Grumpy Editor

CALIFORNIA EARTHQUAKE OVERDUE, WARNS L. A. TIMES

Following the major earthquake in Turkey-Syria, the Los Angeles Times warned a major shaker is overdue in California, notes Grumpy Editor.

It mentioned an earthquake the size of the one that made headlines last week would bring devastation and death to Southern California, citing "A quake as strong as magnitude 8.2 is possible on the southern San Andreas fault and would bring disaster to all of Southern California simultaneously, with the fault rupturing from near the Mexican border to Monterey County.

“Such an earthquake would cause widespread damage from Palm Springs to San Luis Obispo — and everything in between,” it added.

Among the impacts, the report mentioned:

• Death toll could be among the worst for a natural disaster in U.S. history: nearly 1,800.
• Los Angeles County could suffer the highest death toll, more than 1,000, followed by Orange County, with more than 350 dead.
• Nearly 50,000 could be injured.
• Main freeways to Las Vegas and Phoenix that cross the San Andreas fault would be destroyed.
• Some 500,000 to 1 million people could be displaced from their homes.
• Southern California could be isolated for some time, with the region surrounded by mountains and earthquake faults.
• Major utilities such as gas, power and cell service would likely be severely compromised.

California’s most famous earthquake was the epic 1906 shaker from the San Andreas fault that smacked San Francisco.

 

IN CASE YOUR FAVORITE NEWS OUTLETS MISSED THESE…

 

BEER SALES SOAR WITH SUPER BOWL GAME. For the Super Bowl game yesterday, it is estimated that nearly half (47 percent) the viewers purchased beer for the high viewership match.

 

NORTH KOREA SHOWS OFF LONG-RANGE NUCLEAR MISSILES.  A North Korea military parade showcased many long-range nuclear missiles to illustrate the country is producing missiles than can cross the Pacific.

 

WOODPECKERS STORE 700 POUNDS OF ACORNS IN HOME.  A pair of woodpeckers in Sonoma County, California, stored a massive 700 pounds of acorns in the walls of a home.  The birds entered through a hole in the attic.

 

GOLDEN RETRIEVERS FLOOD STREETS IN GOLDEN, COLO.  Over 1,000 Golden Retrievers gathered in appropriately-named Golden, Colo., and strolled the streets for an annual event called “Goldens in Golden,” which honors National Golden Retriever Day.

 

WORLD WAR II BOMB EXPLODES IN ENGLAND.   A World War II bomb exploded in Great Yarmouth, England, on Friday as workers attempted to defuse it.  Luckily, no one was injured in the unplanned detonation.

 

AUTO RENTALS REGAIN STRONG DEMAND.   Hertz Global Holdings reported a better-than-expected quarterly profit, aided by strong demand for rental cars with improved hotel and airline bookings.

Now Obama Administration fears ‘Big One,’ seeks plan

One of the Obama Administration’s major concerns last year was global warming/climate change. Now, barely into 2016, the White House’s major focus is on boosting earthquake-preparedness efforts, notes Grumpy Editor.

“While no one can predict earthquakes, the study of natural hazards and their causes and impacts has put us on the path to creating more effective tools to prevent these hazards from becoming disasters,” says Interior Secretary Sally Jewell.

The White House is gearing up for an “Earthquake Resiliency Summit.”

California, where small, unfelt shakers occur daily, has a 99.7 percent chance of a magnitude 6.7 or larger earthquake in the next 30 years, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

“We have the real opportunity to mitigate damage and save lives if we act now on an early warning system,” declares summit participant Rep. Adam Schiff, (D-Calif.), adding, “the federal government cannot, and will not, fund the system in its entirety.”

So you know what that means.

