Grumpy Editor

GLOBAL TEMPERATURE CONTINUES TO RISE

Global average temperature continues to rise, along with the sea level and record-breaking glacier melting in Europe, notes Grumpy Editor.

 

From 2013 to 2022, the global average temperature was an estimated 1.15 degrees Celsius (34.05 degrees Farenheit) above 1850-1900 levels, according to the U.N. agency's provisional State of the Global Climate in 2022 report.

 

"We just had the eight warmest years on record," the U.N. agency revealed, and “the global average temperature in 2022 is about 1.15 °C above the pre-industrial level.”

 

In the last eight years, melting glaciers and warming water have combined to push sea levels o.4 of an inch higher, tallies the World Meteorological Organization.

 

IN CASE YOUR FAVORITE NEWS OUTLETS MISSED THESE…

 

NEW YORK’S ROCKEFELLER PLAZA TREE ARRIVES.  You know Christmas is getting closer when a crane hoists an 82-foot Norway spruce into place Saturday at Rockefeller Plaza, New York, where the 14-ton tree will be festooned with thousands of lights and topped with a star encrusted with millions of crystals --- and lit on Nov. 30.

 

POSTAL SERVICE READY FOR CHRISTMAS RUSH.  The Postal Service has stabilized its work force and is ready for the next challenge of delivering holiday cards and parcels, says Postmaster General Louis DeJoy.

 

$1.5 BILLION IN ARTWORKS SOLD.  Sixty artworks formerly owned by Paul G. Allen, co-founder of Microsoft, are sold at auction for more than $1.5 billion at Christie’s on Wednesday.

 

PINK DIAMOND GOES FOR $28.8 MILLION.  In another auction, a pear-shaped 18-carat pink diamond — largest of its kind — sells at a Geneva auction for $28.8 million, including fees and taxes.  But that is lower than the expected range.

 

PUBLISHING COMPANY MEMBERS GO ON STRIKE.  About 250 New York members of HarperCollins Publishers went on an open-ended strike Thursday in an effort to secure higher wages and improved benefits.

 

U.S. SOLDIER MISSING IN KOREAN WAR IDENTIFIED.  Remains of Tommie T. Hanks, 27, a U.S. soldier reported missing in action in 1950 during the Korean War, have been identified — 72 years later.

 

SENIOR DOGS FLY TO OREGON.  A rescue flight helps 23 senior dogs find homes.  Pet Rescue Pilots, with help from The Grey Muzzle Organization, fly the  dogs from California to Oregon, to help the older pets get adopted.

 

DOG DELIVERS RINGS AT WEDDING. In another dog story, bride and groom Paul and Annette Anthony in Pennsylvania celebrated their wedding in the company of the couple's nine dogs.  One of the canines trotted down the aisle in a custom dress to delive rings for the big moment.

 

BABE RUTH’S GLOVE SELLS FOR $1.5 MILLION.  A baseball glove worn by baseball great Babe Ruth during his time with the New York Yankees in the 1920s sold for a record-setting price of $1.5 million at auction on Saturday.

 

 

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WHAT’S AHEAD: GLOBAL WARMING --- OR BIG CHILL?

Two news stories last week take opposite positions on climate change, observed Grumpy Editor.

One details how global warming from burning of coal, oil and gas is hurting each region of the U.S. and how it impacts different sectors of the economy, including energy and agriculture.

“Climate change is transforming where and how we live and presents growing challenges to human health and quality of life, the economy and the natural systems that support us,” said the report, which garnered coverage on most Sunday morning shows.

It added that worsening air pollution was causing lung and heart problems, more diseases from insects, the potential for an increase in deaths during heat waves and more allergies.

David Easterling, director of the Technical Support Unit at the NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, emphasized climate change the Earth is experiencing is unlike any other, mentioning, “the global average temperature is much higher and is rising more rapidly than anything modern civilization has experienced, and this warming trend can only be explained by human activities.”

On the other hand, Investor’s Business Daily pointed out “NASA data show that global temperatures dropped sharply over the past two years. Not that you'd know it, since that wasn't deemed news.”

The publication cited an expert who noticed something surprising with the official NASA global temperature data:  From February, 2016 to February, 2018 "global average temperatures dropped by 0.56 degree Celsius --- the biggest two-year drop in the past century.”

“Isn't this just the sort of man-bites-dog story that the mainstream media always says is newsworthy?” asked Investor’s Business Daily, adding “in this case, it didn't warrant any news coverage.”

 

IN CASE YOUR FAVORITE NEWS OUTLETS MISSED THESE...

