Free Republic

Senator Jeff Sessions is worried that the adoption of the Trans-Pacific Partnership would lead to an "historic international regulatory Commission" that would eoncmpass 90 percent of the world's GDP. He's concerned that it would "[create] a self-governing and self-perpetuating Commission with extraordinary implications for American workers and American sovereignty." “The House is preparing to vote again tomorrow on providing fast-track executive authority to the President. If adopted, it will be sent immediately to the Senate for final consideration," Sessions says in a statement to be released tonight. "It is essential that there be no misunderstanding: fast-track preapproves the formation of...

PARIS, Jan. 31 — President Jacques Chirac has demanded that the United States sign both the Kyoto climate protocol and a future agreement that will take effect when the Kyoto accord runs out in 2012. He said that he welcomed last week’s State of the Union address in which President Bush described climate change as a “serious challenge” and acknowledged that a growing number of American politicians now favor emissions cuts. But he warned that if the United States did not sign the agreements, a carbon tax across Europe on imports from nations that have not signed the Kyoto treaty...

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed legislation Wednesday implementing a contract with California's largest state employee union that includes an average pay raise between 7.8 percent and 9.8 percent over two years. The Republican governor also signed a bill installing a union contract with a similar wage increase for 12,000 highway maintenance workers, heavy-equipment operators and state employees in other related fields. Under the deal struck in June between state negotiators and the Service Employees International Union Local 1000, the 87,000-member labor group retained its current health care package for most members, in addition to the two-year raise and a $1,000 one-time...

SACRAMENTO (AP) - Water contracts that often turn 60 miles of California's second-longest river into a sandy desert fail to adequately take into account the damage to endangered species, a federal judge has ruled. But he did not immediately alter the agreements that send San Joaquin River water flowing to 15,000 central California farmers and cities. The 25-year water contracts signed four years ago divert water at the Friant Dam near Fresno that otherwise would flow down the San Joaquin River and help sustain species there and in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta east of San Francisco. The water instead...

World marks green day; big city mayors sign pacts 1 hour, 29 minutes ago World Wildlife Fund (WWF) members put up a giant faucet in front of the 'Christ the Redeemer' statue, atop Corcovado mountain, in front of one of Rio de Janeiro's best-known tourist attractions, Sugar Loaf mountain, during celebrations of World Environment Day in Rio de Janeiro, June 5, 2005. (Reuters/Bruno Domingos) SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Big city mayors from around the world signed a series of pacts on Sunday to improve the conditions of urban centers, capping a five-day U.N. World Environment conference in San Francisco, the...

Japan’s chilling Internet suicide pacts New trend highlights social problems, mental health crisis By Kari Huus MSNBC June 10 — The discovery Sunday of the bodies of four young Japanese men in a car at a vista point near Mount Fuji appears to be more evidence of a grim new trend in the prosperous country — group suicides of strangers who meet over the Internet. The suicide pacts, which have resulted in at least 18 deaths since February, are shocking to experts, even in a nation plagued by an astronomical suicide rate.

<p>There is a German phrase Dave Rosenberg uses when describing the task he faces in early 2003.</p> <p>Rosenberg is a Yolo County supervisor who also happens to be Gov. Gray Davis' point man in negotiating with California's Indian tribes about casino gambling.</p>

<p>Lake Tahoe sank so low before recent storms that many boat docks were left high and dry. Scientists say that historical droughts have caused Tahoe's vast shoreline to drop 20 feet, allowing forests to grow where there is now water.</p>