CBS News Archives - Ramblin' with Roger

Ring Doorbell Camera

Police Surveillance Technology

In the New York Times, Emily Keegin offered Welcome to My Museum of America. She put together “a collection of 25 objects that reveal something special about us.” Along with the $4.99 Costco Rotisserie Chicken, the Plastic Lawn Flamingo, and Personal Injury Lawyer Advertisements (for sure), she offered up the Ring Doorbell Camera.

“Have we always been so scared of strangers? And when did we, as a country supposedly built on individual liberties, become so enthusiastic about Big Brother-style surveillance? Maybe we are still haunted by the ghost of Michael Wigglesworth and the Massachusetts Puritans who looked out from their chapels and saw only ‘a waste of howling wilderness.’ Maybe we still believe that safety can be found only beneath the eye of a benevolent and omniscient lord. The Puritans had God. We have Jeff Bezos. In a nation plagued by loneliness, perhaps it’s time to start answering the door.”

My wife and I had a couple of passing conversations about them. She thought that if we had had one, we would have captured the late Nick, the absentee landlord of the property next door, when he damaged my wife’s car more than once. But my discomfort was great.

Mass surveillance

And it got worse when I saw Last Week Tonight with John Oliver’s segment on Police Surveillance Technology. “In recent years, the prevalence of local mass surveillance systems has exploded thanks to cheaper technology and increased funding from the federal government. And this all tends to get presented as a boon to public safety. Local news loves to cover cities’ real-time crime centers…

“Here’s one in Cooper City, Florida. And in that story, the town’s then mayor offered this upbeat assessment. ‘Everyone is being watched. And if you’re doing nothing wrong, it doesn’t matter what you’re doing, but when you’re doing something wrong, we’re going to find out. We’re going to have the wherewithal to come and get you. We’ve got essentially Big Brother on steroids.'”

Oliver got into how the technology is used as a “digital form of stop and frisk, ” often hooked into surveillance cameras. “Increasingly, they’re able to use those owned by private businesses or homeowners. There are an estimated 85 million in this country, and police now routinely request access to them.”

Oliver has also noted the technological shortcomings. “The way Shot Spotter works is it basically sets up microphones all over a city, which alert police if they sense a loud noise that could be a gunshot… Unfortunately, the technology seems nowhere near as good as you’d want it to be for that kind of response. An AP investigation found the systems can miss live gunfire right under their microphones or misclassify the sounds of fireworks as gunshots. While other reports found Spotter being activated by cars backfiring or even people using a nail gun.”

ALPRs

“And there is a similar issue with… automated license plate readers or ALPRs. And cops will claim that they’re a way to find stolen cars or those engaged in suspicious activity.

“The most popular are made by a company called Flock. And here is how they work. Flock license plate readers don’t just scan tags looking for stolen cars or vehicles on a hot list. The cameras take a photo of every car that passes, stamped with the precise time and location. The more cameras you pass, the clearer the picture of your movements. All of that data is saved in a database for 30 days, shared with connected police departments, allowing the government to go back in time to see where your car was and when. No warrant required, whether you’re suspected of a crime or not.

“A randomized trial in Vallejo, California, found that 37% of all ALPR hits from fixed readers like those attached to a street light, and 35% from mobile ALPRs, like those on cop cars, were misreads, which is an astonishingly high error rate. And that has had real consequences.”

CBS News has had several stories like this one in several jurisdictions: Privacy groups raise red flags over police misuse of Flock cameras, usually for personal use. The Oliver story touches on that as well. Common Cause is advocating to tell Congress: Defund Flock’s surveillance cameras nationwide.

From the NYT: Flock Cameras Can Track Every Car in America. Police Love Them. Citizens Don’t. “In Texas, there’s one thing liberals and conservatives agree on: They don’t want cameras trained on their cars.”

Atlas of Surveillance

Oliver pointed to the Atlas of Surveillance, Documenting Police Tech in Our Communities with Open Source Research. It shows Albany County, NY using Flock, and the state using other technologies.

Oliver: “It is worth remembering, even when these systems work perfectly, they can still be wildly invasive. Cameras and license plate readers can track your movements wherever you go, which means they could find out if you, say, attended a protest or visited an abortion clinic.”

“And some departments can then use all the data fed into them to engage in our final and maybe dumbest use of this tech. It’s called predictive policing. Basically using all that data to figure out which areas or individuals might be likely sources of crime.

