24 August 2008
Chron: School districts saved money with later start date; HISD: No we didn't
Last week the Chron's Jennifer Radcliffe wrote a story with the following thesis: School district utility bills have gone down since the Lege ordered later start dates:
Texas public school leaders may still be fuming about the legislative mandate that delayed the start of the school year until the last week of August, but advocates point to lower utility bills as a sign that lawmakers made the right choice.
In the first year, schools statewide appear to have saved millions of dollars in August utility bills. The Houston Independent School District's monthly payment to Reliant Energy, for example, dropped almost $200,000 between August 2006 and August 2007. Officials attribute about $66,000 of the savings to lower electricity costs.
You might already be able to see the problem with Radcliffe's story: She focused on August utility bills alone. Guess what? A later start date means a later end date, which means the possibility of extra utility usage at the end of the year. Might the savings have been offset by that? The Chron doesn't know:
HISD spends about $57 million a year on electricity, meaning $66,000 is a slight savings, officials said. And they said some of the savings probably were erased by extra days in May and June, but they couldn't provide the figures.
We heard from HISD's Terry Abbott who disputed Radcliffe's conclusion. Abbott said HISD advised Radcliffe the assertion might be wrong, and that HISD was running the numbers to see if the savings held up with the addition of the extra days at the end of the year. As it turned out, HISD's month-by-month electricity usage analysis did not show a savings; in fact, HISD's electricity usage and costs were higher for the 2007-08 school year when compared to the 2006-07 school year.
Abbott requested a correction or retraction from the Chron, but so far the editorial leadership has declined.
While Radcliffe's story features HISD, a sidebar notes August utility savings for fourteen school districts. In asserting that Texas schools "have saved millions of dollars," did Radcliffe get the last-month-of-school numbers for any of those school districts? If she did, they're not listed; therefore, Radcliffe's conclusion (millions saved) is not supported by her partial facts (August numbers only). To come up with that conclusion she needed to get complete utility numbers for all the districts.
Did any other districts try to warn her against using incomplete data? Unclear, but it doesn't appear the Chron is going to revisit the issue, and this will be the end of the story for Houston's daily newspaper of record.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 08/24/08 01:55 PM |
18 August 2008
The Chron's bad few days
The Chronicle's substandard journalism has been taking more of a pounding than usual on blogs over the last few days (albeit not this one, because work, software maintenance, and life in general have been intruding more than usual on our blogging time).
Over at the Lone Star Times, Matt Bramanti takes the newspaper to task for incorrectly asserting cops had beaten a prisoner to death (but they did run a correction -- not always the case at the Chronicle).
Bramanti also notes that the Editorial LiveJournalists got the Russian president's name wrong (we haven't seen a correction on that one).
At Lose an Eye, It's a Sport, Cory Crow picks apart a Chron story on the recent sales-tax holiday weekend.
National Review Online's Media Blog writes that Sen. Cornyn is unhappy with the Chron's repeated (mis)characterization of some healthcare comments he made. Unsurprisingly, a Chron editor was not available to discuss the matter with NRO.
And today, Bramanti is back at work, skewering the latest screed by Clay Robison, who moonlights as Hearst's Austin bureau chief when he's not penning such articles.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 08/18/08 09:30 PM |
13 August 2008
E&P: Chron, Express-News discuss "generic" features
Hairballs points us to an Editor and Publisher story that indicates that the Chronicle and San Antonio Express-News may be sharing some content in their features sections:
The Houston Chronicle and San Antonio Express-News are in talks to share some feature-section production and design efforts, according to Chronicle Publisher Jack Sweeney -- who said the move could include using similar generic stories.
However, he stressed that the changes are in the planning stage and would not dilute local stories from either newspaper. "There would still be local content," Sweeney told E&P. "It would be more of a layout and production thing."
The Chronicle and Express-News are both owned by Hearst Newspapers. The potential joint effort comes as both papers are seeing more niche products and feature efforts.
Perhaps MeMo will enlighten us on her diary about these possible changes.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 08/13/08 10:52 PM |
28 July 2008
Baby steps: Chron editorial board gets name of treaty right!
