USA Today:

New Mexico is on the verge of becoming the latest state to require girls entering sixth grade to be vaccinated against a sexually transmitting virus that can cause cervical cancer, a spokesman for the governor said Monday.

Bad move.

My opinion from what I have read (and still trying to stay as unemotional about this as a father of three girls can) is that there is not enough known about the long term effects of this vaccine and that this amounts to experimenting on children.

…Isn’t much of a secret anymore.

From last Friday’s Hartford Courant:

Under pressure from state investigators, Best Buy is now confirming my reporting that its stores have a secret intranet site that has been used to block some consumers from getting cheaper prices advertised on BestBuy.com.

Company spokesman Justin Barber, who in early February denied the existence of the internal website that could be accessed only by employees, says his company is “cooperating fully” with the state attorney general’s investigation.

Barber insists that the company never intended to mislead customers.

Boy, these are tough days for company spokespeople.

I just read this tidbit in today’s WSJ:

More than a thousand US Airways Group Inc. passengers suffered through long delays yesterday as the carrier combined the reservations systems of its two predecessor airlines, in an example of the complications that can result from airline mergers.

The problems at US Airways began when the airline’s kiosks at its hubs in Charlotte, N.C., and Philadelphia failed to come back online after being switched off as planned early in the morning. Kiosks in Las Vegas and San Diego also had problems. The failure left passengers with no option of checking in at the kiosks, which have increasingly replaced airline workers in recent years.

An airline spokesman said that though the migration to the new reservations system “went fine,” the kiosks caused a meltdown in the check-in process that left passengers waiting in line for as many as two hours in Philadelphia and Las Vegas, and as long as 2½ hours in Charlotte.

“We had these massive lines,” he said, adding that the airline had overstaffed in advance of the weekend to handle glitches.“

The last two paragraphs say it all- that is, says it all about inane doublespeak. The migration to the new reservations system went fine (2 1/2 hour delays)…. The airline overstaffed in advance of the weekend to handle glitches (“We had these massive lines”)….

Geesh.

A word of advice, Mr. Spokesman. When you screw up- come clean. Don’t treat your customers like idiots.

It’s obvious that there were problems with the migration, and that despite the increased staff, US Airways was not prepared. Apologize for the mistake and the inconvenience and promise that next time, if there is a next time, the airline will be better prepared.

But, then again, this is an airline that we’re talking about.

The story: US Air Logs Widespread Delays