Golden Retriever gets makeover to attract visitors

A Golden Retriever, dyed to look like a tiger, plays at the Dahe Pet Civilization Park in Zhengzhou, Henan province June 8, 2010. The park bought theGolden Retriever and four Chow Chows, dyed to resemble pandas, from a pet market in Sichuan as an attempt to attract visitors, local media said.

Gulf Coast Weather - ‘sunny with a chance of tar balls’

Some aren't taking chances on a forecast like "sunny with a chance of tar balls," so they're going elsewhere. Full story

In tour of Gulf coast, president strikes optimistic tone

In a newly optimistic tone, President Barack Obama promised Monday that "things are going to return to normal" along the stricken Gulf Coast and the region's fouled waters will be in even better shape than before the catastrophic BP oil spill.

Looking for stock to buy? Whole Foods betting on street eats

How about this? I had no idea that there was such a thing as a “street-food” movement going on.

I guess it depends on where you live. Humboldt has a mini-fleet of Mexican roach coaches with great food. I wonder if that qualifies them as part of the “movement?”

The innovative grocer sees food-cart vendors as its 'next big thing

By Justin Rohrlich, Minyanville

“Whole Foods Market (WFMI) and its in-house “forager,” Harvindar Singh, are in the beginning stages of developing a new product line called Street Eats.

Street Eats will be rolled out gradually, starting with a handful of Whole Foods locations in Northern California. El Porteño, an empanada maker found at various San Francisco farmers markets, is already doing business with the company, and according to San Francisco Weekly, Singh “recently met with Crème Brûlée Cart's Curtis Kimball and his brother, Magic Curry Kart's Brian Kimball. Singh has also sat down with Jon Kosorek of East Bay cart Jon's Street Eats about developing a salad dressing.
"The street-food movement is very hot right now, and they've got some great products," Singh told the paper.”

Guest Opinion: Gas tax: a toxic debate

By Danny Westneat

Seattle Times staff columnist

This month's Car and Driver magazine, of all places, asks a question that I think I can answer.

"Please," it says, "can't we even discuss a gasoline tax without somebody calling somebody an America-hating socialist?"

And the answer is ... No. We can't.

"You are just another unconscionable liberal who would take us back to the Stone Ages," a reader wrote to me last week after I brought up the treasonous notion of raising taxes on gas.

"I highly detest people like you thinking you know better than I do how I should live!" wrote another.

"It is a good thing people with your mind-set were not counted on to build this country," said another.

There's more, but you get the gist. It's as if I'd ordered my comrades, formerly known as Americans, to herewith go to and fro across our land of plenty only in horse-drawn wagons.

What I'd actually said was we should gradually raise the federal tax on gas by a penny per month, for 10 years. It's a way to use less oil over time, to jump-start alternative energy and to raise money to start paying down the ballooning federal debt.

READ THE REST HERE.

Tea Party Candidates rejected by Californians in the polls

Successful elsewhere, 'tea party' fails to find traction in California

Conservative activists weren't able to make the dent in last Tuesday's primaries against self-financing candidates like Whitman and Fiorina.

Photo: Assemblyman Chuck DeVore (R-Irvine) talks to reporters after accompanying family members who voted in the California primary at the Brywood Elementary School in Irvine. DeVore, a "tea party" favorite, lost to Carly Fiorina. (Damian Dovarganes, Associated Press / June 8, 2010)

Gold, Iron, Copper, Lithium, and Cobalt discovery: vast deposits found in Afghanistan

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Nearly $1 trillion in untapped resources could fundamentally alter economy

Just what we don’t need, another reason to stay in Afghanistan. I say this because I strongly suspect the U.S. is going to want a piece of this mineral payload!

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Photo: A bleak Ghazni Province seems to offer little, but a Pentagon study says it may have among the world’s largest deposits of lithium.

AS IT STANDS : Presidential memorandums, or how to stay under the media radar

Dave Stancliff/For the Times-Standard

Posted: 06/13/2010 01:30:28 AM PDT

Muslim terrorists' favorite American target is New York. No offense to its residents, but you couldn't pay me to live there. I'm a firm believer in the law of averages and when I heard about yet another terrorist attack, my suspicions were confirmed.

Since 9/11, the city has been a recruitment poster for every Muslim extremist in the world. Faisal Shahzad, 30, a naturalized U.S. citizen from Pakistan, recently left a car bomb in Times Square that didn't go off.

My concern all along has been “sleeper cells” of terrorists in our country. I've often wondered how terrorists get into the U.S. I'm sure some are born here or come into the country legally, and like Shahzad, become U.S. citizens.

I discovered that some terrorists are actually invited into our country because of international politics. Sound crazy? Before I explain, let's define a Presidential Memorandum:

READ THE REST HERE.

