Good News Friday

Gosh, it is so gorgeous here in Nashville this morning: lows in the 40s, high will just hit 70. I wish I could bottle this weather because we’ll need it come August.

It’s going to be a perfect Memorial Day Weekend. What’s happening in your world today?

• Good news, bad news: The Boy Scouts have lifted their ban on gay youth (they had a ban on gay youth?), but they’re keeping their ban on gay troop leaders. Honestly, I was talking to some friends about this last weekend, and they seemed to feel like scouting in general is losing steam in American culture — kids today have so many other opportunities, and there are so many other things to do. The idea of everyone wearing identical paramilitary outfits while pledging to be clean and courteous just seems so hopelessly quaint and irrelevant.

I know when I was in middle school, nothing got you branded as a big LOSER faster than wearing a scouting uniform to school. So I think this decision is just a reflection of the demise of scouting in general. People will raise a stink and make a big hoo-hah, I’m sure the right-wingers will want to enroll their kids in one of the many religious/conservative alternatives to the Boy Scouts but all in all, the decline of scouting will continue because it’s not 1950 anymore and kids would rather play on their XBox.

So yes, glad you’re not banning gay youth, something the Scouts never should have done to begin with. But you’re pretty culturally out of touch in general, and I see this as closing the barn door long after the horses escaped.

• New home sales rose 30% in April, reaching near record levels, and prices have risen to near-record levels as well, all signs of a strong economic recovery. Obama is the worst Socialist ever.

• The Ninth Circuit has struck down an Arizona law banning abortions after 20 weeks, calling it unconstitutional because it “deprives the women to whom it applies of the ultimate decision to terminate their pregnancies prior to fetal viability,” and therefore is unconstitutional “under a long line of invariant Supreme Court precedents.”

• Remember Kiera Wilmot, the Florida teen charged with felonies and expelled over a science project gone wrong? She’s been cleared of all charges and given a scholarship to the U.S. Space Academy’s “Space Camp” program, courtesy of a NASA veteran who in high school was accused of starting a forest fire when his science project went wrong.

• Women’s nipples will not be dubbed indecent in North Carolina, at least for now.

• We may not have Michele Bachmann to kick around much longer.

• Tesla says it has repaid its federal loan almost 10 years ahead of schedule.

• After just three years, the Great Crane Project has successfully produced the first crane egg in southern Britain in more than 400 years. Cranes are functionally extinct in Britain.

• Britain’s House Of Commons voted to approve same-sex marriage. The House of Lords needs to pass the bill for it to become law.

• The Peace Corps will allow same-sex couples to serve together starting next month.

• Delaware becomes the seventh state to ban shark fins.

• What hellish hairy beast is this?

It’s a “Strawscaper,” a skyscraper covered in “hair” (actually straws) which harness wind energy and turn your typical skyscraper into an urban power plant. This creepy vision brought to you by Swedish design firm Belatchew Labs.

• Another culture-war battle lost for conservatives: Illinois has banned abstinence-only sex ed.

• It’s not all burqas and backseats for Saudi women: meet Raha Mobarak, the first woman from Saudi Arabia to scale Mount Everest.

Good News, Tennesee Edition:

• Tennessee Congress Varmint Rep. Scott DesJarlais has been fined by the Tennessee Board Of Medical Examiners for having sexual affairs with two patients.

• One of the great things about being the next “it” city is that Nashville has become foodie central. I mean geez, I remember when I first moved here the most exotic food you could get was bad Thai. But innovative chefs have been flocking to our fair city over the past few years and now it seems like there’s an exciting new restaurant opening every week. One newcomer is Chef Sean Brock’s Husk, which opens Thursday. We’ll probably be able to get a reservation sometime around Christmas.

• Congratulations to 2012 Brentwood High grad Mark Daniel, recipient of a $100,000 Thiel Foundation fellowship. Daniel will spend two years launching his start-up, StatusHawk. Much is being said about the fellowship’s requirement that recipients leave school for two years to focus on their entrepreneurial ideas, but I don’t see what the big deal is. Mormon missionary kids leave school for two years to do their thing and no one cries bloody murder. Good luck, Mark.

• First Lady Michelle Obama visited our fair city last weekend to deliver the commencement address at Martin Luther King Jr. High School. It was a tremendous thrill for the kids, especially since this will be the only high school commencement address she will give this year. You can hear her speech at the link.

• On a related note, students at Knoxville’s Sarah Moore Greene Elementary School who helped Michelle Obama plant her White House vegetable garden have been invited back to see the results of that hard work and help with the summer harvest.

• Memphis’ infant mortality rate has dropped.

This week’s cool video comes from CNN: Wolf Blitzer was shocked to find an atheist in a foxhole the Oklahoma tornado rubble. It’s hilarious. Blitzer is taking a lot of flak for his “you gotta thank the Lord” question, but really I think this just shows how trite and cliche American religiosity has become.

Good News Friday

End of a long, hard week. And I’m not even talking about the news …. I’m about done with the project which has kept me occupied for the past six weeks, though. Halla freaking looya.

