Grumpy Editor

CAR CHASE SHOOTINGS GRAB ATTENTION ON TV

 

Car chase shootings often lead off local TV news programs.  Somehow they grab attention of news editors who feel they’ll grab attention of viewers, notes Grumpy Editor.

 

Thus, it’s not unexpected seeing a report of road-rage shootings killing or injuring an average of 44 people a month (yes, a month) last year, double the average of like incidents in 2019, before the pandemic.

 

“Driving gets heated in plenty of other countries, but only in the U.S. is someone shot and injured or killed every 17 hours in a road-rage incident, says Sarah Burd-Sharps, director of research at Everytown for Gun Safety Support Fund.

 

From 2016 to 2019, the study found one-third of road-rage incidents involving a gun resulted in injury or death.

 

Grumpy Editor feels inspiring some of that road rage are car chases depicted in movies and television.

 

IN CASE YOUR FAVORITE NEWS OUTLETS MISSED THESE...

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SURPRISE.  A study suggests people who live with handgun owners are shot to death at a higher rate than those without such weapons on premises.

 

NORTH KOREA THREATENS…AGAIN.  Two times in three days the sister of North Korea’s leader warns her country’s nuclear forces would annihilate South Korea’s conventional forces if provoked.

 

SIX DAYS A WEEK MAIL CONTINUES.  Six days a week of mail delivery is assured after President Joe Biden signs into law a sweeping overhaul of the U.S. Postal Service.  The bill signing occurs on the same day the Postal Service announces it plans to raise rates effective July 10.

 

D.C. FOX BITES PEOPLE.  A fox roaming near the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C. that tested positive bites California congressman Ami Bera near a Senate office building and at least eight other people.

 

DODGERS PRODUCE NAME PRONOUNCIATION GUIDE.  With many tough-to-pronounce baseball players’ names on the Los Angeles Dodgers roster, a guide is produced on how the players would like those names pronounced.

 

CLEARING THE AIR.  Barcelona beachgoers no longer will have to contend with cigarette butts or passive smoke starting in July when Spain's second largest city bans smoking on all its beaches.

 

NEW YORK CITY ADDS SKYSCRAPER.  Steinway Tower, the world's “most slender skyscraper" — at 1,428 feet — is completed, adding a new landmark to Manhattan's skyline.  It compares to the Empire State Building that stands 1,250 feet or 1,454 feet to the top of its antenna.

 

HELIUM SUPPLY CURBED.   The National Weather Service is reducing the frequency of weather balloon launches due to a "global supply chain disruption of helium" and a "temporary issue with the contract" of a hydrogen supplier. However, most NWS weather balloons now use hydrogen rather than helium.

FACTORS BEHIND BOOST IN HIGHWAY TRAFFIC DEATHS

Speeding has boosted this year's highway deaths, greatest in more than a decade, notes Grumpy Editor.

 

Traffic data indicates an increase in the death toll is linked to higher average speeds in conjunction with roads seeing more drivers under the influence of drugs and alcohol, along with a slight decline in seatbelt use.

 

But Grumpy Editor points to another factor behind the speeding:  TV commercials.

 

Viewers this year have seen TV spots from various American and foreign manufacturers showing speeding vehicles on winding mountain roads, sliding sideways on city streets, splashing through small streams, and kicking up dust and rocks while zooming off roads.

 

Think that doesn't give viewers ideas?

In California, for example, tickets issued by the Highway Patrol for speeding in excess of 100 m.p.h. from January to June were nearly double pre-pandemic levels.  The number of tickets for reckless driving citations also jumped.

 

Nationwide traffic deaths last year rose 7.2 percent to 38,680 even after a 13.2 percent reduction in the number of miles traveled.

 

IN CASE YOUR FAVORITE NEWS OUTLETS MISSED THESE...

 

SOCIAL SECURITY BUMP COMING UP.  Social Security recipients are in line for the biggest percentage bump for inflation in 40 years.  Likely cost of living adjustment for 2022, to be announced in October, is predicted to be 6.2 percent.

READY TO HELP VETS.  The Department of Veterans Affairs urges Afghanistan War veterans  to seek mental health care if they need help coming to terms with the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan…a country where hundreds of thousands of veterans served in the 20 years since the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

FALSE ONLINE INFORMATION EYED.  Amid rising concerns over misinformation online, including that of COVID-19 pandemic and vaccines, Americans are a bit more open to the idea of the U.S. government taking steps to restrict false information online. A majority of the public continues to favor technology companies taking such action, according to a Pew Research Center survey.

 

THURSDAY SPOTLIGHTS CANINES.  International Dog Day, observed on Thursday, encourages dog ownership of all breeds.  It celebrates all dogs and encourages adoption.

UNRULY BEHAVIOR IN AIR DRAWS FINES.  Fines for unruly behavior during commercial air flights soar this year, with the Federal Aviation Administration reporting it has proposed more than $1 million in penalties in 2021.  The FAA receives almost 4,000 reports of aggressive behavior since January.

