News aggregator
Wetland aliens cause bird extinction
BirdLife International announces today, in an update to the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species™ for birds, the extinction of Alaotra Grebe Tachybaptus rufolavatus. Restricted to a tiny area of east Madagascar, this species declined rapidly after carnivorous fish were introduced to the lakes in which it lived. This, along with the use of nylon gill-nets by fisherman which caught and drowned birds, has driven this species into the abyss.
Categories: World Conservation Union (IUCN)
España, a la cabeza de la UICN en el Mediterráneo
La Ministra de Medio Ambiente, y Medio Rural y Marino de España, Elena Espinosa, ha firmado hoy martes, 25 de mayo con la Directora General de la Agencia Española de Cooperación Internacional para el Desarrollo, Elena Madrazo, el Consejero de Medio Ambiente de la Junta de Andalucía, José Juan Díaz Trillo y la Directora General de la Unión Internacional para la Conservación de la Naturaleza, Julia Marton-Lefèvre, un Protocolo General de Colaboración en Madrid cuyo objeto es mantener el Centro de Cooperación del Mediterráneo de la UICN y sus actividades en Málaga.
Categories: World Conservation Union (IUCN)
Seismic threat to Critically Endangered whales
A seismic survey planned by the Russian petroleum company Rosneft in summer 2010 poses a major threat to the Critically Endangered Western Gray Whale population. In a letter to Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, the Director General of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), Julia Marton-Lefèvre, urges the Russian government to intervene to postpone the seismic survey and prevent a serious setback for animal conservation.
Categories: World Conservation Union (IUCN)
Drylands mustn't go to waste
How can we manage something that we can’t measure? The value of drylands is often overlooked and yet they are a crucial source of income and other benefits for millions of people worldwide, as well as for the environment. IUCN works to ensure that dryland resources are valued, recognized and taken into account by decision makers.
Categories: World Conservation Union (IUCN)
One step forward to halting biodiversity loss?
Governments have made “positive moves” towards coming up with a plan to reduce the current loss of biodiversity, which is threatening the future of our planet. Over the past two weeks, delegates at a meeting in Nairobi have been discussing the scientific and technical aspects behind a new “big plan” to save all life on earth, the planet’s biodiversity. Scientists from IUCN, who have been taking part in the discussions, say that they’re encouraged by the commitment shown by governments to develop a new Strategic Plan for the next ten years, which would set targets to reduce the global rate of biodiversity loss.
Categories: World Conservation Union (IUCN)
Celebrating International Biodiversity Day: Nature’s solutions for poverty reduction
Today IUCN celebrates the International Day for Biological Diversity focusing on the links between biodiversity, human development and people’s livelihoods. This has special significance for every plant and animal on Earth, particularly during this International Year of Biodiversity, and comes at a time when world leaders are setting new targets to stop biodiversity loss.
Categories: World Conservation Union (IUCN)
Japanese vision – the New Strategic Plan, a decade of biodiversity and raising awareness with origami
After the scientific and technical discussions in Nairobi, the eyes of the conservation world will be moving towards Nagoya, Japan, where Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) will meet in October this year to make binding decisions on the future of the world’s biodiversity. The Japan Committee for IUCN has been working to make every effort to ensure that this event, which is crucial for the future of our planet, has a high profile in Japan. Professor Masahito Yoshida is the Chair of the Japan Committee for IUCN. Here he answers questions about the Committee’s work, its role in the CBD conference and how the Japan Committee for IUCN uses origami to raise awareness of the need to conserve biodiversity, all life on earth.
Categories: World Conservation Union (IUCN)
TONY BLAIR AND FORMER TOP PENTAGON OFFICIALS INVOLVED OIL FIRM SEEKING IRAQ ROLE
JAYNE LYN STAHL, COUNTERPUNCH - Late last week came word of a major scandal from the UK Daily Mail. In the three years since he stepped down as prime minister, [Tony] Blair pocketed more than $30 million in oil revenues from his secret dealings with a South Korean oil consortium, UI Energy Corporation. Despite all his best efforts to keep his connection to UI secret, word is spreading like wildfire throughout the U.K.
