Prospect Heights Assemblyman Hakeem Jeffries wants to reduce penalties for people caught with small amounts of marijuana.
Currently those caught displaying 25 grams (seven-eighths of an ounce) or less of marijuana in public can be arrested on a misdemeanor, while those who have that amount in private are hit with a $100 fine.
As California works to repair its budget, the state treasury is ramping up its effort to reach an unusual type of bond investor: regular people.
A new bill, supported by state Treasurer Bill Lockyer, would allow the state to issue $25 bonds, dropping the minimum bond size from $1,000 and broadening the field of potential buyers of California debt. For the state that bears the worst Standard & Poor's credit rating of all 50 states, the move could potentially lower borrowing costs, and it would give the government a wider set of buyers to turn to if institutional investors -- banks and funds -- turn up their noses.
Nationwide, states recognize the ability to sell debt to mom and pop investors as a useful tool, as institutional buyers prove fickle in the wake of the financial crisis. While it may be more complicated for states to manage a host of smaller bonds rather than a few large ones, issuing so-called retail bonds can give governments an edge in negotiations with the bigger buyers. As a result, governments may face lower costs as they borrow money to pave roads, repair bridges, and build hospitals and parks.
WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama is delivering his final commencement address of the season at the U.S. Coast Guard Academy.
Although rain threatened to dampen the outdoor festivities, the commander in chief was headed to New London, Conn., on Wednesday to watch 229 cadets receive bachelor's degrees and be commissioned with the rank of ensign in the U.S. military branch that enforces the laws at sea.
Rachel McAdams donned a double dose of screening style in N.Y.C. on Tuesday night, first hitting The Cinema Society & Thierry Mugler viewing of "Midnight in Paris" in a textured, white Louis Vuitton gown topped off with her blonde waves. Dare we say Marilyn Mon--no, we dare not.
Afterward, the actress stopped by the after party in a black blouse with sparkly buttons and a bow tie, worn with matching trousers.
Take a look and tell us which outfit(s) you're digging.
VIDALIA, LA. â€"- Traffic has been swift for weeks along the majestic steel bridge that connects this low-lying river town to its sister city across the Mississippi River.
Moving vans filled with furniture, tractors and combines from cotton and corn fields, and truckloads of office supplies all head in a one-way direction for Natchez, Miss., the hilltop town less than a mile across the river quickly becoming an expatriate community for hundreds seeking higher ground.
As floodwaters and tensions rise in this scenic stretch of the Mississippi Valley, an informal exodus takes place in Vidalia, as neighborhoods empty and businesses relocate to higher ground on the opposite side of the river.
CINCINNATI — Cardinals manager Tony La Russa doesn't like what Reds broadcaster Marty Brennaman has to say about his team.
Brennaman criticized St. Louis starter Chris Carpenter and pitching coach Dave Duncan on the air Monday, a day after the Reds beat the Cardinals 9-7 to sweep their three-game series at Great American Ball Park. The game ended with Cardinals screaming at Reds closer Francisco Cordero, who then gestured to them in the dugout.
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Missing journalist Dorothy Parvaz, who was held by Iranian authorities after being detained in Syria, arrived in her company's home base of Qatar on Wednesday after winning her freedom.
Parvaz's fiance, Todd Barker, said she called him early Wednesday from Qatar as she was clearing customs. Her employer, Al Jazeera, confirmed the release, saying she is "safe and well and back with us" in the capital Doha.
COLUMBIA, Mo. — The national beef industry has enlisted college students across the country in its public relations fight for America's hearts, minds and stomachs.
The Masters of Beef Advocacy program also recruits farmers, ranchers, high-end chefs and school dietitians to spread the gospel of red meat consumption. But the National Cattlemen's Beef Association, which started the outreach effort two years ago, has placed a strong emphasis on the Twitter generation. At least 20 percent of the nearly 2,200 program graduates are age 21 or younger.
In a new film version of what is arguably the Great American Novel, a rising Australian has just replaced an American superstar. Then again, it is being shot on his home turf.
Deadline reports that "Animal Kingdom" star Joel Edgerton has beat out Luke Evans for the role of Tom Buchanan in Baz Luhrmann's epic, potentially 3D retelling of "The Great Gatsby," winning the right to replace Ben Affleck, who had to drop out due to scheduling conflicts.
"In casting Tom one had to find an actor who could credibly be (as Fitzgerald describes him) 'one of the most powerful ends that ever played football at New Haven,' had five-star acting chops and in the big dramatic showdown scenes between Gatsby and Tom, hold the screen against Leonardo DiCaprio, in the appropriate age group," Luhrmann told Deadline.
