Month: January 2007

New songs on OrangeNoiseRadio


We’ve got new tracks being added to OrangeNoiseRadio all the time, including the latest songs from Thaxton. The Midlothian based rocker’s got some great music coming out on his next EP release.
Check him out and our other top 10 requested songs (including a tie for the number six spot) at OrangeNoiseRadio.com. And be sure to click Submit Request on our website to request your favorite songs on OrangeNoiseRadio.

1. Mirac – Take A Stand
2. Need to Breathe – Shine On
3. John David Webster – Made to Shine
4. Thaxton – Best Of Me
5. Weird Al Yankovic – White And Nerdy
6. Dave Barnes – I Have and Always Will
7. U2 – City of Blinding Lights
7. TobyMac – Made To Love
8. Spur58 – Sleepwalkers
9. KJ-52 – Rock On
10. Jack Johnson – Good People

OrangeNoiseRadio::True Music

Burnam Files House Bill 936 To Adjust the Minimum Wage for Inflation

Burnam Files House Bill 936 To Adjust the Minimum Wage for Inflation

(Austin, TX) – Rep. Lon Burnam (D – Fort Worth) filed HB 936 that will adjust the Texas minimum wage for inflation based on the consumer price index today. This legislation follows on the heals of the U.S. House of Representatives, which passed legislation increasing the federal minimum wage to $7.25 over the next two years.

“The federal government made the important first step in raising the minimum wage,ʺ said Rep. Burnam. ʺThe Texas Legislature needs to take the next step by linking the wage floor to inflation. The workers in this state cannot afford to wait years for lawmakers to raise the minimum wage. We need an automatic increase of the minimum wage tied to the cost of living.ʺ

Burnamʹs legislation would cause the minimum wage floor to automatically adjust each year based on the consumer price index for urban wage earners and clerical workers as computed by the United States Department of Labor.

Major opponents to the federal minimum wage increase cited the potential damage to businesses that are faced with a sudden wage hike. Because Representative Burnamʹs bill adjusts the wage floor each year based on inflation, this legislation will ensure that businesses are protected from sudden wage hikes in the future.
“This bill will eliminate the time spent legislating the minimum wage in the future,ʺ said Burnam. “It gives Texas workers the dignity of a living wage without having to fight for increases during every legislative session. This is a practical and necessary solution to a problem that affects the working poor all across the state of Texas.ʺ

Currently only the states of Oregon, Vermont, and Washington have laws that adjust the minimum wage annually according to measures of inflation.

Gorge yourself in 2007


From the February 2007 issue of Texas Monthly.

Eating Myself Alive

Jim Atkinson cures what ails us.

I’M A BIG BELIEVER in New Year’s resolutions. Nine years ago I decided to quit smoking, and while it took me a few months, in March of 1998 I stamped out my last butt. At the same time, I resolved not to gain any weight after giving up nicotine—a more difficult challenge—and began exercising at least an hour a day. Nearly a decade later, I weigh the same thing. This year? I’m attacking my diet. And I’m not just referring to cutting out the fries. Healthy eating is proactive: It means consuming more of those foods whose properties prevent such life shorteners as heart disease and cancer. With the help of Lona Sandon, an assistant professor of clinical dietetics at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas, I’ve settled on ten things I’m going to gorge on in 2007. Try my plan yourself—and see how many years you can add to your life by eating more.

Here are Jim’s top 10 things to gourge on. Read more in this month’s issue.

1. Go upstream: salmon.
2. A tomato a day keeps the Big C away.
3. Synergy, baby: garlic.
4. Brown power, part I: whole-grain pasta.
5. Brown power, part II: whole-grain bread.
6. The new mayo: avocado.
7. Say yes to red meat.
8. Pintos with that?
9. Fig out.
10. Room for dessert? Cave to cantaloupe.

So, you may say, resolutions are good and well. But are there any caveats to this healthy feeding frenzy? Well, yes—two. The first is that I’ll still allow myself a cheeseburger or soft tacos once a week. It’s not that the human body can’t handle any cholesterol or fat; it just can’t take too much of it. The second is that, even if I falter at incorporating one or two of my ten foods here, I’m intent on, uh, staying the course. Because proactive eating is not just a year-long project—it’s a lifelong one.

Web to become primary vehicle for LA Times breaking news

From Editor and Publisher:

Speaking to hundreds of Los Angeles Times journalists in the newspaper’s Harry Chandler auditorium this morning, editor James O’Shea outlined a bold plan to increase traffic and revenue from LATimes.com in the face of an increasingly difficult economic climate for newspaper publishers, and urged journalists to think of the Web site as the newspaper’s primary vehicle for news.
“We can’t hide from the fact that smart competitors such as Google and Craigslist are stealing readers and advertisers from us through innovative strategies that are undermining the business model we’ve relied on for decades,” said O’Shea, whose remarks were published in their entirety on the paper’s Web site.
“Currently we have a newspaper staff and an LATimes.com staff,” he said. “No more. From now on, there are no two staffs, there is just one. And we will function as one. One of Russ’s first jobs will be to help set up that newsroom.”
He said that LATimes.com would become the paper’s “primary vehicle for breaking news 24 hours a day.”

I wonder how quickly other newspapers will take notice and start changing with the times.