Now, you might ask, that he's no longer in government and has his own company, Blair Associates, why would anyone care what his business dealings are? Well, for openers, Mr. Blair is also the West's envoy to the Middle East. Of concern to British politicians, too, is that a former prime minister has been stone cold silent about being on the payroll of an immense multinational oil corporation, specializing in oil exploration in Iraq, and one that coincidentally happens to find itself in another challenging part of the globe.
Not surprisingly, Mr. Blair isn't the only prominent politician on UI's payroll. Others reportedly include former Australian prime minister Bob Hawke, as well as politicians like Congressman Stephen J. Solarz, former secretary of defense Frank Carlucci, former ambassador to Egypt, Nicholas A. Belites, and U.S. Commander for the Middle East General John P. Abizaid. And, these are just the ones who acknowledge any association with the oil conglomerate.
Two-time presidential candidate, Ross Perot, is listed on UI Energy Corp.'s Web site as part of their extended family. One wonders if there are any other presidents, or presidential candidates, who may have been considered family by the South Korean oil firm.
While they've only been around for about twenty years, it didn't take UI long to come up to speed. A message from the company's president, posted to their Web site, says they are interested in "development of overseas resources such as the Middle East and Africa. Especially, Iraq where various Energy (sic) developments are expected."
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Now, you might ask, that he's no longer in government and has his own company, Blair Associates, why would anyone care what his business dealings are? Well, for openers, Mr. Blair is also the West's envoy to the Middle East. Of concern to British politicians, too, is that a former prime minister has been stone cold silent about being on the payroll of an immense multinational oil corporation, specializing in oil exploration in Iraq, and one that coincidentally happens to find itself in another challenging part of the globe.
Not surprisingly, Mr. Blair isn't the only prominent politician on UI's payroll. Others reportedly include former Australian prime minister Bob Hawke, as well as politicians like Congressman Stephen J. Solarz, former secretary of defense Frank Carlucci, former ambassador to Egypt, Nicholas A. Belites, and U.S. Commander for the Middle East General John P. Abizaid. And, these are just the ones who acknowledge any association with the oil conglomerate.
Two-time presidential candidate, Ross Perot, is listed on UI Energy Corp.'s Web site as part of their extended family. One wonders if there are any other presidents, or presidential candidates, who may have been considered family by the South Korean oil firm.
While they've only been around for about twenty years, it didn't take UI long to come up to speed. A message from the company's president, posted to their Web site, says they are interested in "development of overseas resources such as the Middle East and Africa. Especially, Iraq where various Energy (sic) developments are expected."
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OBAMA WILL SPEND MORE THAN TWICE AS MUCH ON WAR SUPPLEMENTAL AS ON FORECLOSURE AID
NY TIMES - The Obama administration on Friday announced broad new initiatives to help troubled homeowners, potentially refinancing several million of them into fresh government-backed mortgages with lower payments. . . Sources said the agency would use $14 billion in funds from the Troubled Asset Relief Program, some of which it could dangle in front of financial institutions as incentives to participate.
ANTIWAR - In a move that was widely expected, Obama Administration officials headed to the Senate to press for approval of a $33 billion war supplemental bill, with most of the money going to pay for the Afghan War. The $33 billion supplement would be in addition to the record $708 billion military budget reported in January._______________________________________________________
ANTIWAR - In a move that was widely expected, Obama Administration officials headed to the Senate to press for approval of a $33 billion war supplemental bill, with most of the money going to pay for the Afghan War. The $33 billion supplement would be in addition to the record $708 billion military budget reported in January._______________________________________________________
LOCAL HERO: 18 YEAR-OLD STRIKES BLOW FOR GENDER RIGHTS
CHANGE - Constance McMillen has become a lot of things to an awful lot of people these past few weeks. Less than a month ago, she was an 18-year-old high school student at Itawamba Agricultural High School in Fulton, Mississippi. Today, she's become a de facto face of the movement for LGBT student rights, blazing a trail from the courtrooms of Mississippi to the couches of America's most popular talk shows.
