Christmas music comes early to radio as K-Mozart goes all-holiday before KOST

• October 26, 2024

In the retail environment, it’s been Christmas at some stores for months. In radio, the season usually begins around the second week of November when KOST (103.5 FM) starts playing all holiday tunes. Occasionally, others will join in the fun.

This year, it’s happening already. K-Mozart (105.1 HD2, 98.3 FM in the San Fernando Valley, online at kmozart.com and via apps) beat all others to the punch as of Friday, Oct. 25th with 24/7 holiday music.

Yes, before Halloween.

The mix includes both modern and traditional favorites; while I wrote this, I heard “Carol of the Bells” performed by David Foster followed by Burl Ives’s version of “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.”

You may be asking, why so early? Owner Saul Levine explained it this way: “We want to get a jump on the competition.” Unstated, but also probably true – it will bring some attention to his station streams. The fact that holiday music seems to get people feeling in a good mood no matter when it is played also helps. I keep wondering when a station will play the format all year long.

Levine told me that his format will run through December 31st.

Station Birthday

As one of the oldest FM stations in town, KUSC (91.5 FM) has quite a history, and it celebrated a birthday just a few weeks ago.

The idea to feature it came from an email I received from reader Michael Morse, who wrote, “I enjoy your column very much. For part of the time that I was a telecommunication major at USC (1958-1962), I was the news director of KUSC and actually was paid a small amount. The station was student-run, on the air four hours a day, using a 3900-watt transmitter built for the 1939 Worlds Fair. The tower was atop the John Hancock building on campus so the range wasn’t far but we had listeners.

“Sadly, as good a station as it is today, it has lost its way, no longer serving its original purpose as being part of the educational experience of the University. Any thoughts?”

Yes. But first a little history.

The license was approved and the first transmitter was purchased by the University of Southern California for the station in 1941. But World War II got in the way … the government wanted the transmitter and requisitioned it away from the station. So oil magnate, USC trustee, and university alumnus Captain George Allan Hancock — who also happened to be a cello player with the Los Angeles Symphony Orchestra — purchased another.

A 250-foot tower was built on top of the Hancock Foundation building on campus, and the station started broadcasting on October 24, 1946. To highlight the new band and recognize the potential sound quality, the station identified itself as “frequency-modulated KUSC radio.”

The transmitter was mono — stereo was still years off — with clear reception available within a roughly 10-mile radius of the campus, according to station archives. I do not know the original format, but it can be assumed that it played popular music of the day along with university-specific information and entertainment. Stan Chambers, later moving to KTLA Channel 5, was an early announcer with KUSC.

In early 1972, graduate student Wally Smith became the station’s general manager. He convinced the powers that be to switch to a classical music format, which debuted on April 2. The move was somewhat controversial internally, with many students opposing the change. Note the word “students” … in 1972, KUSC was still a student-run radio station. Of note: the station’s power was 30,000 watts by this time, vastly increasing its reach.

Depending on your perspective, 1976 was a turning point year. According to the station website at KUSC.org, “The Corporation for Public Broadcasting awarded KUSC a five-year, $750,000 major market expansion grant — the first such grant in the nation. The funds helped attract major audiences to public radio and established a downtown L.A. space for full-time professional announcers, producers and engineers.

“KUSC also signed on in stereo from its new transmitter on Lookout Mountain above Hollywood, expanding its audience potential to 12 million people.”

Did you catch that? “… for full-time professional announcers, producers and engineers.” This was the end of student involvement in the station, and in my opinion, should have caused the loss of the educational license. They are a professional station. In my opinion, no college or university should be able to hold an educational radio broadcast license when they are not operating it for the benefit of students. But I digress.

By 1978, KUSC was the most popular classical music station in the country. Since that time, it has improved technically using satellite transmission and distribution. It broadcast the Olympic Art Festival to the nation in 1984, for example, and started linking stations in order to simulcast its format in 1985, first in Santa Barbara and later in such areas as Palm Springs, Morrow Bay, and San Francisco … a ten-station classical music network.

Today, the station isn’t even on the USC campus, broadcasting instead from a 32-story high-rise in downtown Los Angeles. There is on-campus a student-run station, though, KXSC, broadcasting using a low-power AM transmitter as well as at KXSC.org. I will cover that in a  future column.

