News For Reasonable People

The deal announced by Microsoft on Tuesday, its biggest-ever and set to be the largest all-cash acquisition on record, will bolster its firepower in the booming video gaming market where it takes on leaders Tencent and Sony. Microsoft Corp is buying "Call of Duty" and "Candy Crush Saga" maker Activision Blizzard for USD 68.7 billion in the biggest gaming industry deal in histor...

The CEO of Better.com, best known for firing 900 employees over Zoom just before Christmas, is coming back to work. Vishal Garg is returning to his "full-time duties" as CEO, according to a letter sent to employees Tuesday from the company's board of directors. The letter noted that Garg used a leave of absence to "reflect on his leadership, reconnect with the values that make...

They say you have to work hard to get ahead, but some are finding that you can work very little and still do pretty well. On Reddit, the “antiwork” subreddit is now one of the social network’s most active and engaged pages, after seeing explosive growth during the COVID-19 pandemic. It currently has more than 1.6 million users, up from 180,000 in October 2020. People post epic text and e-mail scre...

A family inside a Bellevue home escaped Monday morning after their house slid off its foundation and collapsed, and several homes in the neighborhood had to evacuate.  Police and fire crews responded to a report of a water main break after 4 a.m. in the 5000 block of 139th Place Southeast.  https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-the-surdi-family-rebuild-after-loss-of-home Support the show 🛍️ Merch - http...

Walmart appears to be venturing into the metaverse with plans to create its own cryptocurrency and collection of non-fungible tokens, or NFTs. The big-box retailer filed several new trademarks late last month that indicate its intent to make and sell virtual goods, including electronics, home decorations, toys, sporting goods and personal care products. In a separate filing, Walmart said it would...

The median home sale price surged 16% year over year during the week ending January 9 to an all-time high of $365,000. Prices keep climbing because the supply drought keeps deepening while demand increases. The number of homes for sale fell to a new low as listings hit the market at a slower rate than they did early last year. Yet homebuyer activity–as measured by the Redfin Homebuyer Demand Index...

The scene was a stretch of railroad tracks in Lincoln Heights on Saturday: a blizzard of torn plastic wrappers, cardboard boxes and paper packaging attesting to a wave of rail car thievery that officials say has been on the rise in recent months. Several scavengers picked through the debris, hoping to find electronics, clothes or whatever valuables thieves left behind. Support the show 🛍️ Merch -...

President Joe Biden issued a rule Wednesday reversing a move by former President Donald Trump to exempt washers, dryers and dishwashers from efficiency regulations. The Trump-era rule created separate product categories for dishwashers that took 60 minutes or fewer per cycle and washers and dryers that took less than 45 minutes. Under Trump's "shortcycle" category, these appliances...

The Supreme Court on Thursday blocked the Biden administration from enforcing its sweeping vaccine-or-test requirements for large private companies, but allowed a vaccine mandate to stand for medical facilities that take Medicare or Medicaid payments. The rulings came three days after the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s emergency measure for businesses started to take effect. The m...

The average 30-year fixed mortgage rate jumped up again last week, to 3.63% — the highest it’s been since April 2020. Last week’s jump — rising by 23 basis points — is the largest weekly increase in nearly 2 years. It’s also the third week in a row that rates increased. The rising rates can be partly attributed to a recent surge in inflation, experts say, which new data shows hit a 40-year high in...

Last week, a house in Seattle’s Magnolia neighborhood slid off its foundations, and while the two residents were largely unharmed, one of their two dogs was found deceased, while the other was not located. On Thursday, that dog was found alive inside the home. House in Seattle’s Magnolia neighborhood slides off foundations after heavy rain This came after family friend Remy Olivier passed by the h...

A large, longstanding encampment in Upper Woodland Park has now become “the highest-priority site in the city,” City Councilmember Dan Strauss, whose district includes the park, told PubliCola yesterday. Strauss and Mayor Bruce Harrell’s office said city officials are meeting weekly with outreach providers to come up with a strategy for the encampment, which includes about 70 tents and as many as...

Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell will extend the city's eviction and utility shutoff moratorium until February 14. The Mayor's Office says Harrell will extend the moratorium through executive order, pushing residential evictions, small business and nonprofit commercial tenant evictions back another 30 days.  "As this rapid surge in cases driven by the Omicron variant drives further pande...