McMillen, openly lesbian, sued her school earlier this month after they refused to allow her to attend the prom with her girlfriend. In a town of 4,000 people, where anti-gay fervor runs a little high, it was a bold move to bring the movement for LGBT equality to the most local of levels in this country. Her school, as the world would soon find out, canceled the prom altogether rather than be forced to allow McMillen and her girlfriend to show up and drink punch together.
This week, McMillen won her court case, with a federal judge in Mississippi saying that by canceling the prom, the Itawamba Agricultural High School violated McMillen's rights. It was a victory for McMillen in name only -- the judge refused to order the school to reinstate the prom, and Itawamba Agricultural High School has buckled down in their decision to cancel the prom. . .
McMillen responded to her court victory with what has become her standard humility.
"It hurts me that they would rather punish everybody than just do the right thing," said McMillen. . .
McMillen has become a national hero. Wanda Sykes asked McMillen to present an equality award in her name. Ellen DeGeneres brought McMillen on her show to award her $30,000 scholarship and announce that she could have an internship at tonic.com this summer. And other schools around the country have expressed their support for McMillen by inviting her to their prom.
And yet, despite the international celebrity, McMillen says that at the end of the day, she'd really just like to see her equal rights validated in her own community. . ._______________________________________________________
McMillen, openly lesbian, sued her school earlier this month after they refused to allow her to attend the prom with her girlfriend. In a town of 4,000 people, where anti-gay fervor runs a little high, it was a bold move to bring the movement for LGBT equality to the most local of levels in this country. Her school, as the world would soon find out, canceled the prom altogether rather than be forced to allow McMillen and her girlfriend to show up and drink punch together.
This week, McMillen won her court case, with a federal judge in Mississippi saying that by canceling the prom, the Itawamba Agricultural High School violated McMillen's rights. It was a victory for McMillen in name only -- the judge refused to order the school to reinstate the prom, and Itawamba Agricultural High School has buckled down in their decision to cancel the prom. . .
McMillen responded to her court victory with what has become her standard humility.
"It hurts me that they would rather punish everybody than just do the right thing," said McMillen. . .
McMillen has become a national hero. Wanda Sykes asked McMillen to present an equality award in her name. Ellen DeGeneres brought McMillen on her show to award her $30,000 scholarship and announce that she could have an internship at tonic.com this summer. And other schools around the country have expressed their support for McMillen by inviting her to their prom.
And yet, despite the international celebrity, McMillen says that at the end of the day, she'd really just like to see her equal rights validated in her own community. . ._______________________________________________________
CAIFORNIA FOOD STAMP PROGRAM UNDERUSED
CALIFORNIA WATCH - As record numbers of Californians struggle to put food on the table, programs designed to help the hungry are under stress.
An examination by California Watch and reporters from USC's Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism shows that food banks and food stamps, two key safety net programs for poor people in the Golden State, are sagging under soaring demand and long-ignored problems that impair their effectiveness.
In recession-battered California, an unprecedented 11 million people – more than one in four – live in households that are "food insecure," meaning they lack regular access to sufficient food, according to a survey by UCLA's Center for Health Policy Research.
Yet the U.S. Department of Agriculture has reported that as many as 2.9 million Californians who are eligible for federal food-stamp aid don't receive these benefits. . .
Experts says a labyrinth of bureaucratic rules, regulations and requirements – created by state officials to check welfare fraud – have deterred huge numbers of eligible Californians from applying for food stamps.
Boosting the state's low rate of participation in the food stamp program would pump as much as $3.7 billion per year into California's economy, advocates say.
It would also ease pressure on the charities and local agencies that provided free food to an estimated four million Californians last year via a network of foods banks.
