marble falls
marble falls's JournalLos Angeles air pollution drops after tailpipe laws
Source: BBC
Los Angeles air pollution - and its infamous eye sting - have declined due to California's strict vehicle emission controls, scientists have said.
Despite a three-fold rise in the number of vehicles on southern California roads since 1960, air pollution there has decreased, a study found.
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She said the study "confirms that California's policies to control emissions have worked as intended".
'Better' air
In addition, ozone pollution has improved, although Los Angeles remains the worst city in America for ozone pollution, according to the American Lung Association. The researchers compared atmospheric data collected since 1960 with new findings from a research aircraft mission in 2010 to devise a long-term model of change in the region's atmosphere.
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While pollution has decreased since 1960, scientists say vehicles are still the "dominant" source of emissions in Los Angeles.
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Read more: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-22772933
Regulations, even watered down, work.
Amazon plans major move into grocery business
Source: Reuters
The company has been testing AmazonFresh in its hometown of Seattle for at least five years, delivering fresh produce such as eggs, strawberries and meat with its own fleet of trucks.
Amazon is now planning to expand its grocery business outside Seattle for the first time, starting with Los Angeles as early as this week and the San Francisco Bay Area later this year, according to the two people who were not authorized to speak publicly.
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"Amazon has been testing this for years and now it's time for them to harvest what they've learned by expanding outside Seattle," said Bishop, chief architect at Brick Meets Click, a consulting firm focused on retail technology.
Still, groceries have proven to be one of the most difficult sectors for online retailers to crack. One of the most richly funded start-ups of the dot-com era, Webvan, was a spectacular failure as the cost of developing the warehouse and delivery infrastructure proved overwhelming.
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(Reporting by Alistair Barr Editing by Jonathan Weber and Tim Dobbyn)
Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/06/04/net-us-amazon-grocery-idUSBRE95311Q20130604
Audit: Calif. Utility Didn't Spend $50M for Safety
Source: From ABC News
SAN FRANCISCO June 4, 2013 (AP)
Pacific Gas and Electric Co. did not use $50 million it collected from ratepayers that was meant to improve its gas pipeline network in the decade leading to a deadly explosion in a San Francisco Bay area suburb, an audit shows.
From 1999 to 2010, the utility regularly failed to use all the money to fix and maintain small gas lines that deliver natural gas to homes and businesses, the San Francisco Chronicle reported Tuesday (http://bit.ly/18QE2FM), citing the audit by Leawood, Kan.-based Overland Consulting for the California Public Utilities Commission.
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A previous report by Overland found that PG&E had diverted tens of millions of dollars from maintenance of its gas transmission pipes as well, the newspaper said.
Read more: http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/audit-calif-utility-spend-50m-safety-19320337#.Ua4R95ziWco
Zimmerman’s Attorney: If Jury Rules Trayvon Was Aggressor, Is That A ‘Loss For Civil Rights’?
Zimmerman’s Attorney: If Jury Rules Trayvon Was Aggressor, Is That A ‘Loss For Civil Rights’?
by Evan McMurry | 1:24 pm, June 1st, 2013 video » 555 comments
Following a judge’s ruling on Tuesday to not admit elements of Trayvon Martin‘s past, including drug use and prior incidents of fighting, as evidence in the murder trial of George Zimmerman, CNN’s Victor Blackwell interviewed Zimmerman’s attorney Mark O’Mara on this decision’s potential ramifications to the defense’s argument, especially given the loaded racial connotations of the case.
“Parks and Crump,” Blackwell asked, referencing the Dickensian-named law firm representing Martin’s family, “have said a lot about how this is a landmark in justice as it relates to African Americans, and racial injustice. How do you keep this trial limited to a few minutes on one night in February?”
“Well, let me ask you this. If they acquit George because the jury says Trayvon was the aggressor, if they make that decision, is that going to be a loss for civil rights? Is it? If the jury decides he’s acquitted because Trayvon was the aggressor, is that a civil rights event? I would suggest not. If they convict George because they think he was the aggressor, is that a benefit to civil rights? Some might say maybe, because at least a young black male victim of a homicide was justified, or his loss was not in vain. So they might say, ‘If you get the conviction then at least he wasn’t a lost life.’ Maybe. But the real decision is going to be who was the aggressor and whether or not George acted reasonably. Those two decisions have nothing to do with rights. They just don’t.
“Now, had the case never gone to trial, maybe. Had they said, ‘We’re not going to prosecute this guy because he killed a black kid,’ then, okay, maybe that’s a civil rights issue. But the jury decides what they’re going to decide, I just don’t see the civil rights connotation to it. I know civil rights, not as well as many of my compatriots, but I know it pretty well. And I grew up in the Sixties and Seventies, so I get a feel for this stuff, and I don’t see civil rights in this day today.”
“Was today a loss for you?” Blackwell asked.
“No!” O’Mara said. “I like the idea that we’re limiting the evidence to what it should be. It was five to six minutes that happened from the time of the non-emergency call to the time of the gunshot and afterwards with the emergency call. If we limit it to that, whatever that jury decides has to be the proper verdict, as long as they follow the evidence and the law, and then we’re done.”
