Friday, May 02, 2008

From the news

I don't usually read USA Today, but that is one of the perks of staying at the Holiday Inn. Yesterday's paper (5/1/2008) had a couple of articles worth commenting on.

First, one of my few favorite TV shows, Boston Legal, was in danger of being canceled. It is #1 on the list of shows that USA Today readers want to save. Hmmm. I may need to see what's out on the web to try to save it. [That was the banner on page 1, and the top story in section D.]

There were economic stories on the front page which received comment at yesterday's WAPL program on the economic impact of libraries. The Fed dropped the interest rate again (and it did not help the stock market yesterday).

Air travel costs are going up. That is not good news, especially with my need to visit family, and travel for the ALA conference. I am glad I have most of my tickets locked in.

Then there was the story about college tuition. The headline was, in my opinion, very misleading. It caught my attention partly because David Ward yesterday showed a slide which dramatically showed the lifetime earning impact of having a college education. The headline seemed to be saying that was not true. However, that is not really what the story was saying. There was a report recently which showed that most of the increases in college tuition do not go to directly supporting the teaching of students. That is incredibly different than the headline! I guess for me, the good news is that for private, 4-year institutions the cost increases (as a percentage) were smaller than public universities or community colleges, and that the proportion going to direct student education costs was higher than the public universities and community colleges. I guess it is just media at work!

[I would have linked to the USA Today articles, but they charge. So that's that!]

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