Hotel owner tells Hispanic workers to change names

Oct 26, 2009 - TAOS, N.M. – Larry Whitten marched into this northern New Mexico town in late July on a mission: resurrect a failing hotel. The tough-talking former Marine immediately laid down some new rules. - 44 Comments

Site Helps Chefs Find Farmers, And Fresh Produce

Sep 29, 2009 - With the popularity of locally grown vegetables soaring, a new Web site hopes to make it easier for chefs to find farmers in their area — and have produce delivered to their restaurants. The idea behind FarmsReach.com is to provide one-stop-shopping for fresh produce from many farms at once. FarmsReach launched in San Francisco's Bay Area last spring; its owners plan to expand to seven other regions around the country. - 9 Comments

Passing a Shell of A Bill: Congress’ Secret Plan to Ram Through Health Care Reform

Sep 23, 2009 - http://blog.heritage.org/2009/09/22/passing-a-shell-of-a-bill-how-congress-plans-to-ram-through-health-care-reform/   With the President and Congress’s plan to pass comprehensive health care reform reaching increasingly high levels of unpopularity, and reconciliation becoming an impediment, the leadership of the Senate is rumored to be preparing a new secret plan to railroad the bill through the Senate in record time by using a seldom used parliamentary procedure.   Their plan is to proceed to a House passed non-health care bill to provide a shell of legislation to give Obamacare a ride to the House then to the President’s desk.  Sound confusing? We lay out the steps below, but essentially the Senate would pass health care reform as an amendment to a completely unrelated bill so the Senate and House could act quickly and without further debate. - 13 Comments

Was the Climate Bill Actually Written When House Voted?

Jul 15, 2009 - Thought this provided interesting context to a claim that keeps coming up In Washington, it's not unusual for lawmakers to get as heated about the arcane rules of Congress as they do about the substance of a bill. Such was the case with a plan to slow climate change passed by the House of Representatives on June 26, 2009. Republican lawmakers not only opposed cap-and-trade because they fear it will be too expensive, but they were angry that they'd had only a few hours to vet 300 pages of last-minute changes to the already massive legislation. - 1 Comment

From THe UK independent on health care

Aug 21, 2009 - http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/ian-birrell-why-i-dont-believe-that-the-nhs-is-sacrosanct-1775088.html Ian Birrell: Why I don't believe that the NHS is sacrosanct In this heartfelt polemic, based on his family's experiences in the health service, our writer argues that it suffers from deep flaws – and we are wrong to ignore them David Sandison Ian Birrell's 15-year-old daughter Iona with her mother, Linnet enlarge It was a simple thing. Another blood test, some more investigations into whatever flawed gene or missing protein might be the cause of my daughter's troubled life, with her terrible seizures, her blindness, her inability to walk or talk or eat unaided. Over the past 15 years, there have been many such attempts to identify her condition. - 21 Comments

Walter Cronkite dies at 92

Jul 18, 2009 - Walter Cronkite didn't just live the life of an anchorman. He invented and embodied it. He fulfilled the ideal of an anchorman before viewers even knew what to expect from the position, or from TV news in general. - 6 Comments