Last week, the Chronicle Editorial LiveJournalists weighed in once again on the Medellin matter.
We have previously noted the Editorial LiveJournalists' lack of expertise on the intersection of constitutional law, treaty obligations, and federal/state relations in regard to the same.
It is worth noting that this time, they at least got the name of the treaty right. Baby steps!
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 07/28/08 11:00 PM |
12 July 2008
Editorial LiveJournalists tackle...office distractions
It would seem MeMo was in charge of today's inexplicable editorial offering:
Feeling distracted? Plagued by constant interruptions? Can't concentrate on the job? Drowning in a flood of data and stimulae?
Now it can be known: You're not alone. According to the New York-based consulting firm Basex, the typical American office worker spends no more than three minutes on task before being interrupted. Many U.S. workers — those in the news media, for instance — would give much to have three uninterrupted minutes.
The distractions stem from e-mails, calls, visitors, colleagues dropping by to chat, the temptation to visit YouTube or another amusing Web site. Added to those are environmental noise from construction, traffic, air handlers, and seemingly omnipresent radios and televisions.
Basex reports that such distractions waste 28 percent of a worker's shift, costing businesses $650 billion a year.
So Chron employees waste 28 percent of their work time? This explains many things at 801 Texas Avenue.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 07/12/08 08:51 AM |
07 July 2008
Chron metro/state diarist tackles energy security
Just before the Fourth, Chronicle metro/state diarist Lisa Falkenberg decided to step outside her area of expertise to tackle the more complicated subject of energy security -- or, to be more precise, the superiority of her own knowledge of that subject when compared to our state's candidates for U.S. Senate (because most Falkenberg columns do revolve around Falkenberg, after all).
Here are some excerpts from a metro/state column -- COLUMN -- that really did appear in the newspaper of record in the energy capital of the world:
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 07/07/08 11:17 PM |
02 July 2008
Editorial LiveJournalists: License renewal office NOT the ideal state!
One of the Editorial LiveJournalists apparently descended from the sheltered offices of 801 Texas Avenue to discover that in-person license renewals are inconvenient and inefficient:
Texans can renew their driver's license online, and change the address on the license online. But for no obvious reason, the department won't let Texans do both if their license has expired. Those with an expired license and a new address must go to one of the department's crowded, poorly maintained offices.
At the office on Dacoma Street, visitors are met with a dysfunctional bureaucracy that combines the horrifying absurdity of a Franz Kafka story with the cruel indifference of the Soviet bureaucracy before it crumbled. First, one must wait in line for an application. Then applicants must fill it out standing up or squatting on the floor, because there aren't enough chairs, and using the office's broad counters is prohibited. Tantalizingly, DPS officials withhold the purpose of this policy.
After a torturous wait of a couple of hours or more, applicants are called by number to stand in a second slow-moving line before getting their applications processed. At the rear of the second line is a small sign stating "No cell phones beyond this point."
I had to go to the Dacoma office a few weeks ago. While it was slow and inefficient (like many bureaucracies! Imagine how splendid it would be if there were a Department of Government Healthcare!), it actually wasn't as bad as I expected (total wait was slightly over an hour), and in my experience it didn't approach "the horrifying absurdity of a Franz Kafka story with the cruel indifference of the Soviet bureaucracy before it crumbled."
We think we know which Editorial LiveJournalist didn't qualify for online renewal, though. Check out this Editorial LiveJournal by Mr. Gibbons that we mocked way back in 2005:
The presiding judge of Houston's municipal courts, Berta Mejia, announced that police officers will soon be coming around and arresting those who failed to appear in court or pay the fines for their traffic tickets. As police and court officials are making their list of delinquents, I suggest they check it twice.
Last week as I was driving downtown I was pulled over by a Houston police officer. He said there was an arrest warrant issued for the driver of a car with my license plates. It was a mistake, perhaps a clerical error. I receive few tickets and have none outstanding. The officer allowed me to go.
Before I drove off I asked the officer if he could do something to prevent me from being stopped again. He said no, there was nothing he could do. It was up to me to straighten it out.
