Grumpy Editor

SURVEY: POLICE-PROTESTERS CONFRONTATIONS GRAB MOST ATTENTION

The upcoming election, unusual weather and forest fires news stories have been competing for Americans’ attention in recent weeks but the public is more likely to have heard “a lot” about ongoing confrontations between police and protesters, notes Grumpy Editor.

 

That’s the finding of a Pew Research Center survey of almost 10,000 adults conducted Aug. 31 to Sept. 7.

 

About eight-in-10 adults (78%) say they have heard or read a lot about ongoing confrontations between law enforcement and protesters in cities around the country, finds Pew.

 

By comparison, smaller shares of adults say they have heard or read a lot about how increased mail-in voting could affect the 2020 presidential election (64%); President Donald Trump’s criticism of the U.S. Postal Service and his administration’s actions toward it (49%); attempts in Congress to pass another economic relief and stimulus bill (40%); and the Trump administration considering banning the social media app TikTok (40%). 

 

The survey of 9,220 adults was conducted as part of the Center’s American News Pathways project.

 

Overall, 41% of adults say recent protests related to racial inequality have received too much attention from news organizations, while 36% say they have received the right amount and 23% say they have received too little.

 

 

IN CASE YOUR FAVORITE NEWS OUTLETS MISSED THESE...

 

STUDENT LOCALES SHOW HIGHER VIRUS RATES.  Among the 50 U.S. counties with the highest shares of students and overall population of at least 50,000, 20 have consistently reported higher virus rates than their states, finds an Associated Press analysis.

MOST YOUNG ADULTS FUZZY ON HOLOCAUST.  Nearly two-thirds (63%) of young American adults are not aware that 6 million Jewish victims died during the Holocaust in World War II.  That’s the finding in a study commissioned by the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany, also known as the Claims Conference.

IMPORTANCE OF FACE MASKS CITED.  Dr. Robert Redfield, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, at a Senate Appropriations subcommittee hearing, emphasizes the importance of wearing face masks, saying, “I will continue to appeal for all Americans, all individuals in our country, to embrace these face coverings. ... [I]f we did it for six, eight, 10, 12 weeks, we'd bring this pandemic under control.” 

 

MORE CAMPAIGN CONTRIBUTIONS SEEN THIS YEAR.  A Rasmussen Reports survey finds 45% of U.S. voters are more likely to contribute time or money to a political campaign this year vs. 34% two years ago.

 

FOX TRIMS STAFF.  Fox News Media expects to cut less than 3% of its overall staff as the unit, the financial engine of parent Fox Corp., works to make its operations more efficient. Fox News’ hair and makeup staffers are said to be the most affected.   Fox guests will no longer receive make-up and hair services, which are being relegated to anchors and contributors.

 

SUBARU MODEL ATTRACTS TICKETS.  A study from insurance comparison site Insurify, that looked over 2 million insurance applications, finds drivers of the Subaru WRX compact sports car are more likely to get a speeding ticket.

 

CULTURE AND TALENT M.E. NAMED.  The Los Angeles Times appoints reporter Angel Jennings as the newspaper’s first assistant managing editor for culture and talent.  It’s part of The Times’ efforts to reform hiring practices, increase staff diversity and overhaul how it treats Black and Latino journalists and communities.

POLICE AID SENIOR CITIZEN SEEKING TO WITHDRAW FUNDS FROM BofA

Picture this:  Police answer a disturbance call at a bank --- and wind up helping an agitated customer.  With no scuffle, no handcuffing and no shots fired, media ignore the event, thus missing a good story, notes Grumpy Editor.

Robert Josett, a Montebello (Calif.) Police Department officer responded to a public disturbance call at a Bank of America branch where he faced a 92-year-old man with a cane who was upset because tellers wouldn’t give him his money.

With a BofA policy requiring a valid government-issued identification card be presented before a customer makes a withdrawal, the problem was that the senior citizen’s ID card had expired and the bank was going by the book.

So officer Josett comforted the white-haired customer and suggested they take a ride, not to the police station, but to the nearest California Department of Motor Vehicles facility to get a fresh ID card.

At the DMV, staffers quickly renewed the bank customer’s ID , then Josett drove him back to the bank where he received his requested funds --- just before bank closing time.

