Last Week Tonight with John Oliver: New Year's Eve (Web Exclusive)

3 shot at Rosemary Anderson HS in Portland

Source: KOIN-TV

Shooting may be gang related and did not take place inside the school

PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN 6) — Three student-age people were shot outside a North Portland school in what police said may be a gang-related shooting.

The shooter was never inside Rosemary Anderson High School, PPB Sgt. Pete Simpson told the media in an impromptu press conference, and the shooting took place outside on Killingsworth Court. The school is located at 717 North Killingsworth Court

Two males and one female were shot, Simpson said, and they ran into the school after being shot. He did not have any word on their condition, but said they were conscious and breathing when they were taken to the hospital.

The gang task force is at the school, and administration at the school is being briefed.

Read more: http://koin.com/2014/12/12/shooting-at-rosemary-anderson-high-school-in-portland/

U.S. tapping rich new energy source (and it's not oil)

U.S. oil production may be booming, but America is also hitting another gusher in expanding the nation's energy supplies: wind.

Late next month, the U.S. Department of Interior will auction off more than 742,000 acres in the waters off Massachusetts for the development of commercial wind energy. Twelve companies have qualified to take part in the January 29 auction for the Massachusetts Wind Energy Area, located about 12 nautical miles off the Massachusetts coast.

The Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) says that, if fully developed, the area could support between 4 and 5 gigawatts of commercial wind energy. That would generate enough electricity to power more than 1.4 million homes.

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Bay State officials have high economic hopes for the project. "This offshore wind energy area not only has the capacity to generate enough electricity to power half the homes in Massachusetts," noted Governor Deval Patrick, "but it will create local jobs and a renewable and home-grown source of power."

More: http://www.cbsnews.com/news/us-tapping-ample-new-energy-source-and-its-not-oil/

Halliburton lays off 1,000 employees in Eastern Hemisphere

HOUSTON — Oil field giant Halliburton said Thursday it is laying off about 1,000 employees across multiple regions in the Eastern Hemisphere, effective immediately, a day after a company executive said it expects a $75 million restructuring charge in the fourth quarter.

The announcement comes as oil prices have plummeted in recent months. U.S. benchmark crude West Texas Intermediate fell below $60 for the first time in five years on Thursday.

“The decision to eliminate jobs is never easy,” Halliburton spokeswoman Emily Mir said in an emailed statement. “Our talented workforce is the foundation of everything we accomplish, and we place the highest value on the commitment and hard work that our employees dedicate to building our company. Yet, we believe these job eliminations are necessary in order to work through this market environment.”

Mir added the layoffs were unrelated to Halliburton’s proposed $35 billion acquisition of Houston-based oil field services firm Baker Hughes.

More: http://fuelfix.com/blog/2014/12/11/halliburton-lays-off-1000-employees-in-eastern-hemisphere/

President Barack Obama Takes Over for Stephen Colbert (12/08/14)

Shale gas pipeline developer threatens to seize land

The developer of a $750 million natural gas pipeline from Pennsylvania into New York has threatened to seize land from reluctant landowners through eminent domain.

A letter obtained by the Albany Times Union (http://bit.ly/12SNKHQ ) tells landowners who have refused to sell rights of way for the Constitution Pipeline that they have until Wednesday to accept offered prices. After that, developers will take them to court to force such sales for possibly less money.

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Project opponents filed a complaint against the letters with New York State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman. His office declined comment but confirmed receipt of the complaint.

Lawyer Daniel Estrin of the White Plains-based Pace Environmental Litigation Clinic said the letter is meant to "bully landowners ... into waiving their property rights."

http://www.whec.com/news/stories/S3642125.shtml

Burial ground nominated for recognition

QUEENSBURY -- The Old Quaker Burial Ground at the southwest corner of Bay and Quaker roads in Queensbury has been nominated to be listed on the state and national registers of historic places, Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced Thursday.

The burial ground, which the town owns, contains the graves of Abraham Wing and about 80 other Quakers who were among the earliest permanent settlers in Queensbury.

“It’s a very important historic site for us,” said Queensbury Historian Marilyn VanDyke.

The state and national registers are official lists of buildings, structures, landscapes, objects and sites significant to history, architecture, culture and archeology.