 

IN CASE YOUR FAVORITE NEWS OUTLETS MISSED THESE…

A bill introduced in the House requires eligible women in to sign up for the military draft. If passed, women 18 to 26 years old, for the first time, would have to join men in registering with the Selective Service program --- and face fighting in future wars…Despite glowing economic reports on U.S. employment (non-farm payrolls increased by 151,000 jobs --- questioned by some --- last month) out of the White House, investors are rethinking expectations for interest-rate increases this year, as more feel the Federal Reserve is unlikely to raise rates next month --- and possibly not this year…The Daily Caller reports a YouGov poll of 18,000 people in 17 countries finds only 9.2 percent of Americans rank global warming as their biggest concern…Would this happen in World War II? The Pentagon releases 198 photos in connection with allegations of abuse or mistreatment of detainees held by the U.S. military in Iraq and Afghanistan from 2001 to 2009, reports ABC News…Eight-year-old Fox Business Network posts its highest overall ratings and highest ratings in the key 25-to 54-year-old demographic in January, tallies Nielsen Media Research…Low oil prices sparks new tax talk. President Barack Obama is seen proposing a $10-a-barrel oil tax to fund a transportation spending plan. That would translate into 25 cents a gallon more for consumers…In the ho-hum department: Congress (as for decades, with the open-ended, never-settled Korean War in the 1950s) is moving to approve new sanctions on North Korea…The Chicago Stock Exchange says Chongqing Casin Enterprise Group agreed to acquire it, giving the Chinese investor group entry into the U.S. equity market…Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and Rep. Henry Cuella (D-Texas) pressed the Department of Homeland Security to explain why the agency plans to reduce aerial surveillance on the Texas-Mexico border…CNSNews reports the head of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps Navy says if the U.S. seeks to humiliate Iran, the IRGC would release footage of the 10 U.S. sailors detained last month that is much more embarrassing than images released earlier…Risky business: A KGTV, San Diego reporter-photographer team is injured when a tree toppled on them in Mira Mesa.

Oops!

A Wall Street Journal story reports Linkedin Corp. fourth quarter revenue incorrectly as $861.9 billion rather than million.

Visit Santa Catalina ‘soon’ --- researcher: island sinking

 

The Los Angeles Times, which likes to shake up readers periodically with earthquake stories, came up with a slightly different version over the weekend, with word from a researcher that sinking Santa Catalina island, a tourist destination off the Southern California coast, could pose a tsunami threat, observed Grumpy Editor.

And when is this likely to happen?

Times writer Rong-Gong Lin II, in the 13^th paragraph of the story, indicated the researcher, Stanford graduate student Chris Castillo who presented his study at the Seismological Society of America meeting in Pasadena last week, estimated Santa Catalina is sinking an average of one millimeter every five years.

Translation:  one inch in 127 years.

Underwater imaging, according to the researcher, suggested Santa Catalina could be fully submerged and the movement could pose a tsunami risk for Los Angeles and Orange counties --- in three million years.

Stay tuned.

 

