Fed up with the budget crises and partisan battles that have paralyzed California for years, some influential voices believe it’s time to tear open the state constitution and start anew. Once dismissed as a hokey gimmick, support for a proposed constitutional convention has been building in the nation’s most populous state.
The Alabama House has approved a resolution that praises Miss USA contestant Carrie Prejean for speaking out against gay marriage. The House approved the resolution Thursday by Republican Rep. Jay Love of Montgomery on a voice vote.
Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller is warning the county recorders’ offices in his state that workers must process “marriage” licenses for same-sex duos or face possible charges in a court of law. “If necessary, we will explore legal actions to enforce and implement the court’s ruling, working with the Iowa Dept. of Public Health and county attorneys,” he warned on his website. But an announcement today from a statewide pro-family organization and a public interest law firm with a reach that goes around the world means the issue of same-sex weddings eventually could end up back in court. The statements from Miller relate to the state Supreme Court’s decision that Iowa must provide same-sex couples access to the state’s marriage processes.
Misdemeanors such as assaults, thefts and burglaries will no longer be prosecuted in Contra Costa County because of budget cuts, the county’s top prosecutor said Tuesday. District Attorney Robert Kochly also said that beginning May 4, his office will no longer prosecute felony drug cases involving smaller amounts of narcotics. That means anyone caught with less than a gram of methamphetamine or cocaine, less than 0.5 grams of heroin and fewer than five pills of ecstasy, OxyContin or Vicodin won’t be charged.
California school segregated students hoping to improve test scores.
Some parents in a Sacramento suburb are upset after school officials segregated students by race in a move designed to boost test scores. Students at Laguna Creek High School in Elk Grove were divided by race this week for what the school called “heritage assemblies.” The gatherings were designed to motivate students to do better on standardized achievement tests.
New York teacher arrested after he barricaded himself inside school threatened to blow the place up.
A middle school teacher who barricaded himself in a Bronx classroom this morning and threatened to blow up the building as revenge for being disciplined by the principal was arrested following a three-hour standoff, police said. No bomb was found, but police evacuated the New Millennium Business Academy Middle School/MS 328 at 1000 Teller Avenue in Morrisainia as a precaution as the 55-year-old computer teacher – identified as Francisco Garabitos – barricaded himself in his classroom.
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Tiny Nevada town fights bugs by crankin’ up the classic rock.
The residents of this tiny town, anticipating an imminent attack, will be ready with a perimeter defense. They’ll position their best weapons at regular intervals, faced out toward the desert to repel the assault. Then they’ll turn up the volume. Rock music blaring from boomboxes has proved one of the best defenses against an annual invasion of Mormon crickets. The huge flightless insects are a fearsome sight as they advance across the desert in armies of millions that march over, under or into anything in their way.
The first Google Maps alphabet, featuring all 26 letters, has been created from satellite images of natural features and buildings by Rhett Dashwood, a graphic designer from Australia.
Canadians who have recently returned from Mexico should be on alert for flu-like symptoms that could be connected to a severe respiratory illness, federal health officials said Thursday in issuing a travel advisory. A severe respiratory illness appears to have infected 137 people in south and central areas of Mexico, with cases concentrated in Mexico City and three other areas, including 20 deaths, the Public Health Agency of Canada said. Mexico City starts flu vaccination campaign.
Unusual form of flu virus found in California and Texas.
Federal health experts expect to find more cases of a unique new form of swine flu as they check people who had contact with seven California and Texas residents diagnosed with the illness. All of the seven victims recovered from the flu that combines pig, bird and human viruses in a way that researchers have not seen before, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Thursday. The cases are a growing medical mystery because it’s unclear how they caught the virus. The CDC said none of the seven people were in contact with pigs, which is how people usually catch swine flu. And only a few were in contact with each other.
In exchange for votes to pass a controversial global warming package, Democratic leaders are offering some lawmakers generous emission “allowances” to protect their districts from the economic pain of pollution restrictions. Rep. Gene Green, D-Texas, represents a district with several oil refineries, a huge source of greenhouse gas emissions. He also serves on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, which must approve the global warming plan backed by President Barack Obama.
A pregnant woman who was fleeing a bear when she was struck by a slow-moving car said she would honor the euthanized animal by giving her baby the middle name “Bear.” Ashley Swendsen, 26, said she thought the bear followed her more out of curiosity than malice because it kept a distance of about 10 feet Thursday morning on a hiking trail in northwestern Colorado Springs. As she ran, she thought, “If it was going to hurt me, it already would have.”
A rising number of U.S. border enforcement officers are being arrested on corruption charges as Mexican drug cartels look to bribes as a way to get around tougher enforcement, border officials say. Investigators arrested 21 U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers on corruption charges in the fiscal year that ended last September, up from eight in the previous 12 months, according to CBP. This year, 14 have been arrested. Since 2004, 84 officers have been arrested and 62 were convicted, says James Tomsheck, assistant commissioner for internal affairs at CBP, which is part of the Department of Homeland Security.
Quote of the day,
I contend that for a nation to try to tax itself into prosperity is like a man standing in a bucket and trying to lift himself up by the handle.
-Winston Churchill