Al's Morning Meeting

RELATED RESOURCES

Like Al's ideas? Hear more in our broadcast and online seminars. Get Al's Morning Meeting updates as an RSS feed: * Copy this link and add it to your feed reader Sign up to receive Al's Morning Meeting by e-mail: * Click here (sent Monday-Friday at 7 a.m.) Buy Al's book, "Aim for the Heart," here, and Poynter receives a small cut as an Amazon affiliate.

A random sampling of the 2008 federal budget requests submitted by the various military branches for 13 other BRAC decisions shows a more than $1.8 billion increase in the one-time cost estimates of closing or realigning installations.

Those increases range from $16 million in the cost to realign March Air Reserve Base, Calif., to a $776 million hike in the cost of realigning Fort Knox, Ky., and Fort McCoy, Wis.

From least to most expensive, the cost increases are:

• $16 million to realign March Air Reserve Base from $5.2 million to $21.1 million.

• $18 million to close Navy Supply Corps School in Athens, Ga., from $23.8 million to $41.9 million.

• $21 million to realign Bradley International Airport Air Guard Station, Conn.; Barnes Air Guard Station, Mass.; Selfridge Air National Guard Base, Mich.; Shaw Air Force Base, S.C., and Martin State Air Guard Base, Md., from $14.3 million to $35.4 million.

• $24 million to realign Naval Station Newport, R.I., from $11.8 million to $35.5 million.

• $31 million to close Naval Weapons Station Seal Beach, Calif., from $14 million to $45 million.

• $40.4 million to realign Otis Air National Guard Base, Mass.; Lambert-St. Louis International Airport Air Guard Station, Mo., and Atlantic City Air Guard Station, N.J., from $53.7 million to $94.1 million.

• $40.3 million to realign Grand Forks Air Force Base, N.D., from $104.2 million to $144.5 million.
  
  
• $53 million to close Naval Air Station Brunswick, Maine, from $193.1 million to $246 million.
  
  
• $93.6 million to close Fort Gillem, Ga., from $56.8 million to $150.4 million.
  
  
• $186 million to realign Fort Hood, Texas, from $436 million to $621.7 million.
  
  
• $208.6 million to close Fort Monroe, Va., from $72.4 million to $281 million.
  

• $267 million to close Brooks City Base, Texas, from $325.3 million to $592.3 million.
  
  
• $726.9 million to realign Fort Knox, Ky., and Fort McCoy, Wis., from $773.1 million to $1.5 billion.

Bill Allows Governors to Lower Flags on Federal Buildings

A bill on the way to the White House would give state governors limited power to order federal offices to lower flags to half-staff to mark the death of a service member on active duty. The legislation is called the Army Specialist Joseph P. Micks Federal Flag Code Amendment Act. Micks was killed in Iraq on July 8, 2006. When the state of Michigan ordered flags to be lowered for his funeral, some federal officials did not comply.

Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., who is the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said:

On many occasions during the course of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, governors around the country have issued proclamations for state agencies and residents to lower our nation's flag to honor fallen service members from their states. Many federal agencies in those states comply with such proclamations, but some have not. To those mourning the death of a loved one, this inaction can be hurtful and interpreted as indifference to their loss. I know my colleagues will agree that this is certainly not the message our government wants to send to the families of our men and women in uniform.

This legislation would prevent this situation by giving governors the explicit authority to order our nation's flag lowered to half-staff when a member of the Armed Forces from their state dies while serving on active duty. It would also require federal agencies in that state to lower their flags consistent with a governor's proclamation.

Read the legislation.

Drought, Watering Rules Hurt Landscaping Companies

The Birmingham (Ala.) News mentioned how water restrictions are killing landscaping companies. The landscapers say that while they use less water than many companies, they are getting whacked harder. I can only imagine that landscapers nationwide are in this crunch. Nearly half of the country is suffering from dry to drought conditions. See the map.

Hertz and Avis are now adding hybrids to their rental fleet.

It started with pie tins called "Pluto Platters." They were invented by Walter Morrison and named such because of American interest in UFOs at the time. In 1955, Richard Knerr and Arthur Melin, owners of the new 'Wham-O' toy company, purchased the rights to the design January 1957 and renamed it the Frisbee. See the Associated Press story.