FYI, IN  CASE YOUR FAVORITE EDITORS MISSED THESE…

Relax, folks, world peace prevails.  In an interview with MSNBC’s Chris Matthews, President Barack Obama said, “I remind people that, you know, there actually is probably less war and less violence around the world today than there might have been 30, 40 years ago. It doesn’t make it any less painful but things can get better”…Meanwhile, as Obama spoke about the dire threat of climate change/global warming Wednesday at the Everglades in south Florida, China’s top nuclear experts warned that North Korea may have 20 nuclear warheads and could double its arsenal by next year.  Range of its nuclear bomb on a ballistic missile could reach the western United States…For those seeking to know the names of the 10 Senate Republicans who, despite being urged by conservative groups and others to vote against confirmation of Loretta Lynch as attorney general, voted along with Democrats for her: joining Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell, Ky., were Orrin Hatch, Utah; Lindsey Graham, S.C., Jeff Flake, Ariz.; Thad Cochran, Miss.; Susan Collins, Maine; Mark Kirk, Ill.; Kelly Ayotte, N.H.; Ron Johnson, Wis., and Rob Portman, Ohio…Investigation continued on reports members of the University of Florida’s chapter of the Zeta Beta Tau fraternity spit on disabled wounded veterans and their service dogs and urinated on American flags while both groups were at a Panama City Beach resort.  An attorney said the incident could qualify as a hate crime with additional battery charges for the students involved…U.S. media, in reporting ousted Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi sentenced by an Egyptian court to 20 years in jail for his role during protests in 2012, overlooked mention of his stay in the U.S. when he became a lecturer at California State University, Northridge, in the San Fernando Valley, and later an assistant professor from 1982 to 1985.  He also worked for NASA in the early 1980s…CNN hired 40 political reporters to beef up coverage of campaigns leading  to next year’s elections…While a ticket for the Floyd Mayweather Jr.-Manny Pacquiao megafight May 2 in Las Vegas went into thousands of dollars, watching the action via 50,000 closed circuit TV sets at 10 MGM Resorts International properties on the Las Vegas Strip sold out when offered Thursday.  Charge per TV set:  $150 plus a handling fee.

 

Reporters covering Hillary Clinton in her presidential campaign will be busy dodging traffic in Los Angeles on May 7 where three back-to-back fund raisers are planned.

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Swarm of earthquakes shakes up some news outlets

Grumpy Editor finds the Los Angeles Times newsroom gets excited over the word “earthquake” and via its website or print version almost daily reports shakers (no matter how small), mostly in California.  On Friday the newspaper came up with:  Swarm of earthquakes in Nevada desert is intensifying

The swarm’s location, to be precise, is about 525 miles from the L.A. Times building at 1^st and Spring Streets in Los Angeles.  The report pinpointed the location in Nevada’s extreme northwest corner, 50 miles southeast of Lakeview, Ore., a sparsely-populated area. 

The report, by a staff writer, pointed out “about 750 earthquakes, mostly magnitude 2.0 to 3.0, have struck the area” since July. 

Deep into the story, John Vidale, director of the Pacific Northwest Seismic Network at the University of Washington, said:  “It doesn't necessarily mean anything big is coming, but it does raise the risk there will be a bigger quake in the future.  Ninety-nine percent of the time nothing too dramatic happens, but every now and then there is a good pop and everyone asks why we didn't predict it."

Other media picked up the report.  But the Las Vegas Review-Journal, Nevada’s largest newspaper, didn’t run the swarms information until two days later.  It covered the subject in nine sentences via Reuters.  

CNN on Saturday mentioned, ‘The vast majority of the current Nevada swarm's quakes have been undetectable to people walking around on top of them.”

In San Francisco, where talk of earthquakes easily shakes up residents, KCBS radio’s website on Friday spotlighted the event under the headline:  Ongoing Earthquake Swarm In Nevada Increasing Chances For A ‘Big One’ 

USA Today jumped into the shaker act on Saturday picking up, in part, information contained in the L.A. Times and CNN stories. 

Most interesting, however, was the earthquake swarms story on Nov. 6 (a day before the L.A. Times version) in the Herald and News, Klamath Falls, Ore.  It was written by the newspaper’s editor, Gerry O’Brien --- from a press release.

 

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

This just in:  Continuing its focus on earthquakes, today’s L.A. Now section on the L.A. Times website reports a magnitude 4.1 shaker at a depth of 6.8 miles in the Pacific with the epicenter 69 miles from Newport Beach in Orange County.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++=

 

