U.S. President Barack Obama, who has been the president of America for ten days so far is currently entitled to a salary of $400,000 a year.
Unfortunately, he won't get a raise. The Constitution mandates that his salary cannot be altered during his term.
George Washington originally received a salary of $25,000 after he took office in 1789. Since then, the presidential salary has been increased five times. When these Congress-approved increases occur, they are huge and are often twice the previous salary. As a result, George W. Bush made twice as much money as Bill Clinton made.
How much does Prime Minister Stephen Harper make? You'd be surprised to learn that he only makes $155,400 a year.
Petro-Canada, the chain of gas stations where I like to fill up with gasoline for my "gas-guzzling" Toyota Camry, has posted a $691 million loss for the final quarter of 2008 yesterday.
The company also trimmed its 2009 production outlook on reduced natural gas drilling, and warned operations in Western Canada could be the first to be cut if conditions continue to the stink up the joint.
Despite that, the company is still expected to post a profit for all of 2008.
Governor Rod Blagojevich has been removed from office, despite his pleas for a trial to prove his innocence when it comes to his political corruption charges.
In a 59-0 vote, state senators convicted the man on articles of impeachment alleging abuse of power. They also voted to ban him from ever holding public office in Illinois again. That's a shame... that can be considered an "out-of-state" deportation.
He has been immediately replaced by 60-year-old Pat Quinn, the state's lieutenant-governor.
Blagojevich's impeachment marks the first impeachment in the history of Illinois and the first impeachment to happen anywhere in the United States in 20 years.
Remember when the residents of Saskatchewan voted for change back in November of 2007? Well, the NDP has since made fun of the Saskatchewan Party government on numerous occasions. Usually, it's pretty stupid.
Well, the Opposition NDP is offering a helping hand this time. They have offered to help Premier Brad Wall as he tries to annoy the hell out of the Conservative government in an attempt to get more federal funding.
Yesterday, Brad Wall had given the federal budget a grade that was known as "D," known as barely passing.
However, at this time, the Saskatchewan Party has basically said, "Screw you, bitch."
More and more people are considering pushing retirement further towards the future. Half of the working population work pas the traditional retirement age of 65, according to a new Sun Life Financial survey.
The polling initiative, called the Unretirement Index, is the first it has undertaken... so it's impossible to measure its findings against earlier surveys.
About two-thirds of those expecting to work past 65 plan to work full-time and one-third plan to work part-time.
Strain said there are four main financial needs and wants to consider in retirement:
A base level of income to cover living expenses for the entire time of retirement.
Assets to provide for health costs not covered by the government.
Income for travel, buying a cottage or pursuing hobbies in early retirement.
Leaving an estate for children or a charity.
The reason Sun Life is doing this boring stuff is to bring awareness to financial planning.
Last week, an electronic road sign in Austin, Texas was hacked to warn drivers of zombies. The prank, which I'm going to chalk up to the ingenuity of college kids, was pretty awesome. It's also nice to see that state officials can take a joke. In an interview with Fox News, Chris Lippincott, director of media relations for the Texas Department of Transportation, said this:
"It was clever, kind of cute, but not what it was intended for. Those signs are deployed for a reason -- to improve traffic conditions, let folks know there's a road closure. It's sort of amusing, but not at all helpful."
Personally, I blame the hacker-zombie connection on games like Resident Evil and Left 4 Dead.
If you could hack into a local road sign, what message would you leave? I'd totally put HUY DANG AHEAD... to warn driver of his "awesome" driving.
Seven weeks after a strike that caused winter-road chaos in Ottawa, our beautiful nation's capital, the City of Ottawa and workers with its striking transit union reached an agreement Thursday afternoon to send all the outstanding issues in the 51-day-old OC Transpo strike to binding arbitration.
The strike included 2,300 drivers, mechanics and dispatchers of Algamated Transit Union Local 279 is immediately over.
"It has been a difficult and acrimonious dispute to be involved in," said federal Labour Minister Rona Ambrose, who on Wednesday signalled she would introduce back-to-work legislation in the House of Commons.
Asked why residents of Ottawa had to go through 51 days of suffering, representatives from both sides said an agreement could not be reached until someone threatened them.
If you cultivate large fields of marijuana in Switzerland, be aware. The cops have Google and they will use it. Narcotics police in the nation said they spotted a marijuana field on Google Earth while searching for a suspect's address. Although the weed was hidden by corn, police quickly saw through the drug dealers' ruse and brought the hammer of Swiss justice down upon their heads with extreme prejudice.
"It was an interesting chance discovery," said Norbert Klossner, head of Zurich police's specialist narcotics unit.
Prosecutor Gabi Alkalay told reporters in Zurich that she plans to complete her criminal investigation in February, after which she will formally charge 16 suspects and ask for prison sentences for all of them.
If you've been watching a whole lot of American television channels lately, you should know that by now that all American television stations will have to convert to digital signals on or by February 17, 2009. Lawmakers recently tried to have the mandate delayed by a few months, allowing old people and those other hillbillies to have a little bit more time to convert their old antique TVs to new ones, or to buy those digital converter boxes so that they can use their antennas. That delay has been shot down by the Republicans.
More than a million Americans are waiting for their government coupons for a converter box. The agency that distributes them ran out last month. Obviously, these are mainly poor, elderly and rural households. These are just the kind of people who need the soothing balm of television the most.
Republicans believe raising the the funding of the government coupon program would solve the problem. However, they've also said that it's President Barack Obama's fault.
Sure, everyone else may have money problems, but Nintendo is doing great. The company reports a 17% growth over the previous year and 501 billion yen of operating profits. That's up 27% from a year ago. Nice work, weirdoes.
To date, Nintendo says they've sold 96.22 million Nintendo DS systems and more than 533 million games. Wii shipments reached nearly 45 million worldwide along with over 312 million games. Wii Fit sales reached 14 million and Mario Kart Wii reached 13.67 million.
It's not all good news. However, the company is lowering expectations for the fiscal year ending in March. Here's how they put it:
For the full fiscal year ending March 31, 2009, the company revised its unit sales forecast for the portable Nintendo DS system upward by 3% to 31.5 million globally, while the DS software forecast was lowered by 7% to 193 million. For the Wii system, with softness in the Japanese consumer market, full year global unit sales estimates for both hardware and software were revised downward by 3%, to 26.5 million systems and 193 million games, respectively, in spite of the overall robust sales outside Japan.
As a result, and with the changes in the anticipated foreign currency exchange ratios, Nintendo Co., Ltd. has revised estimates for fiscal sales and profit projections for the full year ending March 31, 2009. However, the company remained on pace to set historic records for Net Sales and Operating Profit for the full 12 month period.
These numbers are awesome for Nintendo, but I see a problem on the horizon for the game company. Basically, most gamers have a loyalty and love of Nintendo that springs from a childhood appreciation of the fantastic games that used to come out for the Nintendo systems. But Nintendo seems to be translating that love into dollars a bit cynically lately. I don't have a problem with a company trading on the good will of consumers, as long as the consumers don't feel like they're being pick-pocketed. Nintendo is treading the line.
To some extent, the company is taking older franchises and making new versions of them that are slightly spiffed up versions of the older game. Like the latest Animal Crossing. Other than some cool new features, the game is basically the GameCube version of Animal Crossing with a little waggling thrown in -- and it's being sold as a full price game. That's NOT cool. I also thought the last Zelda was a bit tired as it came nowhere near the leap forward that say, the first Nintendo 64 Zelda represented. If this keeps up, it could seriously affect the bottom line... eventually.