 

SEVERANCE PAY SPOTLIGHTED.  Much coverage was given to White House Deputy Chief of Staff for Communications Bill Shine receiving $8.4 million in severance pay from 21st Century Fox after he left the organization in May, 2017 — with more payments upcoming.   Nothing sinister about that.  Meanwhile, news outlets were not as stirred up over word that Megyn Kelly will walk away from NBC News with a reported more than $30 million, the value left on her three-year $69 million contract.

CHARLIE BROWN CALLED RACIST.  Despite smooth sailing over the years, turns out cartoon character Charlie Brown is a racist, said critics.  In a repeat of the classic last week on ABC, “A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving” brought growls for seating its only black character, Franklin, alone on one side of the holiday table while Charlie Brown and his white friends, including Peppermint Patty, Sally and Snoopy, were seated across from him.  The special debuted Nov. 20, 1973.

TEENAGERS STEAL PLANE, FLY 15 MILES.  Two Utah boys, 14 and 15, were arrested, accused of stealing a fixed-wing, single engine light sport aircraft and flying it 15 miles before safely landing at a local airport in Uintah County.

DOG STEERS TRUCK INTO FARMER.  An inquest Friday determined that a British dairy farmer was crushed to death when his Jack Russell dog pushed a lever inside a forklift truck, causing it to drive into him. The farmer left the vehicle in neutral and didn't set the handbrake when he got off to open a gate.

ARMY UNIFORMS TO TURN GREEN.  The Army is finalizing green throwback uniforms inspired by soldiers’ World War II attire, but only recruiters should expect to don the new duds for the time being. Official title of the new garb:  Army greens. About 200 prototypes will be fielded primarily by recruiters.

TROOP COST NOT QUESTIONED.  No reporter or editor questioned the announced $72 million cost of using 5,900 active duty troops at the Southwest border.  That figure was conveyed to Congress by the Pentagon.  Apparently the Pentagon, which should know about such things, was unaware that with those on active duty --- whether on a base, in a recruiting office or in Washington --- their monthly pay in the U.S. is the same.

DOG BIDS FAREWELL TO STAGE.  Archie, a 19-year-old Yorkshire Terrier is retiring from show business after more than 125 performaces in  “The Nutcracker” in Providence, R.I.  The ballet will be holding auditions Dec. 2 for other canine performers, looking for “a pup with an elegant prance, regal coat of fur and charming smile."  

Are ‘fake temperatures’ next on the list for scrutiny?

Headlines over the weekend again proclaimed “sizzling” world heat --- but never deeply explaining exactly how that conclusion is reached, notes Grumpy Editor.

The latest report warns, “Earth in February sizzled to its second hottest temperature on record, behind only last year” with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) calculating last month averaged 55.66 degrees or 1.76 degrees warmer than the 20^th century average.

The New York Times on Jan. 18 played up Earth “reached its highest temperature on record in 2016, trouncing a record set only a year earlier, which beat one set in 2014. It is the first time in the modern era of global warming data that temperatures have blown past the previous record three years in a row.”

In explaining how the readings are reached, The Times should be commended for explaining, "In addition to the surface measurements, satellites are used to measure the temperature of the atmosphere within a few miles of the surface.”

Amplifying that --- and seldom included in "global warming" stories --- Grumpy Editor points out main methods to measure air temperature today are via land-based thermometers, radiosondes (instruments on weather balloons) and satellites with microwave emissions. Other readings are compiled from ships and buoys.  On land, digital thermometers, periodically requiring recalibration, have replaced the long-used and accurate mercury bulb thermometers.

In tallying temperatures, however, in most cities readings can vary by several degrees.  In Las Vegas, for example, while the official reading may show 104 degrees, it can be 98 in other sections.

NOAA, in its global analysis this month regarding temperatures, explains it this way:

“In the atmosphere, 500-millibar height pressure anomalies correlate well with temperatures at the Earth's surface. The average position of the upper-level ridges of high pressure and troughs of low pressure --- depicted by positive and negative 500-millibar height anomalies on the February 2017 and December-February 2017 maps --- is generally reflected by areas of positive and negative temperature anomalies at the surface, respectively.”

Got that?

Earth’s radius, the distance from the planet’s center to its surface, is about 3,959 miles.  Circumference of the Earth at the equator is 24,901.55 miles.  Earth has mountains, jungles, oceans, deserts, wastelands, lakes, rivers and concrete-laced cities.

That’s a vast area to compile accurate temperature readings.

 

IN CASE YOUR FAVORITE NEWS OUTLETS MISSED THESE...

