“A judge late Wednesday denied a request to lift a temporary restraining order that is keeping the Hawaii Superferry from sailing to Maui. The order by Second Circuit Judge Joseph Cardoza remains in effect until Sept. 6. Cardoza will continue to hear arguments next week on whether to grant a preliminary injunction against the Superferry. […]
“The lure of free travel this morning on the Bay Area’s mass transit systems to help cut down on smog didn’t seem to lure commuters onto the region’s trains, buses and ferries. The commute traffic appeared to be either the same or a bit heavier than normal, according to spot checks by The Chronicle of […]
“Weak zoning laws, careless farmers and smoldering garbage dumps are the main reasons for the forest fires that have killed 63 and destroyed whole rural economies in Greece in recent days, Greenpeace said on Monday. The fires, fanned by strong winds, have engulfed whole villages, forcing thousands to flee their homes, and burned millions of […]
“Joe Biden says his top priority as president would be ‘energy security.’ ‘If I could wave a wand, and the Lord said I could solve one problem, I would solve the energy crisis,’ he said this spring at a political rally in South Carolina. ‘That’s the single most consequential problem we can solve.’ During his […]
“On Monday, Atlanta Falcons quarterback Michael Vick plead guilty to federal charges of dog fighting, including charges that he personally endorsed the execution of underperforming dogs by hanging or drowning. For insight into the reaction to Vick’s case, The New Republic spoke with ethicist Peter Singer, the Ira W. DeCamp Professor of Bioethics at Princeton […]
“A couple of weeks before Katrina, I had purchased a selection of several dozen bromeliads from the estate of the recently deceased past president of the American Bromeliad Association and moved them from the back yard of her house on Royal Street in the French Quarter of New Orleans to Auburn, Alabama. At the time […]
“Earthquakes and hurricanes tend to invite two cliches — that nature hits the poor hardest, and that the government is incapable of performing its basic functions. Like most cliches, these contain an element of truth. They have now re-emerged in Peru in the wake of the Aug. 15 earthquake that killed more than 500 people, […]
“Just before its August recess both the House of Representatives and the Senate passed legislation that would substantially expand SCHIP. The Senate bill would allow states to broaden SCHIP coverage to families making up to 300 percent of the federal poverty level and the House bill sets no income eligibility limits on the program. And […]
“Has Paul Krugman never heard of a ‘charter school’ or a ‘voucher’? … Professor Krugman’s analytical ‘death spiral’ in general is tragic to watch, and his columns on healthcare are so lame that I have never bothered to dissect them…. But now he’s gone after the children. In ‘A Socialist Plot’ (New York Times, August […]
“Healthcare reform is hot this election season and presidential hopefuls from both parties appear weekly with promises of reforms that will supposedly solve our system’s problems with universal coverage at affordable costs. A recent overhaul in Massachusetts that expanded taxpayer-funded health insurance and requires individuals to purchase government-approved policies is proving particularly compelling to many, […]