Food banks form a vital front line in the battle against hunger in California. Last year they doled out 302 million pounds of free food in California, according to Feeding America, a national anti-hunger group. Four million people were served last year, according to an estimate based on reports from California food banks._______________________________________________________
An examination by California Watch and reporters from USC's Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism shows that food banks and food stamps, two key safety net programs for poor people in the Golden State, are sagging under soaring demand and long-ignored problems that impair their effectiveness.
In recession-battered California, an unprecedented 11 million people – more than one in four – live in households that are "food insecure," meaning they lack regular access to sufficient food, according to a survey by UCLA's Center for Health Policy Research.
Yet the U.S. Department of Agriculture has reported that as many as 2.9 million Californians who are eligible for federal food-stamp aid don't receive these benefits. . .
Experts says a labyrinth of bureaucratic rules, regulations and requirements – created by state officials to check welfare fraud – have deterred huge numbers of eligible Californians from applying for food stamps.
Boosting the state's low rate of participation in the food stamp program would pump as much as $3.7 billion per year into California's economy, advocates say.
It would also ease pressure on the charities and local agencies that provided free food to an estimated four million Californians last year via a network of foods banks.
Food banks form a vital front line in the battle against hunger in California. Last year they doled out 302 million pounds of free food in California, according to Feeding America, a national anti-hunger group. Four million people were served last year, according to an estimate based on reports from California food banks._______________________________________________________
ARNE DUNCAN'S PHONY REFORM STRIKES AGAIN: 200 FIRED AT GEORGIA SCHOOL
SAVANNAH MORNING NEWS, GA - Beach High School Principal Deonn Stone informed her faculty and staff today that they will all be let go as part of a restructuring plan to prevent state takeover of the high school.
Beach High will get up to $6 million in federal funds to make a fresh start under the restructuring plan.
But everyone, from the principal and teachers to the cafeteria workers and custodians, must go. Most will be able to reapply for their jobs.
However, only 49 percent of the current employees, excluding the principal, can be rehired to work at the school next school year._______________________________________________________
Beach High will get up to $6 million in federal funds to make a fresh start under the restructuring plan.
But everyone, from the principal and teachers to the cafeteria workers and custodians, must go. Most will be able to reapply for their jobs.
However, only 49 percent of the current employees, excluding the principal, can be rehired to work at the school next school year._______________________________________________________
MORNING LINE
PRESIDENTIAL: Latest 3 poll average: Obama beats Romney by 6, Palin by 6 and Huckabee by 4.
SENATE: Democrats down by 5 seats with 7 Dems unclear
GOVERNORS: Democrats down by 4 with 4 GOP and 3 Democrats unclear & 1 Independent taking a GOP seat
DETAILS_______________________________________________________
SENATE: Democrats down by 5 seats with 7 Dems unclear
GOVERNORS: Democrats down by 4 with 4 GOP and 3 Democrats unclear & 1 Independent taking a GOP seat
DETAILS_______________________________________________________
LAUTENBERG PROPOSES 'MR SMITH' FILIBUSTER RULE
POLITICO - Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.) wants senators who block bills to have their own "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington" moment - whether they want to actually filibuster or not.
Lautenberg introduced a bill Tuesday that would require senators who block legislation to be present in the Senate chamber - or else the majority leader could call for "an immediate vote" on the bill in question.
"If a Senator wants to delay our work in the Senate, then that Senator must show up on the floor and debate," Lautenberg said in a statement. "If any of my colleagues feel strongly enough about a bill or nomination to stop all work in the Senate, they should have no problem standing on the Senate floor to explain their opposition to the American public."
Last year, Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) determined that the Senate's cloture rule - which cuts off a filibuster - did not actually require a senator to talk for an indefinite period of time. He released a memo stating that a member "can be forced to sit on the [Senate] floor to keep us from voting on that legislation for a finite period of time according to existing rules but he/she can't be forced to keep talking for an indefinite period of time."
In the previous congressional session, Republicans forced a record 112 cloture votes to break filibusters. And in this session, which began in 2009, the minority party has already forced 49 cloture votes.