Happy first day of spring!...Whew!  After weeks of media discussions and predictions on when it is going to happen, the Federal Reserve finally raised its benchmark lending rate a quarter point and projected two more increases later this year as inflation approaches its target.  Look for more predictions on when the second increase is expected…Colorful “live” chatter:  CNN’s Fareed Zakaria resorted to saying bullsh---ing four times on Don Lemon’s CNN Tonight program Friday evening in referring to President Donald Trump,..Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich on Fox News suggested Trump should form a “nonsense patrol” to cope with nonsensical charges…Veteran broadcast journalist Willow Bay has been named dean of the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, effective July 1…In illustrating a story on current environment, the Las Vegas Sun ran an almost half-page photo of smog-cloaked Los Angeles using a vintage July 15, 1978 Associated Press photo...American Media, publisher of National Enquirer and Star, has agreed to buy Us Weekly, founded in 1977, from Wenner Media which has Rolling Stone and Men’s Journal in its stable.

 

Fortune magazine’s 20th annual list of the 100 Best Companies to Work For, puts Google in the No. 1 spot for the sixth year in a row.

In second place is Wegmans Food Markets, which Fortune says has managed to keep a family feel among its almost 47,000 employees.

 

Obama cites rising seas --- as rivers overflow in Texas

 

When President Barack Obama visited the National Hurricane Center in Miami on Thursday, he declared, "When you combine stronger storms with rising seas, that's a recipe for more devastating floods," while 900 miles to the west, days of heavy precipitation devastated areas of Texas stemming from overflowing rain-swollen rivers --- with no link to rising seas, observed Grumpy Editor. 

The president, who so far has bypassed an on-scene look at severely flooded Texas and Oklahoma areas, continued his global warming/climate change warnings. 

A week earlier, in a commencement address at the U.S. Coast Guard Academy, New London, Conn., Obama envisioned climate change aggravating poverty and social tensions that can fuel instability and foster terrorist activity and other violence. "Climate change impacts every country on the planet," he told the cadets.

In Miami, with government meteorologists close by, Obama pointed out, "The best climate scientists in the world are telling us that extreme weather events like hurricanes are likely to become more powerful." 

Yet he apparently wasn’t cued in on a day-earlier announcement by government weather forecasters who assured the Atlantic hurricane season --- which runs today to Nov. 30 --- will be less active this year due to cooler seas and a strong El Nino effect. 

The below-normal forecast called for six to 11 tropical storms with three to six reaching hurricane status.

The U.S. coast has not been hit by a major hurricane since 2005.

 

FYI, IN CASE YOUR FAVORITE EDITORS MISSED THESE...

 

Alarm bells delayed.  The “Taliban Five” Guantanamo inmates, swapped a year ago for Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, originally slated to roam free today from Qatar, will remain confined there under a weekend agreement that temporarily extends their ban on travel while discussions between Qatar, the United States and Afghanistan continue for a long-term solution.  Bergdahl was charged with desertion in March and could face a life sentence…Round up the newsroom.  In connection with the indictment of Dennis Hastert, a former House speaker, late in the week:  The Washington Post gathered a baseball team-size nine reporters for the story.  That compared with The Los Angeles Times and The Wall Street Journal each assigning three…A Rasmussen Reports survey found 61 percent of likely U.S. voters now do not trust the political news they are getting, a 16-point jump from last October…In closing the acquisition of U-T San Diego, Chicago-based Tribune Publishing Co., restored the newspaper’s former name, San Diego Union-Tribune --- and promptly laid off nearly a third of its 600 employees, most in printing and delivery operations…Over the past decade, weekday newspaper circulation declined 17 percent and ad revenue dropped more than 50 percent, noted the Washington Examiner, adding in 2014 alone, three different media companies decided to spin off more than 100 newspaper properties…The PennySaver, an advertising sheet distributed in Southern California for decades, ceased operations without warning…How headlines differed on same story:  Defense Secretary Ashton Carter warns China on South China Sea island-building (Los Angeles Times).  Ash Carter Talks Tough on China, But It's Just Talk (Bloomberg)…Government squeeze on coal output continues.  Murray Energy Corp., third largest U.S. coal producer, laid off around 1,800 workers, representing about 21 percent of its work force…With weak economic growth and slow consumer spending, the Federal Reserve now is likely to raise benchmark interest rates in September…Memorial Day weekend’s total box office, at an estimated $190 million, was the lowest since 2001.  The film industry regarded Disney’s “Tomorrowland” as a big disappointment.  But things improved over the past weekend with "San Andreas" shaking up the North American take with $53.2 million.  The tally also uncovered 70 percent of ticket buyers were 25 years old or more.  (Which triggers a question:  How was the 25+ number determined?  Did everyone have to show photo ID at the box office, with information fed into a computer?)…Bob Schieffer, with CBS News since 1969, signed off as Face the Nation moderator yesterday after 24 years with the Sunday public affairs program.  He has the distinction of covering all four of Washington’s key assignments:  White House, Pentagon, State Department and Congress.