IN CASE YOUR FAVORITE NEWS OUTLETS MISSED THESE…  

A reminder as frigid Arctic air makes its way today to the central plains and then eastward with temperatures 20 to 40 degrees below normal: A recent Gallup poll found concern over climate change ranked last among 16 issues voters cared about in the midterm  elections…In the “huh?” department.  The lead to a story in the Nov. 6 Wall Street Journal:  "Electric car maker Tesla Motors Inc. reported a wider third quarter loss"…  Then the next day in the newspaper's “The Good News” portion of “Stocks in the News” feature:  Tesla stock was up $10.25 a share stemming from, as the WSJ put it: “The electric car maker beat earnings forecasts”…A top-of-the-hour ABC News item on radio Friday focused on Home Depot announcing about 53 million customer email addresses were stolen by hackers.  That was in addition to earlier reports that 56 million credit card accounts were compromised.  That news was followed by a Home Depot commercial…How many times with the same “warning” over the past few months?  Federal Reserve officials on Friday warned about market turbulence as the central bank prepares to raise short-term interest rates next year…Reuters decided to stop allowing readers to comment on its online stories…As Thanksgiving approaches, a reminder from the Associated Press Style Book on bread-related items:  With breadbox, breadcrumb, breadstick and cornbread, keep it a single word.  But not bread pudding…Operation United Assistance, the U.S. military mission to combat Ebola in West Africa, likely will last until 2016, according to Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

 

After Tuesday’s voting results, Harry Reid (D-Nev.), outgoing Senate majority leader who has shelved hundreds of House-passed bills, declared:  “I look forward to working with (incoming Republican majority leader) Sen. McConnell to get things done for the middle class.”

N.Y. Times story omits Mexico gulps Colorado River water

With “global warming” getting socked following an ice-stuck Russian ship with “warming” followers aboard during summertime in the Antarctic along with record cold over most of the U.S. last week plus Southern California getting another round of earthquake perils stories, media are turning to another periodic nature-triggered standby:  drought, with a lengthy New York Times feature as a prime example, notes Grumpy Editor.

The N.Y. Times story focuses on the 1,450-mile Colorado River “being sapped by 14 years of drought nearly unrivaled in 1,250 years.” 

(One wonders who was measuring the river flow going back to 728 years before Columbus discovered America.) 

N.Y. Times writer Michael Wines relates “many experts believe the current drought is only the harbinger of a new, drier era in which the Colorado’s flow will be substantially and permanently diminished.” 

(The Colorado River depends mainly on Rocky Mountains snow melt.  Precipitation varies from year to year, as any meteorologist will explain.  Thus, a period of low measurement could be followed by an above-average or a record-breaking tally.) 

Most interesting in the N.Y. Times piece is that while citing the Colorado River provides water to Utah, New Mexico, Colorado, Wyoming, Arizona, Nevada and California ---  and that drought-linked possible rationing lies ahead --- a vital missing word in the article is Mexico.

Mexico siphons 1.5 million acre-feet out of the 16.5 million acre-feet per year from the Colorado River and Lake Mead, stemming from appropriations in a 1944 treaty.  That’s five times the allotment of a skimpy 300,000 acre-feet annually for the whole state of Nevada, not just Las Vegas as reported by some media.

 

In case you missed these…

FAST WORK BY MAJOR TV NETWORKS.  Media Research Center President Brent Bozell points out how the big three TV networks jumped on New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and the bridge traffic case by devoting “17 times more coverage to this story in one day, one day, than they devoted to the IRS scandal in six months."

A NO-NO IN NEWSPAPERS BUT OKAY ON THE BIG SCREEN.  Current showing of the Martin Scorsese-directed film, "The Wolf of Wall Street," contains more than 500 utterances of the f-word.  Now, that’s entertainment and explains why the repeated word contributes to the footage extending to three hours.

“MADE IN CHINA” FOOTAGE STANDS IN FOR L.A.  “Here,” a currently-playing film, snubs the real City of the Angels with scenes of a future Los Angeles --- shot in Pudong, a district of Shanghai.

BUT WHAT WAS ON THE MENU?  In a simple move to offset Washington media’s frustration on the administration’s policy of limiting photos to those taken by the official White House photographer, press photographers last Wednesday were allowed to photograph a weekly President Obama-Vice President Biden lunch meeting.

