FINANCIAL TIMES: A landmark “right to be forgotten” ruling against Google in Europe risks damaging the next generation of internet start-ups and strengthening the hand of repressive governments looking to restrict online communications, Larry Page, the search company’s chief executive officer, has warned.
Month: May 2014
Drugs and prostitution add £10bn to UK economy
FINANCIAL TIMES: Prostitutes and drug dealers are set to give Britain a £10bn boost as the country revamps the way it measures its economy. Britain said on Thursday it would include prostitution and illegal drugs in its official national accounts for the first time. The move is one of the changes planned for September that […]
U.S. Economy Shrinks For The First Time In 3 Years
HUFFINGTON POST / REUTERS: The U.S. economy contracted in the first quarter for the first time in three years as it buckled under the weight of a severe winter, but there are signs activity has since rebounded. The Commerce Department on Thursday revised down its growth estimate to show gross domestic product shrinking at a […]
State-owned forests already host plenty of gas drilling
HARARISBURG PATRIOT-NEWS Editorial: …More huge trucks will travel up and down state forest roads to deliver drilling equipment. When it’s time to hydraulically fracture the wells, which breaks loose the gas, more convoys of trucks will haul in the 5 million gallons of water that each of the wells typically requires. Even if drillers cut […]
Capitolwire: Hybrid pension proposal could save PA pension plans more than $11 billion, says employee retirement commission.
If pension reform happens during the current legislative session, it appears as though it’s going to take the form of a hybrid pension proposal the Public Employee Retirement Commission on Wednesday said could save the state’s pension plans more than $11 billion during the next 30 years.
Obama Warns U.S. Faces Diffuse Terrorism Threats
NEW YORK TIMES: …Speaking at the commencement of the United States Military Academy, [President] Obama disputed critics who say his cautious response to crises like Syria’s civil war and Russian aggression toward Ukraine had eroded America’s leadership in the world.
Obama to Host Concussions Meeting
NEW YORK TIMES: President Obama on Thursday will seek to elevate a national conversation about the dangers of sports-related concussions, especially among children and other young athletes, by pushing for more medical research and more money spent on public awareness campaigns. The president will host a daylong summit at the White House that will include […]
Moscow tested as Abkhazian president flees amid protests
FINANCIAL TIMES: A spasm of political upheaval in Abkhazia has forced Moscow to shift its attention from the Ukraine crisis to the Caucasus statelet it has kept afloat since the 2008 Georgia war. Thousands gathered in the centre of the Abkhazian capital Sukhumi on Tuesday protesting against corruption and economic stagnation. They later stormed and […]
U.S. Navy official says ‘pings’ unlikely from missing Malaysia jet: CNN
EDITOR: While on a cruise a week ago, we met over dinner a recently retired Australian aviation consultant and his wife.
When we asked if he had any views about the Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 disaster, he told us the cause of the crash was the same as one that had occurred a decade earlier with a Malaysian airline.
PDCVB Votes to Support the Updated Convention Center Financing Plan Collaboration Agreement
“I greatly appreciate the continued support of PDCVB and its’ members,” stated Commissioner Martin. “It is important that this plan, which addresses 7 years of revenues and 7 years of expenditures and provides a bridge of financial stability as we await the opportunity to establish a long term plan in the future, is supported and adopted by all the stakeholders.”
China and Vietnam Point Fingers After Clash in South China Sea
NEW YORK TIMES: Tensions in the South China Sea escalated sharply on Tuesday as China and Vietnam traded accusations over the sinking of a Vietnamese fishing vessel in the vicinity of a Chinese oil rig parked in disputed waters off Vietnam’s coast… In the latest incident, a Chinese vessel rammed and sank a Vietnamese fishing […]
LETTER: People need to be thinking about how our 200+ year Constitution needs updating.
A series of Supreme Court decisions (you mention Citizen’s United, but that is just one) have made it impossible to control money in politics without a constitutional amendment or the Supreme Court reversing a long line of cases.
Philly Deals: Landlords unite on master plan to develop University City (John Fry is at it again.)
The 30th and Market area will link “Philadelphia’s business center with its intellectual heart in University City,” Drexel president John Fry said in a statement.
Snowden: I was a trained spy, not just a hacker
USATODAY Edward Snowden says he’s more than just a hacker or systems administrator, as the Obama administration and media have portrayed him. He worked undercover for the CIA and the National Security Agency. “I was trained as a spy in sort of the traditional sense of the word, in that I lived and worked undercover […]