War Spending, Minimum Wage, Weekend Movies, Pomp and Circumstance
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"Morning Meeting" is a recap of our daily editorial meeting. If we had a show today, these are some of the stories you would probably hear.
Coming up on the podcasts later today: The Wall Street Journal.com's Emily Meehan tells you how to invest an unexpected $2500, and we talk weekend movies with NPR's Bob Mondello.
The Rundown. In attendance: Alison Stewart and Matt Martinez. And a bacon, egg and cheese muffin. Hey, where'd everyone go?!
WAR SPENDING -- Congress passed a bill that would provide $100 billion for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. It passed the House 280-142 and 80-14 in the Senate. Among those 14 Senate dissenters: Presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. Both were among the last to vote Thursday night. It's a calculated move on their part -- a conversation about how this could work for or against them in the coming presidential campaign might be in order.
MINIMUM WAGE -- Also part of the spending package: The first minimum wage increase in more than a decade. It's going from $5.15 an hour to $7.25 in three installments. Wages will increase by 70 cents before the end of this summer. Then another 70 cents next year and another 70 cents by summer 2009. This is one of many things in the spending bill that got lost in the hubbub around war funding. We wondered: What else flew in under the radar in the funding bill?
THE WAR -- I was reading D.C.'s commuter paper -- Express -- this morning -- and they have a section called "Blog Log" which is a random list of quotes from various blogs. This one from College Grad "Real" World recounts what happened at the end of an evening of listening to live classical music at Washington D.C.'s Kennedy Center:
It was a wonderful evening of music. It's amazing what the Millennium Stage shows for free. As I got back on to the shuttle bus to take me back to the Foggy Bottom Metro stop, the driver had on NPR. It was talking about the war in Iraq. I turned to my friend and said, "I wish he could just turn on classical music and let the moment last a little longer." Unfortunately, an hour's respite is all we were given from the "real" world.
This got us wondering about how you take in coverage of the Iraq War. Is it just a blur? Beyond depressing? Do you just tune it out? Or are you glued to every piece of information you can get -- how do you process it? We just thought this would be a good conversation to have going into Memorial Day weekend.
LEBANON -- We wanted to have a follow-up conversation on the situation in Lebanon -- catch up with reporter Ben Gilbert who is now in Tripoli. The United States sent military aid to Lebanon today -- and the Lebanese army beefed up their troop presence at the Palestinian camp where its been battling Islamist militants this week.
SMOKING SECTION -- There's a report out by a group called the "Institute of Medicine" that urges Congress to give the FDA the power to regulate nicotine levels in cigarettes. There is a bill in Congress that would give the FDA that authority -- it's supported by Philip Morris USA. We wondered why a big tobacco company would be supporting legislation that would heavily regulate its industry. We'd want to do some digging on that. This story comes at the same time as a new study by the Centers for Disease Control that says smoking is forbidden in nearly three out of four households. A smoking roundup this morning...
FOR ME TO POOP ON -- The president got pooped on -- and not by his political enemies. It happened during his news conference Thursday. The Prez was in the wrong place at the wrong time. So, what does this mean? What's the news value? How does this increase my understanding of the world? It doesn't. It's just amusing.
COMMENCEMENT SPEECHES -- Alison wanted to talk with someone giving a commencement speech this weekend. She thought Soledad O'Brien might be interesting. She was also interested in the places that people are choosing to speak. (Or the people that places are choosing.) And we wonder about those students who are speaking this weekend -- who are they? We thought it would be fun to dig up the names of people who have spoken at their graduation and find out where they are now -- have the gone on to great things? Are they household names?
COKE -- Alison is interested in Coke buying Glaceau, the company that makes Vitaminwater. It was a $4.1 billion deal. Does Coke -- which is already in the water business with Desani -- want to dominate the water/sport drink business? We want to have a bigger conversation about the marketing of water -- especially the sport drink business. (FULL DISCLOSURE: I have been sucked in by Gatorade's marketing of their new sport drink Propel. I was watching a commercial for the drink a few weeks back: A guy is running through the city and when he finishes he takes a sip of his "Propel." I thought to myself, "Hey, I'm a guy. I live in the city. And I'm a runner! That's the drink for me!" It's that easy.)
TALK RADIO -- It's been a bad month for talk radio. Opie and Anthony suspended. Imus still reverberating. And now the FREE FM format has taken a hit in NYC. New York's 92.3 FM ended the format Thursday and returned K-Rock to the air. That was the station's identity before Howard Stern departed for satellite radio in January 2006. Why did it bail? Was the talk not working? Do people need talk radio to be more partisan and sexed up to survive? Maybe a conversation with someone from Broadcast and Cable? We just thought the whole talk radio subject had risen to such a level that we should talk about it.
MAKE ME CARE -- Alison came up with a great "Make Me Care" segment for next week: Tell me why I should give a hoot about who should be the next World Bank president. Paul Wolfowitz leaves at the end of June. We'll set that up for next week.
MOVIES -- From the smallest to the biggest movie releases -- we are talking with NPR movie critic Bob Mondello about movies this Memorial Day weekend. Expect a podcast later this afternoon.
9:04 AM ET | 05-25-2007 | permalink
