Earlier this week negotiations between CBS and Time Warner Cable broke down and for a few minutes, channels started dropping from the cable service. An extension on the deadline brought channels back quickly, but time is up once again and subscribers are being greeted by the message above. The blackout applies to CBS in New York City, Los Angeles and Dallas, plus Showtime, The Movie Channel, Flix and Smithsonian Channel nationwide. According to CBS, this is the first time it's ever been dropped from a cable system, and it has followed up with a note from Showtime claiming TWC removed the premium channel despite authorization to keep it while negotiations continue. Time Warner Cable has its own statement, claiming CBS has "refused to have a productive discussion" since the Tuesday morning extension in talks.
With the NFL season looming we'll see how long TWC is willing to push CBS.com (which some of you have reported is being blocked by CBS), Aereo and antennas as alternative solutions in these major markets and whether CBS is willing to live without the viewership. For now, subscribers missing The Doctors can check out a video from TWC explaining exactly what happens behind the scenes when channels go dark.
Texas has done a lot of good for this country: the King Ranch and Texas-style chili. Dr. Pepper and the Dallas Cowboy cheerleaders. Rick Perry and Ted Cruz. Patrick Swayze.
Texas also gave America Sheila Jackson Lee. So let?s call it even.
Since 1995, Jackson Lee (D.) has represented Texas?s 18th congressional district, which comprises much of inner-city Houston. Now at least one group on Capitol Hill is eyeing her for higher office: The Congressional Black Caucus is recommending that Jackson Lee replace Janet Napolitano as secretary of the Department of Homeland Security.
Advertisement
Jackson Lee is one of 32 House members who sit on the House Homeland Security Committee, which is her apparent qualification for heading up DHS. According to the CBC?s letter to President Obama recommending Jackson Lee, the congresswoman ?understands the importance of increasing border security and maintaining homeland security? ? which, if that is considered a qualification, sets the bar frighteningly low. Then the CBC adds that she would be a ?voice of reason? at DHS.
Sheila Jackson Lee is many things. ?Voice of reason? is not among them.
During the 2011 hearings on Islamic terrorism, held by Representative Peter King (R., N.Y.), Jackson Lee railed against them as ?an effort to demonize and to castigate a whole broad base of human beings.? She then lamented that the committee was not spending its time on genuine terroristic threats: ?the cold cases of the civil-rights movement,? for example. She encouraged the committee to hold hearings to determine ?whether Klansmen still roam today and terrorize individuals in parts of this country.?
And she also quoted herself. In the third person.
In Jackson Lee?s ideal world, September 11 was caused by a group of white-nationalist southerners in hoods. Or, perhaps, by embittered former plantation owners ? by whom she has, apparently, been personally victimized. Jackson Lee declared on the House floor earlier this year, ?I stand here as a freed slave because this Congress came together.? No, that is not out of context. And there is no context in which that quote would make sense.
It is, though, representative of Jackson Lee?s style: Make sweeping and unfounded accusations of racism first; ask questions?.?.?.?well, never.
In 2011, Jackson Lee insinuated on the House floor that Republicans opposed raising the debt ceiling because of racism: ?I am particularly sensitive to the fact that only this president,? she said, ?only this one, only this one has received the kind of attacks and disagreements and inability to work. Only this one. Read between the lines. What is different about this president?? It is ?because we elected the first African American president? that some states are now pushing for voter ID.
The House floor was apparently the proper platform from which to berate a Pepsi commercial that aired during the 2011 Super Bowl. In the ad for Pepsi Max, a black woman throws her soda can at her boyfriend or husband for glancing at an attractive white jogger; when he ducks, the can hits the jogger, and the couple scurries away. The ad ?showed a demeaning role for African American women,? said Jackson Lee.
She even complained that devastating natural disasters are used to promote racism, telling the Hill in 2003 that hurricane names are too ?lily white? and that ?all racial groups should be represented.? She suggested more hurricanes named ?Keisha, Jamal, and Deshawn.?
Beyond arguing that America should be directing its drone strikes at remaining grand wizards, Jackson Lee?s homeland-security expertise is scant, although she does have personal experience with one global hotspot: Jackson Lee was so impressed with Syrian dictator Bashar Assad, she told the Houston Chronicle when she arrived home from a 2003 ?fact-finding? mission in the Middle East, that she invited him to come speak in Texas. ?Let?s see what he can do,? she said of the strongman who, she enthused, ?even gave us a picture of him and his children.? A decade on, the world has seen exactly what he can do. In December of last year Jackson Lee called for his resignation. But that speaking invitation might still stand.
