December 14, 2013

Catholic school fires gay teacher, drawing protest

Administrators at a Roman Catholic high school suffered a sharp and swift backlash this week after firing a well-liked teacher who sought to marry his same-sex partner.

Educators said they had no choice, but thousands have protested the move through Facebook groups and petitions demanding that Michael Griffin be rehired at Holy Ghost Preparatory School. Some alumni have pledged to withhold financial support.

Caught in the middle are people who say Griffin should have known he was jeopardizing his job by publicizing his plan to wed, as well as those who worry the negative publicity is unfairly labeling the Bensalem school as intolerant.

"It is a shame that the students and faculty are being painted a certain way, because it is apparent with the amount of support Mr. Griffin has received, this is not the popular mentality," said 2012 alum Rob Blackwell.

http://www.sfgate.com/news/us/article/Catholic-school-fires-gay-teacher-drawing-protest-5061781.php

December 14, 2013

SF Missing hospital patient death autopsy results..

Dehydration, delirium cited in Lynne Spalding's death

The San Francisco General Hospital patient who vanished from her bed and was later found dead in a hospital stairwell succumbed to a lethal combination of apparent dehydration and liver problems related to chronic alcoholism, the city medical examiner said Friday.

The autopsy report for 57-year-old Lynne Spalding, who disappeared 17 days before her body was discovered in the little-used stairwell near her room on Oct. 8, does not reveal exactly when she died, saying only that she "was deceased for some days before being found."

But it ruled out foul play. The manner of death was listed as an "accident."

The cause of death was listed as a "probable electrolyte imbalance with delirium" because of "complications of chronic ethanolism." Experts said electrolyte imbalance can be brought on by a lack of water or liver problems, or both.

The medical examiner said Spalding's body showed no signs of head wounds or other trauma that would have caused her to lose consciousness.

http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Dehydration-delirium-cited-in-Lynne-Spalding-s-5063065.php

December 14, 2013

Congress triples Obama’s request on defense cooperation with Israel

The final version of the congressional defense budget triples the Obama administration’s request for funding for joint U.S.-Israel defense cooperation.

The $284 million in the budget released jointly on Dec. 10 by the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate budget committees – up from the $96 million requested by the Obama administration – includes funding for the Arrow long-range anti-missile system and the David’s Sling and Iron Dome missile defense systems.

The full National Defense Authorization Act for 2014 is virtually assured passage.

Defense cooperation funding, to which Israel contributes, is separate from the $3.1 billion Israel receives in defense assistance as part of a 10-year package.

Separately, the House on Wednesday passed a bill by a 399-0 vote that would enhance the U.S. commitment to Israel’s qualitative military edge in the region. The bill, initiated by Reps. Doug Collins (R-Ga.) and Brad Schneider (D-Ill.), increases the frequency that the president must report to Congress on the maintenance of Israel’s advantage from every four years to every two years. It also adds requests for reports on cyber security and asymmetric warfare.

Additionally, the House Energy and Commerce Committee approved legislation that would create a strategic energy partnership between Israel and the United States.

The measure, referred to the full House on Dec. 10, amends the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 and is designed to strengthen collaboration between Israel and the United States on energy development.


Read more: http://www.jta.org/2013/12/12/news-opinion/united-states/house-energy-committee-approves-cooperation-bill

December 13, 2013

Mexico passes landmark oil reform: boon or bane? (+video)

Source: Christian Science Monitor

An oil industry overhaul approved by Mexico's Congress portends massive changes for the country's iconic national oil industry – and potentially a boost for the economy.

The bill, approved overnight, would promote foreign investment and allow private companies to explore and exploit petroleum deposits – tasks previously reserved for Petróleos Mexicanos, or Pemex, as the state oil agency is known. agency is known. It must be ratified by state assemblies, approval that is expected.

Energy reform has been enthusiastically supported by international investors and Mexico’s business class, who are expected to sink billions into an industry lacking the capital and outside expertise to develop promising shale gas projects and drill in the deep waters of the Gulf of Mexico. President Enrique Peña Nieto argues the reform will lead to lower prices for ordinary Mexicans, create jobs, and reverse declines in Mexico’s dwindling reserves – all while keeping state control over the petroleum.

But opponents, including former presidential candidate Andrés Manuel López Obrador, call the measure “treasonous,” as state ownership of oil has come to symbolize sovereignty and self-respect for many Mexicans, who consider oil nationalization in 1938 a seminal moment in making the modern Mexico. Stories of past privatizations as failing to provide promised improvements pose a further challenge to acceptance.






Read more: http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Americas/2013/1212/Mexico-passes-landmark-oil-reform-boon-or-bane-video

December 13, 2013

Mega Millions jackpot surges to $425 million for tonight's drawing

Mega Millions could bestow its second-largest payout in jackpot history Friday after swelling to $425 million, lottery officials said.

Ticket sales for the jackpot have surged across the nation since Wednesday to generate a possible $60 million to $90 million in sales before winning numbers are announced at 8 p.m. PST, said Alex Traverso, a spokesman for the California Lottery.

