Hammered on Hand Sanitizer, Murdochracy, and Mental Floss
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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.
Fun fact: This is 140 proof!
It is a hot, steamy Tuesday in most of the country -- every state is going to crack 80 degrees -- so why not kick back and drink a big glass of the Bryant Park Project. It will be a tall, cool concoction of Supreme Court rulings, mixed in with a little voter fraud and spiked with some hand sanitizer. You can come back for seconds later in the day when we post a 'New Music Tuesday' segment with music journalist Erika Clarke.
Matt and I are in the office, Luke, Dan and Win have headed out to Coney Island to document the 80th anniversary of the Cyclone Roller Coaster, which apparently is being celebrated by a bunch of 80 year olds actually riding the coaster. Yeah, I don't know if that's a good idea either.
Details and video to come.
NEWSCAST: Former EPA administrator Christie Todd Whitman's riveting testimony on Capitol Hill (follow up segment as well), Supreme Court loosens campaign finance advertisement rules, a possible murder-suicide of WWE wrestler Chris Benoit and family, two million more adults went uninsured in '06 than in '05, Republican Senator Richard Lugar says POTUS must seek new plan for Iraq, at least 165 homes destroyed in current California fires, and the famed Cyclone turns 80. Luke will be back later this week with an on-the-scene report!
CHRISTIE TODD WHITMAN RAW: We want to run long chunks of interviews or news stories that are best heard -- and maybe understood -- in their original state. The former chief of the Environmental Protection Agency appeared before a House subcommittee investigating the air quality in lower Manhattan post 9-11. We would want to play a chunk of that. Some 20,000 people have reported some sort of illness believed to be related to the air now known to have been toxic. At the time, Whitman and others told the public the air was fine. Sometimes strong, sometimes emotional and sometimes defensive, Whitman said she was acting on the best information she had at the time. With words like "liar", "my son", "terrorists" and "falsehoods" -- it is worth your time to listen.
RUN OSCAR RUN! The International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) has given Oscar Pistorius the OK to enter competitions that could ultimately lead to the Olympic games in '08. Pistorius is 20-years old and sprints on super high-tech prosthetic legs (check out this video). He was born with a congenital defect and ultimately had to have his legs amputated. There's some controversy surrounding this decision, some say that the prosthetics give him an advantage of some sort. Others say they are just passive devices. The IAAF is still researching, but for now Oscar can run.
5-4, AGAIN: The Supreme Court's decision to allow groups to advertise right up until election day as long as the group doesn't ask for a specific vote comes with a bit of irony. A right-to-life group was not allowed to run an advertisement that encouraged people to call Senator Russ Feingold and suggest he not hold up President Bush's nominees to the bench. The SCOTUS ruled you can't ban that kind of ad, thereby undoing part of the campaign finance reform bill authored by ... Russ Feingold. The 5-4 decision is one of a line of split decisions since the court has been reshuffled. We'd take a look at the split and how it has changed the way dissenting opinions are written and seen and -- keeping in mind that Justice Stephens is 87 years old -- what it might mean for the 2008 campaign.
HAND SANITIZER STRAIGHT UP, NO CHASER: It was a rumor running around parenting sites that seems to be true. A four year old girl got hammered off hand sanitizer. It's unclear whether she kept licking it off her hands or got a shot glass, the poor thing was lethargic and loopy and had to be taken to the emergency room. Apparently prison inmates have been doing this for a while. They've figured out some of these sanitizers are 70 percent alcohol. A little "news you can use" segment for the parents out there.
DAY 2: TAHOE FIRES: In an effort to follow through on stories that might otherwise fizzle, we would bring you day two of the California fires -- which are not even half contained . Twenty four hundred acres have burned and 240 homes and other buildings have been destroyed. Why does it seem to be fire season every season in California? We'd bring in an expert to help us understand.
BILL MAKES VOTER DECEPTION ILLEGAL -- IT WASN'T BEFORE?! Actually, voter intimidation was illegal, apparently you could go hog wild with deception. Now, the House has voted to make it a federal crime to "knowingly provide false information with the intent to disenfranchise another person in a federal election." A deceiver could end up in jail for five years with a 250k fine.
SUMMER READING FOR THE LAZY: Yeah, I bought the new book by the guy who wrote Kite Runner and my book club meeting on July 30th will focus on Water for Elephants, and I will read them both. But if you're like me, sometimes you just want to curl up with nice glossy magazine rather than commit yourself to reading and carrying around a book. The Chicago Tribune has come out with a list of its 50 favorite magazines from ReadyMade, for the DIY set, to Mental Floss, a snarky take on history and science, to Venus Zine, which focuses on local Chicago artists.
PUT THAT AWAY: A magazine that might make that list next year is called ORGANIZE. It made its debut today at Borders, Ralph's and Barnes & Noble. This is quite a feat because it is independently produced by a homemaker who invested $100,000 of her own money to start it. It is believed to be the only publication to focus entirely on organizing. We would talk to Joyce Dorny about her vision to help people keep their crap in order.
RIP AND READ: Muslim Chic spread in NYPOST, Marion Jones broke, "Murdochracy" -- Rupert delving into China to beef up his holdings (WSJ journal deal may happen today!), and Save Net Radio -- NPR member stations, along with many other webcasters, observing a day of silence to protest a royalty rate increase for online music.
11:03 AM ET | 06-26-2007 | permalink