Lautenberg's legislation would alter those rules._______________________________________________________
Lautenberg introduced a bill Tuesday that would require senators who block legislation to be present in the Senate chamber - or else the majority leader could call for "an immediate vote" on the bill in question.
"If a Senator wants to delay our work in the Senate, then that Senator must show up on the floor and debate," Lautenberg said in a statement. "If any of my colleagues feel strongly enough about a bill or nomination to stop all work in the Senate, they should have no problem standing on the Senate floor to explain their opposition to the American public."
Last year, Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) determined that the Senate's cloture rule - which cuts off a filibuster - did not actually require a senator to talk for an indefinite period of time. He released a memo stating that a member "can be forced to sit on the [Senate] floor to keep us from voting on that legislation for a finite period of time according to existing rules but he/she can't be forced to keep talking for an indefinite period of time."
In the previous congressional session, Republicans forced a record 112 cloture votes to break filibusters. And in this session, which began in 2009, the minority party has already forced 49 cloture votes.
Lautenberg's legislation would alter those rules._______________________________________________________
HOMEOWNERS GETTING LITTLE HELP FROM OBAMA'S FORECLOSURE PLAN
SHAHIEN NASIRIPOUR, HUFFINGTON POST - The average homeowner in the Obama administration's signature foreclosure-prevention program owes more on their mortgage than their home is worth, yet the program does virtually nothing to address this problem, according to a scathing new report by a government watchdog, casting doubt on the effectiveness of the $50 billion effort.
The average homeowner may owe their lender as much as two-and-a-half times more than the home is worth, the Office of the Special Inspector General for the Troubled Asset Relief Program states in its new report examining the administration's year-old Home Affordable Modification Program, citing November data from Fannie Mae. The Treasury Department told government investigators that the average homeowner likely owes their lender about $1.14 for every $1 of the home's current market value, the report notes.
Yet the program doesn't address this problem of negative equity -- commonly referred to as being "underwater" -- according to the report. The administration's effort has been touted as a way to stem the rising tide of foreclosures by reducing monthly payments for up to four million troubled borrowers.
Mortgage servicers forgave principal on less than two percent of HAMP trial loans, the report notes. But before HAMP, 10 percent of servicer-sponsored mortgage modifications forgave principal, according to the report. Servicers are incentivized to lower monthly payments by getting cash for every sustainable mortgage modification. . .
This data had never been publicly disclosed prior to Tuesday.
About a quarter of all homeowners with a mortgage are currently underwater, according to real estate research firm First American Core Logic. The watchdog report notes that underwater homeowners represent about half of all foreclosures.
The lack of principal reductions, which the report notes is the "primary method of quickly addressing negative equity," may lead to homeowners walking away from their mortgages._______________________________________________________
The average homeowner may owe their lender as much as two-and-a-half times more than the home is worth, the Office of the Special Inspector General for the Troubled Asset Relief Program states in its new report examining the administration's year-old Home Affordable Modification Program, citing November data from Fannie Mae. The Treasury Department told government investigators that the average homeowner likely owes their lender about $1.14 for every $1 of the home's current market value, the report notes.
Yet the program doesn't address this problem of negative equity -- commonly referred to as being "underwater" -- according to the report. The administration's effort has been touted as a way to stem the rising tide of foreclosures by reducing monthly payments for up to four million troubled borrowers.
Mortgage servicers forgave principal on less than two percent of HAMP trial loans, the report notes. But before HAMP, 10 percent of servicer-sponsored mortgage modifications forgave principal, according to the report. Servicers are incentivized to lower monthly payments by getting cash for every sustainable mortgage modification. . .
This data had never been publicly disclosed prior to Tuesday.
About a quarter of all homeowners with a mortgage are currently underwater, according to real estate research firm First American Core Logic. The watchdog report notes that underwater homeowners represent about half of all foreclosures.