Almost four in 10 officers questioned say they have trouble sleeping, according to a new study.

The only thing that is surprising to this may be that other studies show even more civilians have trouble sleeping. The National Sleep Foundation said 60 percent of American women have trouble sleeping, and another study said 45 percent of teens don't get enough sleep. A recent study also found a link between sleep problems and bullies.

By the way, we all should ask more questions about statistics and studies. Here is a site that questions numbers and studies.

Al's Morning Multimedia: Making It Easy

I wish more Web sites would make it as easy as WBZ News Radio in Boston does to listen to stories or download them. Look at the station's front page. The audio stories are stacked easily on the left side, and you have three easy buttons: listen, download or add to your RSS feeds. The feeds run fast and clean. Why don't more radio stations do this?

TV Station Defeats Gag Order

WNCT-TV, a Greenville, N.C., Media General station, fought and won a legal fight over a court gag order. Last summer, the local board of commissioners and county school board were locked in a lawsuit over school funding. When the case went to trial, Superior Court Judge William Griffin Jr. slapped a gag order on all parties from talking to the media until the case went to the jury. Never mind that this is about the future of county schools and that it involves taxpayer dollars. Never mind that Media General appealed the gag order but the judge just sat on the appeal until the trial was over.

Once the case went to the jury, the judge lifted the gag order. Fat lot of good that did -- the case was over. WNCT decided not to let the matter drop. Yesterday, nearly a year after the judge gagged the case, the Court of Appeals said, in effect, he shouldn't have.

Over the last several years, many journalism executives, print and broadcast, have told me how difficult it is these days to get corporate backing to take on a legal fight like this, especially when the decision has more to do with principle and precedent than anything else. I wish journalism organizations would pick more legal fights on behalf of the public. I interviewed WNCT News Director Melissa Preas by e-mail.

Al: Why did you press forward with an expensive appeal in this case even though the trial was over? 

Preas: Despite the trial being over, we decided to move forward with the appeal because we really felt this was wrong on every level. Particularly when dealing with two public entities fighting over PUBLIC money. And if we didn't pursue this appeal, then in our opinion that just left the door wide open for it to continue to happen. We felt it was a clear violation of OUR right to bring information to the public ... and we wanted to make sure it would not continue to happen.

Al: Did other journalism organizations join in the fight?

Preas: No other journalism organizations joined in this fight.

Al: How did you talk with station and corporate management about the need to pursue this appeal?

Preas: I approached my general manager, Vickie Jones, first, and I have to say, she was truly outraged ... and pretty quickly after that we coordinated a conference with our attorneys, our V.P. of news, Dan Bradley, and V.P. of stations, Jim Conschafter -- we stated our case and that was that. There was no debate, there was no going back and forth -- it was pretty crystal clear to all parties involved that the judge was out of line ... and everyone kept coming back to the same conclusion -- "What about next time?" This is just not OK ... and this will happen again if we don't react.  

Al: Is it getting more difficult to convince management to engage in a legal fight?

Preas: I can say with complete honesty that I had NO problem convincing management on the station level, and then on the division level, to engage in this legal fight. Everyone from the general manager to our division V.P. of stations was concerned at the clear disregard of our rights to cover this important issue, but more than that -- at our inability to bring important information to the public because of a judge who "just doesn't like the media."

Al: In the end, what do you think your station won?

Preas: I think we gained quite a bit from this. First and very importantly, this sets a precedent in North Carolina. North Carolina laws have not been very good on media issues, and despite that fact, the N.C. Court of Appeals granted us oral arguments, listened to us, and in the end ruled in our favor. I think this will make any judge, particularly in our area, think twice before arbitrarily issuing a gag order because they don't want to deal with the media. I also think it's very important because I really believe that this judge never once considered that we would fight this -- media outlets rarely do. But in the end, it was worth it, and it speaks to our commitment to the role journalism must play in our communities.

Editor's Note: Al's Morning Meeting is a compendium of ideas, edited story excerpts and other materials from a variety of Web sites, as well as original concepts and analysis. When the information comes directly from another source, it will be attributed and a link will be provided whenever possible. The column is fact-checked, but depends on the accuracy and integrity of the original sources cited. Errors and inaccuracies found will be corrected.