Richard Wagoner is a San Pedro freelance columnist covering radio in Southern California. Email [email protected]

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​ Orange County Register 

High school football: Live score updates, highlights from Friday night’s games

• October 26, 2024

Welcome to the Southern California News Group’s high school football score updates for Friday, Oct. 25.

We’ll have updates from throughout the area, including highlights provided by our reporters at the games.

Stay on top of all of the action with our Friday Night Football host, John W. Davis, who will be providing comments and analysis. And make sure you check out his video at the end of the night that wraps up all of the news and highlights from the Week 9 games.

Game of the night

St. John Bosco (8-0, 3-0) vs. Mater Dei (7-0, 3-0) at Santa Ana Stadium, 7 p.m.

The winner will be in sole possession of first place in the Trinity League with one week left in the remaining season.

Tonight’s scoreboard

We’ll be updating the scores from the top games throughout the night:

ORANGE COUNTY

Mater Dei (7-0) vs. St. John Bosco (8-0)

Edison (6-2) vs. Mission Viejo (8-0)

Dana Hills (8-0) vs. Laguna Beach (7-1)

Servite (6-2) vs. Orange Lutheran (6-2)

Brea Olinda (8-0) vs. Segerstrom (6-2)

Anaheim (6-2) vs. Bolsa Grande (4-4)

SAN GABRIEL VALLEY

Bonita (8-0) vs. Charter Oak (7-1)

Santa Fe (6-2) vs. El Rancho (5-3)

Covina (7-1) vs. South Hills (4-4)

Rowland (6-2) vs. Don Lugo (3-5)

Bishop Amat (2-6) vs. Serra (6-2)

DAILY NEWS AREA

Thousand Oaks (5-3) vs. Newbury Park (8-0)

Notre Dame (4-4) vs. Chaminade (1-7)

Royal (2-6) vs. Moorpark (6-2)

Moorpark could clinch second in the Channel League with a win.

El Camino Real (3-5) vs. Cleveland (4-4)

LONG BEACH AREA

Paramount (7-1) vs. Norwalk (7-1)

Millikan (7-2) vs. Compton (3-5)

Long Beach Poly (3-5) vs. Cabrillo (2-6)

INLAND AREA

Norco vs. Centennial

Carter vs. Colton

Murrieta Mesa vs. King

Rowland vs. Don Lugo

Great Oak vs. Temecula Valley

Jurupa Hills vs. Summit

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​ Orange County Register 

Clippers’ Ivica Zubac welcomes added responsibilities

• October 26, 2024

INGLEWOOD — Ivica Zubac knows he has an increased responsibility this season to do more in the post and down low. He needs to score more, grab rebounds and use his 7-foot frame and strength to get the job done.

If the season opener was any indication, Zubac is ready to step up.

The center scored 21 points, had eight rebounds and three assists in the Clippers’ 116-113 overtime loss to the Phoenix Suns on Thursday night, a solid start to a season. But Zubac gets an even bigger test in the second game of the season. Bigger, as in 6-11, 248-pound Nikola Jokic of the Denver Nuggets.

The Clippers face the Nuggets at Denver on Saturday and Zubac again has the task of trying to slow the reigning and three-time league MVP. Jokic had 16 points, 12 rebounds, 13 assists, two steals and one blocked shot while shooting 6 for 13 from the field in the Nuggets’ season opener.

Clippers coach Tyronn Lue said Zubac simply needs to compete, just play and involve his teammates when facing Jokic.

“I like Zu’s physicality and his size,” Lue said. “When you are going against the MVP, it’s not going to be one-on-one. It’s going to be collectively. But we need Zu to be physical, we need him to be big and battle him.

“We know it’s going to be tough because a lot of things are run through him, for passing, post-ups, pick-and-pops. So, Zu just has to stay with it because he’s going to score some points, he’s going to get some assists, but we got to make him work.”

In 22 games against the Jokic-led Nuggets, Zubac has averaged 9.3 points, 7.0 rebounds and 0.9 blocks, and posted a double-double in a two-point victory last April.

“I am always confident in my offensive game and always knew I could score in the post. It’s just, you know, in past years there were not a lot of chances,” Zubac said. “We had a lot of guys who were priority on offense and it’s normal. It’s like that on every team.