VETERANS TOUR D.C. MONUMENTS.   A flight organized by Honor Flight Chicago, sends more than 100 veterans from three wars to Washington, D.C. for a whirlwind tour of monuments around the nation's capital that were built in their honor.  In attendance:  Three veterans from World War II, 33 from the Korean War and 76 from Vietnam War.

 PELICAN ESCAPES AGAIN.  A great white pelican escaped for a second time from an Irish zoo and was spotted more than 100 miles away.  The pelican flew the coop and was spotted in Wexford --- the same place it visited after an earlier escape in 2018.

Elementary, Watson: More people = more traffic delays

 

It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that with 26 million more people in the U.S. since 2005, aging roads are more crowded and additional time is required to reach destinations.

So Grumpy Editor notes that print and broadcast media late last week focused, often at length, on a report that growing urban population has boosted traffic congestion around the country and it is outpacing the nation’s ability to build infrastructure.

Among the nation’s worst traffic cities, Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Jose, Seattle, Houston and Riverside (Calif.) experienced population growth outpacing the national average of 0.7 percent last year, according to a report by Inrix, a Kirkland, Wash. company that analyzes travel data, and the Texas A&M Transportation Institute, College Station, Texas.

U.S. population now stands at an estimated 321.2 million, according to the Census Bureau.  This compares with 295.5 million 10 years ago.

Washington, D.C. tops the list of commuter gridlock, followed by Los Angeles, San Francisco and New York.

Rush-hour congestion adds 82 hours annually to motorists’ average commute in Washington, 80 extra hours in Los Angeles, 78 hours in San Francisco and 74 hours in New York.

Average travel-time delay per commuter nationwide is more than twice what it was in 1982, while for cities with under 500,000 people, the problem is four times worse than in 1982, adds the report.

Traffic congestion findings are drawn from traffic speed data collected by Inrix, along with highway performance data from the Federal Highway Administration.

More congestion lies ahead.  The report predicts by 2020 annual delay per commuter will rise to 47 hours from 42.

 

In case you missed these...

As the weekend neared, excited print/television/top-of the hour radio news, in following tropical storm Erika through the Caribbean, noted the likelihood of slamming Florida Sunday night or Monday as a hurricane.  But on Saturday morning, the National Hurricane Center issued:  “All coastal watches and warnings are discontinued” as Erika fizzled…Meanwhile, many editors missed an unusual atmospheric development over land far to the West on Tuesday when fierce winds brought a high, wide wall of thick dust to the Phoenix area.  Wind was strong enough to topple a tractor-trailer.  The Washington Post was alert on the event, noting “A mean and massive dust storm swallowed up parts of the Phoenix area on Tuesday.”  NBC News also reported on the giant "duster," coupled with footage.

 

That word omitted again in a news story

“Illegal” was missing from this sentence from a Boston Globe story on Donald Trump’s Friday night appearance at a Norwood, Mass. campaign rally:  “Some researchers have disputed Trump’s claims about immigrants and crime, arguing that immigrants, regardless of their status, are less likely than the native-born to commit serious felonies"...Earlier in the week in the aftermath of Trump ordering biased Jorge Ramos out of a news conference, the Los Angeles Times noted the Univision anchor "has been called the Spanish-language Walter Cronkite."  And Juan Williams, yesterday on Fox News, repeated that description.  Wait a minute.  Unlike Ramos, viewers watching the CBS Evening News, anchored by Cronkite for 19 years, never got a clue as to which way the veteran newsman leaned politically.

 

No airstrikes against Islamic State camps

Washington Free Beacon writer Bill Gertz on Friday revealed the "Pentagon has not conducted airstrikes against an estimated 60 Islamic State (IS) training camps that are supplying thousands of fighters each month to the terror group, according to defense and intelligence officials"...Two U.S. servicemen killed in southern Afghanistan by a shooter in an Afghan uniform Wednesday originally were identified as NATO personnel.  Thus, the incident didn't get much coverage in the U.S.  The two were Air Force special operations troops identified as Capt. Matthew D. Roland, 27, and Staff Sgt. Forrest B. Sibley, 31...Long-time production by AM General of the military's famous vehicle, the Humvee, now goes to Wisconsin’s Oshkosh Corp. which won a contract that could be worth $30 billion or more to build nearly 50,000 vehicles over the next 25 years for the Army and another 5,500 for the Marine Corps.

 

Chopping due in ‘discover the forest’ PSAs

Enough, already!  Listeners to a national morning radio news hour hear four or five public service announcements for the U.S. Forest Service, repeated daily (often the same PSA within minutes), promoting "discover the forest"...Chipotle Mexican grill plans a one-day hiring binge.  It intends to sign up 4,000 workers in a single day, Sept. 9...American Journalism Review, founded as the Washington Journalism Review in 1977, is ending its online publication.  AJR was produced by Philip Merrill College of Journalism at the University of Maryland.  Merrill College Dean Lucy Dalglish said, “Unfortunately, we are unable to provide the resources needed to keep AJR the vibrant, innovative online publication it deserves to be."

 

Summertime delicacy:

USA Today got to the meat of things with sizzling summer news on Wednesday with "13 ways to eat watermelon all day long."

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