Okay, I'm talking about craigconnects and asking people to spend a little time in ways that can really make a difference. I might actually be funny, but can't tell, and hate viewing my own videos, so please check it out.
In her latest snapshots, Miss Swinton rocks a "warrior girl fringe" 'do paired with winter frocks and her own puppy. She told Style.com, "We looked for a modern romantic gesture in my look." And what's the level of preparation involved in all of this? "Choose clothes. Dress up and play," Tilda explained to the site.
Take a look at Tilda's new ads lensed by Walter Preiffer -- and a trio of our favorites from the past -- and tell us what you think.
SEATTLE — An off-duty Washington State Patrol trooper who had been missing in the remote and avalanche-prone North Cascade mountains was found alive and in good condition Tuesday night, officials said.
Rescue crews had been looking for Dan Anderson since the 46-year-old activated his emergency signal beacon Sunday.
TUXTLA GUTIERREZ, Mexico -- Police in Mexico's southern Chiapas state found 513 migrants on Tuesday inside two trailer trucks bound for the United States, and said they had been transported in dangerously crowded conditions.
Some of the immigrants were suffering from dehydration after traveling for hours clinging to cargo ropes strung inside the containers to keep them upright as the trucks bounced along from the Guatemalan border, and allow more migrants to be more crammed in on the floor.
NEW YORK — Ronald McDonald is having a midlife crisis.
His floppy shoes, painted-on smile and flaming-red hair may be a harder sell to today's kids who are trading in their dolls and trucks for manicures and mobile game apps at ever younger ages. He also seems out of step with McDonald's Corp.'s new efforts to appeal to adults. The 48-year-old spokesclown has fallen flat in new ads this year, according to Ace Metrix, a group that tracks TV advertising.
As you may have read in Sunday's Los Angeles Times, we've got a new major artwork on its way to LACMA--Michael Heizer's Levitated Mass. We are beginning prep work for its installation this month and it will make its official debut on campus in November. So, what is it? The short if incomplete answer is it's a 340-ton, 21'-6" high boulder that Heizer discovered in a quarry in Riverside some years back. (In terms of height, the boulder is roughly as tall as the Resnick Pavilion. It's big.)
Once again, galleries throughout the country are heavily favoring the medium of painting this month. While there was an overwhelming amount of abstraction on view in April, May seems to be the month of representational painting.
The figure fares particularly well, as artists continue to address the historically-laden subject matter with new aims and ideas. In the interest of giving attention to lesser known artists, I did not include Gagosian Gallery's incredible Picasso exhibition on this list, but his presence can be strongly felt in dozens of shows this month.
My list includes both emerging and mid-career artists, and one who turns ninety years old this year. Gaylen Hansen has been one of the Pacific Northwest's best kept secrets for decades. His humorous, but hard-won paintings first came to the attention of a wider audience in the 1970s, and he was the focus of a solo exhibition at the Seattle Art Museum in 2007. In Hansen's work, influences from outsider art to Philip Guston come together to form a language that is wholly his own.
There is a reason why art has served as a means of soulful self-expression for centuries upon centuries. All forms of art, from painting to dancing to music, are very personal and emotional experiences -- both for the artists and the viewers. While it is a common experience to fall in love with a certain artwork, scientists now have evidence that shows the brain reacts similarly when viewing artwork and when falling in love. New research by Semir Zeki, Professor of Neuroesthetics at University College London demonstrates that viewing a beautiful work of art creates the same chemical response as love. Both experiences trigger the feel-good chemical dopamine. So if you're missing that special someone, perhaps partake in a daily dose of art inspiration. Check out the video below for a more in-depth look at the Zeki's findings.
Send all your eco-inquiries to Jennifer Grayson at eco.etiquette@gmail.com. Questions may be edited for length and clarity.
I used to be excited about going green, but now I'm starting to feel like I can never do enough. I feel guilty if I sometimes forget to recycle something, or grab a [disposable] cup of coffee at a Starbucks. How can I deal? My boyfriend says I'm kind of obsessed...
Addressing whether Newt can recover from this, Grim explained, "saying that Newt could recover from this implies that he had a chance to become president in the first place, and I don't quite buy into that to begin with. But what's really remarkable about this is that it shows that it is universally considered to be political suicide in a Republican primary to defend Medicare. I mean think about how far we've come just in a few months. You cannot defend Medicare in a Republican primary and survive. And I don't see how they can produce a viable presidential candidate through that kind of a primary process."
Grim also explained how Republican leadership now seems quite united around Ryan's Medicare proposal, which is why Gingrich faced so much push-back about his comments.
Mildred Patricia Baena, 50, has been identified as the mother of Arnold Schwarzenegger’s love child, RadarOnline.com reported Tuesday night.
