Grumpy Editor

HIGHER MAILING RATES SEEN AS DAMAGING BLOW TO SMALLER NEWSPAPERS

The U.S. Postal Service’s plan to boost mailing rates could add a damaging blow to the nation’s community newspapers already reeling from the coronavirus pandemic and a drop in advertising revenues, notes Grumpy Editor.

 

Impact of a rate increase for delivering periodicals — up by about 8 percent starting  Aug. 29 — is expected to be felt most by small daily, weekly and rural newspapers after shifting from using independent contractors.

 

To cope with that, publishers could be forced to reduce staff or forgo home deliveries and instead put newspapers in communal news racks — or just shutter their publications, warns Paul Boyle, senior vice president, News Media Alliance, a trade associtaion representing nearly 2,000 U.S. news organizations.

 

 

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U.S. TROOPS MARK FOURTH YEAR AT BORDER.  Stretching into a fourth year, about 3,800 troops are deployed along the southwest border in support of U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents. The troops are a mix of active-duty service members and National Guard troops from nearly two dozen states.

 

JUNE SETS TEMPERATURE RECORD.  Last month was the hottest on record in North America, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.  NOAA adds the exceptional heat waves that swept the western U.S. helped push June 2021 to the top of the list after 127 years of record keeping. Average June temperature across the contiguous U.S. was more than four degrees above average at 72.6 degrees Fahrenheit. 

 

MASSIVE DIAMOND UNEARTHED.  An enormous 1,174-carat diamond is unearthed in Botswana, the second massive diamond to be found in the country in the space of a few weeks.

HELICOPTER LIFTS TRAPPED HORSE.  Caliifornia’s Orange county firefighters use a helicopter to lift a trapped-on-its-back horse to safety after the spooked equine flees from its rider becomes stuck in concrete debris.

PYTHON ESCAPES FROM MALL ENCLOSURE.  Authorities search for a 12-foot white Burmese python that slithers out of its enclosure inside Louisiana’s largest shopping mall in Baton Rouge.

MEDIA GROUP TO HIRE 250 JOURNALISTS.  Overstory Media Group, a startup media group that operates newsletter-based journalism outlets in British Columbia, says it plans to hire 250 journalists and launch 50 outlets by 2023.

ILLINOIS SCHOOLS TO TEACH ASIAN AMERICAN HISTORY.  With hate crimes against Asxian-Americans in the news, Illinois Gov. J. B. Pritzker signs a law that requires public schools to teach a unit of Asian American history, a move education experts say is the first of its kind nationwide.

NINE YEAR OLD GIRL BECOMES PUBLISHER.  A nine-year-old girl in Monroeville, Pa. is publishing a neighborhood newspaper that spotlights uplifting stories and important information to neighbors.

BITING CALIFORNIA CANINES ZERO IN ON POSTAL WORKERS

California ranks No. 1 in many areas and now adds a new category:  dog bites against postal workers, notes Grumpy Editor.

The U.S. Postal Service reports five California cities rank among the top 25 in most dog attacks in the nation with Los Angeles in third place with 54 attacks.

San Diego is tied for 10th spot with 35 attacks, followed by Sacramento tied for 16th, with 22; Long Beach tied for 18th, with 20, and San Francisco, tied for 24th with 14.

That is nothing to bark about.

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AP TO CURB NAMING MINOR CRIME SUSPECTS.  Associated Press says it no longer will name suspects in brief stories about minor crimes in which there is little chance AP will provide coverage beyond the initial arrest.

GIRL SCOUTS FACE UNSOLD COOKIES.  Because of the pandemic, Girl Scouts have 15 million boxes of unsold cookies.  This will be felt by local councils and troops that depend on cookie sales to fund programming, travel, camps and other activities.

 

JUNIOR LAWYERS PAY RISES.  Junior lawyers salaries at many top law firms are rising above $200,000, “following a year of record-breaking profits in the legal industry and competition to retain a workforce that has billed long hours at home during the pandemic,” reports The Wall Street Journal.

 

SENIORS SMACKED BY SCAMS.  The FBI reports senior citizens lost almost $1 billion in scams last year.  The shady activity was highest in California, Florida and Texas.

