Employers are facing more uncertainty in the wake of a letter from the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission warning them that requiring a high school diploma from a job applicant might violate the Americans with Disabilities Act.

This is really going too far. Hit the link to read the full article at the Washington Times.

Free Wi–Fi service on Capitol Corridor trains was welcome news to passengers. They'd tell you all about it, if you could get them to put down their smartphones or laptop computers.

Effective Monday, passengers traveling on the Capitol Corridor, the San Joaquin and the Pacific Surfliner trains can connect to the Internet through AmtrakConnect for Web surfing and using email, officials announced.

Passengers also can access corporate networks through most Virtual Private Networks (VPN), making train trips a good time to catch up on work.

"It made the ride easier because you can entertain yourself on the 'Net," said Booker Dabis, who took the train from Richmond to Sacramento with his son Monday afternoon. "It's like you're at home."

Dabis said while the connection was slower than he is used to, it worked without interruption.

Charian DeAmeral of Sacramento said she can use her tablet computer without having to bum a connection off other passengers with a mobile hotspot.

DeAmeral said it had been disappointing to have wireless service come and go during her frequent trips to the Bay Area.

Melissa Campbell of New York had settled in for the ride from Sacramento to the Bay Area and was surprised to learn of the free Wi-Fi.

The Wi-Fi was funded by state passenger rail agencies reinvesting cost savings from other completed rail projects.

"Free Wi-Fi is our early holiday gift to loyal train passengers who have wanted this service for some time," said David Kutrosky, Capitol Corridor Joint Powers Authority managing director.

More than 5.5 million passengers rode the three state-supported trains this fiscal year, up more than 7.5 percent.

California rail service providers have been working on offering Wi-Fi for more than five years. But pilot projects have yielded less than ideal results, said Debbie Mullins, a spokeswoman for the California Department of Transportation.

"We didn't want to deliver something that didn't work," Mullins said.

The biggest obstacle was limited bandwidth through third-party cellular data networks along many routes, according to a news release.

© Copyright The Sacramento Bee. All rights reserved.

Call The Bee's Ed Fletcher, (916) 321-1269. Follow him on Twitter @SB_Ed_Fletcher.

This is money well spent, the Sacramento Bee is reporting that the CSU system just raised tuition and in the same meeting raised the salary of the president by $100,000. Wow, I get furloughs and Leave Days and they get $100,000 more. I guess its from the great job they are doing with the students *insert sarcasm*.

Its been reported that one of the founders of Thrasher Magazine and Independent Trucks committed suicide in San Francisco earlier this week. Follow the link under the picture to Thrasher Magazine to read more about it or go the the Sacbee.com website where they have an article posted.

There are still a lot of questions as to why that neither answer.

According to Jerry Perry, preeminent Sacramento music booker, Old Ironsides, that bastion of rock, blues, folk, country, and everything in between will no longer have live music after July 1. All booked shows will be moved or cancelled.

It’s not often I break out the profanity stick, but what the fuck?

Ray Wert — Ryan Dunn, who will forever be known for sticking a Hot Wheels car up his own ass in the movie "Jackass," and another as-of-yet-unidentified person, both died in a crash outside of Philadelphia early this morning.

Police say they don't know whether the 34-year-old Dunn, who appeared in all of the "Jackass" movies, or the unidentified person was driving the car. The shot up top was taken at the scene of a one-car accident that took place in West Goshen, Pa. around 3:30 AM Monday morning. It's too mangled to tell, but it may in fact be the remains of Dunn's Porsche 911 GT3.

Full size

Police also don't know whether alcohol was to blame — but Dunn did tweet out the following picture from his Tumblr account hours before his death.

Our guess is that isn't an iced tea he's drinking.

Video: Traffic cop at Isle of Man TT shows lighter side of policing

by Jeff Glucker (RSS feed) on Jun 15th 2011 at 12:31PM

Isle of Man cop keeps crowd laughing – Click above to watch video after the jump

The 2011 Isle of Man TT has come and gone. Like everything in this day and age, it will continue to live on thanks to videos posted on the internet. One such video has nothing to do with the actual race, instead it shows a local policeman who knows how to have fun on the job.

