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CBS ends CBS Radio network and NYT looks back with nostalgia. Old black and white pictures of CBS Radio and correspondents Edward Morrow from London, FDR fireside chats broadcast in 1933 over radio, Adm. Byrd Antartica expedition coverage. The CBS president calls it the "the foundation of everything we built since 1927," a CBS producer calls it one more step in the end of a 100 year old tradition. CBS has 700 affiliates radio stations across America that feed CBS News on radio to reach 93% of Americans. Many of them hear CBS on their commute to and from work. Now these stations will have to look elsewhere as the service is closing.

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A native of Cincinnati, Ted Turner, built one of the largest landholdings in the US. He bought 2 million acres which makes him 4th largest landholder in the US when he died this year in 2026 at the age of 87 years. One ranch alone cost him $100 million in New Mexico made up of 586,000 acres, which is now worth $500 million. Turner bought early when land prices were low in New Mexico and Montana. Much of this wilderness was turned into conservation areas. In this sense he will be remembered more for this public land and conservation than for a 24 hour news channel. Much of the audio and video media can be accessed over 24 hours anytime of one's choosing on the internet by 2026, which makes CNN redundant today. CNN and Fox News are more of a distraction today at best and a flawed presentation of the News because of their tendency to take advantage of the audiences and reinforce their bias for profit, CNN and Fox New on opposite sides. CNN has been acquired by Paramount CBS and is about to undergo major changes under the Ellison family. And the Murdoch family is split on how to run Fox News. Both television channels will likely dissipate in influence and viewers as Americans grow out of their biased and often incorrect interpretations of current news events. There is little they do that cannot be done by diligent effort to present the news in alternatives such as Lyrarc.com on the internet that present a range of views from major world newspapers and sites. And yet see America as a beacon of hope in the world and Europe as the place where the scientific and industrial revolutions that changed all our lives for the better started, giving the younger generation of Americans reason for hope in the future. ...

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CSU faculty organized against OpenAI contract expiring June 2026 at a time when students/faculty worry about loss of critical thinking skills amid 40% unemployment of new graduates. This is the California State University System once a major national institution of education under Governor Edmund Brown Sr in the 1960's that powered the 60's middle class, now torn apart by mistakes in higher education. Imagine Teniente-Matson in an AI created form speaking in many languages not realizing that this has little to do with education, as shown here in the NYT- coming to San Jose State from Texas A&M San Antonio. Both Hispanic student dominated institutions of education that have first generation Hispanics entering college- the promise of this first generation finding opportunities in the US economy. It is already fading for new graduates with high unemployment of 40%. The AI Initiative pushed by Governor Newsom in the state has created confusion or chaos says the NYT. This is the biggest 4 year public higher educational system in the US with 22 campuses, with diversity in California about 50% Hispanic. This is what "great" looked like for America in the 1960's with Eisenhower and JFK. Today with such misplaced initiatives and lack of the same wisdom and dedication to knowledge from that in the 1950's and 60's it is a fraction of its former self. It was marketed at $16.9 million for 500,000 licenses by OpenAI as a way for these first generation Hispanic college students most working class people to move forward. But as every commencement speech and everyone from the president to business leaders can attest it is all about hard work, hard work, hard work, and focus on reading and math, on sound basic skills, with pen and paper not ipads and iphones and AI that this job will be done. AI can never teach someone to persevere, to overcome obstacles, to put in the hard work over and over again to accomplish great things or to develop the curiosity for knowledge, the sense of new discovery  for scientific knowledge and invention that has powered America and Europe for three centuries. ...

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Greg Ip's 2026 warning about Stablecoins citing 1837-1863 privately issued bank notes fragmented fraud prone and outside the official banking system regulation will be remembered years from now when this crypto (anything but stable in the true sense of the word)  leads to a fianncial crisis. Stablecoins crypto currency that is similar to private banknotes issued between 1837 and 1863 with banks issuing their own currency- fraud widespread even with state laws like todays Genius Act. There were many bank failures and financial crises in that period. The state laws in the 1840's required the banknotes to be collateralized but fraud inevitably creeps in as it might with stablecoins.  Leading to financial crises as private capital shrinks and affects public capital that are US Federal Reserve bank notes we use as dollar bills. Today 84% of illicit activity is conducted using these crypto currencies and only 1% used for transactions. Proponents ( who stand to benefit in some way) call it a new efficient way of transactions. But the facts dont lie. Not only are stable coins used for only 1% of transactions, and illicit activity conducted through crypto coins, but also most of this currency is held overseas not in the US where it is less regulated. Federal Reserve has always questioned the value of crypto currency. Here is what Bank of International Settlements (international institution similar to Federal Reserve) has to say-“Stablecoins attempt to import credibility from public money while operating outside the established settlement system.” -Pablo Hernández de Cos, general manager of the Bank for International Settlements Holding Treasury bills as collateral does not remove the basic problem in is design. Issuers are for profit. The Federal Reserve is not for profit. And the Federal Reserve is part of a whole regulatory structure, Stable . laws have loopholes, and coins lack that kind of regulatory structure , making stablecoins prone to failure, an accident waiting to happen. Tether has $190 billion and Circle has 76 billion for about $300 billion in private capital tied up in this undertaking and posing risks to the Us and world financial system. ...

