n2doc
n2doc's JournalKansas And South Dakota Consider ‘Licenses To Discriminate’ Against Same-Sex Couples
With court decisions knocking down the same-sex marriage bans in Utah and Oklahoma, other states with bans are considering more creative ways of making sure marriage equality isn’t recognized. Both Kansas and South Dakota have proposed bills that would create a blanket “license to discriminate,” inviting anyone in the respective state to use religious beliefs as a legitimate reason to refuse service to same-sex couples.
In South Dakota, Senate Bill 67 would allow businesses and individuals to ignore any marriage that they simply don’t agree with:
Though the language seems to focus on wedding ceremonies, the last phrase, “or treat any marriage as valid for any purpose,” suggests that this legislation would allow any business to discriminate against any married couple for any purpose. Notably, the bill does not specify “same-sex” anywhere, thus it could conceivably also be used to discriminate against any kind of marriage, including interfaith and interracial couples.
more
http://thinkprogress.org/lgbt/2014/01/27/3206901/kansas-south-dakota-licenses-discriminate-sex-couples/
State of Conflict: Bill Moyers on North Carolina’s Right Wing Takeover & the Citizens Fighting Back
In 2013, more than 1,000 people were arrested in North Carolina taking part in a series of protests called “Moral Mondays.” For 13 weeks, demonstrators rallied in the state capital of Raleigh to fight moves by Republican lawmakers to attack voting rights, education, the environment, healthcare and women’s rights. Now organizers are planning their largest protest yet — the Moral March on Raleigh, scheduled for February 8. The protests in North Carolina are the focus of a recent special on Bill Moyers’ show "Moyers & Company." The documentary, "State of Conflict: North Carolina," reveals how untraceable political donations called "dark money" have pushed North Carolina far to the right politically and how citizen protesters are fighting back. We air an extended excerpt of Moyers’ report.
more
http://www.democracynow.org/2014/1/27/state_of_conflict_bill_moyers_on
China installed more solar panels in 2013 than any country ever has
China is now home to more solar panels than any other country, after installing 12 gigawatts of solar panels in 2013, according to Bloomberg New Energy Finance. That’s equal to the total amount of panels in the entire United States, and more than any country has ever added in a single year. Greenpeace estimates the figure is a bit lower, but still record-breaking, at between 9.5 and 10.7 gigawatts.
+
China’s solar industry has been showing signs of recovery after the collapse of solar panel makers like the bankrupt Suntech, whose debt-fueled expansion went awry when solar panel prices started falling. But now China’s renewed solar panel manufacturing boomlet is putting Chinese factories back to work and giving rise to cheaper solar panels (paywall) for everyone. Chinese firms, supported by subsidies and power tariffs that are part of the government’s renewable energy campaign, are criss-crossing China and building massive solar generating projects, like a 1,000 MW solar plant in the remote Xinjiang Region. China aims to have 35 gigawatts of solar energy by 2015, adding about 10 gigawatts a year.
+
Still, some experts worry the recovery is tenuous and the recent boom may just be followed by another bust if governments cut subsidy programs. China is trying to consolidate the sector by closing small and idle plants, but is running into resistance from local governments that have invested in them.
http://qz.com/170337/china-installed-more-solar-panels-in-2013-than-any-country-ever-has/
Yukon Government Opens Vast Wilderness to Mining
Tom Clynes
for National Geographic
PUBLISHED JANUARY 24, 2014
Canada's Yukon Territory announced on Tuesday that it has opened one of the largest unbroken wilderness areas in North America to mining and mineral exploration.
The government's decree stunned indigenous leaders, who support a 2011 plan developed under Yukon land claims treaties that would have maintained the wilderness character of 80 percent of the area, which is known as the Peel watershed region. The government's new plan all but reverses that figure, opening some 71 percent of the watershed to mining.
The Yukon features some of Canada's highest peaks and largest glaciers, as well as tremendous expanses of lake-dotted tundra, boreal forests, and wetlands. (See "Yukon: Canada's Wild West" in the February issue of National Geographic magazine.) It's also rich in wildlife, with extreme seasonal shifts that beckon vast herds of caribou and other animals into motion. Larger than California but with only 37,000 inhabitants, the territory has been mostly empty of humans since the Klondike Stampede ended in the 1890s.
