Grumpy Editor

MILLIONS OF DRIVERS HAVE HEAVY EYES ON THE ROAD

About 37 million American drivers at least once a year get behind wheels when they are so tired they can barely keep their eyes open, reads Grumpy Editor.

That’s six in 10 people, finds a survey by the National Sleep Foundation.

"Drowsy driving is impaired driving," says Joseph Dzierzewski, the foundation's vice president of research and scientific affairs. "We see that while most Americans believe drowsy driving is risky, they still drive when not fully alert. The good news is -- drowsy driving is preventable."

In a survey conducted this fall, nearly 20 percent of respondents were overly confident in their ability to drive after sleeping only two hours or less the previous night.

Respondents claiming they get the recommended amount of sleep --- about seven to nine hours per night for adults and eight to 10 for teens --- were less likely to drive drowsy, says the foundation.

 

IN CASE YOUR FAVORITE NEWS OUTLETS MISSED THESE…

DROUGHT HITS EAST AFRICA WILDLIFE.  During East Africa's worst drought in decades, the Kenya Wildlife Service and other groups count deaths of 205 elephants, 512 wildebeests, 381 common zebras, 51 buffalos, 49 Grevy's zebras and 12 giraffes in the past nine months.

GANNETT JOURNALISTS GO ON STRIKE.  More than 200 Gannett journalists around the country walked off their jobs on Friday. It was part of a one-day strike demanding better pay and benefits.

BANK ROBBERS ACTIVE IN NEW YORK.  New York City bank robberies jump 42 percent this year.  There have been 135 bank heists through Oct. 23 compared to 95 during the same period in 2021.  One mid-town bank has seen four robberies this year with the latest this month.

LENA HORNE THEATER OPENS.  Brooklyn-born singer and actress Lena Horne, who died in 2010, becomes the first Black woman in U.S. history to have a Broadway theater named in her honor.  The original Mansfield theatre, built in 1926, becomes the Lena Horne Theatre where the musical “Six” is now playing.

SHEPARD SMITH TO DEPART CNBC.  CNBC cancels “The News With Shepard Smith” which averaged about 222,000 viewers.  His final newscast airs later this month.  A newscast focusing on business will replace Smith’s show sometime next year.

SCAM ARTISTS BUSY WITH SENIORS.   Scam artists last year, focusing on consumers 60 years and older, result in 467,340 fraud reports filed on investment, business and government impersonation.  These result in losses of more than $1 billion, notes a report to Congress from the Federal Trade Commission.

COUPLE NOTED FOR RESCUING 13,000 DOGS.  Ron Danta and Danny Robertshaw, who run the non-profit Danny and Ron's Rescue out of their Camden, South Carolina home, have rescued 13,000 dogs and now care for dozens of dogs looking for a second chance.

RUSSIA INVASION TRIGGERS HIGHER U.S. INFLATION

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is boosting U.S. inflation, notes Grumpy Editor.

Simply put:  The economy is being affected by higher oil prices.

 

Economic consequences of Russia’s invasion are leading upward movements in commodity prices, especially energy.  “That’s going to work its way through the U.S. economy," says Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell.

 

“We’re going to see upward pressure on inflation, at least for a while,” he adds.

 

Consumer prices already are rising at the fastest pace in four decades,  jumping 7.5 percent in January from a year prior.

 

 

IN CASE YOUR FAVORITE NEWS OUTLETS MISSED THESE…

 

NAVY RECOVERS SUBMERGED FIGHTER JET.  Concerned that China might get to it, the U.S. Navy recovers the advanced F-35C Lightning II stealth fighter jet from the bottom (12,400 feet) of the South China Sea that it lost after a crash aboard aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson a month ago. 

 

CLAM CONTAINS $100,000 PEARL.  Michael Spressler thought he'd cracked a molar after biting into a raw clam at his favorite South Jersey restaurant.  Then he finds that “it was a perfectly round pearl.”  At 8.83 millimeters, it could be worth as much as $100,000. 

 

NEW WEATHER SATELLITE IN ORBIT.  The U.S.'s latest weather satellite takes flight, designed to improve wildfire and flood forecasting across the western half of the country.  It replaces a satellite that was launched four years ago.

