And, yet, this story is missing on front pages and national newscasts.
The flooding, mudslides and landslides began five days ago. Refugees from Guatemala are trying to escape to Mexico -- thirsty, hungry and without government aid. There are stories of people who are still stuck on mountaintops. Andrew Tyndall, who writes the Tyndall Report, a monitor of weeknight evening network newscasts, tells me that even while the tragedy was unfolding, "On the nightly newscasts last week, CBS and ABC both ran voiceover videotape mentions of Hurricane Stan. NBC did not mention it."
Univision provides the most detailed coverage I could find online. Along with updated information and death tolls, the Spanish-language TV network also includes online video and photo galleries. Univision puts the death tolls in Mexico and Guatemala at 752, with more than 1,400 missing.
Knight Ridder Newspapers is covering the story from Mexico City. The Washington Post made it to the waterlogged village of Escuintla, southwest of Guatemala City.
The New York Times, which also has a reporter on the ground, said:
As rescue workers and relatives of the dead arrived Saturday, villagers handed out native herbs and told the visitors to press the leaves into their noses to fend off the smell of decomposing bodies.
Despite an increasingly prominent concern in the U.S. media about how to best serve a growing Hispanic population in America, what is being reported in American papers is mostly wire-service coverage.
I looked at more than 300 newspaper front pages yesterday. The most prominent coverage I found in the country came from The Beaver County Times in Beaver, Pa. The paper ran a front-page headline and brief and a B-1 jump.
The only other papers I found that featured front-page coverage of the Central American landslides and floods were the Los Angeles Times and The (Memphis, Tenn.) Commercial Appeal. Al Día (Dallas) included a small photo and inside coverage.
The San Jose Mercury News, The Miami Herald, Hoy, The Lancaster, Pa. Intellegencer Journal, The Dallas Morning News, Rockford (Ill.) Register Star and Rumbo (del Valle, de Houston, de San Antonio and de Austin, Texas) included a front-page brief -- and some had inside coverage. CNN has a correspondent in the area. The network's Latin America correspondent, Harris Whitbeck, filed from the city of Panabaj, which may be declared a cemetery.
El Heraldo and La Prensa (Honduras) estimate 3,000 people may have died in Guatemala.
Univision reports that Mexico accepted 15 tons of food and medicines from Cuba. Channel 3 in Guatemala City reports that France is sending 3.4 tons of medical supplies on a military cargo plane and the Germans say money is on the way.
What is the U.S. sending? The United States Embassy in Guatemala says:
To date, USAID has delivered more than $200,000 ... in relief supplies to Guatemala, including funding for the helicopter transport of emergency relief supplies and for the purchase of food, water and other supplies. Fuel has been purchased for the Guatemalan air bridge to deliver emergency supplies. USAID has flown in 5,000 blankets, plastic tarpaulins to provide temporary shelter for 1,000 families and 5,000 personal-hygiene kits containing blankets, soap and other toiletries. In addition, U.S. Southern Command has delivered eight helicopters -- six UH-60 Blackhawk helicopters and two CH-47 Chinook helicopters -- to assist Guatemala in search and rescue operations in priority areas.
To date, USAID has delivered more than $200,000 ... in relief supplies to Guatemala, including funding for the helicopter transport of emergency relief supplies and for the purchase of food, water and other supplies. Fuel has been purchased for the Guatemalan air bridge to deliver emergency supplies. USAID has flown in 5,000 blankets, plastic tarpaulins to provide temporary shelter for 1,000 families and 5,000 personal-hygiene kits containing blankets, soap and other toiletries.
In addition, U.S. Southern Command has delivered eight helicopters -- six UH-60 Blackhawk helicopters and two CH-47 Chinook helicopters -- to assist Guatemala in search and rescue operations in priority areas.
The U.S. Southern Command is moving 58 people up from Honduras to help out.
Veronica Villafañe, president of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists, told me she considered the lack of coverage by U.S. media to be "appalling." She dropped a note to Al's Morning Meeting readers:
The loss of life due to catastrophic events is a tragedy no matter where it takes place. It usually prompts news coverage and immediate help, as was the case after the tsunami hit Southeast Asia, hurricane Katrina ravaged the Gulf Coast and just this past weekend, an earthquake leveled parts of Pakistan. But what seems appalling is that the destruction of hurricane Stan in Central America has been virtually ignored by the U.S. media.
Go to the NAHJ Web site for more from Veronica where she writes:
NAHJ performed a search of 22 major daily newspapers from Oct. 7-10 using the Lexis-Nexis database and found that a total of 10 stories ran about the tragedy and only one newspaper, The Washington Post, placed a story about the disaster on its front page. In addition, the network evening news only devoted a total of four stories to the Guatemalan mudslides from Oct. 7-9, although three were only mere mentions of less than 50 words.