I called Judge Mejia's office, but an official said that mistaken warrants were not her department. There was nothing the judge could do. I was referred to the office of the chief clerk, but my call was neither answered nor, after I left a voice mail, returned.
An operator at the city's 311 help line confirmed that there was no warrant in my name or in the name of anyone driving a car with my plates.
The city computer showed an old ticket had been paid, leaving a balance due of zero. The operator said she could not withdraw or dismiss a warrant because none existed.
So there it was. There was nothing anyone could do.
I have not used the adjective "Kafka-esque" since the Nixon administration, but it's always there, ready and waiting, if I should need it.
Like when an Editorial LiveJournalist must descend from the Chron mothership to go renew a license in person. The DPS office must be cowering in fear about now!
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 07/02/08 09:47 PM |
29 June 2008
An Editorial LiveJournal from Mr. Gibbons!
Mr. Gibbons' diaries are SO elegant, witty, and insightful (especially true when compared to other Chron diaries)! We urge everyone to check out his ideal state.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 06/29/08 10:38 AM |
27 June 2008
Chron headline writers offer helpful advice
The subheadline on a Chron story in the * section today amused us:
Beating up the boss is a common fantasy
Astros pitcher tried just that, but the experts advise otherwise
Who can argue with expert advice?
Or with crack Chron headline writers who have a knack for conveying what's important.
So just one question -- Do the * kids fantasize about beating up their boss (it being such a common fantasy and all)? Or is it the Chron headline writers who have such fantasies?
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 06/27/08 11:07 PM |
26 June 2008
Do the Rockets plan on sawing Craig Ackerman in half?
The Chronicle's David Barron reports on the selection of Craig Ackerman as the new radio voice of the Houston Rockets, but it's this snippet that is most interesting:
His elevation was expected, as was the Rockets’ decision to become the latest NBA team to cut back to two broadcasters from one.
They cut back to two from one?
Neat trick!
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 06/26/08 12:35 PM |
15 June 2008
Plagiarism at Hearst: A tale of two Texas newspapers
A few days ago, Bob Richter, the (not-invisible) public editor/ombudsman/reader representative of Hearst's San Antonio newspaper reported that one of the newspaper's columnists had resigned (no doubt under pressure):
“Ramiro [Burr] caused the Express-News to unknowingly publish work under his name that was not, in fact, his own work,” said Robert Rivard, editor of the Express-News.
“It was the work of at least one other writer who did not receive credit and who we did not know about. Ramiro decided on his own to resign just as our investigation was concluding and we were preparing to take appropriate action. We have a zero-tolerance policy whenever someone on our staff presents work as their own that is not their own.”
Richter has previously described the Express-News' zero-tolerance policy for plagiarism:
Express-News writers who plagiarize other writers' work typically are summarily fired. In an era when nearly anyone can publish nearly anything — on blogs, personal Web sites and the traditional ways — newspapers and media Web sites must be ever vigilant against plagiarism.
In contrast, at the Hearst daily in Houston, writers who have "borrowed" other writers' work with no consequences include a featured columnist and editorial writers, the editor doesn't seem to care, and the reader representative is an invisible man.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 06/15/08 09:08 PM |
11 June 2008
Chron Editorial LiveJournalist still piqued over leftover rejection?
Some time ago, Chron Editorial LiveJournalist Andrea Georgsson lamented on the Chronicle editorial page that none of her neighbors wanted her leftovers when her electric went out.
The outrage!
She may still be upset (and unstable), judging from this unsigned editorial today:
Waste not
This nation of fatties who throw out tons of food is beginning to stop taking meals for granted
The newspaper is full of stories of rising food prices, more demand for food assistance through food pantries and sharply lower food donations to feed growing numbers of hungry people — not to mention violent unrest provoked by unaffordable prices and scarcity. From this, a small bright side is emerging: Americans are taking renewed interest in curtailing the massive amount of food wasted everyday.
In the lean years of the Great Depression, families would not dream of throwing away perfectly edible food. But economic times improved, and modern agriculture production and distribution methods created a cheap and plentiful supply of meats, grains and produce. Today, cleaning one's plate to avoid wasting a morsel has given way to wasteful all-you-can-eat buffets, outsized portions and leftovers that are thrown out rather than eaten. The moldering contents of office fridges across the land tell the story of a people who by and large take food for granted and are indifferent to its waste.