 

AMELIA EARHART'S HELMET AUCTIONED. The  leather helmet that Amelia Earhart wore on a flight across the Atlantic Ocean in 1928 sells at auction for $825,000.  It goes to an anonymous on-line bidder. 

 

PRESERVED SHIP'S WRECKAGE FOUND.  The 130-year-old wreckage of the ship Atlanta is discovered at the bottom of Lake Superior, 35 miles off Deer Park, Michigan.  The Great Lakes Shipwreck Historical Society says the ship is a "wonderfully preserved shipwreck” 650 feet below the lake's surface.

 

NORTH KOREA FIRES ANOTHER MISSILE.  North Korea fires another suspected ballistic missile into the sea, extending its streak of weapons tests this year amid a prolonged freeze in nuclear negotiations with the United States.

 

YELLOWSTONE PARK MARKS DEBUT.  Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming, this month marks its establishment by an act of Congress in March, 1872, the first area in the world to be designated a national park.  It covers nearly 3,500 square miles mostly in Wyoming and into parts of Montana and Idaho. 

 

WATERLOGGED COW TAKES RIVER RIDE.  A cow carried away by floodwaters in Australia is found wandering on a beach after floating down a river in New South Wales.  The confused cow drifted about three miles down Tweed River from a farm in the Terranora area.

NBC SITS ON 'RUSSIA' EXCLUSIVE GOING AIRBORNE

Imagine this:  A major broadcast network grabs an exclusive in reporting (on the web) that the Senate Intelligence Committee has found no material evidence of collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia, notes Grumpy Editor.

But in the two following days, the news does not yet go airborne.

 

Under a Washington dateline, NBC’s Ken Dilanian wrote, “After two years and 200 interviews, the Senate Intelligence Committee is approaching the end of its investigation into the 2016 election, having uncovered no direct evidence of a conspiracy between the Trump campaign and Russia, according to both Democrats and Republicans on the committee.”

 

Bill D'Agostino, a research analyst for Media Research Center's News Analysis Division, points out “yet none of the three major broadcast networks (ABC, CBS and NBC) have given it even a single second of coverage in their evening newscasts.  Considering these networks have given the Russia probe a massive 2,202 minutes of airtime, their silence on this major development is deafening."

 

He adds, “MRC analysts examining all coverage on ABC’s World News Tonight, the CBS Evening News and the NBC Nightly News found that those 2,202 minutes spent on the Russia investigation accounted for nearly 19 percent of all Trump-related reporting between January 21, 2017 and February 10, 2019.”

Through Sunday, meanwhile, media continue to report special counsel Robert Mueller is close to wrapping up his investigation into possible collusion between Trump's campaign and the Russian government.  Example:  CNN's Reliable Sources with Brian Seltzer Sunday kept the investigation alive with a segment on "Russia Mueller Probe Rolls on."

IN CASE YOUR FAVORITE NEWS OUTLETS MISSED THESE…

 

PIECE OF AMERICANA FADES.  Minor league baseball stadium for the Hartford Yard Goats, a Double-A affiliate of the Colorado Rockies, says fans will not be buying peanuts or Cracker Jack (made famous in the lyrics of the famous, "Take Me Out to the Ball Game") to make the venue safer for people with food allergies.

NO FEDERAL TAXES FOR AMAZON.  Amazon, which doubled its profits and made more than $11 billion in 2018, won't pay any federal income taxes for the second year in a row, reports the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy. 

 

SNOW FALLS LOWER IN HAWAII.  While snow usually falls in Hawaii a few times a year in winter on the state's highest peak, Mauna Kea --- the dormant volcano on the island of Hawaii, rising 13,803 in feet --- the white stuff is rarely seen at elevations below 9,000 to 10,000 feet.  But that's what happened on Maui's 10,000-foot Haleakala that received a rare thick dusting of snow that accumulated at 6,200 feet in Polipoli State Recreation Area.   

CHICAGO RANKS AS MOST CORRUPT.  Information from the Justice Department ranks the Chicago metropolitan area  as the most corrupt U.S. city.  Meanwhile, Los Angeles tops the list of the most public corruption convictions in America, based on the number of federal corruption convictions between 1976 and 2017. 