• Congratulations to Helene Ballmann Dudley of Miami, FL, who was honored by Former President Jimmy Carter and Peace Corps Chief of Staff Stacy Rhodes with the 2013 Lillian Carter Award.

• Is there an evil corporation in your life you’d like to boycott? Koch Bros., say, or Monsanto? There’s an app for that.

• A Danish teenager with a metal detector uncovered a cache of Viking-era coins and artifacts. Hmm. Maybe I should renew my search for the Lost Dutchman gold mine?

• The Catholic church voices opposition to Eurozone austerity.

• Atlanta’s city council is considering zoning for gun ranges so they are at least 800 feet from residences, churches, schools, libraries and hospitals. The proposal is supported by the council’s public safety committee.

• The Senate rejected an NRA-backedproposal that would have allowed firearms on more federal lands, such as those operated by the Army Corps of Engineers.

• Mobile payment startup Square, run by billionaire Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey, bans gun, weapondry and ammo sellers from using its technology.

• Citing the Republican Party’s prevailing “culture of intolerance,” the Hispanic Director for the RNC-FL has switched to the Democratic Party.

• Brazil becomes the 15th country to legalize same-sex marriage. And here in the U.S., Minnesota makes it 12 states.

• Faith communities and the Pasadena, CA, PD hosted a gun buyback event.

• A Florida “parent trigger” bill which would have allowed private corporations to seize taxpayer-funded schools failed for the second year in a row.

• Guatemala’s ex-dictator has been convicted of genocide. It’s the first time any former head of state has been found guilty of genocide by the courts of the same state.

• U.S. Marines are packing up and leaving Afghanistan for good.

• Nestle will use non-GMO maize in its infant cereals in South Africa. Maybe the rest of us can get that deal?

Good News, Tennessee Edition:

• Gov. Haslam announced he will veto the ag-gag bill.

• Congratulations, Dr. Frances Henderson: the first African American woman to get tenure at Maryville College.

And this week’s cool video is this bizarre English language lesson/self defense class/aerobics video. Oh, Japan. Stay adorable:

Good News Friday

I’ve been so slammed this week, I feel like I’ve neglected my blog friends. I managed to scrape together a few items of good news, though. Have a good weekend and remember to call your mother!

• It’s a miracle: a survivor has been found in the rubble of the collapsed Bangladesh garment factory where more than 1,000 workers perished.

• On a related note, an increasing number of clothing retailers are responding to consumers’ concerns about where and how clothing is manufactured.

• Saudi Arabia will start letting girls play sports — in private schools, if they dress “modestly.” Baby steps.

• Elizabeth Smart explained how abstinence-only education actually harms women who are victims of sexual assault. This is a perspective on the sex education debate I’ve never considered before, and I really appreciate her candor.

• Environmentalists and agricultural groups are touting a compromise reached on farmland conservation. Have to say, I don’t know much about this issue at all, but FWIW, it’s seen as a promising sign in getting a farm bill through Congress.

• Cheaper, faster Wi-Fi in-flight, that’s better than what you get at home? I might actually enjoy flying again.

• The California State Assembly passed a transgender rights bill. The measure has moved on to the state Senate.

• Hong Kong port workers ended their 40-day strike, winning a 9.8% pay raise.

• Merck and GlaxoSmithKline have drastically lowered the cost of their HPV vaccines in Third World nations to under $5 a dose.

• New Hampshire Sen. Kelly Ayotte, facing backlash over her vote against universal background checks, has done the ol’ flip-flop.

• Another one bites the dust: Delaware becomes the 11th state to legalize same-sex marriage. I think we all know how this one it gonna play out.

• …. and Minnesota would make 12…

• Seems like I’ve posted this before, but it appears the slowdown in rising healthcare costs is permanent. While I’d prefer permanently declining costs — this isn’t that — I’ll take what I can.

• The Louisiana Supreme Court struck down Gov. Jindal’s school voucher plan, saying its method of funding is unconstitutional.

• College divestment campaigns are creating the next generation of environmental leaders.

• This is so cool: linguists have discovered two dozen 15,000-year-old ‘ultraconserved words’. So study up before you crawl inside that time machine!

Good News, Tennessee Edition:

• A Clarksville Boy Scout leader has resigned to protest the Scouts’ anti-gay policies.

• Pit bull puppies and dogs will no longer immediately be killed at Metro Nashville Animal Control, a reversal of longstanding policy.

• Meet the Tennessee Justice Center’s Dad of the Year, who fought to obtain healthcare for his son.

* LightWave Solar completed the installation of a 211 kW solar system for the Music City Center, making it the largest solar installation in Nashville. Here’s ‘a photo:

• Good riddance Albert Tieche, and good riddance Jim Gotto. I haven’t written about this but y’all have to know there’s been a major internecine battle going on inside the Davidson County Republican Party which has involved the Nashville-Davidson County Election Commission. The state GOP appointed a Tea Party wacko to head our election commission, which predictably resulted in some major election day problems and angered moderate Republicans, who are tired of Tea Party stupidity:

The state report said the problems included failing to open the polls on a Saturday during early voting; machines that sometimes defaulted to the Republican ballot during the primary; and shortages of poll workers, printed forms, parking and phone lines on Election Day.

