The Morning Meeting with Al Tompkins is a daily Poynter briefing of story ideas worth considering and other timely context for journalists, written by senior faculty Al Tompkins. Sign up here to have it delivered to your inbox every weekday morning.

As a teacher, I am always looking for “teaching moments” and such a moment unfolded yesterday morning when one of my colleagues spotted the headline for yesterday’s Morning Meeting. I am sharing this conversation because it is exactly what should be happening in newsrooms as you navigate what is certain to be a tense week (or more) with tens of thousands of lives and the future of American immigration policy in the balance.
My original headline said:

(Morning Meeting headline, Dec. 14/Poynter.org)

In an internal email thread, two of my colleagues raised concerns about the headline, focusing in on the word “fear,” and more precisely, what is raising the fear? Is it the migrants or the surge?

(Poynter internal email)

(Poynter internal email)

I see a lot of news coverage and commentary that use words like “fear”, “crisis,” “surge,” “spike,” “avalanche,” “onslaught,” “influx.” CNN said that White House considers this to be a “five-alarm fire.” 

We republished the headline this way:

(Edited Morning Meeting headline, Dec. 14/Poynter.org)

The change is the emphasis on the concern over the “flood” not of the “migrants.” 

You are going to need to get up to speed on this issue if you are not covering it hourly, as journalists along the border are. Every day, around 2,500 migrants cross the border seeking asylum. Next week, if Title 42 expires, the estimates are that somewhere between 9,000 and  14,000 people will cross daily. 

Here are some background resources:

Title 42 and its impact on Migrant Families (Kaiser Family Foundation) explains the basics:

Title 42 of the Public Health Services Act is a public health authority that authorizes the Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to suspend entry of individuals into the U.S. to protect public health. This authority was implemented by the Trump Administration in March 2020 in response to the COVID-19 pandemic to allow for quick expulsion of migrants, including asylum seekers, seeking entry into the U.S. at the land borders. The Biden Administration continued to enforce Title 42, with new exceptions provided to unaccompanied minors, but announced plans to end the suspension of entry on May 23, 2022.

Although migration to the U.S. has recently slowed, largely due to Trump-era immigration policies and the COVID-19 pandemic, it is expected to ramp up following the lifting of the Title 42 suspension of entry. Ending Title 42 would allow those asylum seekers that have been waiting Mexico to seek asylum at the U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s ports of entry. It is anticipated that the number of migrants will seeking entry at the southern border will increase when Title 42 ends, and the federal government has outlined plans for responding to this anticipated increase . 

Data from U.S. Customs and Border Protection will give you baseline figures before the increase in border crossing next week.

Biden admin changes have led to a historic number of court-granted asylum cases. But there’s some consequences, too. From NBC News

And the border story will also unfold in emergency budget discussions that must be addressed this week. The Biden administration is requesting $2 billion for additional funding for Customs and Border Protection, as well as $2 billion for Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

The El Paso Deputy City Manager for Public Safety wrote a column for the El Paso Times saying:

In preparation for the end of Title 42, and the exponential surge that will take place, the city will have to assist again in a much larger role to handle the increase and we have prepared by requesting an additional $20 million in advanced funding from FEMA to support continued assistance for NGOs, the reopening of the city’s Migrant Welcome Center, shelter, meals, transportation, and support services for migrants arriving in El Paso.

Taking care of the migrants, means we are also taking care of our community as we do not want to add to the homeless population.

The city of El Paso will continue to focus on providing residents with up-to-date, clear, and transparent information regarding the ongoing migrant crisis. For up-to-date information, residents can view the City’s Migrant Dashboard at www.elpasotexas.gov/migrant-crisis/. You can also learn more via YouTube here: https://tinyurl.com/85rvrvft.

Help your viewers, readers, and listeners help the migrants. These charities are on the ground caring for and preparing for the people who are arriving with nothing but whatever they can carry.

(elpasotexas.gov)

Banning TikTok: Now there’s bipartisan support

Republican U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio has gained some Democratic support for his long-running effort to ban TikTok. Rubio, who is the ranking Republican on the Senate Intelligence Committee wants to “block and prohibit all transactions” in the United States by social media companies with at least one million monthly users that are based in, or under the “substantial influence” of, countries that are considered foreign adversaries, including China, Russia, Iran, North Korea, Cuba and Venezuela. (Read his bill here.) GOP Rep. Mike Gallagher and Democratic Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi have sponsored a companion bill in the House, Reuters reports. 

