THESE TIMES

Interesting items written for newspapers

Kirk Ericson | Jul 20, 20230

WE’RE NO. 51! In 2022, the number of (police) officers decreased by 70 to around 10,600 officers in Washington. The 4.4% drop brought the staffing rate to 1.35 officers per 1,000 people, putting Washington at the 51st lowest rate among all U.S. states and Washington, D.C., for the 13th year in a row, according to Steven Strachan, with the Washington Association of Sheriffs and Police Chiefs. Nationally, the rate is around 2.31 officers per 1,000 people. — The Seattle Times, July 10, 2023

ATTEMPTS TO REACH: The vessel named Titan, on an eight-day expedition to view the wreckage of the Titanic, was reported overdue Sunday in a remote area of the Atlantic Ocean 900 miles east of Cape Cod, Mass., the U.S. Coast Guard said Monday. … OceanGate was founded in 2009 by Seattle resident Stockton Rush, who is the company’s CEO and founder of OceanGate Foundation, a marine technology nonprofit organization. Attempts to reach Rush on Monday weren’t successful. — The Seattle Times, June 19, 2023

WHEN YOUR NAME IS DESTINY: Judge John Judge of Idaho’s 2nd Judicial District Court in Latah County, who is overseeing the case, scheduled a June 27 hearing to decide what the defense will be allowed to review — and also what it might not. — The Idaho Statesman, June 18, 2023

SEEMS A BIT SEVERE: Headline in The Washington Post, April 14, 2023: Democrats call for probe of Clarence Thomas amid reports of real estate deals with GOP donor — The Washington Post, April 14, 2023

MUSHROOM HUMOR: Headline in The Seattle Times, April 1, 2023: Psychedelic therapy bill may survive session in altered state

A TOUGH ERA FOR OWLS: From Mary Theler’s diary, Aug. 29, 1940: “Charlie found an owl on the road and knocked it down and brought it to the store and when they came out to look at it, the thing came out of the stupor it was in and so they had it in a box for a day and then Emmett killed it and sent it to be mounted.” — Shelton-Mason County Journal, Sept. 6, 2018

HOW COULD THIS HAPPEN IN AMERICA? APNewsAlert HONOLULU — Hawaii awards eight licenses for medical marijuana dispensaries, but not to actor Woody Harrelson. — The Associated Press, April 29, 2016

A PAID OBIT FOR A JEWISH REDNECK: A plus-sized Jewish lady redneck died in El Paso on Saturday. Of itself hardly news, or good news if you’re the type that subscribes to the notion that anybody not named you dying in El Paso, Texas is good news. In which case have I got news for you: the bawdy, fertile, redheaded matriarch of a sprawling Jewish-Mexican-Redneck American family has kicked it. This was not good news to Renay Mandel Corren’s many surviving children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren, many of whom she even knew and, in her own way, loved. There will be much mourning in the many glamorous locales she went bankrupt in: McKeesport, PA, Renay’s birthplace and where she first fell in love with ham, and atheism; Fayetteville and Kill Devil Hills, NC, where Renay’s dreams, credit rating and marriage are all buried; and of course Miami, FL, where Renay’s parents, uncles, aunts, and eternal hopes of all Miami Dolphins fans everywhere, are all buried pretty deep. Renay was preceded in death by Don Shula. … — The Fayetteville Observer, Dec. 15, 2021

THEY SHOULD HAVE FRIED THEM: Headline in The Olympian, July 10, 2003: Senate panel grills Franks, Rumsfeld