The last time the Department of Agriculture reported on how much food goes to waste each year was in 1997. That study found that Americans toss out or let rot an astonishing 96.4 billion pounds of the 356 billion pounds of edible food produced, according to the May 18 New York Times. Milk, fresh produce, grain-based foods and sugars, the Times said, comprised two-thirds of the waste.
Some of the tossed food is table scraps. Some is left to rot in fields. A shocking amount is composed of restaurant and grocery discards that are 100 percent edible. They are fruits and vegetables with minor blemishes, dented canned goods, still-fresh dairy products discarded on sell-by dates that are widely viewed to be overly conservative, and trays of never-touched prepared dishes that didn't sell.
She had to be DYING to work her unwanted leftover London Broil into the editorial!
Calling the US a "nation of fatties" was a nice touch, though -- surely a demonstration of the "elegance, wit and insight one looks for in ... editorial pages in their ideal state," as Chief Editorial LiveJournalist James Howard Gibbons once put it.
BLOGVERSATION: Lose an Eye, It's a Sport.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 06/11/08 11:25 PM |
07 June 2008
JSC is a cosmopolitan arena?
This sentence from the Editorial LiveJournalists caught our eye today:
The Houston area, including Friendswood, near the cosmopolitan arena of the Johnson Space Center, is becoming more diverse.
The Johnson Space Center is a cosmopolitan arena?
That sounds like a place for the next intergalactic basketball championships! Or maybe it's the new "world class." So exciting!
In any case, it seems unlikely that the Editorial LiveJournalists borrowed this writing from the New York Times.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 06/07/08 11:43 AM |
04 June 2008
Maybe he should see Doctor-Former-Congresswoman?
The Chronicle's Plagiarist weighs in today on the side of the cops who have challenged Chief Hurtt's misguided beard policy:
IF you think I'll take the side of the four Houston cops who have sued to be allowed to wear beards just because I have one myself, you are wrong.
I'll take their side because of Richard Nixon, an Irish-American Sikh New Yorker, a Las Vegas Jew, Newark Muslims, the Waco experience and other rational arguments.
Let's begin at the beginning. When I first grew this beard back in the 1960s, it wasn't because that's what rebels did.
It was because I had the same medical condition the four officers have. It's a skin problem caused by closely-shaved curly hairs growing back into the skin and becoming infected.
It was not only unattractively splotchy, but it hurt.
It was probably not as serious a condition as with the officers. I could shave without problems if I did not drag the razor against the grain for closeness.
The result was a five o'clock shadow well before noon.
Three letters are adequate to describe this: TMI.
Surely the Chron's metro columnists could occasionally find more interesting topics in our city than themselves, with elections upcoming and scandals swirling and all the usual shenanigans. Surely.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 06/04/08 10:15 PM |
28 May 2008
Different sorts of Chron eyes
With the Supreme Court ruling on lethal injection, we expected a steady stream of the Chron Eye for the Death Row Killer Guy as the state once again resumed executions.
A couple of recent stories, though, had a different focus. First, there was this one by Rosanna Ruiz:
It was midnight, but Melody Flowers had to get something off her chest.
The single mother of five woke her eldest. "If something should ever happen to me," she whispered to 8-year-old Tameka, "I want you to know that I will always love you all. I want you to be there for your brothers and sisters. Even if you are not able to see me, I'm still with you all."
The next afternoon, the 27-year-old Flowers was dead.
She had been bludgeoned with a claw hammer, raped, strangled and stabbed. Her body was dumped in the partially filled bathtub of her Humble apartment. The lifeless body of her toddler, Patrick, also stabbed, lay on top of her.
Now, 17 years later, memories of the horrific murders and the years that followed came to the fore for her surviving children with word that their mother's killer would be executed.
Derrick Sonnier, who authorities said stalked Flowers for months, was convicted of the Sept. 16, 1991, murders and sentenced to die. On June 3, the 40-year-old will be the first in Texas to be executed since the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of lethal injections last month.
