Sunny, but chilly, most of the week
A deepening low pressure moved up the coast toward our region last night, causing rainy conditions. As the low moves away throughout the day today, lingering rain showers are most likely this morning, before tapering off in the afternoon. As the low moves offshore tonight, skies will remain cloudy before yielding to partly cloudy skies tomorrow. The primary significant weather for tomorrow will be winds, as sustained winds out of the northwest of 15–20 mph are expected, with gusts up to 30 mph. Cold air advection associated with this strong northwest flow will usher in colder air for tomorrow and Thursday, with temperatures as low as the upper 30s possible tomorrow and Thursday nights. Compared with climatological low temperatures of around 50°F, this will quite a bit cooler. Overall, a high pressure system with abundant cold air aloft will keep the weather dry, sunny, and cool for the next few days before warming up again for the holiday weekend.
TransCanada pipeline foes allege bias in State Department emails
A State Department official provided Fourth of July picnic invitations, subtle coaching and cheerleading, and inside information about Secretary Hillary Rodham Clinton’s meetings to a Washington lobbyist for a Canadian company seeking permission from the department to build a controversial pipeline that would carry crude from the oil sands of Canada to the Gulf of Mexico.
Some common ground found for legal adversaries on health care law
WASHINGTON — The 2010 health care overhaul law has provoked an unprecedented clash between the federal government and 26 states, dividing them on fundamental questions about the very structure of the federal system. But the two sides share a surprising amount of common ground, too, starting with their agreement in briefs, filed Wednesday, that the Supreme Court should resolve the clash in its current term.
Pakistani politicians reject Mullen’s attack charges
ISLAMABAD — Even as it revealed growing skepticism toward Pakistan’s powerful military, an extraordinary national security conference ended here late Thursday with a statement rejecting as “baseless” allegations from America’s top military official that Pakistan was facilitating militant attacks in Afghanistan.
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However grumpy when they wake up, and whether they stumble to their feet in Mumbai, Mexico City or Minnetonka, Minn., people tend to brighten by breakfast time and feel their mood taper gradually to a low in the late afternoon, before rallying again near bedtime, a large-scale study of posts on the social media site Twitter found.
Cool, rainy weather for the weekend
Today’s weather will feature mostly sunny skies and a final opportunity for the thermometer to reach near 80°F (27°C). A low pressure system, which is slowly dragging its way eastward across the upper Midwest, will allow southerly winds to develop across our region. These winds will surge in a warm air mass for today. But the dry conditions will be short-lived as the aforementioned low pressure tracks just to our south, slows down, and stalls over the Northeast.
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WASHINGTON — With his support among blue-collar white voters far weaker than among white-collar independents, President Barack Obama is charting an alternative course to re-election should he be unable to win Ohio and other industrial states traditionally essential to Democratic presidential victories.
Banks to make customers pay debit card fee
Bank of America, the nation’s biggest bank, said Thursday that it planned to start charging customers a $5 monthly fee when they used their debit cards. It was just one of several new charges expected to hit consumers as new regulations crimp banks’ profits.
Madoff trustee says ruling not as bad as first thought
The trustee for Bernard L. Madoff’s fraud victims said Thursday that he had overestimated how much his recovery efforts would be affected by a court ruling this week in his case against the owners of the New York Mets.
House of Representatives approves stopgap spending bill
WASHINGTON — The House on Thursday gave quick approval to a stopgap spending bill that will finance the government for the first four days of October, until lawmakers can return and vote on a more ambitious seven-week spending bill.
Wall Street rebounds on Europe hopes
Stocks on Wall Street rallied Monday as investors shrugged off some negative figures on the U.S. economy and reacted positively to unconfirmed reports that officials in Europe were developing plans to confront the continent’s fiscal crisis.
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The Iranian lawyer for the two U.S. hikers released on bail and repatriated last week after a two-year odyssey through Iran’s penal system appeared to distance himself from his clients in an interview published Monday, calling their accusations of mistreatment baseless and politically motivated.
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SAN FRANCISCO — One after another, like moths to a flame, technology companies have been seduced into entering the market for tablets. Apple made it look so irresistible, with 29 million eager and sometimes fanatical consumers snapping up an iPad in the device’s first 15 months.
Apple-picking season here; winter, not yet
The next few days look to be warm, humid, and rainy, with a crisp fall cold front moving through toward the end of the week. Along with autumn’s arrival comes the advent of apple-picking season; look for dorm and FSILG trips to nearby orchards in the near future!
Fighters enter Gadhafi stronghold city as toll rises
TRIPOLI, Libya — Fighters battling Moammar Gadhafi’s loyalists Monday entered the coastal city of Sirte from the east as residents fleeing the besieged city, one of the loyalists’ few remaining strongholds, warned of an escalating toll from the fighting. The foray by the former rebels, backed by a heavy bombardment from NATO warplanes, brought them to a traffic circle more than a mile from the city center, Reuters reported. In recent days, the rebels have struck deep into the city from the west, only to be beaten back by heavy resistance from Gadhafi fighters ensconced in the city.
Wangari Maathai, Nobel Peace Prize laureate, dies at 71
NAIROBI, Kenya — Dr. Wangari Maathai, the Kenyan environmentalist who began a movement to reforest her country by paying poor women a few shillings to plant trees and who went on to become the first African woman to win a Nobel Peace Prize, died here Sunday. She was 71.
Medvedev fires Russian finance minister for insubordination
MOSCOW — President Dmitry Medvedev fired Russia’s longtime finance minister for insubordination Monday after the two had an icy confrontation on television that revealed the fault lines in a government where disagreements are usually kept strictly under wraps.
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SAN FRANCISCO — Facebook, the Web’s biggest social network, is where you go to see what your friends are up to. Now it wants to be a force that shapes what you watch, hear, read and buy.
In Europe, a chorus of outrage over execution of Troy Davis
PARIS — Even in a region long disdainful of U.S. attitudes toward the death penalty, public officials, editorial writers and activists across Western Europe reacted with fury Thursday to news that Troy Davis was executed in Georgia on Wednesday night.
US eyes business opportunities in Libya as the embassy reopens
TRIPOLI, Libya — The United States formally reopened its embassy in Libya Thursday as the returning ambassador said that his government was cautiously optimistic about the country’s future and already trying to help U.S. companies exploit business opportunities there.