In a sign that the Supreme Court is seriously considering overturning one of the underpinnings of modern campaign finance rules, Chief Justice John Roberts on Monday announced that justices would rehear a case challenging restrictions on corporate-funded campaign ads. The result of the argument, which is scheduled for September 9, could reshape the way American political campaigns are waged on the precipice of the 2010 midterm and the 2012 presidential elections. ‘That would be a sea change in federal and state campaign finance, said former Federal Election Commission Chairman Michael Toner. ‘The stakes will be enormous. And this will have a direct bearing on the 2010 midterm elections and the 2012 presidential elections. Monday’s developments also increase the impetus for the White House and congressional Democrats, who generally favor restrictions on corporate cash, to move quickly to confirm Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor, who has a long history of supporting stricter money-in-politics rules. The case in question,Citizens United v. FEC, deals with whether federal election laws should have applied to a 90-minute film released during last year’s presidential election lambasting then-New York Sen. Hillary Clinton, who was seeking the Democratic presidential nomination. Lower courts ruled […]
A major conservation survey assessed 64 species of open ocean sharks and rays and found that one third of them face extinction, including the great white shark. The study by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) reported that species hunted on the high seas are particularly at great risk, with over half in danger of extinction. The IUNC named tuna and swordfish fisheries as the main culprits for their accidental ‘by-catch of sharks. Sharks are also being increasingly targeted themselves to supply growing demand for shark meat and fins. The valuable fins are used for the Asian delicacy of shark fin soup, which is believed to offer great health benefits. As a lucrative sideline, the fisheries often take part in ‘finning whereby they cut off the fins and return the rest of the body to the sea. The Spanish fleet of surface ‘long-line’ fishing boats supposedly only seeks swordfish, but open ocean sharks accounted for 70% of the weight of its catch from 2000 to 2004. Though there are bans being introduced in the majority of international waters, they are rarely enforced, according to deputy chairwoman Sonja Fordham of the IUCN shark […]
Costa Rica is the greenest and happiest country in the world, according to a new list that ranks nations by combining measures of their ecological footprint with the happiness of their citizens. Britain is only halfway up the Happy Planet Index (HPI), calculated by the New Economics Foundation (NEF), in 74th place of 143 nations surveyed. The United States features in the 114th slot in the table. The top 10 is dominated by countries from Latin America, while African countries bulk out the bottom of the table. The HPI measures how much of the Earth’s resources nations use and how long and happy a life their citizens enjoy as a result. First calculated in 2006, the second edition adds data on almost all the world’s countries and now covers 99% of the world’s population. NEF says the HPI is a much better way of looking the success of countries than through standard measures of economic growth. The HPI shows, for example, that fast-growing economies such as the US, China and India were all greener and happier 20 years ago than they are today. ‘The HPI suggests that the path we have been following is, without exception, […]
Imagine sitting on the cliffs of Dover contemplating the sea on a crisp spring day. Today your eye would be drawn by the crawling shapes of cargo vessels, ferries and fishing boats. Wind back the clock to the seventh century, however, and the scene would be very different. Instead of shipping, you would watch the passage of great whales on their northward migration from African wintering grounds to Arctic feeding areas. At the season’s peak, over a thousand whales might pass in a day. Today few whales are sighted in the English Channel, because we have decimated their numbers by hunting. The slaughter began in the Bay of Biscay and English Channel around the ninth century and, by the early Middle Ages these abundant animals sustained a vigorous whale fishery that was conducted from coastal bays and inlets along their migration routes. Records suggest that numbers were declining as long ago as the 12th and 14th centuries. The depletion of those stocks offers a good explanation for why Basques whalers were so quick to exploit newly-discovered Arctic and Canadian whale populations in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. Over the following centuries – in […]
Hybrid car sales in June were up 9 percent from a year ago and rose 2 percent compared to last month-outperforming the overall new car market that was down 28 percent from June 2008 and off 7 percent from May. June hybrid sales suggest that hybrids are recovering more quickly than the overall car market-just as they defied the economic downturn several months after overall car sales started to decline in 2008. June marks the sixth consecutive month of higher hybrid sales. Nationally, car dealers sold 26,205 hybrids in June, the highest one-month total in 13 months. Hybrid car sales numbers exceeded 3 percent of the new car market, and could reflect the beginning of an anticipated long-term trend in which hybrid market share grows by as much as 1 percent every year. Dozens of new hybrid models will be introduced in the next few years. The world’s largest carmakers are significantly investing in increased production capacity for hybrid cars and advanced auto batteries. The overall market continues to suffer, but declining sales have begun to slow down for four of the six major carmakers. Ford reported the smallest drop of 10.7 percent. Jesse Toprak, executive director […]
Remote Viewing the Year 2060