Jackson Lee has a soft spot for tyrants. In 2007, implying that she was among the ?many friends? of Hugo Ch?vez in Congress, she encouraged the Bush administration to repair relations with Venezuela. An excellent way to do that, she suggested, would be to end the ban on selling F-16 fighter-jet parts to Venezuela.
In 2000 Jackson Lee called for the end of economic sanctions against Iraq.
And if it is not enough that she has been habitually seduced by brutal dictators and has opposed nearly every defense measure brought before Congress during her career, there are also Jackson Lee?s moments of Bidenesque folly.
In 2010 she took to the House floor to celebrate that ?today, we have two Vietnams, side by side, North and South, exchanging and working. We may not agree with all that North Vietnam is doing, but they are living in peace.?
Five years earlier, during a visit to the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California, Jackson Lee asked a guide whether the Mars Pathfinder had managed to photograph the flag planted by Neil Armstrong in 1969. Needless to say, the rover missed it ? by several million miles. At the time Jackson Lee was one of the handful of House members tasked with setting America?s space policy.
At an NAACP event in Kansas City in 2010, she compared?the Tea Party to the KKK, remarking, ?All those who wore sheets a long time ago have now lifted them off and started wearing [applause], uh, clothing, uh, with a name.? Which is an apt description for Jackson Lee. But along with such penetrating insights she would also bring to DHS a reputation as one of the worst bosses on Capitol Hill, according to Jonathan Strong, now a reporter with National Review Online. She is known to throw tantrums, regularly screaming and swearing at her staff. A few years ago she effectively replaced one employee?s name with ?you stupid motherf***er.? ?It?s like being an Iraq War veteran,? one staffer said.
Jackson Lee made her thoughts clear to her onetime Capitol-office executive assistant, Rhiannon Burruss, years ago: ?I am a queen, and I demand to be treated like a queen.?
A gaffe-prone, race-baiting autocrat-appeaser who believes she?s royalty? On second thought, in this administration she?d fit right in.
? Ian Tuttle is an editorial intern at National Review.
';
} else if (google_ads.length > 1) {
s += 'Ads by Google
'
/*
* For text ads, append each ad to the string.
*/
for(i = 0; i ' +
google_ads[i].line1 + ' ' +
google_ads[i].line2 + '?' +
google_ads[i].line3 + '' +
google_ads[i].visible_url + '
';
}
}
}
if (google_ads[0].bidtype == "CPC") { /* insert this snippet for each ad call */
google_adnum = google_adnum + google_ads.length;
}
document.write(s);
return;
}
google_ad_client = 'pub-9695435974299667'; /* substitute your client_id (pub-#) */
google_ad_output = 'js';
google_max_num_ads = '3';
google_ad_channel= '4359827624';
google_ad_type = 'text';
google_feedback = 'on';
google_adtest = 'off';
google_skip = google_adnum; /* to skip for multiple units, insert this snippet for each ad call */
// -->
A tropical storm has formed off of Baja, California, and is moving west toward the Central Pacific.
Tropical Storm Gil, with maximum sustained winds of 40 mph, is about 815 miles south-southwest of Baja and is headed west-northwest at 15 mph on a trajectory that could bring it into the Central Pacific next week.
The earliest Gil could enter the Central Pacific would be Monday or Tuesday, according to Tom Brichard, a senior forecaster at the Central Pacific Hurricane Center. But he stressed it is too early to predict any possible effects for Hawaii.
Because the storm is still in the Eastern Pacific, it is being tracked by the National Hurricane Center in Miami.
The current 5-day forecast shows Gil strengthening into a hurricane by Friday but weakening back to a tropical storm over the weekend as it nears the Central Pacific.
Behind Gil, another storm system is forming and has a 40 percent chance of strengthening into a tropical cyclone over the next 48 hours, according to the National Hurricane Center. It is moving west at 15 mph and is about 750 miles south of the tip of Baja.
The two storms come on the heels of the former Tropical Storm Flossie which gave the islands a glancing blow Monday. The storm brought heavy rain and thunderstorms, mainly to Hawaii island and Maui County, as it skirted past the island chain and gradually weakened to a tropical depression, then a post-tropical depression today.
