Grumpy Editor

BILLIONS OF ROBOCALLS REACH 'EPIDEMIC' STAGE IN U.S.

Robocalls affect any person who possesses a telephone.  Yet, most media somehow ignore the big and growing problem that irks millions of Americans, notes Grumpy Editor.

About 26.3 billion robocalls were directed at Americans last year, up 46 percent from 2017.

While people can register with the National Do Not Call Registry, illegal robocalls --- many from foreign locations --- grow like a fungus.  It's not unusual for some people to receive 10 or more robocalls a day, the largest source of consumer complaints to the Federal Trade Commission.

The May issue of Consumer Reports terms robocalls "epidemic."

CR mentions "the telecom industry has promised to roll out new technology that, though not stopping robocalls on its own, would identify calls as potentially fraudulent so that consumers can decide whether to answer."

Grumpy Editor finds it interesting that when some nabbed robocallers go to court, they get off easy.

Examples CR cites:  One outfit that blasted millions of unlawful robocalls was ordered to pay $2.2 million.  But the Federal Trade Commission suspended that judgment upon payment of $65,000 --- based on inability to pay. Another operation that engineered billions of illegal robocalls was ordered to pay $2.7 million by the FTC, growing to $9.9 million when factoring in other people in the scheme.  But this was cut to $510,000 because of inability to pay.

There may be hope ahead.

Introduced in Congress in January is a bill called Telephone Robocall Abuse Criminal Enforcement and Deterrence Act.  It would make robocall fines bigger and easier for the Federal Communications Commission to obtain.

 

IN CASE YOUR FAVORITE NEWS OUTLETS MISSED THESE...

 

GEORGIA SEEKS JOURNALISM ETHICS BOARD.  Republicans in the Georgia House file a bill that proposes a "Journalism Ethics Board" to oversee news coverage in the state.  The bill calls for the creation of an "independent" board --- housed at the University of Georgia's journalism and communications school --- to make "canons and ethics" and "rules and regulations" for journalism in the state.

UNEMPLOYMENT CLAIMS DECLINE.  Initial claims for state unemployment benefits decline 10,000 to a seasonally adjusted 202,000 for the week ended March 30, lowest level since early December 1969, reports the Labor Department. 

 

BIG SHAKER "OVERDUE" IN GOLDEN STATE.  California is in an earthquake drought, proclaims the Los Angeles Times in a periodic, lengthy, illustrated feature.  The latest, in a series of efforts to shake up readers, mentions it has been almost five years since the state experienced its last earthquake of magnitude 6 or stronger.

 

WIND TURBINES CAUSE CANCER?  The White House is refusing to explain why President Donald Trump claims, falsely, that the noise from wind turbines causes cancer, notes CNN.

 

BULLETPROOF VEST AT BORDER MOCKED.  Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D., N.Y.) mocks Lawrence Jones for wearing a bulletproof vest while reporting for Fox News at the southern border.  Jones says border patrol agents advised him to wear the protective garment, because “we control this side of the border, but the cartel controls the other side of the border. There’s been gun fights.”

 

MEASLES CASES RISE.  More people are sickened by measles in the first three months of 2019 than for all of 2018.  It's the second-highest number reported since U.S. health officials declared the highly contagious and sometimes deadly disease “eliminated” in 2000.

 

12-YEAR-OLD TO ADDRESS COLLEGE GRADUATES.   University commencement speaker is added to 12-year-old Hilde Kate Lysiak’s accomplishments that include crime reporter, publisher, author and subject of a television series.  She is scheduled to address graduates of West Virginia University’s Reed College of Media next month in Morgantown, W.Va. Hilde first came to national attention at age 9, when she covered a homicide in her hometown of Selinsgrove, Pa., and for her self-published newspaper and website, Orange Street News.

13-YEAR-OLD BUYS CAR FOR MOM.  A 13-year-old boy surprises Krystal Preston, his single mother in Nevada, by presenting her with a white 1999 Chevrolet Metro, earned by mowing yards and clearing yards.

TRUMP AGAIN NIXES CORRESPONDENTS DINNER.  President Donald Trump says he's got better things to do than attend the "boring" and "negative" White House Correspondents' Association dinner April 27.  He will be holding a rally at that time, skipping the dinner for the third year in a row.

 

 

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.

 

IN CASE YOUR FAVORITE NEWS OUTLETS MISSED THESE...

 

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. 

CenturyLink sneaks up to $5 more in monthly charges

 

While a half dozen or more taxes, fees and surcharges on monthly telephone bills already irritate subscribers, other sneaky charges (without broad announcements) --- certainly spell BAD PR in capital letters --- irking people into looking at alternatives, observes Grumpy Editor.

New York Stock Exchange listed CenturyLink (CTL) provides the latest example of trickiness in squeezing $5 more monthly from many unknowing subscribers around the country.

First, starting tomorrow (March 1), the Monroe, La. communications and data services company hikes the monthly rate by $2 on all residential lines. Few subscribers are aware of this.

Then when it comes time to pay the monthly bill via the Web, CenturyLink this month quietly added a “convenience fee” of $3. (This compares with snail-mailing a payment, with higher costs to process, at 49 cents per envelope.)

Voilà: Up to $5 more a month per subscriber, just like that.

Perhaps the additional amount goes toward CenturyLink’s growing hefty printing/postage bills as it pitches customers up to three times a week with mailings touting its various services, including Prism TV. This is in addition to similar material e-mailed to customers.

Or maybe the added charges to customers are triggered by full-year 2015 operating revenues decreasing to $17.9 billion from $18 billion the prior year.

 

IN CASE YOUR FAVORITE NEWS OUTLETS MISSED THESE…

Other than in ads during the past week, George Washington’s birthday (Feb. 22), once widely recognized, escaped mention by most news outlets this year. The “father of our country” used to have his own birthdate widely celebrated but that was folded into President’s Day…Without too much eyebrow-raising by media, one of the strangest recent name-droppings is last week’s Obama Administration vetting of Nevada Republican Gov. Brian Sandoval to fill a U.S. Supreme Court vacancy. While the development received much media attention, a Sandoval spokeswoman says neither the governor nor his staff was contacted by the White House. So --- surprise --- news reports the next day mention Sandoval removed himself from consideration for the Supreme Court seat…With the lengthening crude oil downturn, Halliburton says it will cut another 5,000 jobs, or 8 percent of the company's global workforce…Also affected by declining oil and gas activity, Schlumberger in the past year cut 25,000 jobs, or one fifth of its work force…In other layoff activity, HP, Inc. executives told analysts that nearly 3,000 workers would leave the company by the end of the year, an acceleration from an original plan that would have spread the job cuts across a three-year period…Will Burger King alter its name now that it serves hot dogs? The new fare marks the burger chain’s biggest menu addition since it started selling chicken in the 1970s…In the ho-hum department: A Reuters story Friday notes “Senior U.S. defense officials voiced concern about North Korea's nuclear ambitions”…

One of the most irritating things on TV:

Commercials with doorbells on the sound track that sound exactly like your own.