In his January 3, 2014, Coeur d’Alene Press article headlined A new way to pay, staff writer David Cole referred to Bitcoin and its appearance and acceptance in our area.

Bitcoin is becoming better known and understood, and for those who are interested in learning even more, here is a link to the Congressional Research Service’s Bitcoin report to Congress.  It’s entitled Bitcoin:  Questions, Answers, and Analysis of Legal Issues.  The CRS report was issued December 20, 2013.

The headline in this morning’s Coeur d’Alene Press was Officer cleared in shooting.  The article implied, probably accurately, that the Bonner County Prosecuting Attorney found insufficient evidence to charge Coeur d’Alene Police Officer Spencer Mortensen with criminal homicide in the shooting death of Eric Johnston.

Beyond that, the skewspaper article was mere stenography, not independent reporting. (more…)

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An alert OpenCdA reader sent us to the Spokesman-Review’s gossip blog today to find today’s  winner of a bottle of Loctite^R Threadlocker.   It will have to be shared jointly by Spokesman Review columnist David F. Oliveria and former Coeur d’Alene City Councilman Chris Copstead.  Together, they came up with this gem.

Apply the Loctite^R  liberally, Chris.  As the minutes of the November 20, 2007, Coeur d’Alene City Council meeting show,  you weren’t on the Council when Mary was wrongfully fired from the Planning Commission.

But never let facts stand in the way of a good hate piece, right DFO?

You are the final decision-maker for hiring employees in each organization listed in the two examples below.   Assume each applicant is fully qualified for the position and has all the requisite knowledge, skills, abilities, licenses or certifications, and education.  Then you receive verified, credible documentary evidence showing that:

1.  About a year prior to his prospective hiring date, an applicant for the police department publicly stated that he would lie in court to secure a conviction and would lie in an internal or criminal investigation to protect a fellow officer.

2.  About a year prior to his prospective hiring date, an applicant for a local newspaper reporter position pseudonymously but publicly stated he would sign legal documents with a false name in an effort to invalidate the documents, and he openly encouraged others to do the same.

Again, assume that as any diligent employer would,  you investigated the allegations in both examples and found credible derogatory evidence substantiating them.  Each example presents the same decision for you to make:  Even though each applicant is fully qualified, is each applicant suitable for the job he or she is seeking with your organization?

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OpenCdA’s post on October 14, 2013, titled Highly Recommended did just that:  It highly recommended the book Detecting Bull, Second Edition, by John H. McManus.  As noted in my post, the book includes an entire chapter devoted to and titled “The SMELL Test.”

The SMELL test can help consumers evaluate news.

First I’ll briefly summarize the SMELL test.  Then readers can try a practical exercise based on a local news story in the Coeur d’Alene Press.  (more…)

OpenCdA highly recommends this book, Detecting Bull, Second Edition, by John H. McManus, published by The Unvarnished Press.  We in the great state of north Idaho have no news media that provide timely, accurate, or complete coverage of local news.  If readers request the book through our public library system, be sure to emphasize that you’re requesting the Second Edition, not the First Edition.  The Second Edition adds six new features including :

– The SMELL test to help evaluate reliability of information

– Commercial bias, the most common slant in American journalism

– Detecting bias in images – visual literacy

– The misinformation trade – how news is made to fool the public

– Using the web to vet the news

– Evaluating information from bloggers and citizen journalists