Star-Advertiser Weather Page
State Doppler Radar Loop
Local Radar Loop
State Satellite Loop
UH vog forecast
Reader submitted photos
Lightning strike leaves hole where it tore through Maui home
Flood advisory lifted for Kauai
Tropical storm forms off Baja, California
Kihei residents get flood scare when culvert overflows
Big Isle residents escape Flossie relatively unscathed
Power restored to nearly all Maui residents
Nine state parks and facilities reopen, seven still closed in Flossie's wake
Zapped Out
Thousands on Maui, Big Island without electricity
Wave of flight cancellations poses little threat to industry
Lightning, heavy rain hit valley isle
Photos: Hawaii island prepares for Flossie
Impact minimal as force diminishes
Flossie patrol, Monday
Oahu under flood advisory as rains from Maui reach island
Hawaii County under state of emergency; residents get ready
Tropical Storm Flossie predicted to drench isles this week
Abercrombie signs emergency proclamation ahead of Flossie's arrival
Maui mayor: Residents need to get ready to face Flossie
FEMA issues advisory for Hawaii on Tropical Storm Flossie
Hawaiian Electric vows to be ready for Flossie's fury
More Hawaii County closures announced, including bus system
Coast Guard reopens Hawaii island ports; Kahului port still closed
Flossie's strike marks first for Big Isle
State closes numerous parks, trails and campgrounds
Isles brace for Flossie's fury
Oahu emergency officials offer advice, warnings for residents
Flossie intensifies, could hit Maui and/or Big Island
State Civil Defense: Flossie could bring heavy rain, winds and floods
Text of National Weather Service's Tropical Storm Watch advisory
A ?weak? tornado hit the east end during rush hour Monday evening, Environment Canada has confirmed.
The funnel cloud touched the ground, damaging more than a dozen trees at Pine View Golf Course, near Blair Rd. and Hwy. 174, around 5:30 p.m.
?This thing took down trees that are two to three feet (in) girth, a huge part of a maple tree, and then a significant willow tree, which was two to three feet in diameter and just ripped it down, like, snapped it like it was a twig,? said head golf professional Scott Mikkelsen.
Fifteen minutes earlier, it was ?relatively calm and sunny,?
?The wind picked up, the temperature dropped, and then the funnel cloud came rolling through, leaving a path of (damage).?
No one was on the course, which had been cleared for the third time that day due to stormy weather.
The tornado moved diagonally from one corner of the property to the other heading southeast, said Mikkelsen.
?You could see the actual path that it took. The grass was all beaten down.?
Overall, this was ?really not a big event in the grand scheme of things,? said meteorologist Peter Kimbell.
Forecasters didn?t see it coming, Kimbell said, noting it wasn?t on par with storms in the U.S. or even the microburst wreaking havoc in Petawawa on July 19.
?It is unusual? for Ottawa, said Kimbell, referring to a similar event near the Canadian Tire on Ogilvie Rd. in 2000.
Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt: 'Today marks an historic moment in the NHS'. Picture: Dominic Lipinski/PA Wire
Tuesday, July 30, 2013 6:22 PM
A government test which today revealed an NHS Trust in north London comes lowest recommended by its patients of any in the country has been criticised as being ?misleading?.
The NHS?s ?friends and family test? also found that Barking, Havering and Redbridge University Hospitals NHS Trust in east London was the least popular among inpatients as it became clear decisions on the presentation and calculation methodology were made by ministers at the Department of Health, not NHS officials.
The Patients Association said the test would ?not address fundamental failures? in the health service.
The results - published for the first time today - are ?confusing to navigate?, the charity said. Nine in every 10 patients who attended the hospital with the ?worst? A&E department in the country would recommend that their friends and family should seek treatment at the hospital.
Indeed Chase Farm Hospital in north London was the only accident and emergency ward in England to receive a ?negative? score, but of the 516 of patients who were asked whether or not they would recommend the hospital, 295 said they were ?extremely likely? and 167 said they would be ?likely? to encourage their loved ones to seek treatment there - a total of 89.5 per cent.
Katherine Murphy, chief executive of the Patients Association, said: ?It is so complicated and confusing to navigate from a patients point of view. I?m not sure how it?s going to help.
?No one wants to be ill - or indeed in hospital - so asking people to recommend a hospital is not like asking someone to recommend a hotel.
?Asking that question is not going to address some of the failures that there are in the NHS. This could really be seen as a smoke screen to cover some of the more fundamental issues that need to be addressed - like the issue around poor care that so many elderly people experience on a daily basis.?
An NHS England spokeswoman explained why patients who said they were ?likely? but not ?extremely likely? to recommend a service were treated as returning neutral answers, the reason Chase Farm Hospital has a negative score despite nearly 90 per cent of patients saying they would recommend it to loved ones.