Watch the whole interview here: http://www.mediaite.com/tv/george-zimmermans-attorney-if-jury-rules-trayvon-was-the-aggressor-is-that-a-loss-for-civil-rights/
Marsha Blackburn: Women 'Don't Want' Equal Pay Laws
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/02/marsha-blackburn-equal-pay-laws_n_3375167.htmlRepublican congresswoman Marsha Blackburn said on Sunday that women "don't want" equal pay laws.
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"I think that more important than that is making certain that women are recognized by those companies. You know, I’ve always said that I didn’t want to be given a job because I was a female, I wanted it because I was the most well-qualified person for the job. And making certain that companies are going to move forward in that vein, that is what women want. They don’t want the decisions made in Washington. They want to be able to have the power and the control and the ability to make those decisions for themselves."
Blackburn voted against the 2009 Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, a landmark bill for women's rights in the workplace. The law makes it easier for women to file wage discrimination suits against employers. She also voted against the Paycheck Fairness Act of 2009.
Blackburn is hardly the only female politician to oppose laws aimed at discouraging the gender wage gap. In 2012, a new Paycheck Fairness Act failed in the Senate after receiving nay votes from Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas), Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) and Susan Collins (R-Maine).
The gender pay gap has expanded in recent years. In 2012, women earned approximately 80.9% of what men earned. According to a recent analysis, the average U.S. woman now stands to lose out on $443,000 over 40 years.
Video clip at Huffington.
George Zimmerman's attorneys apologize for mischaracterizing evidence
Source: NBC News
By Daniel Arkin, Staff Writer, NBC News
Attorneys for George Zimmerman apologized Sunday for mischaracterizing evidence they said boosted their theory that Trayvon Martin was the aggressor in his fatal meeting with their client last year.
Lawyer Mark O’Mara said during a hearing last Tuesday that the defense had obtained video footage of three fights, including one in which he said two of Martin’s friends "were beating up a homeless guy."
But Zimmerman's defense team corrected that statement on Sunday, saying O'Mara had unintentionally "misstated the nature" of the footage.
In a statement posted on Zimmerman’s website, the defense lawyers said the footage actually showed "two homeless guys fighting each other over a bike."
More at the link
Read more: http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/06/02/18702011-george-zimmermans-attorneys-apologize-for-mischaracterizing-evidence?lite
I think all the games are winding down and nothing good for Zimmerman is going to come of it.
Florida police use Taser to subdue, capture escaped llama
TALLAHASSEE, Fla., June 2 (UPI) -- Police in Tallahassee, Fla., said they had to use a Taser to capture a 6-foot-tall llama that had escaped from its owner's pen and spit in officers' faces.
Leon County Sheriff's Office deputies said they began hearing reports of a llama on the loose running through Killearn Lakes and on Bannerman Road at about 11 p.m. Friday night.
"There was some sightings, but we were never able to get our hands on it," said Deputy Tony Drzewiecki, of the sheriff's department.
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"I've been doing this 20 years and they said there is going to be a lot of excitement in this job, but no one ever told me I would get spit in the face by a llama and trampled by one," Drzewiecki said.
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Read more: http://www.upi.com/Odd_News/2013/06/02/Florida-police-use-Taser-to-subdue-capture-escaped-llama/UPI-64851370183259/#ixzz2V6JeB3wx
I am shocked they didn't shoot it.
Ex-Congressman Weiner gaining ground in New York mayoral race
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/05/28/us-usa-politics-newyork-mayor-idUSBRE94M18920130528http://s1.reutersmedia.net/resources/r/?m=02&d=20130528&t=2&i=735980573&w=460&fh=&fw=&ll=&pl=&r=CBRE94R1HWR00
(Reuters) - Disgraced former U.S. Congressman Anthony Weiner is gaining ground on his Democratic rivals in the race for New York City Mayor, according to a new poll.
Weiner, who resigned from office two years ago in a sexting scandal, had the support of 19 percent of Democrats in a Marist poll released on Tuesday. That puts him six points behind early frontrunner City Council speaker Christine Quinn, who had support of 25 percent of Democrats.
A separate poll released on May 22, the day that Weiner formally declared his candidacy, had shown Quinn, who would be the city's first female and lesbian mayor, with a wider 10 point lead.
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More than half of registered voters said Weiner deserves a second chance, while nearly 40 percent said Weiner does not have the character to be mayor, the poll found.
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(Reporting by Edith Honan; Editing by Scott Malone and Nick Zieminski)
Berlin company specializes in autistic IT experts
By Agence France-Presse
Sunday, June 2, 2013 8:42 EDT
When German software giant SAP said last month it plans to employ hundreds of autistic people as IT experts, the news was welcomed especially at a small Berlin computer consulting firm.
The pioneering company, Auticon, already employs 17 people who live with autism, the disorder characterised by difficulties with social interactions and exceptional abilities in specific fields.
“Many people say that if a company like SAP said it makes sense… it’s very good for us,” said its chief Dirk Mueller-Remus. “That means it’s something serious, solid.”
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Its goal is that by 2020, people with autism will make up one percent of its worldwide workforce of 65,000.
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Read more: http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/06/02/berlin-company-specialises-in-autistic-it-experts/
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