 

IN CASE YOUR FAVORITE NEWS OUTLETS MISSED THESE…

CONSUMER SENTIMENT AT 13-YEAR HIGH.  Some media are quiet as U.S. consumer sentiment surges to a 13-year high.  Americans’ perceptions of the economy and their own finances rebound following several major hurricanes, shows a University of Michigan survey that also notes repeated record highs for the stock market and a 16-year low in unemployment.

N.Y. TIMES SEEKS TO CUT BIAS.  The New York Times editorial staff gets new guidelines on appropriate use of social media, urging reporters to avoid making any public comments on social platforms that would suggest political view or bias.  “Social media presents potential risks for The Times,” notes the paper.  “If our journalists are perceived as biased or if they engage in editorializing on social media, that can undercut the credibility of the entire newsroom."

FILMLAND PREACHES GUN CONTROL YET PROMOTES VIOLENCE.  Hollywood is calling for more gun control, yet features much gun violence, including 100 uses of automatic weapons in four of its most profitable movies in theaters today, observes Media Research Center President Brent Bozell.  “You just knew the Hollywood celebrity crowd would jump all over that issue in the wake of the Las Vegas massacre. Yet in just four of the biggest movies showing around the country at this very moment – Kingsman: Golden Circle, American Assassin, It, and Mother! – there are no less than 212 incidents of gun violence,” points out Bozell.

STAFF GETTING TRIMMED.  Disney/ABC-TV  layoffs start, triggering insiders to say it is part of a broader restructuring of the broadcast business with rumors that bigger moves, including possible sale of ABC, are coming.

PRINT EDITIONS REDUCED.  Time Inc. reveals it will cut print editions of Fortune to 12 from 16 a year while Money will be reduced to 10 from 11.

STUCK ON RUSSIA.  CNN doesn’t give up on the long-running Russia saga, with a Friday headline and discussion noting “Priebus interviewed by special counsel in Russia probe.”

MOST NATIONAL MEDIA DON’T KNOW VEGAS.  Print and TV stories relating to the Oct. 1 mass shooting in Las Vegas often refer to the location as city of Las Vegas.  Mandalay Bay hotel and casino, where the shooter was based, along with most of The Strip is in county territory.  Downtown Las Vegas, a few miles north, is in the city of Las Vegas --- which, unlike the county, has a mayor who is delighted to serve as spokesperson for an event outside her domain.

GOODYEAR BLIMP HEADS WEST.  A new Goodyear airship --- Wingfoot Two --- left Akron, Ohio, for its new permanent base in Los Angeles.

Questions remain in wake of U.C. Berkeley rioting

Grumpy Editor noted a couple of interesting things in connection with last Wednesday’s widely-covered rioting at U.C. Berkeley: With wall-to-wall protesters, some tossing explosives and others smashing windows and starting fires, only one (or three) arrests were made. And, strangely, apparently no media person sought quotes from U.C. President Janet Napolitano, the former secretary of Homeland Security under President Obama.

The violent protests that prompted the cancellation of Breitbart senior editor Milo Yiannopoulos’s speech resulted in $100,000 in damage.

Police estimated 1,500 protesters were involved.

Most stories cited just one arrest. But KGO, San Francisco, put the number nabbed at three.

Media were silent on some questions:

Why weren’t there more arrests?

Why weren’t there more police on the scene?

Were many protesters non-students?

Rioting extended to downtown Berkeley where windows of bank offices were boarded up Thursday after being smashed the previous night.

On Thursday's CNN Tonight, U.C. Berkeley professor and former Clinton administration Labor Secretary Robert Reich promoted a conspiracy theory, maintaining it was a group of right-wingers --- perhaps linked to Breitbart News --- who were responsible for the rioting.

The uprising resulted in President Donald Trump questioning federal funds to the campus while mentioning, “U.C. Berkeley does not allow free speech and practices violence on innocent people with a different point of view.”

U.C. Berkeley last year received $370 million in research money from the federal government, more than half its total research budget of $674 million.

