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Tuesday, May 2, 2006

According to the Washington Post, nearly sixty percent of the federal government’s workforce will be eligible for retirement over the next ten years; with ninety percent of senior executive service officials expected to do so. Besides depleting Social Security funds, baby boomers will once again leave a big impression on the American workforce and economy. Calling it a “federal retirement tsunami,” the United States Office of Personnel Management (the bureau responsible for government human resources) is preparing for this event in a few manners. In a news release today by the bureau, Director Linda Springer announced that the office would be releasing a major media campaign in efforts to recruit future employees.

With only twenty four percent of United States citizens with a bachelor degree or higher, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, it’s no wonder it has been difficult to attract qualified or interested employees for federal government positions; particularly young people. “We’ve been hearing for so long about how incompetent and shady the government is, but a lot don’t understand the benefits,” said Howard University sophomore Victoria Hooks.

“The challenge is clear, and we are hard at work… with a 21st Century approach to the workplace, the federal government will ride the retirement wave and set the standard for a modern workplace… It will be a modern workplace, one that requires innovative training and encourage more flexibility by managers. The federal workforce will be one that the American people can count on,” said Springer in support of the initiatives for recruitment. Other efforts for recruitment will also include additional employment benefits such as special salaries and relocation bonuses, especially for women.

The recruitment advertisements will reveal themselves in a series of four commercials around the country beginning in mid May 2006.

Thursday, July 23, 2009

Gidget, the chihuahua featured in the Taco Bell adverts in the United States has died from a stroke. The dog died at the age of 15 on Tuesday night. Sue Chipperton, the owner and trainer of Gidget commented saying, “She made so many people happy.” She passed at Chipperton’s home in Santa Clarita, California.

The dog was featured in the 1990s adverts that ran from 1997 to 2000. Gidget was portrayed as a male dog and is remembered for the dubbed saying “Yo quiero Taco Bell” which is Spanish for “I want Taco Bell.” The advert was meant to be shown only once but was turned into a campaign.

Gidget was also featured in Legally Blonde 2 and adverts for the board game Trivial Pursuit.

Thursday, April 7, 2005

The U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee passed an amendment on Wednesday to extend daylight saving time by two months. The bipartisan measure is sponsored by Representative Fred Upton, Republican of Michigan, and Representative Ed Markey, Democrat of Massachusetts.

“The more daylight we have, the less electricity we use,” Representative Ed Markey said. Markey also supported the measure by pointing out the business benefits. “There’s more economic activity, because people feel they can walk around safely,” he said.

“Extending daylight-saving time makes sense, especially with skyrocketing energy costs,” Rep. Fred Upton said.

The bill extends daylight saving time to begin on the first Sunday in March and to end on the last Sunday in November. Daylight saving time currently begins on the first Sunday in April and ends on the first Sunday in October.

The U.S. Department of Transportation estimates that extending daylight saving time would save 10,000 barrels of oil per day. The United States consumes approximately 20 million barrels of oil per day.

The House is planning to approve the energy bill to which the amendment was attached in several weeks. Several other amendments to the bill are still being debated.

Wednesday, June 16, 2010

Billionaire Warren Buffett, Chief Executive of Berkshire Hathaway, auctioned lunch with himself on eBay for US$2.63 million.

Bidding, which started on eBay a few weeks ago, attracted nine bidders, offering huge sums for the opportunity to have a steak lunch with the man said to be a “legendary investor”.

The winning bidder, an anonymous individual, will be parting with $2.63 million for a meal with the world-famed investor and has the opportunity to bring along seven friends for the meal.

This, the latest of Buffett’s charity auctions, is providing funds to the Glide Foundation, a charity that provides food, health care, housing and job training for San Francisco’s homeless.

Over the last ten years, Buffett has netted $5.9 million in donations through such auctions.

Monday, December 3, 2007

At Thanksgiving dinner David Shankbone told his white middle class family that he was to interview Reverend Al Sharpton that Saturday. The announcement caused an impassioned discussion about the civil rights leader’s work, the problems facing the black community and whether Sharpton helps or hurts his cause. Opinion was divided. “He’s an opportunist.” “He only stirs things up.” “Why do I always see his face when there’s a problem?”

Shankbone went to the National Action Network’s headquarters in Harlem with this Thanksgiving discussion to inform the conversation. Below is his interview with Al Sharpton on everything from Tawana Brawley, his purported feud with Barack Obama, criticism by influential African Americans such as Clarence Page, his experience running for President, to how he never expected he would see fifty (he is now 53). “People would say to me, ‘Now that I hear you, even if I disagree with you I don’t think you’re as bad as I thought,'” said Sharpton. “I would say, ‘Let me ask you a question: what was “bad as you thought”?’ And they couldn’t say. They don’t know why they think you’re bad, they just know you’re supposed to be bad because the right wing tells them you’re bad.”

Tuesday, November 22, 2005

Detroit Red Wings defenseman Jiri Fischer was hospitalized Monday night after suffering a seizure while on the bench during an ice hockey game in Detroit. He is listed in stable condition.

Late in the first period in a game against the Nashville Predators at Joe Louis Arena, Fischer collapsed on the bench. According to Red Wing coach Mike Babcock, Fischer suffered a seizure, and went into cardiac arrest. He was revived by team medical staff, who used a defibrillator to restart Fischer’s heart. He was taken by ambulance to Detroit Receiving Hospital. Fox Sports Detroit reported that he was awake and talking to hospital staff.

As of Monday night, Fischer’s condition was listed as stable.

In September 2002, Fischer had an abnormal electrocardiogram reading, forcing him to miss two days of training camp. A subsequent follow-up test was passed.

The game, which was officially stopped with 7:30 left in the first period, was cancelled. The game will be made up on January 23, 2006.

Saturday, October 27, 2007

Gay Talese wants to go to Iraq. “It so happens there is someone that’s working on such a thing right now for me,” the 75-year-old legendary journalist and author told David Shankbone. “Even if I was on Al-Jazeera with a gun to my head, I wouldn’t be pleading with those bastards! I’d say, ‘Go ahead. Make my day.'”

Few reporters will ever reach the stature of Talese. His 1966 profile of Frank Sinatra, Frank Sinatra Has a Cold, was not only cited by The Economist as the greatest profile of Sinatra ever written, but is considered the greatest of any celebrity profile ever written. In the 70th anniversary issue of Esquire in October 2003, the editors declared the piece the “Best Story Esquire Ever Published.”

Talese helped create and define a new style of literary reporting called New Journalism. Talese himself told National Public Radio he rejects this label (“The term new journalism became very fashionable on college campuses in the 1970s and some of its practitioners tended to be a little loose with the facts. And that’s where I wanted to part company.”)

He is not bothered by the Bancrofts selling The Wall Street Journal—”It’s not like we should lament the passing of some noble dynasty!”—to Rupert Murdoch, but he is bothered by how the press supported and sold the Iraq War to the American people. “The press in Washington got us into this war as much as the people that are controlling it,” said Talese. “They took information that was second-hand information, and they went along with it.” He wants to see the Washington press corp disbanded and sent around the country to get back in touch with the people it covers; that the press should not be so focused on–and in bed with–the federal government.

Augusten Burroughs once said that writers are experience junkies, and Talese fits the bill. Talese–who has been married to Nan Talese (she edited James Frey‘s Million Little Piece) for fifty years–can be found at baseball games in Cuba or the gay bars of Beijing, wanting to see humanity in all its experience.

Below is Wikinews reporter David Shankbone’s interview with Gay Talese.