 

GRANDMOTHER, 92, GETS DIPLOMA.  A Utah grandmother, Barbara Stanley, picks up her high school diploma --- at age 92.   She grew up during the Great Depression, put ambitions on hold to help her sisters raise their kids, then married early in her 20s, giving birth to 17 children (eight boys and nine girls). 

MISSISSIPPI CRUISES RETURN.  American Queen, one of the largest cruise lines operating on American waterways, resumes offering cruises at reduced capacity and with enhanced COVID-19 safety protocols, on two of its boats sailing the Mississippi, Ohio and Cumberland rivers.

MAJOR USERS OF POSTAL SERVICE FEAR PRICE HIKES COMING

Some businesses are concerned about postage increases expected to be announced in March, notes Grumpy Editor.

Big mail users are asking the District of Columbia’s federal appeals court to block the action.

Major mailers fear the Postal Service will hike prices 5.5 percent to 9 percent this year for letters, magazines and other items, notes The Wall Street Journal.

“Now is not the time to aggressively increase prices when so many businesses are struggling and hanging by a thread,” says Hamilton Davison, president of the American Catalog Mailers Association.  

Postage, adds Davison, is the second biggest expense for many catalog merchants, adding further increases “will force more mail out of the system and contribute to a postal system death spiral.”

Meanwhile, on-time first-class mail delivery dropped below 64 percent in December vs. 92 percent at the start of 2020, according to data from the Postal Service.

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ECONOMY READY TO ROLL.  The U.S. economy this year is set to accelerate its recovery from the coronavirus-induced contraction of 2020, even without further economic stimulus from Washington, says the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.

66 PEOPLE ICE FISHING RESCUED.  The U.S. Coast Guard and others, using boats and helicopters, rescue 66 ice-fishing people stranded on ice floes in a Door County bay in northeastern Wisconsin.

 

NAVY VET TRAINS SERVICE DOGS TO ASSIST BLIND PEOPLE.  Melissa Harrington, since her retirement from the Navy in 2002, volunteers with the nonprofit Guide Dog Foundation in Virginia training 21 service dogs to assist people who are blind.

CONFEDERATE FLAGS BANNED ON N.C. PLATES.  North Carolina's Division of Motor Vehicles no longer issues or renews specialty license plates bearing the Confederate battle flag or any variation of it.

MIAMI HERALD CLOSES CUSTOM PUBLISHING.  The Miami Herald is closing its 20-year-old travel and tourism custom publishing operation that produced award-winning publications for its clients.

WINSTON CHURCHILL PAINTING TO BE SOLD.  A Winston Churchill painting, a gift to President Franklin D. Roosevelt, that depicts a Moroccan landscape is being sold by actress Angelina Jolie next month at an estimated price of $2.1 million to $3.4 million.  

 

JOB PAYS WELL.  Like to get a hefty-paying job and work only about two or three hours every four days?  Then being a major league baseball pitcher is for you.  As an example, with a free-agent right hander, the Los Angeles Dodgers last week made a three-year $102 million deal.

U.S. POSTAL SERVICE FACES HALT IN OPERATIONS

 

Officials warn about a precipitous drop in mail volume as fewer people and businesses send mail because of the coronavirus outbreak that could hasten the decline of the U.S. Postal Service, forcing it to halt operations as early as June, notes Grumpy Editor.

 

With a negative net worth of $65 billion and an additional $140 billion in unfunded liabilities, the USPS originally expected to run out of liquidity by 2021 without intervention.

 

Compounding things, hundreds of postal workers have fallen sick during the pandemic and a dozen have died from the virus.

 

The Postal Service delivers about 1 million lifesaving medications each year and serves as the only delivery link to Americans living in rural areas.

 

Working with other delivery services like United Parcel Service, the agency supports $1.7 trillion in sales and 7.3 million private sector workers.

 

“At a time when America needs the Postal Service more than ever, the reason we are so needed is having a devastating effect on our business," says Postmaster General Megan Brennan.

 

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ANIMAL ADOPTIONS JUMP.  The pandemic is inspiring many people to adopt animals.  The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, which reviews reports from 1,200 animal welfare organizations nationwide, says Los Angeles and New York shelters have seen a doubling of requests to adopt dogs.

