Hand-Wringing Optional -

Poynter recently reported that women still constitute only a small percentage of Op-Ed writers in the institutional American media such as newspapers.

This simply underscores the important contributions being made by independent female bloggers.

Angles and Agendas: In a past era, a senior editor might assign a reporter or news columnist to generate a new angle for a story being covered by a dozen other publications.

Today, Agendas have largely replaced Angles. And, looming heavily among those agendas, the Marketing Department has become a dominant influence.

Also weighty among the dynamics in play may be demographic trends in the region or advertising considerations.

Bunko, Babes and Basketball: This void of female news commentators may be why the ongoing Donald Sterling story has seemed to be more of an Elder Abuse and Exploitation story for me than the currently prevailing dogmatic propaganda suggests.

Can You Hear Them Now? South Florida has become the epicenter of cell phone store burglaries lately.

Not coincidentally, pervasive illiteracy in this region has necessitated a widespread dependency on oral communications culture here, making these new smart phones an expedient crutch for many.

Each One Teach One: Speaking of Literacy, word has come to us that Rachel Jeantel has achieved some level of reading and writing skills in English over the past year, having earned her high school diploma or GED with the help of lawyer Rod Vereen.

"When people see Rachel Jeantel now, I want them to say, 'Wow, there was something good that came out of something so tragic,'" Rod Vereen said.

Off The Cuff and Sneakernet: Google's Eric Schmidt has visited Cuba? I thought Americans were not allowed to visit Cuba. Anyway, I don't think the Cuban GeezerComs would buy American technology for internet connectivity even if they could because of their entrenched paranoia.

You're Nicked! When the Policewomen of Broward County cable TV series was originally aired, I wasn't able to catch it, although I don't remember why. Some repeat episodes were recently aired on the OWN channel which I was able to belatedly catch.

The series attracted a lot of criticism from Public Defender Howard Finkelstein, but I don't see anything worthwhile to be gained from criticizing the women; I believe the problem with the situation lies elsewhere.

+ Dodging thunderstorms around here.

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