soon begin using a dozen Ford Transit Connect vans that run on natural gas instead of petroleum.
Taxi Medallion Management, which is affiliated with Yellow Cab Chicago, bought the small commercial vans as part of its goal to cut its total emissions by 25 percent,
Chicago taxi co. to use natural-gas powered cabs | Transportation | Crain's Chicago Business
Photos of President Obama released this week are prompting a feverish round of "does he or doesn't he" speculation about whether our commander in chief dyed his hair.
Click on the following for more details: http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_theticket/20110121/pl_yblog_theticket/is-obama-dyeing-his-hair
The difference [Chinese vs. Mexican wages]was about $1.50 to 40 cents (per hour) in 1996 and $3.50 to $3 now. Mexico is still more expensive, but not that much," Pascual said in an interview.
the maquiladora sector has shed hundreds of thousands of jobs since peaking at 1.3 million employees in October 2000, but Mexico is now catching up fast with China. U.S. imports from Mexico exceeded $168 billion through November, expanding by 35 percent over the past year, according to the U.S. International Trade Commission. Imports from China, meanwhile, were up nearly 24 percent to about almost $264 billion through November.
Bill Parisen is vice president for an international manufacturer that moved a California plant to Juarez, reaching full operation with 60 employees in July…Parisen said that none of the 71 Fortune 500 operations in Juarez was withdrawing, despite drug violence
"At work, you are safe," Hernandez [factory worker] said, now 22. "Outside, there's no control. No laws."
Click on the following for more details: Juarez maquiladoras recovering despite bloodshed - Forbes.com
Because the plan involves borrowing, it needs three-fifths of the Legislature to vote aye. That means Republicans who didn't support the tax increase would have to support borrowing.
plan to issue $8.75 billion in bonds to get social service providers, hospitals and others the money they are due was introduced at the same time as the tax increase, but the measure did not pass.
Without this component of the plan, school districts, social service providers, hospitals and other state vendors will continue to struggle for survival as we slowly climb out of this fiscal hole…
Unlike short-term borrowing, which requires the comptroller and the treasurer to give the OK, long-term bonds only need approval from the General Assembly and governor.
Topinka said she is trying to make it so she can pay bills incrementally. Currently, any receipt given to the state has to be paid in full, which has caused a lot of problems, Topinka said.
The Dimona complex in the Negev desert is famous as the heavily guarded heart of Israel’s never-acknowledged nuclear arms program, where neat rows of factories make atomic fuel for the arsenal.
Behind Dimona’s barbed wire, the experts say, Israel has spun nuclear centrifuges virtually identical to Iran’s at Natanz, where Iranian scientists are struggling to enrich uranium. They say Dimona tested the effectiveness of the Stuxnet computer worm, a destructive program that appears to have wiped out roughly a fifth of Iran’s nuclear centrifuges and helped delay, though not destroy, Tehran’s ability to make its first nuclear arms.
The reason the worm has been effective is that the Israelis tried it out….two major components. One was designed to send Iran’s nuclear centrifuges spinning wildly out of control. Another seems right out of the movies: The computer program also secretly recorded what normal operations at the nuclear plant looked like, then played those readings back to plant operators,
early 2008 the German company Siemens cooperated with one of the United States’ premier national laboratories, in Idaho, to identify the vulnerabilities of computer controllers that the company sells to operate industrial machinery around the world
Click on the following for more details: Stuxnet Worm Used Against Iran Was Tested in Israel - NYTimes.com
As required by law, the gifts from foreign officials that President Obama (and other U.S. officials) received in 2009 has just be published. The complete list is available at: http://www.state.gov/documents/organization/154926.pdf
The following is the beginning of the 52 page document. Only gifts with a “tangible” values are listed along with the monetary value and reason for acceptance. Usually that statement is:
Non-acceptance would cause embarrassment
to donor and U.S.
Government.
