States, energy companies and business groups are preparing to sue the Obama administration over its new climate rule, viewing it as their bet shot at stopping the regulations while President Obama is still in office.
With Congress largely powerless to stop the rule, opponents of Obama’s push say the court system is their only hope at beating back the carbon limits until a new president takes over the Oval Office in 2017.
Climate fight shifts to courts
Obama signs Boulder-White Clouds Wilderness bill
Less than three days after the U.S. Senate unanimously passed a bill approving the Boulder-White Cloud Mountains area for wilderness designation, President Barack Obama has signed the bill into law, ending a 40-year effort.
Obama signed the Senate's approval of H.R. 1138, the “Sawtooth National Recreation Area and Jerry Peak Wilderness Additions Act,” which designates three new wilderness areas (encompassing about 275,665 acres) in Idaho as components of the National Wilderness Preservation System; releases four wilderness study areas so that the land would be managed for multiple-use activities; and provides for several land conveyances in Idaho.
Why the US nuclear budget grows while the stockpile of warheads shrinks
f you simply tally the number of warheads, the United States’ nuclear stockpile looks like a shadow of what it once was. The number of warheads held by the U.S. peaked in 1967 at over 31,000, but has been steadily declining, mainly through a series of treaties with nuclear rival Russia.
By February 2018, the deadline for the most recent treaty, the U.S. will have pared down its active strategic arsenal (warheads ready to launch) to 1,605, the lowest number since Dwight Eisenhower was president.
Psychologists vote not to participate in US torture
The American Psychological Association (APA) voted overwhelmingly on Friday to prohibit members from participating in interrogations conducted by United States intelligence agencies at locations deemed illegal under international law.
The decision follows a scathing independent report that found APA members were complicit in torturing detainees at the U.S. detention camp at Guantanamo Bay and secret CIA “black sites.”
Released in July, the report detailed specific instances in which psychologists directed and advised U.S. interrogators on how to instill fear and distress in detainees. APA voted at an association meeting in Toronto on Friday that participating in such activities violates the profession’s ethical code.
Father of toddler killed in West Bank arson has died
The father of a Palestinian toddler killed in a firebomb attack blamed on Jewish extremists has died of wounds sustained in the same incident, his family said Saturday.
In the pre-dawn attack on July 31, assailants hurled firebombs into a bedroom of the Dawabsheh family's home in the West Bank village of Duma. Ali Dawabsheh, 18 months, perished in the flames, while his 4-year-old brother and parents were seriously hurt.
Alex Baer: Life, Death, and Spark-Tending
My new coffee mug's art on the side is a thing of retro-futuristic beauty -- part steampunk, part Bradbury, maybe. There is an art deco scene of a mad scientist's lab, including a robot and assorted glowing objects and tools and scattered projects -- shelves filled with curious and intriguing things.
Above that widescreen-band of art, above: "Certifiable Mad Genius." Below the art, in a smaller font: "I have a death ray, and I know how to use it."
(There is nothing to define just what "MAD" may be - it could mean angry. It might mean mentally disturbed. It could be the acronym for Mutual Assured Destruction. It could mean all three.)
Bob Alexander: The Living Dead
Like in the United States, it's federal election campaign season up here in Canada. This time around the campaign will drag on for … 78 days. The average length of the past 10 campaigns prior to 2015 was 45.8 days. The standard is 37 days.
How do Canadians feel about a protracted 78 day campaign? Bob Brown, interviewed in The Calgary Herald, called the move “ridiculous,” but one that wouldn’t benefit any of the three parties in the long run. “I don’t see how issues can be dealt with any greater in three months than they can in 30 days. There are only so many issues. What do you accomplish by running that discussion out over three months?”
Truck bomb in Afghan capital kills 15, wounds hundreds
A truck bomb exploded near an army compound in the center of the Afghan capital on Friday, killing at least 15 people and wounding close to 250, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani's office said.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the explosion, which shook the center of Kabul and ripped through homes and shops, and was heard from miles around the city. Sources told Al Jazeera that the target of the attack had been a nearby Afghan military base.
Alex Baer: Eyes, Oys, and Ayes
Lies are marketing's best friends, just as Desire is the single best pal consumption ever had. Combine Lies and Desire, along with a hurried, staggering set of lunges and lurches to pick up any dangling or loose minutes or seconds in the evaporating days of our lives, and you've got a toxic cocktail -- one we call American Life.
We are about to have more American Life on Thursday, during a gathering not of eagles, but of turkeys, vultures, and turkey vultures. (It used to be a dog-eat-dog world in politics. Now, it is about rabid dogs biting one another, and themselves, and chewing their feet, chasing their tails, then springing out into the audience in search of unguarded jugulars.)
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