From Las Vegas to New Hampshire to Columbia, S.C., I have seen stories about Americans who are rushing to file for bankruptcy before federal rules change and make it more difficult to do so. On Oct. 17 -- next Monday -- everything changes.
The (Manchester, N.H.) Union Leader reports:
With the end near, a rush is on. Local attorneys find themselves swamped with last-minute bankruptcy filings, and some are turning away clients because they just can't handle them all. The U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Manchester reports bankruptcy filings are up 21 percent this year. Just in the month of September, the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Manchester received 723 filings, compared to 397 in September 2004. "It's off the wall. We're actually turning people away. We just can't get the paperwork out," said Andrew J. Schultz, who stopped taking cases two weeks ago. His advice to debtors? "You should have filed three months ago." Chapter 7 bankruptcies allow the debtor to discharge, or wipe out, all debts and start with a clean slate. After Oct. 17, many debtors will no longer qualify to file Chapter 7 and will be required to file a Chapter 13 bankruptcy. This means they'll have to comply with court-imposed plans for paying back debts. The new law calls for means tests, based on the median income in New Hampshire, to determine who qualifies for Chapter 7s and who doesn't. Figures provided by the bankruptcy court put New Hampshire's mean income at $50,411 for one-earner, $57,784 for two-earner families and $68,360 for three-earners. The law requires debtors to undergo credit counseling through a company certified by the bankruptcy court.
With the end near, a rush is on. Local attorneys find themselves swamped with last-minute bankruptcy filings, and some are turning away clients because they just can't handle them all.
The U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Manchester reports bankruptcy filings are up 21 percent this year. Just in the month of September, the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Manchester received 723 filings, compared to 397 in September 2004.
"It's off the wall. We're actually turning people away. We just can't get the paperwork out," said Andrew J. Schultz, who stopped taking cases two weeks ago.
His advice to debtors? "You should have filed three months ago."
Chapter 7 bankruptcies allow the debtor to discharge, or wipe out, all debts and start with a clean slate.
After Oct. 17, many debtors will no longer qualify to file Chapter 7 and will be required to file a Chapter 13 bankruptcy. This means they'll have to comply with court-imposed plans for paying back debts.
The new law calls for means tests, based on the median income in New Hampshire, to determine who qualifies for Chapter 7s and who doesn't. Figures provided by the bankruptcy court put New Hampshire's mean income at $50,411 for one-earner, $57,784 for two-earner families and $68,360 for three-earners.
The law requires debtors to undergo credit counseling through a company certified by the bankruptcy court.
The Las Vegas Sun reports:
[C]ourts nationwide have been swamped with people teetering on the brink of financial ruin rushing to meet the deadline. "That (law) definitely put us over the edge," said Jim, who spoke on the condition his last name not be disclosed. "The credit card companies are drooling, just waiting for this law to change, and they're not willing to work out any payment plans that everyone can live with." Jim's is just one of the faces in Las Vegas' bustling bankruptcy courts. In a city to which many people flock for a fresh start, federal bankruptcy court in Las Vegas has always been a busy place. But rarely has it been busier than the last few months. Filings in the second quarter of this year rose to 5,048 in Nevada bankruptcy courts, up from 3,431 in the first quarter -- in a state that already has one of the highest bankruptcy filing rates in the nation. The numbers reflect a national trend. Americans filed 467,333 bankruptcies in the second quarter -- a record that experts attribute to the new law. And the increases are likely to continue, experts say. "I'm going gangbusters," said Las Vegas bankruptcy attorney Benjamin Childs, Jim's lawyer. "I usually have about five a month, and now I'm filing more like five a week.
[C]ourts nationwide have been swamped with people teetering on the brink of financial ruin rushing to meet the deadline.
"That (law) definitely put us over the edge," said Jim, who spoke on the condition his last name not be disclosed.
"The credit card companies are drooling, just waiting for this law to change, and they're not willing to work out any payment plans that everyone can live with."
Jim's is just one of the faces in Las Vegas' bustling bankruptcy courts.
In a city to which many people flock for a fresh start, federal bankruptcy court in Las Vegas has always been a busy place. But rarely has it been busier than the last few months.
Filings in the second quarter of this year rose to 5,048 in Nevada bankruptcy courts, up from 3,431 in the first quarter -- in a state that already has one of the highest bankruptcy filing rates in the nation.
The numbers reflect a national trend.
Americans filed 467,333 bankruptcies in the second quarter -- a record that experts attribute to the new law. And the increases are likely to continue, experts say.
"I'm going gangbusters," said Las Vegas bankruptcy attorney Benjamin Childs, Jim's lawyer. "I usually have about five a month, and now I'm filing more like five a week.
