Liberal_in_LA
Liberal_in_LA's JournalClear Channel and Rush Limbaugh are circling the drain. Stock price is $1.15
The former Clear Channel network owns 850 radio stations across the country and the syndication rights to right-wing stars such as Limbaugh, Glenn Beck and Sean Hannity.
During the late 1990s and early 2000s the company, feasting on the fruits of media deregulation, gorged itself with profits. (It also bullied the music business for years.)
Since then, not so much. And what a brutal ride it’s been for investors:
Clear Channel stock price, January 2000: $90.
Clear Channel stock value, April 2007: $39.
iHeartMedia stock price, July 2011: $8.30.
iHeartMedia stock price at close of yesterday: $1.15.
The company hasn’t reported a profit since 2007. Today, iHeartMedia is busy selling off assets in an effort to shore up its bottom line. “It’s a case of burning your sofa to heat up the house,” Philip Brendel, a credit analyst recently told Bloomberg. “It’s not necessarily a good idea but you’re running out of options.”
The company’s woes date back to the Clear Channel leveraged buyout deal in 2008. It was overseen by private equity giants Thomas H. Lee Partners and Bain Capital, once headed by Mitt Romney. Coming just months before the U.S. financial crisis of September 2008, the Clear Channel deal couldn’t have been hatched at a worse time.
How bad was the deal? Monumentally bad:
In 2007, the company, then called Clear Channel, reported a net income of $939 million. In the years since the LBO, the company has reported losses of between $220 million and $4 billion per year. For 2015, it reported a loss of $738 million.
http://www.salon.com/2016/04/14/rush_limbaugh_hit_where_it_hurts_worlds_greatest_troll_faces_steep_pay_cut_partner/
"America has always been best when she is lying down with her back on the mat."
Attorney General Nominee Loretta Lynch Testifies At Senate Judiciary Committee Nomination Hearing
"America has always been best when she is lying down with her back on the mat."- real thing Ted Cruz said. Photo: Mark Wilson/Getty Images
In his New York primary night speech in Philadelphia (?), Ted Cruz, now the official Republican loser of the New York primary, just said something that pretty much elicits a string of "nononononononono" from anyone who dare watch this on a Vine loop:
"America has always been best when she is lying down with her back on the mat."
http://nymag.com/thecut/2016/04/ted-cruz-said-a-creepy-thing-in-primary-speech.html
Ted Cruz loses to Ben Carson in NY district
http://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media/image/upload/s--1VNmbc6N--/c_scale,fl_progressive,q_80,w_800/uuaudyptdib3t6chnf0p.png’s been a rough night for Ted Cruz. Across the state of New York, he’s almost guaranteed to come in last place of the three remaining candidates. And in at least one district in Westchester, Ted Cruz coming in last of the remaining candidates and someone who isn’t even running anymore.
That’s right, a hearty congratulations to Dr. Ben “Gifted Hands” Carson. We knew you’d come in handy for something.
Ted Cruz's Night of Humiliation Continues as He Loses to Ben Carson in New York District
http://gawker.com/ted-cruzs-night-of-humiliation-continues-as-he-loses-to-1771963177k ok
Tennessee Police Arrest Students Aged 6-to-11 at Elementary School for Watching Neighborhood Fight
The Murfreesboro Police Deparment has been largely silent on the details of the case because it involves juveniles. The alleged fight, which took place during a neighborhood pickup basketball game, was described by one parent to the local ABC-affiliate as “no more than a scuffle of children pushing each other back and forth.” A video shot on a cell phone surfaced that led the Murfreesboro Police Department to take the extraordinary step and handcuff the elementary school students at school. The students were then taken from school to a juvenile center and “charged with the misdemeanor of being criminally responsible for the conduct of others,” according to the Murfreesboro Post.
Parents and members of the local community are, understandably, upset by the treatment. “More than 150 people, almost entirely African-American, gathered at First Baptist Church on East Castle Street in Murfreesboro Sunday afternoon to discuss the incident,” the Tennessean reports. Police and town officials have promised a review of the situation.
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http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2016/04/19/murfreesboro_tennessee_police_arrest_elementary_school_students_for_watching.html
Lawmakers call on TBI, Dept. of Justice to investigate Murfreesboro child arrests
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) – Two state representatives are calling on the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation and the U.S. Department of Justice to investigate the arrests of children by the Murfreesboro Police Department.
The elementary school students were arrested at school, handcuffed, and hauled off to juvenile detention for not breaking up a fight that occurred off school property.
State Rep. John Ray Clemmons (D – Nashville) said Tuesday “there is not rational justification for this act in our society.
MORE: Elementary students arrested at school for off-campus incident in Murfreesboro
Clemmons continued, “We cannot begin to imagine the fear and confusion experienced by these young children. This experience will undoubtedly remain with them as they mature into adulthood and negatively mold their views of law enforcement officials. It is truly unfortunate that the inappropriate acts of a few, who are not representative of the other brave men and women who honorably serve our communities, will create a new level of distrust between our communities and law enforcement.”
Rep. Mike Stewart (D – Nashville) also chimed in, calling on the Department of Justice to “immediately open an investigation,” noting some of the children were as young as six.
“There is no explanation for such inexcusable conduct perpetrated against young children who were peacefully attending elementary school when accosted, handcuffed and jailed,” Stewart went on to say, adding, “We need a full investigation into this unconscionable incident to safeguard the children’s federal and state civil rights and to determine whether those involved should be prosecuted for criminal misconduct. This is every parent’s nightmare and we need to make sure that it is never repeated.”
Click here to read the full statement from Clemmons and Stewart.
