by Walter Gray—

TV News, Newspapers Still Sliding

Large numbers of people still tune in to the big three networks, according to an article in The Wall Street Journal. An average of 23.2 million people have watched the evening newscasts of NBC, ABC or CBS each evening this TV season through the end of April but that audience is down 21 percent from this point a decade ago. At No. 3 CBS, the drop for that period was 33 percent. The local print media continued to lose circulation ground. The Providence Sunday Journal dropped from 192,849 to 130,659 between 2008 and March 2011. Total average circulation for the daily Journal was 91,804 for the six month period ending March, 2011, compared to 139,053 for the six month period ending in March, 2008. The WSJ article noted certain Journal-owned properties are for sale while the newspaper’s historic building at 75 Fountain Street is possibly up for a “leaseback” sale.

Seriously, You’d Rather Work in California

California’s prison guards make more than twice their counterparts in Texas — $71,000 a year, compared to $31,000. That difference is true for state workers in general: While in 2009 the average private-sector worker in California made 12.5 percent more than in Texas, the disparity among state workers was 25.2 percent, according to U.S. Commerce Department figures. The difference underlines the benefits –and taxpayer costs – of working in a union-friendly state and may help explain why California has more intractable fiscal difficulties than Texas, according to a recent analysis in Bloomberg Businessweek magazine.

Although Texas has a budget deficit of $4.3 billion this year, it has the second-highest credit rating from Standard & Poor’s. California has the lowest rating of any state and is struggling to close a deficit of $15.4 billion this year. The difference in state worker pay can be explained in part by California’s cost of living, which is almost 15 percent higher than in Texas. Yet the power of collective bargaining is even more important, says Oran McMichael, a longtime labor organizer in Texas. Excluding court and legislative employees, unions represent 85 percent of all state workers in California, says Lynelle Jolley, a spokeswomen for the state’s Personnel Administration Dept. While Texas doesn’t have figures for its employees in unions, the proportion is probably less than10 percent, State Auditor John Keel says.

Here’s some comparisons:

State workers represented by unions; California 85%, Texas 10% or less: Change in pension payments over past five years; California, 32% increase, Texas 3.9% increase; Census population, California 37.3 million, Texas 25.1 million; Average 2009 salary nongovernmental employee, California $37,912, Texas $33, 694; Average 2009 salary, state employee’ California $55,941, Texas $44,666.
Average 2010 salary for public employees by job; Forensic scientist- California $82,680, Texas $55,941; Correctional Officer- California $70,992, Texas $31,213; Architect – California $107,580, Texas $58,973. Registered Nurse – California $71,280 Texas $54,897; Civil Engineer – California $99,132, Texas $60,398; Parole Officer – California $100,716, Texas $41,542.

Hmm, What Else Could I Have Been Doing Today?

RI Teacher unions held a working meeting at the 8,000-seat Ryan Center at the University of RI on April 30. Despite heaps of publicity, only 300 teachers and union administrators gathered, discussing such student-centered issues as removal of the state education commissioner, bargaining rights, teacher evaluations, and teacher demonetization

Company Bureaucracy is Stifling

In the Corner Office column of The New York Sunday Times the CEO of Qlik Tech was asked about the culture of his company. He said his firm has developed five core values.
#1 – Challenge, because we are a disruptive software company, always challenging the conventional because, if you always follow others, you can always be #2.
#2 – Move fast. It’s OK to make mistakes but not the same ones.
#3 – Be open and straight-forward if you think something is wrong. We hear everyone out.
#4 – Encourage teamwork for results. It’s not about the individual. It’s about the team.
#5 – Take responsibility. Be cost-conscience.

Sand for Sale

Morocco has sand aplenty, but it’s vanishing from beaches and surfacing in city buildings, resorts – even a soccer stadium. A major component of concrete, sand is heavily mined to feed construction demands this desert country and around the globe. It’s also sought, according to National Geographic magazine, for its mineral content and to beef up other beaches. While sandy shores are easy to access and cheap to mine, the result is habitat loss of turtles and birds, battered ecosystems and landscapes, and eroded buffers against storms and rising seas.
Beach sand mining occurs mostly in developing countries, where it is often unregulated. Even where permits are required, such as in Jamaica and parts of India, enforcement is spotty. The extent of the trade isn’t yet known but it’s growing along with coastal populations, says Adam Griffith, who is compiling a sand-mining database for the nonprofit Coastal Care to highlight the problem. For now, he notes, “As long as beach sand can be sold, there will be people willing to take it.”

Taking Over Troubled Cities

Benton Harbor, Michigan, has a new form of government. It’s called Accountant. As in Emergency Manager. These managers are assigned to distressed cities by the state to put out financial blazes in the most troubled cities, The New York Times reports. Are these people popular? Imagine walking into a nearly empty city or town hall where you don’t know a single soul and tell the locals it’s your way or the highway. That you’re here to cut spending because your town is broke. One of the Benton Harbor’s city commissioners greeted the manager by announcing “it’s a dictatorship, plain and simple.” It’s also the way of the future, when voters select financially-trained leaders for governor, city council and school committee. That’s when we’ll build budgets based on financial acumen, not political shenanigans.

Falcons at JFK Airport Join the Unemployed

For 15 years, falcons have been hired at JFK to scare off geese and gulls that might otherwise get sucked into jet engines, causing emergencies or accidents. Now, because of budget constraints, JFK has terminated its agreements with falconers and asked the U.S. Department of Agriculture to step in as a replacement. USDA doesn’t hire falconers. They buy shotguns, according to The New York Times article.

Greed, Conflict of Interest, and Wrong-doing

The U.S. Senate report fills 635 pages, but it’s conclusion – expressed in the above sub-headline – also noted our investigation in “Wall Street and the Financial Crisis: Anatomy of a Financial Collapse ”how big banks roped, tied and branded the U.S. economy and the developed world with their egregious money-making schemes.” From “ The Week.”

Union Busting in the State Next Door

Pop Quiz: What political party, in what state, this week passed a bill in the dead of night stripping public sector unions of their collective bargaining powers? Republicans in Wisconsin? The GOP in Ohio or Indiana? Try Democrats in Massachusetts. Maybe the debate over public sector benefits isn’t all that ideological after all, observed a Wall Street Journal columnist.

End of Column: Feel Like Crying?

Some new research efforts are helping to piece together the biological and cultural forces behind crying, showing that there are different types of tears as well as differences in the way men and women cry. Women, says a WSJ story, are biologically wired to shed tears more than men. Under a microscope, cells of female tear glands look different than men’s. Also, the male tear duct is larger than the female’s, so if a man and a woman both tear up, the woman’s tears will spill onto her cheeks quicker. “For men and their ducts, it’d be like having a big fat pipe to drain in a rainstorm.”