Commissioner Jim Gotto resigned during the meeting and criticized others for seemingly fast-tracking the firing of Tieche. Gotto told the commission’s chairman that he had lost his “respect and trust.”

The fact that Jim Gotto “resigned in protest” is just icing on the cake, as far as I’m concerned. Our election commission lost two partisan wackjobs for the price of one. Hooray. A more detailed report on this story is here, for those interested.

• Good riddance, number two. This is one legislator who stayed long, long past his expiration date, and I say this because I lived in his district for years. I still haven’t forgiven Sen. Henry for his crackpot statements about rape. Every time I called his office in the past few years I ended up speaking to an extremely rude and unpleasant female aide, and I’ve even wondered on occasion if this person hasn’t been acting as our de facto state senator because the octogenarian Sen. Henry was unable to do so. So, farewell, good riddance, and it’s time for some fresh blood.

This week’s cool video: What American English Sounds Like To Non-English Speakers:

Good News Friday

It’s been a busy week and I haven’t had a lot of time to collect this week’s good news. Still, we’ve got a healthy collection of good news this week. And you absolutely must scroll down to watch this week’s cool video. That’s an order.

• Ohio Senate GOP leadership killed its own “right to work” legislation, fearing it would only further mobilize Democrats.

• The rebuilt One World Trade Center is officially the tallest building in the Western Hemisphere, standing at — you guessed it — 1,776 feet.

• Danish scientists believe they have found a cure for HIV.

• Scientists poking around in the brain’s hypothalamus have found the key to aging and have successfully tweaked it to shorten or lengthen the lives of lab mice. On further reflection, this actually might not be good news. I think we’ve all seen how this movie ends.

• Colorado expanded voting rights to include such things as same-day voter registration and mail-in ballots sent to every voter.

• Gov. Lincoln Chaffee signed Rhode Island’s Marriage Equality Act into law, becoming the 10th state to legalize same sex marriage.

• A lesbian couple in Kazakhstan made history by having Central Asia’s first same-sex wedding. The ceremony is being heralded as a big step forward for gay rights in Central Asia, despite the fact that the marriage is not legally recognized.

• Pirate attacks are down 75%.

• An elementary school in Queens, N.Y. is the first public school in New York — and possibly the entire United States — to have an all-vegetarian menu.

• A jury awarded $240 million plus back pay to 32 mentally disabled men who suffered decades of abuse while working at an Iowa turkey processing plant. The men were treated as “virtual slaves,” paid as little as $65 a month and living in rodent-infested conditions.

• Seventeen colleges and universities terminated their sports apparel contracts with Adidas in protest over how the company handled worker’s rights in Indonesia.

• Imam Daayiee Abdullah welcomes gay couples to worship in his D.C. mosque and says he’ll even perform gay marriage ceremonies.

• Roxbury, MA, elementary school principle fires school security guards to hire art teachers, and test scores improve faster than anywhere else in the state.

• Georgia’s Wilcox County High School held its first-ever integrated prom. You know, I’m glad the kids got to go to prom with their friends regardless of their race but did the people of Wilcox County, Georgia really have to wait for Facebook to be invented to knock down that barrier? Really??

• NASA is exploring renewable biofuels to fuel commercial jets.

• There’s been some backlash against five senators who voted against gun background checks.

• NBA player Jason Collins, most recently of the Washington Wizards, came out as gay.

• An openly gay soccer player is training with the L.A. Galaxy.

Good News, Tennessee Edition:

• A Hendersonville teacher won the Country Music Marathon last week in Nashville! Wow. Hendersonville is a suburb of Nashville, and this marks the first time a local person has won the race. Let me add, it was cold and poured rain all morning — in fact, some streets near me flooded. This was one marathon which must have taken an extra amount of determination to finish.

• On a related note, the marathon route goes right past a local mosque, which opened its doors to runners and spectators who needed to get out of the rain. Volunteers from the congregation manned a nearby water station and cheered runners on.

• Tennessee teachers are grabbing all of the headlines! Congratulations to Kingsport teacher Stephen Woodward whose screenplay “Crush” won the WriteMovies International Screenwriting Competition.

• Keeping with the education theme, congrats to Volunteer State Community College’s student magazine The Pioneer, which won the College Media Assn.’s 2012 Apple Award for this marijuana-leaf themed cover design.

• A Hamilton County grand jury recommends that possession of small amounts of pot be legalized to reduce the number of criminal cases in court.

• Kenny Chesney started a fund to help the victims of the Boston Marathon bombing. This is the kind of shit we have to do in a country without a functioning healthcare system: depend on the kindness and generosity of celebrities. Glad some are willing to step up.

