A Silicon startup named Better Place plans to install 250,000 charging ports and up to 200 battery-exchange stations for electric autos in the Bay area by 2012.

The mayors of San Francisco, Oakland, and San Jose announced the ambitious public-private partnership last week. The mayors say that they predict that this network will make the area a top-priority market for electric-vehicle manufacturers.

And imagine this if you can: there plans also includes selling autos comparable to the way telecoms distributes cell phones.

Instead of purchasing a car outright, customers subscribe to a certain number of miles per month and get the electric car at a discounted rate, or even for free. Better Place operates the recharge grid and owns the batteries.

http://features.csmonitor.com/environment/2008/11/24/bay-area-seeks-to-become-electric-car-capital/

Plans are to have seven light rail lines which use supersized streetcars to bring downtown-style transit to the suburbs.

The new streetcars, which are Euro-style light-rail vehicles, are fast, traveling at speeds of 23 kilometres per hour. And imagine this: cars will run every four to six minutes in rush hour; and six to 10 minutes at low times.

That is a far cry from the usual 25 to 35 minutes wait here in my hometown of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and in winter months it seems like an eternity.

TTC (Toronto Transit Commission) Chairman Adam Giambrone made the following remark: “(Transit City) takes a downtown reality, where transit is not only competitive but, in many cases, is superior to the private automobile, and begins to extend that across the entire city, making transit a real and viable alternative to people in every corner of the city.”

http://www.masstransitmag.com/online/article.jsp?siteSection=3&id=7470&pageNum=1

During the war, the U.S. backed and funded El Salvador’s military to the tune of $3.6 billion, some of which was given to the infamous death squads that tortured, murdered and “disappeared” thousands of people, including an archbishop, priests, nuns, union leaders and journalists.

One of the more famous cases is once again making news- the 1989 case of the 6 slain Jesuit priests and their housekeeper and her daughter.

The Association for Human Rights in Spain (APDHE) with the support of the San Francisco-based organization Center for Justice and Accountability (CJA) has filed a criminal complaint with the Spanish High Court against former president of El Salvador Alfredo Cristiani Berkard and 14 former members of El Salvador’s armed forces for their murder.

Both the APDHE and the CJA have confirmed that there are eye witness accounts and government documents backing up their case.

In 1991 two military officers were convicted for the massacre, but were released due to a 1993 amnesty law. The Spanish criminal complaint brings hope of a renewed effort to do away with the amnesty laws so that the guilty will be punished for their crimes.

http://www.cispes.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=482&Itemid=28

Instead of the Reagan and Bush failed policy of trickle down, which amounts to nothing more than a new and perverse Robin Hood practice of robbing from the poor and giving to the rich, Barack Obama wants to repair the infrastructure with a massive New Deal type public works policy.

Can it work? Why not. To this day we drive on W.P.A.-built roads and send our children to W.P.A.-built schools that F.D.R. created to help mend our ailing economy in the 30’s and 40’s.

Obama is on the record as a supporter of the creation of a National Infrastructure Reinvestment Bank to invest $60 billion in projects over the next 10 years. With a Democratic Congress, he should have little difficulty in creating and funding such an enterprise.

http://www.masstransitmag.com/online/article.jsp?siteSection=3&id=7429

Allende refused the offer, and months later the U.S. helped knock him off, which led to our guy, the infamous General Pinochet, taking power.

At North Carolina State University, four students admitted to painting graffiti that said the following: “Shoot Obama” and “Kill that n—.”

Officials said the students will not be charged with a crime, and it was determined that there was no actual threat to Obama.

More than 500 people attended a rally at NCSU on Thursday to demonstrate opposition to the graffiti.

http://www.newsobserver.com/news/crime_safety/story/1286171.html

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5hSW67ySCio&feature=related

Imagine your homeland being swallowed up by a rising sea level. That is what seems to be happening to the 386,000 residents of the tiny Indian Ocean island nation named the Maldives.

In fact it is so threatening that Mohamed Nasheed, the new and first democratically elected president of Maldives has announced plans for a fund to buy land elsewhere in the region, where the country’s population could rebuild their lives. Nasheed has considered land in Sri Lanka, India, and Australia.

Surprisingly, the Maldives will not be the first population moved because of global warming; the homes of a half million residents of Bangladesh’s Bhola Island were swallowed in 1995 by rising sea levels.

Other low-lying Pacific islands that could disappear in this century include those in Tuvalu, Kiribati, the Marshall Islands, and Fiji.
http://features.csmonitor.com/environment/2008/11/11/faced-with-rising-sea-levels-the-maldives-seek-new-homeland/#more-597

Contrary to public opinion, in some cases felons do have the right to vote. For example in Virginia, an application must be filled out and approved by the governor. In Alabama, state law allows voting by felons convicted of lesser crimes such as possession of small amounts of drugs, battery or attempted burglary. In Florida, felons who have completed their sentence have the right to vote. It is estimated 115,000 are eligible.

Only two states – Maine and Vermont – place no limits on voting due to a criminal conviction; even prison inmates can cast a ballot. Nationally there are 4 million released felons.

There is a lot of confusion concerning felon’s right to vote, even among ex-felons. In North Carolina, when volunteers explain to ex-felons that they can register to vote, they are shocked to learn that.

The ACLU, the NAACP and others support a nationwide standard that would restore voting rights to all inmates once they leave prison.

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1131ap_felons_voting.html