Consumers Energy’s clean coal power plant reached a major milestone today with the issuance of an air permit for the $2 billion-plus project. The 830-megawatt plant is expected to create 1,800 construction jobs, about 2,500 indirect jobs, and then more than 100 permanent jobs after it is operating in 2017. Overall, the plant is projected [...]
President Obama and the EPA are gearing up to put the nation on a low-carbon diet and their strategy would do Weight Watchers proud: Count first, cut later. The counting begins on Jan. 1, 2010 when some 10,000 companies and other entities, including municipalities and even some universities, must start measuring their greenhouse gas (GHG) [...]
Pulp fiction is back as entertainment, according to box office and publishing reports. America’s fascination was evidenced with Hollywood’s top-grossing films for the first decade of the 21st century, of which 8 of the top 10 were either stories written during fiction’s golden age in the 1930s, 40s and 50s like Lord of the Rings [...]
What was the biggest scandal of 2009? Blagojevich trying to sell a Senate seat? Senators, governors, and their mistresses? Allegations that lobbyists were lining up defense earmarks in exchange for straw donations? No, the biggest scandal of 2009 was that the entire pay-to-play system that dominates Washington and occupies Congress’ time and attention sidetracked bold [...]
Corey Peloquin, Coleman Middle School teacher in Tampa, N.J., has been awarded a fellowship with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). The Endeavor Science Teaching Certificate Project was created to allow teachers an opportunity to carry back to the classroom a greater understanding of NASA discoveries to inspire a next generation of explorers, scientists, [...]
AARP urges families to review phone bills over the holidays The holidays are a time of hustle and bustle – and now AARP is urging Illinoisans to add another critical item to their holiday to-do lists. As families come together for the holidays, AARP is urging people to review their phone bills, particularly bills of [...]
Investments Have Boosted Economy, Saved and Created Jobs Along with boosting the economy and preserving jobs, seven provisions of the federal economic recovery act are also keeping about 189,000 Pennsylvanians from falling into poverty this year, according to a new study from the Washington, DC-based Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. The American Recovery and [...]
Austin-Round Rock, Texas Tops All Large Metropolitan Areas In this time of economic uncertainty, a safe and secure environment in which to live, work and raise a family has become an even greater priority to many Americans. According to the sixth annual Most Secure U.S. Places to Live rankings from Farmers Insurance Group of Companies®, [...]
For more than 400 years, scientists have studied the amazing regenerative power of salamanders, trying to understand how these creatures routinely repair injuries that would usually leave humans and other mammals paralyzed — or worse. Now, fueled by a highly competitive National Institutes of Health Grand Opportunity grant of $2.4 million, a multi-institutional team of [...]
Annual Traveler Survey Discovers a Flu-nomenon as U.S. Respondents Becoming Far More Cautious When it Comes to Germs U.S. Travelers Expect to Take More Leisure Trips in the Coming Year Troncones, Mexico is 2010′s Top Up-and-Coming Travel Destination TripAdvisor®, the world’s most trusted source of travel advice, today announced the results of its annual travel [...]