• Nashville led the country in 2012 job growth, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

And without further ado, here is the best video on the internet EVER:

Good News Friday

I’ve been super busy this week, but I haven’t forgotten you, blog family. Here’s your weekly dose of good news:

• Suck it, “Drill here, drill now” folks: renewables are the wave of the future and that’s not just tree-huggers talking, that’s free market reality:

By 2030, renewables will account for 70 percent of new power supply worldwide, according to projections released today from Bloomberg New Energy Finance. Bloomberg analysts examined gas prices, carbon prices, the dwindling price of green energy technology, and overall energy demand (which, in the US at least, is on a massive decline), and found solar and wind beating fossil fuels like coal and natural gas by 2030.

That whistle you just heard was the green train leaving the station. Climb aboard or be left behind with your dead dinosaurs.

• And on an related note, an ALEC-sponsored bill to end renewable energy subsidies went down in flames in North Carolina.

• Fairfield, Conn.-based GE Capital announced it will stop lending to gun shops. As an FYI, Newtown shooter Adam Lanza’s father is an executive with GE.

• Congratulations to London-based artist Lynette Yiadom-Boakye, the first black woman to be short-listed for the prestigious Turner Prize.

• A breakthrough in diabetes research may someday eliminate the need for insulin injections.

• Philadelphia passed a sweeping LGBT equality bill.

• Europe seems to have finally realized that austerity does not work:

Europe is awakening to the fact that Austerity does not produce growth and the time to rein in debt spending is during booms, not on the heels of a major bust when spending is needed more than ever.

Wow. Meanwhile, austerity measures have been blamed for high unemployment across the Eurozone (not good news!) as public sector jobs have been cut. Hmm, government really does create jobs? Someone please alert America’s Republican Party and Democratic Party Blue Dogs, who are still clueless.

• Environmental activist Tim DeChristopher has been freed. If you’ve never heard of him, I wrote about his case here.

• Nine letters written by J.D. Salinger have been discovered.

• Members of the Teamsters Local 25 shielded mourners attending the funeral of Boston bombing victim Krystle Campbell from the Westboro Baptist Cult Church picketers. Union thugs outclass anti-gay bigots, gotta love it.

• Right-wing gasbag Rush Limbaugh is becoming increasingly irrelevant. First, The Hollywood Reporter left him off their list of the “35 Most Powerful People In Media.” But even more damning are the words of Republican strategist Frank Luntz, who told College Republicans at the University of Pennsylvania that Limbaugh and right-wing talk radio in general are a problem for the GOP:

And they get great ratings, and they drive the message, and it’s really problematic. And this is not on the Democratic side. It’s only on the Republican side…[inaudible]. [Democrats have] got every other source of news on their side. And so that is a lot of what’s driving it. If you take—Marco Rubio’s getting his ass kicked. Who’s my Rubio fan here? We talked about it. He’s getting destroyed! By Mark Levin, by Rush Limbaugh, and a few others. He’s trying to find a legitimate, long-term effective solution to immigration that isn’t the traditional Republican approach, and talk radio is killing him. That’s what’s causing this thing underneath. And too many politicians in Washington are playing coy.

Hoisted by their own petard.

• New York City unveils its Nissan all-electric Leaf taxis. All hail this super-quiet ride.

• The French parliament has approved same-sex marriage. I thought this happened last week but apparently that was just the French senate.

• There’s a wisteria tunnel in Japan, and I’m linking to a photo of it because it’s spring and I think wisteria is freaking awesome times a thousand. Love it.

Good News, Tennessee Edition:

• The Tennessee General Assembly decided it had heaped enough humiliation on the state for the year and called it a day. The session was marked by infighting, legislative duds like “Starve The Childen” and “Don’t Say Gay,” and some John Birch Society craziness like “Agenda 21″ — all of which brought national attention of the wrong kind to the state. It goes without saying, this legislative dud was brought to you by the Republican supermajority. Go home, Tennessee Republicans. And stay home.

• Check out this solar-powered soda vending kiosk, made in Chattanooga. Perfect for Bonnaroo.

• The Nashville Zoo is playing an important role in preserving the endangered clouded leopard, with the birth of three cubs this spring.

This week’s cool video is an excerpt from a TED talk. Even capuchin monkeys know that unequal pay is wrong. Why don’t Republicans know this?

Good News Friday

Holy shit. What a week! If ever we needed good news, it’s this week.

I’m watching the events in Boston unfold on my TV and all I can think is, the best news is that they found those fuckers. But Boston and half a dozen other cities are still on lockdown and it’s far from over. Be safe, Boston, Watertown, and the rest; when this is all over, you guys deserve a stiff drink, a vacation, and the tremendous thanks and admiration of an entire nation.

On to some other good news:

• A California man bought the domain name “BostonMarathonConspiracy.com” to stave off conspiracy theorists like the ones which cropped up post-Newtown shooting. This is some citizen action I could get behind. I’m starting to think there’s no greater cancer on our discourse than the tinfoil hate (pun intended) peddled by crackpots like Alex Jones. Please, DIAF, asshole.

