Dec 212008
 

What happens when you let marketing experts into the church building? TheChurchCheck.com. According to Mark Galli at Christianity Today, ChurchCheck will send “mystery worshipers” to assess the Sunday morning experience as a non-biased third party visitor. Our team of savvy professionals can secretly worship at your church, analyze it in detail, and present you with [...]

Dec 172008
 

Just read this story at the Tri-City Herald: UPDATE: I-82 rest stop at Prosser reopened after package examined PROSSER – A suspicious package that prompted the closure of an rest stop just off Interstate 82 in Prosser has been examined and the rest area has been re-opened. The rest area was closed for about 3 [...]

Jul 312008
 

Recently the Tri-City Herald reported that the city of Kennewick is considering annexing the Tri-City Heights subdivision from Benton County. Tri-City Heights, a 305-acre ‘island’ of county property surrounded by the city, contains 710 parcels according to Christina Palmer, assistant director of support services, and it is the last remaining piece of a 2005 plan [...]

Apr 252008
 

Just finished watching this old clip from a Ted Talk in 2005 by military strategist Thomas Barnett. With an amazing amount of humor, he makes a lot of sense when he discusses that the U.S. military’s bigest problem is it’s own success, or what he calls our “catastrophic success”. He rightly says that we field [...]

May 182007
 

I wrote last year about local prosecutors putting DUI Dismissals up for Sale. The Tri-City Herald reported today that Governor Christine Gregoire signed Washington State Senate Bill 6100 legislation prohibiting these out-of-court deals. A city attorney, county prosecutor, or other prosecuting authority may not dismiss, amend, or agree not to file a [...]

May 172007
 

Washington State Insurance Commissioner, Mike Kreidler, testified before the U.S. House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming earlier this month. According to the press release, last winter’s windstorms in Washington are a result of global warming. I understand that global warming will cause changes in the weather, but to blame global warming for [...]

Feb 222007
 

The Register had a funny story a while back about a guy who was addicted to porn: “I don’t actually think you CAN fire me for browsing porn..” “Why not?” “Well, I think I’m addicted to porn.” “I beg your pardon?” “Addicted. To porn.” “You’re joking!” “Oh no. You see I’m fairly sure that the [...]

Feb 222007
 

I got a kick out of Michelle Singletary’s discussion of tax issues in today’s Tri-City Herald. She poses the question: I’m very leery of e-filing my tax return because I don’t want to give the government my IP (Internet Protocol) address, what with all the illegal surveillance that has been authorized by the current administration. [...]

Jun 282006
 

Foxnews reported this morning that the “Flag burning” Constitutional amendment failed by just one vote. Freedom wins … just barely … one vote. Sixty-six Senators (out of 100) voted to amendment the Constitution, which is designed to limit the governments power, to instead limit our freedoms. The amendment did not seek to ban flag burning. [...]

May 292006
 

AzCentral.com reports that there is an initiative in Arizona proposing to turn the voting process into a lottery, giving one lucky voter a million dollars. With supporters hoping to boost voter participation, an initiative filed Monday for the state’s November election would provide $1 million to one randomly chosen Arizona voter just for casting a [...]

May 162006
 

Steve McCoy from reformissionary cites this quote from a conference he is attending: “Preaching against culture is like preaching against somebody’s house. It’s just where they live.” There is a lot of truth in that statement. Many times the ‘enemies’ are dredged up in order to rally the troops (both religious and political). Enemies, real [...]

May 052006
 

SEATTLE – Washington State Attorney General Rob McKenna announced today that an Oregon man is the first defendant penalized under Washington’s new computer spyware act. Zhijian Chen, of Portland, Ore., will pay nearly $84,000 in fines and consumer restitution for marketing bogus anti-spyware software through deceptive means. “Let this be a warning to other online [...]

May 042006
 

According to a press release from the Washington Attorney General Rob McKenna, California-based marketer of Internet directory listings, Yellow Pages, Inc., will pay $525,000 to settle allegations of deceptive marketing practices brought by 27 states. “Washington and other states alleged that Yellow Pages, Inc., tricked businesses into paying for advertising services they never intended to [...]

Apr 062006
 

Rueter’s News reports that GEICO’s friendly little gecko is going to need to hire a lawyer: Three former policyholders of auto insurer GEICO Corp. filed a federal lawsuit on Monday accusing the company of discriminating against blacks by using education and employment status as factors in setting auto insurance rates. It said that because black [...]

Mar 172006
 

Ever wonder how easy identity theft is? This story is truly incredible. A credit card application from Chase Mastercard was ripped into pieces (see photo) then taped back together. He then filled out the application and even put his parents address and his cell phone on the application instead of the correct info and mailed [...]

Mar 022006
 

According to LifeSiteNews.com an Allstate employee has settled out of court after being fired from his job for comments that appeared in a men’s journal denouncing same-sex “marriage” in December 2004. J. Matt Barber was fired last February after his commentary on same-sex “marriage” appeared in the on line journal MensNewsDaily.com, even though the statement [...]

Feb 012006
 

According to C|Net News the old newspapers are all upset that Google and other search engines are ‘profiting’ from their content. Web search engines, such as Google and Yahoo, collect headlines and photos for their users without compensating the publishers a cent, according to the World Association of Newspapers (WAN), which announced Tuesday that it [...]