The British Crown Dependency sees plenty of traffic around the time of the TT, and this particular cop has been tasked with directing the portion flowing through a central part of town. A crowd has gathered, and the policeman knows how to keep them entertained. He forces one rider to do a sobriety test, stages an impromptu drag race, lets another rider do a burnout while he tries to get the co-rider's phone number and basically keeps things lighthearted, much to the delight of the onlookers. Click past the jump to check out how one cop keeps things fun on the Isle of Man.

[Source: YouTube]

Filed under: Etc., Government/Legal, Videos, Humor

Tags: isle of man, isle of man policeman, isle of man tt, isle of man video, police, police video, traffic enforcement, video

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TMZ is reporting that Macho Man Randy Savage died in a car accident, he was driving and apparently suffered a heart attack from early rumors. Hit the link to go to TMZ to read the rest.

Thanks to the Badass Digest for linking to the following rap song that Macho Man recorded.

Sam Biddle —

This week's situation room photo will likely be marked as one of history's most famous—fraught with anxiety. But there've been other American rooms filled with tension. When the US put Alan Shepard into space, it was serious business.

Russia had already beat the US outside of the atmosphere. The Cold War stakes were high. And, despite the precedent, this was only the second time in history that a human would be going into space—not exactly a casual undertaking, especially following a string of NASA launchpad disasters. These unpublished photos from LIFE's archives show the emotions rippling through everyone involved in the launch, which sent Shepard 116 miles upward into space, before splashing back down after only 15 minutes.

It wasn't the most involved space mission, but its symbolism and technical enormity was immense—America could put a citizen in space without blowing them up. We could do what Russia could do. Not exactly on the same emotional plane as killing bin Laden, but a similar sort of national back-weight, to be sure.

Though nobody felt the same pressure as Shepard. Incredible stoic hard-ass that he was, he wryly replied the following to a reporter asking about his thoughts while preparing for takeoff: "It's a sobering feeling to know that one's safety is determined by the lowest bidder on a government contract."

For the rest of the gallery, head over to LIFE.

Report: Future Chryslers to include Charger Super Bee, 40+ mpg Fiat 500

by Chris Shunk (RSS feed) on May 4th 2011 at 11:28AM

2011 Dodge Charger – Click above for high-res image gallery

Chrysler is fresh off the introduction of 16 new or refreshed models, but Team Pentastar isn't out of breath just yet. According to Inside Line, CEO Sergio Marchionne told reporters and analysts that there will be more changes throughout 2011.

For starters, the Dodge Charger will reportedly add a Super Bee variant. The familiar badge will likely be a mostly cosmetic upgrade, though Chrysler hasn't yet announced any specifics. Meanwhile, the Jeep Wrangler will finally – finally – receive a new engine. The ancient 3.8-liter six will be replaced by the new 3.6-liter Pentastar V6, which boasts 283 horsepower and 260 pound-feet of torque in most applications. The far more powerful 3.6-liter will also come with a reported 10 percent increase in fuel economy, though the Wrangler won't get the eight-speed auto transmission that should arrive from Getrag later in the year.

One of the Chrysler brands will also receive a rebadged version of the Fiat 500 before the end of 2011. The efficient little runt, which could be badged as a Dodge, must hit at least 40 miles per gallon to satisfy a requirement necessary for Fiat to receive another five percent ownership of Chrysler. If and when that happens, Fiat will own a 51 percent majority of the American automaker.

Team Pentastar is also looking to add more diesel models to its lineup. The oil burners will reportedly make up 14 percent of the automaker's model mix by 2014. We know that the Jeep Grand Cherokee is getting Chrysler's 3.0-liter CRD V6 in the coming years, and we're crossing our fingers for an oil-burning Wrangler, as well.

[Source: Inside Line | Images: Drew Phillips/AOL]

Filed under: Sedan, SUV, Hatchback, Chrysler, Dodge, Fiat

Tags: 500, charger, charger super bee, chrysler, dodge, fiat, grand cherokee, jeep, wrangler

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Techdirt has an amazing write up of the man who inadvertently live blogged Osama being killed. This world is pretty amazing.