I am an Environmental Health and Safety Professional, as well as a science/technical writer for a variety of news and professional publications. I have been a citizen activist since 2009, and am one of the co-founders of the San Diego-based group, Southern California Tax Revolt Coalition.
Brace Yourselves: Winter is Coming!...
Syed Rizwan Farook and Tashfeen Malik, who opened fire on a San Bernardino holiday party earlier this month, were buried Tuesday in a quiet, graveside funeral. Many of those who attended mosque with the couple refused to attend, two mosque members said. ...The funeral followed traditional Islamic rituals, said an attendee. At a Muslim cemetery hours away from San Bernardino, the bodies were cleansed according to Islamic rules, wrapped in white cloth and buried.Those attending the funeral at a graveyard some distance from San Bernardino are keeping the location of the burials under wraps, fearing the graves would be desecrated.
All Los Angeles Unified School District schools were closed Tuesday until further notice after LAUSD received a "credible threat," according to school district officials and police.
Divers recovered items from a lake in San Bernardino, Calif., where a couple who killed 14 at a nearby regional center Dec. 2 possibly dumped evidence on the day of their shooting spree, according to various media accounts,
In a landmark move, 195 nations agreed Saturday evening to adopt an historic pact to halt global warming that for the first time asks all countries to reduce or rein in their greenhouse gas emissions. ...In the “Paris agreement,” countries commit to keeping average global temperatures from rising another degree Celsius (1.8 Fahrenheit) between now and 2100, a key demand of poor countries ravaged by rising sea levels and other effects of climate change. They are also committed to limiting the amount of greenhouse gases emitted by human activity to the same levels that trees, soil and oceans can absorb naturally, beginning at some point between 2050 and 2100.Yet, this landmark pact has no mechanism to punish countries that don’t or can’t contribute toward that goal.
An FBI dive team was searching a lake Thursday near the site of the terror attack in San Bernardino, California -- a spot where investigators were told the shooters spent time. The FBI would not discuss the specific evidence it was looking for, but said it was seeking "anything that had to do" with the shooting. ....The investigators appear to be combing an area near the shallow edge of the lake. The water is so murky that divers cannot actually see through it, so they are largely feeling their way through.Investigators had received indications through leads that at some point they came to this park, though they didn't specify exactly what was being sought when reporters queried them.
Gov. Jerry Brown, at the conclusion of a speech here Tuesday, was heckled by a group of protesters opposed to carbon offset programs they said could hurt indigenous people. Brown, accompanied by several South American governors at a 19th century mansion in Paris, had finished brief remarks urging further efforts to counteract climate change when protesters started yelling, “No REDD.” The acronym is used by The Governors’ Climate and Forest Task Force, of which California is a part, to describe programs to promote reduced emissions from deforestation and land use. California officials have considered ways to link the state’s cap-and-trade program, in which polluters pay to offset carbon emissions, to tropical rainforests in Chiapas, Mexico and Acre, Brazil. Outside the venue, Tom Goldtooth of the Indigenous Environmental Network said that such a system could prevent indigenous people from working on their land.
Funeral services [were] held Friday for Nohemi Gonzalez, the 23-year-old Cal State Long Beach student who was killed in terrorist attacks that killed 129 people in Paris Nov. 13. Gonzalez, of El Monte, died while eating with friends at a popular bistro in Paris called La Belle Equipe. A senior majoring in industrial design, she was one of 17 CSULB students attending Strate College of Design in Paris as part of a semester abroad program. She died in the coordinated attacks that erupted at the cafe, a soccer stadium and, most notably, at the Bataclan theater where a Palm Desert-based band was performing.The loss of such a young woman, filled with talent and life, is horrific. So, too, is the loss of the 14 Californians at the hands of a couple they had befriended.
"The San Bernardino, California, mass shooting is now being investigated as "an act of terrorism," FBI official David Bowdich said Friday. Bowdich said the FBI "uncovered evidence ... of extreme planning."
San Bernardino Police Chief Jarrod Burguan said investigators had not determined a motive for the shooting, in which 17 people were wounded. But an official at the FBI, which is working with local agencies, said he could not rule out terrorism as a motive.
Congress voted to block EPA carbon rules for power plants Tuesday, dealing a symbolic blow to President Barack Obama's climate change agenda just as he returns from a landmark summit in Paris. While the move will not stop the regulations at the heart of Obama's pledge to drastically cut U.S. emissions, Republicans hope they can show other world leaders that the president's successor may be unwilling to follow through on that commitment. “We want the world to know that there is disagreement with the president on this issue," said Rep. Ed Whitfield (R-Ky.), who chairs the House Energy and Power Subcommittee and helped lead the push. The House adopted two Senate-passed resolutions blocking EPA rules that apply to new and existing power plants, but the White House has already promised that Obama will veto them. The president returns to Washington Tuesday evening after attending the first two days of the United Nations negotiations in Paris aimed at producing a new global agreement to limit carbon emissions and help poor countries cope with the effects of climate change.And while Congress may not have the votes to overcome a veto, its confirms the enormity of the failure of Obama and his plans related to the ongoing UN Climate Conference.
Obama sang from the same hymnal on Monday, telling an assembly of world leaders that a future of environmental devastation 'is one that we have the power to change right here right now but only if we rise to this moment,' according to a White House press pool report. 'I've come here personally as the leader of the world's largest economy and the second largest emitter to say that the United States of America … embraces its responsibility to do something about it.After deriding American productivity and lifestyle choices, he headed out with the other big government elites to a"three-Michelin-starred temple of gastronomie in the Marais neighborhood" for a...working dinner!
Public demonstrations are banned in France under the state of emergency that was declared after the Paris terrorist attacks two week ago, in which 130 people were killed. Green groups have described the move as "an abuse of power" but the French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said the activists were suspected of planning violent protests.
Now he is targeting weapons makers for global strife....
NPR's Leila Fadel reports that a spokesman for Tunisia's Interior Ministry said at least 11 people were killed in the attack and 17 others were wounded. The state of emergency will last for 30 days and an overnight curfew is also in place until tomorrow morning local time. ...In March, militants opened fire on tourists inside the Bardo Museum, killing 24 people. And in June, a lone gunman killed more than three dozen tourists at a beach resort. The country also imposed a state of emergency after that attack, which was lifted last month, the Associated Press reports. The news service adds that Tunisia's president has declared "war" against terrorism and urged international cooperation in fighting it.More via LipTV:
“Next week, I will be joining President Hollande and world leaders in Paris for the global climate conference,” Obama said during his prepared remarks, which focused mostly on the efforts to fight the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS). “What a powerful rebuke to the terrorists it will be, when the world stands as one and shows that we will not be deterred from building a better future for our children,” he added.