SUNDAY MORNING NEWS SHOWS REACH MILESTONES.  CBS’ Face the Nation, is now in its 60^th year on the network.  The program expanded to one hour in many markets in 2012 and became the most watched Sunday public affairs program for the 2012-2013 season.  Bob Schieffer has been at the helm for the past 23 years.  NBC’s “Meet the Press,” longest running similar Sunday offering, marks 67 years later in 2014.

TV NEWS VIEWERS FADE.  Pew Research analysis of Nielsen Media Research figures show TV network news viewers fell to 24.5 million last year from an average 48 million in 1985.   The findings note the 18 to 29 age group is the least likely to watch network news regularly --- just 11 percent did so in 2012 --- and 49 percent in that category say they never watch TV news.

MAGAZINE COVER STORIES FOCUS ON CLUTTER.  “Get Cash for Your Clutter” is in Woman’s Day, with a two-pager in the February issue, while Better Homes and Gardens features “Clutter Nightmares Solved” spread over five pages in the January issue.

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Upper and Lower #ColoradoRiver water supply forecasts issued by the NRCS

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L.A. Times pinpoints apartments over earthquake fault

The Los Angeles Times, in the quiet news period between Christmas and New Year’s Day, came up with another periodic earthquake story to shake up readers and in the process made it difficult for future rentals of two under-construction apartment projects, notes Grumpy Editor.

Under bylines of three staffers citing a Times analysis focusing on Los Angeles and Santa Monica, the Dec. 30 story mentioned approvals by those cities of “more than a dozen construction projects on or near two well-known faults without requiring seismic studies to determine if the buildings could be destroyed in an earthquake.” 

Pinpointing a West Los Angeles address of a 49-unit apartment complex under construction, the story pointed out a 2010 state map “suggests the (Santa Monica) fault could sit directly under the apartments.”

Also mentioned was the address of  a west side 63-unit apartment building being built and the same fault “could be under the site,” said the writers who added an estimated 1,400 buildings have been erected on or next to Santa Monica or Hollywood earthquake faults. 

The story followed an October Times piece that reported “more than 1,000 old concrete buildings in Los Angeles and hundreds more throughout the county may be at risk of collapsing in a major earthquake.”

 

In case you missed these… 

KEEPING THE LID ON GLOBAL WARMING.  While there was much coverage of the Russian ship Akademic Shokalskiy getting stuck in Antarctic ice and its 48 passengers rescued and now are aboard an Australian ship, little was mentioned that it is the summer season in the Southern Hemisphere, and passengers were on a global warming mission. Mike Ciandella at NewsBusters tallied 40 out of 41 stories on TV network news shows since Dec. 25 “failed to mention climate change had anything to do with the expedition.”

A SMOKING HEADLINE.  Colorado pot smokers start 2014 on a high note was the clever headline over an Al Kamen New Year’s Day Washington Post story on Colorado becoming the first state to set up a system for legal cultivation and sale of marijuana. 

‘SELFIE’ USAGE GETS BAD MARKS.  Topping Lake Superior (Mich.) State University’s 2014 list of banished words:  selfie, which means snapping one’s own image via a smartphone.  Runners-up were twerky/twerking and hashtag. 

VETERAN COLUMNIST TURNS LAWYER.  Frank Mickadeit, Orange County (Calif.) Register columnist for 10 years, passed the bar and entered the new year with a Costa Mesa, Calif., law firm.  Before clearing out his newspaper desk, he issued this advice:  "Never talk to a reporter without your lawyer present." 

A Gallup poll ranking “high” or “very high” honesty and ethical standards of 22 professions placed newspaper reporters 15^th on the list and TV reporters 17^th.  Topping the rankings were pharmacists while lobbyists were at the bottom.

