Apr
03
2013
It’s been a long, dark winter in Germany. In fact, there hasn’t been this little sun since people started tracking such things back in the early 1950s. Easter is around the corner, and the streets of Berlin are still covered in ice and snow. But spring will come, and when the snow finally melts, it will reveal the glossy black sheen of photovoltaic solar panels glinting from the North Sea to the Bavarian Alps.
Solar panels …
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Apr
03
2013
“This election is going to be won on the ground,” Chris Cox, the National Rifle Association’s top lobbyist, told me early last year as the gun lobby prepared to launch its all-out campaign to defeat Barack Obama. Historically, pro-gun voters have favored Republicans by a margin of 2- or 3-to-1, but that only matters if they vote. And, Cox stressed, millions of gun owners were not registered yet.
The NRA’s get-out-the-vote effort, its most ambitious ever, …
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Apr
03
2013
A bill to regulate the sale of ammunition in California cleared the Assembly Public Safety Committee on Tuesday.
Assemblywoman Nancy Skinner, D-Berkeley, said Assembly Bill 48 adds “reasonable safeguards” to the purchase of ammunition by requiring sellers to be licensed and purchasers to show identification.
The Department of Justice would be required to notify local law enforcement of large-quantity purchases of more than 3,000 rounds that are made within a five-day period by someone who is …
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Apr
03
2013
We all know (or should know) by now that there’s a whole lot of information about us floating out there on the Internet. Companies like Facebook, Twitter, Google and others are busy collecting that info from data brokers and using it in ways seen and unseen. But it’s hard to put a finger on just what about you these companies have, something a new bill called the Right to Know Act is seeking to change …
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Apr
03
2013
A coalition of environmental groups says it has discovered that large-scale shipments of low-quality heavy crude oil from Canada’s tar sands are being delivered by rail for processing by Southern California refineries.
The groups on Tuesday called for an investigation by air-quality officials to evaluate the effects on health, air quality, safety and the climate of processing the heavy Canadian crude, which requires intensive processing to remove higher levels of sulfur to meet U.S. standards.
The Natural …
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Apr
03
2013
The Inter-American Human Rights commission is deliberating a case against the state of Mexico for police violence against women dissidents that has serious implications for the perpetration of sexual violence by police everywhere.
“The person that I was before 2006 doesn’t exist anymore,” stated Barbara Italía Mendez in front of the Inter-American Human Rights Commission (IAHRC), when asked how the sexual torture she suffered at the hands of Mexican police in 2006 has affected her life.
Mendez …
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Apr
03
2013
The Board of Supervisors today split 3-2 in favor of proposed state regulation of hydraulic fracturing to access oil and natural gas, known as “fracking.”
Senate Bill 4, sponsored by State Sen. Fran Pavley, D-Agoura Hills, seeks a study of pumping a slurry into wells at high pressure to crack rock formations and release trapped oil and gas deposits. The bill also seeks to establish regulation of the practice.
The federal Environmental Protection Agency is prohibited from …
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Apr
03
2013
We applaud the Associated Press’s announcement that it is eliminating the phrase “illegal immigrant” from the 2013 style guide. The AP Blog quotes Senior Vice President and Executive Editor Kathleen Carroll on the decision:
The Stylebook no longer sanctions the term “illegal immigrant” or the use of “illegal” to describe a person. Instead, it tells users that “illegal” should describe only an action, such as living in or immigrating to a country …
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Apr
03
2013
Despite the inability to pass any meaningful domestic gun control legislation, the US voted along with 153 other nation states on Tuesday to approve the first-ever treaty to regulate the global arms trade.
A 50mm machine gun mounted on an armored humvee. (Photo: Chris Devers via Flickr) “When you think of the huge economic interest and the political power in play for the big arms producers and exporters, this treaty is a tribute to both …
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Apr
03
2013
A new study suggests nuclear fallout from Fukushima caused a spike in congenital illnesses among infants in the United States.
The peer-reviewed research, published in the Open Journal of Pediatrics, found increased rates of congenital hypothyroidism (CH) in West Coast babies born within nine months of the Fukushima meltdowns beginning March 11, 2011. Newborns in Alaska, California, Hawaii, Oregon and Washington showed up to 28 percent higher rates of CH than in 36 control states. If …
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