Within 24 hours of greeting the new Conservative federal budget with cautious approval, Premier Brad Wall decided that it sucked, calling it a near failure on a whole lot of issues.
"The grade I give it is a D," he told reporters at the legislature in a hastily called scrum. "D for deficit. I've already stated my concerns about the length and the depth of the deficit. D for delay. We're very concerned the government has built in some bottlenecks and approval processes with their infrastructure dollars, as much as we like the concept of infrastructure dollars. And D for disappointing. We see the livestock sector apparently neglected in this package."
At this point, the biggest concern appears to be that the livestock sector is currently being neglected.
Edgar Properties II Ltd., a property development group has plans to construct a signature building in the south downtown area, including a $50 million tower with tweleve (12) floors. It would be great if they had a rooftop bar or restaurant... where I can drop a watermelon.
The project is named 275 Second and contains two phases. The first one is a 182,000 ft2 officer tower with room for retail space on the main floor, which will be connected to the second phase, a four-to-five-storey building with retail and small office space through a "pedway system," according to Bruce Hull, president of the company.
"We're really excited about this," Hull said. "The opportunity... to build what we think will be a signature building -- we think this will just set the whole downtown. We're going to have the look coming right off 1st Avenue that we can carry all the way down 20th Street and back up 2nd Avenue, and it will be there for a long, long time so we're very excited about it."
The tower would be located at the northwest corner of 20th Street East and 2nd Avenue South, while Phase II will be at the northeast corner of 20th Street East and 1st Avenue South. The company purchase the property last summer, which is the long-time home of Folks Finer Furs.
This project will include the 450-stall parkade on 1st Avenue, which is a feature that gives the company a financial and strategic advantage to constructing the building(s).
Despite this excitement, the project would only go ahead if the there are interested tenants that actually want to move into the space.
The tower would be the largest office building constructed in downtown since 1979.
Starbucks Coffee, the chain of coffee shops that appears virtually everywhere you go, is shutting down 300 stores and cutting 6,700 jobs.
Actually, Saskatoon alone has too many locations for me to even count. Well, maybe not. There's one on Broadway Avenue, at least two locations on 8th Street (one down the street from the Real Canadian Superstore and one in the Safeway at The Centre Mall, formerly The Centre at Circle and Eighth), two downtown that are about one block apart from each other, one across from the University of Saskatchewan campus. As you can see, I probably haven't named all of the locations in Saskatoon yet.
Anyway, the company is shutting down 300 stores and cutting 6,700 jobs. You see... I knew the company would have to downsize someday... and that day has finally arrived.
Filmmaker John Landis, the guy who directed Michael Jackson's influential music video for the song Thriller, has sued Michael Jackson over his share of profits the from the 14-minute video.
He co-wrote and directed the 1983 video and filed a breach of contract lawsuit in Los Angeles Superior Court just a few days before Broadway producers announced last week that they had bought the rights to adapt the video for the stage.
The lawsuit accuses Michael Jackson, 50, of "fraudulent, malicious and oppressive conduct," claiming that King of Pop had failed to produce full and proper accounts for the past four years "and earlier."
And so, that has actually happened. Two off-duty police officers were charged on Wednesday after a newspaper delivery man claims he was beat up in Vancouver last week.
Const. Jeffrey Roger Klassen was charged with assault while Const. Griffin Gillan was charged with robbery in the early morning incident that occured on January 21, 2009.
Firoz Khan, who was delivering newspapers at the Hyatt Regency Hotel claimed that his assailants made racial comments and threatened to use a Taser on him. According to Khan, he was told that brown people sucked.
As many as 129,000 cellular phones amde by LG are being recalled across Canada because they may not meet federal guidelines for radio frequency exposure.
The voluntary recall was issued after tests found that the phones just suck.
This particular model was sold in Canada by Bell, Virgin Mobile, MTS Allstream, SaskTel, Aliant Mobility, KMTS, NorthernTel, Sogetel, TDelDebec and Tbay Tel. Interestingly enough, TELUS wasn't on that list. They too are a crappy CDMA provider. Rogers is not listed because I believe the phone is a CDMA phone. However, Rogers is on a GSM/3G network.
So far, it seems that customers are being asked to return the phones for replacement phones.
"I've been on 19 years and I've never seen anybody actually moving in and living in somebody's residence like that," said Sgt. Chad Hill of the Kosciusko County Sheriff's Department. Well, that's how he describes the situation.
For us, it's just plain hilarious. Alex Kupczynski is currently in custody because he broke into at least four vacation homes while the owners were not there. He ate their food, drank their beer and even tried on their clothes.
Investigators say a break in the case came when one of the homeowners found Kupczynski's wallet in a pocket in their pair of trousers.
According to the Hollywood Reporter, the long-rumored remake/revival of legendary 80's TV series The A-Team will finally happen. Filling the director's chair will be Joe Carnahan (Smokin' Aces and Narc) with Scott Free, the production company of legendary Hollywood siblings Ridley and Tony Scott to produce.
The film is slated to be released on June 11, 2010.
Okay, do we really need to go much further here? This is typically the part where I, as a self-respecting fanboy who holds all things 80's in sacred regard, will trash the latest attempt from Hollywood to revive a classic franchise. I will do no such thing!
However, if I did, I would probably say something like "we will have to suffer through a cast of insufferable rappers and white douche-bags indulging their own egos as they pretend to be the A-Team."
Or, perhaps that "this will be yet another insipid, adolescent amalgam of post-Tarantino wisecracking thugs in a Fast and the Furious wet dream of hot rods, rims, roaring engines, and lesbians."
Or, I might even say that "it is the symptom of a current trend so lacking in creativity, style, and heart, that it can do nothing except cannibalize material from a time when that was not the case."
Earlier today, Toyota Canada issued a recall for 58,400 of its Yaris subcompact cars due to a potential seatbelt defect.
The recall is part of an international effort involving 1.3 million of the small cars from the 2006 and 2007 model years, which were all manufactured in Japan.
In the event of a severe front-end collison, some of the car's sound-insulating foam was found to ignite due to a chemical released by seatbelt pretensioners, which tightens the belt in case of collision.
If you own a Yaris (I'm looking at Esther Neabel's parents), you are advised to take your car to your local Toyota dealer for repair.
Yesterday, the current Conservative government unveiled one of the biggest federal budgets in federal history. And despite the fact that the Bloc Quebecois and the NDP wanted the Liberals to reject the government's budget, that did not happen. Had the rejection happened, that just meant that the Conservative government would have been defeated.
Of course, his support comes with a bunch of stupid guidelines. First off, he wants "progress reports" every three months. In addition to that, he said that if these reports were not satisfactory, he would reserve the right to defeat the Conservative government.
"It does nothing that we don't normally do, which is report back to Parliament upon the progress that we intend to make in addressing the economic situation that faces our nation," Government House Leader Jay Hill told reporters.
In the end, Ignatieff's smart decision provoked outrage from New Democratic Party leader Jack Layton and Bloc Quebecois leader Gilles Duceppe, who both wanted the Liberals to defeat the government over the budge as early as next week. Mr. Layton accused Ignatieff of "propping up" Harper, and Duceppe declared the opposition coalition formed early in December "dead." Good! We don't need a coalition government.
Ignatieff said he was basically putting the current government on probation and said the reasoning behind it is because Canadians don't want an election at this time and were tired of political games. Well, Ignatieff might be right... but I don't mind more political games. The last two months have been fun for me, politically. I voiced a lot of my bullshit opinion that didn't really make any sense to anybody. In the end, I lost some friends that I really didn't like all that much anyways. So, I'm up for more political games, only if the Conservatives win, or stay in power.
