editorial board there simply isn't enough money available for NASA to continue funding three big projects: the space station, the shuttle, and the Aeres Rocket development, which is a MSFC project. Any guess which one he does not want to cut?
But perhaps that's just an Alabama elected official doing his job:  representing Alabama's interests and bringing home the bacon... [NOTE: You can find chatter about this issue on an unofficial site called "NASAWatch".]
Two items...GQ has a cover story titled "Black Tide" on the spilling of the coal ash in Tennessee by the TVA, and the Selma Times-Journal has questioned Rep. Artur Davis about the tons of ash that will likely end up in a Perry County dump. The paper reports at one point: Davis has no real authority over the movements by the agencies and the county, other than to voice his opinion. “While the transfer of millions of tons of coal ash may not violate Alabama’s environmental standards, it is well known that Alabama’s standards are weaker than the standards set by most of our neighbors,” Davis said Monday. “My consistent position has been that while local counties have leeway to decide whether they want to operate landfills, there are serious public policy issues at stake when potentially hazardous wastes are
dumped into a community.”
Uh, "no real authority"? Two U.S. House committees keep an eye on what TVA is up to. And the chair of one of them has promised increased oversight. If a member of Congress has no real authority over TVA, then I guess nobody does. Hell, even I can "voice (an) opinion" about it. And what happens now with those serious policy issues? Also: has anyone managed to get fellow Democratic candidate for governor Ron Sparks on the record on the coal ash story? Also this week, an audit report on the TVA's miserable communication with the public following the spill.
The City of San Francisco diverts 3/4 of it's trash away from landfills and into recycling or mulching. Now they're upping the ante even more reports the NY Times. Here in Alabama there are entire counties without even a landfill to handle their own trash, and others have huge landfills that accept trash from thousands of miles away.
As for me, I'm doing my best:
 Call it an evangelical compromise for PBS. A decision to allow stations currently carrying sectarian religious shows to continue doing so, but a NO to future programs. Frankly, it's the infomercials that bother me more than semi-religious programs at a handful of stations in the country.
Drove up to Birmingham for a social gathering of the Media Of Birmingham group at Five Points South...nice to meet some new folks and renew some old acquaintances. Lots of talk about new and old media, and about ways to make a living in either or both!
Here's an interesting Advertising Age article about the "future of Television". Author says the nets just don't get it, that TV is where newspapers were several years ago. Not pretty. If he's right, what does "local" TV look like 20 years from now, if there still IS local TV that far in the future.
The Great-nephew of one of my longest-known friends...a University of Maryland student... is in a coma in Washington D.C. today after he fell in a skateboarding accident a week ago yesterday. Matt was wearing a helmet, which is a reminder to us all that no matter what precautions we take, life is flimsy at best, and endangered every day.
Matt's parents have a website set up to update friends and family...his Mom, Patti-Ann wrote last night:
"Not much change today. Matt is still in a coma. He continues to respond to painful stimulation, but has not yet responded to commands. He has these outbursts where he becomes extremely agitated. His heart rate and blood pressure shoots up. He breaks out in a sweat and breathes extremely hard. It usually takes pain medication to settle him down, but he eventually does. It is very stressful watching him work through these episodes, but I really feel like he knows that I am there. "
I know the family would appreciate any prayers you can offer during this difficult time. Thanks, Tim
It's been a while since I've heard a distinct misuse of the word, but last night on NBC News there an excellent correct usage. It was a report about immigrant Americans and their U.S. born children. The daughter of one couple from Mexico was mentioned as "from birth being defined as American, literally"...then followed the little girl introducing herself, her first name being "America".
You may have read by now about the blogger in Illinois who made up a story of a woman and her fetus, which was diagnosed in the womb as having a terminal illness....and how the woman gave birth anyway, winning praise from anti-abortion groups everywhere. The hoax was exposed because a photo of the "baby" actually showed a doll, and a woman who owned the same doll recognized it. That woman is quoted in the Tribune story : "She needs to be exposed and held accountable," Russell said.
