I hope you will take a few minutes to check out some conversations I had with three of my favorite journalists, NBC's Martin Fletcher, CBS's Byron Pitts and Susan Taylor Martin from the
St. Petersburg (Fla.)
Times. All three have worked extensively in extremely dangerous parts of the globe. I wanted to know why they do it.
As you read these interviews, remind yourself that, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists, there were 47 journalists murdered in 2005. CPJ says that, as of Dec. 13, 2005, 125 editors, writers and photojournalists were imprisoned around the world.
Cities Crack Down on Tree-Cutting
The New York Times reported that cities nationwide are getting tough on people who cut down mature
trees. What is the state of your town's arbor laws -- and how strictly are they
enforced? Has anybody been fined? The Times said:
Once a
cause for genteel women's clubs bent on beautification, the new
get-tough stance on trees is largely a result of real estate. A study
of three dozen cities using satellite imagery by the nonprofit group American Forests,
completed two years ago, found that over the past 25 years, cities have
lost up to 30 percent of their tree canopy to development.
San Francisco's tree canopy hovers at a slim 11.9 percent of the city's surface area, compared with New York's 21 percent and Washington's 28.6.
The
loss of the so-called urban forest, said Deborah Gangloff, the group's
executive director, is the result of sprawl, budget cuts and street
widening, among other factors. The average city street tree lives seven
years compared with 60 years in a park and 150 years in a forest, the
group's research shows.
From the American Forests Web site:
Urban Ecosystem Analyses on 30 metropolitan areas around the country
Ruling on Homeowners Insurance Case Ahead
Watch this one. The Advocate of Baton Rouge, La. reports that, within a few months,
we can expect a federal court to rule on a lawsuit that asks whether
standard homeowners insurance should cover the damage caused by flooding to homes in New Orleans.
The implications of the ruling, though, go way beyond the Gulf Coast.
The paper cautioned:
Then again, it could
take years for the issue to make its way to trial and travel through
the appeals process.
But even though homeowners would like a quick
decision so they can decide whether to rebuild, an early ruling would
almost certainly work against them, several legal experts said.
The story continued:
Insurance companies
want a judge to decide the issue strictly on the wording of the
policies they have with homeowners, [Charles McCowan Jr., a Baton Rouge
partner with the Kean Miller law firm, which isn’t involved in the case], said.
"Insurers are trying to make this a strict contract-interpretation case," McCowan said.
Such
a ruling would probably be made without a full trial and be based on a
literal interpretation of the policies. It could be done fairly
quickly, even with appeals, he said.
We've covered the current rules governing flood insurance before in
Al's Morning Meeting. It might be helpful to revisit FEMA's
National Flood Insurance Program Web site, too.
Million-Dollar Homes
This is one of those stories that is probably happening everywhere. The Register-Guard in Eugene, Ore. ran a story about the many million-dollar homes that are on the market in the paper's coverage area. A few years ago
they were a rarity -- now there are 27 in one nearby county.
"You look like a million bucks, baby" once referred to the shapely exteriors of actresses in Hollywood movies. These days, it applies just as well to their wood-and-glass equivalents in the high-end real estate market.
Despite several years of double-digit inflation in local housing
prices, it's a trend that has caught even experienced real estate
agents a bit by surprise.
"I've been selling real estate for 35 years, and this has been a
very interesting change," says Bobbi Overland, with Coldwell Banker
Curtis Irving Realty. "Five years ago, a price over $1 million was such
a rarity -- it hardly ever happened. Then, two or three years ago,
houses in that range started coming on the market, but just once in
awhile."
Now, it's happening a lot more, Overland says. Earlier this month, the Lane County section of the Multiple Listing Service had 27 active listings for homes with seven-figure price tags.
"Most of them range from $1 million to $6 million, and most of them
are in the Eugene-Springfield area," she said. "In the past two years,
13 sales over $1 million have closed, and what's more interesting, 11
of the 13 happened in the past year."
That raises some pithy issues -- such as who's buying and selling
these houses, and what a million-dollar house looks like -- in a place
where most people are scouring the listings for three bedrooms, two
bathrooms and a fenced backyard for the kids' swing set and the
Labrador retriever.
The story added:
Some houses carry million-dollar price tags because they come with a
lot of land, but records from the Lane County Department of Assessment
& Taxation include about 60 homes on parcels of [fewer than] than 5 acres.
They're sprinkled throughout the county, with clusters up the McKenzie River Valley near Vida, Eugene south of East 30th Avenue, near the Coburg Hills in northeast Eugene, and Florence.
Oil Profits
Exxon-Mobil Corp. (XOM) estimated yesterday that its fourth-quarter net income hit $10.71 billion,
or $1.71 a share, compared with $8.42 billion, or $1.30 a share, earned
a year ago.
At that rate, Exxon's revenue exceeds the gross domestic product of many countries. In fact, if Exxon were a country, it would rank among the top 140 nations in the world in GDP/purchasing power parity.
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.
