San Francisco: Circumcision Ban and Religious Freedom

In the 1960s and ’70s, the San Francisco Bay Area was where the counterculture really started — the Free Speech Movement in Berkeley, the Summer of Love in Haight-Ashbury, gay rights in the Castro. Today, the Bay Area is challenging the larger culture in a new and controversial way: there will be a referendum on the ballot in November that would make it the first major city in the U.S.

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Trying to Keep the Taps in California Running

Buildings may topple and lives may be lost if the Big One shakes the wrong part of California but another catastrophic consequence of an enormous earthquake in the San Francisco area may involve water. Two thirds of the state’s drinking water supply flows through the gigantic Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta region east of San Francisco Bay — and the levees that help direct the massive amounts of water south to farmlands and cities are so antiquated that many may simply collapse with a major temblor.

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BP’s profit slumps 53 percent, oil demand flat

Energy giant BP’s second-quarter profits slumped 53 percent, with the firm’s chief executive warning he saw "little evidence" of growth in oil demand. A security agreement that went into effect at the start of the year mandated the withdrawal of U.S. combat troops from Iraqi cities and towns by June 30

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