Yea, you know where I'm going with this, right? How many times have legitimate newspapers made up stories? Yes, it has happened, as in the Janet Cook case. But it is such a rare event I was able to remember Cook's name without looking it up. Of course her fakery won her a Pulitzer Prize, so perhaps it is understandable I remember her.
How often do bloggers make stuff up? Hard to say, since there is no one looking over their shoulder to expose them and hold them accountable when they turn fiction into news. Are bloggers the new journalists, and blogs the new newspapers? If so, I would advise blog consumers to travel very very carefully in search of the truth. Because unlike most newspapers, the blogger has little or nothing to lose by making stuff up. [ADDENDUM: In a Montgomery Advertiser column, John Moon blasts the textbook "scandal" at UA as a PR failure. And he takes a shot at one of my least favorite PR practices...the news conference that isn't. They bring someone out to the forest of microphones to speak and then refuse to take questions. If the media had any guts it would refuse to attend those non-events. Just send me your news release.] [ADDENDUM: CNN criticised for its mild weekend coverage of unrest in Iran. Twitter plays a role]
[The Monday Morning Media Memo is a regular feature of this blog.]
You may have read our posting here on May 8th about a Press-Register story that reported Alabama ranks second in the nation for gun deaths. This morning's Montgomery Advertiser did its own version of the story, which heavily emphasised the accidental shootings, and included a quote from a local gun merchant:
Alabama's culture, history and wide expanses of rural areas add up to mean a lot of people in the state own firearms, said the owner of a local gun store. The study backed up his assertion, showing that 57.2 percent of Alabama households own guns. "Alabama is rural," said Alan Daniels Jr. of Collectors and Shooters LLC. "Every one of the top states, except Nevada, are agrarian, agricultural, wooded and heavily focused on hunting and outdoor sports."
Yet Alabama is not a rural state. According to a University of Alabama report in 2003, the 2000 Census showed Alabama's population to more urban than rural:
"The Census Bureau says that 55 percent of Alabama’s population lives in an urban setting and 45 percent lives in rural areas."  And just having a lot of unpopulated land can't have any impact on the gun death rate because as we all know, acres don't kill people, people kill people. Explaining our high gun death rate by saying it's just rural folks owning more guns doesn't wash. It can't be a lack of punishment for the bad guys with guns. We have the 4th highest per-capita prison population in the U.S. So why do we have such a high rate of gun deaths?
 The answer is yes, according to an unusual ad in Sunday's Montgomery Advertiser. The half page ad was placed by the city's Freewill Missionary Baptist Church, who's pastor has bought TV ads in the past to urge city residents to work together to lower the murder rate..."Enough is Enough!" was the theme of the campaign. That same phrase is included in the Sunday ad, but now Reverend Edward J. Nettles, Sr. wants folks to pay attention to much less egregious offenses: not having car insurance or a license, driving unbelted, and playing your car stereo too loud. 
On a similar tact, Montgomery officials this week started enforcing a new ordinance that prohibits parking on residential front yards. If you throw down gravel and some railroad ties you can park a fleet, but park a single car on the grass and there's a $50 fine waiting for you. Rev. Nettles' admittedly unconventional approach to ministry, and the city's new parking regulations, remind me of the clean-up New York campaign of Rudy Giuliani. He started having police enforce every violation, reasoning that the small lawbreaking contributes to the big problems. Did it work? New York's crime rate did go down, though there's disagreement whether Hizhonnor's clean-up campaign helped. Montgomery officials may be hoping Rev. Nettles campaign fails. They can't afford to lose all the revenue from those vehicle violations.
 Work is finally underway on the historic house in Montgomery's Cloverdale neighborhood that was home to former Governor Don Siegelman and was the childhood home of former Montgomery Mayor Emory Folmar. The house played a role in the controversial Siegelman Administration when the Democratic Governor sold it for twice the appraised value, and then appointed the buyer to an unpaid position on a state regulatory board.
Last November the city's architectural review board refused to let the home's current owner demolish the house. The owner said at the time it would cost $166,000 to fix the damage to the structure, which was built in 1935 though the historic plaque outside says "early 1900's." In recent weeks, workers have started renovation of the house on Norman Bridge Road, including repairing/replacing the privacy fence that had partly fallen down.
