Free Republic

Raises may be small and bonuses a distant memory of better times, but one workplace number isn't frozen: Employees can expect a double-digit percentage increase next year in the cost of health insurance they get through the office. This year's health care overhaul combined with other factors will push the average cost per Houston employee to $4,946 next year — 12 percent more than this year — according to Aon Hewitt, a human resource consulting firm that tracks medical costs. The figure includes insurance premiums and insurance-related expenses such as co-pays and deductibles. The firm surveyed 350 large employers nationwide,...

The Great Influenza pandemic killed as many as 100 million worldwide when the global population was less than a third of what it is today. It killed more people in twenty-four weeks than AIDS has killed in twenty-four years, more people in a year than the Black Death of the Middle Ages in a century. It didn't single out the very young and the very old. Half those who died were young people in the prime of life - in their 20's and 30's. By a bizarre and unprecedented stroke it turned the immune system itself into a killer. Two-thirds...

One of the "Most Commented" stories on the Houston Chronicle was the story about Joe Wilson shouting "You lie!" during Obama's speech. The story appears as a "Most Commented" story in the right hand column on the website. Upon clicking on that link, the story is "Access forbidden" and is not found. Interesting.

BOGOTA -- Three Americans held captive by Colombia's leftist rebels for 5 1/2 years published a memoir Thursday full of wrenching survival stories and unkind words about Ingrid Betancourt, the most famous hostage who shared their jungle prisons. The chronicle of the U.S. military contractors' 1,967 days as rebel captives describes their pain and perseverance, mind-numbing boredom in jungle cages, forced marches in chains, close calls under fire and ultimately, a miraculous rescue. ( Read Rest at Link)

NEW YORK -- The Hearst Corp. today announced an effort to reverse the deepening operating losses of its San Francisco Chronicle by seeking near-term cost savings that would include "significant" cuts to both union and non-union staff. In a posted statement, Hearst said if the savings cannot be accomplished "quickly" the company will seek a buyer, and if none comes forward, it will close the Chronicle. The Chronicle lost more than $50 million in 2008 and is on a pace to lose more than that this year, Hearst said. Frank J. Vega, chairman and publisher of the Chronicle, said, "It's...

The Hearst Corp. said Tuesday that unless the San Francisco Chronicle can undertake "critical" cost cutting measures including job cuts within weeks, the company will be forced to sell or close the newspaper. Hearst said the Chronicle lost more than $50 million last year and added that, "this year's losses to date are worse." The Chronicle has had major losses each year since 2001, Hearst said. The closely-held media company said cost reductions including an unspecified reduction in union and non-union employees are needed to restore the Chronicle to health.

VIDEO HERE. Barack Obama stated his intention to bankrupt the coal industry in an interview with the San Francisco Chronicle. That would throw countless people out of work, devastate the economy of many coal producing states, and send electricity prices skyrocketing for everyone. Sarah Palin opposes Barack's bankrupt plan and pledges to fight with everything she has for working Americans! Please ask everyone you know to vote for her Tuesday November 4th!!!

In his 1842 classic "Morte d'Arthur," Alfred Lord Tennyson has the dying King Arthur say to his mourners: The old order changeth, yielding place to new; and God fulfills himself in many ways, lest one good custom should corrupt the world. Those Famous Last Words can now apply to two of the best-known and once widely read institutions in the United States, the Washington Post and the San Francisco Chronicle. Along with almost all of U.S. daily newspapers, these strongly liberal – one of them a one-time toppler of a president of the United States – are beginning to lose,...

The Houston Chronicle is now the sixth-largest metropolitan newspaper in the nation on Sundays — up from seventh — and remains at seventh-place weekdays, the Audit Bureau of Circulations reported Monday. Chronicle Publisher and President Jack Sweeney said the Chronicle was outperforming most major markets in the country. "We virtually held steady in daily circulation and showed a gain on Sunday," Sweeney said. Sunday circulation ticked up .09 percent, from 692,593 to 693,228. Daily circulation dipped .13 percent, from 508,091 to 507,437. "We want more of our readers engaged in the paper seven days a week, so we've worked hard...

Looks like Christian Chronicle web site has been defaced by sickos.

Debate and Switch What do MyDD, Daily Kos, and the San Francisco Chronicle have in common? They're all involved in The Lie of the Week. The Fox haters' echo chamber is reverberating like crazy. They've got a new bee in their bonnet: Freeze Out Fox News! The Nevada Democratic Party has had the affrontery to cosponsor a Presidential debate with the eeevil FNC, and the haters will have none of it. The anti-Fox warriors always find it necessary to embroider the truth (what's left of it) with a tapestry of tall tales, stories that the gullible swallow uncritically in...