 

IN CASE YOUR FAVORITE NEWS OUTLETS MISSED THESE…

Setting the media straight:  Vice President Mike Pence was busy on the Sunday news circuit, making the rounds at ABC's "This Week," NBC's "Meet the Press," CBS' "Face the Nation" and "Fox News Sunday"... The Mercury News, San Jose, reported after a month of blizzards, the Sierra Nevada snowpack --- source of a third of California’s drinking water --- is 177 percent of the historic average, most since Feb. 1, 1995, adding, “California Gov. Jerry Brown isn’t likely to amend or rescind the state’s emergency drought declaration until April”…NewsBusters observed New York Times CEO Mark Thompson on CNBC’s Power Lunch argued that the newspaper doesn’t display a liberal bias because “we aim to be objective and to tell people straightforwardly what's happening”…The New Yorker and Vanity Fair have pulled out from White House Correspondents’ Dinner events slated for April 29… Now animal rights group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals is concerned over ‘Punxsutawney Phil,“ the groundhog that gets national coverage on Groundhog Day.  On Thursday, “Phil” took the stage in Gobbler's Knob, Pa. and predicted six more weeks of winter. The time-honored tradition, however, could actually be harmful for Phil, PETA told Britain’s DailyMail.com…Meredith Corp., publisher of Better Homes and Gardens, Parents and Shape, among others, laid off 40 staffers…The Wall Street Journal is closing its bureau in Budapest as part of its downsizing in Europe and Asia.

 

In a New York Times op-ed piece, actress Angelina Jolie wrote that discriminating against refugees for their religion or country of origin "invites the very instability we seek to protect ourselves against."

Editors snub kids’ lemonade sales with funds to police

Human interest stories these days are becoming hard to find in print, observes Grumpy Editor.

There was a time when such stories were scattered throughout newspapers. Human interest pieces focus on people, even animals, in an emotional way, leading to sympathy or motivation in readers.

Such was the case --- or actually two similar cases in different cities --- last week when young girls set up lemonade stands to raise money for police.

In Dallas, four girls, ages 8 to 12, set up a lemonade stand that raised an amazing $10,000 in two days in the wake of five policeman killed and seven injured by a lone gunman.

At the same time in a St. Louis suburb, 10 children organized a lemonade stand to raise funds for a police officer in critical but stable condition after being shot from behind by a man he stopped for speeding.

The youngsters hoped to raise about $20 but ended the day with $4,000 for the policeman’s family. The activity attracted several police and fire officials who came to the stand to lend support.

Meanwhile, also not getting play (for obvious reasons) in media was a Rasmussen Reports survey that found “Americans strongly believe the media is emphasizing shootings by police officers involving black suspects over ones in which whites are shot and that media coverage is prompting attacks on police.”

The survey tallied 62 percent of Americans felt media coverage of shootings by police officers inspires people to attack police while 22 percent disagree and another 16 percent are not sure.

Rasmussen added, “Only 34 percent of Americans believe there are more police shootings in America today."

 

IN CASE YOUR FAVORITE NEWS OUTLETS MISSED THESE…

Despite what some in media reported, Donald Trump did not use a teleprompter at Saturday’s session introducing Mike Pence as his vice presidential running mate. The event was widely covered by over-the-air and cable news networks --- except for NBC-TV which went for golf coverage of the 2016 Open Championship, teaming with the Golf Channel in providing 10 hours of live action.

 

Air pollution remains top news (since way back in 1945) in Los Angeles where the mayor appointed a panel that will study how to reduce emissions at the city’s huge port facilities which the Los Angeles Times reminded “supports hundreds of thousands of jobs, but it also represents the largest source of air pollution in Southern California.”

 

As some experts have mentioned over the past year: the electric grid in the U.S. could go dark at any time. The Wall Street Journal reinforced that in reporting security at electrical substations is so bad, almost anyone can break in unnoticed and create enough damage to take down huge portions of the grid.

 

Headline writers face sensitive times. Even an accurate headline triggered protests. The Commercial Appeal, Memphis, apologized after protestors complained about a headline --- Gunman Targeted Whites --- in the wake of the deadly police shooting in Dallas.  Protestors soon gathered outside the newspaper’s office in downtown Memphis to express displeasure, some holding signs that read “Black Lives Matter.” Newspaper president George Cogswell, said the headline, “although not inaccurate, was very insensitive to the movement and we recognized that quickly."

 

Headline over a Los Angeles Times story, based on its own poll: As Clinton stumbles, Trump takes an apparent slim lead in new tracking poll. Apparent? The newspaper probably was shocked by its own findings that Trump led Clinton 43 percent to 40 percent.