In recent years a new gold rush has brought a spike in population and prosperity to towns like Whitehorse and Dawson. But the rush to exploit the Yukon's minerals—which also include zinc, copper, iron, and uranium—has unearthed growing tensions between government and mining interests on the one hand, and conservation and indigenous First Nations interests on the other.
more
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/01/140124-canada-yukon-peel-watershed-wilderness-mining-first-nations/
Money Uber Alles
Jade Rabbit moon rover may be beyond repair, state media hints
Scientists may not be able to repair China's lunar rover, Jade Rabbit, that has broken down on the surface of the moon, a report on state media suggested.
The report from Xinhua, written as if it sent by the rover itself, said the problems could prove insoluble.
"Masters are working round the clock. In spite of that, I know I might not be able to make it through this lunar night," the "report" from Jade Rabbit said.
"If this journey is to be suspended ahead of schedule, I am not fearful. No matter whether I can be fixed or not, I believe I have left masters much valuable information and experience."
The authorities reported on Saturday the rover had experienced a "mechanical control abnormality'' and scientists were trying to fix it.
more
http://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/1414534/jade-rabbit-moon-rover-may-be-beyond-repair-state-media-hints
HSBC is paying $2 billion, or 5 weeks' profit, to avoid criminal charges in drug cartel laundering
US regulators continue to find weaknesses in the way HSBC Holdings tries to prevent money laundering, according to people familiar with the matter, even after the British bank was forced to pay nearly $2 billion in penalties and invested millions in increasing its compliance.
The deferred prosecution agreement was reached in December 2012 and was approved Monday. The settlement was seen as a record amount to resolve charges that the bank failed to stop billions of dollars in drug money from flowing through the bank from Mexico.
Under the terms of the deal, the Justice Department agreed to suspend criminal charges against HSBC and its US subsidiary for five years if the bank agreed to pay the penalty.
When announcing the settlement, HSBC Chief Executive Stuart Gulliver said: "The HSBC of today is a fundamentally different organization from the one that made those mistakes."
more
http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/americas/united-states/140121/hsbc-paying-2-billion-drug-money-laundering-cartel
Such a Deal!
The President Forgets To Lie About Marijuana, And Prohibitionists Are Outraged
Prohibitionists were outraged by President Obama’s recent observation that marijuana is safer than alcohol—not because it is not true but because it contradicts the central myth underlying public support for the war on drugs. According to that myth, certain psychoactive substances are so dangerous that they cannot be tolerated, and the government has scientifically identified them. In reality, the distinctions drawn by our drug laws are arbitrary, and marijuana is the clearest illustration of that fact.
“As has been well documented,” Obama told The New Yorker’s David Remnick in an interview published on Sunday, “I smoked pot as a kid, and I view it as a bad habit and a vice, not very different from the cigarettes that I smoked as a young person up through a big chunk of my adult life. I don’t think it is more dangerous than alcohol.” When Remnick pressed him to say whether marijuana is in fact less dangerous than alcohol, the president said yes, “in terms of its impact on the individual consumer.”
Judging from survey data, that is not a very controversial position. According to a recent CNN poll, 87 percent of Americans think marijuana is no more dangerous than alcohol, and 73 percent say it is less dangerous. Yet Obama’s statement does seem inconsistent with his administration’s stubborn defense of marijuana’s placement on Schedule I of the Controlled Substances Act, a category supposedly reserved for drugs with a high abuse potential that have no recognized medical value and cannot be used safely, even under a doctor’s supervision.
The administration concedes that chemicals in marijuana have medical utility, but it argues that they should be taken in isolation, not by smoking, vaporizing, or ingesting the plant. The administration also maintains that marijuana’s popularity as a recreational intoxicant demonstrates its high potential for abuse—if you define abuse to include all nonmedical use, as the government does.
more
http://www.forbes.com/sites/jacobsullum/2014/01/24/the-president-forgets-to-lie-about-marijuana-and-prohibitionists-are-outraged/
Profile Information
Gender: Do not displayMember since: Tue Feb 10, 2004, 01:08 PM
Number of posts: 47,953