The State in Columbia, S.C. reports:
On Friday, Columbia attorney Jason Moss said about 20 bankruptcy clients were sitting in his waiting room. Moss and Associates' Greenville office already had stopped taking bankruptcy clients, and its Columbia office was close to that, too, he said. Jane Downey, another Columbia bankruptcy attorney, said her office saw twice as many clients in September as it does in a normal month. "I'm getting calls from people asking, 'Are you still taking bankruptcy cases?'" Downey said. "I'm just about maxed out, too."
On Friday, Columbia attorney Jason Moss said about 20 bankruptcy clients were sitting in his waiting room. Moss and Associates' Greenville office already had stopped taking bankruptcy clients, and its Columbia office was close to that, too, he said.
Jane Downey, another Columbia bankruptcy attorney, said her office saw twice as many clients in September as it does in a normal month.
"I'm getting calls from people asking, 'Are you still taking bankruptcy cases?'" Downey said. "I'm just about maxed out, too."
As Need for Hurricane Research Grows, Feds Deny Funding
The Miami Herald investigates how cuts in research hurt hurricane forecasting. The story says:
While the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has been warning the nation about the rise in dangerous hurricanes, the agency has denied requests from its hurricane researchers for more scientists, modern equipment and backing for breakthrough projects, a Herald investigation found. Since 1995, NOAA's Hurricane Research Division lost 11 scientists and has replaced just four, leaving 31 people and a base budget that hasn't topped $3.5 million in more than two decades. A former director and two senior researchers say they've pleaded for 10 years for an increase of at least 50 percent, but NOAA has granted only incremental bumps that barely kept pace with inflation -- or no increases at all. '"Our requests were dead on arrival,'' said former Hurricane Research Division Director Hugh Willoughby, who quit the post in 2002 after seven years of denials. "Basically, it was a fool's errand."
While the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has been warning the nation about the rise in dangerous hurricanes, the agency has denied requests from its hurricane researchers for more scientists, modern equipment and backing for breakthrough projects, a Herald investigation found.
Since 1995, NOAA's Hurricane Research Division lost 11 scientists and has replaced just four, leaving 31 people and a base budget that hasn't topped $3.5 million in more than two decades.
A former director and two senior researchers say they've pleaded for 10 years for an increase of at least 50 percent, but NOAA has granted only incremental bumps that barely kept pace with inflation -- or no increases at all.
'"Our requests were dead on arrival,'' said former Hurricane Research Division Director Hugh Willoughby, who quit the post in 2002 after seven years of denials. "Basically, it was a fool's errand."
We Only Have Wilma LeftThe U.S. National Hurricane Center has named a storm churning way out in the Atlantic "Vince." It is not expected to cause any problems on land. But Vince is the next-to-last name left in this year's hurricane name list. After Wilma, we will start using the Greek alphabet.
No Blankets or Bears in the Crib?
The Detroit Free Press reports:
Infants should sleep alone in their own cribs or approved beds in the first year of life, without blankets and stuffed animals, according to new national guidelines likely to have an impact on millions of U.S. households and child care providers. The guidelines, released yesterday by an American Academy of Pediatrics task force, are an attempt to reduce hundreds of preventable deaths of infants in adult beds and other unsafe sleep environments. The guidelines will impact generations of future caregivers, as well as gift-givers at baby showers. The better gift now is a portable mesh crib or a sleeper or sleep sack, not a stuffed animal or blanket and never the crib bumpers that have been associated with infant deaths.
Infants should sleep alone in their own cribs or approved beds in the first year of life, without blankets and stuffed animals, according to new national guidelines likely to have an impact on millions of U.S. households and child care providers.
The guidelines, released yesterday by an American Academy of Pediatrics task force, are an attempt to reduce hundreds of preventable deaths of infants in adult beds and other unsafe sleep environments.
The guidelines will impact generations of future caregivers, as well as gift-givers at baby showers. The better gift now is a portable mesh crib or a sleeper or sleep sack, not a stuffed animal or blanket and never the crib bumpers that have been associated with infant deaths.
Iraq Vets Running for Congress
As has happened after previous wars, a generation of Iraq vets are running for political office. A report from Cox Newspapers' Washington bureau points out that several Iraq War vets are running for Congress:
[A]t least eight Iraq war veterans are running in states as disparate as Pennsylvania, Maryland, Texas and North Carolina. While most are Democrats who oppose either President Bush's decision to go to war or the administration's policies in Iraq, a couple are Republicans running with a full-throated defense of the war.
Sex in the Service
The Salt Lake Tribune published a story -- with a dateline from Taqaddum, Iraq -- that says:
[W]ith limited exceptions in other conflicts, there has never been a time in which American men and women have served, side by side and in such numbers, in units engaged in combat. And troops here appear to be making the best of that situation. We are always looking for your great ideas. Send Al a few sentences and hot links. 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.
[W]ith limited exceptions in other conflicts, there has never been a time in which American men and women have served, side by side and in such numbers, in units engaged in combat.
And troops here appear to be making the best of that situation.
We are always looking for your great ideas. Send Al a few sentences and hot links.
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.
