TONY BARBOZA, - The Los Angeles Times
Stephan: Reality sets in at the local level, whatever the Deniers may proclaim.
Cities along California’s coastline that for years have dismissed reports of climate change or lagged in preparing for rising sea levels are now making plans to fortify their beaches, harbors and waterfronts.
Communities up and down the coast have begun drafting plans to build up wetlands as buffers against rising tides, to construct levees and seawalls to keep the waters at bay or to retreat from the shoreline by moving structures inland.
Among them is Newport Beach, a politically conservative city where a council member once professed to not believe in global warming. Now, the wealthy beach city is considered to be on the forefront of preparing for climate change.
Though some in Newport Beach remain skeptical that global warming caused by humans is elevating sea levels, city planners are looking at raising seawalls by a foot or more to hold back the ocean. New homes along the city’s harbor are being built on foundations several feet higher than their predecessors as a precaution against flooding.
‘I feel a real sense of urgency to begin planning for this right now,’ Mayor Michael Henn said. ‘To me it’s irrelevant what the causes of global warming are. What we are dealing with is the reality […]
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Thursday, March 10th, 2011
ERIC W. DOLAN, - The Raw Story
Stephan: I don't know how you can see this as anything other than blatant corruption. The prostitution of the American Congress in the service of its corporate masters is truly breathtaking. If the Republicans have their way your internet experience is going to change radically -- for the worse.
During a Communications and Technology Subcommittee Hearing on Wednesday, House Republicans pushed for a resolution to eliminate ‘net neutrality’ rules recently adopted by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).
The ‘net neutrality’ regulations, approved by the FCC in December 2010, require internet service providers (ISPs) to allow their customers to have access all legal online content, applications and services over their wired networks and prohibit unreasonable network discrimination.
The new rules are meant to ‘preserve and promote the open and interconnected nature of the public Internet’ but Republican critics have said the regulations amount to a ‘government takeover of the Internet.’
‘Today we have a hearing and markup on network neutrality and H. J. Res. 37, the resolution of disapproval I introduced to stop the FCC from regulating the Internet,’ Rep. Greg Walden (R-OR) explained. ‘There is no crisis warranting the FCC’s deviation from our historical hands-off approach. Rather than show an actual problem, the FCC relies on speculation of future harm.’
Because Rep. Walden introduced the resolution under the Congressional Review Act, it only requires a simply majority in each chamber of Congress to pass and cannot be filibustered. In addition, the resolution cannot be amended.
‘There is no crisis warranting intervention,’ House Energy and […]
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Thursday, March 10th, 2011
LUISA KROLL and KERRY A. DOLAN, - Forbes
Stephan: Think about what this is saying. The 1,210 richest people in the world constitute greater wealth than the GNP of Germany. Or, put another way, the richest 400 Americans have wealth equal to 155 million of their fellow citizens. This is a greater disparity than Louis XVIth of France and the average French merchant of his day. The world has never seen an uber-rich class as rich as this one, or one as international.
This 25th year of tracking global wealth was one to remember. The 2011 Billionaires List breaks two records: total number of listees (1,210) and combined wealth ($4.5 trillion). This hoard surpasses the gross domestic product of Germany, one of only six nations to have fewer billionaires this year. BRICs led the way: Brazil, Russia, India and China produced 108 of the 214 new names. These four nations are home to one in four members, up from one in ten five years ago. Before this year only the U.S. had ever produced more than 100 billionaires. China now has 115 and Russia 101.
Atop the heap is Mexico’s Carlos Slim Helu, who added $20.5 billion to his fortune, more than any other billionaire. The telecom mogul, who gets 62% of his fortune from America Movil ( AMX – news – people ), is now worth $74 billion and has pulled far ahead of his two closest rivals. Bill Gates, No. 2, and Warren Buffett, No. 3, both added a more modest $3 billion to their piles and are now worth $56 billion and $50 billion, respectively. Gates, who now gets 70% of his fortune from investments outside of Microsoft ( MSFT – […]
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Thursday, March 10th, 2011
Stephan: I read this as a sign that the middle class is finally awakening.
WASHINGTON — Americans’ confidence in the way the country is going has slumped to a two-year low in the last month, and one pollster blamed soaring gas prices.
A Reuters/Ipsos poll showed on Wednesday the proportion of people who believe the United States is on the wrong track rose seven points to 64 percent from February, in a fresh challenge to President Barack Obama.
It was the highest number of people in an Ipsos poll who think the country on the wrong track since Obama took office in January 2009. The survey comes as many indicators show an improving U.S. economy.
Ipsos pollster Cliff Young said the rating was a direct result of gasoline prices that have risen sharply in recent weeks amid tumult in North Africa and the Middle East.
‘We are moving into a scenario in the near-term that is much more uncertain given the issue of gas prices,’ he said. ‘Gas prices specifically are things that affect people’s pocketbooks and have an immediate impact.’
U.S. retail gasoline prices spiked more than 10 percent over the past two weeks to an average of $3.52 a gallon, the second largest two-week rise on record. Crude oil prices have shot up due to the violence […]
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Thursday, March 10th, 2011
Stephan: It has been eight years since the Pope announced what were supposed to be new rules to stop child sexual abuse by priests and yet these tragic stories just continue to roll out. I confess I do not understand this. It is hard to comprehend how an organization that has had such a litany of revelations can continue to exist without massive public outcry demanding fundamental reformation. And yet the outcry is still muted -- compare the coverage of the Catholic abuse scandals with the coverage of the vulgar stupidities of Charlie Sheen -- and the Church just keeps on, keeping on. That's as big a story as the abuse itself.
It’s Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent for Catholics, but churchgoers observing the holy day at the Cathedral Basilica of Saints Peter and Paul in Philadelphia had an unusual greeting on their way into mass. They were met by silent protestors — clergy sex-abuse victims — who handed them leaflets about sexual abuse as they entered the cathedral.
That’s because across the city, beginning today, Catholics are learning the names of the 21 Roman Catholic priests suspended on Tuesday by the Archdiocese of Philadelphia following a two-year sexual abuse investigation.
The archbishop of Philadelphia, Cardinal Justin Rigali, announced Tuesday that he was putting 21 priests on administrative leave after a grand jury report, released last month, naming the priests as suspected child molesters.
Today, during mass at the cathedral, Rigali called on worshippers to pray for the abuse victims as well as the suspended priests.
Outside the cathedral, Mary DeSilvestro struggled to understand the alleged abuse.
‘It’s something that should have never happened, especially to little kids, anybody really,’ she told ABC News affiliate WPVI. ‘Horrible.’
Last month, the district attorney’s office charged two priests, a former priest and a Catholic school teacher with raping boys. A former church official also was charged for allegedly […]
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