- The first season of TV heavyweight Aaron Sorkin’s new
series “The Newsroom” hasn’t exactly been a home run. Critics have been
lukewarm on the series and it has been averaging a respectable, but not
overwhelming, 2 million viewers per episode. Those numbers and opinions clearly
are not sitting well with Sorkin, who has busted out his axe and started
chopping. This week, he fired nearly the entire writing staff for the HBO drama,
meaning the writers’ room will look much different for the series’ second season.
HBO insisted the mass firings were normal and even issued a statement to that
effect: “Every year each show reassesses the needs of its writing staffs. This
process is nothing out of the ordinary." Sorkin is known for being
heavy-handed in the way he runs his shows, but he did say back in May that he
thought highly of the “Newsroom” writers and at that point, didn’t sound like
he was about to fire anyone. "I couldn't possibly write the show without
that room full of people. I go in there, and we kick around ideas. I'm writing
about all kinds of things I don't know anything about. So they do research for
me,” he said at the time. Either the show’s so-so performance since then
changed his mind or Sorkin was merely blowing a lot of smoke up a lot of butts
to keep people working hard until he could replace them, because less than two
months later, the writers he so loved will now be penning someone else’s
show…………
- In the past 20 years, global warming has been taken care
of, right? A group of nations gathered 20 years ago in Rio de Janeiro and talked of
curbing emissions of the greenhouse gases to save the environment. No one would
ignore that sage thinking, right? Umm, no. As it turns out, 2011 was no
different than any year before it in terms of the world wrecking its own
environment. In the last calendar year, the burning of fossil fuels, as well as
other
activities such as cement and oil production, produced 3 percent more carbon
dioxide,
bringing this segment of emissions to an all-time high of 37.5 billion
tons, a European study revealed. Overall, the past decade has seen a 2.7
percent annual increase in carbon dioxide emissions. Who are the worst
polluters? Shockingly, China is at the top of the list AGAIN, followed by the
United States, the European Union, India, the Russian Federation and Japan.
China and India fueled last year’s increase by raising their carbon dioxide
emissions by 9 and 6 percent, respectively, so they should each receive the
credit they have coming. However, the EU, U.S. and Japan all decreased their
emissions from the previous year, according to the report, Trends in Global CO2
Emissions. "Although all developing countries together increased their emissions on average by 6 percent, the increases in
China and India caused by far the largest increase in global emissions,"
the report noted. It was compiled by the Netherlands Environmental Assessment
Agency and the E.U.'s Joint Research Centre and although it does not include
carbon dioxide emitted by deforestation, forest fires and other land-use
related activities, its results are still disappointing. Experts predict that
if global emissions of carbon dioxide continue to increase at their current
rate, within two decades they will exceed the amount necessary to limit global
warming to 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit (2 degrees Celsius), the target established
in international negotiations. Keep it up world, we’re almost there……..
- Sure, there have been a ton of burglaries in Josephine
County, Ore. of late. And yes, when someone is apprehended for one of these
crimes, it’s generally a good idea to put them in prison so a) they learn their
lesson and b) don’t do it again, at least while they are incarcerated. However,
times are tough and money is tight. What that means in Josephine County is that
budget cats and a failed tax levy have caused major financial problems and the
prison system can’t hold all of those offenders. Literally, convicted burglars
are going through the legal system and being churned right back out onto the
street. "We've
had to turn burglars loose and of course they turn right around and commit
crimes again," Sheriff Gil Gilbertson said. That’s right, thieves are just
being cited and released, no different than a parking ticket, but the sheriff
has no choice. "If there's no money, there's no employees, if there's no
employees, fact is crime is going to run rampant and we're starting to see
that," Gilbertson said. What is a community to do in that situation? Band
together, form a citizens’ group and pretend like that will make a difference,
that’s what. A group called Securing Our Safety is made up of city and business
leaders, law enforcement and concerned citizens who are trying to find ways to
keep their county safe. "The goal of this group is to look for answers,
whether that be finding new sources of funding, looking for new options, talking
to people in the community, trying to rebuild trust in our leadership,"
member David Smith said. "That has already generated some great ideas,
some of which are being put into place now." Right now, the group has done
nothing more than harmless brainstorming, which has produced solid ideas like bringing
in more businesses, utilizing natural resources and timber, sales tax and a
smaller property tax increase. Lot of success with that approach……….
- Boxing matches tend to have blood. One boxer is punched
in the nose or the other suffers a gash over his eye and the red stuff begins
flowing. Usually, the cut man in the boxer’s corner tends to the cut and tries
to stop the bleeding so the fight can continue. Rarely does a federal law
enforcement agency request a swab used to stop a boxer’s bleeding and use it to
tie him to a 3-year-old, unsolved robbery. Meet boxer Martin Tucker, who won
his latest match but lost big afterward as he suffered a bloody nose and the FBI said
it obtained a swab used to stop the bleeding and found that DNA matched
Tucker's DNA on other evidence from a 2009 robbery at Monroe County Community
Credit Union in Temperance, near the Michigan-Ohio border. Some smooth
investigative work from agent Robert Schultz nabbed the swab, as Schultz said
in a court filing that he got the swab while attending Tucker's bout in April
in Toledo, Ohio. He described it as "discarded" but didn't disclose
any other details about how he obtained it. After analysis, Tucker's DNA
matched DNA from a mask believed to have been used in the robbery and from the
steering wheel of the getaway car, the FBI said. That was enough to link
him to the robbery and Tucker was arrested this week and ordered held without
bond Wednesday. According to the government, he wore a mask and had a handgun
during the $5,400 robbery and worked with an accomplice who was indicted in
November. Defense attorney Haytham Faraj insisted there is nothing out of the
ordinary about the FBI acquiring the bloody swab. "We leave our
fingerprints, bits of hair and skin all over the place. If you're a boxer,
sometimes you leave your
blood around," Faraj said. "It is a dramatic twist. It
makes for an interesting read," Faraj said. The irony of the bizarre turn
of events is that Tucker’s win was his first in the last seven bouts, as the roofer
and part-time boxer is 1-6 during that span…………
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