Friday, February 23, 2018

In the news, Sunday, January 28, 2018


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JAN 27      INDEX      JAN 29
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from The Spokesman-Review
Newspaper in Spokane, Washington

Koch-aligned group already prepping for next Supreme Court fight
There aren’t any openings on the Supreme Court, but that’s not stopping a major conservative group with ties to the billionaire Koch brothers from mobilizing for the next vacancy anyway. Americans for Prosperity has hired a vice president of judicial strategy who will spearhead the organization’s push for confirmation of a strict constructionist – someone who interprets the Constitution narrowly, avoiding what conservatives see as judicial activistm – when the next opening arises. It’s part of a broader commitment from the influential Koch network to spend heavily on judicial engagement in 2018, and it’s the organization’s most significant move on the issue this year.

The flu can kill tens of millions of people. In 1918, that’s exactly what it did.
The flu arrived as a great war raged in Europe, a conflict that would leave about 20 million people dead over four years. In 1918, the flu would kill more than twice that number – and perhaps five times as many in just 15 months. Though mostly forgotten, it has been called “the greatest medical holocaust in history.” Experts believe between 50 million and 100 million people were killed. More than two-thirds of them died in a single 10-week period in the autumn of 1918. Never have so many died so swiftly from a single disease. In the United States alone, it killed about 675,000 in about a year – the same number who have died of AIDS in nearly 40 years.

Natural gas is energy’s new king – but how long will it reign?
King Coal has been kicked off the throne. Natural gas is now the nation’s leading source of electricity. It is abundant and cheap, which has not only crippled the coal industry but has also affected virtually every other source of power that makes up the energy grid. Some have estimated that the U.S. has enough natural gas to meet the country’s energy needs for about 200 years. But “King Gas” has its critics – especially among environmentalists – and California’s fast-changing energy landscape offers hints that a long, smooth reign for natural gas is far from assured.

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