 

MUCH OF CNBC'S STAFF WORKS FROM HOME.  With the pandemic, most of CNBC’s staff — and 40 on-air contributors — is working from home.  To get them airborne, production kits are used based on the Padcaster platform which features a front-end lens for higher quality and adapters for the use of lapel or shotgun mics. 

 

JIGSAW PUZZLES JUMP IN POPULARITY.  There’s a boom for jigsaw puzzles with people confined to homes.  But it takes time to produce the puzzles.  Each puzzle piece must be uniquely shaped to avoid one accidentally fitting into the wrong place. That means 1,000 different shapes for a 1,000-piece puzzle, each drawn by hand.

 

WHITE HOUSE JOURNALISTS TESTED.  Before the White House press briefing last week, journalists were tested for COVID-19.  It marks the latest effort by the White House and the White House Correspondents’ Association to keep the coronavirus off the premises.

 

ASTRONAUTS DEPART WITH LITTLE NEWS COVERAGE.  With news columns focused on the virus-plagued planet, there was little coverage of three astronauts — one American and two Russians — who took off for the International Space Station last week.

 

TRIBUNE CUTS PAY.  Tribune Publishing plans a series of permanent 2 percent to 10 percent pay cuts, effective April 19, for non-union staffers with an annual base salary of $67,000 or more.

LOCUSTS INVADE AFRICA.  A second wave of voracious locusts — billions of them, some 20 times the size of the first wave — is arriving in parts of Africa, including Uganda.  They are winging in from breeding grounds in Somalia in search of fresh vegetation springing up with seasonal rains.

 

MAJOR LAYOFFS AT YELP.  Yelp is laying off about 1,000 employees and furloughing about 1,100 as the coronavirus pandemic closes doors of advertisers.

BY PHONE, TRY TO REACH A LIVE BODY AT YOUR LOCAL POST OFFICE

Even without the busy Christmas season, guarded closer than Pentagon secret telephone numbers are those leading to live personnel at postal facilities, observed Grumpy Editor.

A look under U.S. Postal Service listings in the latest CenturyLink telephone directory comes up with this: “Postal representatives are available to respond to your questions & or concerns 24 hours per day---7 days a week.  Please call---”

Yeah, try.

In Grumpy Editor’s phone book there are 34 Post Office locations listed --- NONE with a telephone number.

A call to the regional postmaster brings a recorded voice, that includes information on passports.  But that’s it.  No live postal workers.

A Web search turns up some telephone numbers.  But dialing them produce no live action.

The main phone number unearthed for the area, automatically disconnects about a minute after dialing.

Listed separately in the phone book with businesses beginning with the letter “U” is “United States Postal Service Office of Inspector General” with the address. 

What this leads to is standing in line at your nearby postal facility to get an answer to a question.  

Dial a regional postmaster and get another recorded voice.

Also, not being able to connect immediately with a postal authority makes it easier for thieves who break into mail boxes, especially cluster versions, and making off with contents.

Perhaps some of the extra funds from the five cents per stamp increase upcoming next month can be used for live personnel to man Post Office phones.

 

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VETERANS HIT BY HOSPITAL STAFF SHORTAGES.  Staff shortages at military hospitals have forced some to discontinue services, refer patients to private providers and send others to Veterans Affairs hospitals for treatment, a government watchdog has found, reported Stars and Stripes, adding "in some cases, lack of civilian personnel could threaten the accreditation of hospital programs."

NUNS VISIT CASINOS.  Two nuns from a Catholic school in Torrance, Calif.  over a decade allegedly stole more than $500,000 from their school which they spent in casinos and on vacations.

HELLO, ANYONE HOME?  A moose awakened a couple in Anchorage by ringing the doorbell.  A video showed the large moose backing its caboose into the doorbell.

ANOTHER NORTH KOREA “SURPRISE.”  A think tank reported North Korea is expanding facilities near the Chinese border thought to house long-range miissiles that can reach the U.S.

GAIN IN GOLDEN STATE SOLAR USE SET.  California last week became the first state requiring homes built in 2020 and later to be solar powered. The new provisions are expected to boost the number of rooftop solar panels in the Golden State.  Builders last year took out solar permits for more than 115,000 new homes.