The lack of principal reductions, which the report notes is the "primary method of quickly addressing negative equity," may lead to homeowners walking away from their mortgages._______________________________________________________
GUESS IT'S BACK TO THE PAT DOWN
TELEGRAPH, UK - Breast implants packed with explosives could be used to blow up an airliner, experts are said to have warned. Radical Islamist plastic surgeons could be carrying out the implant operations in lawless areas of Pakistan, security sources are said to warned.
Explosives experts have reportedly said just five ounces of Pentaerythritol Tetrabitrate packed into a breast implant would be enough to blow a "considerable" hole in the side of a jumbo jet.
It would be virtually possible for airport security scanners to detect the explosive if hidden inside a breast, medics have said.
One plastic surgeon told The Sun: "Properly inserted the implant would be virtually impossible to detect by the usual airport scanning machines.
"You would need to subject a suspect to a sophisticated X-ray. Given that the explosive would be inserted in a sealed plastic sachet, and would be a small amount, would make it all the more impossible to spot it with the usual body scanner."_______________________________________________________
Explosives experts have reportedly said just five ounces of Pentaerythritol Tetrabitrate packed into a breast implant would be enough to blow a "considerable" hole in the side of a jumbo jet.
It would be virtually possible for airport security scanners to detect the explosive if hidden inside a breast, medics have said.
One plastic surgeon told The Sun: "Properly inserted the implant would be virtually impossible to detect by the usual airport scanning machines.
"You would need to subject a suspect to a sophisticated X-ray. Given that the explosive would be inserted in a sealed plastic sachet, and would be a small amount, would make it all the more impossible to spot it with the usual body scanner."_______________________________________________________
WIFE OF ATLANTIC MAGAZINE OWNER PAYING FOR DC SCHOOL SUPER'S MEDIA SPIN
GARY IMHOFF, DC WATCH - In Sunday’s issue of themail, I wrote that the private grantmaker who paid for Chancellor Michelle Rhee’s hiring of public relations consultant Anita Dunn to promote her hadn’t been revealed, nor had Dunn’s fee. At Monday’s city council hearing on DCPS, Rhee revealed that the initial gift was $100,000, and that it came from Katherine Bradley, who with her husband David Bradley runs the City Bridge Foundation. David Bradley is the owner of The Atlantic. . . . At the Monday hearing, Rhee also revealed that the $100,000 grant was just the first installment of what would be paid to Dunn, and that more donations were being sought to pay her.
Rhee is part of a small, close-knit group of big-city school superintendents who believe the schools are best run through unchecked, strongman control by city mayors. Most prominent among this group are Rhee, New York City’s superintendent Joel Klein, and Chicago’s Arne Duncan, now the US Secretary of Education. Last year, Rhee faced accusations of favoritism when Mayor Fenty’s sons got admission into an out-of-boundary public school. How that admission was arranged was never explained. . .
Now it’s Arne Duncan’s turn. The Chicago Tribute reported yesterday: "While many Chicago parents took formal routes to land their children in the best schools, the well-connected also sought help through a shadowy appeals system created in recent years under former schools chief Arne Duncan. Whispers have long swirled that some children get spots in the city’s premier schools based on whom their parents know. But a list maintained over several years in Duncan’s office and obtained by the Tribune lends further evidence to those charges. Duncan is now secretary of education under President Barack Obama. The log is a compilation of politicians and influential business people who interceded on behalf of children during Duncan’s tenure. It includes 25 aldermen, Mayor Richard Daley’s office, House Speaker Michael Madigan, his daughter Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan, former White House social secretary Desiree Rogers and former US Sen. Carol Moseley Braun. Non-connected parents, such as those who sought spots for their special-needs child or who were new to the city, also appear on the log. But the politically connected make up about three-quarters of those making requests in the documents obtained by the Tribune". Duncan’s defenders are reacting with the same offended reaction of, "How dare you question us," as Rhee did earlier. But what else should be expected? When politicians run a city’s school system with unchecked and unquestioned power, the same kind of corruption, cronyism, and favoritism that pervades the rest of the city’s government will pervade its schools._______________________________________________________
Rhee is part of a small, close-knit group of big-city school superintendents who believe the schools are best run through unchecked, strongman control by city mayors. Most prominent among this group are Rhee, New York City’s superintendent Joel Klein, and Chicago’s Arne Duncan, now the US Secretary of Education. Last year, Rhee faced accusations of favoritism when Mayor Fenty’s sons got admission into an out-of-boundary public school. How that admission was arranged was never explained. . .