President Barack Obama, who recently became president of the United States just eight days ago, will be visiting Canada on February 19, 2009, according to the White House. This will be his first foreign trip as president.
Press secretary Robert Gibbs announced the date in his daily briefing with reporters. The White House had previously announced that Obama was going to make his first international trip to Canada.
The president is certain to at least visit Ottawa, but other details are still being determined. According to Eric Sorenson from Global TV, who often reports from Washington, DC, the Secret Service chose Ottawa as that is where the RCMP is located, and that's where security can be done right.
Municipal cops in Montreal are pondering a possible bylaw charge that would allow police officers to fine a citizen who verbally insults them. That'd be hilarious, as cops do get called a lot of childish names. Imagine calling a cop a "fag" and being arrested. That would be hilarious.
Bylaws that allow similar powers have already come into effect in other cities in the province of Quebe, including Quebec City, Sherbrooke and Three Rivers.
First, that's not the church I'm talking about. I just couldn't find an actual picture.
However, a German guy really did crash into a church's roof. He missed a bend in the road, broke through a barrier and hurtled up a bank, crash-landing on a church roof.
The bank acted like a springboard, propelling teh car about 35 metres forward and straight into the church's roof frame, where it remained seven metres off the ground.
"We've never ever had a case of a car landing in a church before," said Frank Fischer, a spokesperson for Chemnitz police in the state of Saxony.
Nothing pisses me off more than when someone parks their stupid car in front of your house on the day when your street is getting swept.
The same goes for those morons who like to park on your street when it's a snow route and one had just been declared. At this time, the City of Saskatoon basically issues you a fine, or tows your car.
Well, that fine for leaving your car on a snow route after one has just been declared is now $65.00, which is up from the previous $50.00 fine. Now that's a shame, right? I think not! It should really be $150.00.
Despite the mounting public outrage over recent inreases over parking and their own salaries, city council basically said "Fuck you" to all of the citizens of Calgary last night.
Attempts to roll back both hikes, which were about a 25% hike didn't receive enough votes for re-consideration.
"It's disappointing and discouraging that you can never get enough votes to do things that are going to send the message that we get it," said Ald. Diane Colley-Urquhart, who wanted to freeze salaries at 2008 levels.
That's a damn shame.
During the short period of time that I lived there, I was given the impression that Calgary Mayor Dave Bronconnier was a greedy bastard. This incident proves it.
General Motors Corp. is shutting down production for an extra week this spring at its car plant in Oshawa, Ontario. They are also cutting 2,000 jobs at two other factories around the United States as they try to reduce the number of cars produced in response to demand that is slowing.
GM will shut down the Oshawa car plant for one week starting on Monday, March 30, 2009. The Oshawa plant builds Chevrolet Impala cars as well as the next-generation Camaro.
If you really want to go into detail as to where and when people will be losing their jobs outside of Canada, you can check out the article yourself, you crazy bastard.
If things have been feeling a little claustrophobic on your Internets (word made famous by George Bush) lately, here's why: there are over a billion people on the Internets, not including minors or mobile internet users, according to comScore.
"Surpassing one billion global users is a significant landmark in the history of the Internet," said Magid Abraham, president and chief executive of comScore. "It is a monument to the increasingly unified global community in which we live, and reminds us that the world truly is becoming more flat."
The U.S. is second among countries: residents of the U.S. make up over 16% of the population of the Internets. China makes up 17.8% of Interweb users, followed by Japan, Germany and the United Kingdom.
While I'm worried that the tubes will clog up with people, I'm happy that now that there are a billion people on the Internets, we'll finally be able to determine whether Kirk could beat Picard.
Cops in Boca Raton, Florida say a 46-year-old man was arrested for the 190th time in Florida last week.
Authorities arrested Henry Farrell after he tried to carjack a man outside a coffee shop in Boca Raton. Cops say the man threatened to kill the man after he refused to give Farrell a ride.
A police spokeswoman said that cops have spent years dealing with Farrell who lives locally and apparently likes Boca Raton.
You know wthat the solution is? A judge should deport him like that time a judge in Winnipeg banned a teen from living in Winnipeg for a while. He was "deported" to Yorkton, Saskatchewan.
By now, you should know that Wal-Mart has rollbacks, which means that when they get a good deal, you get a good deal.
Of course, that can also have different meanings.
In fact, a Wal-Mart employee in Mississippi is accused of rolling back prices on about $550 worth of merchandise.
Twenty-year-old Erica Marie Jones was arrested on Thursday and charged with theft, along with 22-year-old Tiffany Williams.
Jones charged Tiffany a total of $5.25 for a load of merchandise that included seven pairs of jeans, a baby crib, laundry detergent, diapers, pizza, coffee and beef. The actual total should have been $547.50.
Cops in Vancouver are currently recommending charges be laid against two police officers that were apparently involved in an attack on a Surrey delivery man last Wednesday.
Cops have not recommended a charge against the officer from the police force in Delta, British Columbia. Apparently, there is evidence that the third officer in fact tried to intervene in the alleged assault.
Well, this is just hilarious. And of course, this reminds me of the movie Super Troopers, again.
Tomorrow, the Harper government is going to unveil a sprawling, deficit-financed plan to "stimulate" the economy in the upcoming federal budget.
The Conservatives have now revealed that the budget will pump public funds into everything from struggling sectors such as the auto and forestry workers to socail housing and training for laid-off workers.
Despite the kick-ass stimulus package, we still have to worry about one stupid piece of shit: Michael Ignatieff.
Anyway, I'm hoping all goes well for Mr. Harper tomorrow as he unveils the federal budget.
However, based on polls, most Canadians want this budget to be passed in comparison to the election, or even a coalition government.
Keep in mind that the NDP will reject the budget at all measures.
According to a new Ipsos Reid poll that was recently conducted, Prime Minister Stephen Harper and his Conservative party remain the most trusted by Canadians to manage the economy. However, the only problem is... Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff and his party are gaining ground. That's going to be a problem.
This afternoon, Her Excellency the Governor General Michaelle Jean, who granted Mr. Harper's request to prorogue Parliament on December 4, 2008, will be delivering the government's speech from the throne this afternoon.
Tomorrow, Finance Minister Jim Flaherty will table the most anticipated federal budget in years, revealing what tax and spending measures the public can expect as the government posts a deficit next year that will be about $34 billion.
44% of the respondents voted that Harper would kick ass, followed by Ignatieff at 31% and 14% by Jack Layton from the NDP.
At this point, despite these signs that we have nothing to worry about, I still worry.
According to the Saskatoon StarPhoenix, those idiots over in Quebec will be watching closely as federal politicians return to work in Parliament later today, nearly two months after Prime Minister Stephen Harper came close to losing his job.
Frederic Desjardins apparently produces movies and television shows. He had something stupid to say, "What I didn't like was that even though the Bloc Quebecois was elected with a good percentage of the population, it was as if he was saying, I don't care at all about those people who voted for the Bloc Quebecois." What the fuck does that mean?
That douche who leads the Bloc Quebcois, Gilles Duceppe said he could see the growing frustration in all regions during a recent tour of Quebec. "People (last year) told me, 'Mr. Duceppe, Harper, he's not too bad, not too bad.' This year, the same people said 'When are you going to rid us of Harper?' I have rarely seen a politician lose political capital so fast," said Duceppe.
