Starting off the week, here are our headlines. Not a lot of news today, but some interesting step-back-and-take-note-of kinds of pieces:
- Trapped Chilean Miners Are Alive (WSJ) — This is a few hours old, but still has a significant “wow” factor. And how often do you get to lead with a good-news story. Of course, it’s still a huge challenge to get them out alive.
- Pakistan’s humanitarian situation critical – UN (BBC) — The continuing tragedy… You may also be interested in this NPR angle, “In Pakistan, Militants Use Flood Aid To Seek Support.”
- Virus may cause chronic fatigue (WashPost) — I know what you’re thinking: Is this why I’m so tired today?
- Petraeus says Taliban momentum halted in key areas (BBC) — Just to give you a bit more good news.
- Storm Defenses in New Orleans Nearly Ready, but Mistrusted (NYT) — This $15 billion wall raises interesting questions about the efficacy of being prepared for anything and everything, as opposed to accepting that sometimes stuff happens. And no, I don’t know which is right.
- Hong Kong hostages killed in Manila bus siege (BBC) — Thank goodness for the BBC’s international coverage, or I’d have trouble getting 6 stories for my front.
Sorry I couldn’t find anything local that competed, but I just couldn’t. I hate it when that happens.
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Our news around the family was that my kid brother was on the Today show for all of a few seconds, being interviewed about the egg thing in Iowa. I tried to record it for family posterity, but not being very familiar with the Today show anyway, I managed to miss the news bits, and my digital antenna didn’t work right, anyway. But I did finally realize that MSNBC had the clip, except the website won’t let me download it. Somebody may know how to download it from there, but I don’t. Anyway, our family’s claim to fame, such as it is.
My brother said it took the better part of a day, first on the phone for a couple of hours where they decide whether they can answer your questions, then the hour driving into the studio, and then four hours in studio in order to get the 15 seconds of dialogue.
I said he knew there was a reason he went into journalism, and not TV.
The latest grim home sales figures, down 27%, would rank high on my list of top stories. The recovery is definately stalling out.
Dunno, bud–one reason home sales may be stalling out is that the stimulus plan to boost first-time home sales worked, absorbed the demand and perhaps should have been expanded to permit other buyers.Alas guns on two fronts do not permit a lot of butter for the home front.
Kathryn, I Agree. The stimulus stuff was just too small to deal with the extreme nature of the recession. One of the big problems is that state and local governments are pulling against the efforts by the federal government to pull us out of the deep hole the previous administration left us in. Teachers and cops just aren’t in much of a buying mood when they fear for their jobs every month.
Brad,
You could kill off the Virtual Front Page in terms of general news since everyone gets that anyway.
Stick to subjects where your insights are informative and useful instead of space filler. Less work for you and your readers.
@ bud–You can say that again!
I think a certain amount of consumer debt contraction is actually healthy. I also believe that there is hiring capacity in a lot of companies, but they fear for their stock prices and such. Messed up.