The Decline Of Local News

The Decline Of Local News

8/3/20 by NPR

Web player: https://podcastaddict.com/episode/110589454
Episode: https://play.podtrac.com/npr-381444908/edge1.pod.npr.org/anon.npr-podcasts/podcast/npr/fa/2020/08/20200803_fa_fapodmon_1-3bd6a542-66b1-4818-b51f-937d980f47c7.mp3?awCollectionId=381444908&awEpisodeId=897134561&orgId=1&d=2918&p=381444908&story=897134561&t=podcast&e=897134561&size=46586195&ft=pod&f=381444908

Since 2004, more than 2,000 American newspapers have gone out of business. ‘Washington Post’ media columnist Margaret Sullivan talks about the decline of local news coverage, a crisis she says is as serious as the spread of disinformation on the internet. Her new book is ‘Ghosting the News: Local Journalism and the Crisis of American Democracy.’

Film critic Justin Chang reviews the thriller ‘She Dies Tomorrow.’

August 3, 2020 Night

Good evening! Mostly cloudy and 77 degrees in Delmar, NY. โ˜๏ธ Calm wind. The dew point is 59 degrees. The skies will clear Wednesday around 1 am. Nice break from the humidity but it’s clouded up and tomorrow is going to be wet, especially in the evening. The air has the musty smell of grain and barnyard tonight. ๐Ÿฎ

Busy day at work. ๐Ÿ–ฅ I’ve been less efficient lately with the heat and getting distracted with other things that I clocked out and worked late so I could get caught up on things. I still haven’t asked about next week, I doubt ๐Ÿคทโ€โ™‚๏ธ I’ll get all week off but if I don’t ask it’s not a possibility. Just too timid. ๐ŸTruth be told I can remote work some of the days in the Finger Lakes but I want some time to myself besides the weekend.

So I got my new phone up and running. ๐Ÿ“ฑ It’s a big upgrade from my old phone but it’s a bit larger when it’s in the protective case than I would like – even with my big hands. ๐Ÿ–๏ธ I mean I like the higher resolution screen for writing blog posts but it’s a bit big for one hand use especially when you are typing on it. โŒจ๏ธ I do however like all the additional emojis it has. ๐Ÿ˜ Adds a lot of options for blog posts. ๐Ÿ“

Tonight will have showers likely, mainly after 3am. Mostly cloudy ๐ŸŒง, with a low of 68 degrees at 5am. Seven degrees above normal. Maximum dew point of 67 at 4am. Calm wind becoming south around 5 mph after midnight. Chance of precipitation is 60%. New precipitation amounts of less than a tenth of an inch possible. In 2019, we had mostly clear skies in the evening, which became partly cloudy by the early hours of the morning. It was humid. It got down to 62 degrees. The record low of 46 occurred back in 1966.

Tonight will have a Full ๐ŸŒ Moon with 99% illuminated. At 9 PM, the moon was in the east-southeast (119ยฐ) at an altitude of 3ยฐ from the horizon, some 243,891 miles away from where you are looking up from the earth. ๐Ÿš€ At the state speed limit of 55 mph, you’ll make it there by February 4th. Buckle up for safety! ๐Ÿ’บ The Strugeon ๐Ÿก Moon is on Tuesday, August 18. The darkest hour is at 1:02 am, followed by dawn at 5:19 am, and sun starting to rise at 5:51 am in the east-northeast (65ยฐ) and last for 3 minutes and 11 seconds. Sunrise is one minute and 3 seconds later than yesterday. ๐ŸŒ„ The golden hour ends at 6:30 am with sun in the east-northeast (72ยฐ). Tonight will have 9 hours and 38 minutes of darkness, an increase of 2 minutes and 16 seconds over last night.

Tomorrow will have tropical storm conditions possible. ๐ŸŒ€ Showers before 3pm, then rain and possibly a thunderstorm after 3pm. Some of the storms could produce heavy rainfall. โ›ˆ๏ธ High of 74 degrees at 2pm. Eight degrees below normal, which is similar to a typical day around September 11th. Maximum dew point of 69 at 12pm. ๐Ÿ–๏ธ Chance of precipitation is 90%. New rainfall amounts between 1 and 2 inches possible. ๐Ÿ’ฆ A year ago, we had mostly sunny skies in the morning with a few breaks of sun the afternoon. It was humid. The high last year was 84 degrees. The record high of 98 was set in 1955.

Tomorrow I have to get up bright and early to drop my truck off for a oil change. ๐Ÿ”งCan’t imagine it will take long as usually even when I do it’s fairly quick with me struggling to get off the filter. ๐Ÿ›ข I think I’m sticking with smaller projects now, oil changes are fine to do yourself but it’s a pain living in the suburb. I should get to bed ๐Ÿ› soon as I need to get up early for that tomorrow. ๐Ÿ˜ด

In four weeks on August 31 the sun will be setting in the west-northwest (282ยฐ) at 7:31 pm,๐ŸŒ„ which is 41 minutes and 56 seconds earlier then tonight. In 2019 on that day, we had partly cloudy and temperatures between 76 and 54 degrees. Typically, you have temperatures between 78 and 57 degrees. The record high of 93 degrees was set back in 1953.

I do feel guilty about buying a new phone ๐Ÿ“ฑ but the old one really wasn’t charging properly and was about to bite the dust. ๐Ÿคณ I guess things don’t last forever and these inexpensive things phone are pretty disposable. ๐Ÿ—‘ That said it was a better phone than many of the Tracphones I’ve owned over the years. $65 really isn’t that much when I spend often that much to gas up my truck โ›ฝ especially before the Coronavirus crisis.

Looking ahead, Election Day 2020 ๐Ÿ—ณ๏ธ is in 3 months.

Powerlines

First new blog posts using my new phone! ๐Ÿ“ฑ

First new blog posts using my new phone! ๐Ÿ“ฑ

So far I’m pretty happy with my new phone. It was $60 plus tax and ten for the protective case and it’s much nicer than my old phone which wasn’t charging properly anymore. As much as I hate to throw away something that still works, the truth is my old phone wasn’t charging ๐Ÿ”Œ properly and that was going to cause problems with work if my phone was dead when I needed to get client calls.

NPR

Falling Revenue From COVID-19 Has Put State Budgets In Peril : NPR

The COVID-19 pandemic could swipe roughly $200 billion from state coffers by June of next year, according to an analysis by the Urban Institute's State and Local Finance Initiative.

Record-high unemployment has wreaked havoc on personal income taxes and sales taxes, two of the biggest sources of revenue for states. Hawaii's and Nevada's tourism industries have crashed, and states like Alaska, Oklahoma and Wyoming have been hit by the collapse of oil markets. From March through May of this year, 34 states experienced at least a 20% drop in revenue compared with the same period last year, according to data provided to NPR by the State and Local Finance Initiative.