“Shot Spotter and license plate readers are disproportionately used in communities of color. And cameras are often associated with

You should watch the whole thing. It may have you think differently about your Ring Camera. I’ll pass, thank you.

Mother’s Day on CBS Sunday Morning

CBS Radio

Since practically the beginning of its run in 1979, I’ve been a massive fan of CBS Sunday Morning. It is the network’s weekly magazine on the air.

Several of the segments on this past Mother’s Day made me a bit melancholy. They weren’t all sad, but many were reflective. Motherless daughters: Coming together involves “a global support network for women” who, like author Hope Edelman, were “young when their mothers died.” The women also experienced “laughter, sisterhood, and affirmation.” What caught me unawares was that the reporter, Faith Salie, was one of those women.

Every story I saw about the SCOTUS ruling ushering in a new era of gerrymandering made me heartsick.

CBS correspondent “Jonathan Vigliotti, who wrote about L.A.’s reconstruction efforts in his book ‘Torched,’ discusses how rebuilding after a disaster should include steps to prevent future catastrophes.” One fears that speed will win out over safety and strength.

Martin Short: Facing tragedy with joy is a heavy-duty piece in anticipation of Lawrence Kasdan‘s Marty, Life Is Short, a 101-minute tribute to the comic. It’s amazing and touching, given his sometimes difficult experiences – a brother and both parents died within an eight-year period in his youth, his wife of 30 years died in 2010, his daughter died earlier this year by suicide — how well put together he appears to be. Here’s an extended interview.

News

Remembering Ted Turner, an American original, reminded me of what we’ve lost since we had a reasonably straightforward, even boring, 24-hour news. I wonder if he knew whether FOTUS was limiting access to the bison on lands in Montana. (Here’s the CNN take on its founder’s passing at the age of 87.)

But I was most melancholy about the story of CBS News Radio, a beacon of broadcast journalism, as it signs off. “Founded nearly a century ago, [it] set the standard for radio news coverage, featuring legends such as Edward R. Murrow, Robert Trout, and Charles Osgood, and created the template for broadcast journalists. But on May 22, CBS will end its heralded radio service. Mo Rocca celebrates the long history of CBS News Radio, and talks with current and former staffers, including ‘Sunday Morning’ correspondent Martha Teichner (who reported on radio for decades), and Dan Rather (here’s an extended interview), a veteran radio correspondent and former anchor of the “CBS Evening News.”

So, CBS News did a credible job of explaining how it continues to decline.

Piano at home

looking for musicality

Among the interesting things I receive because I have a blog is this recent email about a piano: “I hope this message finds you well. A friend of mine is giving away her late husband’s Yamaha Piano to an instrument lover. This instrument holds profound sentimental value for her, and she’d love it for it to find a new home with someone who’ll cherish it as much as her late husband did. She’d be delighted to share its history, condition, or other details if you’re curious. Thank you for considering this. Any help or advice is appreciated.”

It is astounding how many people are trying to unload what had been in the heart of the household. Please think of the last three minutes of It’s A Wonderful Life. Fillyjonk noted,” I knew people growing up who had pianos or guitars or other instruments, and they played for their own or their family’s entertainment.” She links to an on-point video.

When I was growing up, we had an upright piano at home. Though no one could really master it, we all noodled around, playing Chopsticks and the like. My maternal grandmother also had a piano; my father is sitting on the piano bench. The one year I took piano lessons, I practiced more at Grandma’s because it was a better instrument.

“For a long time, the piano was one of the first instruments U.S. children learned to play, but in 2025, fewer people are buying pianos for their homes. CBS Saturday Morning discovers why decreased sales might not be a bad thing.”

Sales

According to the Blue Book of Pianos, piano sales were estimated to be as high as 306,984 annually in 1925 for a population of about 116 million people. In 2024, per the Music Trades Corporation’s Music Industry Census, it was 17,294 pianos annually in a population of 340 million.

Hannah Beckett, a piano technician in northern Virginia, notes the increased popularity of alternatives. “‘At least a digital piano is going to have accurate sounds and notes, the keys are going to go up and down,’ she explains, a problem that older acoustic pianos can pose for beginners.’

“Beckett is optimistic about the future of playing the instrument.