A number of federal agencies including the U.S. military ban the use of TikTok, and now governors in Iowa, North Dakota, Utah, Texas, South Carolina, Maryland, Nebraska  and Alabama are banning it from state-used devices too. Last week, Indiana filed two lawsuits against TikTok, becoming the first U.S. state to sue the social media platform. 

In a Tuesday news release, Rubio and Gallagher said, “TikTok is digital fentanyl that’s addicting Americans, collecting troves of their data, and censoring their news. It’s also an increasingly powerful media company that’s owned by ByteDance, which ultimately reports to the Chinese Communist Party – America’s foremost adversary.” 

Vanity Fair reminds us:

President Donald Trump tried, unsuccessfully, to ban TikTok from operating in the US unless it was put under American ownership—an order that Biden later rescinded while vowing to address potential security risks from TikTok and other foreign-owned apps.

TikTok says it does not share information with the Chinese government and the company says it is “working” to keep non-U.S. citizens from accessing private data. 

Can home-ec classes keep Americans from wasting so much food?

Somehow, one of the most sensible parts of a high school education lost favor over the years. Home economics classes, in addition to teaching young people how to manage money and a household, could be a pathway toward doing something about the enormous amount of food Americans waste. 

Professor Brian Roe of Ohio State University says Americans waste a third of the food they buy, and a big contributing factor is that we never learned how to manage our homes. His research has found, “That’s equivalent to 1,250 calories per person per day, or US$1,500 worth of groceries for a four-person household each year, an estimate that doesn’t include recent food price inflation. And when food goes bad, the land, labor, water, chemicals and energy that went into producing, processing, transporting, storing and preparing it are wasted too.”

And the professor says that households waste more food than factories or restaurants or the farms that produce the food. So, he suggests, we educate, create apps and even gamify reducing food waste as a sort of national effort not to waste:

This could start with students, perhaps through reinvesting in family and consumer science courses – the modern, expanded realm of old-school home economics classes. Or schools could insert food-related modules into existing classes. Biology students could learn why mold forms, and math students could calculate how to expand or reduce recipes.

Outside of school, there are expanding self-education opportunities available online or via clever gamified experiences like Hellman’s Fridge Night Mission, an app that challenges and coaches users to get one more meal a week out of their fridges, freezers and pantries. Yes, it may involve adding some mayo.

Recent studies have found that when people had the opportunity to brush up on their kitchen management skills early in the COVID-19 pandemic, food waste declined. However, as consumers returned to busy pre-COVID schedules and routines such as eating out, wastage rebounded.

The researchers also found that home meal–prep kits reduce waste. Sometimes my wife and I get those kits at the grocery where all of the stuff you need for a crock meal is in one package. 

I think there is some real potential in this idea for a news organization to teach people how to make more of what they buy. Given the price of groceries today, it would resonate on an environmental level, a monetary level and some people will be interested because it is just the right thing to do. 

Another interesting note: Some communities are embracing drone displays as more environmentally friendly versions of fireworks displays. One display company, hireuavpro.com says it gets way more requests for drone light shows than it can handle. 

Retail workers ready for Christmas songs to stop

The Wall Street Journal has a delightful tale of how irritating it can be to work in a place that plays holiday songs nonstop from before Thanksgiving to New Year’s. One person called it “musical waterboarding.” I can envision a delightful multi-media version of this idea. And then, no doubt, there is always somebody like my middle daughter who can’t get enough Christmas music.

Hotel ‘star’ ratings can be fairly meaningless 

As you plan holiday travel, you may think it means something that a hotel is “four-star” but it really depends on who is issuing the rating. CNBC explains that often it is the hotel itself that makes the claim. 

Booking.com said its stars are designated by the hotels themselves. Forbes Travel Guide, however, uses professional, anonymous inspectors who access “900 objective stands,” according to its website. And to add to the confusion, Frommer’s website states its star ratings only go from one (“recommended”) to three stars (“exceptional”).

The sheer number of companies that award stars isn’t helping.

Decades ago, few companies handed out stars — or diamonds, as the American Automobile Association calls its ratings. But now, countless magazines, guidebooks and websites issue them.

And in places like Australia, India and Dubai, hotels are rated by governments and tourism boards. 

I hereby declare this column to be a four-star effort (worth more than the cost you pay for it.) Occasionally it is one-star (a bed, a pillow and a bargain;” rooms are clean, but basic) and sometimes on Mondays a three-star (A noticeable step up in comfort often with restaurants, a pool and gym.)