Well, if Quebecers have lost confidence in the beautiful country of Canada, they can go ahead and separate. Of course, we'll never let them do that by winning an election. The Conservative government should just sell off Quebec. Nobody needs them. But, ever since Harper decided to call Quebec a "nation within a nation," that probably won't happen.
Why? Well, he thought it would be funny to remove the toilet and other crazy fixtures from a tenant's basement apartment in an effort to get the bastard and her kids to move out.
The Rockland Board of Health issued the fine to Fausto Pinos on Wednesday.
This is like that time on The Simpsons when Homer Simpson took his family to New York City to get his car back and really needed to take a leak but couldn't leave his car... and that bus headed for Flushing Meadows didn't really help either.
Since being elected a few months ago, United States President Barack Obama has publicly complained about his loss of privacy and concerns he will get stuck in the "bubble" of security.
But, there's something he won't have to worry about: his BlackBerry. The White House recently confirmed today that Obama has won his battle to continue using his handheld email device.
"The president has a BlackBerry through a compromise that allows him to stay in touch with senior staff and a small group of personal friends," said Robert Gibbs, the White House press secretary.
Well, that's pretty cool. He recently gave up smoking... so this should be his reward.
Recently, cops in Calgary detained and questioned a man for spitting, which is of course a violation of a City of Calgary bylaw against public expectorating. In the process, cops discovered he was wanted as a suspect in an Edmonton homicide.
Joseph Sunchild Lagrelle was wanted on a province-wide warrant.
That's a damn shame...
I guess the moral of the story is... if you kill someone, leave the province. That way, the process of out-of-province deporations doesn't come into effect right away.
So, if you kill someone in Edmonton, don't hang out in Calgary.
In an unprecedented move to soften the blow of next week's federal budget, the prime minister's office today announced that Canada would plunge into deficit by $64 billion over the next two years.
Starting April 1, Canada will run a deficit of $34 billion in the fiscal year and will post another deficit of $30 million in the following year.
The prime minister's office said Canada will return to a surplus in five years, but couldn't exactly explain how.
Since 2006, the Conservative government actually reduced the national debt level by about $37 billion. That's really good in comparison to the Liberals reducing the debt $68 billion in seven years.
Way back in the pre-digital camera era, the only way to instantly see photographs that you just snapped was to use a Polaroid camera. Sadly, the times changed and Polaroid announced last year that they would no longer produce film for instant cameras. Enthusiasts of the format aren't ready to give up just yet. A group of fans love the quality of the Polaroid picture so much, that they're trying to create a new film compatible with Polaroid cameras.
The group raised private funds and were able to purchase a good deal of Polaroid's manufacturing equipment. With the help of former employees of Polaroid, they are working hard to create an instant film compatible with Polaroid cameras just for the comparatively few Polaroid junkies out there.
Chemicals used in the original film are no longer available and any film the group produces is likely to be crazy expensive -- the enthusiasts are committed to bringing their film to market by 2010.
President Barack Obama signed papers today demanding the closure of the Guantanamo Bay prison in Cuba today.
By doing so, he reaffirmed his pledge "to continue with a false choice between our safety and our ideals."
His idea for the closure is to "restore the standards of due process and the core constitutional values that have made this country great even in the midst of war, even in dealing with terrorism."
If you remember correctly, part of the movie Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay takes place there.
If you're getting tired of reading tech stories about layoffs, too bad. But it's my duty to tell you that Microsoft is laying off 5,000 workers over the next 18 months, which is nearly 5% of its total workforce. The tech giant's total profits for the fourth quarter of 2008 declined to $4.17 billion from $4.71 billion in the same period last year, so heads will roll. And according to Reverend Huy Dang, they don't actually roll because of the ears.
It's apparently not the Xbox's fault though: profits in Microsoft's Entertainment and Devices Division rose 3% over last year's fourth quarter to $3.18 billion. But the division had less revenue in the second half of 2008 than it did in the second half of 2007 -- $4.99 billion versus $5.02 billion. Why is this? That's probably because Huy Dang is the only person who is actually buying the Zune and there was no huge game release like Halo 3 in 2008.
The cuts are coming in the areas of R&D, marketing, sales, finance, legal, HR, and IT. "The decision to eliminate jobs is a very difficult one," Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said in a company-wide memo. "Our people are the foundation of everything we have achieved and we place the highest value on the commitment and hard work that you have dedicated to building this company."
For many years, Microsoft owned a stake in Comcast Corporation, which is the owner of G4, part-owner of G4techTV Canada and other crappy television networks.
Well, according to a document that Microsoft submitted to the Securities and Exchange Commission, Microsoft sold off its Comcast share sometime prior to December 31, 2008.
At this time, it is rumoured that Microsoft is selling off the Comcast shares to raise cash in advance of another acquisition, possibly another attempt to purchase Yahoo.
Well, maybe Steve Ballmer will decide to buy Yahoo.
Remember when PepsiCo Inc. would often make commercials that said their cola was better-tasting than Coca-Cola's awesome cola? Well, both companies will be reigniting the "cola wars" with new marketing, hoping to stem a three-year U.S. sales decline of carbonated drinks.
Coca-Cola is launching a global marketing campaign this week for its iconic cola brand, while Pepsi has introduced "new marketing and overhauled the logos of its soft drink, including its 'flagship' cola." Yeah, how many times have they done that in the past few years?
"I don't think we've seen this kind of head-to-head competition from the cola giants for probably a decade or so," said John Sicher, publisher of industry newsletter Beverage Digest. "In my view, the cola wars are back on in a very intense and dramatic way."
The Calgary Police Service, which apparently took too long to realize that Calgary had a gang problem, is in Saskatoon and Edmonton looking for a few good men. Man, that's something they'd probably say on those awesome Police Academy movies.
Anyway, the police force is looking for 200 new people to fill new positions before the end of 2009.
Competitive salaries, progressive management, educational opportunities and the vibrancy of Calgary as potential draws for recruits.
Toyota, the world's most kick-ass automaker since, well, forever, has kicked ass in 2008 in comparison to GM. For many years, GM was the #1 automaker based on the number of cars and trucks sold. Well, last year, Toyota took that position, selling more cars and trucks in 2008.
Yesterday, GM said that it sold 8,355,947 cars and trucks worldwide in 2008, which is about 616,000 vehicles short of the 8.972 million vehicles that Toyota sold.
In 2007, Toyota was ALMOST there to kick their ass, but instead sold just 3,000 vehicles fewer than GM.
Aren't things easier when police services get to get together to work together, unlike those state troopers and the Spurbury police on Super Troopers? Besides, I don't think I can respect a police force that watched "Afghanistaninmation." Anyway, that's what three police services in the British Columbia area decided to do... they worked together.
Yesterday, three off-duty police officers were arrested on allegations that they assaulted and robbed a man in downtown Vancouver early Wednesday. They were released at about 9:00 PM last night after spending most of the day in custody.
Three police officers from three different police services were involved. They are the West Vancouver, Delta and New Westminster police forces. I guess they decided to get together in a combined effort to rob one poor sucker.
Earlier today, Finance Minister Jim Flaherty promised Canadians tax relief in next week's federal budget, hours after an independent parliamentary research group said that can indeed afford some permanent tax cuts.
"There will be some tax measures in the budget, and we are conscious of the need to use the tax system, to the extent possible, to create further stimulus in the economy," Flaherty told reporters after a Parliament Hill meeting of the Conservative caucus.
The Liberals have claimed to have warned against deep tax cuts, saying they would prevent Ottawa from ever raising enough money to get out of deficits down the road.
Flaherty says that his fourth budget, the first to have deficits in ten years, will provide a clear road map to return to balanced budgets.