Newspaper circulation fell 2.6 percent in the six-month period ending in March, according to data released Monday, as the industry continued to struggle with competition from other media outlets and the Internet. The decline in average paid weekday circulation was about the same as the previous time newspapers reported six-month circulation figures for the period ending last September, according to the Newspaper Association of America, a trade group. The NAA reported that average paid circulation at Sunday newspapers fell 3.1 percent versus the same period a year ago, also a comparable decline with the last time circulation figures were reported....

Gunman who at one point was holding eight people is taken into custody early Thursday. AP

Today (Tuesday) the San Francisco Chronicle ran an editorial entitled, “Why Alito is the wrong choice.” Instead of demonstrating what it says, it demonstrates why the Chronicle has failed to do its homework as reporters, in preparing its editorial. Here’s why: The editorial begins with this statement: In some ways, Alito's taciturn approach to questions about the great constitutional issues of our time was similar to that of Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. But the distinction between the history of the two judges -- and the role of the justice they were nominated to replace -- are important. First,...

The Chronicle of Higher Education yesterday published a story on Supreme Court nominee Harriet Miers. It spoke of her “playing a key role” in the late 1990s in establishing the Louise B. Raggio lectureship at Southern Methodist University, Miss Miers’ alma mater. The article says Miss Miers “pushed for the creation” of the Raggio speakers’ series. The Raggio lectureship brought an apparently unbroken string of pro-abortion speakers to the university’s Dallas campus. Among those tapped to enlighten young law students were Gloria Steinem, founder of Ms. Magazine and a veteran campaigner for liberal abortion laws. Also holding forth were Congresswoman...

Cancer patient Earl Robicheaux, his immune system depleted by radical chemotherapy, lay in a hospital bed as Hurricane Katrina bore down on New Orleans. Trying to leave, he thought, seemed suicidal. But after four days in the hospital's reeking darkness, he escaped via a Black Hawk helicopter that landed on the roof of the University Hospital under heavy guard because of the threat of sniper fire. It was not the evacuation plan authorities had envisioned for its sick, its elderly and its poor. As the floodwaters recede, serious questions remain about whether New Orleans and Louisiana officials followed their own...

NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- As the editor of the San Francisco Chronicle's datebook section, 58-year-old David Wiegand has pretty much seen it all. But when he met Sean Penn, Wiegand had the same reaction that a lot of us would have if we ever encountered the Oscar-winning actor. "You can't help but admire him," Wiegand said, reflecting on Penn's memorable performances in such powerful films as "Mystic River," "I Am Sam" and "Dead Man Walking." At the same time, Wiegand smiled and stressed that he "wasn't star-struck." That's good, because Wiegand couldn't afford the luxury, anyway. He edited Penn's ambitious...

Craig Newmark already has tormented newspapers by creating a Web site where anyone can post ads at little or no cost, capturing an ever-growing share of the classified advertising market that had been one of the industry's most dependable sources of revenue. Now, the founder of Craigslist.org is pondering ways to improve upon newspapers. He smells an opportunity, convinced that publishers are more interested in preserving short-term profits than pursuing online audiences who still passionately care about journalism but don't read newspapers. ``There is a lot of change coming and I want to make whatever contribution I can. I'm just...

Pasadena police on Friday were looking for a man who they said sold fake newspaper subscriptions, including one to the Houston Chronicle, to area residents earlier this week. According to Pasadena police, a man was going door-to-door in the 5000 block of Fairdale Street about 6 p.m. Thursday posing as a newspaper subscription salesman. At one home, the man, described as being between 30 and 40 years old, told a resident she could renew her subscription to the Pasadena Citizen for $10 a month, police spokesman Martin DeLeon said. The man asked the 61-year-old resident to write a check for...

You can make the argument that last year's Super Bowl kicked off the morality war in earnest, led by Janet Jackson's right breast and a host of crude commercials. This year an old guy sang at halftime and a cheap dot-com ad -- now there's a Super Bowl chestnut -- tried to send up the whole affair and failed. Does this mean we're a more civilized, less sex-obsessed, fully cultured country? Nah, it was still mostly beer, boobs, cars and head-crunching football all day long.