“I just had to play my role, and this year is going to be a bigger role offensively. I feel like I’ve been ready for it for a while and I’m excited.”

REUNION ON TAP

The Clippers will be facing former teammate Russell Westbrook when they travel to Denver. Westbrook signed with the Nuggets after the Clippers traded him to Utah after one-plus season. The Jazz then waived the nine-time All-Star and he signed with Denver.

Norman Powell and Terance Mann said they expect some chippy moments when they meet.

“It’s going to be fun,” Powell said. “The energy and the approach he comes into every game with, I’m looking forward to that,” Powell said.

“I know like T-Mann said, he’s going to be hyped up, wanting to get a little bit of revenge. He always has that chip on his shoulder, so it’s definitely going to be a little back and forth in the game. It’s always been, but it’s all love. So excited to see him again.”

Mann called Westbrook one of the best teammates he’s ever had.

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“He brought intensity on and off the court, so it’s great to be around him, but just looking forward to that competitive nature tomorrow that he’s going to bring to the game,” Mann said. “I know he’s going to be super excited, so it’s going to be a fun one.”

TUCKER CAN SEEK TRADE

P.J. Tucker’s days in a Clippers jersey could be dwindling after the team granted the veteran’s agent, Andre Buck permission to facilitate a trade. Both sides continue working together while the forward/center remains away from the team.

Tucker is in the final year of his three-year, $33 million contract, earning roughly $11.5 million this season.

CLIPPERS AT NUGGETS

When: Saturday, 2 p.m. PT

Where: Ball Arena, Denver

TV/Radio: FDSN SOCAL, 1150 AM

​ Orange County Register 

Biden visits Indian Country and apologizes for the ‘sin’ of a 150-year boarding school policy

• October 26, 2024

By AAMER MADHANI and JOSH BOAK

LAVEEN VILLAGE, Ariz. — President Joe Biden on Friday formally apologized to Native Americans for the “sin” of a government-run boarding school system that for decades forcibly separated children from their parents, calling it a “blot on American history” in his first presidential visit to Indian Country.

“It’s a sin on our soul,” said Biden, his voice full of anger and emotion. “Quite frankly, there’s no excuse that this apology took 50 years to make.”

It was a moment of both contrition and frustration as the president sought to recognize one of the “most horrific chapters” in the national story. Biden spoke of the abuses and deaths of Native children that resulted from the federal government’s policies, noting that “while darkness can hide much, it erases nothing” and that great nations “must know the good, the bad, the truth of who we are.”

President Joe Biden speaks at the Gila Crossing Community School in the Gila River Indian Community reservation in Laveen, Ariz., Friday, Oct. 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)

“I formally apologize as president of United States of America for what we did,” Biden said. The government’s removal of children from their Native American community for boarding schools “will always be a significant mark of shame, a blot on American history. For too long, this all happened with virtually no public attention, not written about in our history books, not taught in our schools.”

Democrats hope Biden’s visit to the Gila River Indian Community’s land on the outskirts of Phoenix’s metro area will also provide a boost to Vice President Kamala Harris’ turnout effort in a key battleground state. The moment gave Biden a fuller chance to spotlight his and Harris’ support for tribal nations, a group that historically has favored Democrats, in a state he won just by 10,000 votes in 2020.

The race between Harris and former President Donald Trump is expected to be similarly close, and both campaigns are doing whatever they can to improve turnout among bedrock supporters.

“The race is now a turnout grab,” said Mike O’Neil, a non-partisan pollster based in Arizona. “The trendlines throughout have been remarkably steady. The question is which candidate is going to be able to turn out their voters in a race that seems to be destined to be decided by narrow margins.”

Biden has been used sparingly on the campaign trail by Harris and other Democrats since he ended his reelection campaign in July.

But analysts say Biden could help Harris in her appeal with Native American voters — a group that has trailed others in turnout rates.

In 2020, there was a surge in voter turnout on some tribal land in Arizona as Biden beat Trump and became the first Democratic presidential candidate to win the state since Bill Clinton in 1996.

Biden, whose presidency is winding down, had promised tribal leaders nearly two years ago that he would visit Indian Country.

For decades, federal boarding schools were used to assimilate children into white society, according to the White House. Not everyone saw the apology as sufficient.

