Grumpy Editor: Smoke

“Smoking pot” is gaining acceptance around the country, notes Grumpy Editor, who recalls when actor Robert Mitchum --- caught smoking a marijuana cigarette in 1948 --- landed in jail with a 60-day sentence.

“Yes, boys, I was smoking the marijuana cigarette when you came in,” he told police.

Now, Nevada is the latest state to allow cannabis consumption lounges as the drug gains mainstream acceptance.

As regulators grapple with how to oversee the businesses, dispensaries are already making plans to open the first state-sanctioned lounges by mid-2022.

A planned Planet 13’s cannabis superstore on the Las Vegas Strip will span 30,000 square feet of retail space alongside a cafe, a bar and a marijuana processing center.

IN CASE YOUR FAVORITE NEWS OUTLETS MISSED THESE…

WALL STREET GOES INTO PANIC. Wall Street investors sometimes get carried away. A good example: with announcement Friday of a new coronavirus variant detected in far-off South Africa, the Dow-Jones average made its biggest drop of the year --- 905 points. An editorial in The Wall Street Journal notes “The panic may be driven more by the fear of new government lockdowns and social distancing than by the variant itself.”

EARLY U.S. COIN SELLS AT AUCTION. One of the first coins minted in colonial New England --- a one shilling silver coin, made in Boston in 1652, sells at auction for more than $350,000.

SPEEDY BIRD HITCHES RIDE. A roadrunner accidentally travels four days from Las Vegas to Westbrook, Maine, inside a moving van. When found, a bird rehabilitation facility gets it back in shape and arranges for the bird (in a cage) to return to Las Vegas.

DOG GRABS 'BEST' TWO YEARS IN ROW. At the annual National Dog Show in Philadelphia, history is made when a Scottish Deerhound named Claire, whIch won last year, is named “best in show.”

U.S. DESTROYERS GET CHAPLAINS. The Navy is assigning chaplains to every destroyer in a bid to build and sustain resiliency among sailors. The U.S. 6^thFleet says placing a chaplain with a ship fosters deeper connections with the crew and command.

DEER JOINS CLASSROOM SESSION. Wildlife officials in Springfield, Tennessee, respond to an elementary school where a deer forces its way into a classroom through an emergency exit. It was led to a door and trotted back into the wild.

WEST VIRGINIA CITY HAS MOST SMOKERS. The U.S. city with the most smokers is Beckley, West Virginia, based on data from County Health Rankings & Roadmaps, a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute joint program.

The mystery of a heavy black smoke-filled subway train in Washington, D.C. that resulted in one fatality while 86 Metro passengers, including three in critical condition, were sent to hospitals as more than 200 others were evaluated, was a major underplayed story last week --- with vital questions remaining unanswered, notes Grumpy Editor.

It occurred on the nation’s second busiest subway system. The train was headed toward the Pentagon.

If such an event took place in far-off France, Italy, Japan or Australia it would have nade front-page news in U.S. newspapers.

Initial story on the Monday afternoon incident in the nation’s capital ran only two sentences in some newspapers. (Two Reuters reporters extended their report to six sentences.)

Then during the week, through the weekend, news reports became longer and more detailed. (On Tuesday, two Associated Press writers produced a lengthy story.)

Among some lingering questions:

Why it took emergency workers more than a half-hour to arrive on the scene.

Exact cause of the heavy black smoke. Initial reports said “arcing” on the third rail damaged electrical cables.

Smoke-choking passengers wondered why they weren’t allowed to leave the train sooner for the one or two-minute walk back to a station platform. Instead, they were told to sit and wait.

An early report on the death of the female passenger, 61, was attributed to acute respiratory failure due to smoke exposure. Fellow passengers performed CPR on her before emergency medical workers arrived but she wasn't taken to a hospital until more than an hour after the train began filling with smoke.

The National Transportation Safety Board was reviewing records on maintenance and previous events with smoke, employee training records and Metro's emergency response and evacuation plans.

NTSB said the investigation could take six to 12 months.

FYI, IN CASE YOUR FAVORITE EDITORS MISSED THESE…

Skipping the White House press corps: President Barack Obama, following tomorrow’s State of the Union address, on Thursday will be interviewed by three young YouTube personalities on issues they care most about…When five Yemenis departed Guantanamo prison (four sent to Oman, one to Estonia), the Pentagon called the departure a transfer rather than a release. Their farewell leaves 122 others in Guantanamo as President Obama has promised to shutter the detention center in Cuba that opened in 2002 to house al-Qaeda bad guys…Dry outlook for the Golden State: The U.S. Climate Prediction Center said most of California still will be in a drought through April, even with improving conditions in the southern part of the state…Politico Magazine was nominated for the 2015 National Magazine Awards in the categories of general excellence, general interest and Website…East-west humor from New York --- where today's high temperature was predicted to be about 41 degrees while Los Angeles was expected to reach a balmy 73 --- accompanied a Bloomberg Businessweek “well being” feature in the Jan. 12 issue that pointed out, “You’ve heard of SAD, seasonal affective disorder, a condition causing intense irritability, lack of energy and an unceasing craving for carbs. You probably don’t have it, but that doesn’t mean your winter blues aren’t real: Each year, about half of Americans report feeling down once it gets cold. (The rest moved to L.A.)…Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim has become the New York Times Co. largest individual shareholder, accounting for 16.8 percent of the company…Audrey Cooper, 37, was named first female editor in chief at the San Francisco Chronicle in its 150-year history

More than just a reporter these days ---

Editors advertising for staffers last week used these terms: Slick city reporter needed at Temple, Texas, Daily Telegram; seeking aggressive reporter, Wisconsin Law Journal; seeking hard-working writer, Kinston (N.C.) Free Press.