According to Federal Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff, Canada needs a federal election next month as much as the country needs a "hole in the head."
He said he would much prefer a coalition government, should he not be satisfied with next week's federal budget. Of course, the other option is an election, which he says "is not best for the country." Why? Is it because he would lose and he'd back to where he is now... nowhere? That's what I believe. Based on polls, Stephen Harper's Conservatives would win another election, although not a majority government, which is something I would love.
"We need an election in February like we need a hole in the head," he said during a visit to Montreal. "It's not the best stimulus package we could have."
In addition to the stupid UFCW, the Federation des travailleurs et travailleuses du Quebec have joined in on something that shouldn't be any of their business. "We continue to support the solution of a coalition government," Michel Arsenault, FTQ president, said after a meeting with Ignatieff at union headquarters. Calling the Harper government "the enemy of consensus, democratic consultation and transparency," he said he fully expects the Conservative budget to be worthy of defeat.
This is it... Michael Ignatieff must be eliminated too. Actually, I'm too lazy to do something about it.
Barack Obama recently became the president of the United States. We all know that, right? I'd sure hope so.
Well, John McCain won something else. He won a spot next to one John Kerry on a gallery dedicated to presidential losers at a rural northwest Kansas bank.
First State Bank's "They Also Ran" gallery, which is a tribute to losing presidential candidates, recently added McCain's image on Tuesday.
That's pretty funny. I should start a gallery of Canadian prime ministers that have been defeated due to non-confidence votes. Hopefully, Stephen Harper won't be on it.
And by the way, the bank's three walls for the gallery have been filled.
A letter carrier in Michigan accused of stashing hundreds of pieces of mail in a storage unit instead of delivering them recently pleaded guilty to deserting her route. This is kind of like Newman from Seinfeld.
Jill Hull appeared Tuesday in federal court. Authorities say she kept the mail for more than two years.
The stash was discovered in September in a storage unit in Fowlerville, which is about 80 kilometres from Detroit. The mail carrier told an agent of some sort that she could not keep up with the job.
Remember when Wal-Mart Canada decided to close its store in Jonquiere, Quebec after the store's employees decided that they would like to be unionized? Sure, I laughed when the all the employees were fired and the UFCW were pissed. By the way, the UFCW is one of the most useless unions, ever.
Anyway, Wal-Mart's right to close their own store is going, or has gone to to the Supreme Court of Canada today.
The court will consider whether or not Wal-Mart Canada had violated Quebec labour laws and the workers' constitutional rights by shutting the store down.
Hopefully, Wal-Mart will win the case in the end. Even though I don't shop at the store myself, I still hate the stupid unions.
Gary Johnson recently knocked up a girl and was billed $3,800 for the birth of their bastard child JaeLyn. The daughter is a bastard child because Johnson is not married to the child's mother, Rebecca Witt.
The State of Michigan is now offering an option that allows them to waive the birth fees, if he marries the child's mother.
The State of Michigan paid for the hospital costs because Witt was on Medicaid at the time. The State is now trying to recover that money.
According to Jack Battles, the law is an incentive to maintain the sanctity of marriage.
Barack Hussein Obama, the first African-American man to be elected as the President of the United States, is no longer known as President-elect Barack Obama. As of 12:05 PM today in Washington, DC, he officially became the 44th President of the United States, thus forcing us to refer to him as President Barack Obama.
With President Obama now in office, our eight years of having George Bush as the President of the United States have finally ended.
Well, the biggest event that I've been waiting for since... November has come and ended. Now, the only thing I'm still interested in now is the parade... and hopefully, nothing bad will happen. And by "bad," I mean terrorist attacks or assassination attempts.
Now, after today, the next thing I look forward to is having President Obama visiting the beautiful country of Canada.
Interestingly enough, Prime Minister Stephen Harper did not attend the inauguration of President Barack Obama.
Today's events are of historic significance, and I have no idea how to describe how kick-ass this event is.
What would you do if you were stabbed, or shot? Well, I for one would call for help somehow. But, as we can see, that wasn't really important to one crazy bastard in the Edmonton area.
Cops responded to a call from the York Hotel in downtown Edmonton located at 10401 96 Street just after 9:00 PM Saturday with reports that a man had been stabbed.
When cops arrived, the victim was found drinking beer at his table.
"He's got a minor poke to his chest, but he's not giving us any details," said Staff Sgt. Regan James. "You can imagine the level of his concern was not that high."
I wonder if it was Steven McKenna... he always encouraged me to come with him for a beer after work when he worked with me.
Next time you ask a governement official for help, consider what you've done first.
Leroy Carr from Federal Way, Washington was convicted last October of intent to distribute drugs after being arrested near the Sumas border crossing leading into British Columbia.
Carr had lost his shipment of cocaine and called U.S. customs officials for help. He has since been handed a 14-year prison sentence term by a U.S. District Court judge in Seattle.
Here's the really, really interesting part:
Trial records show Carr called U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in August 2007, claiming he had stashed 31 kilograms of cocaine near the border but when he returned he couldn't find the back packs.
Two weeks later, a Boy Scout Ranger called officials to say that he had found the drugs.
During his trial, Carr claimed he had never possessed the drugs, despite the maps he drew pinpointing where he thought he left the drugs for customs officials. That's hilarious!
Now this is a damn shame... because it's such a funny story. Too bad it had to end the way it did...
When you read the headline, you're probably thinking that the situation is damn hilarious.
Well, you're probably thinking that the goat somehow placed a noose carefully so it could get its neck in it and hang itself because life at the Calgary Zoo is depressing. Unfortunately, that's not the case.
The goat is considered a wild goat, and was entangled in a rope on Friday afternoon.
Zoo visitor Aubrey Williams said she came across the exhibit and saw the animal in distress.
Here's something to ponder:
Williams said the animal was struggling and lost its balance on the log. The markhor fell and was hanging on the end of the rope as it grappled to get its footing on an adjacent rock.
In a press release, the zoo said the markhor died after becoming entangled in a play toy suspended above the log walkway.
The Government of Saskatchewan is reminding you that if you plan on leaving the province of Saskatchewan, you should get private health insurance when you leave. Otherwise, you might end up with one hell of a bill that may end up costing you your life savings, or your life, should you choose to kill yourself.
"If you're away in a warmer climate and you happen to run into a medical emergency of some sort, we will reimburse your physician expenses at Saskatchewan rates," said Brad Havervold, executive director of the medical services branch with Saskatchewan Health.
Residents who are admitted to emergency rooms or are required to stay at the hopsital are partially reimbursed.
"For an outpatient visit to a hospital, say in an emergency room, we would pay $50 per day and for inpatient care, if you're admitted to a hospital outside of Canada, we pay $100 a day," Havervold said.
So, whatever is beyond those rates is your responsibility.
So... when you leave the country, get health insurance!
Twenty "aspiring activists" recently received a lesson on how to create a human blockade as part of a oilsands protest training conference held on Saturday here in Saskatoon.
Who was the bastard "training" them? It was the biggest douche of all, Greenpeace "activist" Mike Hudema, who has been featured on Global National when he scaled the SHAW Conference Centre during a speech made by Alberta Premier Ed Stelmach. He had been banned from the building at the time.
Actually, if you read the article, it all sounds pretty stupid. There are always seems to be two solutions to human blockades... you can the people over with a truck, or you can shoot the people then run over their corpses. Now, the only problem we have is finding someone who has the balls to do that.
So far, the Saskatchewan Party has made no secret that it has the desire to develop Saskatchewan's oil reserves. Event organizer Nicole Kenney hopes to send a message to Premier Brad Wall.