Baena, who goes by Patty, was a housekeeper for the Schwarzenegger family for 20 years before retiring in January.
According to TMZ, the former housekeeper--who lives several hours outside of Los Angeles with Schwarzenegger’s illegitimate son and her three other children--began to "pursue Arnold" in the late 1990s. She reportedly told friends that she and Schwarzenegger had unprotected sex during the day at his house, though she didn't tell him that he was the father of her child until the boy was a toddler.
Newt Gingrich is a star on political television, a status that was supposed to help his underdog presidential campaign. It's not working out that way.
That's because a new model of video consumption has fundamentally changed the payoff of political TV, as Gingrich learned this Sunday. And the very qualities that make Gingrich a popular pundit also make him a lousy candidate.
Gingrich is still "made for TV"—but in an Internet-driven, parody-refracted 24-hour multi-platform news cycle, Gingrich is the kind of pol who is made only for TV. His pundit pronouncements don't play as well in person (more on that in a moment), or when stacked against their contradictory predecessors by his online detractors, his cable colleagues, or by Fox News' reality overlords at Comedy Central.
DALLAS — Dirk Nowitzki showed no rust from a long layoff, making 10 of his first 11 shots and an NBA playoff-record 24 straight free throws on the way to 48 points, leading the Dallas Mavericks to a 121-112 victory over the Oklahoma City Thunder in Game 1 of the Western Conference finals on Tuesday night.
Nowitzki was impossible for the Thunder to cover. Six guys tried stopping him, and the big German either shot over them or put them in foul trouble. He made 13 free throws in the third quarter alone.
With local heroines including House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and Sen. Dianne Feinstein, Silicon Valley has long been perceived to be a stronghold of the country's Democratic elite. The affair between President Obama and denizens of Sand Hill Road has been a public romance: Throughout his political career, Obama has held fundraisers in the area, headlined town halls and touted local businesses like Google and Facebook as exemplars of American ingenuity.
But on Tuesday, Speaker of the House John Boehner went where few conservatives like him have gone before, taking to Palo Alto and holding forth at a fundraiser in the heart of the valley with some of the industry's leading lights.
Boehner's outreach to the tech sector may come as little surprise: A trek to northern California, with its deep coffers, carries with it the promise of campaign-building fortune. But Boehner's visit also represents a tactical shift by the tech community towards a strategy less partisan and more pragmatic than in years past.
We're being told that there's a "crisis" and we can no longer afford the middle-class American dream. The truth is the opposite: Our worst long-term problems aren't caused by the middle class, but by politicians who sacrifice the middle class for wealthy interests. Read More... More on Social Security
BOSTON — Tyler Seguin had two goals and two assists and the Boston Bruins fed off the energy of the recently promoted rookie to beat the Tampa Bay Lightning 6-5 and tie the Eastern Conference finals at one game each on Tuesday night.
Boston earned a split at home and snapped the Lightning's eight-game winning streak that began when they were down 3-1 to Pittsburgh in the first round. Game 3 is at Tampa Bay on Thursday.
We're being told that there's a "crisis" and we can no longer afford the middle-class American dream. The opposite is true: Our worst long-term problems aren't caused by the middle class, but by politicians who sacrifice the middle class for wealthy interests. Read More... More on Social Security
One came from a high school student who was goofing off on the school computer during civics lessons. Another from a man angry over an automated call. And another from a man who claimed he grew up with President Barack Obama in Wisconsin.
It's time to stop saying the country "can't afford" Medicare, Social Security, and other programs that benefit the middle class. When I was a kid and I'd tell my mother that I "can't mow the lawn" or "I can't do all that homework," she'd say: "Don't say you can't. Say you don't want to."
We're being told that there's a "crisis" and we can no longer afford the middle-class American dream. The truth is the opposite: Our worst long-term problems aren't caused by the middle class, but by politicians who chose to sacrifice the middle class for wealthy interests.
At the end of the day the Common Controversy is exactly that ... common. It's the same old uncritical media hype dressed up in newer, cooler clothes. Read More...
WASHINGTON -- Former Sen. Rick Santorum said Tuesday that Sen. John McCain, who spent 5 1/2 years enduring brutal treatment at the hands of his North Vietnamese captors, doesn't know how effective waterboarding and other harsh interrogation techniques can be. The Republican presidential contender insisted the tactics led the United States to al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden.
McCain, the top Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee, said in a speech last week that waterboarding al-Qaida's No. 3 leader, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, did not provide information that led to bin Laden's compound in Pakistan.
Mildred Baena is the mother of Arnold Schwarzenegger's love child, RadarOnline.com and Star magazine have learned exclusively in a joint investigation.