“An apology is a nice start, but it is not a true reckoning, nor is it a sufficient remedy for the long history of colonial violence,” said Chase Iron Eyes, director of the Lakota People’s Law Project and Sacred Defense Fund.

At least 973 Native American children died in the U.S. government’s abusive boarding school system over a 150-year period that ended in 1969, according to an Interior Department investigation that called for a U.S. government apology.

At least 18,000 children, some as young as 4, were taken from their parents and forced to attend schools that sought to assimilate them.

“President Biden deserves credit for finally putting attention on the issue and other issues impacting the community,” said Ramona Charette Klein, 77, a boarding school survivor and an enrolled member of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa. “I do think that will reflect well on Vice President Harris, and I hope this momentum will continue.”

Democrats have stepped up outreach to Native American communities.

Both Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, met with tribal leaders in Arizona and Nevada this month. And Clinton, who has been serving as a surrogate for Harris, last week met in North Carolina with the chairman of the Lumbee Tribe.

The Democratic National Committee recently launched a six-figure ad campaign targeting Native American voters in Arizona, North Carolina, Montana and Alaska through digital, print and radio ads.

Democratic Rep. Ruben Gallego, who is locked in a competitive race with Republican Kari Lake for Arizona’s open Senate seat, has visited all 22 of Arizona’s federally recognized tribes.

Harris started a recent campaign rally in Chandler, near where the Gila River reservation is located, with a shoutout to the tribe’s leader. Walz is scheduled to go to the Navajo Nation in Arizona on Saturday.

The White House says Biden and Harris have built a substantial track record with Native Americans over the last four years.

The president designated the sacred Avi Kwa Ame, a desert mountain in Nevada and Baaj Nwaavjo I’tah Kukveni-Ancestral Footprints of the Grand Canyon in Arizona as national monuments and restored the boundaries for Bears Ears National Monument in Utah.

In addition, the administration has directed nearly $46 billion in federal spending to tribal nations. The money has helped bring electricity to a reservation that never had electricity, expand access to high-speed internet, improve water sanitation, build roadways and more.

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Biden picked former New Mexico Rep. Deb Haaland to serve as his Interior secretary, the first Native American to be appointed to a Cabinet position. Haaland is a member of Laguna Pueblo in New Mexico.

She, in turn, ordered the comprehensive review in June 2021 of the troubled legacy of the federal government’s boarding school policies that led Biden to deliver the formal apology.

Thom Reilly, co-director of the Center for an Independent and Sustainable Democracy at Arizona State University, said both Harris’ and Trump’s campaigns — and their allies — have put a remarkable amount of effort into micro-targeting in Arizona.

“They are pulling out every stop just to see if they could wrangle a few more votes here and there,” Reilly said. “The Indian community is one of those groups that Harris is hoping will overperform and help make the difference.”

Boak reported from Washington. Associated Press writer Graham Lee Brewer in Norman, Oklahoma, contributed to this report.

​ Orange County Register 

The future of California depends on handing Proposition 5 the defeat it so richly deserves

• October 26, 2024

By the time you read this, as many as 5 million ballots may already have been cast in California. For those who are just now reviewing your ballot material or who prefer to vote on Election Day – this is your last-minute reminder of why Proposition 5 presents the most serious threat to California homeowners in decades.

Frequent readers of this column are probably familiar with the arguments against Prop. 5 but let’s first recap those reasons and then look at some late-breaking developments in the campaign. 

To review, Prop. 5 would lower the vote threshold for local bonds from two-thirds to 55%. The two-thirds vote requirement for local general obligation bonds has been in the California Constitution since 1879 as a protection for property owners against excessive debt being approved by those who don’t own property. That two-thirds vote threshold is consistent with the history of constitutional supermajority requirements found in the United States Constitution, virtually all other state constitutions and, of course, Proposition 13, itself part of California’s Constitution. 

According to the state’s own Legislative Analyst, the passage of Prop. 5 will result in billions of dollars in future property tax increases. Even worse, Proposition 5 is retroactive, so the lower vote threshold applies to several bond measures appearing on the November ballot. Voters who mistakenly believe that the two-thirds vote for local bonds will apply to local bond measures this election are in for a rude awakening if Proposition 5 passes: taxes will go up with just 55% of the vote. Going forward to all future elections, Proposition 5 will allow virtually unlimited property taxes. 