Now it’s Arne Duncan’s turn. The Chicago Tribute reported yesterday: "While many Chicago parents took formal routes to land their children in the best schools, the well-connected also sought help through a shadowy appeals system created in recent years under former schools chief Arne Duncan. Whispers have long swirled that some children get spots in the city’s premier schools based on whom their parents know. But a list maintained over several years in Duncan’s office and obtained by the Tribune lends further evidence to those charges. Duncan is now secretary of education under President Barack Obama. The log is a compilation of politicians and influential business people who interceded on behalf of children during Duncan’s tenure. It includes 25 aldermen, Mayor Richard Daley’s office, House Speaker Michael Madigan, his daughter Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan, former White House social secretary Desiree Rogers and former US Sen. Carol Moseley Braun. Non-connected parents, such as those who sought spots for their special-needs child or who were new to the city, also appear on the log. But the politically connected make up about three-quarters of those making requests in the documents obtained by the Tribune". Duncan’s defenders are reacting with the same offended reaction of, "How dare you question us," as Rhee did earlier. But what else should be expected? When politicians run a city’s school system with unchecked and unquestioned power, the same kind of corruption, cronyism, and favoritism that pervades the rest of the city’s government will pervade its schools._______________________________________________________
POT FOR PLEASURE TO BE ON CALIFORNIA'S BALLOT
LA TIMES - A measure to legalize marijuana will be on California's November ballot Supporters of the initiative collected well more than the 433,971 signatures needed for it to go before voters in the fall, again putting the state at the forefront of the nation's drug debate. . .
The measure, like the medical marijuana initiative, could put California on a collision course with the federal government. The possession and sale of marijuana remain a federal crime.
This month, President Obama's drug czar, R. Gil Kerlikowske, decried legalization in a speech to police chiefs in San Jose.
The initiative would allow adults 21 or older to possess up to an ounce for personal use.
Possession of an ounce or less has been a misdemeanor with a $100 fine since 1975, when Atty. Gen. Jerry Brown, who was then governor, signed a law that reduced tough marijuana penalties that had allowed judges to impose 10-year sentences.
Legalization supporters note that misdemeanor arrests have risen dramatically in California in the last two decades. The initiative would also allow adults to grow up to 25 square feet of marijuana per residence or parcel.
But the measure, known as the Regulate, Control and Tax Cannabis Act, goes further, allowing cities and counties to adopt ordinances that would authorize the cultivation, transportation and sale of marijuana, which could be taxed to raise revenue._______________________________________________________
The measure, like the medical marijuana initiative, could put California on a collision course with the federal government. The possession and sale of marijuana remain a federal crime.
This month, President Obama's drug czar, R. Gil Kerlikowske, decried legalization in a speech to police chiefs in San Jose.
The initiative would allow adults 21 or older to possess up to an ounce for personal use.
Possession of an ounce or less has been a misdemeanor with a $100 fine since 1975, when Atty. Gen. Jerry Brown, who was then governor, signed a law that reduced tough marijuana penalties that had allowed judges to impose 10-year sentences.
Legalization supporters note that misdemeanor arrests have risen dramatically in California in the last two decades. The initiative would also allow adults to grow up to 25 square feet of marijuana per residence or parcel.
But the measure, known as the Regulate, Control and Tax Cannabis Act, goes further, allowing cities and counties to adopt ordinances that would authorize the cultivation, transportation and sale of marijuana, which could be taxed to raise revenue._______________________________________________________
