Jan 8, 2009 | 3:52 PM
Category:
News
By Jeffry Bartash, MarketWatch Last update: 4:15 p.m. EST Jan. 8, 2009 WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) -- The incoming Obama administration on Thursday asked Congress to postpone the nationwide switch to digital television, saying too many Americans would lose their TV signals if the change takes place as planned in mid-February. John Podesta, co-chairman of Obama's transition team, sent a letter to top lawmakers in the House and Senate requesting the delay until later in 2009. He said the government has not provided enough financial support and consumer information to make the planned switch. "We have discovered major difficulties in the preparation for the February 17 conversion," Podesta wrote. On Feb. 17, U.S. broadcasters are slated to switch from decades-old analog signals to digital transmission. Customers without satellite or cable hookups would lose the ability to receive over-the-air channels unless they connected a converter box to their TVs. The boxes convert digital signals to analog on older TV sets. The federal government allotted about $1.5 billion for coupons to subsidize the purchase of converter boxes, but it's already run out of the $40 vouchers. More customers requested the coupons than the government expected and consumers have not been put on a waiting list. See here for more information. Converter boxes sell for $50 or more in retail stores. Prices are eventually expected to fall but it could take awhile. Critics also say the Bush administration has mishandled the transition, leaving millions of consumers in the dark about the planned switch. On Wednesday, the nonprofit group Consumers Union urged lawmakers to postpone the digital transition. The decision by the president-elect's team to weigh in suggests a delay is increasingly likely. Leading lawmakers in the ruling Democratic Party such as Rep. Ed Markey, D-Mass., have already indicated a willingness to push back the digital switchover. One alternative is to inject more money into the coupon program, but Consumers Union said there's not enough time ahead of the Feb. 17 date. Some Republicans immediately voice objections. "Ditching the deadline and slathering on more millions of taxpayer dollars, however, is just panic," said Joe Barton, R-Texas Digital broadcasts deliver a superior picture compared to analog and are ideally suited for high-definition televisions. Millions of consumers have purchased HDTVs over the past five years. Cable and satellite boxes also convert analog signals to digital, so most cable and satellite customers do not need a converter box. 
Jeffry Bartash is a reporter for MarketWatch in Washington.
With all the notice we were given on this switch, I don't see why some are not prepared.
As for the reporters comment stating the Bush administration is to blame. I say, HOG WASH! If anyone doesn't know about this or claims not to, then they most likely were locked up in solitary confinement or dead.
Jan 8, 2009 | 12:21 PM
Category:
News
Or perhaps this one was a late entry for 2008.
16 year old Lauryn Last of Washington gave birth on December 30, 2008 then proceded to drown the new born boy in the toilet and with the help of her father tossed him in the garbage.
Officials are currently looking in the landfill for the infants remains.
The proud mother and her father are currently sitting in the local jail.
I think the media needs to show her face to the world instead of trying to protect this baby killer.
These are human lives! If you don't want a baby keep a quarter squeezed between your knees and if that doesn't work place the baby with someone who won't murder it!
Jan 6, 2009 | 4:59 PM
Category:
News
The Texas Department of Transportation has nixed the Trans Texas corridor.
Their reasoning is most Texans are against it.
Score one for Texans for not giving up on what's right.
This corridor would have followed a line from the Mexican border to the Oklahoma border.
It would have cut through the middle of many farms and left the owners with no way to get from one side of their land to the other. Besides most Texans not wanting this the TDOT has also cited the cost of building such a highway.
Jan 6, 2009 | 11:11 AM
Category:
News
Texas Legislature To Take Up "Anchor Babies" And Denial Of In-State Tuition And Social Services For Illegal Aliens In January By Digger
Lawmakers in Texas will be taking up birthright citizenship and other immigration issues this January. Republican state Representative Leo Berman has brought forth the bill regarding birthright citizenship and hopes that it reaches the Supreme Court.
Other bills include denial of in-state tuition, food stamps, health care and public housing for illegal aliens.
Unsurprisingly Democrats, the un-American ACLU and racist support group LULAC (League of Latin American Citizens) have vowed to fight the bills tooth and nail.
And of course we have some who seem to think that all laws have to be "Christian" such as this nitwit Democratic state Representative Norma Chavez
AP
"It'd be an embarrassment for Texas to pass (Berman's) legislation 
," said Democratic state Rep. Norma Chavez of El Paso, who chairs the Texas House's border and international affairs committee. She called the measure un-Christian and un-American.
I think Norma Chavez needs to reread that part about separation of church and state. And she's the one in charge of border legislation?
What is un-American is allowing illegal foreign nationals to come here and take American taxpayer's money, disenfranchising American students and driving down American's wages. There's nothing more un-American than that.
California has something similar going.
Jan 5, 2009 | 6:17 PM
Category:
News
I needed a truck load of kleenex after viewing this video.
I don't know about you, but I won't be buying a thousand latte's. I never have before so why start now?