Leading the campaign against Prop. 5 is a dedicated campaign committee, “Protect Prop. 13, a Project of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association, No on Prop. 5.” This is the only registered committee with the Secretary of State which has, at this writing, accepted campaign contributions for the specific purpose of opposing Prop. 5. 

So where does the campaign stand? The good news is that, despite a deceptive ballot label that fails to disclose that the vote threshold for local bonds is being lowered, most voters aren’t fooled. The Howard Jarvis campaign committee has radio ads, lawn signs, billboards and of course, our leadership is covering the airwaves from Eureka to San Diego. In addition to our paid media, we have appeared on countless TV news programs and talk radio in our effort to educate voters as to the danger of this anti-taxpayer proposal.

These tireless efforts appear to be working as both public and private polls reveal that Prop. 5 is losing by a small margin. This is consistent with the fact that the more voters learn about Prop. 5 the less likely they are to support it.

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That’s the good news. The bad news is that the tax-and-spend advocates have just dropped millions of dollars to push Prop. 5 over the finish line. In fact, the total amount of late campaign contributions reported to the Yes on 5 campaign as of last Wednesday is over $12 million, of which Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg and his wife have contributed nearly half. The Zuckerbergs are two of the wealthiest people on the planet, so property taxes are not that important to them. But the same cannot be said of ordinary taxpayers who struggle to hold on to their homes. 

There is little doubt that this 11th hour infusion of cash will be used to advance false claims about all the good things that the higher taxes resulting from Prop. 5 will bring. But Californians, by a large margin, accurately perceive that we are not getting value for the taxes we already pay. 

Despite the slightly favorable polling, this is no time to rest. It is critically important that all Californians who oppose higher taxes and excessive government debt do what they can to get the word out. The future of California depends on handing Prop. 5 the defeat it so richly deserves.

Jon Coupal is president of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association.

​ Orange County Register 

Why are there so many lizards in the garden this year, a reader asks

• October 25, 2024

Q. Why are there so many lizards this year? I’ve never seen so many before!

It’s possible that you are seeing more lizards because their normal hiding places have been disturbed. For instance, whenever the open field across the street from us is mowed, our neighbors end up with mice in their garages. (We took care of that problem by keeping our cats in the garage at night.) If any nearby land has been recently cleared, you could see a local lizard migration.

Another factor could be an unusual increase in food supply. Lizards eat mostly insects, so if there was anything affecting the local bug population such as increased rainfall or uncontrolled weeds, the lizards will thrive with the increased food supply.

Lizards can be beneficial because they eat insects and leave plants alone. Unless they get into your house, they should not be a problem.

Q. Now that the weather isn’t so terribly hot, what tasks can I do in the garden this time of year? Is it too early to plant winter vegetables?

 I would wait until early November to plant winter vegetables. We can still get some hot, dry days in October. We also get some pretty strong winds, usually right after I put out my Halloween decorations.

Garden clean-up should be your priority. Remove dead leaves, fruit mummies, and any other dry material. Cut back any perennials that have stopped flowering and prune trees, especially those close to the house. Clean gutters and remove any dead leaves that have fallen on the roof. Move any flammable material away from the house. All these things will reduce your risk during fire season.

Check your irrigation system and take care of those repairs while the weather is pleasant. You’ve been putting it off because it’s been 100 degrees outside (which is reasonable). Don’t wait until the rainy season. Just do it.

Remove weeds, then replenish mulch if needed. A thick layer of mulch will discourage weed growth by blocking sunlight from any emerging seedlings.

Q. Is there any easy way to get rid of nutgrass? I keep pulling it out as it emerges, but it keeps coming back.

Unfortunately, there is no easy way to get rid of nutgrass. Hand pulling, herbicides, or flame-throwers aren’t effective because the root structure is massive and deep. Not even goats will eat it. Theoretically you can exhaust the plant by relentlessly removing everything that emerges, but since the root structure can be bigger than a pickup truck and up to 10 feet deep, eliminating it would be a lifelong quest. Sorry.

