Al's Morning Meeting

One of my colleagues showed me a camera she bought for one of her family members for Christmas. It got me to thinking that your TV station/newspaper/website should do a piece on how to take better pictures this Christmas.

You could deliver us from bad photos and shaky video this year. What makes great lighting, framing, group shots?

Is there really a difference in the quality of the film labs? Should I pay more for the new Kodak enhanced developing or is the one-hour service just as good?

What should the public know about using digital cameras, choosing mega pixels and such? You have experts on staff. Use them, feature them, raise their profile.

The advice story would be great to do before Christmas, then after Christmas, your photojournalists could conduct public seminars on "how to use that new camera you got for Christmas." What a nice way to get these hard-working pros some glory!

At the public seminars/workshops, hand out business cards reminding people with cameras to alert you when/if they photograph something that could be newsworthy. You might also make it easier for people to send you pictures via the web when snow/hurricanes/airplanes hit.

Al's Morning Meeting reader David Schechter at WCCO-TV in Minneapolis says last May, his station looked at the issue of cars backing over children that I mentioned Monday. He says the station set up a sort of demonstration that showed how drivers easily miss seeing kids behind their cars. David writes that they distracted volunteer drivers "by having them fill out a questionnaire. While they were doing that, we put a 3-foot tall cone 8 feet behind their car. Then we asked them to back out on to the street. All of them plowed over the cone." Here is a link to the station's online story.

In 2002, 58 children were backed over and killed when the driver of the vehicle was unable to see them as they backed up the vehicles, often in their own driveways. An unprecedented number of backover deaths have been documented this year — at least 61.

Some experts are saying that one of the contributing factors is bigger and higher car, SUV and van designs.

Lots of Al's Morning Meeting readers ask me how I find stories every day. There is no single answer, but one answer I give is to look at your own life -- there are lots of stories around you if you are open to them. My mailbox, for example, is overflowing with stories.

An 11-document lot from the Sierra Club.

Not long ago I suggested you take a look inside a senior citizen's mailbox to see what liars and scam artists are sending them mail. Trust me, you will not be disappointed.

In my own mailbox, I find lots of juicy stories.

The Sierra Club, I notice, sent me a mailing last week. Inside of the envelope from this environmental group are no less than 11 — count them — 11 pieces of paper. Aren't environmental groups supposed to tell us to save resources?

• One is a four-page (front and back on two pieces of paper) letter from Executive Director Carl Pope telling me I should send a petition to President Bush about my deep concern over losing fish and wildlife. The letter says it is "printed with soy-based ink on recycled paper."
• The next page is about endangered species.
• There is a color photograph of some baby Florida panthers on the third handout.
• Then there is the cardboard stock page with my Sierra club membership card and petitions I can tear off and mail to the president.
• On the sixth piece of paper is an offer for a free gift if I join the Club.
• Item seven is a sticker for my car.
• Item eight is a sticker calendar for my desktop.
• Item nine is a paper telling me to hurry up and send in some money.
• Item 10 is a page telling me the Sierra Club is "America's Most Effective Environmental Organization."
• Item 11 is an envelope to send them my money (I grant that as legit).

Am I the only one who is noticing how many pages these groups are including in each mailing?

A gift certificate for you ... to give the Salvation Army.

Even the Carter Center, which I admire, has started stuffing a lot of paper in its mailings. They sent a four-page letter (two pieces of paper) plus a Christmas card, a paper to send in with your donation, and a little extra plea from Rosalynn Carter. (Disclosure: I sometimes send them a little bit of money because I like their work, but is all of this paper necessary?)

The Covenant House in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., sent a guardian angel pin, which might just be a nice gesture, but kind of makes me feel guilty if I don't send something in return. I suspect it is an especially effective technique with senior citizens. You can read Covenant House's financials here. They took in $58 million last year, took care of a lot of homeless and underserved people in several countries, spent a million bucks lobbying, and hired a quarter-of-a-million-dollar-a-year telemarketer. I do wish more charities and nonprofits did what this group does — put its I-990s right on its website. Good for them. The pin giveaway, I think, kind of makes their exceptional street work look less so.

A dove pin from the Paralyzed Veterans of America.

The Paralyzed Veterans of America, another mailer of unwanted junk that they use to raise money, sent a green gift box to my home stuffed with four pages of paper and a pin with a dove on it. The PVA took in $80 million dollars last year. They told the IRS they spent $49 million (61 percent of their income) on mailings such as my new dove pin made of the "finest ivory porcelain embellished with 24 karat gold."  They also sent me a follow-up letter yesterday asking for a little extra donation here at the end of the year. The letter reminds me:

Your donation to PVA is more than a donation -- it's your way of paying homage and respect to something very unique about America. It's so important in these troubling times, when America's enemies seek to do us harm, to stand up and be counted. And that's what your gift will do. It will be a shining symbol of your special patriotism, your belief in honor, and your commitment to American duty and sacrifice.

The Salvation Army (which I support) sent a note saying there was a "Christmas Gift Certificate Enclosed." Open it and you will find the gift certificate is not a gift certificate for you, it is something for you to fill out and send them a cash gift. I was surprised the Salvation Army would resort to trickery. 

Seven cents from the Christian Appalachian Project.

The Christian Appalachian Project has a new way to cut through the junk mail clutter. They mailed me cash -- a letter with a shiny nickel and two new pennies attached to it. The point they were trying to make is that they only need seven cents to provide life-saving medicine to the people they are serving. The group told the IRS that it took in $76 million in 2002. The group reports that 16 percent of its income goes for administrative costs. And I read their tax return — it appears that they serve a heck of a lot of needy folks in some tough parts of our country. I wish they had kept their seven cents. It would cost me 37 cents to mail it back to them.

Banned Doctors Still In Business

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Hundreds of doctors in the United States got their degrees from medical schools whose graduates are banned in several states because of questionable educational standards, The Hartford Courant reported Sunday:

Inconsistent licensing rules among states allow nearly 900 doctors to pursue careers after graduating offshore medical schools that have not been accredited in the United States, the newspaper reported as part of a series examining problems in medical education and practices.

Graduates of Spartan Health Sciences University on the Caribbean island of St. Lucia and two schools in the Dominican Republic -- the Universidad Tecnologica de Santiago and the Universidad Eugenio Maria de Hostos -- are banned in at least six states.

Graduates of the University of Health Sciences in Antigua, another Caribbean island, are banned in four states.

Only a few of 1,642 medical schools outside the United States and listed by the World Health Organization have been banned by a U.S. medical board.

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Editor's Note: Al's Morning Meeting is a compendium of ideas, story excerpts, and other materials from a variety of websites, 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.