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Changes at CBS News and CNN News to better reflect news events. CNN is considering an offer from Paramount that improves on an offer from Netflix.  This would change the editorial content of the site. Polarization in one direction supports polarized thinking in the other direction when what is needed is free and honest, fair reporting of people and events. This leads to people constantly exposed to only one side of the story, which makes running a country more difficult, and leads to all sorts of distortions in policy that hurt the public interest and the national interest. It is not only about profit because reporting is how people get news and analysis of events, which determine what policies are taken up by the nation, leading to good or bad results or very good and very bad results.

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The failure of a 2 year Cannabis partial legalization experiment in Germany in 2026. Health Minister Warke calls the legalization a mistake saying-"Early interventions designed to dissuade children and young people from consumption are falling sharply in numbers." She also said there was now a "blurry boundary between cannabis for recreational consumption and cannabis for purely medicinal purposes,"  aggravating the situation for children. Now the CDU which opposes legalization cannot get agreement of the SPD its coalition partner, resulting in no action. The partial legalization happened under the SPD Greens coalition of Schulz.

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David Ellison's Skydance buys Free Press site for $150 million and merges with Paramount Global in $8 billion merger to acquire CBS News. Bari Weiss of Free Press is made Editor in Chief at CBS News.

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Les Moonves, head of Viacom's CBS television network, was an actor in a television show from the seventies called "The Six Million Dollar Man." He moved later to Warner Brothers and headed the studio which developed hits such as "ER" and "Friends" during his period at the studio. Moonves retains the instincts from this earlier period as he helped develop programming that pushed CBS into first place among television networks, beating Disney's ABC, Comcast Corp.'s NBC, and News Corp.'s Fox. He joined CBS in 1995, when CBS was in last place of the three U.S. television networks. At CBS he pushed for developing shows at the network studio level. In 2000 he came up with "Survivor"- the first reality programming, and the police investigatory show "CSI." CBS was hit hard during 2007-2009 as the ad market fell sharply and net income fell 82%, the stock losing 82% of its value. Moonves has diversified away from dependence on ads with revenues from syndication sales of televisions shows such as "CSI," and licensing to Netflix of old shows such as "I Love Lucy." Major problems facing CBS and the other television networks is the decline in the number of people watching television, with competition from streaming online video, digital recorders, and on-demand viewing. Even though CBS has the most viewers in prime time in the U.S., 11.5 million viewers, this is seeing sharp declines. In the 2012 fall seaon there was a 10% decline in viewers compared to the prior year, and a 20% decline in viewers 18-49 years old. ...

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Late Show with Stephen Colbert cancelled by CBS as parent company Paramount merges with Skydance in 2025. The televisions late night comedy show with political overtones was a show that lasted 30 years. It goes the way PBS goes as PBS funding is no longer renewed by the US Congress and PBS seen now as a leftover from the 1960's. PBS covered a better part of the Cold War period from 1960 to 1990 and continued for another 35 years before funding was cutoff under DJT. The situation is different today with the rise of Asian nations, China and India. The Voice of America was also a part of the 1960's period and covered the Cold War, and lost its focus after 1990's. VOA is also being defunded for lack of effectiveness. New media, and new ways to reach the American people with new ideas, and reach the people of the world with new ideas are needed today.

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Counter programming and different approaches to the newscasts at CBS, NBC, ABC, Fox and PBS television networks in the U.S.