[snip]
Tameka Traylor, 25, and Sebrina Flowers, 23, Melody Flowers' daughters, plan to witness his execution in Huntsville.
"He took everything from us," said Traylor, now a married mother of four. "Nothing will ever bring Melody and Patrick back or remove all the hurt and pain we had to endure. When he gave them the death sentence, he took the only person that loved us away from us ... and my brother didn't even have a chance to live his life."
Most death row killer guys have torn apart lives beyond their immediate victims.
The second story with a focus on victims also came from Rosanna Ruiz:
Their husbands were their soulmates.
They intended to watch their children grow up, then grow old with their spouses.
If not for the fateful 2006 meeting of their husbands, Joslyn Johnson and Theresa Quintero likely would never have laid eyes on each other.
During a traffic stop, Juan Leonardo Quintero, a landscaper, shot officer Rodney Johnson, 40, seven times, killing him. A Harris County jury last week sentenced Quintero, 34, to life in prison without parole.
While Joslyn Johnson will mourn the loss of her husband for the rest of her life, prison bars will separate Theresa Quintero from hers.
It's not the way either imagined their lives would turn out.
In the courtroom, the two women always sat on opposite sides, just a few feet from one another.
Wrestling with emotions
Joslyn Johnson said the seething anger she managed to staunch before the trial resurfaced the moment she locked eyes with Juan Quintero."I just wanted to jump over there and choke him," she said.
Theresa Quintero wrestled with different emotions. She wanted to slap the man she married in 1997 but also embrace him.
The emotionalism doesn't really appeal to me (then again, I'm not part of the demographic to which it's supposed to appeal), but the focus on the victims is unusual for the Chronicle.
Maybe the old Chron Eyes have been retired. We certainly hope that's the case.
BLOGVERSATION: Texas Digital Epitaph.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 05/28/08 10:08 PM |
18 May 2008
The Chron's Ethics Policy
Chron Reader Rep. Steve Jetton notes that the newspaper's set-in-concrete-and-rebar Ethics Policy has claimed a victim:
The Chronicle's Ethics Policy has cost one of its sports columnist his extra job as a radio talk show host. Jerome Solomon was hired by KNFC to host a talk show after the radio station adopted an all-sports format last year. All went well until the station decided it needed Solomon to contribute to the bottom line by doing commercials. The Chronicle's Ethics Policy prohibits editorial employees from endorsing products. Solomon had to decline and the station replaced him.
At the Chronicle, there is a wall between editorial employees and advertising employees. Editorial employees don't sell ads and advertising employees don't write stories or edit copy. The paper doesn't want readers to get the impression that the business side of the paper seeps into the editorial product. To allow otherwise would call into question the paper's editorial integrity. For example, if Solomon accepted pay from the Texans or Rockets to tout the team, readers would be justified in wondering if the opinions he expressed in his column had been softened because of the financial relationship. Furthermore, if Solomon and other employees can't sell ads for the Chronicle, they sure can't sell them for a radio station or other media.
Back in 2005, Banjo Jones blogged about Jeff Cohen's Ethics Declaration:
It turns out the rodeo spends a preposterous amount of money to furnish its offices and provide free booze to its friends and volunteers. And, oh, by the way, they give free tickets and free drink coupons to media organizations that provide the interminable, over-the-top coverage of the world's largest rodeo.
(The Chron was quick to point out that only two of its employees made use of the free drink coupons while a shocking seventeen Channel 13 employees used them, which the newspaper evidently felt gave it the moral high ground.)
In addition, the media freebies gave Chronicle Editor Jeff Cohen an opening to flex his ethical muscles and declare the city's only newspaper won't be accepting any more free tickets ("outside our sponsorship agreements"), which should further endear him to rank and file employees who will feel better about themselves now that they've been ethically cleansed from on high.
