For the past two years, the presence of a J Street on Capitol Hill has been shaking up the landscape many had written off as fixed. A political action group, named J Street, has been working to redress a balance in the nation's capital: the lack of a pro-peace and pro-Israel lobbying voice. Full Story
#3 - Is UK a Lap Dog No More?
The "special relationship" between the UK and the US is under the microscope as the Prime Minister campaign goes full swing. To many Britons, the idea of national pride and self-determinism should be at the heart of a trans-Atlantic relationship that has been lopsided since Bush-Blair forged an alliance. Full Story
#4 - Liberty is Not Being Nude for TSA
More than 30 privacy and civil liberties organisations have filed a formal petition with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), urging the federal agency to shut down the use of 'full body scanners' (FBS) at the nation's airports. Full Story
#5 - 2 Wars are Further Costing Vets
Wars and its effects on the bodies and minds of US veterans are starting to take a toll on the sacred Defense budget. Veterans may be asked to pay more out-of-pocket. And as high as medical costs are rising, those of the military are twice that. Full Story
The U.K.'s House of Commons overwhelmingly voted in favor of creating a law that would enable copyright owners to seek the suspension of Internet service of those accused multiple times of illegal file sharing.
The House of Commons voted 189 to 47 to pass the Digital Economy Bill, which also seeks to give the country's government the authority to block access to Web sites suspected of engaging in pirated material, according to British publication The Telegraph.
The bill still needs to go back to the House of Lords, which is nothing more than a formality since that's where it originated.
What this means is that some of the major European governments seem to be lining up behind copyright owners. France passed a similar law in October. Copyright owners applauded the results of the vote.
Econ Criminals: Rubin and Greenspan to face crisis inquiry
Robert Rubin, head of Goldman Sachs and former Treasury Secretary, and Alan Greenspan, former head of the private-owned Federal Reserve, both of whom enabled and championed the conditions that caused the economic collapse, face an inquiry of "What they knew and when did they know."
Robert Rubin, the former Treasury secretary who played a key role in financial deregulation during Bill Clinton’s presidency and who has kept a low profile since stepping down as a special adviser to Citigroup in January 2009, is to be questioned by the US financial crisis inquiry commission this week.
The committee, created by Congress and given sweeping powers in May 2009, is also to question Chuck Prince, the former chief executive of Citi, as well as Alan Greenspan, former chairman of the Federal Reserve Board.
The line-up suggests the committee is narrowing the scope of its investigation ahead of a final report to Congress in December.
Phil Angelides, the commission’s chairman, said he would ask Mr Greenspan, who led the Fed between 1987 and 2006, why the central bank did not curb subprime lending before the housing bubble burst.
Mr Angelides, a former California state treasurer, said: “The fact is that the Fed, as the main regulator, had the power to impose rules that would apply to everybody.
“We need to peel the veil from these events so that the American people find out what really happened.”
On Sunday, Mr Greenspan appeared to be clinging to his free market ideology, telling ABC News there remained “no alternative” to competitive markets in democratic societies and that regulators could not have foreseen the events that would follow the collapse of Lehman Brothers.
Bill Thomas, vice-chairman of the FCIC and the former Republican chairman of the House’s ways and means committee, said he would ask Mr Greenspan: “what did you know, when did you know it and if you didn’t know it, why didn’t you know it?”.
Shuttle Discovery blasts off this morning on the next-to-last shuttle mission ever. America's half century of manned space flight is about to come to an end. President Obama is scrapping manned NASA missions and the US will now pay Russia $50 million a seat for our astronauts to tag along
April 5 (Bloomberg) -- The space shuttle Discovery blasted off from Florida today on its next-to-last mission as President Barack Obama prepares to hold a conference on the future of U.S. space exploration in Cape Canaveral.
Discovery took off at 6:2 a.m. local time from Kennedy Space Center with six astronauts on board for a 13-day mission to the Earth-orbiting International Space Station. The shuttle, commanded by U.S. Navy Captain Alan Poindexter, is set to deliver a logistics module with equipment to be used for science experiments. The craft is set to return to Florida on April 18.
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration has planned three more shuttle flights before the program, which started in 1981, is shut down. Atlantis is slated to take off on its last journey on May 14, Endeavour is set for its final launch on July 29 and Discovery is to make its last trip in September.
Also part of the Discovery crew on this mission is Japanese astronaut Naoko Yamazaki, who will serve as a mission specialist.
Discovery will still be orbiting Earth when Obama visits Kennedy for the U.S. space exploration conference on April 15. Obama announced in February a plan to end NASA’s Constellation program to develop rockets and vessels for a return to the moon by 2020 and instead focus on technology development and spurring private efforts to build spacecraft.
For centuries, it was the cook and the heat of the fire that cajoled taste, texture, flavor and aroma from the pot. Today, that culinary voodoo is being crafted by white-coated scientists toiling in pristine labs, rearranging atoms into chemical particles never before seen.
At last year's Institute of Food Technologists international conference, nanotechnology was the topic that generated the most buzz among the 14,000 food-scientists, chefs and manufacturers crammed into an Anaheim, Calif., hall. Though it's a word that has probably never been printed on any menu, and probably never will, there was so much interest in the potential uses of nanotechnology for food that a separate daylong session focused just on that subject was packed to overflowing.
In one corner of the convention center, a chemist, a flavorist and two food-marketing specialists clustered around a large chart of the Periodic Table of Elements (think back to high school science class). The food chemist, from China, ran her hands over the chart, pausing at different chemicals just long enough to say how a nano-ized version of each would improve existing flavors or create new ones.
Former Vice President Al Gore on Tuesday backed Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's "carbon surcharge" proposal for Department of Water and Power customers despite reports indicating that the plan could hike power fees as much as 28.4 percent.
"Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa of Los Angeles has introduced one of the most forward-thinking clean energy plans I have ever seen," Gore said in a statement. " ... This innovative proposal can be the catalyst the Department of Water and Power needs to power Los Angeles' use of green energy."
Villaraigosa's plan, which he said would cost the average customer about an extra $2.50 month (now he says it's up to $3.50 a month), is aimed at weening the city off coal power and onto 20 percent renewable energy by the end of the year. It will also create 16,000 jobs and retrofit homes and businesses with energy efficient gear.
But ... the Los Angeles Times reports that the hikes, the first of which has already been approved by the DWP board, would amount to 8.8 to 28.4 percent power-bill increases, and that some of the extra cash would go to initiatives already underway at the DWP.
Some on the City Council are challenging the initial rate hike and will debate whether to send the plan back to the DWP board for reconsideration Tuesday. Opponents are concerned that the hike comes at the worst time -- high unemployment plagues the city -- with a DWP that is the city's richest department. While the city faces a near-$700 million deficit in July and the possibility of 4,000 layoffs, many DWP workers are getting raises.