• The US infant mortality rate has declined.

• Boy Scouts of America spokesperson says the organization is about to end its ban on gays.

• Things are not looking good for climate change deniers these days.

• A judge has sided with YouTube in a $1 billion copyright infringement lawsuit Viacom filed against the internet service over use of clips from The Daily Show and South Park.

• Mar Monte Planned Parenthood has opened a new clinic in West Oakland, in the San Francisco Bay Area. The clinic, two years in the works, will provide a variety of health services for men and women, including STD testing, colon cancer and cervical cancer screenings, and abortion referral. Abortions will not be performed at the clinic.

• Serbia and Kosovo kiss and make up.

• A West Virginia high school student filed an injunction against her school principal after she protested an inaccurate abstinence-ed assembly and he threatened to call the college where she’s been accepted and tell them she has “bad character.”

• Snoop Lion (aka, Snoop Dogg) is turning illegal guns into jewelry, with the proceeds going to a gun buyback program.

• Busch family heir and lifelong gun rights advocate Adolphus Busch IV has resigned his lifetime NRA membership following the defeat of gun control in the U.S. Senate. Read his scathing letter to the NRA here.

• Amtrak had its best month ever in March, and looks to close out its fiscal year besting last year’s ridership record.

• Australia’s national HPV vaccine program has been deemed an overwhelming success, with rates of HPV-related diseases dropping 59% in young women and 39% in men. The U.S. tried to get a similar national vaccination program going but was blocked by the fundie right because SCARY VAGINA and SHUT UP.

• New Zealand has approved a same-sex marriage law, which goes into effect in August.

• North Dakota Gov. Dalrymple, a Republican, signed the state’s Medicaid expansion bill.

• The Sierra Club and the Center for Biological Diversity won a major court victory in California related to proposed fracking operations.

• Milwaukee voters overwhelmingly approved a referendum retaining same-day voter registration.

• France passed a bill legalizing same-sex marriage and adoptions by gay couples.

• Lab-grown kidneys have been successfully transplanted into rats.

• There is a pro-gun lobby that is not quite as crazy as the NRA. And they supported universal background checks.

• Congratulations, InsideClimate News, on your Pulitzer Prize.

• A breakthrough in battery technology points to powerful “micro-batteries.”

Good News, Tennessee Edition:

• The Knoxville News Sentinel says it will ignore the ag-gag bill.

• Three Vanderbilt University professors were awarded Guggenheim Fellowships.

• I’m sending some major love and respect to Mary Loveless, who staged a one-woman protest outside a Memphis gun show last weekend.

• Here’s a feel-good story for you: injured MTSU football player Darius Johnson helps save Special Olympiad in the midst of a seizure.

• Apparently a Knoxville girl has made it into the final five of American Idol. Have to say, I don’t watch that show, so I’ve got know idea what kind of singer she is, but regardless: congrats.

• Mike Schiotis of Spring Hill, TN was one of 22 people to receive the Carnegie Medal for “extraordinary acts of heroism” yesterday. In 2011 Schiotis, a truck driver, rescued an unknown woman from her gun-wielding boyfriend.

• The wine in grocery stores bill passed out of the Senate Finance Committee, and while the House killed its companion measure, this keeps the issue alive for the next legislative session.

After a week like this one, I think we all need some cute kitteh video:

And a bonus video for the geeks among us, here’s what happens when you wring out a sponge in space:

Good News Friday

Whew, glad it’s Friday. Your weekly progress report:

• A Federal bankruptcy judge has denied the $20 million severance package proposed for ex-American Airlines CEO Tom Horton. Jesus. Drive your company into bankruptcy and float away from the wreckage with a $20 million golden parachute? I don’t think so.

• At BP’s shareholder meeting in London a major institutional investor voted against the proposed executive pay and bonuses, joining small investors who criticized the board over share buybacks, the Gulf of Mexico spill, “and even the company logo.”

• Starbucks is lowering the price of its bagged coffee.

• Analysts predict U.S. electric vehicle sales will surge 130% this year. Leading the way is the EV-gas hybrid Chevy Volt which is funny ‘cuz I kinda remember wingnuts going all-in on trying to squash the Volt last year.

• The gun control bill has survived a threatened filibuster and will move forward in the Senate. Both Sen. Lamar Alexander and Sen. Bob Corker voted yes to move forward (though Alexander has said he does not support universal background checks, I guess he thinks allowing 40% of gun sales to occur without any background check makes sense for some bizarre reason.)

• Suck on this one, Ken Cuccinelli — literally! Virginia is still for lovers.

• Uruguay has approved a same-sex marriage bill, and it’s expected to be signed into law in two weeks.

• The Mormon church, which had mobilized en masse to get California’s Proposition 8 passed, now appears to be abandoning its fight against same sex marriage. The church had been one of the major driving forces against marriage equality since “at least” 1995.

• Add Glenn Beck to the list of formerly anti-gay conservatives now throwing in the towel on the gay marriage debate.