 

Edgy Washington, D.C. police, who blew up a harmless pressure cooker found in an unattended vehicle parked near the Capitol, got an apology from its owner, a food truck operator, who said the utensil was used for cooking rice.

Will on-the-way asteroid clip climate change coverage?

 

With Earth Day on Wednesday, look for much chatter on climate change/global warming, but overlooked by many (including U.S. media) is something else zooming in from beyond the atmosphere --- an asteroid which some claim is on a collision course headed for our planet, observed Grumpy Editor.

President Barack Obama on Earth Day will be on scene at southern Florida’s Everglades --- the tropical wetlands home of snapping alligators --- to amplify his Saturday radio address in which he warned, "there's no greater threat to our planet than climate change.”

Earlier this month he said climate change is a primary national threat.

Look for the president on Earth Day to again repeat those lines along with how global warming threatens the U.S. economy.

Obama, at a Washington event in early April, also linked climate change to health problems such as allergies and asthma.

Meanwhile, from outer pace, Asteroid 2012 TC4, as it was labeled, is heading our way.

The UK’s London Daily Mail carried the story late last week while U.S. print/broadcast newsrooms were focused on other matters.

Mail writer Alix Culbertson reported the asteroid is about the size of the Statue of Liberty, twice as big as the meteor that exploded over the Russian city of Chelyabinsk in February 2013, injuring 1,500 people and damaging more than 7,000 buildings.

“The impact of the larger 2012 TC4 asteroid, predicted to near Earth on October 12, 2017, could be even more devastating,” Culbertson pointed out.  “And, worryingly, experts cannot yet predict where in the world it will strike.”

 

FYI, IN  CASE YOUR FAVORITE EDITORS MISSED THESE…

Columbia University today at 3 p.m. (Eastern) will announce 99th Pulitzer Prizes winners…Worst job of 2015?  Newspaper reporter ranked at the bottom of a list of 200 jobs tallied by Carlsbad, Calif.-based CareerCast.  That profession displaced lumberjack, now at the 199^th spot.  Meanwhile, broadcaster ranked 196^th on the list while photojournalist was 195^th.  Top position:  actuary…NewsBusters caught it, pointing out that "a blaring red headline" flashed across the TV screen that read "Breaking News; NBC News Exclusive Interview With Hillary Clinton." Length of last Tuesday’s “exclusive interview” was a brief eight seconds…Despite several days of heavy coverage of Doug Hughes, the postal worker who landed his gyrocopter on U.S. Capitol grounds, media failed to note that the attention-getting, putt-putt flying machine flew to Washington from Gettysburg, Pa.  That’s 65 miles through protected air space.…Another example how taxpayer funds are spent:  The U.S. Labor Department will target $13 million to promote employment among at-risk youth, ages 14 to 17 --- in El Salvador and Honduras…Through the end of fiscal year 2014, Social Security numbers were issued to 541,000 illegals authorized to work under the 2012 Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals policy…Cheers to Torrance, Calif.-based Daily Breeze reporters Rob Kuznia and Rebecca Kimitch plus project editor Frank Suraci in winning the prestigious National Headliner Award for Investigative Journalism for exposing a school district superintendent’s excessive salary with  unusual perks along with other serious issues within the district…Good PR with readers:  The Des Moines Register provides tours of its downtown offices, showing how staffers work.

Tough going in the field: 

A reporting team from Seattle TV station KIRO, covering a massive bee spill from an overturned semi truck, were stung numerous times.

Global warming exaggerated, say most GOP college grads

 

Is global warming, a hot issue with media and politicians, generally exaggerated?

Saying yes to that:  74 percent of college graduates who are Republicans and only 15 percent of college graduates who are Democrats, finds a Gallup poll.

Perhaps that explains why California Gov. Jerry Brown, a Democrat, declared Republican Sen. Ted Cruz, now in a presidential run, has “rendered himself absolutely unfit to be running for office," let alone president, by insisting that humans aren't to blame for global warming.

"Over 90 percent of the scientists who deal with climate are absolutely convinced that the humans' activity, industrial activity...are building up in the atmosphere, they're heat trapping, and they're causing not just one drought in California but severe storms and cold on the East Coast,” added Brown who has irritated some northern Californians by pushing water for smelt, a tiny fish, while holding back water for farmers and others.

Cruz argued that there has been “no significant warming” and over the years the strategy from “alarmists” has been to shout down skeptics and call for massive government control.  “Global warming alarmists are the equivalent of the flat-earthers,” he continued, pointing out Galileo was called a “denier” once upon a time.

