The Houston Chronicle has a report that 1 in 5 U.S. homes now have cell phones only, no landlines: “The 20 percent of homes with only cell phones compared to 17 percent with landlines but no cells.”

Even worse for the landline companies is that the people in the homes without their service are generally much younger, than the people in the homes that only have landlines, so their client base is slowly disappearing.

One of the reasons for this shift locally is the absurd amount of money the phone company wants for a deposit, and the charge for “installation”. The landline companies have been pricing themselves out of the market.

Now you have CNet reporting Prepaid wireless service could spur price war

[Read more →]

Although, of course, everyone says it has nothing to do with his Coleman/Franken comments, CNN reports that the Senate strips Specter of seniority after party switch.

It was widely reported that Harry Reid had promised Arlen Specter [DINO – Arlen Specter] that he would keep his seniority if he switched parties, seniority being a major campaign theme in his re-election bids, the rank-and-file obviously were not on board with that deal.

Specter now says that his comments about the Minnesota Senate race were just a bit of light-hearted humor, but following several votes against Democratic bills, and his stated opposition to bills coming up, the Senate Democrats had had enough.

There is a statement that his seniority will be re-examined in the next Congress, if Specter is re-elected, which is a not so veiled announcement that he is on probation, and had better start acting like a Democrat if he wants his seniority back.

CNN covers the ever earlier start of the Western wildfire season:

(CNN) — A wind-whipped fire expanded to 450 acres early Wednesday in the hills above Santa Barbara, California, causing residents of 1,000 homes to flee and putting 2,000 other houses in peril, emergency officials said

The flames were burning within a mile of several homes, said Pat Wheatley with the Santa Barbara County Emergency Operations Center.

Ten businesses also were under an evacuation advisory.
…

Also Wednesday, firefighters battled a human-caused brush fire in southern Arizona that authorities said had destroyed a handful of homes and injured one person.

The blaze has burned through 1,500 acres and destroyed three houses since it began Tuesday afternoon on private land west of Fort Huachuca, the U.S. Forest Service said in a statement Wednesday.

MSNBC has a more recent story on the fires.

Jill of Cookies in Heaven and skippy the bush kangaroo has had to evacuate – again.

Fort Huachuca was/is the home of the military interrogation school.

Meanwhile, in South Florida they keep having to close Alligator Alley because of smoke from a long burning swamp fire as drought conditions continue while the Panhandle keeps setting new rainfall records.