Nov. 23, 2004, 7:49PM The Chronicle's Nov. 22 editorial, "Shooting the messenger / In slapping the hand of Congressman Bell, a House committee risks discouraging future ethics complaints," revealed once again the Chronicle's bias against U.S. Rep. Tom DeLay, R-Sugar Land, which is costing the paper credibility with readers. No one believes the paper's position that the censure of lame duck Congressman Chris Bell will discourage honestly posed ethics complaints. Hopefully, it will discourage dishonest rhetoric, false accusations and mean-spirited, politically motivated charges made and timed to influence a political foe's campaign. If the Chronicle wants to write honest editorials,...

The earnings of many top university presidents are spiraling up toward $1 million a year, according to an annual survey by The Chronicle of Higher Education, rising far more quickly than faculty salaries. Forty-two presidents of private universities were paid $500,000 or more in the 2003 fiscal year, the most recent for which figures are available, compared with 27 presidents the previous year. Just two earned half a million in 1994. The highest-paid private university president, William R. Brody of Johns Hopkins University, earned $897,786 in university compensation, not counting at least $100,000 in annual pay for membership on several...

'Child's Pay' ad hits the airwaves Nixed by Super Bowl, dot-com moves on MoveOn.org, the politically left-leaning Internet-based advocacy group whose Super Bowl commercial criticizing the nation's deficit was rejected by CBS, is separately attacking President Bush in ads running in four states. The rejected ad had been selected the winner by a panel of judges in a competition staged by MoveOn.org. The ad, by Charlie Fisher of Denver, is called "Child's Pay,'' and shows children washing dishes in a restaurant, cleaning an office building, hauling trash and standing on an assembly line - with the tagline, "Guess who's going...

Has the President Gone on a "Spending Spree"? Only if you think that withdrawing from the war and surrendering the world to Osama bin Laden is a viable option. A lot of conservatives have been on a tear lately (myself included). Every time you turn around, someone is screaming about government spending and the there are those who are more than happy to exploit the confusion surrounding spending issues to erode support for the President. The San Francisco Chronicle recently put out a hit piece attempting to spin the spending numbers in a way that makes the President seem like...

<p>Nevada memo to George Bush: When making a first presidential visit to a state, use the right pronounciation of its name.</p> <p>Bush, in Las Vegas on Tuesday, repeatedly said Ne-vah-da. To properly pronounce Nevada, the middle syllable should rhyme with gamble.</p>

<p>Suppose you were a screenwriter and you used the Bush administration as a model for a screenplay. Do you think anyone in Hollywood would buy it?</p> <p>"Not a chance," would say Steven Spielberg. "Too outlandish. Nobody would believe anything as ridiculously far-fetched as that."</p>

The following was sent out earlier tonight with request for wide distribution...it seems to speak for itself. ------------------------------------------------- The bishops of the Reformed Episcopal Church recently released a statement on homosexuality in the wake of the ECUSA general convention. It was been fairly widely published both on the onternet and in local newspapers by of our parishes. It is printed below for reference. Recently the REC parishes in Houston attempted to run the ad in the upcoming saturday Religion section of Houston Chronicle( a left leaning paper which has been notoriously unsupportive of traditional anglicans for years). The cost we...

Calif. Journalist Suspended Over Antiwar Protest Fri Mar 28, 5:41 PM ET Add Entertainment - Reuters Industry to My Yahoo! By Adam Tanner SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - A San Francisco Chronicle reporter suspended after getting arrested in an anti-war rally said on Friday that he felt unfairly treated and that no one should expect complete objectivity from a journalist. The Chronicle suspended technology reporter Henry Norr, 57, effective Thursday, after he was among more than 1,300 people arrested last week for blocking public streets on the first morning after the Iraq (news - web sites) war started. "I don't write...

Being bereft of hate crimes against Muslims to report, the Chronicle finally turned its attention to the rise of anti-Semitism across the nation, and in particular the Bay Area. Despite the fact that this has been a subject of concern for many since 9/11, the Chron has rarely addressed the issue. Even when Chron articles included so-called Hate Crime statistics showing that attacks on Jews had increased, they still buried the information under headlines that focused on anti-Muslim bias.

<p>A San Francisco Chronicle business and technology reporter has been suspended for at least two weeks without pay for getting arrested during ``peaceful civil disobedience'' in an anti-war demonstration.</p> <p>Henry Norr, a four-year veteran of the paper and author of the weekly column ``Tech 21,'' was among the more than 1,400 protesters arrested March 20, when he, his wife and his daughter helped block the intersection of Market and Sansome streets in San Francisco, near Citicorp offices.</p>

H Norr, an employee of the SF Chronicle was suspended for falsifying a time card taking a sick day off to protest the war.

