While Judge Orinda Evans didn’t outright declare the network “fake news,” she did rule the network was guilty of a “series of false and defamatory news reports” concerning Davide Carbone, the former CEO of St. Mary’s Medical Center.
“The Court finds these allegations sufficient to establish that CNN was acting recklessly with regard to the accuracy of its report, i.e., with ‘actual malice,” the court’s decision read, released Feb. 15th.
CNN hoped to get the $30 million case dismissed, but that's not going to happen. The judge found that CNN manipulated data and "reported" with bias. For a broadcast station, such a ruling would likely prompt an FCC license revocation, but as CNN is not broadcast over airwaves, the FCC has no jurisdiction here.
Works on phones as well, I'm told. To be frank, I've never been too impressed with Skype's image quality or sound - although I didn't use it often anyway. As with all such apps, it has to be installed on both the sending and receiving device in order to work. But hey, it's free, and works on even WiFi, 2G and 3G networks. Reviews seem to be good, although some still swear by Skype or other apps. But if you do this sort of thing, you might want to consider it as a backup when Skype support is discontinued.
It's VOIP, as are the others. Android users seem to like it, for what that's worth.
The Port of Portland's going to try to revive container shipping out of its dormant Terminal 6. Half a dozen years or so ago, they hired a company based in the Philippines to run the terminal, but the local ILWU boys didn't like 'em:
Though Wyatt said ICTSI had a strong first year in 2011, it eventually became embroiled in disputes with the Local 8 of the ILWU that brought productivity at T6 to a standstill.
Ships that should have been in and out in less than a day were forced to wait a week or more as the union boys staged work slowdowns or simply walked off the job. So the shipping companies called it quits.
Farmers and other producers since have had little choice but to send their containerized products by truck to Seattle and Tacoma, where there were longshoremen who were actually willing to work. That's more expensive for the producers, and increased issues on already-congested I-5. As a result, the Port's releasing ICTSI from its long-term contract and will attempt to re-start container shipping out of Terminal 6. Be nice if they could manage that without the ILWU boys from Portland.
It may come as a surprise, but voter fraud actually does occur in the USA:
COLUMBUS (WCMH) — Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted announced an investigation has uncovered that hundreds of non-US citizens are registered to vote in the state, and dozens of them voted illegally.
Obviously, the numbers will vary from state to state, but despite what we're told, it does occur. Here in Oregon, our Secretary of State recently announced that there is no evidence of voter fraud occurring here. But in a state where everything is done by mail, how would he be able to reach such a determination? If ten ballots are mailed to an assisted living home, what would prevent the caretakers from filling them out? Further, thanks to the Democratics, everyone who gets a driver's license is now automatically registered to vote. Those are among the reasons why I believe that photo identification and physical polling places are essential. And then there's this:
Democratic Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe vetoed a bill that would require investigations of jurisdictions in the state whose voter rolls contain more registered voters than citizens who are eligible to vote. The bill, first introduced by Republican state Sen. Mark D. Obenshain, was prompted by a report that shed light on eight Virginia counties that had more registered voters on their voter rolls than eligible voters.
Let's see: there are more voters than there are eligible citizens. It seems perfectly reasonable to look into that. But being a Democratic, Terry trotted out the "potential disenfranchisement" line and went on to say that the bill would impose undue administrative burdens upon staff - whose job is to ensure election integrity. Can't have that!
They had a bit of trouble with traffic up there yesterday morning after a tanker truck loaded with butane rolled over on the freeway.
Traffic was shut down for about eight hours; it was so bad that a taco truck that was stuck in the mess opened on northbound I-5 near I-90 and began selling lunches.
El Tajin owner Thomas Lopez tells the newspaper that he and his employees "are ready to serve food, everywhere." Good thing, too, as nobody was going anywhere for quite awhile.
In addition to early morning snow - which quickly melted - the Space Needle was struck by lightning. Don't you just hate Mondays?
Rachel Dolezal (to pronounce the last name, emphasize the DOH!) is back in the news. The Spokane, Washington resident - who is white - spent years pretending that she's black, and was so successful at coloring herself up that for a while, there, she was head of the local NAACP. Well, until it emerged that the white girl only "identified" as black, at which point all hell broke loose. NAACP may not be Rayciss, but they darn sure can't have no Cracker heading up a local chapter.
