SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE –  AT 5:02 P.M. ET:

BULLETIN:  MAJOR POLITICAL NEWS – Donald Trump has won the very coveted Wayne Newton endorsement.  From The Hill:  Wayne Newton is placing his bets on Donald Trump.  The entertainer known as “Mr. Las Vegas” appeared on Fox News’s “Fox & Friends” on Tuesday and voiced his support for the GOP presidential candidate.  “I love Donald, and he would make a great president,” Newton told hosts Elisabeth Hasselbeck, Steve Doocy, and Brian Kilmeade.  “Number one, he tells the truth,” said Newton. “Number two, he’s been where most of these guys want to be, in terms of riding on his own plane. He doesn’t have to worry about what hotels he stays in, he doesn’t have to worry about how his family gets to Hawaii, so on and so forth.”  Mr. Newton speaks for embalmed people everywhere.

SCIENCE STAGGERS ON – From London's Telegraph:  Breathalysers could be used to curb alcohol abuse among scientists at US bases in Antarctica following “unpredictable behaviour” caused by excess drinking, including fights and indecent exposure.  Officials from the National Science Foundation told an audit of healthy and safety at the two US-run bases — McMurdo Station and the South Pole — that drinking has led to “unpredictable behaviour that has led to fights, indecent exposure, and employees arriving to work under the influence," according to a report in Wired.  The agency is reportedly considering shipping several breathalysers to the isolated stations, which together house up to about 1,150 people, including scientists and support staff.  Look, I don't want to be rude, or anti-science, or anything like that, but aren't these the guys who take the temperature measurements that tell us all about “climate change"?

VW IN TROUBLE – One of Germany's most iconic companies, Volkswagen, is in trouble, and the trouble looks worse and worse.  From The New York Times:   FRANKFURT — Volkswagen’s new chief executive warned on Tuesday that the financial impact from the company’s emissions cheating scandal would be worse than previously acknowledged, forcing the company to curtail investment at a time when all carmakers are trying to keep ahead of a rush of new technology.  The automaker previously said it would set aside 6.5 billion euros, or about $7.3 billion, to cover the cost of bringing vehicles with illegal software into compliance with emissions standards.  “But that will not be enough,” said Matthias Müller, the Volkswagen chief executive, adding that job cuts might be ahead.  The technological slippage can be critical, even fatal.  Cars, and car manufacturing, have changed dramatically in the last ten years alone.  A few years of technological stagnation could make VW an also-ran.

October 7, 2015