The incident outraged parents of Hobgood Elementary School and surprised many in the Murfreesboro neighborhood.
The alleged fight happened in the backyard of a house on Riviera Drive during a game of pickup basketball a few weeks ago.
There is apparently a video that shows what occurs. One parent told News 2 it was no more than a scuffle of children pushing each other back and forth.
On Sunday, Murfreesboro police and city officials met with residents at Rutherford County church to listen to their concerns about the arrests.
“Sunday was an opportunity to listen and we are committed to reviewing those concerns in a thorough and complete manner,” Chief of Police Karl Durr said.
http://wkrn.com/2016/04/19/local-lawmakers-call-on-tbi-justice-depart-to-investigate-murfreesboro-child-arrests/
Recuperative care offers a safe, clean place to recover for sick homeless
As the number of deaths among Orange County's homeless increases, advocates believe giving homeless people a safe, clean place to recover from injury or illness may slow the uptick in those dying on the streets.
The "recuperative care" model caught on about a decade ago, when hospitals were caught dumping sick homeless patients on L.A.'s Skid Row. Hospitals contract with non-profits and other organizations that run temporary housing centers with a nursing staff and social services where a homeless person can rest and get better.
Llyod Wayne Brooks, 58, was homeless for about two years living on Skid Row, in Baldwin Hills and other parts of Southern California before he moved into the recuperative care center in Santa Fe Springs run by the non-profit Illumination Foundation.
“Life just kind of took a different turn for me after my health began to fail,” Brooks said.
A social worker from the Illumination Foundation found Brooks in a Los Angeles hospital in September fresh from his third knee replacement surgery and with no place to go to recover.
The Illumination Foundation — which runs three recuperative care centers between Los Angeles and Orange counties and the Inland Empire — takes in homeless patients primarily, who are strong enough to leave the hospital after an illness or injury but are too weak too be back on the streets.
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CalOptima, the healthcare insurance program for low-income and disabled people in Orange County, announced January 2015 that it would offer up to $500,000 in reimbursements to hospitals for referring homeless patients to recuperative care. It doubled that funding commitment later that Fall.
So far, 147 patients have been referred by nine out of 18 contracted hospitals with CalOptima. There is still $864,000 left in the reimbursement program.
http://www.scpr.org/news/2016/04/18/59709/recuperative-care-offers-a-safe-clean-place-to-rec/
Cop Threatens Child on School Bus: Don’t Smile or I’ll Drag You to the F*cking Police Car
police officer outside the city of Pittsburgh was caught on tape berating a school child on a bus for smiling at him, according to a video posted to Facebook.
The video was posted on April 13 but the caption doesn’t give much in the way of details. It says the officer works for the North Braddock Police Department. He walks over to a child seated on a school bus and leans over threateningly.
“Smile in my face one more time and I’ll be dragging your ass off this bus and back to that f*cking police car,” the officer says. “Don’t smile one more time.”
The video doesn’t show the child he was talking to, but the other children on the bus seem to be elementary school-age.
The video has so far been shared 3,300 times
Watch the video, as posted to Facebook, here:
http://www.alternet.org/civil-liberties/pennsylvania-cop-threatens-child-school-bus-dont-smile-or-ill-drag-you-fcking-police
Principal Pam Edge Assistant Principal Lynn McElheney demonstrate their ed techniques
Shana Marie Perez’s viral video showing her son getting punished by Jasper County Primary School principal Pam Edge as the assistant principal held him down was lawful, but disturbed many opponents of the archaic practice.
“Corporal punishment is potentially damaging to children, it’s not the best way to deal with them and it’s also a violation of their right not to be hit,” Holden fumed, saying that giving children painful punishments teaches them to be violent and often results in depression and anxiety.
“If the adult is hitting a child, they learn to hit other children if they’re upset or angry,” he said.
Perez claimed the school threatened her son with suspension if she didn’t agree to the punishment and that she could get sent to jail for truancy for having already withheld him from school for 18 days that school year.
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/georgia-boy-paddled-viral-vid-legal-experts-article-1.2603158
Mom upset that Jasper County principal paddles 5-year-old for spitting
10:54 p.m. April 13 by Ellen Eldridge / The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Perez said she was helpless to do anything but watch so she pretended to text on her phone and shot video.
A Jasper County mother says if she didn’t allow her 5-year-old’s principal to paddle him, the school would have suspendedhttp://m.ajc.com/news/news/local/mom-upset-that-jasper-county-principal-paddles-5-y/nq5Js/him.
While Principal Pam Edge and Assistant Principal Lynn McElheney tried to get the boy under control to administer the paddling, Perez recorded them on video, pretending to be texting.
Memphis FedEx employee accidentally ships himself to Texas
A FedEx employee was clearly really tired during his shift at an airport. The man was loading packages when he fell asleep in the back of a plane and then unintentionally got a ride.
The employee was at the Memphis airport in Tennessee when he dozed off. He let the flight crew know he was on board when he woke up, but by then, the plane was almost to Lubbock, Texas.
http://www.aol.com/article/2016/04/16/memphis-fedex-employee-accidentally-ships-himself-to-texas/21345266/
Japan earthquake caught on dash cam
http://sputniknews.com/videoclub/20160416/1038105326/Japan-Earthquake-Caught-Dashcam.htmlFive cops fired. Caught on video punching, kneeing inmate
Jail officers punch, knee inmates
Cook County Jail in Chicago proactively released videos of six 'excessive force' incidents. Five officers have been fired and one resigned as a result of the jail's investigations.Source: CNN
http://www.cnn.com/videos/us/2016/04/15/jail-cameras-capture-inmate-abuse-orig-vstan-dlewis.cnn
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