“‘At some point, you’re going to start looking for musicality, for emotional expression, for shaping phrasing, for some of the things more advanced musicians are interested in,” she says hopefully, adding, ‘we’re going to see a resurgence of piano playing. I think we’re all kind of weary of screens at this point.'”

July rambling: the Sin of Condemnation

The 1934 National Firearms Act unconstitutional?

The Stones in Our Hands: Misreading John 8 and the Sin of Condemnation

‘Motherhood Should Come With a Warning Label’

CBS News’ John Dickerson Takes on Paramount Settlement: “Can You Hold Power to Account After Paying It Millions?” (especially from 36:45) Dan Rather calls it “a Sell-Out to Extortion.” Steve Kroft tells Jon Stewart that it was a “shakedown.”

“The regime is gutting scientific research into climate and atmospheric science for political reasons; at the very time, we need a much better understanding of it,” said one environmentalist. “This is so reckless and dangerous.”

A 2024 report published by Texas A&M University found that extreme rainfall events in the state have already increased by about 10 percent due to climate change. That number could double in the coming decades, reaching a 20 percent increase compared to a century ago.

Deep cuts erode the foundations of the US public health system, end progress, and threaten worse to come.

Kelly has links, including the sad closing of the Ontario Science Centre, which my family LOVED when we went to Toronto in 2011.

VeggieTales creator Phil Vischer released a viral video about race in America in 2020, just after George Floyd was killed. If anything, it’s more relevant now.

Meet the Moon Mammoths, the baseball mascot masterminded by John Oliver’s show

Now I Know: The Bovine Unity of Milk and Glue? and Brunch: Because We Like the Party and Why the National Animal of Scotland is… Wait, Really? and This Airport SUX

Leading to the semiquincentennial

Full interview: Ken Burns on “Face the Nation” about his new film on the American Revolution and the importance of telling the story of American history.

July 4th in the Face of Fascism: Moral resources for Americans who know we’ve been betrayed – Our Moral Moment w/ Bishop William Barber & Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove

“If fireworks ring hollow, you’re not alone. Light a candle instead.”

HCR: The MAGA Ideology That Brought Us to This Moment. It’s Our Job to Make Sure People Know the Truth

I am the man on Fifth Avenue.

Americans Have Never Been Less Proud of Their Country

Retired Supreme Court justice gripes about the hot mess he helped create

“While the lighthouse shining the way is admittedly hard to make out through the cruel fog that envelopes us, it is out there, sturdy upon the shore, and still blazing brightly. We must trust that we will rediscover its guiding power and, together, steer this ship safely home. We’ll do it together, and in our strong and welcome company, we will find the courage and conviction we need.” – Jay Kuo

Purblind bunny boiler

Heather Cox Richardson: “Within hours of [FOTUS] signing the [OBUB] into law, Gun Owners Of America and… other pro-gun organizations filed a lawsuit claiming the measure makes the 1934 National Firearms Act (NFA) unconstitutional. That law regulated machine guns and short-barrel guns by imposing a tax on them and making owners register their weapons. The Supreme Court upheld that law as a tax law. The budget reconciliation bill ended those taxes and thus, the plaintiffs’ claim, the constitutional justification for the law.”

10 Charts to Understand the 900-Page Budget Bill

GOP budget bill would give top 1% over $1 trillion in tax breaks, analysis finds. It will steal from the poor and give to the rich.

FOTUS/DOGE foreign aid cuts could cause 14 million deaths by 2030, study warns

The trolling is coming from inside the White House

Cold as ICE

A surge in ICE detentions of those with no criminal record, despite stated priorities. Still, “as a result of the agency’s stonewalling, the Guardian, alongside the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, last week filed a lawsuit against ICE for unlawfully withholding documents that represent a clear and overwhelming matter of public interest.”

FOTUS ramps up deportation spectacle with new stunts and ICE funding

He only has ICE for you. And: ICE Agents Deserve No Privacy. Attempts by the public to keep tabs on ICE are provoking predictable and pathetic responses from the government.

MUSIC

Lou Harrison’s Pacifika Rondo

Coverville 1539: Carly Simon Cover Story and 1540: The Blondie Cover Story III

Mockingbird – Weavers Gallery

Chorale and Shaker Dance by John Zdechlik

Another Day of Sun, the opening number from La La Land.