NEWS WORKFORCE FACES CUTS.  Thomson Reuters Corp. said it plans to cut its workforce by 12 percent, or 3,200 positions, by 2020 as part of a push to reduce spending.

CALIFORNIA LEADS WITH WELFARE PROGRAMS.  The Center for Immigration Studies said about 72 percent of households headed by noncitizens and immigrants use one or more forms of taxpayer-funded welfare programs in California, the top immigrant-receiving state in the U.S.  This compared with about 35 percent of households headed by native-born Americans using welfare in that state.

END OF THE RUN?  Fate of The Weekly Standard is uncertain, Editor-in-Chief Stephen Hayes informed staff last week, according to CNN.  Ryan McKibben, chairman of MediaDC, publisher of the conservative magazine, asked to meet with Hayes this week.

BOOST FOR SEARS, KMART?  Sears chairman and former CEO Eddie Lampert has, via his ESL Investments hedge fund, bid $4.6 billion to buy around 500 Sears and Kmart stores from the bankrupt operation. The bid included Diehard battery and Kenmore appliance brands. 

U.S. MOVIE FLOPS IN CHINA.  The film, Crazy Rich Asians, may have been a surprise hit in the U.S., but it hasn't gone down well in China where it flopped on its opening weekend, reported South China Morning Post.  Social media users there indicated the Cinderella-esque plot was "bland" and reminiscent of typical Chinese TV plotlines, said the newspaper, adding some also took offense at the title. 

Editors overlook event marking last U.S. bayonet battle

Overlooked by U.S. media was an anniversary ceremony at South Korea’s Osan Air Base last Thursday marking the U.S. Army’s last known bayonet charge, known as the Battle of Bayonet Hill on Feb. 7, 1951, during the “forgotten” Korean War --- which remains open ended, notes Grumpy Editor.

The battle --- involving the Army’s 27^th Infantry Regiment’s Easy Company --- pitted Americans against North Korean and communist Chinese soldiers.

Nine U.S. infantrymen died in capturing so-called Hill 180 while 47 enemy troops were left dead on the slope.

 

Revised Condé Nast contract irks writers

Freelance writers are grumbling over a revised Condé Nast master contract that includes a line declaring the publisher owns television and movie rights to all stories that appear in its magazines.

It could mean a financial loss into six figures for contributors.

Condé Nast’s two dozen titles include Vanity Fair, The New Yorker, GQ, Glamour, Self, Golf Digest and Brides. Advance Publications is Condé Nast’s parent.

No Saturday mail affects some publications 

The Postal Service’s planned termination of Saturday deliveries starting Aug. 3 will affect distribution of some publications.

The National Newspaper Association notes about 30 percent of its member papers rely on Saturday mail deliveries.

Time magazine subscribers receive the mailed weekly on Fridays or Saturdays.  Bloomberg Businessweek, which already is using alternate means to get its weekly issues to some subscribers, figures a quarter of its subscribers will see mail deliveries extended to Mondays.

The Postal Service figures ending Saturday deliveries would help save the agency about $2 billion a year.

 

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The Weather Channel stirs up its own storm by labeling the weekend northeast blizzard Nemo.  Turning thumbs down on the name include the National Weather Service and independent meteorologists…Look for President Barack Obama in his State of the Union address tomorrow to work in the often mentioned-for-months line:  The economy is heading in the right direction…Not a good time for copy editors.  The sharp-eyed word/fact/grammar watchers are sacrificed more than any other newsroom personnel --- with a 50 percent reduction in the past five years…No major headlines, as a Navy budget is being considered in Washington, on how the Navy’s fleet is down to 287 ships, the smallest American armada since the early 1900s.  A 2010 independent panel called for a fleet of 346 ships…The Washington Post Co. signs an agreement to sell its Herald, in  Everett, Wash., daily it has owned since 1978.

Postal Service seeks to end overnight mail delivery

In a bid to avoid insolvency, the Postal Service today officially proposes eliminating overnight delivery of first-class mail to many destinations --- which is nothing new considering for years it has taken a sluggish two days to get many letters from point A delivered to point B, notes Grumpy Editor. 