 

STOP THE PRESSES.  Grabbing space in U.S. newspapers was the earth-shaking report from Toronto about a 19-year old woman who tossed two chairs from a 45th floor balcony onto a busy street in front of her condo building's entrance.  No one was injured. 

DIRTY MONEY.  The typical Manhattan ATM is more bacteria-ridden than a wide range of other heavily-used objects, including a subway pole and the handle of a public toilet at Penn Station, reports the New York Post.

Media focus on ‘Russia’ as other events overlooked

Russia. Russia. Russia.

That seems to be the monotonous key word heard in most broadcast stories relating to President Donald Trump, especially with almost wall-to-wall coverage on MSNBC and CNN, notes Grumpy Editor.

Now, seven months after the election, Russia continues to grab air time and print space with mainstream media.

That includes consistent mentions of meeting with a Russian banker and a Russian ambassador --- before Trump entered the White House.

Imagine, meeting with a banker and an ambassador.

Now think about that.

As Kimberley A. Strassel points out in her Friday column in the Wall Street Journal: “The country is no better informed about exactly how Russia interfered in the election than it was in October, when intelligence agencies issued a statement expressing their belief that Moscow had helped hack emails. Not a single useful fact has since been added, nor a single investigation completed, not a single official report produced. Until those inquiries are completed, we will have no new real facts. Yet every day a new Russia story.”

With the heavy focus on Russia, newsworthy stories from around the U.S. and elsewhere are being sidetracked.

While Russia is on the minds of most media, what is being overlooked by most editors is the potential threat of North Korea and its loony leader Kim Jong-un with efforts of sending a missile toward the U.S.

Defense Secretary Jim Mattis on Saturday warns that North Korea is a “clear and present danger.”

Through the weekend, Russia chatter abated somewhat with a new (yet old) subject grabbing attention: climate change.

Meanwhile, Media Research Center President Brent Bozell says a MRC campaign will focus on informing the public and corporate advertisers about leftist shows and on-air personalities who use their programs to spread vicious lies and hate.

“We are putting the radical left on notice that we are on to them. We know the inside-outside game that radical organizations are playing with their leftist allies in the ‘news’ media,” adds Bozell.

“Every network and cable news channel is today on notice that the MRC will be closely monitoring their leftist opinion programs and informing their advertisers and the American public when these programs and hosts go beyond political commentary and engage in smear, hate and political extremism,” continues Bozell.

 

IN CASE YOUR FAVORITE NEWS OUTLETS MISSED THESE…

Despite mainstream media attempts to inject negative news, the U.S. economy last month added 138,000 jobs and on Friday U.S. equities rose to record levels as the Dow Jones Industrial Average, S&P 500 and Nasdaq all soared to new highs.

Interesting to observe contrasting headlines from the Washington Post and New York Times.

From the Post: U.S. jobs market stumbles in May, adding just 138,000 jobs.

From the Times: Unemployment at 16-year low as U.S. adds 138,000 jobs.

Meanwhile, newspaper circulation and advertising revenue ebb. Estimated total daily newspaper circulation (print and digital combined) at 34.6 million for weekday and 38 million for Sunday, represents an 8 percent drop from 2015. Weekday print circulation sinks 10 percent while Sunday decreases 9 percent. Estimated newspaper industry advertising revenue for 2016 was $18 billion, 10 percent below the 2015 level.

 

The New York Times offers buyouts aimed at cutting the number of editors in the newsroom. Along with that, The Times is eliminating the position of public editor, an accountability role the paper created in 2003…In a Donald Trump tweet, “covfefe” is labeled “a mysterious term” by media and gets much air time and print space over the past several days.   Example from one news agency: “The White House is keeping the U.S. and the world guessing about the meaning --- if there is any.”…City officials in Gardendale --- a town near Birmingham, Ala. --- say teenagers wishing to mow lawns for extra summer cash will have to show a city-issued license (cost: $110) before cutting grass…Berkeley, Calif. continues its war on plastic as officials introduce an ordinance that would ban straws that aren’t biodegradable…Hot cash. Would-be ATM thieves in Everett, Wash. thwarted their own burglary attempt by using a blowtorch in an attempt to access the cash box. The only problem --- they accidentally set the money on fire.