Meanwhile, in other global warming development, Breitbart.com reported Barbara Lee (D-Calif.) “proposed a resolution in the House of Representatives that claims women will eventually be forced into prostitution in order to obtain life-sustaining food and water for their families.”  Why?  Because global warming will create “conflict and instability” in the world.

FYI, IN CASE YOUR FAVORITE EDITORS MISSED THESE… 

Despite the huge media coverage on U.S. soldier Bowe Bergdahl, exchanged last May for five top Taliban prisoners, being charged with desertion, Grumpy Editor noticed no news person asked how the 28-year-old rose two levels in rank to sergeant from private first class after leaving his post in 2009…In an almost 20-minute speech at the Toner Prize for Excellence in Political Reporting ceremony in a room full of political reporters in Washington, Hillary Clinton quipped about new beginnings and “why not a new relationship with the press.” Then --- she did not take questions from the note takers on hand…No more committed suicides.  That’s now suggested by Associated Press in an updated AP Stylebook.  New terminology:  killed himself/herself, took his/her own life or died by suicide…Another example of baseball being more lucrative than directing a major U.S. corporation as CEO:  Hector Olivera, 29-year-old second baseman from Cuba, last week got a six year, $62.5 million deal --- including a $28 million signing bonus --- from the Los Angeles Dodgers…The Wall Street Journal on Tuesday ran a front page ad above the masthead.  The one and three-quarters inches message, with white type against a green background across the page, was for Northern Trust…In another print ad, for Air France, rather than tout the airline’s key features, such as seating, comfort, food or wine while flying above the clouds from distant cities around the world, the full-page ad in Bloomberg Businessweek showed a feather dancer, complete with top hat, to promote “Rendez-vous in Paris.”  (Incidentally, U.S. copy editors will point out rendezvous carries no hyphen.)

 

A job pitch aimed at that rare individual with a no-nonsense newspaper background?

A media centric business seeks “a first class business writer who has a corporate grade American English proficiency including great mastery in sentence structuring, grammar, and corporate vocabulary. Your writing style is CONCISE, no verbiage, no wordiness, no useless style effect and straight to the point.”

Which shakes up folks most: global warming or asteroid?

 

As another blizzard smacks the freezing Northeast today after dumping up to a foot of snow in the Midwest, Grumpy Editor reminds that while the focus of many  --- from Al Gore to the White House --- continues to be on global warming (climate change), overlooked by most media is last week’s mountainous asteroid that made what was considered a close pass to Earth. 

Asteroid BL86 (so labeled by sky watchers), about five football fields wide, zoomed within 745,000 miles of Earth at 35,000 m.p.h. last Monday. 

What most folks forget is that a key theory holds that an asteroid killed the dinosaurs.

“The dinosaurs probably broiled to death” following impact of an asteroid --- probably seven or eight miles wide --- that ejected a dust plume that spread around Earth and ignited forests, says Jay Melosh, a planetary physicist at Purdue University, in a story on meteorites in the February issue of Popular Science magazine.

(A meteorite is a solid piece of space rock or iron that originally was an asteroid or a comet.)

Popular Science points out if a collision (a meteorite impact on Earth) exceeds 100,000 million tons, it means “a catastrophe larger than any in human history,” adding, “a meteorite a mile in diameter might send enough pulverized rock into the stratosphere to block out sunlight and cause global cooling.”

Meanwhile, among global warming alarms over the past few days:

Less ice triggers volcanoes.  Melting of Icelandic ice caps causes decreased pressure on underlying rocks, thus increasing the chance of volcanic activity, finds a new study.

Aspen’s climate could be a lot like that of Amarillo by 2100.  So warns Gina McCarthy, Environmental Protection Agency administrator who was in the Colorado city last month.

Noting this, The Weekly Standard calculates:  “For the climate of Aspen to resemble that of Amarillo, a temperature swing of 15 degrees and a 13-foot drop in annual snowfall would need to take place over the next 85 years.  Even the most catastrophic models of global temperature change in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change do not predict a temperature increase of 15 degrees.”     

