WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 17, 2007
Wednesday Edition: Oil Prices Falling -- Will Surcharges Disappear?
This morning,
oil prices will open at their lowest levels in more than a year and a half.
What's more, the Saudis say they are not about to cut production, so there is every reason to believe oil prices will stabilize or even drop further.
Now, the question is: When will those who tacked on surcharges to everything from airline tickets to taxis, limos, rail and truck transportation cut those surcharges? Will the taxi commissions that allowed the surcharges now demand they be removed?
Some international airlines, such as British Airways and Qantas, have dropped part of their fuel surcharges.
I think everyone understands why some companies had to add the surcharges when gasoline prices spiked after Hurricane Katrina. But fair is fair. If oil prices fall, I would hate to see the surcharges get folded quietly into the profit.
Some Citrus Prices May Double Soon
The Associated Press reported last night that the prices of oranges, lemons, avocados and other produce may double or triple in the coming weeks. Cold weather seriously damaged California crops this week. The story says:
"We may adjust the prices as we discover the full extent of the damage next week, but for now, if you bought an orange at the supermarket for 50 cents, expect to pay a dollar to $1.49 for it," said Todd Steel, owner of
Royal Vista Marketing, which sells California citrus to markets throughout the country.
The San Jose (Calif.) Mercury News reports:
Although it is too early to put a price tag on total damages, several hundred million dollars of the state's $1.3 billion annual citrus crop is thought to be frozen, said Joel Nelsen, president of California Citrus Mutual in Exeter, a trade association representing 2,000 growers.
Hardest hit are the big, seedless navel oranges, ripe and ready for picking. Only one-quarter of the crop was harvested before the freeze. An estimated 92 million cartons of navel oranges valued at $1 billion are still on the trees, Nelsen said. By some estimates, as much as half the crop would be lost.
Smaller Valencia oranges, which mature later in the season, are also damaged.
The effect on grocery shelves will not be fully felt for another two weeks; stores' current inventory was picked and shipped before the frost. And it takes time to assess what portion of this year's crop has been frozen, creating rot, dry pulp and bitterness. Because California is the nation's leading producer of fresh oranges, prices are likely to go sky-high, even with an increase in imports.
Al's Morning Multimedia
I will be sharing an online multimedia example every day. Think of it as breakfast for your brain.
I think we get so hung up on high production that we forget how powerful "talking heads" can be, if they are saying something compelling.
Look at this riveting example passed along to me my by my colleague Meg Martin.
It was produced in 2005 for Reel Works Teen Filmmaking by a high school student named Kiri Davis. It is seven and a half minutes of young African-American girls talking very frankly about their own impressions of race and beauty. It's called "A Girl Like Me."
At about four minutes into the piece, Davis conducts a test, a reconstruction of one created in 1954 by a psychologist named Kenneth Clark. She sets two dolls in front of an African-American child; one is white, the other black. Of the 21 children Davis tested, 15 of them favored the white doll.
The film has been viewed thousands of times on YouTube and has gotten a lot of media attention.
Read more about it here:
Media Matters Film Festival
KOMO-TV in Seattle
"Good Morning America"
National Public Radio
More Women Live Unmarried Life
The New York Times reports that, "for what experts say is probably the first time, more American women are living without a husband than with one." A New York Times analysis of U.S. Census Bureau data found that 51 percent of American women are unmarried. The increase can be attributed, in part, to women choosing to delay marriage; also, widows are living longer today than they used to.
The Times story says:
In 2005, 51 percent of women said they were living without a spouse, up from 35 percent in 1950 and 49 percent in 2000.
Coupled with the fact that in 2005, married couples became a minority of all American households for the first time, the trend could ultimately shape a range of social and workplace policies, including the ways government and employers distribute benefits.
Several factors are driving the statistical shift. At one end of the age spectrum, women are marrying later or living with unmarried partners more often and for longer periods of time. At the other end, women are living longer as widows and, after a divorce, are more likely than men to delay remarriage, sometimes delighting in their newfound freedom.
In addition, marriage rates among black women remain low. Only about 30 percent of black women are living with a spouse, according to the Census Bureau, compared to about 49 percent of Latino women, 55 percent of non-Latino white women and more than 60 percent of Asian women.
In a relatively small number of cases, the living arrangement is temporary, because the husbands are working out of town, are in the military or are institutionalized. But while most women eventually marry, the larger trend is unmistakable.
"This is yet another of the inexorable signs that there is no going back to a world where we can assume that marriage is the main institution that organizes people's lives," said Professor Stephanie Coontz, director of public education for the Council on Contemporary Families, a nonprofit research group.
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. The column is fact-checked, but depends upon the accuracy and integrity of the original sources cited. Errors and inaccuracies found will be corrected.
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