Media Watch

Most cable-TV and satellite customers experience local TV black-outs from time to time because of breakdowns of contract negotiations between their providers and the local television stations carried on pay-TV channel lineups. To be clear, the blackouts are the direct result of a deliberate choice. Viewers and advertisers are made to suffer. The rhetoric you see is often along the lines of "(insert name cable or satellite provider) is taking away your access to your favorite (network) programming," as though the it's all the provider's fault. But here's the truth. Broadcasters always have the option of carriage on cable & satellite systems The FCC instructs broadcast television station owners to assert carriage election status every 3 years. Their choices are either Consent Agreement or Must-Carry. If the station elects for Must-Carry status, the cable & satellite providers are forced by the FCC to carry that station on the channel lineups. On the other h

I'm old. I bought a lot of software before my 30-year-old son was 10 and I still use most of it. I bought programs. That's what we called apps back then. They were discounted because I'm too cheap to pay full price. I have Paintshop Pro Anniversary Edition for less than $100. Cool Edit 2000 was another bargain at $99.95. One of my newer programs is MS Office 2013 and that was offered through an employee purchase program for $19.95. Before that I was using Office 2003. Today I noticed a popup notification on my Windows 10 machine that said "We recommend Editor." I had to google that. "Editor" turns out to be a spell & grammar checker. I think I'll pass, though. They want to charge me by the month for the privilege of keeping it at the ready, and I figured out that if I keep it for 9 years, like I have Office 2013, it'll cost me $754.92. I'm way too cheap for that!

I want to tell a story of a police encounter I had almost 3 years ago in which was arrested and that shook me to the core of my beliefs about the institution police in America. But I think I should start with a little background into freedom & liberty as I see it in my state. I was in the military and swore an oath to uphold the Constitution, very similar to a police officer's oath of office. My basic understanding of the Bill of Rights then was something that protected people on US soil so we are free to live and conduct ourselves as we see fit, generally unhampered by government intrusion. Taxes and speed limits aside, I can do what I want, where ever I please, and in the manner I choose. I don't have that feeling, that sense of liberty anymore. I've learned firsthand that even when we conduct ourselves within the contours of the legal system, you and your property can still be taken and held by government actors for doing things that make some officials f

I get a little tired of people telling us that America needs to wake up, that political leaders and government officials are ruining this country – all from the comfort of their couches.  Aside from voting and serving on juries, I have always said the best way to make a change, or to make things better, is to get off the couch and go to a meeting. Des Moines resident Jon Shelness recently penned a Letter to the Editor, in Kennedy-esque fashion,   prompting residents to play a more active role in community improvement, over merely imposing on elected officials to do all the heavy lifting. What can I do to improve my neighborhood? During the most recent election cycle in the city of Des Moines, I heard citizens ask elected officials, “What will you do to revitalize my neighborhood?” The bigger question we should be asking is, “What can I do, as a resident, to improve my neighborhood?” I am a strong proponent of neighborhood associations because research suggests, dollar fo

I could be wrong, because I'm no attorney, but... There doesn't appear to be an exception in the city's parking ordinance for non-emergency vehicles. And I've never heard an emergency overtime parking call go out over the police radio. To top this off, the parking enforcement vehicle is parked under the 8th Street viaduct at the police parking office, where there were empty spaces available for parking enforcement vehicles a few feet away at the time this photo was taken. The reason for no-parking zones is always for public safety. Where they're placed nearly always improves sight lines, making motoring safer in general. But restricting parking isn't just for cars. As the Federal Highway Administration points out, parking creates a visual barrier between motor vehicle traffic and crossing pedestrians, especially children and people using wheelchairs.

A video posted under the channel name Frank Meadows shows police being scolded for stopping a man walking along a city street. ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JRjUt3n7Rh0 ) The man, apparently walking to a Walmart in West Des Moines, Iowa, was flagged down by 2 police officers passing by in a marked patrol car. They were joined by another pair of officers shortly thereafter. Officers Brian Ascheman and Jacob Sutton identified themselves when asked. The other two officers, Greg Warren and Clint Ray, appeared to remain silent when asked their names. Ray is the police officer who arrested Keilon Hill for harassment on October 29, 2018 while canvassing. ( https://www.youtube.com/edit?video_id=Ox6qoW3sEFM ) In the video entitled "Harassed by West Des Moines police for walking" Meadows entered this description: "Walking out of hotel and instantly targeted by police. Thir attitude changed into smug condescension when I askef to talk to a superior officer. Smug, smug a

James Madison called and wants to know why people of the 21st century are having a partison debate on which of two presidents did a better job cleaning up after natural disasters when neither possessed the authority to do so. I hope it's OK that I told him he left us with a government that routinely exceeds its authority, with the consent of the least informed citizens. It's interesting to watch this debate on the quality of the federal government's post-disaster cleanup in the affected states following Hurricane Sandy. Isn't there something objectively wrong in expecting presidents to exercise authority of medieval kings? On the floor of the US House of Representatives James Madison said he could not undertake to lay his finger on that article in the Federal Constitution which granted a right of Congress of expending, on objects of benevolence, the money of their constituents.  (See the Annals of Congress, House of Representatives, 3rd Congress, 1st Session, pa