 

FYI, IN CASE YOUR FAVORITE EDITORS MISSED THESE…

Editorial-advertising partition drops.  Condé Nast, which publishes Vogue, Vanity Fair, Golf and Wired, among others, says its editors would be available through 23 Stories, its new advertising arm, to consult with advertisers and help them create articles and images…Marking India’s Republic Day in New Delhi last week, President Barack Obama refers to himself 118 times in a 33-minute speech, tallies Paula Bolyard at PJ Media…California’s new regulation calling for larger room for egg-laying chickens results in average price for a dozen jumbo eggs jumping to $3.16 from $1.18 a year ago…Among pitching tactics at the Feb. 10 PRNews Writing Workshop:  When writing news releases, “think like the journalist and bloggers you are pitching”--- which may be difficult for some who do not have newsroom experience…Breaking news:  CBS News anchor Scott Pelley, in interviewing House Speaker John Boehner, asks: “Do you practice that scowl?”…With an eye on cutting costs, Sears Holdings lays off 115 corporate workers, including 100 at its headquarters in Hoffman Estates, Ill…The Washington Times reports 1,000 of the 36,000 illegal immigrant criminals the government released in 2013 have gone on to commit other crimes.

Good idea.  The Wausau (Wis.) Daily Herald, a Gannett publication, through public meetings is seeking area residents’ input for “something that needs investigation, a story worth telling” or sharing insight on the state of the community.  Nora Hertel, watchdog reporter, is searching for problems and solutions.

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Obama cites climate change as biggest threat facing U.S.

Obama cites climate change as biggest threat facing U.S.

 

Forget Islamist extremism, nuclear threats from North Korea and Iran, and U.S. challenges needing prompt attention such as swelling national debt, growing federal welfare programs, reversing scaled-down U.S. military forces along with efforts to boost the American economy and jobs…the biggest threat facing the U.S. is --- climate change, according to President Barack Obama, notes Grumpy Editor. 

The president continued to beat drums for climate change (formerly global warming), which many top media continue to report without raising eyebrows. 

"No challenge, no challenge, poses a greater threat to future generations than climate change," the president declared in his State of the Union Address to Congress. 

This contrasted with top priorities cited by Americans that appeared in The Wall Street Journal on Tuesday, prior to the president’s address that evening. 

A WSJ/NBC News poll put creating jobs at the top of the list, followed by defeating/dismantling Islamic State, reducing the federal deficit, securing the border with Mexico, and addressing Iran’s nuclear program, among others.  Climate change/global warming doesn’t appear on the list. 

Obama delivered a similar message four months earlier at the United Nations Climate Summit in New York City:  “For all the immediate challenges that we gather to address this week --- terrorism, instability, inequality, disease --- there’s one issue that will define the contours of this century more dramatically than any other, and that is the urgent and growing threat of a changing climate.” 

In last week’s address, he pointed out that “if we do not act forcefully, we’ll continue to see rising oceans, longer, hotter heat waves, dangerous droughts and floods, and massive disruptions that can trigger greater migration, conflict, and hunger around the globe."

Meanwhile, continuing in the “climate change” category, a Washington Post story last week went into detail on “an Arctic ice cap appears to be sliding into the sea.”

(Keep in mind that for years, going back to black-and-white newsreel days, there were periodic attention getters that showed glaciers sliding, with great splashes, into the sea.)

The Post story mentioned ice is disappearing in Austfonna, north of the Arctic Circle in Norway territory, which is the longest glacier front in the Northern Hemisphere. Since 2012, the story pointed out, the ice cap covering an island has fallen by 160 feet, based on satellite (not human) measurements.

The material said rapid melting of glaciers and ice sheets “could swamp coastal cities around the world.”

But a line at the end of the feature cautioned:  “Still, researchers can’t definitively say the shrinking of the Austfonna ice cap is due to global warming.”

 

FYI, IN CASE YOUR FAVORITE EDITORS MISSED THESE… 

The Santa Barbara News-Press continues to use “illegals” when describing people living illegally in the United States, prompting protests and counter-protests in the community.  Explains the daily:  “It has been the practice for nearly 10 years at the Santa Barbara News-Press to describe people living in this country illegally as 'illegals' regardless of their country of origin. This practice is under fire by some immigration groups who believe that this term is demeaning and does not accurately reflect the status of ‘undocumented immigrants,’ one of several terms other media use to describe people in the United States illegally --- it is an appropriate term in describing someone as ‘illegal’ if they are in this country illegally"…Stars and Stripes reports the much acclaimed film, American Sniper, is “also a big hit at Army and Air Force Exchange Service theaters, with the average attendance for the Iraq war film almost three times higher than attendance for other films being shown”…Carson (Calif.) city council members are grumpy over coverage the Daily Breeze in Torrance is giving their city.  So they are mulling whether Carson, 12 miles south of downtown Los Angeles and four miles east of Torrance, should cancel subscriptions to the Breeze --- along with urging residents and businesses to boycott the newspaper --- claiming it published several “accounts of homicides, other crimes and negative stories” that were reported as “misleadingly located near Carson.”  The Breeze’s executive editor explained his newspaper “has consistently referred to the unnamed unincorporated area of Los Angeles County near Carson as just that”…After five years without one, J.C. Penney Co. is bringing back its catalog with a 120-page version to select customers in March…In a $300 million deal, up from $275 million for TV rights, CBS Corp. and the National Football League  renew their partnership for another season…Speaking of football, a 30-seconds TV spot on NBC’s Super Bowl coverage next Sunday costs about $4.5 million…U.K.-based The Economist names Zanny Minton Beddoes as its first female editor…Blaming “economic circumstances,” Sports Illustrated lays off all six staff photographers.  However, they will be allowed to freelance for SI, a weekly magazine owned by Time Inc. which was spun off from Time Warner Inc. last year.

