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A leading US Republican says she fears for the future of her seven grandchildren with Donald Trump in the White House. Christine Todd Whitman, head of the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) under George W Bush, accused Mr Trump of ignoring compelling science. And she warned that his threat to scrap climate protection policies puts the world's future at risk. Trump supporters say rules on climate and energy are stifling business. But Ms Todd Whitman says the US must find ways of promoting business without unduly harming the planet.

By Christine Todd Whitman  Pundits and politicians — myself included — completely misjudged this election.  I certainly did not think that Donald Trump had a serious shot of being the Republican nominee when he first entered the presidential race.  When he got the nomination, few thought the polls would ever be this close. And far too many have failed to recognize that there is a difference between change and chaos.  The latter is what we will get with a Trump presidency. At a time when the country is facing real issues and many are wondering if they have a future of...

Political Leanings: Republican/Anti-Trump Super PAC Spending Target: Unknown Our Principles PAC was formed in January 2016 to thwart Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign. Its founder, Katie Packer, is a veteran Republican strategist who was the deputy campaign manager of former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney’s 2012 presidential campaign. She founded Burning Glass Consulting, a firm whose goal is to attract female voters, and is a founding partner of WWP Strategies, a political consulting and issue management firm based in Washington, D.C. Our Principles PAC hired former Jeb Bush campaign spokesman Tim Miller as its communications adviser. Miller was previously executive director...

Former GOP New Jersey Gov. Christie Whitman says if Donald Trump is the party's presidential nominee, she'll vote for Democratic contender Hillary Clinton, the Star Ledger reports. The two-term Whitman, a longtime moderate Republican, announced Friday she was backing longshot presidential candidate Ohio Gov. John Kasich, the newspaper reports. But she tells columnist Tom Moran she'd jump the party ship if Trump winds up as the Republican nominee -- and claims she won't be alone....

The Environmental Protection Agency has the authority to address climate change. That shouldn’t be a controversial statement, but in some quarters, it is. Indeed, it’s at the heart of a set of legal challenges that will be heard by the Supreme Court on Monday. As administrator of the EPA from 2001-03, I served in the administration of President George W. Bush. I may sometimes disagree with his successor on the best way to address climate change as a matter of policy, but I absolutely agree that the EPA has broad authority to issue regulations addressing climate change, including those being...

Every few generations a political party has to define itself. Now is that moment for the Republican Party. Until recently the GOP has been seen in Washington as the "party of no." Now it is being defined as the party of extreme. While the U.S. may be yearning for definitive leadership from a president, the use of hate and fear tactics by so many of the GOP presidential candidates is not the answer.

In an interview with NBC Bay Area earlier this year, Whitman said he tried to warn OSHA leaders that his managers pressured investigators to close complaints without proper review to clear a backlog of cases. Whitman said his supervisor altered his reports by changing his conclusions and dismissed cases even when Whitman found they had merit. It didn't stop there: Whitman wrote letters to OSHA leadership and to the U.S. Secretary of Labor, Thomas Perez. "I had gone through every conceivable channel and what I saw was inaction," Whitman said. In the end Whitman told NBC Bay Area that he...

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — The University of Texas at Austin is missing about 100 brains — about half of the specimens the university had in a collection of brains preserved in jars of formaldehyde. One of the missing brains is believed to have belonged to clock tower sniper Charles Whitman. "We think somebody may have taken the brains, but we don't know at all for sure," psychology Professor Tim Schallert, co-curator of the collection, told the Austin American-Statesman (http://bit.ly/11R7vym ). His co-curator, psychology Professor Lawrence Cormack, said, "It's entirely possible word got around among undergraduates and people started swiping them...

former U.S. Treasury official Neel Kashkari on Tuesday said he will run for California governor. ... the fundraising committee he announced Tuesday is stacked with GOP heavyweights who were instrumental in financing Mitt Romney's 2012 presidential campaign.

Country singer Slim Whitman, the high-pitched yodeler who sold millions of records through ever-present TV ads in the 1980s and 1990s and whose song saved the world in the film comedy “Mars Attacks!,” died Wednesday at a Florida hospital. He was 90.

Hewlett Packard (HPQ) reported its worst quarterly loss in its 73-year history Wednesday. The PC-maker suffered an $8.9 billion loss in its fiscal third-quarter, or $4.49 a share. The hit to HP's bottom line was due in large part to an $8 billion write-off of its 2008 acquisition of Electronic Data Systems Corp. (EDS) Excluding one-time charges, HP earned $2 billion in the quarter, down from $2.3 billion a year-ago amid a 5 percent drop in overall revenues to $29.7 billion. The company's major PC business slowed in the quarter as sales dropped 10 percent from the previous year. Printer...

Hewlett-Packard Co. (HPQ) unveiled plans to lay off 27,000 employees as the technology giant also reported its fiscal second-quarter earnings slumped 31% amid relatively flat revenue in its personal computer business and lower sales in its printing segment. However, shares were up 7% at $22.46 in recent after-hours trading as earnings beat the company's expectations and as the company raised its full-year view. The company said it plans to lay off about 8% of its workforce by the end of fiscal 2014. Its restructuring plans are expected to generate annualized savings of between $3 billion and $3.5 billion by 2014,...

The daunting task of restructuring Hewlett-Packard will begin in earnest next Wednesday when the company reports its quarterly earnings. Sources familiar with the company’s plans say that CEO Meg Whitman will discuss the opening steps of a company-wide restructuring plan that will include the elimination of about 30,000 jobs. A report by Business Insider yesterday pegged the range of cuts at HP to between 10 percent and 15 percent of its current work force of 320,000 people. But sources familiar with HP’s plans tell AllThingsD that the cuts will be carried out over a relatively long period of time, perhaps...

The president of the National Organization for Women may have said it's wrong for anyone to call a woman a "whore," but the head of the California NOW affiliate says Republican gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman is one. California NOW President Parry Bellasalma told the TPM blog on Thursday that the description of the Republican candidate for governor of California is accurate. "Meg Whitman could be described as 'a political whore.' Yes, that's an accurate statement," Bellasalma said after a TPM blogger called to ask her about a story that appeared on the Daily Caller website. In the Daily Caller report,...

Ah, Mr W, you are still one of my musical heroes…… At 87 Slim Whitman is still around (though he heard rumours of his own death in 2008) but in the early 50s he was very big on the US country scene. In America he had faded in the charts by the end of the decade but he was always popular in Europe and frequently toured there.

Breaking. Just a banner.

All Things D reports that former eBay CEO, gubernatorial candidate could replace Apotheker. Silicon Valley veteran and politically connected former eBay CEO Meg Whitman is being considered to replace Leo Apotheker as Hewlett-Packard's CEO, according to sources speaking with All Things D. The NYSE seems to be on board, as HP stock spiked after the rumors surfaced. (You can follow the stock in real time here.) Apotheker's recent moves -- shuttering TouchPad, WebOS and shopping the PC business -- has left at least 500 people out of work. Those layoffs were announced this morning. The TouchPad was on shelves only...

...Whitman doubts she will ever again run for elected office, and for many months she said little about the campaign. But she has started popping up recently on radio and TV. For a beaten candidate who wishes to remain relevant in politics – Whitman is advising Republican front-runner Mitt Romney in his presidential campaign, and she plans to involve herself in California ballot initiatives – it helps to stay in view. (snip) She said she plans to support ballot initiatives perhaps as early as this summer, likely involving education policy. She said she will recruit and support Republican candidates for...

Former staffers for defeated California candidates Meg Whitman and Carly Fiorina have an urgent message for fellow Republicans: Their political future depends on Latino voters, and the Obama administration may be providing an opening. (snip) Mr. Wilson, managing partner at Wilson-Miller Communications Inc. in Sacramento, said that if the topic of immigration arises, Republicans should avoid anti-immigration rhetoric meant to stir up the conservative base. "We're on safe ground when we say, 'We have to secure our borders and get a guest-worker program, then work on a pathway for citizenship for people who are already here'—and then quickly pivot off...

Former eBay CEO Meg Whitman, who made her first foray into politics with a bid for California governor last year, said that after losing that race, she’s probably out of politics for good. “I doubt it,” she said Wednesday on Fox Business Network when asked whether she’d run for elected office again. Some had speculated that Whitman, who lost to Democrat Jerry Brown by 13 points in November, might consider a run for Senate. Last month, she said she was “definitely not” plotting a 2012 Senate bid challenging Democrat Dianne Feinstein.