Tomorrow marks the anniversary of 1944’s D-Day in World War II.  Usually, media emphasize important anniversaries.

So will that famous event (or Russia ) grab media attention?

N. Korea, Russia prep weapons; U.S. focuses on ‘climate’

While U.S. print and broadcast media continued to highlight nuclear talks with Iran (where its supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Saturday called for “death to America”) and the White House placed the perils of climate change (aka global warming) at the top of its concerned list, other dangers --- with scant reporting --- were lurking from North Korea and Russia, finds Grumpy Editor.

North Korea ambassador to the United Kingdom Hyun Hak-bong came right out and bragged to Britain’s Sky News defense correspondent Alistair Bunkall that the communist nation has a nuclear capability and can use it at “any time” and is ready to launch a nuclear war if it feels threatened.

"We don't say empty words,” the ambassador added.  “We mean what we mean. It is not the United States that has a monopoly on nuclear weapons strikes."

Meanwhile, Washington Free Beacon’s Bill Gertz revealed, in input from a U.S. defense commander, that Russia is developing a long-range cruise missile that poses a new threat to the U.S.

Gertz said Adm. William Gortney, Northcom chief who heads the U.S.-Canadian North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) warned: “Russia is progressing toward its goal of deploying long-range, conventionally-armed cruise missiles with ever increasing stand-off launch distances on its heavy bombers, submarines, and surface combatants, augmenting the Kremlin’s toolkit of flexible deterrent options short of the nuclear threshold.”

The admiral added, “Should these trends continue, over time NORAD will face increased risk in our ability to defend North America against Russian cruise missile threats.”

Despite this activity from opposite sides of the world, plus recent threats from terrorists, the White House --- while looking skyward --- sees natural changes in atmospheric conditions as the evil thing to watch.

Along with declaring, “No challenge, no challenge, poses a greater threat to future generations than climate change” in his State of the Union address in January, President Barack Obama told West Point graduates last year to get ready to combat climate change which he termed “a creeping national security crisis.”

 

FYI, IN CASE YOUR FAVORITE EDITORS MISSED THESE…

Joining in the global warming chorus last week was New York Times op-ed columnist Gail Collins, who wrote:  “Now climate change is perhaps the most important long-term issue the next American president will have to deal with”…Attorneys in a proposed legal action claim unacceptable levels of arsenic are in California wines from about 30 makers.  (Tip to an aggressive fact-finding newspaper:  With professional analysis of the wines, get the facts, see if wine poses a danger --- and compare findings with arsenic levels in drinking water)…Snappy reporting:  A story in a daily (largest newspaper in its state) on a shopping center robbery pair sought by police ran nine days after the incident.  Despite mention that police released surveillance photos, the newspaper did not run any art but gave this full description of the bad guys --- “The men were described to be in their late 30s or 40s.”  (That’ll help nab ‘em)…Also unusually slow is the continued review of the proposed Keystone XL pipeline.  A White House senior adviser on Thursday said the State Department is still reviewing the project --- announced seven years ago…Blaming the dry spell in California, the State Water Resources Control Board adopted restrictions that require restaurants to serve water only on request and hotels/motels to offer guests the option of not having linens washed daily.

 

Repo-by-remote:  Busy Nevada lawmakers were working on a bill that involved a “starter interrupt device" designed to make it easier for car loan issuers to disable vehicles of those who are behind in payments.

PR firm Ketchum places Putin op-ed in New York Times

Russian President Vladimir Putin got a solid assist from U.S. public relations giant Ketchum Inc. in placing his commentary in The New York Times’ op-ed page Thursday just as a meeting of Russian and U.S. representatives in Geneva, focusing on Syria and chemical weapons, got under way, notes Grumpy Editor. 

In the op-ed --- titled A Plea for Caution From Russia --- which grabbed heavy print and broadcast headlines in the U.S., Putin portrayed himself as a peacemaker, criticized the U.S. and lectured the U.S. for its tendency to use "brute force" in world disputes. 