 

Where the jobs are: Supporters of a Nevada ballot measure that would legalize recreational marijuana said the industry could support 3,300 direct jobs once it’s in full swing in 2024

 

“It’s stretching it a bit but, hey, we found another one,” a breaking news editor probably said after pushing to get this headline on the web: Man shot by police in Rotorua, New Zealand.

The only shooting in Rotorua, a quiet area, usually is from its geysers, along with other attractions, including bubbling mud pools and natural hot springs.

30 D.C. police in riot gear storm home, shake up family

No, it wasn’t a TV movie.  Looking for guns, 30 armed police in tactical gear raided a financial adviser’s home in the Georgetown section of Washington, handcuffed him and his girlfriend after pointing guns to their heads, scared four children during a search of the residence for more than two hours, while other officers closed neighborhood streets during the process that turned up no weapons --- with all the action receiving scant media attention, noted Grumpy Editor.

In the forefront with coverage, however, is Washington Times staffer Emily Miller providing details in an Oct. 23 story.

It’ll be interesting to see media coverage of homeowner Mark Witaschek’s trial that starts next Monday.  With no criminal record, he faces two years in prison for possession of unregistered ammunition, reports Miller, senior editor of opinion at The Times.

As Miller explains it: While no weapons were found in the house, police reported finding “one live round of 12-gauge shotgun ammunition,” which was an inoperable shell that misfired during a hunt years earlier, kept as a souvenir by Witaschek, and “one expended round of .270 caliber ammunition” along with “one box of Knight bullets for reloading” which Miller --- author of the 2013 book, “Emily Gets Her Gun” --- notes “are actually not for reloading, but are used in antique-replica, single-shot, muzzle-loading rifles.”

Miller, in her story, quotes Witaschek saying that soon after entering the premises, “police used a battering ram to bash down the bathroom door” where his 16-year-old son was pulled out of the shower, naked.  “The police put all the children together in a room, while we were handcuffed upstairs. I could hear them crying, not knowing what was happening.”

Witaschek says the search caused an estimated $10,000 in damage, documented by photos he took after the July, 2012 incident.

Read Miller’s full story here.

 

In case you missed these...

+  President Barack Obama's proposal to create a “unisex” look via a new boxy cap for both male and female Marines has triggered a storm in the ranks, with some charging that the headgear gives the tough Leathernecks a "girly" look.  Looking like a cross between a French Foreign Legion cap and something worn by 1950s-era airline stewardesses (as they were called then), the price tag for the cap conversion will cost $8.2 million, according to an internal memo obtained by the New York Post.

+  Front-page headlines after one of the wildest endings of a World Series baseball game Saturday night in St. Louis with the score tied, two out in the bottom of the ninth inning, when an obstruction charge resulted in the Cardinals beating the Boston Red Sox 5 to 4:

Boston Herald --- FOR THE BIRDS!

Boston Globe --- Cardinals win in wild finish

St. Louis Post-Dispatch --- A LEG UP 

+  Was she fired?  BuzzFeed Politics notes the woman pictured on the Healthcare.gov home page is gone --- mysteriously vanished.

+  Look for heavy coverage by television networks on and around Nov. 22 with special reports and broadcasts marking the 50th anniversary of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.

+  Radio news continues with the bad habit of not pinpointing the precise location in top-of-the-hour breaking news.  Latest:  ABC with a lead item Tuesday on a school shooting by a student, mentioning only that it was in Nevada --- omitting it occurred in Sparks, near Carson City.  News editors forget that the Silver State, with 110,567 square miles, ranks seventh largest in size among the 50 states. 

+  Condé Nast, publisher of 25 magazines, including The New Yorker, Glamour, Brides, Condé Nast Traveler and Golf Digest, is shelving its internship program.

+  Fifth annual edition of "Hot Careers for College Graduates,” compiled by University of California San Diego Extension, places public relations specialists in ninth spot.  Topping the list:  Software developers-applications, followed by software developers - systems software.  No magazine/newspaper/broadcasting jobs on the list.

U.S. jumps into action after North Korea threatens; First Lady again on Vogue cover; Vegas shooter remains in L.A.

War talk spurs U.S. to bolster defenses, but...