Walmart, previously know as Wal-Mart in the U.S., along with Netflix, is being sued.
Both companies have been sued in a consumer lawsuit for "trying to build a monopoly for online DVD rentals." Yeah... right. First of all, in the United States, Netflix isn't the only online DVD rental website. There's also BLOCKBUSTER Online, or BLOCKBUSTER Total Access.
Andrea Resnick filed the lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California alleging that both companies "unreasonably restrained trade, sending up prices." The story is... Wal-Mart once decided to get in on the action when it came to online DVD rentals to see if they can get a chunk of the profits that Netflix were making. Instead, both companies made a deal that would see Walmart, or Wal-Mart, shut down its online service and refer their customers over to Netflix. Meanwhile, Netflix would then promote Wal-Mart's retail sales.
First of all, there's two companies. I don't understand how that computes as a monopoly. Secondly, there's other options. If you don't like Wal-Mart (or Walmart) or Netflix, then rent from BLOCKBUSTER. If you don't like BLOCKBUSTER, go to Movie Gallery, which should disappear, soon enough.
Wal-Mart Canada, possibly Canada's most evil chain of stores owned by Wal-Mart Stores Inc. plans to open a whole line of energy-efficient Wal-Mart Supercentre locations across Canada.
They are beginning with the opening of a store in Burlington, Ontario, which claims to use 60% less energy than other Wal-Mart Supercentre locations.
"We're determined to build the greenest stores on the block, and our Burlington store puts us one step closer," said David Cheesewright, president and CEO of Wal-mart Canada. "We remain committed to being green, not only for the good of the environment, but for the long-term sustainability of our business. There's a tremendous opportunity to reduce our construction and operating costs and to pass those savings on to our customers."
Yeah, for a guy with a weird name, he makes a pretty good statement. I wonder if the new store at the Blairmore shopping centre here in Saskatoon will be like that.
Saskatoon's recent temperatures have been warmer than usual. But, that means that snow is melting during the day, but it gets cooler overnight, which results in that melted snow turning into ice on the surface.
Now, the great thing is... winter road maintenance crews have apparently been working 24/7 this past weekend and contractors have been hired to help assist with the clearing of Saskatoon's really cool roads.
The process is still on-going.
Watch for "no parking" signs though. Park there and your car will be towed and ticketed.
Circuit City Stores Inc., the company that owns Circuit City stores in the U.S. and The Source by Circuit City here in Canada is liquidating its own assets.
The liquidators will sell its merchandise in its 567 U.S. stores after the company failed to find a buyer, or a refinancing deal.
This sucks for them... oh well, I never liked their Canadian locations, or their crappy American stores either. It's a shame BLOCKBUSTER didn't buy them out.
There is no word on what will happen to the Canadian stores.
Although we kind of saw this coming, we're still surprised that Circuit City didn't decide to close their American stores earlier.
Are you wearing an iPod right now? Are you thinking to yourself, "Hey, I'm so awesome with my expensive music player?" Well, how awesome would it be if I told you that your ears might be filling with millions of harmful bacteria cells while you're reading this and have those earphones on?
A study from The Journal of Health and Allied Sciences has determined that frequent use of earphones increases bacterial growth in the ear, so those ear buds are practically Petri dishes filled with freakishly-gross microorganisms!
If that wasn't bad enough, other researchers in India have determined that people who share their ear buds share their filth, as well: harmful bacteria is present on 92% of ear swabs taken from people who shared their earphones, compared with only 8% of those who shared less frequently.
"But I'm a real man! I'm not afraid of bacteria, baby!" is something might be saying to yourself, or thinking. But, you have no idea how foolish you are to utter those words. Who knows what those bacteria are up to... maybe they're going to give you a painful infection, or maybe they have worse plans. Maybe they're going to burrow into your mind and make you think that robbing a liquor store is a good idea. If so, I'll see you in prison.
Do you share your ear buds? If you do, gross! And as for Huy Dang, this isn't limited to the iPod. It includes the Zune too!
Intel Corp., the comany that makes great computer chips ever, is stinking up the joint, profit-wise.
The Santa Clara, CA-based company reported net income of $234 million, or $0.04 per share, for the three months that ended on December 27, 2008. That is down from $2.27 billion from a year ago.
The results fell in line with the predictions of Wall Street.
Despite this, Intel says it is well-positioned for growth when the economy recovers, whenever that may be.
Based on the results of a recent survey, most Canadians believe they can weather an economic recession without dipping into their retirement funds.
But, most of the people are weathering the recession without any sort of economic plan, according to BMO Financial Group, which did the survey.
"The troubling economy is causing Canadians to take action with their personal finances, but there is room for more to be done," says the survey results.
Now, something interesting is... 40% of the surveyed people do not have emergency savings set aside for unexpected changes in their financial cirumstances.
Zimbabwe's central bank will issue a $100-trillion bill soon, to solve some issues with cash shortages. That means it would be worth about $33 on the black market.
Prices are doubling every day and food and fuel are in short supply in the country, or as Moe Szyslak would say, "You know, one of them loser countries."
Microsoft Corp. is considering significant layoffs across its various divisions, according to The Wall Street Journal, which reported the incident yesterday.
But, plans for the cutbacks have not yet been confirmed, and Microsoft could end up finding alternative methods to control costs.
At this time, a Microsoft spokesman has said... nothing.
Microsoft may announce the job cuts when it reports quarterly earnings next week.
Microsoft currently employs 91,000 people globally.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper has dropped the strongest hint yet that the upcoming stimulus package to be unveiled in his federal budget this month will include tax cuts for middle-class Canadians, which is a measure that would appear to put him at odds with that stupid Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff.
In an interview with the National Post, Mr. Harper said that he believes it is very important that the middle class is part of the stimulus program. "It is very important to help the vulnerable, struggling sectors and help people who are losing their jobs. But you can't sustain economic activity without having stimulus for the middle class as well. That's very important. Since the middle class is paying most of the freight, the middle class has to share in the stimulus program and we will be making sure that is the case," he said.
This is good news, both for us, and the government. Hopefully, stupid Michael Ignatieff won't interfere. Now, if only Mr. Harper had a majority government...
Christopher Pauchay, the Saskatchewan man waiting to be sentenced for the freezing deaths of his own daughters because he thought it wouldn't be so bad to take them out in the bitter cold because he was drunk, will be behind bars for at least another week.
A judge says that Pauchay will remain in custody after being arrested for allegedly breaching bail conditions. The one he breached was the one that does not allow him to consume alcohol.
Unpopular and still a big douche, President George W. Bush defended his two terms in a farewell address to the nation tonight.
In his address, Bush claims that there were a lot of successes under his rule, both at home and abroad.
Going back to the September 11, 2001 attacks, when the public rallied behind him, Bush declared that the United States will "never tire, never falter and never fail."
Leaving office with the highest disapproval rating since Richard Nixon, Bush said, "You may not agree with some tough decisions I have made, but I hope you can agree that I was willing to make the tough decisions."
That would be Bush's final public appearance until he greets President-elect Barack Obama on Inauguration Day at the White House's North Portico. Bush then called the inauguration of Obama, the first black president, a "moment of hope and pride" for America.
After today's "plane crash" that occurred in New York City's freezing Hudson River, it has been reported that everyone on board has survived. That is great news!
A U.S. Airways jet apparently hit a flock of birds after taking off from New York's LaGuardia Airport. Witnesses saw the plane make an emergency landing in a cloud of spray on the river.
