1. New York’s attorney general has
begun investigating whether Exxon
Mobil suppressed climate-change
research or misrepresented the risks
to the public and its investors. The
company denied any such
wrongdoing. But the scrutiny of a
fossil-fuel company may signal a
sweeping new front in the battle over
climate change.
_______
2. More world leaders
acknowledged the possibility that a
bomb took down a Russian plane
shortly after it left a resort in Egypt’s
Sinai Peninsula. President Obama
referred to it in a radio interview ,
and Prime Minister David Cameron,
speaking in London after meeting
with the Egyptian president, said a
bomb looked “increasingly likely.”
_______
3. Scientists penetrated a little more
of the mystery of Mars. The planet
once had an atmosphere as thick or
thicker than ours, creating the
conditions for a warm, habitable
planet with plenty of liquid water.
NASA scientists, drawing on new
data, said solar bombardments could
have eroded the protective layers of
gas, robbing Mars of air and water.
_______
4. The House overwhelmingly
approved a multiyear highway bill
over the objections of a small faction
of hard-line conservative
Republicans. The measure includes
more than $300 billion to address the
nation’s deteriorating roads and
bridges, but provides only three
years of financing for six years of
projects. The House measure must
now be reconciled with the version
the Senate already passed .
_______
5. Former President George H.W.
Bush, 91, finally broke his silence,
revealing in a new biography sharp
criticism of top figures in his son’s
administration . He called Donald
Rumsfeld “arrogant,” and said that
after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, Dick
Cheney seemed to be “knuckling
under to the real hard-charging guys
who want to fight about everything,
use force to get our way in the
Middle East.”
_______
6. Daniel Craig’s fourth Bond film,
“ Spectre,” opens nationally on Friday,
complete with the suave spy’s
trademark cuff-link tweak. Our critic
notes that the franchise retains its
conceit that the world’s “greatest
threat is an orderly criminal
organization run by a single
supervillain.” “But then it’s hard,”
she adds, “to imagine Bond taking on,
say, the Islamic State.”
_______
7. The National Toy Hall of Fame
passed over the Teenage Mutant
Ninja Turtle action figures, the
Battleship board game and the Wiffle
ball, choosing instead to induct
puppets as a generic item, Twister
and the Super Soaker water gun . All
have “icon status” and “profoundly
changed play or toy design,” a toy
expert explained.
_______
8. Nope, Chris Christie did not make
the cut for the next Republican
debate’s prime time lineup. He falls
to the so-called “undercard” event on
Tuesday, along with Mike Huckabee.
(Fox Business Network)
_______
9. Video emerged of an episode that
Serena Williams described on
Facebook this week as her superhero
turn. She chased down the man who
grabbed her cellphone from a
restaurant table. “In the most
menacing yet calm no nonsense voice
I could muster I kindly asked him if
he ‘accidentally’ took the wrong
phone,” she wrote. He returned it.
_______
10. The full text of the vast trans-
Pacific trade agreement was
released. Among its surprises:
Vietnam’s Communist government
agreed to grant potentially far-
reaching rights to workers, including
the freedom to unionize and to strike,
in return for expanded trade with
the U.S. But American labor groups
intensified their protests that the
pact would cost them jobs.
_______
11. Good news: Oscar de la Renta
does not and “never will use elephant
skin.” The clarification came after a
tempest in a typo. A pair of the
fashion giant’s heels went up on the
Gilt luxury shopping site this week
labeled “elephant skin,” prompting
denunciations from PETA, the animal
rights group. Gilt had to correct the
label: The shoes were made from the
skin of the elaphe snake.
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Posted by: Philip Ochika