After more North Korea missile testing over the weekend, a Feb. 12 nuclear test plus mounting saber-rattling and elevated tensions spurred by its young leader Kim Jong Eun, the Pentagon decided to strengthen U.S. defenses against a possible attack by the communist country by adding missile systems to protect the West Coast and Alaska, notes Grumpy Editor.

North Korea a few days earlier surprised the U.N., South Korea and U.S. by declaring the armistice that suspended Korean War hostilities 60 years ago was now invalid.

At the same time, it tossed in bolder rhetoric by threatening a nuclear strike on Washington.

With Washington’s sudden growing concern on North Korea’s long-range missile advances, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel on Friday said the U.S. will deploy 14 more ground-based missile interceptors.

These will be added to the current 30 long-range missile interceptors already in place in Alaska and California.

While news that the U.S. was moving ahead on additional defense measures grabbed headlines, overlooked by most broadcast and print media:  the new interceptors won’t be in position until 2017.

For example, in missile defense story coverage, The Washington Post didn't mention 2017 until the 10th paragraph. On the other hand, The Wall Street Journal noted the year at the start of the second paragraph.

 

Meanwhile, focusing on the other side of the world and reflecting U.S. military and intelligence assessments, President Barack Obama said it would take Iran a year or more to produce a nuclear weapon.

Vogue cover again spotlights First Lady

Shortly after the election, buzz around New York and Washington was that First Lady Michelle Obama was behind a push to award top Obama campaign fundraiser and Vogue editor-in-chief Anna Wintour with a European ambassadorship, perhaps to Great Britain (Wintour was born in the U.K.) or France.

But the diplomatic post assignment idea faded.  

However, Vogue’s April issue features Michelle Obama on the cover, in a “cobalt blue dress, with the line:  How the First Lady and the President Are Inspiring America.

It marks the second Vogue cover appearance for the First Lady.  She last appeared wearing a pink dress on the magazine’s March 2009 cover.

Wintour got a boost last week, though.

Condé Nast announced the Vogue editor in chief is taking on the newly-created additional position of artistic director of Condé Nast, a division of Advance Publications.

 

Las Vegas Strip shooter remains in L.A.

Remember that widely-covered shooting spree on the Las Vegas Strip back on Feb. 21 that resulted in three people killed and five injured?

Through sharp police work, suspect Ammar Harris, 26, was nabbed in Los Angeles one week later.

Today, he's still there.

The delay, in part, was because the defense attorney (despite fingerprints and widely-circulated photos) requested an "iddentification hearing" calling on prosecutors to prove the person arrested in the case "is who they say it is." That Los Angeles Superior Court action occurred March 14.

But wait.

Judge Shelly Torrealba formally identified the Las Vegas Strip shooting suspect on March 14.

Did that move things along for Las Vegas authorities to take over?

Not yet.

Harris refused to waive extradition and his public defender asked authorities to produce a governor's warrant.

With that, the judge scheduled an April 12 hearing.

Stay tuned.

 

In case you missed these…

New Pope Francis didn’t waste any time meeting the press. On Saturday, at the media center flanking Rome’s St. Peter's Basilica at what some called “The Pope Francis Show,” he met and chatted with some of the 5,000 reporters from 81 countries --- then gave them a blessing… One America News Network, a 24-hour conservative-leaning cable news operation that partners San Diego's WealthTV with the Washington Times, is slated to start on July 1…Also with a July launch, Al Jazeera America, following its purchase of Current TV, reports more than 18,000 candidates applied for an initial 170 job openings…Britain’s Daily Mail presence is growing.  It’s online audience in the United States swells to become larger than in the United Kingdom…Moving right along:  U.S. intelligence officials warn of the rising threat of cyberattacks to national  and economic security.  It follows President Barack Obama’s concern in January’s State of the Union address, noting the “rapidly growing threat from cyberattacks"...Wrong site for an exciting typo.  An ad on copyediting.com Friday: "Want an Exiting Career?" headlined a pitch for training as a trucker...Sale of Maxim, a male-oriented magazine, is being explored by Alpha Media. 

Quiet Fed pay raise; overused fiscal cliff; ‘new’ Tribune

Despite a heavy flow of news stories on fiscal crisis and spending cuts at year-end 2012, somehow overlooked by major media was President Barack Obama’s executive order granting federal workers a pay raise, notes Grumpy Editor. 