“The burial ground that is preserved, because it’s in the property of the town of Queensbury, will be further preserved by this designation,” VanDyke said. “It will be protected from incursion by roadways and other things that might hit that corner out there

http://poststar.com/news/local/burial-ground-nominated-for-recognition/article_05070784-7cab-11e4-8432-8f6828ef2e44.html


Residents and officials gathered at the corner of Quaker and Bay roads in Queensbury in 2012 for an event to mark the town's 250th anniversary celebration. The site is a former Quaker burial ground and has been nominated for the state and national historic registers.

UPDATE 2-TransCanada sees crude-by-rail investment even if Keystone built

TransCanada Corp is in talks to get into the crude-by-rail business and will probably do so even if its long-delayed Keystone XL pipeline gets its U.S. permits next year, its chief executive said on Wednesday.

While Canada's No. 2 pipeline operator has not yet signed any definitive agreements, it is in active negotiations with producers and other shippers on opportunities, CEO Russ Girling said on a conference call.

"If I were to put a probability one it, I'd say there's a better than 50-50 chance that we will be in that business in some form or fashion in the future," he said.

Girling added that with Canadian and U.S. oil production rapidly expanding, TransCanada expects rail will be a larger part of the transportation mix going forward, "so it's likely a business that we're in long-term irrespective of Keystone."

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/11/19/transcanada-outlook-idUSL2N0T91LC20141119



TransCanada will probably get into the crude-by-rail business even if its long-delayed Keystone XL pipeline gets its U.S. permits next year, its CEO said Wednesday.

Ebola doctor lands in Nebraska, 'critically ill' and sicker than other US patients

Source: The Guardian

A surgeon who contracted Ebola while working in Sierra Leone is in critical condition, and possibly sicker than any patient to arrive in the US from the disease-ravaged region of west Africa, a spokesman from the Nebraska hospital where he will be treated said on Saturday.

Dr Martin Salia, a permanent US resident, arrived in Omaha on Saturday afternoon, having left Freetown on Friday, by air ambulance. He was due to be immediately transported to Nebraska medical center.

“He is critically ill, a good deal sicker than our previous patients, and perhaps sicker than any patient that has been transported from west Africa,” Taylor Wilson, a spokesman for the hospital, told the Guardian.

Wilson said he was not sure if the patient’s condition had changed in flight, but Salia had been determined to be stable for transport before he left Sierra Leone.

Read more: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/nov/15/ebola-infected-doctor-to-arrive-in-nebraska-from-sierra-leone

Don’t Reduce Malala Yousafzai to a Cuddly Caricature of the “Bravest Girl in the World”

Earlier this week, I argued that the Nobel Peace Prize should go to nobody, “as an acknowledgment that the most notable eruptions of violence have been so grimly predictable, the result of years of individual and collective failures by governments and international institutions.” Despite that sentiment, I certainly don’t object to the Norwegian Nobel Committee’s decision to award this year’s prize to Malala Yousafzai and Kailash Satyarthi for, as the announcement put it, “their struggle against the suppression of children and young people and for the right of all children to education.”

The most surprising thing about the award may be how unsurprising it is. The last few peace prizes—particularly the ones given to the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons last year, the EU in 2012, and Barack Obama in 2009—have been unexpected curveballs. Yousafzai, by contrast, was mentioned as a strong favorite in nearly every story leading up to Friday’s prize announcement.

The 17-year-old, who was shot in the by the Taliban in 2012 for campaigning for girls’ education in Pakistan’s Swat Valley, has become an international household name, particularly following her high-profile speech to the United Nations last year, and has authored a best-selling memoir.

Satyarthi, a 60-year-old campaigner against child labor in India, is much less well-known. He’s known for mounting raids on factories employing children—sometimes facing down armed guards—as well as running a rehabilitation center for liberated children, organizing the Global March Against Child Labour, and setting up a certification system to ensure that carpets are made without child labor.


http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_world_/2014/10/10/malala_yousafzai_don_t_reduce_the_nobel_peace_prize_winner_to_a_cuddly_caricature.html?wpsrc=fol_tw



Malala Yousafzai speaks at the United Nations in 2013. Photo by Andrew Burton/Getty Images