers and magazines are among the survey-takers.

Media ignore ID of 'Muslim quizzer' at N.H. Trump event

 

Media chatter continued over the weekend on the “Obama Muslim question” stemming from a first question at a Donald Trump town hall meeting Thursday in Rochester, N.H.

With many media members at that gathering, plus heavy broadcast and print discussion for four days now, Grumpy Editor is amazed that no journalist sought to contact the questioner (who, surprisingly, remains unidentified, along with political affiliation) and is labeled by some media (without confirmation) as a Trump supporter.

The voice of the questioner projected well, sounding like he had a broadcasting background.

While some media, and a number of politicians, wrongly link the Muslim identification to Trump, he had nothing to do with it.  Muslin simply was not uttered by the front runner for the Republican nomination.

Here’s what the questioner said and Trump’s response:

MYSTERY MAN: “We have a problem in this country.  It’s called Muslims. We know our current president is one. We know he’s not even an American.  We have training camps growing where they want to kill us. That’s my question.  When can we get rid of them?”

TRUMP:  “We’re going to be looking at a lot of different things.  A lot of people are saying that and a lot of people are saying that bad things are happening out there. We’re going to be looking at that and plenty of other things.”

That exchange kicked off a barrage of anti-Trump coverage as most media cried that Trump did not correct the audience member.

Among heavy print and broadcast coverage examples:

A lingering on-screen headline on Friday night’s “Kelly File” with Megyn Kelly on the Fox News Channel read: Firestorm over exchange at Trump event

Headline on a U.S. News &World Report story on the web:  Trump Supporter Calls Obama a Muslim

The headline at CNN’s website proclaimed:  Trump doesn't challenge anti-Muslim questioner at event

Sunday's This Week with George Stephanopoulos on ABC:  Trump Faces New Problem

On Saturday, Trump defended himself for not correcting the audience member, declaring: “Am I morally obligated to defend the president every time somebody says something bad or controversial about him?  I don't think so.  If someone made a nasty or controversial statement about me to the president, do you really think he would come to my rescue? No chance.”

Also interesting:  Two days before the New Hampshire town hall, Bloomberg’s Mark Halperin wrote  Trump “has proven to be unlike any other candidate in modern American politics. Top strategists for Trump’s rivals and some corporate and conservative interests are working with opposition researchers, messaging experts and focus-group gurus to find some plausible scheme to end what has already become an enduring nightmare for much of the Republican establishment: Donald Trump, Front-Runner.” 

In case you missed these…

A report from Washington said President Barack Obama planned to talk tough to China’s president in their meeting this week regarding hackers in the communist country stealing U.S. government and corporate data…Feeling pinched --- or richer?  The Census Bureau said U.S. median household income of $53,657 last year was 6.5 percent below the 2007 median of $57,357 --- before the most recent recession.  In contrast, a Federal Reserve report said wealth of American households reached a new peak in the second quarter, boosted by real estate values…Getting minimum coverage in U.S. media:  Taliban insurgents blasted their way into a maximum-security prison in eastern Afghanistan last week, allowing 355 prisoners to escape.  The question:  Could some of these escaped hard-core, anti-U.S. tough guys blend in with refugees or mix in with others crossing the southern U.S. border?...While Washington was focusing on Iran and its nuclear development, North Korea declared its main nuclear complex was operating, its  nuclear weapons arsenal has improved in “quality and quantity” ---  and threatened to use those weapons “any time” against the U.S…More trimming at a daily newspaper.  Restructuring at the Times-Picayune, New Orleans, will result in an overall reduction of 28 full-time and nine part-time newsroom staffers.

 

Among some of the goofy questions during last week’s GOP presidential debate on CNN, moderator Jake Tapper asked the candidates what code name they'd like the Secret Service to use in identifying them.

 

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Reporters unload colorful words to describe Trump

 

With scores of media members following Donald Trump as he makes the rounds around the country as a Republican presidential candidate --- with the highest poll numbers ---  wide editorializing prevails in stories, notes Grumpy Editor.

As an example, here’s how writers Steve Holland and Andy Sullivan describe Trump in a lengthy Reuters story in Saturday newspapers, following his visit to the U.S.-Mexico border:

“The mud-slinging mogul with a complicated hairdo”… (worked into the lead).

“Trump’s trash-talking ways and eye for the spotlight”…

“Trump’s headline-grabbing antics”…

"Trump’s anti-immigrant rhetoric”…(leaving out the word illegal preceding immigrant, as many others in broadcast/print media continue to do).

Reuters’ own tracking poll, updated on Thursday, shows Trump tied with Jeb Bush for the lead (with 16 percent of the vote) in the GOP presidential race.

(A CNN poll, released Sunday, showed Trump getting 18 percent support among Republicans, with Bush in second place with 15 percent.)

With Trump among the 10 top candidates at the first televised debate next week, the Reuters writers indicated concern, with Trump facing cameras, about the two-hour Fox News session degenerating “into a carnival-barking sideshow.”

Fretting in the third paragraph that Trump may dominate air time, the Reuters writers admitted deep in their story:  “In past years front-runners have held a central position on stage and received a greater share of questions and speaking time.”

Yet none of this raised editors’ eyebrows.

Stay tuned.

            +                        +                        +             

No interest in The Donald?

Donald Trump’s visit to the U.S.-Mexico border near Laredo, Texas on Thursday attracted about 100 media folks who filled two press buses.  At a news conference, about 15 microphones faced him.

 

IN CASE YOUR FAVORITE NEWS OUTLETS MISSED THESE…

Among those accompanying President Barack Obama on Air Force One on his Africa visit were more than a dozen members of Congress from both parties and both houses…Unhappy with a Des Moines Register editorial calling for him to pull out of the GOP race, Donald Trump banned the paper from attending his Iowa campaign event on Saturday…Usually news on jobless claims reaching a 41-year low would give the stock market a boost.  But Thursday’s Labor Department figures showing workers filing for jobless benefits in the week ended July 18 fell by 26,000 to a seasonally-adjusted 255,000 had little effect with the Dow Industrials losing 119.12 points to 17731.92 that day, then slumping another 163.39 points to 17568.53 on Friday…While it usually takes one or two years for U.S. agencies to compile wide-ranging, multi-source figures, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) in just three weeks from the end of June said global land and sea surface temperatures in this year’s first six months were 1.53 degrees Fahrenheit above the 20th century average…Stars and Stripes reported a study found 271,000 Vietnam veterans suffer from PTSD, with symptoms like flashbacks, nightmares and startle reactions, with a third of them also suffering from depression or anxiety…NewsBusters pointed out “another example of bias by omission” by ABC, CBS and NBC television networks in not covering Tuesday’s Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on sanctuary cities and murders committed by illegal immigrants who benefitted from the policy.  It added, “Fox News Channel’s Special Report was there to pick up the pieces left by their network equivalents with a full segment”…With 122 prisoners remaining, the White House is in final stages to shutter the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba…Nikkei Inc., Japan’s largest media company, purchased Britain’s Financial Times (known for printing on tan newsprint) for about $1.3 billion…Final edition of San Diego’s The Daily Transcript, which began publishing in 1886, will be on Sept. 1…Fortune magazine’s Global 500 list, out this week, placed Walmart as the world's largest company by revenues, while the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China was number one in profits.

 

Snail mail sidetracked.

A Philadelphia postal service carrier was accused of stashing 22,500 pieces of mail in his car and garbage bags in his garage over an eight-month period.  But the undelivered pieces were finally on the way to intended recipients last week.

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