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Another scary L.A. earthquake story shakes readers

Another scary L.A. earthquake story shakes readers

In a periodic reminder that Los Angeles area residents live in an earthquake zone, the Los Angeles Times produced another shaker piece last week, this time focusing on “more than 1,000 old concrete buildings in Los Angeles and hundreds more throughout the county may be at risk of collapsing in a major earthquake,” observed Grumpy Editor. 

The triple-byline story, based on a Times analysis, pointed out many older concrete structures “are vulnerable to the sideways movement of a major earthquake because they don't have enough steel reinforcing bars to hold columns in place.” 

Earthquake forecasts aimed at Californians seem to be an almost annual ritual to shake up readers and residents who don’t need to be reminded they are in earthquake territory, just as other parts of the country are susceptible to hurricanes, overflowing rivers, tornadoes and blizzards. 

Prior “shake ‘em up” stories by the Associated Press warned: 

+ California faces an almost certain risk of being rocked by a strong earthquake by 2037, citing a seismic forecast by scientists that pointed to a magnitude 6.7 quake (equal to the 1994 Northridge jolt) or larger.

+  A hypothetical model indicated a 7.8 magnitude earthquake would “see Los Angeles and its suburbs shake like a bowl of jelly” in less than two minutes and 50,000 people would be injured. 

+  “Seismic jiggling” via a swarm of small earthquakes near the southern end of the San Andreas Fault has some people wondering if the “swarm is just a warm-up to a major quake,” causing serious damage to the greater Los Angeles region.

Separately, the Los Angeles Times said it will no longer print letters from “climate change deniers.”

The newspaper’s letters editor declared, “Saying there's no sign humans have caused climate change is not stating an opinion, it's asserting a factual inaccuracy.”

In case you missed these…

 

Two contrasting items on Verizon Communications Inc. in Friday’s Wall Street Journal.  In “the good news” portion of its “Stocks in the News” feature, the WSJ pointed out Verizon’s $1.65 gain in Thursday’s trading was attributed to “the phone carrier reported 40 percent growth in third quarter net income.” A few pages away, the headline on a long story read, “Verizon Reports Slowdown In Growth.”  Nevertheless, Verizon’s stock added another $1.11 in Friday’s trading to close at $50.01.

Delayed by the partial U.S. government shutdown, the September employment report from the Labor Department will be released tomorrow while this month’s employment data will be pushed back a week to Nov. 8.  Meanwhile, in a two-week delay, the consumer price index, measuring inflation, was set for Oct. 30 release.

Bloomberg Businessweek veered from focusing on business to slamming the tea party with the cover of its current issue showing Ted Cruz, R-Texas, dressed as the Mad Hatter with the line:  The Tea Party Won.  Ted Cruz and his band of dead enders took the U.S. through the looking glass. Now crazy is the new normal…Also indicating its political stance with the partial shutdown (neutrality used to be emphasized in journalism) was Thursday's NBC Nightly News, with anchor Brian Williams declaring:  “Politically, it's widely agreed to have been a big loss and self-inflicted wound mostly for the Republican Party."

A key reason why young people do not read newspapers and magazines: CNSNews.com reported an international survey from the U.S. Department of Education's National Center for Education Statistics found Americans’ adult skills in literacy were tied in 15^th place (with Germany) among 23 advanced economies. Top three?  Japan, Finland and The Netherlands.  See the tally here…Latest Rasmussen Reports national survey found 78 percent of likely U.S. voters would vote to oust the entire Congress and start over again.

 Bank your dollars.  This is National Save for Retirement Week.

Now that the 16-day partial government shutdown is over, look for the recent days’ overused phrase --- kick the can down the road --- not popping up again until deep into the holiday season...prior to another crisis looming early next year.

 

Casey Anthony trial tops Bing’s 2011 most searched list

Already, one month before year’s end, and a Bing top 10 list of most searched news stories for 2011 is the first out of the chute, notes Grumpy Editor. 