• The NHL and its players’ union have launched their anti-homophobia initiative, You Can Play. Proud to say this effort has the support of my beloved Nashville Predators! Our Team Captain Shea Webter has made this PSA.

• Blue Shield of California will now cover issues related to gender reassignment treatment and surgery.

• Assassinated abortion doctor George Tiller’s Kansas clinic has reopened.

• The good news: use of the death penalty is falling around the world, says Amnesty International. The bad news:

The five countries carrying out most executions remain China, Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, and the US.

That’s some pretty fucked-up company to be in, America.

• Did you know the International Space Station has its first-ever Canadian commander? Me neither. And he’s taken some amazing photos of earth, which you can see here.

• New York City will pay Occupy Wall Street more than $365,000 for destruction of the group’s library.

• A building in Germany is powered entirely by algae.

• Cooking waste will fuel a power station in London in what is believed to be the world’s largest “fat-fueled power station.” Using cooking grease to generate electricity will also alleviate a major drain-clogging problem in the city which costs an estimated £1m a month. Apparently the London sewer system experiences 40,000 fat-caused blockages a year.

• Is Ann Coulter too extreme even for Fox Nation? Apparently so: they yanked her column where she joked about killing Meghan McCain.

• The U.S. solar market grew 76% in 2012.

• Aero, a new web start-up, delivers local news and live sports coverage to home computers over the internet for a fee. It’s the last barrier to ditching cable/satellite completely and getting all of your TV over the internet. Broadcasters are not amused.

• Archaeologists uncover more than 10,000 objects from Roman London.

• The pen is mightier than the bulldozer: 12-year-old Olivia Peters saved a swath of old-growth forest in British Columbia by writing a letter.

• Doctors are finally admitting there’s a connection between diet and acne.

Good News, Tennessee Edition:

• Stick a fork in Stacey Campfield’s “Starve The Children” bill, which was sent to summer study purgatory. Even Campfield’s Republican colleagues spoke harshly about the legislation, and Campfield has been publicly shamed by children and protestors organized by Clergy for Justice.

• There was a Memphis Music night at the White House and a whole bunch of Tennessee folks were there, including Nashvillian Steve Cropper and Memphis native Justin Timberlake.

• First Lady Michelle Obama will deliver the commencement address at Martin Luther King Jr. Magnet School here in Nashville.

• Nashville was one of four U.S. cities to receive a Rockefeller Foundation grant to support bus rapid transit. The $1.2 million grant will be used to “support research, communications and community outreach” for the proposed East-West Connector line.

For this week’s video we go across the pond. I must say, the Brits are astonishingly unsentimental about their deceased political leaders. Margaret Thatcher is being remembered as an extremely divisive personality, to the point where the Wizard of Oz song “Ding Dong The Witch Is Dead” now tops the UK music charts. There’s been none of the mythologizing and revisionist history and temporary nice time we get in the U.S. when a prominent figure dies. With that in mind, here’s former actress/current MP Glenda Jackson’s floor speech about Thatcher. Try to imagine how this would play in the U.S. if, say, an Alan Grayson type uttered this type of speech following the death of Ronald Reagan?

Good News Friday

Spring has been dragging its feet but I think it will finally make an appearance in Nashville this weekend. With that in mind, here are some other signs of progress from around the world. Enjoy!

• Guitarist Mark Knopfler cancelled concerts in Russia over recent human rights crackdowns in which Russian authorities raided over 100 human rights organizations, including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch.

• Connecticut passed tough new gun laws. So did Maryland.

• Hey, Koch Brothers! Suck it! Environmentalists have their own billionaire in California hedge fund manager Tom Steyer, and he’s vowed to make climate change “the defining issue of our generation.”

• Tesla Motors announced it has turned a profit and will start repaying its $65 million DOE loan five years ahead of schedule. This is bad news for Mitt Romney and the rest of the GOPers who just lost a favorite talking point: that green energy investments are plagued with failures. Actually,

Of the 30 firms that manufacture electric-vehicle battery and drive components that received stimulus funding in 2009, 28 continue to deliver, while 23 of the 26 renewable energy companies that have received taxpayer loans are still on track. That’s more than 90% of the federally supported clean tech companies that continue to perform, which is much better than the market does on its own. In fact, a Sept. 19, 2012, article in the Journal cited research showing that 30% to 40% of venture capital-funded companies from 2004 to 2010 completely failed and were liquidated.

That’s David Friedman, Senior Vehicle Engineer with the Union of Concerned Scientists, in a letter to the Wall Street Journal.

• The Associated Press has dropped “illegal immigrant” from its style book.

• A Federal judge has ordered the FDA to lift the age restriction on the morning after pill.

• A coast-to-coast solar airplane promo flight has been scheduled for May 1. The flight is more inspirational than aspirational:

While the $112 million plane is fully capable of crossing the United States nonstop (which would take three days, given its limited speed of 43 miles per hour—about one-tenth the speed of commercial airliners), it’s unable to due to “security reasons.”