This is another reason why birds suck... that's why I wasn't so "sad" when my dad ran over a bird with his car while he took me shopping at the Real Canadian Superstore one time. Oh yeah, the store was located in the Sunridge area... in Calgary.
The City of Saskatoon, the most kick-ass municipality in Canada has come up empty in its quest to for a developer to build a "feature building" to house River Landing's signature restaurant.
The building would be on the riverbank near the Traffic Bridge only metres from the planned Lake Placid hotel, condo, office and retail complex.
The City of Saskatoon called for proposals in advertisements across the Prairies last fall. Six groups were interested, but all were douchebags who did not submit proposals.
City administration followed up with the potential developers and heard complaints that include:
A preference to own the land rather than leasing it at a high rate.
Rising construction costs.
Questionable timing in building the restaurant before the Lake Placid project.
Lack of on-site customer parking.
Yeah, parking is a major issue in Saskatoon right now.
The City still remains committed to seeing a restaurant on that site in the future. They're not giving up.
A 54-year-old Japanese man was recently caught impersonating his own 20-year-old son to take an exam. He even got a perm to make himself look younger.
The father, who runs a medication distribution company took a test for a licence to handle over-the-counter drugs so that his son could work withh him, said an official in Nara prefecture in western Japan.
An examiner thought the student looked unusually old. "A 20-year-old and a 54-year-old are aged differently. But he looked like the photo on the exam admission card," government official Masaaki Nakamori said.
"When the test monitor approached him, he admitted it and apologised. He said, from the application process to actual testing, he did it all himself without telling his son," Nakamori said.
Federal Finance Minister Jim Flaherty said that this year's budget deficit will be one hell of a huge amount as the government considers proposals such as retraining for out-of-work Canadians and changes to employment insurance.
"This budget is not about reducing or cutting spending," Flaherty said in Victoria Monday.
That's a damn shame. The January 27 budget is about taking action needed to get through the current global recession, according to Flaherty.
The layoff of 1,000 potash employees from Mosaic shows that not even a kick-ass "have" province like Saskatchewan is shielded from a potential Canadian recession.
Premier Brad Wall plans to discuss the situation with Prime Minister Stephen Harper and plans to lobby for stimulus spending for Western Canada.
"What I've said very consistently is that we're not immune to what is going on around the world. We're going to be and we are affected by declining commodity prices," the Saskatchewan Party leader told reporters at the legislature.
Remember how floozies like to get married in Las Vegas? Well, New York City is seeking to become a premier destination for people to get married in what tourism officials hope will boost tourism during uncertain economic times.
The new Manhattan Bridge Bureau opened to the public this week following its $12.3 million renovation, and the 24,000 ft2 space has won kick-ass reviews by newlyweds.
"We're taking Las Vegas on," said First Deputy City Clerk Michael McSweeney. "The city hopes to advance New York not just as a tourist destination, but as a marriage destination."
In 2007, New York issued 66,000 marriage licences while Clak County, Nevada (which includes Las Vegas) issued 108,963 marriage licences. The only difference is, if you believe The Simpsons, having more than one wife is perfectly acceptable in Nevada.
About a year ago, we reported to you that a man from Chestermere, Alberta got his ass kicked when he pulled over to help a few people that had car troubles.
The "victim" was identified as Jason Brunelle. Now, Brunelle is being charged with public mischief.
Today, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police decided to lay charges against Brunelle because they believe he lied about the story. Sgt. Patrick Webb said cops had their doubts from the beginning about the random attack. "The more they checked, the more they determined it was all a fallacy, it was all a lie," said Webb.
He was definitely beat up, but cops do not know why.
Henrik Fisker, the ex-BMW and Aston Martin designer and now the relatively-new CEO of Fisker Coachbuild introduced his production-ready Fisker Karma plug-in series hybrid luxury car, which is ready to roll into an expected 40 dealerships before year-end at a price point of $87,900 US.
This will be the world's first hybrid convertible car.
Other than, this car can be pretty boring, and expensive. Who in their right mind would spend that much on one car? Oh right... I know who.
Petro-Canada, the chain of gas stations where I like to fill up with gasoline for my "gas-guzzling" Toyota Camry, has posted a $691 million loss for the final quarter of 2008 yesterday.
Governor Rod Blagojevich has been removed from office, despite his pleas for a trial to prove his innocence when it comes to his political corruption charges.
Remember when the residents of Saskatchewan voted for change back in November of 2007? Well, the NDP has since made fun of the Saskatchewan Party government on numerous occasions. Usually, it's pretty stupid.
Last week, an electronic road sign in Austin, Texas was hacked to warn drivers of zombies. The prank, which I'm going to chalk up to the ingenuity of college kids, was pretty awesome. It's also nice to see that state officials can take a joke. In an interview with Fox News, Chris Lippincott, director of media relations for the Texas Department of Transportation, said this:
If you cultivate large fields of marijuana in Switzerland, be aware. The cops have Google and they will use it. Narcotics police in the nation said they spotted a marijuana field on Google Earth while searching for a suspect's address. Although the weed was hidden by corn, police quickly saw through the drug dealers' ruse and brought the hammer of Swiss justice down upon their heads with extreme prejudice.
Sure, everyone else may have money problems, but Nintendo is doing great. The company reports a 17% growth over the previous year and 501 billion yen of operating profits. That's up 27% from a year ago. Nice work, weirdoes.
Within 24 hours of greeting the new Conservative federal budget with cautious approval, Premier Brad Wall decided that it sucked, calling it a near failure on a whole lot of issues.
Edgar Properties II Ltd., a property development group has plans to construct a signature building in the south downtown area, including a $50 million tower with tweleve (12) floors. It would be great if they had a rooftop bar or restaurant... where I can drop a watermelon.
Starbucks Coffee, the chain of coffee shops that appears virtually everywhere you go, is shutting down 300 stores and cutting 6,700 jobs.
Remember when I reported to you that 
As many as 129,000 cellular phones amde by LG are being recalled across Canada because they may not meet federal guidelines for radio frequency exposure.
"I've been on 19 years and I've never seen anybody actually moving in and living in somebody's residence like that," said Sgt. Chad Hill of the Kosciusko County Sheriff's Department. Well, that's how he describes the situation.
According to the Hollywood Reporter, the long-rumored remake/revival of legendary 80's TV series The A-Team will finally happen. Filling the director's chair will be Joe Carnahan (Smokin' Aces and Narc) with Scott Free, the production company of legendary Hollywood siblings Ridley and Tony Scott to produce.
Earlier today, Toyota Canada issued a recall for 58,400 of its Yaris subcompact cars due to a potential seatbelt defect.
Yesterday, the current Conservative government unveiled one of the biggest federal budgets in federal history. And despite the fact that the Bloc Quebecois and the NDP wanted the Liberals to reject the government's budget, that did not happen. Had the rejection happened, that just meant that the Conservative government would have been defeated.
President Barack Obama, who recently became president of the United States just eight days ago, will be visiting Canada on February 19, 2009, according to the White House. This will be his first foreign trip as president.
It is with great sadness that we announce passing of Jason Pawelko, who died on January 25, 2009.
Municipal cops in Montreal are pondering a possible bylaw charge that would allow police officers to fine a citizen who verbally insults them. That'd be hilarious, as cops do get called a lot of childish names. Imagine calling a cop a "fag" and being arrested. That would be hilarious.
First, that's not the church I'm talking about. I just couldn't find an actual picture.
Nothing pisses me off more than when someone parks their stupid car in front of your house on the day when your street is getting swept.