Los Angeles County

[email protected]; 626-586-1988; http://celosangeles.ucanr.edu/UC_Master_Gardener_Program/

Orange County

[email protected]; http://mgorange.ucanr.edu/

Riverside County

[email protected]; https://ucanr.edu/sites/RiversideMG/

San Bernardino County

[email protected]; 909-387-2182; http://mgsb.ucanr.edu

​ Orange County Register 

Chapman’s annual survey finds Americans more afraid today than at any time in recent history

• October 25, 2024

A decade ago, a few days before Halloween, a team of sociologists at Chapman University published the first “Survey of American Fears,” a poll of more than 1,000 Americans about the things that give them the willies.

The “American Fears” survey quickly became an annual media event, a social science version of Groundhog Day. Most years, Chapman posts its latest top-10 fears list a few days before Halloween. And, most years, a few news organizations run brief stories about the survey’s findings, highlighting the latest on what is or isn’t spooking America.

Corruption, cancer, clowns; over the years a diverse buffet of scary ideas, broad or personal, real or imagined, have made at least one of Chapman’s “American Fears” lists.

But this year’s survey – released Wednesday, Oct. 23, close to the scariest holiday, Halloween, and less than two weeks before a presidential election that’s been widely described in politically apocalyptic terms – offers something bigger than any specific fear from any specific year.

Americans, researchers say, are more afraid today than at any time in recent history.

Trends from a decade of “American Fears” surveys, the expanding number of issues that evoke “yup, that scares the heck out of me” responses, the sometimes irrational reasons for feeling that way – all point to a culture in the grasp of deep, paralyzing dread.

“Fear is taking a larger and larger role in American life,” said Christopher Bader, a sociology professor at Chapman who has been involved in “American Fears” since the beginning.

“They’re afraid of more things than they used to be,” he said.

“And they’re more afraid of those things than they used to be.”

Higher anxiety

Bader’s contention is based on a decade’s worth of data.

In the early years of the survey, an issue could rank at or near the top of the “American Fears” list if more than 50% of respondents said they were very or somewhat afraid of it. A few items might beat that ratio in those years but most did not.

But, lately, the number of things feared by more than half of all Americans has risen steadily. And, this year, every item on the top 10 – plus at least the next five, according to Bader and another fear researcher, Ed Day, an associate professor of sociology at Chapman – cracked the 50% mark.

“Those percentages tell us that fear, overall, is increasing dramatically,” Bader said.

Fear helps to explain everything from the us-vs.-us nature of modern American politics to the rise of drug commercials that turn once obscure maladies (wet macular degeneration anyone?) into seemingly grave threats.

But both Bader and Day said the rise of fear is a big deal for a more basic reason: It can be self-perpetuating. The stuff we’re afraid of – even if, initially, we shouldn’t be – often comes true.

“Stranger danger is growing,” Bader said, referring to data that shows Americans – once viewed as optimistic and welcoming – are increasingly afraid of people they don’t know.

“It might not be valid or rational, but that particular fear can be powerful.”

As an example, Bader pointed to fears about living in or visiting urban public spaces. Such fears often are baseless or erroneous; studies consistently show firearm violence is less common in many big cities, on a per capita basis, than it is in many rural communities.

But as people who are afraid of cities avoid them, then those places tend to be left to a higher ratio of people who might be inclined to commit crime or violence – driving up the possibility of violence becoming more common in a place that once was safe.

That’s fear at work.

“Fear can make things real,” Bader said.

News, brains, math

This year’s survey asked people to respond to 85 different concepts. The one that prompted the most fear, ranking No. 1 on this year’s list, is “corrupt government officials.” Nearly two-thirds (65.2%) of Americans – conservatives and liberals alike, according to the researchers – say they’re “very” or “somewhat” afraid of politicians and other public employees who steal from us or otherwise abuse our trust.

It wasn’t a surprise. Corruption has ranked at or near the top of the list for most of the past decade.

It’s also not irrational.

Coincidentally, a day before Chapman released this year’s survey, news broke in Orange County that a county supervisor, Andrew Do, had admitted to misusing tax money earmarked for COVID relief. The Do story had nothing to do with Chapman’s survey; the survey was conducted months before Do’s agreement to plead guilty and resign from office. Also, Do is hardly the only corrupt government official; government corruption is part of American life.

But even a coincidental connection highlights what Chapman researchers believe is a driver of the rise of fear – the modern news cycle.