Instead the plane will spend 10 days in Phoenix, Dallas, and Washington D.C. to teach students and pilots about solar-powered flight.

• An endangered Florida panther has been released into the wilds of the Florida Everglades.

• The murder rate dropped 42% in Chicago, and shootings were down 27%. Let me add, a popular talking point among gun loonz is that “Chicago has the strictest gun laws in the nation but the highest murder rate.” Keep talking, gun loonz. While Chicago may have strict laws, the state of Illinois does not. Which further proves what gun control advocates have been saying all along: this patchwork of different city, county, state and federal regulations does not work. We need a universal, federal standard. Sorry, loonz. Hoisted on your own petard, you lose.

• The UN adopted its first arms trade treaty, which regulates exports of small arms. The only opposition came from North Korea, Iran, Syria … and the NRA. The treaty has no affect on the Second Amendment as it applies to arms exports, thus the NRA’s opposition is further proof that this organization represents not gun owners, but manufacturers and weapons dealers.

• Marijuana possession has been officially decriminalized in Rhode Island. Pot is going to be the next Gay Marriage, I predict.

• Sen. Mark Kirk of Illinois becomes the second Republican to come out in favor of same-sex marriage.

• The rapid decline in healthcare spending appears to be permanent, which is good news for the economy’s long-term health.

• Pope Francis said thanks but no thanks to the Papal palace apartment (say that one ten times fast!). Looks like we’ve got us a hippie Pope.

• Thank you, Sir Paul McCartney.

• Saudi women can now ride bikes in public, with some restrictions of course.

• Swiss drug maker Novartis lost its patent case before India’s Supreme Court, which is seen as a significant step toward increasing Third World access to generic drugs.

• Hagfish slime, the latest in haute couture? Maybe!

• The Netherlands’ state museum, Amsterdam’s Rijksmuseum, will reopen next week after being closed for nearly 10 years. I’ve been to this musuem and it’s absolutely incredible. If you’re ever in the neighborhood, it’s worth a trip to Amsterdam to see it.

Good News, Tennessee Edition:

• It’s not all gays and Sharia law at the Tennessee legislature: a bill requiring meningococcal immunizations of all students living on campus at state schools awaits the governor’s signature. And the House has approved a reduction on the food tax. Of course, the idea that we tax food at all is still incredibly immoral, IMHO. But, baby steps.

• My Congresscritter Rep. Jim Cooper says he favors same-sex marriage.

• The KKK rally in Memphis last weekend was a big, fat nothingburger.

• Tennessee Republicans’ horrible idea to let the two parties’ legislative caucuses select U.S. Senate candidates instead of voters via the primary process is DOA. And yes, as I observed back in January, this was all about neutering the Tea Party.

• I won’t go so far as to say Gov. Bill Haslam has found his spine, but he is edging away from the wackadoodle. He withdrew his school voucher proposal, and has “expressed serious reservations” and “would strongly consider a veto” (the gubernatorial equivalent of a frownie face) about the Republicans’ sadistic “Suffer The Children” bill, which cuts welfare for families whose kids get bad grades.

This week’s video is a brief round-up of sequester cuts nationwide; it’s far from comprehensive — for example, Vanderbilt University Medical Center is forced to trim $50 million from its budget, which is unmentioned. Nonetheless, the video is intended to show the broad impact the sequester has had on our communities, everything from food pantries and Head Start programs to shuttered campgrounds and air traffic control sites.

Death by a thousand cuts, I guess.

Good News Friday

It’s Friday already? Where did the week go? Without further ado:

• The biggest news of the week is that things look promising for DOMA’s repeal.

• A trip to the International Space Station now just takes six hours.

• This Indiana dairy farm is powered by cow manure — including its delivery trucks.

• The S&P 500 closed at an all-time high on Thursday. President Obama is the worst. Socialist. Ever.

• St. Louis-based restaurant chain Panera is offering “pay-what-you-want” turkey chili in its 48 hometown restaurants as part of its anti-hunger efforts.

• Yet another study finds no link between autism and early childhood vaccines. Okay, can we put this one to rest now, people? And start looking at what actually may be the cause of autism?

• Congratulations Julia Pearson, the first woman to head the U.S. Secret Service.

• Scotland goes ahead with wind farm plans, ruffling Donald Trump’s toupe.

• A federal inmate won his case before the U.S. Supreme Court this week. His petition was written by hand, and for most of his case he acted as his own attorney.

• The U.S. military ceded control of its last detention facility in Afghanistan.

• American soda consumption continues to decline. Proud to say the first thing I got Mr. Beale to do when we got married was give up Diet Pepsi and switch to unsweet iced tea. Now if I could only get him to switch to water ….

• Kentucky Gov. Steve Beshear has vetoed that state’s so-called “religious freedom” bill that, like most conservative legislation of this type, does the exact opposite of what it says it will do.

• Commercial bus drivers in Sweden who segregated passengers with foreign-sounding names into buses separate from those with Swedish names have been fired.

