Obama’s Interior Dept. Won’t Overturn Bush’s Polar Bear Rule

Polar bears have become the universal symbol of global warming, not so much because they’re cute or cuddly , but because it is eminently clear that climate change is killing them. Polar bears depend on solid sea ice for survival; it’s where they do their hunting. But when the ice begins to melt — as it has in recent years, thanks largely to warming — the bears can starve and die

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Right-wing extremism may be on rise, report says

Right-wing extremist groups may be using the recession and the election of the nation’s first African-American president to recruit members, a Department of Homeland Security report contends. Though the nine-page report said it has “no specific information that domestic right-wing terrorists are currently planning acts of violence,” it said real-estate foreclosures, unemployment and tight credit “could create a fertile recruiting environment for right-wing extremists and even result in confrontations between such groups and government authorities similar to those in the past.” The report, prepared in coordination with the FBI and published April 7, was distributed to federal, state and local law enforcement officials under the title “Right-wing Extremism: Current Economic and Political Climate Fueling Resurgence in Radicalization and Recruitment.” It compares the current climate the 1990s, “when right-wing extremism experienced a resurgence fueled largely by an economic recession, criticism about the outsourcing of jobs, and the perceived threat to U.S. power and sovereignty by other foreign powers.” It cites proposed restrictions on weapons as likely to increase membership in extremist groups and expresses concern the groups might try to recruit veterans.

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