  I always believed that of all the complaints about the former Governor, the house sale was the one that most people could relate to. Your house doesn't double in value suddenly. The sale never passed the so-called "smell test". Yet the house sale was never a part of the federal charges against the former Governor. Instead, he was convicted in connection with another appointment...Richard Scrushy to the Certificate of Need Review Board. Scrushy gave a big donation to Siegelman's lottery promotion fund, and jurors decided there was a quid pro quo arrangement. Wonder if they would have found the same thing if prosecutors had included the sale of the house among the charges? Regardless of the political considerations, I'm glad to see it being saved from destruction. [ADDENDUM: Magnolia Springs , Alabama considers ordinance to protect its historic buildings.]
New Sverse
Newsumer
by Tim Lennox
I read birmingham news
about southern living
on TV.
No good to be found, it seems.
Magnolias wilting.
Writers too.
Frank Rich in his Sunday NY Times column puts his finger much more precisely than I did last week on the upsurge in hate killings, and the connection to the media and politics. I connected hate, religion and guns, but Rich's column points an accusatory finger at those in the media who stir the overflowing pot of angry Americans with lies. Is Rich being an alarmist? The TalkRadio genie is out of the bottle and I can't imagine it being put back. There are very few places left where you can hear actual discussion about the issues instead of shouting about imagined sins. (And yes, I really do believe FTR was one of those places.)
Americans listen or watch only those programs that reinforce their existing beliefs, perhaps because switching to another channel means such in-their-face vitriol that it is offensive. Now we're in a world of High Definition Digital Signals, but the HD channels we receive are carrying only Low Definition discussions.
"There are very limited consumer protection laws in Alabama...this together with a very quick and non-judicial foreclosure process is driving homeowners into bankruptcy, which may offer the only way for them to protect their homes."
That's a Birmingham bankruptcy lawyer quoted in this morning's Birmingham News in a story by Roy Williams identifying Alabama as having one of the highest bankruptcy rates in the U.S. right now. That's despite the action by Congress a few years back making it harder than ever for individuals to have the same bankruptcy protection as businesses.
What will state officials say about it? They'll blame the economy, as usual, though they are fast to claim credit for positive economic news that is also a product of forces they have little or not control over. Speaking of which, did you read where lame-duck governor Bob Riley is off on a world tour...three continents in all, looking for companies to come build in Alabama in the midst of the worst financial collapse since the Depression. Money perhaps better spent trying to help those Alabamians who are in court filing all of those bankruptcy papers?
It won approval because as much power as it gives the Food and Drug Administration, it specifically forbids the agency from actually banning tobacco products or regulating tobacco farmers. And that's about the best the tobacco industry could hope for. President Obama is expected to sign it this afternoon, despite, or maybe because of his own struggle with smoking. I'm not an anti-smoking Nazi. I quit seven or eight years ago, but generally believe people should be permitted to make their own mistakes. The law should allow restaurants to provide smoking sections. If diners don't like it, they'll eat elsewhere. And I do wonder if fatty foods will be next. There are 15-billion cigarettes smoked every day around the globe. The U.S. provides the second highest number of smokers (after China), but there are still plenty of other smokers to keep the industry going. And worldwide, there are more smokers every year and those smokers are smoking more each year. A real growth industry, except for the fact that the product eventually kills its users. Both of Alabama's U.S. Senators voted for the bill.
Did you see the cover of The L.A. Times this morning? The (formerly) sacred journalistic real estate "above the fold" (and below it too) was sold as ad space to promote a TV show. What's next...sell the actual name of the Times for a fee? The L.A. Timex? The L.A. TiM&Mes? The L(exus) A(udi) Times? I suppose it is better than going out of business, but not a lot better.
But wait! Before I posted this entry, I did some fact checking to make sure I wasn't the victim of a fake-photo scam. I looked at the Newseum site that displays all of the day's newspaper front pages...and no True Blood ad/photo! Yet the Times own blog "Opinion L.A." says the ad really was published. Hmmmmm. A mix of truth and lies to untangle?
