Politics & Diplomacy
Hashimoto to retract sex suggestion for U.S. military
Osaka Mayor Toru Hashimoto aims to retract his remark that U.S. servicemen in Okinawa should use its adult entertainment industry to avoid committing sex offenses.
Lifestyle Apr 16, 2013
Blossom Queen ritual becomes an education
by Emily Wax
Adjusting her cupcake-size replica of a Mikimoto gold-and-pearl crown and gliding through a downtown Washington hotel lobby in her white sash, Taylor Barfield offers her business card with a knowing grin: “First African-American United States Cherry Blossom Queen,” it reads. “Sorry if I’m groggy ...
Environment Feb 4, 2013
Composting food waste growing trend in America
Roy Derrick maneuvered his forklift with a pallet of neatly boxed expired produce and flowers and dropped it into an industrial compactor at Safeway’s cavernous return center in Upper Marlboro, Maryland. As the compactor hummed, compressed food and floral scraps spilled through a chute ...
Environment Jan 17, 2013
Salazar departure leaves 'green' posts vacant in U.S.
Interior Secretary Ken Salazar announced Wednesday that he intends to resign, leaving the White House in exactly the same place it was four years ago: looking to fill the three most important environmental posts in the federal government. The Interior Department, the Environmental Protection ...
Environment Jan 13, 2013
Corn tech limited drought losses
Des Moines Iowa AP, BLOOMBERG The federal government on Friday released its final crop report for 2012, detailing heavy losses caused by the worst drought the U.S. has experienced since the 1950s. Much of the attention focused on corn, which is widely used as ...
Environment Jan 10, 2013
U.S. sizzled in record heat of '12
Last year marked the warmest year on record for the United States and was also the second most extreme ever, the U.S. government agency charged with monitoring weather events said Tuesday. A brutal combination of a widespread drought and a mostly absent winter pushed ...
Environment Jan 8, 2013
Drought may halt Mississippi trade
On one stretch of the Mississippi River, the U.S. Coast Guard has been reduced to playing traffic cop. For eight hours a day, shipping is allowed to move one way along the 290 km of river between St. Louis, Missouri, and Cairo, Illinois, depending ...
Environment Jan 5, 2013
Oil rig owner Transocean to pay $1.4 billion for 2010 BP spill
The owner of the drilling rig that exploded and led to the massive 2010 oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico will pay $1.4 billion in criminal and civil penalties, the Justice Department said Thursday. Transocean agreed to accept some responsibility for its role ...
Environment Jan 5, 2013
Oil rig owner Transocean to pay $1.4 billion for 2010 BP spill
The owner of the drilling rig that exploded and led to the massive 2010 oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico will pay $1.4 billion in criminal and civil penalties, the Justice Department said Thursday. Transocean agreed to accept some responsibility for its role ...