1
U.S.
Coal Firm to Pay Record Penalty and Spend Millions on Water Cleanup in 5 States
Alpha Natural Resources and 66 of its subsidiaries agreed to reduce pollution from coal mines in Kentucky, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Virginia and West Virginia.
2
Opinion
Some Progress on Eating and Health
Let’s be thankful for the decline in obesity rates, curbs on food marketing and transparency in packaged food — and then let’s push for more.
3
Technology
Foreign Influx Gives Annual Tech Event an International Flavor
Many Silicon Valley companies aren’t making the trip to Austin, Tex., for the South by Southwest festival this year, but there are plenty of replacements from all over the globe.
4
N.Y. / Region
Infections Linked to Chinese Seafood Markets in New York
Health officials warned people to take precautions when handling raw fish after at least 30 people who bought seafood in Chinese markets contracted a rare skin infection.
5
Opinion
Time for David Samson to Go
The chairman of the Port Authority has too many troubling conflicts of interest to remain in the post.
6
N.Y. / Region
At Council Hearing, Calls for New York to Offer Homeless Children and Families More Aid
Advocates, service providers and council members pressed the city to firm up a proposal for a rent-subsidy program and to improve services for children.
7
Health
Rare Mutation Kills Off Gene Responsible for Diabetes
Pfizer and Amgen teamed to develop drugs to mimic the effect, though it may take a decade or more before it is available to the public.
8
Style
A Daughter, Her Dad, and the Debate Over Pricey Teen Volunteer Trips
Pippa Biddle, a 21-year-old who has gone on many international volunteer trips, thinks most of them are a waste of time. Should parents let their own teenagers go?
10
World
China Declares 'War Against Pollution'
Facing growing dissatisfaction from citizens about high pollution in China, the premier, Li Keqiang, declared in his work report Wednesday that the government he leads would “declare war” on pollution.
11
N.Y. / Region
New York Will Consider Nonlethal Ways to Reduce Swan Population
After a backlash over a plan to euthanize the state’s population of the invasive birds, the agency will revise its approach.
12
Opinion
College, the Great Unleveler
Is higher education actually making inequality worse?
"First, federal student aid has become less
effective in promoting opportunity. In the 1970s, the maximum Pell
grants for low-income students covered nearly 80 percent of costs at the
average four-year public university, but by 2013-14 they covered just
31 percent. Presidents beginning with Bill Clinton introduced costly new
tax policies to help with tuition, but these have failed to improve
access for the less well off.
Tax benefits do not assist the untaxed.
Second, state governments, burdened by the
growing cost of Medicaid, K-12 education and prisons, let higher
education funding dwindle. Spending per full-time public student fell by
an average of 26 percent in real terms between 1990-91 and 2009-10.
Besides raising tuition, public colleges have had to squeeze resources
at the schools themselves. For poorer students, graduating becomes all
the harder as class sizes grow, online courses proliferate and support
services are cut.
Cutting taxes means cutting services. Public Colleges are easy to cut.
Third, Congress, by loosening regulations,
permitted for-profit colleges to thrive on the government’s dime. These
schools, which enroll nearly a tenth of college students, use nearly a
quarter of federal student aid dollars allocated through Title IV of the
Higher Education Act of 1965, and they account for nearly half of all
student loan defaults. A 1998 rule allows them to gain up to 90 percent
of their revenues from Title IV alone — a figure that does not include
their substantial use of military education money. Even during the 2008
financial downturn, the top publicly traded for-profits enjoyed growth.
Their upper management and shareholders benefit at the expense of
American taxpayers and students."
13
Opinion
Billion Dollar Babies
An oligarch here. An oligarch there. Here an oligarch. There an oligarch. Everywhere an oligarch.
14
U.S.
Lewis Yablonsky, 89, Sociologist Who Learned From the Streets, Is Dead
A rough childhood in Newark informed his academic work, which combined analysis, experiential research and sometimes direct, unconventional efforts to solve social problems.
15
U.S.
Computer Searches at Center of Dispute on C.I.A. Detentions
An office is at the center of an escalating fight between the spy agency and its congressional overseers, and an investigation by the C.I.A.’s inspector general.
16
Sports
Syracuse Falls Again; Florida Rolls
The Orange have now lost four of their past five games after reeling off 25 straight victories.| 2:00 PM ET | ESPN3 |
17
U.S.
Workers at Nuclear Waste Site in New Mexico Inhaled Radioactive Materials
Thirteen night-shift workers at a burial site for nuclear weapons waste were affected, but how serious the risk was to their long-term health was uncertain.
"“Right
now we have one single data point; there was one reading,” Mr. Franco
said at a news conference in Carlsbad, explaining that more readings
were necessary. Sensors in the salt mine detected a leak at about 11:30
p.m. on Feb. 14. At that hour, no one was in the mine, and automatic
systems reduced the ventilation and ran the exhaust through high
efficiency particulate filters, officials said, minimizing the flow of
materials to the surface.