 
Was the ad the front page or not? I emailed the Newseum for comment and here's what they wrote:
The simple answer to your question is that each newspaper sends us its own front page PDF file every day. So, we simply post the files that are sent to us. The version of the front page that we have posted is the version that the LA Times sent to us this morning.
So, does the L.A. Times want to have its cake and eat it? Present one front page to readers (for money) and another to the Newseum to protect its journalistic reputation? I emailed their spokesman, asking which front page was the real front page. Here's what they wrote:
"The “True Blood” ad wrapped today’s paper. Hope that helps, but feel free to give me a call if you have more questions."
Perhaps this is a foolish time for me to be picky about the issue, since papers are failing left and right, but somebody has to do it, no?
Alabama's newspapers and websites this morning include the story of a fifteen year old who is recovering after falling into an auger machine at a factory in Ashford...an auger machine that turns wood into wood chips. The boy was working with his father at the facility. It is amazing that the boy didn't lose a leg...emergency workers had to take the machine apart to remove him from it. We're happy to report the boy's condition has improved, but the bigger question is why the boy was working there in the first place. State labor law is pretty clear on the under 16 crowd:
When you are 14 or 15: You can work in an office, grocery store, retail store, restaurant, movie theater, or amusement park. When you are 16 or 17: You can work in any job that is not hazardous. Prohibited jobs include work in mining, logging, meatpacking, roofing, excavation or demolition. You cannot drive a car
or forklift. Also, you cannot work with explosives, radioactive materials, or most power-driven machines.
My Libertarian friends might argue those restrictions aren't needed, that we should let the marketplace decide. State officials are investigating the accident and will determine if any violations occurred, but what do you think? Should parents be allowed to let their kids wherever they want?
So. After seemingly endless special call-in programs and reports, the day TV stations pull the plug on their old analogue signals is at hand. It is estimated a couple of million U.S. residents may suddenly wake up to a screen like this one. Where they've been during the deluge of publicity about the switch to digital I have no idea. Asleep on the couch? Reading a book? Someday a book will be written that will tell the complete story of the backroom deals that went into providing broadcasters with the frequencies for free (with the provision that they give up the old signals, which in theory the government will sell for a profit to non-broadcast entities.) One wrinkle that many of us will discover when the first hurricane threatens is the fact that those battery operated combination TV/Radio/Flashlight things sitting in the Utility Closet will be worthless, at least for TV watching. You'll still be able to use them as a rather clunky flashlight or a rather heavy radio. And that may be one little silver lining: folks who own analogue radio stations, even if they're just picking up the audio of the TV weather coverage, should have a larger audience.
 A good turnout for the Girls State media panel at Troy University this morning. Two great finalists for Governor and good questions from the audience, including some about the viability of the media...from TV News to small local papers. I said thumbs down to the former unless there are serious changes and thumbs up for the latter, since their local content isn't being reproduced by anyone else online.
[Photo: Carrie Kurlander talks with fellow panelist Katie Boyd-Britt prior to the media panel.]
While a lot of eyes are watching the candidacy of Democratic Rep. Artur Davis to see if he'll become the first black Alabama Governor, there's another area where the state is lacking.
Only 12.9 per cent of the Alabama Legislature is female...putting Alabama third from the bottom nationally, ahead of only South Carolina and Oklahoma. For comparison, the top state, Colorado, has 29%...still fairly low when you consider the fact that the U.S. population is more than 50% female. But back to Alabama. We've had a female governor and Lt. Governor--once each--both the Treasurer and the Auditor's office seem to be held by women more than the other constitutional offices. Seven of the last eight State Auditors were women, as were six of the last seven State Treasurers.
We have a female Secretary of State right now, Beth Chapman, but Sibyl Pool was the first woman to hold that and any other statewide elected office. She was elected in 1944. We've never had a female Attorney General. There have been 24 Agriculture Commissioners in the state. All of them men. A healthy percentage of the relative few women who have won statewide elected office in Alabama attended Girl's State when they were in High School. It's underway right now:
Read more about Girl's State here. That's Michael Bridell and Carrie Kurlander, the usual co-media panelists, though Michael is out of town this year.
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The idea-contest hijacking was orchestrated by some who knows a little about running for Governor. 