401(k) plans are a great deal for employers. Their cost is subsidized by brokers and advisers, at the expense of the plan participants (employees), who are supposed to be the primary beneficiaries. Read More...
Is it summer yet? In our anticipation of rising temperatures, this time of year often prompts in us the urge to splurge on sandals, slather on sunscreen and show some skin.
If you're in the market for a new summer style, consider these hot ways to make an impact. Who says you can't make a difference while working on your tan?
The CIA employed sophisticated new stealth drone aircraft to fly dozens of secret missions deep into Pakistani airspace and monitor the compound where Osama bin Laden was killed, current and former U.S. officials said.
Forget all the political commentary over the last three weeks: the fact is, the killing of bin Laden helped Obama. Not as much as the White House would like, nor as little as Republicans would like to think. Read More...
JACKSON, Miss. — The Coast Guard reopened the swollen Mississippi River north of New Orleans on Tuesday, allowing cargo vessels on the nation's busiest waterway to pass slowly, one at a time in the latest effort to reduce pressure from rising floodwaters.
A 15-mile stretch at Natchez, Miss., was closed entirely earlier in the day, blocking vessels heading toward the Gulf of Mexico and others trying to return north after dropping off their freight. Had the channel remained closed, it could've brought traffic to a standstill up and down the river, which moves about 500 million tons of cargo each year.
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) -- GOP presidential candidate Newt Gingrich and his wife Callista were hit with glittery confetti by a protester Tuesday during the couple's appearance at a book-signing.
SCROLL DOWN FOR VIDEO
The man approached the Gingriches during the signing at a downtown Minneapolis hotel, dumped a cracker box full of colorful confetti on the pair and said, "Feel the rainbow, Newt! Stop the hate! Stop anti-gay politics!"
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) -- GOP presidential candidate Newt Gingrich and his wife Callista were hit with glittery confetti by a protester Tuesday during the couple's appearance at a book-signing.
SCROLL DOWN FOR VIDEO
The man approached the Gingriches during the signing at a downtown Minneapolis hotel, dumped a cracker box full of colorful confetti on the pair and said, "Feel the rainbow, Newt! Stop the hate! Stop anti-gay politics!"
The NBA draft lottery took place Tuesday night and the order of the 2011 draft has been revealed. The Cleveland Cavaliers won the No. 1 overall pick, along with the No. 4 pick. The Cavs selected LeBron James with the first overall pick in the 2003 draft. Check out the rest of the draft order below.
MINNEAPOLIS -- GOP presidential candidate Newt Gingrich and his wife Callista were hit with glittery confetti by a protester Tuesday during the couple's appearance at a book-signing.
The man approached the Gingriches during the signing at a downtown Minneapolis hotel, dumped a cracker box full of colorful confetti on the pair and said, "Feel the rainbow, Newt! Stop the hate! Stop anti-gay politics!"
Rockstar Games has a reputation. People see the R* icon on a game box and expect chaos of the first degree. The Manhattan-based company's pushed the boundaries of portraying sex, violence and postmodern attitudes in their best-known series like Grand Theft Auto and Manhunt, letting players turn whole cities into unpredictable petri dishes of mayhem. So, expectations with Rockstar tend to run towards open-world anarchy.
Camille Grammer is privately blasting her ex-husband Kelsey Grammer over his bid to get sole custody of their children ... telling friends the kids have already made it clear ... they want to live with her
How could the United States' public enemy number one, a man with a $25 million bounty on his head, and the most recognizable face of international jihadist terror, not be known to the Pakistani leadership? Read More... More on Osama bin Laden
HuffPost's Howard Fineman appeared Tuesday on MSNBC's 'Hardball with Chris Matthews' to discuss Newt Gingrich.
Matthews brought up Gingrich's recent criticism of Rep. Paul Ryan's (R-Wis.) Medicare proposal. Fineman, putting this topic in the context of Gingrich's political style, explained, "Newt Gingrich is by nature a bomb-thrower, he knows how to put the plastique in just the right place to blow up the bridge. And it's the way he is. Why not, since he's totally screwed everything up today, why not give him a little credit for saying, you know what, I don't agree with their [the Republicans] approach."
Analyzing the political consequences of Newt's recent comments about Ryan's plan, Fineman said, "on the one hand, Newt is going to get attacked by fellow Republicans for not being a team player and for issuing a devastating shot at the heart of the whole Republican attack plan this year. But at the same time, if Newt manages to get anywhere, which is unlikely, he's going to be attacked by the Democrats for saying he wanted to see Medicare die on the vine."
How many people know that there is a major UN High Level Meeting on Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs) this September? Or, for that matter, what NCDs are in the first place? Read More... More on Personal Health
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