Ethics probe may hurt other Democrats, but not Maxine Waters
Posted in News, Politics, Science, Tech on August 9th, 2010 by admin – Comments Off
When the congresswoman entered, the crowd rose up like a congregation on Sunday morning for one, two, then three standing ovations.
Rep. Maxine Waters (D- Los Angeles) stood facing her cheering supporters. She wore a pencil skirt, pearls and a smile that looked curiously triumphant, considering the month she has had.
Waters, 71, has been at the center of a political battle since the House Ethics Committee revealed that it was investigating whether she had used her influence to gain advantage for OneUnited, a Massachusetts-based bank in which her husband has a financial interest.
New claims for jobless benefits rise
Posted in Health, News, Politics, Science, Tech, economy on August 5th, 2010 by admin – Comments OffInitial requests for jobless benefits rose last week to their highest level since April, a sign that hiring remains weak and some companies are still cutting workers.
The Labor Department said Thursday that new claims for unemployment insurance rose by 19,000 to a seasonally adjusted 479,000. Analysts had expected a small drop. Claims have risen twice in the past three weeks.
Some of the increase in claims stemmed from difficulties the government has in adjusting for seasonal factors.
Effort to keep oil spill at bay tips ecological balance
Posted in News, Science, what on August 3rd, 2010 by admin – Comments Off
There’s a destructive liquid flowing into the Gulf of Mexico — and it’s not oil.
It’s the muddy fresh water of the Mississippi River, which has been released from southern Louisiana’s vast levee system and into estuaries in greater quantities than usual. The goal has been to use the rush of fresh water to keep sticky oil from reaching the sandy shores of the state.
In the Works: Immunotherapy for food allergies
Posted in Education, Health, News, Science, Tech, what on August 2nd, 2010 by admin – Comments OffCaroline Cooper will pack her bags and head off for college this fall secure in the knowledge that she’ll be able to safely eat anything the cafeteria dishes up.
Her mother, Heather Cooper, meanwhile, will not have to worry that Caroline, 17, will go into anaphylactic shock while alone in the dorm.
This is notable because from the time she was 11 months old until this past spring, Caroline Cooper was severely allergic to milk — a bit of cheese or yogurt could have killed her. But early last year, the teenager began a type of immunotherapy, eating minute but gradually increasing amounts of milk protein. In March she tasted her first bite of ice cream, the same day she was accepted in the honors business program at the University of Texas at Austin.
Space station cooling system suddenly shuts down
Posted in News, Science, Tech on August 1st, 2010 by admin – Comments OffHalf of the International Space Station’s cooling system suddenly shut down during the weekend, forcing the astronauts to power down equipment and face the likelihood of urgent spacewalking repairs.
After huddling Sunday, NASA managers gave preliminary approval for a pair of spacewalks, the first of which would take place later this week. Two of the Americans on board were already scheduled to conduct a spacewalk Thursday for routine maintenance, though the repairs would supersede the original chores.
Officials stressed that the six occupants were in no danger, and that the orbiting complex was in a stable situation. Much of the station is operating on a single string, however, with no safeguard in case of further cooling system failures.
South Korean prime minister offers resignation
Posted in News, Politics, Science on July 29th, 2010 by admin – Comments OffSouth Korea’s prime minister offered to resign Thursday after parliament shot down his efforts to scrap a plan that would relocate several government ministries outside of the capital.
Chung Un-chan, an academic appointed in September, has led the charge to abandon the project, thought up by the previous liberal administration.
President Lee Myung-bak has said the plan to move more than half of the 15 government ministries from Seoul and a nearby city would waste taxpayer money and create inefficiencies.
California Republicans shunning one traditional path to victory: the environment
Posted in News, Politics, Science, Tech, economy, what on July 29th, 2010 by admin – Comments OffFor decades, Republicans who won statewide office in California found success, at least in part, by showing sensitivity to voters’ commitment to protecting the environment. But with state unemployment hovering at more than 12%, the two GOP candidates at the top of the ticket this year are betting that voters’ concerns about jobs and economic uncertainty will trump any desire for environmental crusades.
Republican Senate nominee Carly Fiorina has spent months charging Democratic incumbent Barbara Boxer with driving an extreme environmental agenda instead of tending to jobs. She has been sharply critical of national and state climate change legislation — deriding Boxer’s concern as being about “the weather” — and has argued that the state should expand oil drilling off its shores.
Gubernatorial nominee Meg Whitman has been more equivocal than Fiorina, but she also has cast the state’s landmark climate change measure as one that kills jobs. She favors delaying its execution for a year to allow further study of its effect.
What labor may like best about Brown: He’s not Whitman
Posted in Education, Health, News, Politics, Science, economy, what on July 26th, 2010 by admin – Comments OffThe television ads seize on the millions of dollars organized labor is spending to help elect Democratic gubernatorial candidate Jerry Brown, warning that if he’s victorious, he would be “their governor.”
Labor leaders watching the spots, which are funded by billionaire GOP nominee Meg Whitman, should be so lucky.
Unions are indeed reaching deep into their pockets to help Brown, whose campaign needs the cash to compete with Whitman’s personal fortune. But how much return they will get on their investment under a Brown governorship is unclear.
Raw-food raid highlights a hunger
Posted in Entertainment, Health, News, Science, what on July 25th, 2010 by admin – Comments OffWith no warning one weekday morning, investigators entered an organic grocery with a search warrant and ordered the hemp-clad workers to put down their buckets of mashed coconut cream and to step away from the nuts.
Then, guns drawn, four officers fanned out across Rawesome Foods in Venice. Skirting past the arugula and peering under crates of zucchini, they found the raid’s target inside a walk-in refrigerator: unmarked jugs of raw milk.
“I still can’t believe they took our yogurt,” said Rawesome volunteer Sea J. Jones, a few days after the raid. “There’s a medical marijuana shop a couple miles away, and they’re raiding us because we’re selling raw dairy products?”
Cartons of raw goat and cow milk and blocks of unpasteurized goat cheese were among the groceries seized in the June 30 raid by federal, state and local authorities — the latest salvo in the heated food fight over what people can put in their mouths.
BP well to stay sealed as storm moves in
Posted in News, Politics, Science, economy, what on July 23rd, 2010 by admin – Comments OffReassured by a week of intense monitoring, federal officials Thursday said they planned to leave the damaged BP well sealed despite evacuating vessels ahead of Tropical Storm Bonnie, which was bearing down on the Gulf of Mexico.
The storm, raking the Bahamas late Thursday, is projected to sweep through the gulf with winds of 40 mph or greater and reach the vicinity of the BP well site early Saturday.