So she had to leave. For a time, she did hair-dressing in Spokane, but it wasn't paying the bills. And although people laugh, she still pretends she's black, as that's what she "identifies" as. She's spent a lot of time tanning, and a lot on bronzing when the tan began to fade. Does her hair up in braids. It ain't easy being black when you're white.
Two years ago, life was going well for Dolezal. Branch president of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and chair of Spokane’s police ombudsman commission, she was well known and respected for her civil rights activism. Her Eastern Washington University students adored her; her 21-year-old son was about to intern for a diversity advocacy group in Washington DC; her younger son was doing well in high school. When a local TV news crew arrived one afternoon to interview her, Dolezal thought they were there to talk about hate crimes.
“Are you,” asked the reporter, “African American?” Like a cartoon, her features froze. “I don’t understand the question.” The reporter pressed, “Are your parents white?” Dolezal turned from the camera and fled.
Footage of the confrontation flew around the world. Dolezal’s white parents released photographs of their daughter as a blonde white child, and appeared on TV to denounce her as a fraud; she had been living a lie, pretending to be black, when she was no more African American than they were. Dolezal resigned from her NAACP position, was fired by the university, lost her local newspaper column and was removed from the police ombudsman commission.
Today Dolezal is jobless, and feeding her family with food stamps. A friend helped her pay this month’s rent; next month she expects to be homeless. She has applied for more than 100 jobs, but no one will hire her, not even to stack supermarket shelves. She applied for a position at the university where she used to teach, and says she was interviewed by former colleagues who pretended to have no recollection of having met her. The only work she has been offered is reality TV, and porn.
At 39, she's not giving up on "identifying" as black. Actual blacks remain outraged around the country, as are apologists with the "transgender community". She can always go back to being a white woman, they all say.
What hurts Dolezal most is not her parents’ betrayal or white people’s mockery, but the anger of the black community.
Trans commentators have been incensed by the suggestion of parallels. “Transgender people transition out of medical necessity,” wrote one. “Dolezal’s ‘transition’ to black, on the other hand, is surrounded by layers of deception.” They argue that her colour was a choice, so cannot be analogous to their gender identity.
Um. No. Gender "identification" is no different from Dolezal's "identification". Both are signs of severe mental issues, although in point of fact, from a purely biological perspective, if you have an X chromosome and a Y chromosome, you are a male - and if you have two X chromosomes, you are a female. That's basic biology. Bruce Jenner is a guy who likes to wear dresses and wigs, who has undergone breast enhancement surgery, and who takes estrogen hormones. But he's still a guy, even though he chooses to "identify" as a woman.
The American College of Pediatricians issued a statement this week condemning gender reclassification in children by stating that transgenderism in children amounts to child abuse.
3. A person’s belief that he or she is something they are not is, at best, a sign of confused thinking. When an otherwise healthy biological boy believes he is a girl, or an otherwise healthy biological girl believes she is a boy, an objective psychological problem exists that lies in the mind not the body, and it should be treated as such.
We have a lot of nutters running around loose today.
Exactly as predicted, automation is coming to fast-food joints, and the Wendy's chain is the latest to announce that they plan to install ordering kiosks at 1000 stores by the end of the year in order to cut labor costs.
Yes, there will still be a few people in the restaurants for the time being, doing the cooking and cleaning, accepting the deliveries, and so forth. But if anybody believed that the franchisees would be willing to pay $15 an hour (plus break time, lunch time, paid time off, etc. as "progressives" in government have been demanding) to ask if you want fries with that, they're nuts.
The kiosks reportedly cost about $15,000 apiece - but they don't get paid time off, breaks, health insurance, and so forth - so they pay for themselves in well under a year. They also don't walk out.
That whole "Fight for $15" thing means that low-skill workers (with the help of labor unions) are fighting themselves right out of a job. Whatever did anybody think would happen? Employers in business will continue to fight back against "progressive" mandates by cutting costs. That's the way the real world operates.
Works on phones as well, I'm told. To be frank, I've never been too impressed with Skype's image quality or sound - although I didn't use it often anyway. As with all such apps, it has to be installed on both the sending and receiving device in order to work. But hey, it's 
Gotta go - our dog thought I was calling him because yep, his name is Oscar.