Despite the mounting public outrage over recent inreases over parking and their own salaries, city council basically said "Fuck you" to all of the citizens of Calgary last night.
General Motors Corp. is shutting down production for an extra week this spring at its car plant in Oshawa, Ontario. They are also cutting 2,000 jobs at two other factories around the United States as they try to reduce the number of cars produced in response to demand that is slowing.
Cops in Boca Raton, Florida say a 46-year-old man was arrested for the 190th time in Florida last week.
By now, you should know that Wal-Mart has rollbacks, which means that when they get a good deal, you get a good deal.
Remember when I reported to you that 
Tomorrow, the Harper government is going to unveil a sprawling, deficit-financed plan to "stimulate" the economy in the upcoming federal budget.
According to a new Ipsos Reid poll that was recently conducted, Prime Minister Stephen Harper and his Conservative party remain the most trusted by Canadians to manage the economy. However, the only problem is... Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff and his party are gaining ground. That's going to be a problem.
According to the Saskatoon StarPhoenix, those idiots over in Quebec will be watching closely as federal politicians return to work in Parliament later today, nearly two months after Prime Minister Stephen Harper came close to losing his job.
A landlord was recently fined nearly $10,000.
Remember when Jerry Seinfeld didn't return a library book on 
Since being elected a few months ago, United States President Barack Obama has publicly complained about his loss of privacy and concerns he will get stuck in the "bubble" of security.
Recently, cops in Calgary detained and questioned a man for spitting, which is of course a violation of a City of Calgary bylaw against public expectorating. In the process, cops discovered he was wanted as a suspect in an Edmonton homicide.
In an unprecedented move to soften the blow of next week's federal budget, the prime minister's office today announced that Canada would plunge into deficit by $64 billion over the next two years.
Way back in the pre-digital camera era, the only way to instantly see photographs that you just snapped was to use a Polaroid camera. Sadly, the times changed and Polaroid announced last year that they would no longer produce film for instant cameras. Enthusiasts of the format aren't ready to give up just yet. A group of fans love the quality of the Polaroid picture so much, that they're trying to create a new film compatible with Polaroid cameras.
Wal-Mart Canada, the company that now opens stores under the "Walmart" name recently opened their first store within Vancouver.
President Barack Obama signed papers today demanding the closure of the Guantanamo Bay prison in Cuba today.
For many years, Microsoft owned a stake in Comcast Corporation, which is the owner of G4, part-owner of G4techTV Canada and other crappy television networks.
Remember when PepsiCo Inc. would often make commercials that said their cola was better-tasting than Coca-Cola's awesome cola? Well, both companies will be reigniting the "cola wars" with new marketing, hoping to stem a three-year U.S. sales decline of carbonated drinks.
The Calgary Police Service, which apparently took too long to realize that Calgary had a gang problem, is in Saskatoon and Edmonton looking for a few good men. Man, that's something they'd probably say on those awesome Police Academy movies.
Toyota, the world's most kick-ass automaker since, well, forever, has kicked ass in 2008 in comparison to GM. For many years, GM was the #1 automaker based on the number of cars and trucks sold. Well, last year, Toyota took that position, selling more cars and trucks in 2008.
Aren't things easier when police services get to get together to work together, unlike those state troopers and the Spurbury police on Super Troopers? Besides, I don't think I can respect a police force that watched "Afghanistaninmation." Anyway, that's what three police services in the British Columbia area decided to do... they worked together.
Earlier today, Finance Minister Jim Flaherty promised Canadians tax relief in next week's federal budget, hours after an independent parliamentary research group said that can indeed afford some permanent tax cuts.
Barack Obama recently became the president of the United States. We all know that, right? I'd sure hope so.
A letter carrier in Michigan accused of stashing hundreds of pieces of mail in a storage unit instead of delivering them recently pleaded guilty to deserting her route. This is kind of like Newman from Seinfeld.
Remember when Wal-Mart Canada decided to close its store in Jonquiere, Quebec after the store's employees decided that they would like to be unionized? Sure, I laughed when the all the employees were fired and the UFCW were pissed. By the way, the UFCW is one of the most useless unions, ever.
Gary Johnson recently knocked up a girl and was billed $3,800 for the birth of their bastard child JaeLyn. The daughter is a bastard child because Johnson is not married to the child's mother, Rebecca Witt.
What would you do if you were stabbed, or shot? Well, I for one would call for help somehow. But, as we can see, that wasn't really important to one crazy bastard in the Edmonton area.
Next time you ask a governement official for help, consider what you've done first.
When you read the headline, you're probably thinking that the situation is damn hilarious.
The Government of Saskatchewan is reminding you that if you plan on leaving the province of Saskatchewan, you should get private health insurance when you leave. Otherwise, you might end up with one hell of a bill that may end up costing you your life savings, or your life, should you choose to kill yourself.
Twenty "aspiring activists" recently received a lesson on how to create a human blockade as part of a oilsands protest training conference held on Saturday here in Saskatoon.
Walmart, previously know as Wal-Mart in the U.S., along with Netflix, is being sued.
Wal-Mart Canada, possibly Canada's most evil chain of stores owned by Wal-Mart Stores Inc. plans to open a whole line of energy-efficient Wal-Mart Supercentre locations across Canada.
Saskatoon's recent temperatures have been warmer than usual. But, that means that snow is melting during the day, but it gets cooler overnight, which results in that melted snow turning into ice on the surface.
Circuit City Stores Inc., the company that owns Circuit City stores in the U.S. and The Source by Circuit City here in Canada is liquidating its own assets.
Are you wearing an iPod right now? Are you thinking to yourself, "Hey, I'm so awesome with my expensive music player?" Well, how awesome would it be if I told you that your ears might be filling with millions of harmful bacteria cells while you're reading this and have those earphones on?
Intel Corp., the comany that makes great computer chips ever, is stinking up the joint, profit-wise.
Based on the results of a recent survey, most Canadians believe they can weather an economic recession without dipping into their retirement funds.
Zimbabwe's central bank will issue a $100-trillion bill soon, to solve some issues with cash shortages. That means it would be worth about $33 on the black market.
Microsoft Corp. is considering significant layoffs across its various divisions, according to The Wall Street Journal, which reported the incident yesterday.
Christopher Pauchay, the Saskatchewan man waiting to be sentenced for the freezing deaths of his own daughters because he thought it wouldn't be so bad to take them out in the bitter cold because he was drunk, will be behind bars for at least another week.
Unpopular and still a big douche, President George W. Bush defended his two terms in a farewell address to the nation tonight.
The City of Saskatoon, the most kick-ass municipality in Canada has come up empty in its quest to for a developer to build a "feature building" to house River Landing's signature restaurant.
A 54-year-old Japanese man was recently caught impersonating his own 20-year-old son to take an exam. He even got a perm to make himself look younger.
Federal Finance Minister Jim Flaherty said that this year's budget deficit will be one hell of a huge amount as the government considers proposals such as retraining for out-of-work Canadians and changes to employment insurance.
The layoff of 1,000 potash employees from Mosaic shows that not even a kick-ass "have" province like Saskatchewan is shielded from a potential Canadian recession.
Remember how floozies like to get married in Las Vegas? Well, New York City is seeking to become a premier destination for people to get married in what tourism officials hope will boost tourism during uncertain economic times.
About a year ago, we 
Henrik Fisker, the ex-BMW and Aston Martin designer and now the relatively-new CEO of Fisker Coachbuild introduced his production-ready Fisker Karma plug-in series hybrid luxury car, which is ready to roll into an expected 40 dealerships before year-end at a price point of $87,900 US.