Search engine Bing, from Microsoft Corp., tallied news items on high profile trials of Casey Anthony (tops on the list) and Michael Jackson/Dr. Conrad Murray (No. 7) as among those getting the most attention. 

Also sought by inquisitive minds were natural disasters Hurricane Irene (No. 3), Japan’s earthquake and tsunami (No. 4) and the Joplin tornado (No. 6). 

Remembrances ranking high included the 9/11 10-year anniversary (No. 8) and the one-year anniversary of the Haiti earthquake (No. 10). 

How they stacked up for Bing searchers: 

• Casey Anthony trial
• Osama bin Laden death
• Hurricane Irene
• Japan earthquake/tsunami
• Amy Winehouse death
• Joplin tornado
• Michael Jackson/Dr. Conrad Murray trial
• 9/11 10-year anniversary
• Republican candidates Herman Cain, Rick Perry
• Haiti anniversary 

Interestingly, nothing connected to Congress, jobs, taxes, economy or unusual stock market gyrations made the top 10.

 

AP mixes earthquakes, wildfires with global warming

With an unusual amount of extreme weather this year --- including hurricanes, tropical storms, tornadoes, blizzards, heat and drought --- it wasn’t a surprise to see an Associated Press story on nature’s fury appear over the weekend that suggested recent meteorological events were linked to global warming, notes Grumpy Editor. 

And to complete nature’s action so far in 2011, writer Seth Borenstein worked into the story’s second paragraph non-meteorological-related recent Virginia, Colorado and Alaska earthquakes plus record wildfires in Arizona and New Mexico. 

The story cited Germany-based insurance company Munich Re tallied 98 natural disasters in the U.S. in this year’s first half, “about double the average in the 1990s” --- without indicating how many were related to weather. 

Nevertheless, recent “weather catastrophes” gave the writer an opportunity to compose this Las Vegas-style line: 

“Man-made global warming is increasing the odds of getting a bad roll of the dice." 

In summarizing what climate scientists said, toward the end of the text the writer mentioned, “Individual weather disasters so far can’t be directly attributed to global warming, but”… 

Thus, the global warming saga continues.

 

Look for another ‘Big One’ quake story to appear soon

In the wake of three major earthquakes in the news since Monday night, don’t be surprised to soon see another in a series (with Associated Press the best candidate) pointing to an upcoming “Big One” in California, figures Grumpy Editor. 

Inspiration comes from a 5.3 magnitude earthquake that rattled the Colorado-New Mexico border Monday night, a 5.8 shaker than rumbled along the East Coast on Tuesday and a 6.9 temblor that hit northern Peru’s jungle region yesterday. 

Of the trio, the East Coast quake that sent people into the streets in Washington, D.C., and New York City, stirred up the most action, grabbing hefty national air time and newspaper space Tuesday, yesterday and into today. 

Periodically, AP reminds print and broadcast media --- so they can shake up readers/viewers --- that the “Big One” is coming. 

Grumpy Editor feels another reminder is in the works. 

One alarming example from a past AP story:  “California faces an almost certain risk of being rocked by a strong earthquake by 2037.” 

For that outlook, AP cited a seismic forecast by scientists that pointed to a magnitude 6.7 quake (equal to the 1994 Northridge jolt) or larger within 26 years. 

Another past AP “shake ‘em up” story stemmed from a hypothetical model, worked up by scientists, that indicated a mighty 7.8 magnitude earthquake would “see Los Angeles and its suburbs shake like a bowl of jelly” in less than two minutes and 50,000 people would be injured in Southern California. 

That would exceed the estimated 7.7 magnitude quake that rattled the lower section of the San Andreas Fault in Southern California 321 years ago and a 7.8 earth mover 154 years ago in Central California.

However, further earthquake coverage will take a back seat as strengthening Hurricane Irene moves up along the East Coast, affecting some of the same areas hit by Tuesday's shaker.

Weather and related developments such as power outages and flooding will be the focus of news coverage over the next few days and into the weekend.