Sit Down, John from 1776

Weird Al Medley (A CAPELLA) White & Nerdy, Party in the CIA, Like A Surgeon, Tacky, Eat It – Jared Halley

Sussudio – Phil Collins

The Longest Time – Boyz II Men and Billy Joel

Hawai’i’s Future

the most expensive state in the nation

Because of the anniversary of the Lahaina, Maui wildfire, there has been a large media emphasis on Hawai’i’s future. While some were pretty straightforward – the folks are still recovering – others were more interesting,

CBS Sunday Morning showed a piece about the Hawai’ian people, as celebrated at the Merrie Monarch Festival. “Thousands of miles from Paris, on Hawaii’s Big Island, another elite competition unfolded. The world’s best hula dancers gathered to showcase their skills, competing in both traditional and modern hula categories.” The dance is far more significant than mere entertainment for tourists.

Maui Rising

ABC broadcast a few items on the topic. From the press piece by Jim Donnelly: “ABC News’ reporting initiative ‘Maui Strong 808,’ which has been dedicated to chronicling the impact of the crisis and relief efforts [highlighted] its yearlong commitment with coverage across programs and platforms.” It began streaming on Aug. 8 at 8:30 p.m. EDT on ABC News Live.

“‘MAUI RISING: The Fight for Hawai’i’s Future,’ a one-hour primetime special marking a year since the deadliest wildfire in modern U.S. history tore through the picturesque town of Lahaina, Maui, leaving a community reeling and inspiring a new generation of organizers ready to stand up for change. Narrated by actor and Hawai’i resident Jason Scott Lee, the program highlights the strength, determination, and resilience of the people of Lahaina.” It “follows Native Hawaiian community leaders who see the tragedy as an opportunity to re-envision a new town based on ecological restoration, cultural repair, and ultimately a chance to build a stronger, more equitable and more sustainable future for all of Hawai’i.”

The latter news special, which I stumbled upon, aired on Friday, Aug. 9, at 8 p.m. EDT on ABC. It should now be streaming on Hulu and available on the ABC app from your smartphone and tablet (iOS and Android), computer on ABC.com, and connected devices (Roku, AppleTV, and Amazon Fire TV).

It becomes obvious that the disaster was not merely a happenstance but a more than century-long inequity in favor of the sugar growers, the military, and tourism to the detriment of the native Hawai’ians.

“‘MAUI RISING: The Fight for Hawai’i’s Future'” spotlights Lahaina leaders who see the catastrophic fire as a pivot point and opportunity to rectify long-standing issues around affordable housing, the tourism-based economy, water rights, and resource exploitation. Interviews include legendary Hawaiian surfer Archie Kalepa; Hawaiian cultural practitioner Ke’eaumoku Kapu; key organizers of the grassroots community group Lahaina Strong, Pā’ele Kiakona, Courtney Lazo, and Jordan Ruidas; ‘American Idol’ winner and Hawaiian-born singer Iam Tongi and more.”

Last Week Tonight

John Oliver also tackled the issue of the islands. As the article in The Guardian notes: “Hawai’i is being reshaped by wealthy outsiders.’” Last Week Tonight looked into how billionaires like Mark Zuckerberg, wealthy tourists, and the US military have altered the state at the expense of locals.

“There are currently 32,000 short-term rentals in the state, meaning one out of 18 houses is a vacation rental, and nearly a quarter of Hawaiian homes were purchased by buyers outside the state. Hawaii is now the most expensive state in the nation for housing, and because the state imports about 90% of its food, residents also pay some of the highest prices in the nation for groceries.” See the Oliver piece here.

Also, check out the Centering Indigenous Leadership in Maui’s Fire Recovery interview. “Kaniela Ing, national director of the Green New Deal Network, co-founder of Our Hawai‘i, and a former elected official to the Hawai‘i House of Representatives, spoke with YES! Racial Justice Editor Sonali Kolhatkar on Rising Up With Sonali about the devastation on Maui and the coming recovery efforts. Ing, who is a 7th-generation Native Hawaiian, emphasizes the importance of centering Indigenous voices and leadership in rebuilding an island struggling with the ongoing impacts of tourism and colonization.”

These stories got me thinking about inequity, wealth, and the need for restitution.

Finally, 60 Minutes reran this story: “Thousands of gallons of jet fuel contaminated the Navy’s drinking water system for Pearl Harbor. Families dealing with health issues are suing, alleging they were harmed by negligence at Red Hill.” So even military families have felt neglected.