Jetton doesn't elaborate on the what the Chron's Ethics Policy says about the "firewall" between opinion and news. Maybe he can scan the entire Chron Ethics Policy and provide a link to it, in the interest of transparency. Maybe we'll see that the Policy addresses plagiarism.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 05/18/08 08:26 AM |
12 May 2008
The Chronicle's cheerleading for a soccer stadium
Last week Tom Kirkendall took the Chronicle to task for its sports writers' seemingly pie-in-the-sky hope that TSU will partner with the Dynamo to fund a downtown soccer stadium:
Of course, the article is utterly devoid of details, such as how TSU is going to find any money to throw at this deal, much less make a multi-million dollar investment in it. Heck, the TSU athletic director and the Dynamo's president haven't even met yet, so it doesn't even appear that Dynamo management takes TSU's involvement seriously. Why don't the Chronicle editors just come out and say that they really want the city to finance the downtown soccer stadium and spare us such vapid articles as this one?
Tom also points to a post by Jon Taylor, now blogging at PoliSci@UST, that addresses the economic realities of pro sport franchises and the venues taxpayers buy them. Short point: The benefits generally are slim to none for taxpayers who foot the bill, but quite high for the franchise owner. What a surprise! Five billion dollars of investment downtown, but it's still missing something!
The only thing I would add is that, for all we know, the Chronicle's editorial board could have made a decision to push for a soccer stadium. A couple of years ago, Chron Editor Emeritus Jack Loftis admitted that's what the editorial leadership of the paper decided to do when the city was debating a baseball stadium. And don't forget the Chron's push for light rail. The Chron's editor Jeff Cohen thinks it's the editorial board's business to, "offer guidance about what is good for the people of Houston."
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 05/12/08 05:13 AM |
06 May 2008
The "logical" thinking of the Chron's editorial board
The Chron's editorial board lists the reasons why a federal gas tax holiday is such a bad idea:
The proposal insults the intelligence of American voters, assuming they will be swayed by a few dollars over the course of the summer to vote for Clinton instead of Sen. Barack Obama, or McCain rather than the Democratic nominee, as yet undecided.
Politicians insult the intelligence of American citizens every day, whether or not it's election season. For that matter, the leadership of the Houston Chronicle insults the intelligence of its readers on a near daily basis, but we don't hear of any changes in the boardroom.
At a time when U.S. highways and bridges are desperately in need of repairs or replacement, a suspension of the gasoline tax would divert about $30 billion from that vital task. Even if the government shifted tax dollars from other sources to the highway fund, the result would be an unneeded and irresponsible addition to the annual federal budget deficit. Clinton says she would cover the loss with a windfall profits tax on the oil industry. All that would do is discourage production and send oil prices even higher.
Politicians divert money from specific funds all the time. If the editors are worried about irresponsible additions to the federal budget deficit, they might want to undertake a federal house-cleaning, budget-wise, to reduce the layers upon layers of federally-funded programs that duplicate efforts. Or maybe tackle entitlements.
With high energy prices likely to be a feature of life for years to come, the United States needs to conserve its use of oil and gasoline and develop cleaner, alternative energy sources. Suspending the gasoline tax would encourage Americans to drive more, not less, and postpone the day when the country adopts a rational energy policy to cope with global warming and tightening supplies of crude.
The US needs to be drilling for our own oil, and building new refineries. That would make us energy independent. Alternative energy sources, mass transit, and driving less will not keep the American engine running, nor keep us in the forefront of innovation.
Clinton asks what's wrong with helping working Americans hurt by high food and energy prices. Nothing is wrong with that, but suspending the gas tax would hurt all Americans in the long run by sending the wrong signal to the markets and consumers. Americans need to make better use of mass transit and live in smaller, denser housing in order to be closer to work.
Congress wasn't too worried about sending the wrong signal when it decided to send taxpayers stimulus checks. And many in Congress want to bail out the tiny percentage of irresponsible homeowners who got themselves into mortgages they couldn't afford. How about THAT for a wrong signal!
Government has a voracious appetite and it never thinks it should go without money. Government doesn't think it should have to make financial choices, or tighten budgets, which citizens have to do all the time.
The Chronicle's editors are stupid if they think rising gas prices are going to make people "live in smaller, denser housing in order to be closer to work." It's not going to happen.
And the final best reason for a gas tax holiday? It's our money to begin with. We earned it, but government takes it. Let us keep a "few dollars" of our own money.