Mega Millions is offered in 43 states, Washington, D.C., and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

The largest jackpot so far this year went to a family in Maryland who won $189 million in October.


http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-mega-millions-jackpot-friday-drawing-20131213,0,2406355.story#ixzz2nOLve1ql

December 13, 2013

Electric vehicle owners get charged up over poor manners at the ‘pump’

As of September, there were roughly 11,500 plug-in electric vehicles in the Bay Area. They come with standard owner manuals, but no Emily Post books on “EV Charging Etiquette.” Meanwhile, electric vehicle charging stations are multiplying at a fast rate across San Mateo and Santa Clara counties.

So, call these next-level first-world problems, but complaints like Papadogonas’s aren’t isolated. Though almost cultish in their support of the electric car community, EV owners are bristling at being unplugged or having to unplug other idle, fully charged cars. Even worse is finding their spots snatched up by non-EV drivers.

Compounding the problem, industry insiders say, is a lack of standardization when it comes to the indicator lights that let people know the car doesn’t need any more juice.

Some feel there’s an implicit hierarchy involving non-EVs, hybrid EVs and “pure” EVs. Non-EV drivers shouldn’t ever park in charging spots, they say, whereas hybrid drivers could always “top off” at a regular ol’ gas station.

“Please don’t park your MS in an EVSE parking spot unless you need to charge,” a online commenter pleaded in a Tesla-related forum last month, referring to Tesla’s Model S. “On several occasions I’ve seen an MS taking up an EVSE parking spot without charging. I even informed a MS owner that it was discourteous…his response was, ‘but these are the best parking spots.’”

http://blog.sfgate.com/inthepeninsula/2013/12/13/electric-vehicle-etiquette/

December 13, 2013

Iran quits nuclear talks protesting US blacklist move

Source: AFP

Iran has quit nuclear talks with world powers, accusing Washington on Friday of going against the spirit of a landmark agreement reached last month by expanding its sanctions blacklist.

US Secretary of State John Kerry and a spokesman for EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, who represents the major powers in the talks, both played down the suspension and said talks were expected to resume soon.

But Iran's chief nuclear negotiator Abbas Araqchi said the US move went against the spirit of the deal struck in Geneva under which the powers undertook to impose no further sanctions for six months.

Tehran was now weighing the "appropriate response", he said.


Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/iran-halts-nuclear-talks-us-blacklist-move-063122680.html?soc_src=mediacontentstory

---

"The blacklisting of a dozen additional foreign firms and individuals for evading US sanctions was widely seen as a way to head off moves in Congress to impose additional sanctions that would be in clear breach of the Geneva agreement."

December 13, 2013

San Francisco bicycle boom follows bike-friendly upgrades

It will come as little surprise to anyone who's seen the river of riders flowing along Market Street during commute hours that an annual census shows bicycling continues to boom in San Francisco.

The number of people riding bikes has increased 14 percent since 2011 and 96 percent since 2006. That's the conclusion of the 2013 bicycle count taken by the Municipal Transportation Agency in September and released Thursday.

"We are seeing more and more people riding a bicycle in San Francisco every day," Mayor Ed Lee said in a statement, "and the latest bicycle count data confirms what we are seeing on our streets."

The sharp increase in transportation by bike coincides with a surge in improvements - from parking "corrals" to bike lanes, sometimes with green pavement and protective barriers - around the city. It's all part of an effort to boost the percentage of trips taken by bike to reduce driving, pollution and crowding on Muni.

As part of the transportation agency's plan to get half of San Francisco's travelers to rely on something other than cars to get around, the city is counting on a continuing surge in cycling. A draft version of the bicycling strategy calls for increasing the 2012 estimate of bicycles accounting for 3.5 percent of all trips taken to a 2018 goal of 8 to 10 percent. A separate citywide survey is being conducted to calculate how people take trips around the city.


http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/San-Francisco-bicycle-boom-follows-bike-friendly-5060338.php

December 13, 2013

UN Inspectors Confirm Syria Chemical Attack

Source: AP

Chemical weapons were probably used in four locations in Syria this year, in addition to the confirmed attack near Damascus in August that forced the government to abandon its secret chemical stockpile, U.N. inspectors have said.

In a report released Thursday, the experts, led by Swedish professor Ake Sellstrom, examined seven alleged chemical weapons attacks and said it lacked information to corroborate the allegations at two locations.

The inspectors' limited mandate barred them from identifying whether the government or opposition fighters were responsible for any of the attacks.

Thursday's report said evidence indicated chemical weapons were probably used in Khan al Assal outside Aleppo, Jobar in Damascus' eastern suburbs, Saraqueb near Idlib in the northwest, and Ashrafiah Sahnaya in the Damascus countryside. In two cases, it found "signatures of sarin."


Read more: http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/chief-report-syria-chemical-weapons-21199034

---

Specifically forbidden by their mandate, they were unable to establish conclusively that the rebels fired these weapons as has been previously reported.

December 13, 2013

Nature is awesome.

126 images combined to show the massiveness of a 3,200 year old tree in the Sequoia National Park.