Lars received this letter sent to the chiefs with Portland’s Police Bureau from a police officer named “Stephanie” who sent it to the top folks at PPB in response to a letter she recieved regarding the PPB’s retire/rehire program. Lars and Stephanie felt it was important to make sure you can see the point of view of one of our brave law enforcement officers at the mercy of liberal politicians. Dea...

The Covid omicron variant's rapid spread among workers and a bad stretch of winter weather have made a challenging supply chain situation worse. The recent spread of the omicron variant among supply chain workers, sour weather and even a recall of bagged salads and vegetables have caused Americans to once again find barren shelves at supermarkets or retail stores.  While industry leaders hope...

The latest inflation report shows what most Americans already know: Prices are still climbing rapidly. The Labor Department said Wednesday that consumer prices in December were up 7% from a year ago — the biggest hit to family pocketbooks in about 40 years. Support the show 🛍️ Merch - https://Store. ReasonableTV.com/ 🌟 Go PREMIUM with Reasonable+ for uncensored access to our entire content librar...

Another month, another record-setting leap in prices. Inflation hit a fresh 39-year high in December as a drop in energy costs wasn’t enough to offset a steady march upward for staples such as food, rent and cars amid stubborn supply-chain bottlenecks and worker shortages. The consumer price index jumped 7% last year, the fastest pace since 1982, the Labor Department said Wednesday. That's up...

Presented as “defending liberty,” extremism analysts say, those far-right views are spreading in conservative places like Eatonville, where the school board race spiraled into a fight over mask mandates and how race is taught in school. Cole lost by more than 200 votes. Support the show 🛍️ Merch - https://Store. ReasonableTV.com/ 🌟 Go PREMIUM with Reasonable+ for uncensored access to our entire c...

A bill in the California Legislature authored by Assemblywoman Cristina Garcia (D-Bell Gardens) is proposing to convert California public/municipal golf courses into affordable housing. Assembly Bill 672 provides $50 million in developer subsidies to redevelop California’s municipal golf courses into affordable housing complexes. Support the show 🛍️ Merch - https://Store. ReasonableTV.com/ 🌟 Go P...

Officials in Seattle believe they have developed a more accurate way of counting the number of people experiencing homelessness during a given time. It’s already producing startling results. According to a report released in mid-December, more than 40,800 people experiencing homelessness in the Seattle metropolitan area last year compared to the 11,700 counted under the federal Point in Time Count...

Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler announced earlier this week he would be disbanding the police bureau’s often criticized Gun Violence Reduction Team. The team, which has gone through several name changes, was found to disproportionately be targeting black Portlanders during traffic stops, according to an audit in March 2018. The audit also claimed the “Gang Enforcement Unit” wasn’t necessarily focusing...

The Biden administration’s COVID-19 vaccine-or-test requirement for large employers may not survive the conservative-leaning Supreme Court, according to one legal expert. The court heard arguments Friday on a challenge to the mandate, which applies to businesses with at least 100 employees. Conservative justices on the court appeared to view the administration’s requirement as overstepping governm...

When Samuel D. Howard Jr. lost his 18-year-old daughter to gun violence, he convinced his other children and a nephew who was like a son to him to get counseling to work through their collective grief. Then tragedy struck once more. Less than a year and a half after his daughter Shai’India Harris died, the nephew, 19-year-old Keion Cordell Howard, was shot and killed on Dec. 4 in North Portland. -...

April Stringfield has rented apartments since her early twenties and often worked two to three jobs to make ends meet.  Fueled by the desire to own a home, she applied for affordable housing provided by Habitat for Humanity.  She and her teenage son just moved into their new, 1,200-square-feet-home in Williamsburg, Virginia, constructed with the help of a 3D printer. “It’s unbelievable,” Stringfie...

Seattle police actively spread misinformation about the presence of right-wing extremists in an effort to distract activists at a Capitol Hill Organized Protest (CHOP) amid racial justice demonstrations in 2020, a city watchdog alleges. Knowing that activists were listening to police radio chatter, officers engaged in a "mock broadcast" that transmitted false information that a group of...