Wiretap: Spurred by shootings, California lawmakers introduce gun control bill

 
In Sacramento, two Golden State lawmakers have been spurred by the Santa Barbara murders to introduce gun-control legislation. The bill “would create a gun violence restraining order, establishing a system where concerned family members, intimate partners or friends can notify law enforcement of someone who is demonstrating a propensity to commit violence toward themselves or others,” according to a release. “When someone is in crisis, the people closest to them are often the first to spot the warning signs but almost nothing can now be done to get back their guns or prevent them from buying more,” said bill sponsor Nancy Skinner, a Berkeley Democrat.

More bad court news for “marriage defenders.” Fred Karger sued the National Organization for Marriage years ago over its $2 million 2009 campaign to ban marriage equality in Maine. On Tuesday officials found the group guilty of egregiously violating campaign finance laws and levied a record $50,000 fine. Via the Brad Blog.

At the nexus of culture and climate, scientists at Lawrence Livermore National Lab crunched the numbers and found that, by ditching DVDs and CDs completely, we could put a bit of a dent in global carbon emissions. Lead author Arman Shehabi, from Lawrence Berkley National Laboratory: “It’s a modern-day equivalent of the debate about which is more environmentally sound, the disposable or the cloth diaper.” The Mail Online.

As concern over fracking ratchets up in Colorado, a main Colorado operator, Anadarko Petroleum Corp, agreed to pay more than $5 billion to clean up wood creosote and nuclear and rocket fuel waste that caused cancer and other health problems at sites around the country. The “social contract” that has allowed drillers like Anadarko to operate for decades in Colorado with few restrictions is eroding, and this kind of news likely won’t help rebuild trust. Via Reuters.

The Lexington Herald-Leader is having none of U.S. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s politics doublespeak on Obamacare and Kynect, Kentucky’s popular Obamacare insurance exchange. You can’t be for one (Kynect) and warring to uproot the other (Obamacare) “root and branch.”

Wall Street Journal admits narrative shifting on Obamacare. Democrats increasingly taking it up on the stump.

Florida’s climate-change-denying U.S. senator and GOP presidential hopeful Marco Rubio is probably not reading the National Climate Assessment research on rising sea levels. Things look bad for his constituents. Via Raw Story.