It seems that the mainstream media is finding it harder and harder to ignore the pro-America rallies that have been taking place with increasing regularity all over the country. Even the Chronicle, which, up until now has steadfastly refused to provide any coverage of these rallies (while at the same time providing nonstop coverage of anti-war activities), has jumped on the bandwagon. Still, their article about the Rally for America that took place in Sacramento on Saturday, 3/22, contains the usual sprinkling of liberal bias. As someone who took part in the 3000-strong Sacramento rally, I’d like to try and...

<p>Tactical Area Coyote, Kuwait -- The guys in Echo Company would like to give a big shout-out to Concord -- hey, Concord -- and Burlingame and San Francisco and Oakland and San Jose and just about all corners of the Bay Area.</p> <p>They're a long way from Ghirardelli Square.</p>

For once, I have to thank the Chronicle.  They did their readers a favor by pointing out the disgusting cover of a new album,''Sonic Jihad,''by a rapper named "Paris."  In case you missed it, the cover depicts a commercial jetliner heading straight for the White House.  By exposing this kind of trash, the Chron has shown that there is no depth to which the ''America-Hating Left'' will not descend.

<p>An aerial survey of Sunday's anti-war protest in San Francisco showed the number of attendees was around 65,000 people -- not the 150,000 to 200,000 estimated by organizers and police.</p> <p>The survey, commissioned by the San Francisco Chronicle and SFGate.com, used a series of high-resolution aerial photos. They showed that during the protest's peak, at about 1:45 p.m. Sunday, there were approximately 65,000 people in attendance.</p>

As usual, the Chronicle’s coverage of the "Huge Peaceful Crowd" that turned out to protest America’s impending war with Iraq (as well as pretty much everything else) left out a few salient details. One of them was any mention of the counter-protest which took place on the same day, and in the same location. I know, because I was one of the people who helped organize this counter-protest, along with fellow members of www.freerepublic.com, a conservative news forum and online community.

The Chronicle reported on an Anarchist group known as the black bloc, whose members rampaged and vandalized their way through San Francisco’s Financial District after the 1/18 anti-war rally, but they didn’t tell the whole story. Bill Hackwell, the spokesman for International Answer, the group that organized the rally, claims that they ''hadn’t known about the break-away marchers in advance and had no connection to them.'' That’s puzzling, because the black bloc had advertised its intentions prior to the rally, on the well-known web site and leftist organizing tool, www.sfindymedia.org. While the pre-rally information is now gone from the site,...

Chronicle profiles tend to fall into one of two categories, both of which cater to liberals. Either they focus on hard luck stories (the plight of the dispossessed, criminals, variously ''challenged'' types) or they have some kind of Multi-Culti appeal. In the latter category, Muslims, the left’s latest obsession, are extremely popular. Last week, the Chron featured profiles of a Mexican-American man who converted to Islam and a woman who married and had a child with a homeless drunk. Several weeks before that, they profiled a pimp. This Sunday’s edition, featured a former terrorist suspect, Ali Mubarak, the story of...

Liberals will go to any lengths to demonstrate a moral equivalency between American culture and the most backward and repressive countries in the world. They cannot accept genuine criticism of any Third World cultures, so they instead try to smear the West. Octavio Romano, however, reaches a new low in an article in the Chronicle, in which he attempts to draw a parallel between Afghan women wearing burqas, and American women using cosmetics. Romano’s analogy is not only preposterous, but faulty. The mandatory donning of burqas by Afghan women, is completely different from American women choosing to apply cosmetics. Even...

The Chron’s Sunday Insight section (12/8) showed real insight into life as a pimp and drug addict, by gracing the front page with a piece by Bob Armstrong, who proudly details his career as a pimp for the escort service ''Zen,'' his speed habit, and his arrest and brief incarceration. Armstrong claims to be just another struggling freelance writer who turned to pimping to support his work. According to Armstrong, “Pimping is perfect for a down-and-out freelance writer.” We all need a day job, but pimping doesn’t exactly top the list. Armstrong’s reading habits further his profile as a literary...

It was nice of the Chronicle to help organize the leftist protest at former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak’s speech at UC Berkeley on 11/19. By running an editorial in favor of the protest the same day, they effectively provided free publicity for the anti-Israel rally. Judging by the results, which they dutifully reported in another article the day after the speech, they succeeded in their goal of drumming up a decent size crowd. The protest consisted of the usual suspects: Berkeley Stop the War Coalition, Students for Justice in Palestine, and the Bay Area Jewish Voice for Peace. They...

