{"id":974,"date":"2004-09-22T10:55:00","date_gmt":"2004-09-22T17:55:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cahighways.org\/wordpress\/?p=974"},"modified":"2004-09-22T10:55:00","modified_gmt":"2004-09-22T17:55:00","slug":"observations-on-the-news-september-22-2004","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cahighways.org\/wordpress\/?p=974","title":{"rendered":"Observations on the News: September 22, 2004"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Another of my periodic &#8220;Observations on the News&#8221;:<\/p>\n<p><b>Albertsons Moves Upscale With Bristol Farms Purchase<\/b>. The <a href=\"http:\/\/www.latimes.com\/news\/local\/valley\/la-fi-albert22sep22,1,5002802.story?coll=la-editions-valley\" target=\"_blank\">Los Angeles Times<\/a> (registration required). Sigh. And another one bites the dust. At least we still have <a href=\"http:\/\/www.gelsons.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">Gelsons<\/a>. We&#8217;ve given up on the major markets in Los Angeles: We actually find Ralphs and Vons to be higher priced than Gelsons, and Lucky&#8217;s (oops) Albertsons, well, we&#8217;ve never liked them. More business for Trader Joes.<\/p>\n<p><b>Twinkies&#8217; maker files bankruptcy<\/b>. <a href=\"http:\/\/money.cnn.com\/2004\/09\/22\/news\/fortune500\/interstate_bankruptcy\/index.htm\" target=\"_blank\">CNN\/Money<\/a> is reporting that <a href=\"http:\/\/www.interstatebakeriescorp.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">Interstate Bakeries<\/a>, the makers of&nbsp; <a href=\"http:\/\/www.twinkies.com\/index.asp\" target=\"_blank\">Twinkies<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.wonderbread.com\/brands.html\" target=\"_blank\">Wonder Bread<\/a>, and numerous Hostess, Dolly Madison, and bread brands is filing Chapter 11. Guess Atkins did them in. I remember touring a Wonder Bread plant when I was a little boy.<\/p>\n<p><b>Clandestine Filming Ban Broadened<\/b>. The <a href=\"http:\/\/www.latimes.com\/news\/local\/la-me-arnold22sep22,1,3821793.story?coll=la-headlines-california\" target=\"_blank\">Los Angeles Times<\/a> (registration required) is reporting that the Governator has signed legislation making it a misdemeanor to secretly videotape people in their bedrooms, whether or not they are clothed. Violators face punishment of up to a year in county jail, a $1,000 fine or both.&nbsp; Now, I agree with the surface intent of this bill, which would relate to the same problems as hidden cameras in bathrooms. But now, think about the effect on &#8220;Nanny Cams&#8221; that montor child-care workings in a child&#8217;s bedroom (not to mention Private Investigators getting the goods on cheating spouses). For all the places <a href=\"http:\/\/www.thebostonchannel.com\/news\/3725041\/detail.html\" target=\"_blank\">the government is placing cameras<\/a>, individuals can&#8217;t monitor their own homes. Yet again, if you think about it, this is an attack on civil liberties, cleverly disguised. Aren&#8217;t you glad now <a href=\"http:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2004\/TRAVEL\/09\/21\/passenger.screening.ap\/index.html\" target=\"_blank\">you didn&#8217;t fly in June<\/a>?&nbsp; <\/p>\n<p>&#8230; and I&#8217;m not even going to express my disgust at how well our government is <a href=\"http:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2004\/WORLD\/meast\/09\/22\/iraq.beheading\/index.html\" target=\"_blank\">protecting our civilians who are working to reconstruct Iraq<\/a>.&nbsp; After all, according to our President, our policy in Iraq is a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.cleveland.com\/news\/plaindealer\/index.ssf?\/base\/news\/1093865461313590.xml\" target=\"_blank\">&#8220;catastrophic success&#8221;<\/a>. Better to spend our energies considering <a href=\"http:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2004\/US\/09\/22\/plane.diverted.stevens\/index.html\" target=\"_blank\">Cat Stevens to be a threat<\/a>. Just an odd question to the President: What would prevent the kidnap squads in Iraq from doing the same in America? Not one bomb is required, and knives and swords are easily available.<\/p>\n<p>Sigh.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Another of my periodic &#8220;Observations on the News&#8221;: Albertsons Moves Upscale With Bristol Farms Purchase. The Los Angeles Times (registration required). Sigh. And another one bites the dust. At least we still have Gelsons. We&#8217;ve given up on the major markets in Los Angeles: We actually find Ralphs and Vons to be higher priced than <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/cahighways.org\/wordpress\/?p=974\">Read More &#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[56,1],"tags":[83,222,191],"class_list":["post-974","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-chum","category-lj-xfer","tag-corporate-america","tag-grocery-markets","tag-observations-2004"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cahighways.org\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/974","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cahighways.org\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cahighways.org\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cahighways.org\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cahighways.org\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=974"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cahighways.org\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/974\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cahighways.org\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=974"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cahighways.org\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=974"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cahighways.org\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=974"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}