For example, for years mailing a letter in Los Angeles for delivery in  Las Vegas --- a distance of about 230 miles --- takes two days. 

The Postal Service wants to change what it calls “overnight standards.”  Officially, that means it would take first class mail more than one day to reach destinations. 

The agency says it needs to overhaul service standards as it closes hundreds of processing facilities. 

Delivering first class mail in two to three days instead of one to three days could save about $3 billion by 2015, claims the Postal Service. 

That comes close to Pony Express standards. 

And it gets closer to the Postal Service's unofficial label, “snail mail.” 

Lowly speed contrasts with 70 years ago when the postal operation was swift.  Two mail deliveries a day were common.  A mailing in the morning was delivered by afternoon in the same city. 

Modern mail operations struggle to offset falling mail volumes as more people and businesses communicate by email and pay bills online. 

Adding to the decline in mail activity is the periodic increase in cost of postage. 

Another boost comes on Jan. 22. 

Cost of a first-class stamp, for a one-ounce mailing, rises to 45 cents from the current 44.

 

Presto! August Social Security payments flow on time

Following several weeks of scary-to-seniors dire warnings --- from President Barack Obama to national print and broadcast media --- that more than 45 million Americans may not get their August Social Security payments if the debt-ceiling crisis was not resolved, lo and behold, just minutes after the debt-ceiling vote passed in Washington, the Social Security Administration issued a news release saying benefits will be paid on time, notes Grumpy Editor. 

Whew! 

Imagine this miraculous speed:  With the green light and to meet the next-day (Aug. 3) dissemination, the U.S. Treasury Department immediately cranked up its check-printing presses or geared for direct deposits to millions of recipients.  Then, for the mailed checks, the U.S. Postal Service took over for following-day distribution around the country --- a delivery process that usually takes two days to mail boxes. 

Hard to believe? 

Not even usual eyebrow-raising investigative reporters were stirred by this magical, super-fast federal government action, equal to pulling a rabbit out of a hat. 

Strangely, with millions of Americans concerned, few print and broadcast media reported the announcement that Social Security benefits would be paid as usual and on time. 

The Aug. 2 news release from the Social Security Administration announced “payments for August 3 will be made on time and as scheduled.  Payments for August 10, 17 and 24 also will be made as scheduled.” 

The three-paragraph news release also reminded that “current beneficiaries must switch to electronic payments by March 1, 2013.” 

That should provide another “crisis” for media, focusing on recipients who do not have bank accounts.

 

Ending Saturday Postal Service delivery edges closer

Halting Postal Service deliveries on Saturdays and later slicing service to three days a week will slow receipt of periodicals but delight banks that issue credit cards and others that slap fees on late payments, envisions Grumpy Editor. 

Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe warns heavy financial losses in operations soon could curtail Saturday deliveries. 

Then, “at some point, we’ll have to move to three days a week of mail delivery, possibly in 15 years,” adds Donahoe who projects an $8.3 billion loss this year mainly because more people are moving communications electronically. 

Senators Tom Carper (D., Del.) and Susan Collins (R., Maine) are behind legislation that would lead to scrubbing Saturday deliveries. 

However, Sen. Jon Tester (D., Mont.) won’t vote for it because he says Saturday deliveries are important for people in states like his to get things like medicine and other vital items. 

The Postal Service also is reviewing up to 3,600 postal facilities for elimination.  Final decision is slated for next spring. 

Stopping Saturday service also means mailed payments deposited into Post Office collection boxes on Friday nights won’t be picked up until Monday mornings.  With two or more days for delivery, they could wind up as “late,” thus triggering late payment fees from banks and others. 

Postal Service has been marked by deteriorating service in recent years. 

Some examples: 

+  Residents of newer homes pick up mail from mostly inconvenient cluster boxes, rather than deliveries through mail slots at residences. 

+  Delivery time over short distances comes close to Pony Express days.  For instance, a letter from Los Angeles to Las Vegas --- about 230 miles --- takes at least two days.

+  Earlier “last” pickup times Mondays through Saturdays from collection boxes.

+  Elimination of Sunday pickups. 

Largely forgotten:  Two mail deliveries a day to businesses in the early 1940s.  Thus, a same-city mailing in the morning was received in the afternoon.