Everybody needs a journalist

A co-founder of iconic Canadian rock band Bachman-Turner Overdrive had a sexual relationship with a girl between the age of 11 and 14, a B.C. judge was told this week. “I felt the relationship was very sick,” Stacy Bohun, 24, recalled during court testimony in B.C. Supreme Court, where Tim Bachman is on trial for sex assault, sexual interference of a person under 14 and sexual touching of a young person.

Rocco Pendola submits:A label exists for people who become infatuated with radio in youth, obsessively call into stations, and eventually, in their teenage years, land an on-air gig at a commercial station. That label is radio geek. I am a radio geek. As a radio geek, the developments of the last several years represent nothing short of a dream come true.

The first rule of kidnapping insurance is that you don't talk about kidnapping insurance.That's Seth Gitter summarizing some of the economics of kidnapping insurance over at the Blog of Diminishing Returns.  Seth also points us towards a story about Caracol Radio, a radio station in Columbia that broadcasts messages from families to hostages every Saturday night:

Before you automatically hit the “yes” button, you might want to ask yourself if you can deliver in three key areas. Do you know anyone in business that has jumped on the strategic-leader bandwagon? Someone who’s quick to tell you how he or she is a strategic thinker? You know the type, lots of big ideas, lots of talk, but very little to show in terms of actually accomplishing anything. You probably know several given the overcrowded state of that particular bandwagon. Everyone, it seems, wants to be seen as a strategic.

Before you automatically hit the “yes” button, you might want to ask yourself if you can deliver in three key areas. Do you know anyone in business that has jumped on the strategic-leader bandwagon? Someone who’s quick to tell you how he or she is a strategic thinker? You know the type, lots of big ideas, lots of talk, but very little to show in terms of actually accomplishing anything. You probably know several given the overcrowded state of that particular bandwagon. Everyone, it seems, wants to be seen as a strategic.

USA health care spending continues to grow, consuming an ever increasing share of the economic production of the USA. USA health care spending is twice that of other rich countries for worse health care results.

A powerful explosion rocked northern Bogota early Thursday, causing extensive damage to a private radio station and shattering windows of buildings in the area, witnesses said.There were no immediate reports of casualties.Police were investigating the possibility the explosion was caused by a car bomb, Bogota police commander Cesar Pinzon told Radio Caracol, which was hit by the blast.The force of the explosion caused the collapse of a large part of the roof of the building that houses the radio station, forcing its evacuation, reporters for the radio station said.