Giving a Crookston (Minn.) High School senior a taste of a newsroom:

The Crookston Daily Times will see Allison Reinhart as a writer-photographer during the spring semester.  A position on the staff is part of an independent study curriculum in which she will earn academic credit while spending two hours in the newsroom each morning.  She will be attending the University of North Dakota in the fall.

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Permit for photos shot in forests shakes up press photogs

Confusion prevailed following federal regulations announced last week that starting in November news photographers would be required to obtain permits, costing up to $1,500, to take photos or videos in federal wilderness areas, observes Grumpy Editor.

The Oregonian, Portland, got that information from U.S. Forest Service spokesman Larry Chambers, who added reporters or photographers who don't get permits could face fines up to $1,000.

Liz Close, the Forest Service’s acting wilderness director, told The Oregonian the move keeps wilderness areas from being exploited for commercial gain.  “We have to follow the statutory requirements,” she said, pointing to the need to be in compliance with the Wilderness Act of 1964.

“It’s pretty clearly unconstitutional,” said Gregg Leslie, legal defense director, the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press in Alexandria, Virginia, The Oregonian reported. “They would have to show an important need to justify these limits, and they just can’t.”

The policy, as announced, would also apply to documentary film crews, nonprofits and private citizens who might sell a photo or a video.

However, it would allow members of the press to shoot photos and videos during breaking news events, describing them as "an event or incident that arises suddenly, evolves quickly and rapidly ceases to be newsworthy."

Then on Friday, Tom Tidwell, Forest Service chief, in clarifying the sticky position to media, said, “If you’re there to gather news or take recreational photographs, no permit would be required.”

That undoubtedly brought a sigh of relief to editors of publications such as Sunset magazine which monthly includes color art of national parks and forests. 

The October issue, for example, features illustrations of San Bernardino (Calif.) National Forest, Petrified Forest National Park in Arizona, Yosemite National Park in California, Olympia National Park in Washington and Mesa Verde National Park in Colorado.

 

IN CASE YOUR FAVORITE NEWS OUTLETS MISSED THESE…

Focusing on “hot stocks”?  About 1,000 activists gathered in Manhattan’s financial district last week to chant:  “We can’t take this climate heat; we’ve got to shut down Wall Street”…Then President Barack Obama, also in New York, speaking at the UN Climate Summit 2014, declared:  “Alarm bells are ringing”…Also getting into the climate act (as the not-yet-designated Secretary of Climate) was Secretary of State John Kerry who warned climate change may be “the most serious challenge we face on the planet”…At the same time, the Los Angeles Times reported: “Naturally occurring changes in winds, not human-caused climate change, are responsible for most of the warming on land and in the sea along the West Coast of North America over the last century” based on a study by researchers from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the University of Washington…CNSNews.com noted Oct. 1 will mark the 18th year of “no significant warming trend in surface average temperature," according to Patrick Michaels,  director of the Cato Institute’s Center for the Study of Science…The Journal of the American Medical Association also jumped into the climate act with a lengthy one paragraph shake-'em-up warning:  “The adverse health aspects related to climate change may include heat-related disorders, such as heat stress and economic consequences of reduced work capacity; and respiratory disorders, including those exacerbated by fine particulate pollutants, such as asthma and allergic disorders; infectious diseases, including vectorborne diseases and water-borne diseases, such as childhood gastrointestinal diseases; food insecurity, including reduced crop yields and an increase in plant diseases; and mental health disorders, such as posttraumatic stress disorder and depression, that are associated with natural disasters”…It should be noted that a Gallup poll on “warming” five months ago found “most Americans continue to express low levels of concern about the phenomenon. A little more than a third say they worry ‘a great deal’ about climate change or about global warming, putting these concerns at the bottom of a list of eight environmental issues”…With U.S. military being scaled back, overlooked during the heavy news week but reported in the Washington Times: Russia plans to add 80 warships to its Black Sea fleet by 2020 and expects to complete construction on a new naval base near Novorossiysk by 2016...Leaving a country boosts a company's stock price?  Announcement that Oakland, Calif.-based Clorox Co., maker of bleach and allied products, is exiting Venezuela hypoed its stock $6.66 to $97.23 last Monday…A two-thirds-page Toyota ad in The Wall Street Journal, designed to lure car buyers into showrooms, quoted Prius owners saying:  “We went across the U.S. three times in our first Prius.  The new one’s got a lot of adventure ahead of it”… Indication of things to come?  The Federal Trade Commission sent Grumpy Editor a news release --- in Spanish.

