Former Texas Gov. Rick Perry kicked off his second presidential bid on Thursday with one distinction no other candidate in the field can claim: He's the only one running while under felony indictment.

Perry was indicted on abuse of power and coercion charges last August for threatening to veto funding for the state's public integrity unit, unless the Democratic district attorney leading the group resigned for driving while intoxicated.

The Republican and his lawyers maintain he acted lawfully as governor and have tried to get the case thrown out on Constitutional grounds. But those efforts have so far failed, meaning the unsuccessful 2012 candidate may be forced to take time away from town halls in Iowa for a courthouse in Austin, Texas.

Special prosecutor Michael McCrum recently wrote in a court filing that hundreds of pages of documents have been exchanged over the past nine months but "we are no closer to a resolution."

http://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2016-election/rick-perry-still-fighting-indictment-campaign-begins-n369841

He really is growing up into a beautiful cat - had no idea what he'd look like since I found him as a tiny kitten in a parking lot. He's still a little wild, not exactly a lap cat yet, LOL, but he's still less than a year old and I love him a lot, too...

Felix

I got to see them in concert back in the '80s on one of their reunion tours, and they were still just the best. When I was too young to be aware of such things, my mother was part of a group that ushered at one of their concerts when they performed locally, must have been in the early '60s, wish so much I could have been there!


Peter, Paul, and Mary: If I Had A Hammer, Civil Rights March on Washington DC, 1963

She really is just gorgeous! And she was so incredibly fortunate to have found you!

I also found a kitten under much the same circumstances. Last August I found a tiny kitten in a grocery store parking lot. They were doing construction there and I talked to some of the crew. They said he'd been there for a few days and they'd 'd tried to catch him, but he was determined. So I went back with help and he's currently getting into mischief right next to me. The vet said he was about seven weeks. He's growing up into a beautiful cat and I have no doubt your little one will be stunning!

Just what you need to keep your spirits up - along with the support from your friends on DU...


Felix

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Cleanup crews continued to mop up oil-stained beaches along California's Central Coast two weeks after an onshore underground pipeline ruptured, leaking thousands of gallons of crude into the Pacific.

The May 19 spill occurred along the same stretch of Santa Barbara County coast as the devastating oil platform blowout in 1969 that galvanized the environmental movement.

While the impacts of the latest spill have been far less severe, the episode has angered conservationists and residents who lived through the earlier disaster.

Here are some things to know about the oil spill and the aftermath:

More: http://www.usnews.com/news/us/articles/2015/06/01/things-to-know-about-the-california-oil-spill



FILE - This Friday, May 22, 2015 file photo shows signs marking the beach closed to fishing and harvesting while cleanup crews in the background shovel and rake contaminated sand into bags at El Capitan State Beach, north of Goleta, Calif. Two weeks after an underground pipeline broke on May 19, 2015, crews continued to clean up oil-covered beaches along California’ Central Coast. (AP Photo/Michael A. Mariant,File)

With its new flavor, Save Our Swirled, Ben & Jerry’s is urging fans to dig their spoons into climate change activism.

The flavor is a mix of raspberry ice cream, marshmallow and raspberry swirls, and dark and white fudge ice cream cones. But Save Our Swirled is also a flavor with a message: when you dig out a spoonful, the website says, “you can’t help but notice” that those cones appear to be melting. Abbreviated on pint lids as SOS, Save Our Swirled’s message is simple: If it’s melted, it’s ruined, whether it’s our ice cream or our world. The flavor launched earlier this week in the U.S., and will debut in European markets in the summer and move into Asian and Australian markets later in the year.

“The place where we interact with our consumers most is in the freezercase,” Chris Miller, Ben & Jerry’s Social Mission Activism Manager, told ThinkProgress. While the flavor is a central element, it is part of a “larger, global campaign” against climate change, Miller said.

That campaign is centered around the 2015 United Nations climate summit, to be held at the end of this year in Paris, France. Some of the countries where Ben & Jerry’s is most popular — such as the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Australia, Canada, and others — are countries that are going to be crucial in the talks. Miller said that wide fan base gives the company access to a powerful grassroots voice leading up to the 2015 talks.

http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2015/05/29/3663952/if-its-melted-its-ruined/



Ben & Jerry’s new flavor aims to inspire action towards climate justice.
CREDIT: BEN & JERRY’S

We all know what it’s like when our friends or family members go away on long trips and leave us behind. It’s a major bummer, and we all wait patiently for that day when they return home.

But you know what they say—absence makes the heart grows fonder, and reunions are awesome. We greet our fresh-off-the plane travelers at the airport or open the front door with open arms lay a great big embrace on our road-worn companions.

And that’s exactly how Jasper the cat reacts to seeing his dog friend Bow-Z after 10 days of being apart.