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During a critical 4 weeks in March 9 to April 9, 2025 Germany finds itself without a newly elected government following elections Feb 23, 2025. Only on April 9 is a new CDU/CSU and SPD coalition government in place led by CDU chancellor Merz. Tariffs came to the forefront, the critical issues of world trade and the effect on stock markets, without an elected government in place in Berlin to speak for the European Union and participate in discussions.  Japan's Ishiba and India's Modi offered the US some support as it sought to restore the world trading system to where it was before the serious distortions from China joining the WTO. Much of it the result of American companies outshoring American manufacturing and turning their backs on American workers, and the dignity and pride of workers who rebuilt the US and Europe, and Asia after the Depression and the Second World War.

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Lake county with 230,000 population in Ohio received 60 million pills. Ohio Counties say after the $650 million settlement verdict by US courts for CVS, Walgreens, that it cost them $1 billion for law enforcement, social services, and health services. The opioid crisis dealt another blow to communities in the US already devastated by the behaviour of banks in the 2009 economic crisis, the outshoring of entire manufacturing to China, followed by the pandemic in 2020. America is only now coming to terms with the failure of previous adminstrations as the Biden administration takes on this task of bringing America, its workers and families back to healthy thriving communities.

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India's Reliance ADA Group and CBS are planning to setup a 50-50 joint venture, to be operational in 2010 or early 2011. CBS would initially use American programming for the Indian television audience, and in the next phase work with Reliance ADA to develop local programming. Disney, News Corp., Time Warner and Viacom already have a presence in India. The market is getting crowded in India with News Corporation's Star Plus, a leader in soap operas and movies. Viacom's channel "Colors" is creating local versions of reality shows. The new venture would try to compete with more thoughtful programming and good marketing. The size of the market and growth is large, growing from $5.7 billon in 2009 to estimated $11.3 billion in 2014 according to KPMG. Only 58% of the households in India currently watch television. The programming is growing quickly with 460 channels in 2009 from 120 in 2003.

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US president DJT sees CNN television network as "basically an arm of the Democratic party." He says "it is imperative that it be sold." Paramount run by Ellison has turned the CBS News station television network over to new management under Weiss. Paramount is now bidding for ownership of CNN. 

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There is much uncertainty about the federal elections in Germany in 2025. Four years back in 2021 Olaf Scholz had 51% of people polled saying he would make a good chancellor. This is down to 26% in Feb 2025. Merz of CDU is at 32% and Habeck of Greens at 25%. The Greens are holding onto 14% similar to 2021 with the SPD Social Democrats of Scholz at a low of 18% down from 25% in 2021. CDU is at 32% compared to 24% in 2021. AFD moving from 11% in 2021 to 21%. The immigration issue and the weak economy with the Ukraine war has hit SPD hard. The Scholz coalition also failed to invest in the economy with the FDP of Finance Minister Lindner acting as a brake on needed investment in infrastructure. The result is that the German economy burdened with higher costs for energy and a faltering auto industry is showing zero growth. The most likely outcome is a CDU coalition with the Greens and the SPD with Merz as chancellor. There is athreshold for gettinginto parliament of 4%. At this time a breakaway faction of Left parties of Wagenknecht and the FDP are both polling below 4%. The AfD is at 21% and hoping to gain from the immigration issue. Much of the uncertaintly comes from 18% of voters not planning to vote, and the 13% of voters who have not made up their mind yet and will do so on election day. ...

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Indian prime minister Modi calls for saturation level coverage of schemes including GatiShakti, Har Ghar Jal, Svamitva, Direct Benefit Transfer, and others. Also given emphasis in his statement to 18 chief ministers was the importance of sports and sports facilities  for young people, and continually improving the environment for business in the states.

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Bipin Rawat says the best approach to security for India is one of dissuasive deterrance. For the Indian Ocean and Pacific Ocean region a multilateral presence with the U.S. Australia, and Japan is seen as the most effective way to maintain open seas.

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The size of the municipal CDS market is about $50 billion. Five large derivatives dealers- Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, J.P. Morgan Chase, and Morgan Stanley- met in November 2010 to discuss standardizing paperwork for "muni CDSs" to attract more buyers and sellers. The biggest banks are hoping to profit from the deteriorating finances of US cities and states. The CDSs or credit default swaps require swap sellers to compensate buyers if a municipal issuer misses an interest payment or restructures its debt. This makes states nervous and they are suspicious of CDSs, believing that this encourages speculators to bet on, and worsen states' financial situation. California is about to require all 86 of its underwriting banks to disclose what CDSs they have traded on the states' debt, for customers or for their own accounts.