Parting Shots: A Street Art Optical Illusion

Wooster Collective points to a remarkable piece of street art, that appeared on the streets of Berlin a few weeks ago. What you see in this photo below, is a creation by an unknown artist, who has created a subtle but effective lenticular image on the slats of a fence. Head-on it doesn’t look like much, but when you move yourself to the left (or right), an image of a face appears.

Why should we care about Presidential Memorandums?

What are the three types of Presidential memorandums? Who knows? Who cares? You might after reading this Sunday’s AS IT STAND’s column in The Times-Standard:

Presidential Memorandums: or how to stay under the media radar

Obama is already toughest president on leaks

More prosecutions sought in 17 months than any previous administration

In 17 months in office, President Obama has already outdone every previous president in pursuing leak prosecutions.

“Hired in 2001 by the National Security Agency to help it catch up with the e-mail and cellphone revolution, Thomas A. Drake became convinced that the government’s eavesdroppers were squandering hundreds of millions of dollars on failed programs while ignoring a promising alternative.

He took his concerns everywhere inside the secret world: to his bosses, to the agency’s inspector general, to the Defense Department’s inspector general and to the Congressional intelligence committees. But he felt his message was not getting through.

So he contacted a reporter for The Baltimore Sun.”

Though he is charged under the Espionage Act, Mr. Drake appears to be a classic whistle-blower whose goal was to strengthen the N.S.A.’s ability to catch terrorists, not undermine it.

Photo source

Marijuana Delivery Services Evade Bans on Dispensaries, Spread Across California

A flourishing and unregulated industry of pot delivery services is circumventing bans on storefront dispensaries and bringing medical marijuana directly to Californians' homes.

The exact number of delivery services operating in California is unclear, since the state does not keep a registry of medical marijuana distributors or outlets.

In April, 758 services advertised direct delivery of marijuana to patients on Weedmaps.com, a commercial listing service.

It was 1967 since I visited Haight Street – some things haven’t changed 53 years later

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For San Francisco’s controversial proposed sit/lie law, the inciting incident happened on a Wednesday night in early December in the Haight — an act of violence so brutal it inspired a grass-roots movement.

For the full story, check out Scott James's column on the sit/lie controversy.

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Sixty years later, U.S. and England meet again

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Before long-awaited game, Bradley says, ‘We believe we're going to win’

The last time the USA defeated the powerful English soccer team to win the World Cup Finals was the year I was born; 1950.

PHOTO: U.S. national soccer players, including Jozy Altidore, front, train at Royal Bafokeng Stadium in Rustenburg, South Africa, on Friday.

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Guest Opinion: The LA Times Insults Obama Regularly

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“Why does one of the largest newspapers in the country allow its political writer to routinely disrespect the president in a casually insulting way?”

Eric Boehlert asks…

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COULD CYBER SKIRMISH LEAD U.S. TO WAR?

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Now, the U.S. government is faced with a chilling question: Should it get dragged into a shooting war by a cyber attack on an ally? Or should it decline and threaten the fiber of the NATO alliance?

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Louisiana leaders want Gulf drilling to resume

When I read this story I nearly got sick! Can you believe the gall of those bastards? In the midst of the worst ecological disaster in the world, they want to resume drilling!

Politicians say moratorium is a knee-jerk reaction

“At the same time they are venting their fury on BP over the Gulf of Mexico spill and its calamitous environmental effects, Louisiana politicians are rushing to the defense of the oil-and-gas industry and pleading with Washington to bring back offshore drilling —now.”

Retail Recall: McDonald's paying $3 for Shrek glasses

Company is paying customers more than they spent, in hopes of getting back millions of glasses recalled over cadmium.

Pot Delivery Services Cropping Up Across California

As communities across California crack down on medical marijuana dispensaries, a new business model has emerged:companies that will deliver pot directly to your doorstep.

 Read more at NPR

PHOTO: A worker at C420, an online dispensary, weighs pot that will be shipped to customers. The company offers to ship pot overnight to qualified medical marijuana users at "almost any legal address in California."

Parenting vs texting: ‘Stop texting, Dad! I'm talking to you’

Researchers fret about the risks of parenting while plugged in

From left, Rakesh Thakkar, Anika, 5, Sharmila Rao Thakkar, Shiv, 2, eat dinner in their home in Chicago, last week. Parents' use of technology, and its effect on their offspring, is now becoming an equal source of concern to some child-development researchers.

More Americans Dislike the Tea Partiers Than Ever Before

Now that it's become more clear what the Tea Parties stand for, more and more Americans have a low opinion of them.

“When the previous poll was taken you could not turn on your television without being hit in the face with Tea Party lunacy.

But the media has effectively out-hyped itself on the Tea Party and now some folks are disgusted and tired of seeing the angry-old-white-guy movement just as we are tired of seeing the incompetent-old-white-guys in Washington, D.C.”