The
next morning, after officials realized that the surface was
contaminated, they told the workers at the site to “shelter in place,”
and all were scanned for external radioactive materials before they were
sent home; no contamination was found. The mine has not been operating
since then."
Paranoia rules.
18
World
Court Setback for Mexican Drug Kingpin
A Mexican judge has denied the drug kingpin Joaquín (El Chapo) Guzmán Loera an injunction against any extradition to the United States.
19
U.S.
Back in Spotlight, Christie Offers G.O.P. Subtle Advice
At the Conservative Political Action Conference, Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey urged the Republican Party to broaden its electoral appeal.
20
Opinion
On Persecution
Intolerance, pluralism, and the places in the between.
1
Automobiles
Automakers Talk Optimistically About Electric Cars in Geneva
Although automakers are no longer overtly bullish about electric car sales, new models like the BMW i3 show potential for success in the segment.Health
A Powerful New Way to Edit DNA
A technique is stirring excitement while raising profound questions.
4
N.Y. / Region
Man in Subway Is Injured in Antigay Attack, Police Say
The police said a man yelling homophobic slurs on a subway platform in Greenwich Village asked a couple if they were gay, and then punched one of the men.
5
World
Spain Struggles to Halt Migrants at Two Enclaves
Spain’s interior minister said the growing number of people trying to enter the country’s African enclaves was a problem for all of Europe.
6
U.S.
Heroin Scourge Overtakes a ‘Quaint’ Vermont Town
Bennington exudes an early American gentility, but the 21st century drug scourge is evident in the faces of some of the young people hanging out on Main Street.
9
Business Day
Bond Market in China May See First Local Default
A small solar company in Shanghai has said it is unlikely to meet a Friday deadline for an annual interest payment owed to investors.
"The Shanghai Chaori Solar Energy Science and
Technology Company, which makes solar cells and panels, failed to meet a
Friday deadline to make an annual interest payment on a bond of 1
billion renminbi, or $163 million, that it sold to domestic investors in
2012, a company official said on Friday.
The bond “is confirmed to be in default,” the
official, Liu Tielong, the secretary to the board at Chaori, said
Friday in a telephone interview.
Mr. Liu said the situation had not changed
from Tuesday, when Chaori said in a stock exchange announcement that it
had come up with only about 4 million renminbi out of the 89.8 million
renminbi payment due on Friday. The company did not plan to comment
further, he added.
Other recent cases in which Chinese companies
came close to defaulting on debt or other payments were averted at the
last minute, usually with government intervention.
That no 11th-hour bailout emerged for Chaori
or its investors was viewed by analysts as a signal that the Chinese
leadership is serious in its commitment to carrying out a
market-oriented financial overhaul.
Chaori’s default represents “a wake-up call
for China’s bond market,” analysts at Moody’s Investors Service wrote on
Friday in a research note. They said the development would help China
“introduce greater market discipline and advance the development of a
risk-based bond market, in which pricing reflects the underlying credit
risk.”
China’s domestic bond market has grown from
nearly nothing a decade ago into the world’s third-biggest corporate
debt market, after those in the United States and Japan. Total corporate
bonds outstanding rose to 8.5 trillion renminbi at the end of last
year, from about 500 billion renminbi at the end of 2005, according to
the official figures compiled by the Asian Development Bank."
10
U.S.
GTT ★
Our quirky, discerning picks for the most interesting things to do around the state this week.
11
U.S.
Idaho: Film Document of Animal Abuse Is Banned
Gov. C. L. (Butch) Otter on Friday signed a bill threatening anyone who secretly films animal abuse at agricultural facilities with a year in jail and a $5,000 fine.
12
N.Y. / Region
Arrests of Panhandlers and Peddlers on Subways Triple Under Bratton
The statistics represent some of the sharpest increases in enforcement under Police Commissioner William J. Bratton, who took office in January.
13
Opinion
Time for David Samson to Go
The chairman of the Port Authority has too many troubling conflicts of interest to remain in the post.
14
Opinion
Billion Dollar Babies
An oligarch here. An oligarch there. Here an oligarch. There an oligarch. Everywhere an oligarch.
15
Opinion
Video: Chinese, on the Inside
Catie and Kimberly were adopted from China by a couple from Maine, who attempt to pass on a culture they've never known firsthand.
16
World
Israel Says It Seized Ship in Red Sea With Load of Iranian Rockets Headed to Gaza
Israeli commandos boarded the ship in international waters as it headed to Port Sudan.
17
18
Opinion
After the Veto
The corporate identity of new claimants to religious protection is troubling when the Supreme Court seems intent on enhancing corporate power.
19
Automobiles
Wheelies: The Mulally’s Millions Edition
Ford rewards its chief executive’s 2013 performance with $13.8 million in stock; Miami investors buy the Nürburgring for $90 million.
20
Your Money
No comments:
Post a Comment