 

Selected for “quote of the year” at Media Research Center's 2014 Gala featuring the DisHonors Awards was columnist Eleanor Clift for her insistence that U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens was not murdered by terrorists at the U.S. compound in Benghazi, Libya, but died as a result of smoke inhalation.

Border agents 'babysit,' miss patroling Mexican boundary

U.S. Border Patrol agents changing diapers and heating baby formula are among the unusual situations being revealed (but not widely reported) with the mounting influx of thousands of “children” --- mainly from Central American countries --- illegally crossing into the U.S., observes Grumpy Editor.

Since last Monday’s report here on shelters being sought for "unaccompanied children” (the term coined by the Obama administration to describe the foreign minors who enter the U.S. illegally), some are in their teens, old enough to be in military service --- or older.

The Los Angeles Times reports “the Rio Grande Valley (in the southernmost tip of  Texas) has become ground zero for an unprecedented surge in families and unaccompanied children flooding across the Southwest border.”

The flow from Central America is arriving at a rate of more than 35,000 a month, adds the L.A. Times.

Others slipping into the country illegally are known Mexican gang members.

Meanwhile, many of the young people who cross the border into the U.S. have never seen a doctor before, reveals Gil Kerlikowske, commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection, in a Washington Times report by Stephen Dinan.

The commissioner says Border Patrol agents are being asked to do things, such as diaper changing and warming up baby formula, which are far beyond their usual activities.

Shelters for the migrant minors are reaching capacity at Lackland Air Force Base, San Antonio, Texas; Fort Sill, Lawton, Okla., Fort Bliss, El Paso, Texas, and Naval Base Ventura County, Oxnard, Calif.

So another facility being eyed this week is a vacant Social Security building in Baltimore, far from the Texas border where the illegals enter the U.S.

The Department of Homeland Security calls the assistance being given as “humanitarian aid to immigrant children.”

But not widely trumpeted is that such aid is costing U.S. taxpayers $252 a day for each minor.

 

In case you missed these…

FORGET IRAQ, LOOK AT GLOBAL WARMING.  With militants advancing on Baghdad, President Barack Obama --- far from the White House --- reminds University of California, Irvine, graduates Saturday at Angel Stadium in Anaheim about global warming.  Obama warns that rising temperatures and sea levels plus intensifying storms define “one of the most significant long-term challenges that our country and planet face.”  Then he was off to play golf Saturday and yesterday in Rancho Mirage, near Palm Springs, under warm, clear skies. Although back in Washington today, the president tomorrow heads for New York City and two fundraisers.

 

WEATHER PERSONNEL BLASTED IN NORTH KOREA.  North Korean leader Kim Jong Un isn’t concerned about global warming but in touring meteorological centers around the Communist country he voices extreme displeasure to personnel about “too many incorrect” weather forecasts.  He is irked about the weather as it relates to potential impact on the economy, and, in part, blames outdated equipment contributing to faulty forecasts.

 

TRUE BREAKING NEWS ON CNN.  A car smashed through a lobby at CNN Center, the news network’s headquarters in Atlanta.  The vehicle came to rest in the middle of the lobby around 4 a.m. on Friday.  The driver was taken into custody.  On the bright side, CNN beat other news outlets in reporting the incident.

 

MSNBC RANKS LOWEST IN TRUST FOR TV NEWS.  A poll conducted by the Brookings and Public Religion Research Institute finds just 5 percent of respondents say cable network MSNBC is the “most trusted” for television news.  Fox News Channel, at the other end, grabs 25 percent of those surveyed.

 

BAD DAY FOR NEWSPAPER EDITORS IN LOUISVILLE.  Kentucky’s Courier-Journal in one swoop last week eliminates seven editor positions, calling the action “a realignment of newsroom resources.”  Among those laid off:  Jean Porter, managing editor, and Mike Trautmann, metro editor.

 

GRETA VAN SUSTEREN MAKES FORBES LIST.   Forbes magazine in its annual world’s 100 most powerful women tally of “extraordinary icons, game changers and ceiling crashers who are asserting themselves on the world stage” places the Fox News Channel’s anchor at the 100^th spot.  No. 1 is German Chancellor Angela Merkel.