NewsTrust - All Rated Stories

Giant vortex of floating trash swirls in Pacific

Tue, 04 Aug 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Seattle Times - By Paul Rogers - Aug. 04 (Special Report) - Hoping to learn more about one of the most glaring examples of waste and environmental pollution on Earth, a group of scientists will set sail from San Francisco today to the "Great Pacific Garbage Patch," a massive vortex of floating plastic trash estimated by some researchers to be twice the size of Texas.

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Critics can't resist one last Bush-bashing

Wed, 07 Jan 2009 00:00:00 -0800

San Jose Mercury News - By Dana Hull - Jan. 07 (News Report) - Eddy Sheldon hates George W. Bush so much, he's throwing the president a party. He figures it's the best way to celebrate the conclusion of one of the nation's most unpopular presidencies, or as Bush critics are calling it, the "end of an error."

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California gets dire warning on global warming

Fri, 14 Nov 2008 00:00:00 -0800

San Jose Mercury News - By Matt Nauman - Nov. 14 (Special Report) - Roads and bridges, the water supply, agriculture, public health and even winter skiing all will be affected by global climate change, said the report by University of California-Berkeley agricultural and resource economics professors David Roland-Holst and Fredrich Kahrl. The report said damage could reach many billions of dollars per year. In real estate alone, up to $2.5 trillion of the state's $4 trillion worth of homes and other buildings are at risk from rising sea levels, wildfires and other extreme weather events occurring as the world gets warmer, it said.

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Nurses strike over benefits, break time, safe lifting

Sat, 22 Mar 2008 00:00:00 -0700

San Jose Mercury News - By Sandy Kleffman - Mar. 22 (News Report) - The dispute centers around meal and break relief, safe lifting policies, and health and retirement benefits, union leaders say. Mary Ann Voellinger, a supervisory nurse who has worked in Eden's emergency room for 22 years, said there were three days last week when she did not get an afternoon break because there was no one to relieve her. The hospital will provide penalty pay in such situations, she said, but that does not help create a better atmosphere for patients.

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Bernanke's bailout for Wall Street puts taxpayers at risk

Wed, 19 Mar 2008 00:00:00 -0700

San Jose Mercury News - By Vindu Goel - Mar. 19 (Opinion) - Bailout Ben means well. He argues that saving banks is critical to the health of the broader economy, and he is using every tool at his command to prevent the credit markets from collapsing. But so far, the Fed's actions have provided only short-lived boosts to Wall Street. Ordinary folks haven't gotten much help at all, and may end up getting hurt. In addition to the risk that taxpayers could get stuck picking up the tab for Wall Street's bad loans, consumers are facing higher prices for everyday products and lower rates on their savings.

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Tom Lantos: The passing of a crusader

Tue, 12 Feb 2008 00:00:00 -0800

San Jose Mercury News - By Lisa Fernandez, Mark Gomez - Feb. 12 (News Report) - ...in Washington, D.C., [[Rabbi Steve] Gutow and Lantos were arrested for trespassing, handcuffed, put into a van and briefly jailed after protesting outside the Sudanese embassy against the current genocide in Darfur. "I ...saw something deep, sort of haunting...Here's a man ...so willing to open himself up, and in some ways, relive what had happened to him during the Holocaust, you know, shoved into a van like that.." Ro Khanna, 31, ran against Lantos in the 2004 Democratic primary"The day after...he invited me for breakfast and said, 'Young man,... Don't quit on yourself. Keep building your Indo-American base.' "

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Darwinian tech world makes lagging Yahoo ripe for harvesting

Mon, 04 Feb 2008 00:00:00 -0800

San Jose Mercury News - By John Boudreau, Mike Antonucci - Feb. 04 (News Analysis) - After just 14 years in which it helped launch the Internet age, Yahoo has hit "middle age" and faces the fate of many other iconic Silicon Valley companies, becoming takeover bait.

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How Silicon Valley could become the Detroit of electric cars

Thu, 08 Nov 2007 12:00:14 -0800

San Jose Mercury News - By Matt Nauman - Nov. 08 (Special Report) - "In the valley, we know how to do technology disruption. We know how to do business models, how to develop proof of concept and get it adopted around the world," he said. Others, even those enthusiastic about the potential of electric cars, are uncertain about how much success start-ups such as Agassi's Better Place and Tesla Motors of San Carlos can have against the huge global auto industry. General Motors and Toyota, for instance, each Advertisement produced more than 9 million vehicles in 2006.

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Boxer to introduce airline passengers' bill of rights

Sat, 17 Feb 2007 17:29:39 -0800

San Jose Mercury News - By Michael Martinez - Feb. 17 (News Report) - One day after hundreds of passengers were stranded on JetBlue flights for up to 11 hours, U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer said she plans to introduce legislation in the Senate for a passengers' bill of rights. A spokesman in Boxer's Washington office said Boxer is working with Rep. Mike Thompson, D-St. Helena, who is drafting legislation for the House following a similar incident in December.

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Bright idea? Bill to ban old bulbs

Wed, 31 Jan 2007 00:06:51 -0800

MediaNews - By Kate Folmar - Jan. 31 (News Report) - SACRAMENTO - It soon may be lights out for the traditional light bulb in California. Assemblyman Lloyd Levine, D-Van Nuys, is proposing that the Golden State become the first to ban sales of incandescent light bulbs by 2012. In their place, Californians would purchase more energy-efficient compact fluorescent lamps. Those are the spiral-shaped bulbs that cost more upfront but save money and energy over the long haul. Switching light bulbs is an idea that environmentalists have long supported. But getting consumers to embrace change has been slow going. Banning energy-intensive incandescents ``saves consumers money, saves the state money and saves energy,'' said Levine, who calls his measure the ``How Many Legislators Does It Take to Change a Light Bulb Act.'' ``When a consumer is standing in a store and they're confronted with two different products, they generally opt for the one that is cheaper and the one they've traditionally bought,'' he said. ``The problem is: The one they think is cheaper is only cheap at that moment in time. The other one is cheaper over the long run.''

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Web news opposites

Thu, 28 Dec 2006 17:55:34 -0800

San Jose Mercury News - By Elise Ackerman - Dec. 28 (Special Report) - Two years ago, the inspiration for creating a Web site for news junkies hit two men with vastly different ambitions. One hoped to make boat-loads of money. The other dreamed of enriching American democracy by identifying trusted news sources hidden in the deluge of information available online. The latter turned out to be the tougher task. Fabrice Florin, a successful technologist and a veteran of Apple Computer, launched the beta version of NewsTrust.net last month after turning 50 and deciding it was time to give something back to society. Florin had founded three for-profit companies, but feared that if he focused on profits with NewsTrust ``the public interest would get cheated.'' So he raised a small amount of money from donors and funded the rest himself. Meanwhile, Kevin Rose, 27-year-old host of an obscure cable TV tech show, lost no time in launching Digg.com in October 2004. Rose's site lets people give a thumb's up or a thumb's down to stories other users had found on the Web and submitted to Digg.

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Getting behind Tesla's $100,000 wheel

Fri, 18 Aug 2006 20:07:21 -0700

San Jose Mercury News - By Matt Nauman - Aug. 18 (News Report) - Who killed the electric car, a summer documentary asks. It turns out it's alive and well: Tesla Motors of San Carlos has revived interest in the electric car with a new $100,000 roadster. Three hours behind the wheel Thursday in Tesla's first running prototype were convincing: The Silicon Valley start-up very likely will succeed in finding an audience for its fast, silent, environmentally friendly two-seater.

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