Al's Morning Meeting

The story that the Scripps Howard News Service produced shocked me. There are only a dozen known living American World War I veterans. Their average age is 108. What a wonderful Veterans Day story this would be. By next year, who knows if any will be left. Here is a list of those still living: (Click on the link to get a profile of each person.)

• Lloyd Brown, 106, lives in Bethesda, Md.

• Russell Buchanan, 106, lives in Watertown, Mass.

• Frank Buckles, 105, lives near Charles Town, W.Va.

• Russell Coffey, 108, lives in North Baltimore, Ohio.

• Samuel Goldberg, 106, lives in Greenville, R.I.

• Moses Hardy, 112 or 113, lives in Aberdeen, Miss.

• Emiliano Mercado del Toro, 115, lives in Isabella, Puerto Rico.

• Antonio Pierro, 110, lives in Swampscott, Mass.

• Ernest Pusey, 111, of Bradenton, Fla.

• Howard Ramsey, 108, lives in Portland, Ore.

• Albert Wagner, 107, lives in Smith Center, Kan.

• Charlotte Winters, 109, lives in Boonsboro, Md.

Scripps Howard reporter Lisa Hoffman's remarkable story says:

Once they stood 4.7 million strong: American farm boys, factory hands and tradesmen itchy for adventure, all called by their country to fight "the war to end all wars."

Now, when the 88th anniversary of the armistice that ended World War I arrives Saturday, there won't be enough surviving U.S. veterans of that defining conflict to fill a platoon.

When 2006 began, an unofficial roster of known remaining American WWI vets listed only about 24 names. Eleven months later, those ranks have dwindled to 12, Scripps Howard News Service has confirmed. Perhaps another dozen, who joined the armed forces after Armistice Day and served in the immediate aftermath of the war, still live, as well.

With an average age of 108, it is unlikely these numbers will hold for long. All are pushing the envelope of human longevity, especially Emiliano Mercado del Toro, of Isabella, Puerto Rico, who at 115 is both the world's oldest living man and the longest-lived U.S. veteran in history.

"The torch is quickly passing," said retired Brig. Gen. Steve Berkheiser, executive director of The National World War One ... Museum in Kansas City, Mo.

So is an era that seems ancient by today's standards. Many of these vets were born under a U.S. flag with just 45 stars and have witnessed three centuries. They have seen 19 presidents lead the nation through seven wars. Their lives began before airplanes, radio, talking movies, and antibiotics. Animals were a more common mode of transportation than tin lizzies.

"They're the only generation that has gone from outhouses to outer space," said Muriel Sue Parkhurst Kerr, who heads what's left of the Veterans of World War I of the United States organization, which once boasted 800,000 members.

Ed Bradley: A Real Journalist

Journalism has suffered a great loss. CBS "60 Minutes" correspondent Ed Bradley has died of complications from leukemia at age 65. Click here to see Poynter's coverage of Bradley's achievements after 26 years on the show.

Crummy Cop Cams

KHOU-TV in Houston ran an interesting story that I suspect has legs around the country. Cops are trying to take accident- and crime-scene photos using point-and-shoot cameras that don't work or take terrible pictures that cost less than $50.

People who need the photos to investigate the accidents can't use the pictures, which can be critical evidence. In five recent Houston-area fatal accidents, no photos were available because the cameras didn't work. The district attorney's office said the field workers need training, too.

The Real Effect of Mega-Events

Is your city one of those that is always pitching for big events like national political conventions, Olympics and Super Bowls?

A new study by a College of the Holy Cross professor tries to cut through the hype and discover how much mega-events really deliver to local economies. The events simply can't or often don't fulfill the organizers' promises.

The study points out:

In March 2005, Denver tourism officials predicted 100,000 visitors for the National Basketball Association (NBA) All-Star Game. Considering that the Pepsi Center, the game's venue, only holds 20,000 fans, and that Denver has only about 6,000 hotel rooms, it is not clear exactly how such an influx of basketball fans would be even be possible, much less probable.

Similarly, in other cases, the size of the estimates themselves strain credulity. The Sports Management Research Institute estimated the direct economic benefits of the U.S. Open Tennis tournament in Flushing Meadows, New York, at $420 million for the tri-state area, more than any other sports or entertainment event in any city in the United States. This sum represents 3 percent of the total annual direct economic impact of tourism for New York. It is simply impossible to believe that one in 30 tourists to New York City in any given year are visiting the city solely to attend the U.S. Open.

But what about the old "but this will promote tourism and attract jobs" argument? The study says there just is no proof that those claims turn out to be true. And the study says most mega-events are held in places that are already popular with tourists, so the mega-event may just supplant the visitors who would be there anyway.

The study explains the motivation for this hype:

Sports boosters often claim that major sporting events, so-called "mega-events," inject large sums of money into the cities lucky enough to host them. Promoters envision hoards of wealthy sports fans descending on a city's hotels, restaurants and businesses, and showering them with fistfuls of dollars. For example, the National Football League (NFL) typically claims an economic impact from the Super Bowl of around $300 to $400 million, Major League Baseball (MLB) attaches a $75 million benefit to the All-Star Game, and up to almost $250 million for the World Series, and the estimated effect of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Men's Basketball Final Four ranges from $30 million to $110 million. Multi-day events such as the summer or winter Olympics or soccer's World Cup produce even larger figures.

Of course, leagues, team owners and event organizers have a strong incentive to provide economic impact numbers that are as large as possible in order to justify heavy public subsidies. The NFL and MLB use the Super Bowl and baseball's All-Star Game as carrots to prompt otherwise reluctant city officials and taxpayers to provide lavish funding for new stadiums to the great financial benefit of the existing owners.

The study also looks at the negative effects of big events. The bribery scandal of the Salt Lake City Olympics, the Atlanta Olympics bombing and the civil disturbance in Detroit following the NBA finals years ago all seem to have the potential to hurt each city's reputation as much as hosting the event may have helped it.

The study says to be sure, when computing the costs and benefits of mega-events, to include security costs, garbage pickup, sanitation, public transportation, traffic congestion and disruption to normal business.

We are always looking for your great ideas. Send Al a few sentences and hot links.