Websites, newspapers, magazines, TV and radio stations; most consider government corruption a staple of their news operations. They do that for a lot of good reasons – it’s important for voters and taxpayers to know about it; independent news is a critical check on government corruption – but the result is a lot of news about government corruption.

That puts “government corruption” into the brains of most Americans, no matter how important – or not – corruption might actually be at any given time. This year’s response rate on the corruption question is actually well under the peak, in 2019, when 79.6% of “American Fears” respondents said they feared government corruption.

“How we get news is part of this,” Day said, in reference to why fear is growing.

“In 2017, the No. 2 fear on our list was repeal of the Affordable Care Act,” Day said. “It happened that that year, the (Affordable Care repeal) issue was in the news all the time. That made it something to fear.

“When it disappeared from the news cycle, it stopped being something a lot of people feared,” Day added.

“That’s part of how this works.”

It’s working this year, too. Six of the top 10 fears – cyberterrorism, No. 3; Russia using a nuclear weapon, No. 5; the U.S. becoming involved in another World War, (tie) No. 7; North Korea using a nuclear weapon, (tie) No. 7; terrorist attack, No. 9, and biological warfare, No. 10 – are in some way connected to war or international conflict. The researchers believe those results reflect a year of news coverage about wars in the Ukraine and the Middle East.

“Part of our survey, every year, is responding to current events,” Bader said.

It’s also an example of how modern media, math and our primitive brains can work in tandem to create big, sweeping feelings of fear and anxiety.

First, the biggest delivery system for modern news is social media, companies that make money by matching up online content (sometimes traditional news stories, sometimes videos of shirtless guys jumping rope, often cats) with the things that interest their customers. Those companies use increasingly clever math – algorithms – to streamline those connections.

The upshot is anyone with a smartphone winds up flooded with news about a particular subject. If that subject is crime or global warming or political division (or all of the above) that news consumer will be awash in stories about those topics.

All of those topics are scary. And all are common on the “American Fears” lists.

But that news flood is just part of the broader fear cycle.

That consumer on her phone is trying to make sense of all their news with a brain that’s wired to use fear as a very beneficial survival tool. Scary data on the phone is amplified – and more memorable – because it’s more important, survival-wise, than, say great chili recipes.

“The velocity of fear is increasing because our media feeds are showing us what they think we want to see,” Bader said. “Our brains can’t handle it.”

But if fear, on some level, helps us survive – spurring us to run away from a lion or a crazy guy with a chainsaw – it also helps us turn bogus information into a very real problem.

For instance, federal data shows that crime peaked in the United States in the early 1990s, and generally declined until the start of the pandemic. And last year, after a two-year jump, crime again began to fall.

But studies from Chapman and others show fear of crime hasn’t matched the decline.

“Two-thirds of Americans believe the opposite,” Bader said.

Bader said that’s the thing about fear.

“Sometimes it’s true,” he said. “Sometimes it’s not.”

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​ Orange County Register 

Idiomatic retired before she can defend Breeders’ Cup Distaff title

• October 25, 2024

Next week’s Breeders’ Cup at Del Mar lost one of its most anticipated showdowns Friday when Idiomatic, the defending champion in the $2 million Distaff, was retired.

According to a post on the website of her owner, Juddmonte Farm, “Idiotmatic was found to be lame this morning and an issue, that should heal readily, was identified in her left knee. Unfortunately, it will rule her out of running in the Breeders’ Cup and it has been decided to retire her to stud.”

A 5-year-old mare, Idiotmatic was likely to be favored in the Distaff over the 3-year-old Thorpedo Anna, who won the Kentucky Oaks and was second against males in the Travers. Their duel figured to be one of the highlights of next week’s 14-race event at Del Mar, which will be run Friday, Nov. 1 and Saturday, Nov. 2.

Idiomatic, a daughter of two-time Horse of the Year Curlin, retires with 12 wins, 3 seconds and 2 thirds in 17 starts. Trained by Brad Cox, she earned more than $3.9 million.

Thorpedo Anna is now expected to be a strong favorite in the Distaff, which also includes Raging Sea – who edged Idiomatic in this year’s Personal Ensign at Saratoga – and Awesome Result, who is unbeaten in seven starts in Japan.

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