<p>CLOTHES MAKE the man, and so it is that Tiger Woods can become the manliest man in America.</p> <p>How? By wearing a dress while playing in this year's Masters.</p> <p>The New York Times wants Tiger to boycott the Masters to protest the host club's no-women membership policy. Not gonna happen. Golfers don't boycott for reasons of social conscience. It's not in their genes or their endorsement contracts.</p>

Yours truly, Adam Sparks, who has been a FREEPIN' FREEPER AND both an editor of Chronwatch and a tireless, vocal critic of the Chronicle, has now been hired by SF Gate, a Chronicle affilliate. Sparks will no longer be writing for Chronwatch. No he hasn't "sold out", he simply welcomes the substantially larger audience so that some conservative ideas can finally make it to those liberal pages. How bad is the liberal slant at the Chron? Not a single columnist, including Debra Saunders, supports Bill Simon the GOP candidate. I believe that conservative ideas will prevail whenever readers can get...

Our lone quasi-conservative columnist at the Chron, the irascible Debra J. Saunders has caught the Marinucci fever. This powerful fever can turn even a neo-con into bleeding heart lib. The fever has spread throughout the Chron building. Although, a Republican by registration, Saunders is now a staunch ally of the Davis clan. Most of her columns are talking about Simon as a 'has been', and Davis, well, he's a crook, but at least he's running a much better campaign. There you have it. You see Saunders has never gotten over the fact that she's pro-abortion and thinks that this is...

Thanks to Bob Holmgren for passing on an article from Philadelphia's citypaper.net. In the article we hear the real reasons for hiring 'Rosey' as the Chronicle's new managing editor. It will come as no surprise to CW readers to learn that the "powers that be" want the Chron "to be better, a helluva lot better." It's of some comfort to realize that our comments about the quality of the paper have been endorsed by the Hearst management. Note the comment about the "sagging paper." San Francisco Chronicle Executive Editor Phil Bronstein says his sagging paper needs the fresh eyes and...

What type of article is Chronicle political reporter John Wildermuth writing? John Wildermuth is a political reporter for the Chronicle covering Bill Simon’s gubernatorial campaign. I’ve taken a look at his last eleven articles, where he was either sole or co-author. These articles stretch from August 23 to September 19 and are included below with their titles, dates, other authors, with hyperlinks where possible, and the sources of their quoted material. I’ve also identified the quoted sources as either an “average voter,” “unidentified," or--if the source was identified--as a political player, with his or her name and title. Lastly, I’ve...

Rob Morse and Observing 9-11 By Cinnamon Stillwell Friday, September 13, 2002 Rob Morse's ill-conceived column, “Top 10 better things to do today," 9/11/02, was in very bad taste, to say the least. Morse suggested that rather than watching the television coverage on 9/11 or attending commemorations, people should instead indulge themselves. As the rest of the nation mourned, Morse instructed his readers to “Make love,” “Go to the movies,” “Trade in your SUV,” or if all else fails, “Have a drink.” Apparently, he (and countless others, according to the letters page) expected our television media to commemorate that tragic...

Today's SF Chronicle tells us there was major pot bust, Miss South Carolina won't be allowed to compete in the Miss America Pageant, consumers will have to further subsidize wind and solar electric generation and the Governor doesn't want to debate the now vindicated Bill Simon. For months, now the Chronicle has been telling us in every breath that Simon was a "convicted" candidate having had a major judgment against him. His name was always associated with this judgment. Or course the damage has already been done. Can we expect the Chronicle to now say between today and election day,...

By Adam Sparks Chronwatch.com The San Francisco Chronicle checked in with 3 intriguing stories commemorating 9/11. The problem is that many readers, including Chronwatch.com the online S.F. Chronicle critic, felt that the paper was going overboard pandering to its very liberal, progressive readership. Any one of which of at least 3 stories filed in the Chron could win a journalistic award for "Unsure of the Concept". The first story was a sympathetic portrayal of an Arab who was imprisoned for being a collaborator. The Chronicle regretted his unfair and lengthy incarceration, in spite of the fact that this gentlemen: a)...

Leave it to the Chron to commemorate 9/11 with a sympathetic piece on a convicted mass murderer. In a story about a convicted killer who was a founder of the notorious street gang the Crips, the Chronicle goes to great lengths to inform us that this mass killer was a "Nobel Prize nominee". Yeah right, in the same Peace nomination as that other peace loving stalwart, Yasser Arafat. These two names alone could start a pycho killer Hall of Fame. But the Chron highlights that this killer, who was convicted for killing a 7/11 clerk and others with a shotgun...