California blast site wasn’t on utility watch list
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – The California site of a deadly gas pipeline explosion earlier this month was not on a “top 100″ watch list of pipelines monitored by Pacific Gas and Electric, utility executives said on Monday.
The September 9 explosion of a 30-inch steel pipeline ripped through the San Francisco suburb of San Bruno, killing four people, destroying 37 homes and causing hundreds to evacuate.
Analysis: California vote tests U.S. climate change agenda
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – California’s ambitious climate change agenda could evaporate in a November vote which pits renewable energy advocates and allies against oil companies and manufacturers.
The U.S. Senate has scuttled President Barack Obama’s goal of putting a price on carbon, the linchpin to cutting output of greenhouse gases, leaving state and regional efforts the key drivers trying to move the country past coal and oil.
Nevada eyes big political gamble
LAS VEGAS (Reuters) – Like many Nevadans, hairdresser Helen Elgas is trying to decide between the devil she knows and the devil she doesn’t, and the future of U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, hangs in the balance.
Sitting in the shade of a strip mall on West Sahara Avenue, miles from the casino towers that symbolize Las Vegas, Elgas is not happy with Reid. But she isn’t sure she can bring herself to vote for his challenger, former state assemblywoman Sharron Angle, either.
With chips down, Nevada eyes a big political gamble
LAS VEGAS, Sept 14 (Reuters) – Like many Nevadans,
hairdresser Helen Elgas is trying to decide between the devil
she knows and the devil she doesn’t, and the future of U.S.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, hangs in the balance.
Sitting in the shade of a strip mall on West Sahara Avenue,
miles from the casino towers that symbolize Las Vegas, Elgas is
not happy with Reid. But she isn’t sure she can bring herself
to vote for his challenger, former state assemblywoman Sharron
Angle, either.
Senate hopeful Fiorina says HP showed she’s tough
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Carly Fiorina, the former Hewlett-Packard Co (HPQ.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) chief executive running for the Senate, says she got a taste of the rough side of politics from the board members who fired her half a decade ago.
In challenging Democratic incumbent California Democrat Barbara Boxer, Fiorina is brandishing first and foremost her record as a business leader at one of Silicon Valley’s stars. She touts her deal-making smarts as she vows to cut spending and free up an economy strangled by regulation and taxation.
Elections, courts and California gay marriage
SAN FRANCISCO, Aug 26 (Reuters) – The future of gay
marriage in California is a confusing mix of politics and legal
arguments in a closely fought election year in the country’s
most populous state.
A federal judge early this month overturned the state’s
Proposition 8 ban on gay marriage, an appeals court is deciding
whether to allow an appeal, and candidates for governor and
attorney general in the November election are testing the
interest in making the issue a campaign centerpiece.
Sierra Club rates green schools
The Sierra Club has a new ranking of U.S. colleges and universities, and the greenest of them all is Vermont’s little Green Mountain College, which uses lots of cow-supplied biogas. The environmental group, which does an annual review, put more focus on energy sources this year, although it also gives points for water use, carpooling and more.
Big, deep-pocketed names like Stanford and Harvard are in the top 10, but many of the top-ranked are smaller colleges, like Dickinson in Pennsylvania. Evergreen State College, in Olympia, Washington, ranked third – maybe the name helped?
California gay marriage case hangs on technicality
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – The next stage of California’s gay marriage court battle rests on a procedural issue that could halt the case, leaving same-sex unions legal in California without a Supreme Court ruling to guide the nation.
A San Francisco federal judge struck down the California same-sex marriage ban known as Proposition 8 earlier this month, and the case was immediately appealed to the federal Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.
California gay marriage on hold as case appealed
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – A U.S. appeals court ruled on Monday that same-sex couples could not marry in California while the court considers the constitutionality of the state’s ban on gay marriage.
But the panel of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals set an aggressive schedule for the case, with briefings in the fall and a hearing the week of December 6.
Special Report: High finance and corporate pot, California style
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Jeff Wilcox, a middle-aged, clean-cut man who dresses in the Bay Area casual business attire of clean jeans, collared shirt and running shoes, may be the face of Marijuana, Inc, the corporatization of cannabis.
He has just persuaded Oakland to legalize industrial-sized marijuana farms, touting a study that promised millions in city taxes and hundreds of high-paying union jobs.
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