She said: ?Decisions on calculation and presentation methodology were made by DH (Department of Health) ministers, informed by views of the NHS England and SHAs (Strategic Health Authorities), plus research commissioned from Ipsos MORI on stakeholder reactions to different calculation and presentation options.?
Prime Minister David Cameron launched the initiative last year, saying that the simple test would help under-performing hospitals in England to ?raise their game?.
And Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt said: ?Today marks an historic moment in the NHS. This simple survey will give us the information we need to celebrate the best in our NHS and root out poor care.
?By making these ratings public we?re giving patients the power to choose the best place for their care - and driving other hospitals to raise their game.?
10X Business Letter July 30th, 2013 San Diego, Ca Partly Cloudy 71 Degrees ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Dear Business Builder,
Today we continue with part 3 of our video series entitled, "The 7 Closing Mistakes Presenters Make Part".
Loving Living Giving Large,
Jeff Paro Editor ? The 10X Business Letter
In our first video, we introduced the first mistake:
1.) Most presenters develop their content without thinking FIRST about their offer.
And in our second video, we introduced the second mistake:
2.) Most presenters feel uncomfortable talking about their offer at the end of the presentation.
In this video we will introduce to you mistake number # 3 which is very simple, yet super important?it is this one:
3.) Most presents run out of time during their close
And when that happens, they conversions decreases dramatically because now they rush during the close, they speak way too fast and they don?t allow enough time for the audience to make a decision.
I remember one time when I was speaking at a car dealership and got super excited about a couple of stories, and I ended up speaking more than I should. I went way too long. All I sudden I heard a voice in the speaker system ?the dealership is about to open, salespeople on the floor?, so the audience (car salesman) looked at me and said ?thank you Roberto? and they stood up and left the room! Not fun at all!
So what can you do so you never commit this mistake like I did?
First, practice your close and time it. Your close should be ingrained in your body. You should know exactly how long it is, for example: 3 minutes and 30 seconds, 4 minutes, 2 minutes and 10 seconds. Time it!
Second, you must track your time during your presentation, or have someone in the audience helping you track your time. Otherwise you may speak way long and commit this mistake
And third, have some transitional phrases ready to go, so in the event you went too long, or maybe the meeting organizer wants to cut you short, you can transition to the close immediately, anytime you want.
Here is a transitions phrase that you can use anytime during your presentation
Example: ?And that leads us to the most important part of the presentation: how we can really help you implement this information?
When you follow these 3 simple ideas, you will never run out of time during your close.
If you believe that presenting and speaking can advance your business, help you get more clients, and position yourself as the expert in your filed, feel free to visit out event page as www.infuencingfromthefront.com
And I will see you in our next video, video number 4.
A Reuters news service Twitter account appeared to have been hacked Monday, as the news organization suddenly began tweeting messages supportive of the Syrian president.
According to screenshots from the Atlantic Wire, a Thomson Reuters corporate Twitter account @thomsonreuters began posting pro-president Bashar Al-Assad images Monday evening, followed by a tweet reading, "Always via Syrian Electronic Army (@Official_SEA12) #Syria #SyrianElectronicArmy pic.twitter.com/67plhvWgDD."
A Thomson Reuters spokesman told The Wall Street Journal's Digits blog Monday night in an email: ?Earlier today @thomsonreuters was hacked. In this time, unauthorized individuals have posted fabricated tweets of which Thomson Reuters is not the source. The account has been suspended and is currently under investigation.?
In April, the SEA, a group described as "A collective of pro-Assad hackers and online activists," hacked an Associated Press Twitter account, leading to a drop in the Dow Jones Industrial Average. The SEA also has hacked other news organizations including NPR, BBC and Al Jazeera.
HuffPost's Gerry Smith wrote at the time that the AP attack "showed how hackers are using so-called 'phishing' techniques to compromise Twitter accounts belonging to some of the most respected news agencies in the world, renewing questions about the social network's security measures."
Jackson Lee is one of 32 House members who sit on the House Homeland Security Committee, which is her apparent qualification for heading up DHS. According to the CBC?s letter to President Obama recommending Jackson Lee, the congresswoman ?understands the importance of increasing border security and maintaining homeland security? ? which, if that is considered a qualification, sets the bar frighteningly low. Then the CBC adds that she would be a ?voice of reason? at DHS. 
Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt: 'Today marks an historic moment in the NHS'. Picture: Dominic Lipinski/PA Wire