Reuters pointed out Ketchum has earned more than $25 million working for Russia, according to documents filed with the U.S. Justice Department. 

The PR firm, with 74 offices and 56 affiliates in 70 countries, is a unit of New York Stock Exchange-listed Omnicom Group Inc. 

Several sources said Putin himself wrote the op-ed.

On the day the op-ed appeared, a Senate panel narrowed the definition of a “covered journalist” as an independent contractor, employee or agent of an entity that disseminates news or information.

So, as the writer of an op-ed piece, does that put Putin (as a “freelance writer”) in the same category as other contributors to The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times and other publications?

Meanwhile, in a “fair and balanced” response to Putin’s N.Y. Times material, Sen. John McCain (R., Ariz.) will write an op-ed for Russia’s Pravda, with a paltry paid circulation of 49,000, dwarfing that of the N.Y. Times'  total circulation of 1.9 million.

 

More snooping looms:  credit card transactions 

Overlooked Friday and over the weekend by most media --- but not the Washington Examiner --- was information on more government snooping, finds Grumpy Editor. 

The newspaper declared, “Consumer Financial Protection Bureau officials are seeking to monitor four out of every five U.S. consumer credit card transactions this year, up to 42 billion transactions, through a controversial data-mining program, according to documents obtained by the Washington Examiner.” 

The Washington Examiner went on to explain that “a CFPB strategic planning document for fiscal years 2013-17 describes the ‘markets monitoring’ program through which officials aim to monitor 80 percent of all credit card transactions” this year.

“The U.S. Census Bureau reports that 1.16 billion consumer credit cards were in use in 2012 for an estimated 52.6 billion transactions. If CFPB officials reach their stated ‘performance goal,’ they would collect data on 42 billion transactions made with 933 million credit cards used by American consumers."

What's more, the newspaper added, “CFPB officials hope to monitor up to 95 percent of all mortgage transactions, according to the planning document.”

 

In case you missed these…

Another journalist joins Obama team.  Richard Stengel is leaving his Time magazine editor post to become undersecretary of state for public diplomacy and public affairs.  It marks the 21^st journalist to become a member of the Obama administration…While Washington and most media have been focusing on Syria and chemical weapons, North Korea has been acting up --- again.  The Associated Press reported a recent satellite image appears to show the communist country is restarting a plutonium reactor in a move that could raise renewed international alarm over its nuclear weapons program, according to the U.S.-Korea Institute at Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies. 

Ice story ignored by most U.S. media:  A chilly Arctic summer has left nearly a million more square miles of ocean covered with ice than at the same time last year, reports Britain’s Daily Mail.  That’s a 60 percent increase.  The newspaper noted the Northwest Passage from the Atlantic to the Pacific has remained blocked by pack-ice all year, adding global warming has "paused" since early 1997, “an event that the computer models used by climate experts failed to predict.” 

In media developments:  A copy of USA Today, starting Sept. 30, will cost $2 at newsstands, double the current $1, unchanged since 2008…Sean Hannity agreed to a multi-year extension of his radio show via Premiere Networks, which said Hannity’s program will expand to additional major market Clear Channel talk stations as well as non-Clear Channel stations next year…The Washington Post now offers free digital access for federal employees, military personnel and students in higher education…From Glenn Beck commenting on the Syria situation on his Tuesday morning radio program: “Write it down in your calendars, because this is the week that America lost its superpower status”…Closer Weekly, a new magazine from Bauer Publishing Co., debuts in November.  Aimed at Generation X females, it will cover celebrities, beauty, health, fashion and recipes.

Media miss UPI report on Russia hypoing missile defense

While print/broadcast media, focusing on a four-month old video, were wrangling yesterday over Mitt Romney’s correct mention that 47 (actually 46.4) percent of households paid no federal income tax in 2011, editors let interesting word out of Moscow --- relating to missile defense --- slip by, observes Grumpy Editor. 

Russia announced it was reactivating a ballistic missile defense system around Moscow as part of a modernization program, reported UPI.

