For all the emphasis by TNG-CWA members on improving workplace diversity, the reality-as measured by the American Society of Newspaper Editors -is that newsrooms are becoming more monochromatic, not less. According to ASNE’s annual survey, the percentage of minority journalists working in daily newsrooms slipped this year for only the second time since 1978, to 13.62%. ASNE’s goal has been to increase minority representation until it mirrors society at large-which is now 33% non-white. Other indicators in the ASNE survey also are slipping into reverse. Minorities account for only 10.9% of all newsroom supervisors, reverting to a level reached two years ago. Meanwhile, the number of newspapers with no minorities at all on their newsroom staffs increased to 392, from 377 last year. Guild-represented newspapers by-and-large had better minority representation than the average, but none except those in Hawaii met or exceeded the 33% threshold. The San Jose Mercury News came closest, at 32.2%, although recent layoffs may have driven that percentage lower. Other newspapers with notable percentages include the Sacramento Bee, 30.3%; Fresno Bee, 26.2%; Washington Post, 23.7%; Seattle Times, 22.2%; and the Philadelphia Daily News and Inquirer, 21.6% and 20.1%, respectively. On the […]
WASHINGTON – There it sits on your night stand, that book you’ve meant to read for who knows how long but haven’t yet cracked open. Tonight, as you feel its stare from beneath that teetering pile of magazines, know one thing - you are not alone. One in four adults say they read no books at all in the past year, according to an Associated Press-Ipsos poll released Tuesday. Of those who did read, women and seniors were most avid, and religious works and popular fiction were the top choices. The survey reveals a nation whose book readers, on the whole, can hardly be called ravenous. The typical person claimed to have read four books in the last year - half read more and half read fewer. Excluding those who hadn’t read any, the usual number read was seven. ‘I just get sleepy when I read,’ said Richard Bustos of Dallas, a habit with which millions of Americans can doubtless identify. Bustos, a 34-year-old project manager for a telecommunications company, said he had not read any books in the last year and would rather spend time in his backyard pool. That choice by Bustos and others […]
LOS ANGELES — The number of foreclosure filings reported in the U.S. last month jumped 93 percent from July of 2006 and rose 9 percent from June, the latest sign that homeowners are having trouble making payments and finding buyers during the national housing downturn. There were 179,599 foreclosure filings reported during July, up from 92,845 during the same period a year ago, Irvine-based RealtyTrac Inc. said Tuesday. There were 164,644 foreclosure filings reported in June. The national foreclosure rate in July was one filing for every 693 households, the company said. ‘While 43 states experienced year-over-year increases in foreclosure activity, just five states — California, Florida, Michigan, Ohio and Georgia — accounted for more than half of the nation’s total foreclosure filings,’ RealtyTrac Chief Executive James J. Saccacio said. The filings include default notices, auction sale notices and bank repossessions. Some properties included in the survey might have received more than one notice, if the owners have multiple mortgages. The company did break out individual properties as part of its report for the first six months of this year, when a total of 573,397 properties reported some sort of foreclosure activity. That […]
One in ten Iraqis has left the country. Baghdad’s elite are trying to make ends meet in neighboring Jordan and Syria. Washington wants the United Nations to address the refugee crisis. In the meantime, the country is losing its best minds — the very people needed to rebuild Iraq. The first stage on the road to safety is a $20 taxi ride. It takes the future refugee past nervous soldiers, through dangerous checkpoints and along streets with nicknames — like ‘Grenade Alley’ and ‘Sniper Boulevard’ — that bespeak the perils of travel in Iraq. Stage one ends at the curb in front of Samarra Terminal at Baghdad Airport, where travelers are so overcome with relief that they hardly even notice the gruff way guards treat them. Before they are even allowed to enter the terminal, security officers order them to deposit their suitcases and carry-on bags next to a yellow line painted on the asphalt and flanked by two sets of six-foot-tall concrete barriers. While police dogs sniff the luggage for explosives, the travelers — men, women, grandparents and grandchildren — stand to the side in the heat, parents wearing stiff-looking travel clothes and a few children in […]
MYRTLE BEACH, South Carolina — People in the United States are living in a world of pain and they are popping pills at an alarming rate to cope with it. The amount of five major prescription painkillers sold at retail establishments rose 88 percent between 1997 and 2005, according to an Associated Press analysis of statistics from the Drug Enforcement Administration. More than 200,000 pounds (90,720 kilograms) of codeine, morphine, oxycodone, hydrocodone and meperidine were purchased at retail stores during the most recent year represented in the data. That total is enough to give more than 300 milligrams of painkillers to every person in the country. Oxycodone, the chemical used in OxyContin, is responsible for most of the increase. Oxycodone use jumped nearly six-fold between 1997 and 2005. The drug gained notoriety as ‘hillbilly heroin,’ often bought and sold illegally in Appalachia. But its highest rates of sale now occur in places such as suburban St. Louis; Columbus, Ohio; and Fort Lauderdale, Florida. The world of pain extends beyond big cities and involves more than oxycodone. In Appalachia, retail sales of hydrocodone - sold mostly as Vicodin - are the highest in the nation. Nine […]
Remote Viewing the Year 2060