•  Patricia Kobalski’s missing cat Zuul was found hiding in the wall of her home moments before a wrecking ball was about to demolish the entire place. The cat had been missing since a plane crashed into the home six days earlier.

• Sen. Claire McCaskill of Missouri has come out in favor of same-sex marriage.

• An endangered giraffe was born at a Connecticut conservation center.

• Trader Joe’s and Whole Foods say they won’t sell genetically modified salmon.

• The Los Angeles County Museum of Art has made 20,000 artistic images available for free download.

• Watch out, Elon Musk: Detroit Electric is on your heels! The first all-electric car company headquartered in Detroit is about to unveil its sports coupe and it’s a beaut:

WANTwantWANTwantWANT

Good News, Tennessee Edition:

• Rep. Mark Pody has pulled his House bill retaliating against Vanderbilt University for passing an all-comers policy last year. The highly-controversial bill, which would have stripped the private university of its right to operate a police force unless it dropped its non-discrimination policy, was believed to be unconstitutional.

• Tennessee roadway fatalities are down.

• Belmont University will enroll 25 Nashville public high school students free of charge in a program called Bridge To Belmont, which they hope to expand next year.

• The “Don’t Say Gay” bill died in committee … again. I suspect this nonsense will keep coming back until we vote people like Stacey Campfield out of office.

My highlighted video made the rounds last week after the Steubenville rape case made headlines. If you missed it, it’s how to treat a drunk girl:

Good News Friday

This week has been exhausting. It’s been hard without Cleo, I still think about her every day. I’ve been busy with some incredibly taxing classwork; yes, I’m working toward a certification that will hopefully put me on a different career trajectory that I’m actually really super excited about. And finally, Punxsutawney Phil can bite me. We’re supposed to get snow flurries today, it’s cold and grim, and I just want spring to arrive, already.

Here’s some good news collected from around the interwebs. Hope it’s spring where you are.

• Gen. Lloyd Austin became the first African American to lead the United States Central Command.

• Wind energy production in China increased more than coal power production for the first time in 2012. Wind also surpasses China’s nuclear power production. Coal still provides 79% of China’s power but that is slowly waning as green energy comes on line.

• Here in the U.S. wind projects are also coming on line, thanks to the renewal of the wind energy tax credit.

• Advances in LED technology means cheaper, more energy-efficient LED light bulbs are now available.

• The Senate narrowly defeated an amendment to the government funding bill which would have killed the Defense Department’s biofuels program.

• Los Angeles will be coal-free by 2025, two years ahead of a state-imposed deadline.

• Colorado’s tightened gun laws are now reality.

• The word “whom” is dying. Good riddance.

• The European Space Agency has released a map of the oldest light in the sky, and says it shows the universe is 50 million years older than scientists had previously thought.

• A Michigan American Indian tribe approved same-sex marriage, and let a gay couple who had been together for 30 years marry.

• Hillary Clinton has also endorsed same-sex marriage.

• Based on an opinion from the city attorney’s office, the mayor of Santa Fe, New Mexico, says same-sex marriage is legal in the state and wants city clerks to begin issuing marriage licenses.

• You know, I’m going to have to start limiting my same-sex marriage news. It’s not even good news anymore it’s just … news. First we have a North Carolina church refusing to perform straight marriages until GLBT people have the same right, then we have the house across the street from the Westboro Baptist Church getting a rainbow pride paint job, in keeping with its new role as a pro-equality center. The American Academy of Pediatrics is now supporting same sex marriage, saying the children of same sex parents are just fine, thank you.

I’d say the culture war is over and the gays have won. Show us how you did it, please. We pro-choicers could use some tips.

• BP, the world’s fourth-largest company, has pulled its ads from Rush Limbaugh’s show.

• Thank you, science! Fourteen adults have been cured of HIV.

• British doctors have developed a machine that keeps a human liver alive outside the body, a huge step for transplant science.

• Ronald Reagan’s Secretary of State George Schultz visited Capitol Hill to call for an end to oil subsidies and the implementation of a carbon tax.

• Doctors can now detect heart attack risk through a non-invasive test which measures blood flow to the fingers.

Good News, Tennessee Edition:

• The Davidson County Election Commission dropped its month-old decision to treat all naturalized citizen voters as liars by checking their citizenship status. The plan was proposed by a Republican commissioner who told supporters,

… that his plan was given to him by God and could “save America” …

Sigh. You people are just wearing me out.

• Private donors will save “Sex Week” at the University of Tennessee after state legislators got all icky about it because, y’know, sex! It’s a week of seminars discussing issues like rape awareness, birth control and STDs. *GASP* The horror.

• A reformed racist is speaking out against the KKK, which is planning to rally in Memphis at the end of the month.

• The Country Music Hall of Fame & Museum got some really positive national attention when the New York Times profiled its solid financial footing.

This week’s cool video: Watch Mee Moua, executive director of the Asian American Justice Center, light a match to Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions’ straw man argument regarding immigration: