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Climate change isn’t viewed as a major contributing factor for high prices right now, but as severe weather events increase in frequency and devastate industries that contribute to the U.S. economy, experts warn it increasingly will be if temperatures keep rising. Severe weather events, like hurricanes, wildfires and droughts, devastate entire communities while costing billions to rebuild. It also affects industry, from energy to transportation and agriculture, leading to a significant rise in food costs for millions. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said last week while speaking in North Carolina that climate change can manifest itself in “acute, weather-related supply shocks,”...

You know the basics. The unemployment rate is 9.9 percent. Jobs are still being lost. Worries about the global economy are causing breathtaking volatility on Wall Street. And millions of Americans who still have jobs are worrying more than ever about the safety of their retirement savings. What you may not know is that, during this moment of terrible economic anxiety, the Obama White House found the time -- and the money -- to turn itself, at least for a night, into a showcase of glitzy extravagance. On May 19, the White House held a state dinner for Mexican President...

NEW YORK (Reuters) – If there's one thing that the U.S. public is not giving newspapers, it's their support. Paid weekday newspaper circulation in the six-month period that ended March 31 fell 7 percent to 34.4 million, compared with the same period last year, according to new figures released by the Audit Bureau of Circulations (ABC). That decline, which tracked 395 daily newspapers that had five-day-a-week circulation in both periods, accelerated from last year's decline of 3.6 percent. Sunday circulation at 557 papers fell more than 5 percent to 42.1 million. Last year, circulation fell 4.6 percent. The declines may...

The Republicans' Bizarre New Strategy Dan Gerstein, 03.04.09, 12:00 AM EST Instead of trying to out-Bush Bush, they should outsmart Obama. Ever since last fall's deck-shuffling election, the strategist in me has been very curious to see what the Republicans would do both to repair the damage the Bush presidency had done to their brand and to reposition their party to compete in a radically different political environment. In particular, I wondered how would they win back the trust of the sensible center that thoroughly repudiated their governing approach in November. Well, just six weeks after the official start of...

A new survey of corporate executives considering relocating their firms provides fresh reasons to worry about California's economy. The Development Counsellors International survey found CEOs ranked California dead-last in attractiveness among the 50 states because of its high taxes and business-hobbling regulations. California's reputation is likely to grow even worse in the next few weeks when a 2008-09 state budget is finally adopted, given the probability it will raise taxes. But what is truly depressing to contemplate is what happens come January 2011, when Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger departs and is likely to be replaced by a Democrat. We have griped...

HARARE, Zimbabwe - An alliance of Zimbabwean human rights groups said Wednesday that 2007 is on course to be the worst year for rights violations since the country's economic downfall started seven years ago. Legal and medical experts documented that cases of state-orchestrated torture on individuals rose to about four per day in the early part of the year, the Human Rights Forum said. Cases of gross violations — including abductions, arrests, unlawful detentions and abuses of political rights and basic freedoms — doubled in the first six months of the year compared to the same period in 2006, the...

WASHINGTON (AFP) - The boom in ethanol fuels in the United States and elsewhere could have devastating effects on food prices and worsen world hunger, a new study argues. The study by C. Ford Runge and Benjamin Senauer of the University of Minnesota said the rush into ethanol threatens to divert massive amounts of corn and other food crops into biofuels. The researcher write in the May/June edition of Foreign Affairs that governments should stop incentives for ethanol until biofuels can be economically produced from sources other than corn and soybeans. "Resorting to biofuels is likely to exacerbate world hunger,"...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Drought that has shriveled crops and sparked fires in bone-dry forests will persist and could even worsen across the Southwest and central and southern Plains through at least June, U.S. government forecasters said Thursday. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said in its spring weather forecast that these regions, which have already seen thousands of acres go up in flames, should brace for a "significant" wildfire season in 2006 as conditions become more severe. "We need to monitor this drought situation very closely," said David Johnson, director of NOAA's National Weather Service division. The return of La...

SACRAMENTO – A chronic shortage of guards at the state's 33 prisons is expected to increase after Jan. 1 when an earlier retirement age negotiated in a controversial labor contract four years ago triggers a wave of retirees. The shortage of 2,000 guards is likely to double next fiscal year because of retirements and other factors, the state Department of Finance estimates. The Schwarzenegger administration is scrambling to open a second training facility for correctional officers and is projecting that 2,600 new guards will be trained this fiscal year, an increase from the 1,920 originally planned. The governor is expected...

Global Warming Could Worsen U.S. Pollution: Report Sat Feb 19, 3:57 PM ET Science - Reuters WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Global warming could stifle cleansing summer winds across parts of the northern United States over the next 50 years and worsen air pollution, U.S. researchers said on Saturday. Further warming of the atmosphere, as is happening now, would block cold fronts bringing cooler, cleaner air from Canada and allow stagnant air and ozone pollution to build up over cities in the Northeast and Midwest, they predicted. "The air just cooks," said Loretta Mickley of Harvard University's Division of Engineering and Applied...

SACRAMENTO - A devastating flood that damaged thousands of Northern California homes and businesses nearly two decades ago is now weakening the state's already-fragile finances. The state's liability in an 18-year-old Yuba River flood stems from one of a series of court cases that could complicate Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's plans when he presents his latest budget outline next month. Taken together, three court decisions put the state on the hook for at least $850 million. Three other pending cases endanger at least another $1.1 billion. All told, an amount equal to about 3 percent of the general fund budget could...

Cutting services and raising taxes. Firing civil servants, freeing inmates early, squeezing health care for poor families. In almost every state, the options facing governors and lawmakers these days are grim. State governments that went on a spree of tax cuts and higher spending in the flush 1990s now find the bills are due. And with less money to spend, politicians must make difficult choices with implications far beyond the statehouse. The pain will spread in the coming year, but hardship is already evident — for state workers laid off in Connecticut, for Medicaid patients deprived of services in Oklahoma,...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A severe drought on the U.S. East Coast and in the West will worsen during the coming months because light winter snowfall and early spring rains will not be enough to replenish water supplies, U.S. government weather forecasters said on Thursday... The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said spring rain will be close to normal in the East and portions of the West. But much more is needed to alleviate a drought that has lasted as long as four years in some areas, hitting crop production and increasing the possibility of damaging wildfires and some higher electricity...