The Weekly Standard’s Daniel Halper got wind of it and covered the development on Dec. 28. 

That was on a Friday afternoon, a time when most key media are snoozing. 

The raise becomes effective March 27. 

As an example of the pay increase:  Vice President Joe Biden will make $231,000 a year, up from $225,521. 

See how other federal workers fare here:  

Halper points out that a senior Republican congressional aide who reviewed the executive order and consulted with the Congressional Budget Office says the pay raise for federal workers will cost $11 billion over 10 years.

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“Fiscal cliff” much overused by media in 2012 

Fiscal cliff, meanwhile, was one of the most overused phrases by print and broadcast media in 2012. 

Yet, the phrase is now new. 

Some writers credit Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke with the words when he warned the House Committee on Financial Services last Feb. 29 of the coming “fiscal cliff” that would take effect with upcoming spending cuts and tax increases. 

Annalyn Kurtz, a reporter at CNNMoney, finds the earliest reference to the term was in a 1957 New York Times article on home ownership. 

Kurtz also notes Sen. Jim DeMint (R., S.C.) used fiscal cliff in 2008 in describing Obama’s spending program while Reuters used the phrase in several articles two weeks prior to Bernanke uttering the words in February.

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Future owner candidates eye Tribune Co. assets 

Now that Chicago-based Tribune Co. enters 2013 emerging from bankruptcy, talk centers on new owner candidates. 

Tribune Co. properties include the Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, Hartford Courant, Orlando Sentinel, South Florida Sun-Sentinel, Baltimore Sun, Daily Press (Newport News, Va.), The Morning Call (Allentown, Pa.) plus 23 television stations. 

Coming out of bankruptcy, senior creditors Oaktree Capital Management, Angelo, Gordon & Co. and JPMorgan Chase & Co. now control the Tribune Co.’s portfolio of publishing and broadcasting assets, which are expected to be sold. 

Among names mentioned as possible future owners: 

Aaron Kushner, owner of the Orange County Register.

Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. (for the Los Angeles Times).

Doug Manchester, San Diego real estate developer who bought the Union Tribune (now U-T San Diego) newspaper in 2011.

Austin Beutner, former venture capitalist and former deputy mayor of Los Angeles (for the Los Angeles Times).

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In case you missed these... 

Ten minutes into the 2013 Tournament of Roses parade yesterday, it was cutaway time in coverage for ABC and NBC networks which decided to air commercials just as the 100-plus-member precision-marching Marine Corps band passed the reviewing stand.  But the HGTV network, without commercial interruptions throughout, showed all…The Pasadena parade included the first Defense Department float.  It depicted the Korean War Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C. while an added attraction was an Air Force B2 bomber timed to fly over the reviewing stand at 1,000 feet as the Korean War float passed…The Food and Drug Administration moved toward approving genetically-modified salmon for human consumption…Chicago’s Sun-Times Media Group said it will consolidate its suburban newspaper chain…Most discussed story on news/talk radio in 2012 was the presidential election, topping chatter on the fiscal cliff, according to Talkers magazine…A dopey move by District of Columbia police was starting an investigation of David Gregory, Meet the Press host, after he held up to NBC cameras a high-capacity magazine during a gun control discussion.  Police said possession of a high-capacity magazine was not permissible.  One wonders if police would get as excited if a Washington Post photographer, for example, used a similar magazine to illustrate a story on guns.

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Note:  Going into 2013, Grumpy Editor with daily postings since September 2006, will now appear in expanded format weekly.

 

Media focus on fluttering bills from bank robbers’ SUV

In connection with the typical headline --- Bank robbers toss cash during chase through L.A. --- excited print and broadcast media yesterday had it, well, half right, finds Grumpy Editor.

First, the chase started after three armed men held up a Bank of America branch in Santa Clarita, in what is called Canyon Country at the far north end of Los Angeles County.

That was 40 miles from downtown Los Angeles, a distance on par with Norwalk, Conn. to New York City.

The chase, with sheriff’s cars in pursuit, winded through Sylmar, San Gabriel Valley, Pasadena and then onward to Los Angeles city streets.

With a police helicopter (along with TV news choppers) overhead and deputy vehicles pursuing on ground, two men fled on foot from the getaway SUV in Sylmar.