RELATED: The Incoherence of Nancy Pelosi (Power Line)
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 05/06/08 05:15 AM |
04 May 2008
An editorial light on the bear facts
Yesterday the Chronicle's editorial board penned a missive on the plight of polar bears and the effort to get them listed as an endangered species:
U.S. Geological Survey scientists estimate that the thawing Arctic could result in the near-extinction of polar bears in Alaska by midcentury. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service proposed 18 months ago that the animals be listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act.
The listing would require federal officials to come up with a plan to protect the snow white carnivores. It could also make the species the first mammal to be designated as threatened by the effects of global warming.
[snip]
The polar bears' peril results from global warming, which is melting the ice floes upon which they hunt. The situation is further complicated by the fact that much of their habitat sits atop prime oil and gas drilling tracts. The administration has opposed mandatory limits on greenhouse gas emissions blamed for climate change, while pushing for expanded drilling in the Arctic.
Actually as PowerLine noted, there is evidence that manmade global warming has nothing to do with melting Arctic ice:
In October 2007, NASA announced the results of an in-depth study of Arctic sea-ice melting and found that what has caused the unusually large melting seen in the last eight years was not greenhouse gas-induced global warming. In the press release describing the study, team leader Son Nghiem explained that the warming of recent years was, in fact, caused by a change in wind patterns. "Unusual atmospheric conditions set up wind patterns that compressed the sea ice, loaded it into the Transpolar Drift Stream and then sped its flow out of the Arctic," he said. When that sea ice reached lower latitudes, it rapidly melted in the warmer waters.
And then there's the whole question of whether or not polar bears are even endangered.
Blogger and radio host Hugh Hewitt is also an expert in environmental law. He has been warning of the profound impact designating polar bears as an endangered species would have:
Once listed, the Federal Endangered Species Act is very clear: Any federal action that might impact the polar bear must be reviewed by the U.S. Fish &Wildlife Service under Section 7 of the Act.
What sort of federal actions? The most obvious would be any activity on or near Arctic ice, but that's not the gold ring the environmentalists are reaching for.
They will argue that every federal permit that allows directly or indirectly for increased emissions of hydrocarbons is a federal act that might impact the polar bear --every port expansion, every refinery opening or repair, every Army Corps of Engineers permit that allows for more homes or office buildings to rise.
Don't believe me. Believe the Center for Biological Diversity, one of the plaintiffs in the suit filed to force the listing.
You can follow this link to read the rest.
Now Hewitt has read the Chron's editorial and wonders:
Note that the writers present no contrary evidence to the case that ice loss is imperiling the bears.
Even more telling is that the editorial doesn't even hint at the vast impact of the listing in the lower 48. Do you suspect the writers don't know, or just prefer to keep their readers in the dark?
Our readers, of course, are not at all surprised the editorial board members either left out facts, or just plain don't know the facts. Smart money would bet that the ed board doesn't actually know many of the facts related to this topic.
But that has never stopped them before.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 05/04/08 01:35 PM |
28 April 2008
Covering the news important to...Washington, D.C. journalists
Remember Jeff Cohen's emphasis on the HOUSTON portion of the Chronicle's masthead? Yeah, well, The HOUSTON Chronicle's DC bureau had the annual White House Correspondents dinner well-covered this year:
The White House Correspondents' Association has hosted an annual dinner featuring the President of the United States since 1914. Last night, two tables of Houston Chroniclers jammed into the ballroom of the Washington Hilton with 5,000 of our closest friends. Our special guests included Matt Mackowiak, spokesman for Texas Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, Frank Maisano, a Washington rep for Bracewell Giuliani and energy expert extraordinaire, and, bringing the most attention to our tables, "Obama Girl" Amber Lee Ettinger.
That seems like a fine use of the HOUSTON Chronicle's resources! I'm sure the HOUSTON staffers who were in, um, HOUSTON, got a kick out of seeing the Chron's two DC blogs cover the festivities.
COMPLETELY UNRELATED PREVIOUS POSTS: Layoffs at the Chronicle -- both voluntary and involuntary (10/07), Jeff Cohen named NPF editor of the year (12/07)
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 04/28/08 08:08 PM |
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