In a video uploaded to YouTube, the black cat just can’t contain his excitement as he jumps up and throws his paws around the dog and buries his face in the canine’s neck. Bow-Z’s tail wags and the dog allows his feline friend to hug him for a few minutes before trying to back away and get some breathing room.


http://www.pet360.com/dog/lifestyle/watch-cat-cant-stop-hugging-dog-after-10-days-apart/l1k9sVVpLEKE1hrpJ97AkA?utm_source=outbrain&utm_medium=PaidContent&utm_campaign=360-Articles&utm_content=WATCH-Cat-Cant-Stop-Hugging-Dog-After-10&extcid=PCDOB1

ALPINE, Texas — In late March, approximately 50 representatives from Energy Transfer, a Dallas-based energy company, stood smiling in a conference center in this small town, attempting to diffuse tensions with a community that has been largely resistant to a proposed pipeline planned for its backyard.

If completed as scheduled, the 143-mile Trans-Pecos pipeline would transport natural gas from West Texas all the way to the U.S.-Mexico border. On the way, it would pass through the Big Bend region of Texas, a rural area beloved for its natural beauty by tourists and residents. The energy company is hoping landowners will agree to a permanent 50-foot easement along the pipeline’s route so it can serve northern Mexico. It says it will pay the owners a fair market price in return. But while some welcome the promised compensation, a vocal group of ranchers and landowners have vowed to resist the pipeline and its potential use of eminent domain to take over their land — especially because such laws may not even apply to a pipeline that would serve residents of another country.

In the process, they’ve formed an unexpected partnership with a local environmentalist group, the Big Bend Conservation Alliance, or BBCA. While West Texas ranchers and environmentalists have rarely seen eye to eye, mostly because environmental regulations and endangered-species restrictions limit how ranchers can use their properties, they share a respect for the land. “We all agree that the land needs to be regarded a little more highly,” says Joel Nelson, manager of the Anchor cattle ranch, which the pipeline will traverse.

This part of Texas, home to Big Bend National Park and Big Bend Ranch State Park, is a popular tourist destination. “It’s kind of like the state’s backyard,” says David Keller, a BBCA steering committee member. Thanks to its famously dark night skies, the region is also home to the McDonald Observatory, the University of Texas’ astronomical-research facility. One common concern is that pipeline operations would disturb the area’s treasured peace and quiet. “This is the last great place in the state to enjoy quiet and dark skies,” says Florence Cox, whose home is near the pipeline route. “I moved to Alpine to get away from all that — and now they want to bring it here?”


http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2015/5/13/an-unlikely-alliance-in-texas-ranchers-and-environmentalists-fight-pipeline.html



Joel Nelson, second from right, the manager of the Anchor cattle ranch, speaking to local landowners opposed to the Trans-Pecos pipeline at a meeting hosted by the Big Bend Conservation Alliance. Jessica Lutz

Why is America's transportation system so outdated, why should we care, and what can we do about it? Rosabeth Moss Kanter offers a road map to roadway recovery in her new book, Move: Putting America's Infrastructure Back in the Lead.

Any highway commuter who has wasted hours stuck in traffic can see the cracks in the United States' transportation system, as can any airline passenger who has been stranded overnight in an airport. Yet while many agree that the need for infrastructure change is urgent, where is the sense of urgency to make these changes happen?

That's one of the questions Harvard Business School Professor of Business Administration Rosabeth Moss Kanter asks in her book published today, Move: Putting America's Infrastructure Back in the Lead.

"Given so many situations and factors that should arouse enormous concern, why is it so hard to secure public support for long-term infrastructure investments and get Congress to vote for them?" Kanter writes. "I think it's a structural issue. Silos, narrow interests, and fragmentation mute outrage. Perhaps we're stuck not only with aging infrastructure but also with obsolete ways of talking about it."

http://hbswk.hbs.edu/item/7705.html

Just 3 miles from the catastrophic BP spill in the Gulf of Mexico, a Louisiana company is seeking to unlock the same oil and natural gas that turned into a deadly disaster.

Drilling has begun in the closest work yet to the Macondo well, which blew wild on April 20, 2010, killing 11 people and fouling the Gulf with as much as 172 million gallons of crude in the nation’s worst oil spill. Federal regulators gave their blessing last month to LLOG Exploration Offshore LLC. to drill the first new well in the same footprint where BP was digging before.

The resumption of drilling at the former BP site comes as the oil industry pushes into ever deeper and riskier reservoirs in the Gulf. It reflects renewed industry confidence — even as critics say not enough has been done to ensure another disaster is avoided.

http://peakoil.com/enviroment/drilling-begins-3-miles-from-bp-oil-spill