(Yes, United Press International --- perhaps unfamiliar to some young editors --- is still around, feeding information to media outlets, businesses, governments and researchers worldwide.)

The former head of Russian Strategic Missile Forces told state-run news agency RIA Novosti that missile silos positioned to defend the Russian capital would be reactivated, UPI added.

The A-135 system is being thoroughly modernized with missiles and other elements, including upgrading of detection and tracking components, the news service amplified.

In addition, two other interceptor missile systems, deactivated in 2007, will be re-equipped, part of the modernization program.

Getting back to UPI, for those unfamiliar with the news service established in 1907, it is headquartered in Washington, D.C. with offices in Beirut, Hong Kong, London, Santiago, Seoul and Tokyo.

Among its famous alumni:  Long before becoming anchor of CBS Evening News on television, Walter Cronkite was a front-line war correspondent in Europe during World War II when the news service was known as UP or United Press.

Obama hustles to North Korea border for photo op

Within hours of Air Force One’s landing in South Korea, President Barack Obama --- sensing a photo op with the presidential election less than eight months away --- was peering through binoculars toward North Korea yesterday in his first visit to the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) which has bisected the peninsula since the Korean War cease fire almost 59 years ago, notes Grumpy Editor. 

Chances are North Koreans had binoculars trained on the president who wore an identification badge reading:  Barack Obama, Commander in Chief. 

Reuters said Obama “spent about 10 minutes on a viewing platform at the DMZ, talking with some of the soldiers on guard as the flags of the United States, South Korea and the United Nations flapped loudly in the brisk, cold wind.” 

With print and broadcast media trailing his movements, the president visited the DMZ on the eve of a global summit on nuclear security hosted by South Korea. 

“You guys are at freedom's frontier," Obama told about 50 troops crammed into a dining hall at a U.S. camp near the DMZ, one of the world's most heavily fortified frontiers. 

The Korean War remains open ended with no peace treaty signed. Battles ended with a cease fire on July 27, 1953.  

The Korean War, also labeled the “forgotten war,” erupted when 135,000 communist North Korean troops crossed the 38th parallel into South Korea in pre-dawn hours of June 25, 1950. 

For the U.S., the war resulted in 36,940 military deaths, 103,000 wounded, 8,142 missing in action and 3,746 prisoners of war.  

Prolonging the war were entries of communist Chinese soldiers battling U.S. troops on the ground and Russian pilots in Soviet-built jets fighting U.S. airmen.

Chinese troops killed or captured thousands of U.S. military personnel and managed many prisoner of war camps in North Korea. 

Obama was threatening to cancel planned U.S. food aid to North Korea following its announcement that it plans to launch a long-range rocket next month.

 

U.S. readies order to buy 21 helicopters --- from Russians

Amid loud cries to create more U.S. jobs, Grumpy Editor finds there has been scant media coverage of last Friday’s news that the U.S. Army plans to award a “sole source” contract to a Russian firm for 21 Mi-17 Russian-produced helicopters to be used by Afghan military forces.

The order is slated through Russia’s state arms trader Rosoboronexport which, until last year, was under sanctions that prohibited the U.S. government from dealing with it following its transactions with Iran.

Left out are helicopter manufacturers in the U.S., including Boeing Co., Sikorsky Aircraft Corp. and Robinson Helicopter Co.

The Russian firm’s sanctions were lifted last year as part of a White House push “to patch up relations with the Kremlin,” mentions The Wall Street Journal, which ran a story on the helicopter deal Friday.

The basic Mi-17, with a crew of three, is used for military, police and civilian purposes.  In military use, it can carry up to 30 troops.

The latest action follows eyebrow raising by six members of Connecticut’s congressional delegation five months ago in writing to Defense Secretary Robert Gates on a U.S. Navy decision to purchase a similar quantity --- 21 --- of Russian-made helicopters, also for Afghan’s military.

They wrote:  “Particularly in light of the great commitment the United States is making to Afghanistan, rather than procuring Russian helicopters with unclear reliability and cost, we believe it is only prudent to consider proposals from U.S. manufacturers, employing American workers, with a history of providing the Defense Department with the best equipment at the best value to the U.S. taxpayer."