One was captured, the other remained at large.

(Media neglected to ask how one suspect managed to escape from a flock of air and ground-pursuing officers.)

In central Los Angeles, perhaps inspired by an old movie, money was tossed from the getaway vehicle.

That didn’t slow pursuing sheriff’s deputies.

However, inspired by live TV coverage, people along the route in Los Angeles sprang into action to collect fluttering bills from streets.

The getaway vehicle finally came to a halt after a 90-minute chase.  Police removed two suspects at gunpoint in south Los Angeles.

Police asked people to turn in the "hot" roadside money.

LAPD spokesman Sgt. Rudy Lopez, according to a Los Angeles Times report, said there was plenty of video footage of the chase that will help authorities to identify those people who grabbed the tossed money.

"If they're identified,” he warned, “they will be prosecuted for receiving stolen property," adding that conviction on such a charge, a felony, is punishable by more than a year in prison.

Now, “raining bills” and the aftereffects would be a solid basis for another movie.

Reno newspaper photog roughed up by deputies at fire

Reno Gazette-Journal’s photo director Tim Dunn, a 21-year veteran on the Nevada newspaper, was on assignment covering a fire with two cameras last week when he was issued a citation for obstructing and resisting while performing his duties, observes Grumpy Editor.

Dunn filed a formal complaint citing use of excessive force by sheriff’s deputies.  He said he was detained for more than a half hour after being handcuffed.

Attired in yellow protective gear, including jacket, goggles and helmet --- which  fire authorities say a journalist should wear for safety when covering fires --- Washoe County sheriff’s deputies, after an investigation, on Wednesday said he was cited because he entered an active fire scene without authorization and resisted deputies’ commands as they tried to confirm his media affiliation.

Furthermore, a sheriff’s captain accused Dunn of impersonating a firefighter because of the yellow protective gear he was wearing.  (One seldom sees a “firefighter” with two cameras at a fire scene.)

Dunn, in his complaint, said he identified himself as a journalist with Reno’s daily newspaper.

The 60-year-old photographer entered an “active fire scene” --- a brush fire that destroyed two homes --- because he was there for his newspaper.  And it’s hard to believe that a veteran photog, with more than two decades at the Gazette-Journal, was completely unknown to firemen and deputies on scene.

One of the deputies in the incident, in defending their action, said Dunn’s “continued refusal to follow instructions and continued efforts to resist us forced us to guide him to the ground.”   The photog said a boot came down on his back and a deputy pushed his face into the gravel.

See a photo of Dunn’s large scrape on his right cheek and on his right hand after being “guided to the ground” here.

Despite all this, June 23 and June 27 stories in the Gazette-Journal, made no mention of the publisher or editor backing up their veteran photo director.

A court date in Sparks (Nev.) Justice Court is slated for Aug. 1.

 

California's July 1 foie gras ban: more work for police?

Some editorial page writers in California should be busy over the next few days, prior to the banning of foie gras in state restaurants starting July 1, pointing out how police departments face another decision:  whether to haul in chefs who keep the delicacy on menus, notes Grumpy Editor.

Starting Sunday in the Golden State, producing or selling the engorged livers of forced-fed ducks and geese will be prohibited by law.  The law was passed in 2004 with a grace period that ends this week.

Restaurants that defy the ban will be subject to stiff $1,000 citations.

Pushing for the legislation were animal rights advocates who cited cruelty in fattening fowl by overfeeding them to produce fatty liver.

Talk among chefs, in skirting the ban, is to bring in the foie gras from outside California, such as Nevada, and serving it as a free side dish --- but charging for toast that goes with it.

But that could lead to some major action.

“We’re going to come down like a hammer on any chef or restaurant that wants to continue serving this very cruel product,” Bryan Pease, co-founder of the Animal Protection and Rescue League in San Diego, said in an interview with Bloomberg writer Alison Vekshin.

“If we find somebody still serving that product, the gloves are going to come off and we’ll use every legal means available to shut that place down, including lawsuits, protests and boycotts,” Pease added. “There’s just no reason to allow restaurants to do business in California that flout the law and torture animals for a table treat.”

However, major police departments in California --- already busy enforcing assorted crimes --- appeared reluctant to issue citations or handcuff law-breaking chefs.