The Hollywood Liberal

Last-minute agreement boosts chances for passage of Intelligence Authorization Bill

An annual bill authorizing the nation’s intelligence activities could be headed for approval for the first time in six years following a last-minute agreement to restore funding for an increase in the number of CIA counterterrorism analysts.

Partisan wrangling has prevented the passage of an intelligence authorization bill since 2005. As a result, the House and Senate appropriations committees have reached a tentative deal on legislation that sets spending priorities for the 17 agencies in the intelligence community.

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Endeavour fueled, astronauts ‘charged up’ for next-to-last space shuttle launch Monday morning

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — NASA fueled Endeavour for a Monday morning liftoff on the next-to-last flight of the space shuttle era, confident an electrical problem that grounded the mission more than two weeks ago had been fixed.

The mission commander is Mark Kelly, the astronaut husband of wounded Arizona Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, who’s back for the second launch attempt.

“Who’s ready for the best show on Earth? Giffords’ staff said in a Twitter update hours before liftoff.

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Warming Arctic opens way to competition for resources

NUUK, Greenland — Here, just south of the Arctic Circle, where the sea ice is vanishing like dew on a July morning, the temperature isn’t the only thing that’s heating up.

Across the region, a warming Arctic is opening up new competition for resources that until recently were out of reach, protected under a thick layer of ice. As glaciers defrost and ice floes diminish, the North is being viewed as a source of not only great wealth but also conflict, diplomats and policy experts say.

In recent months, oil companies have begun lining up for exploration rights to Baffin Bay, a hydrocarbon-rich region on Greenland’s western coast that until recently was too ice-choked for drilling. U.S. and Canadian diplomats have reopened a spat over navigation rights to a sea route through the Canadian Arctic that could cut shipping time and costs for long-haul tankers.

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The True Story of the Financial Crisis
Peter Wallison, American Spectator
As many readers of The American Spectator will know, I was a member of the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission, a 10-member body appointed by Congress to investigate the causes of the financial crisis of 2008. The Commission issued its report in late January 2011, with a majority concluding that the crisis could have been avoided if the private sector had not taken so many risks and government regulators had not been asleep at the switch.

Playing Chicken With the Economy

In Washington, a Fight to the Debt
Yuval Levin, Weekly Standard
Normally in Washington, the agenda for spring and summer is set by the president’s budget and the priorities of congressional leaders. But this year will be different. House Republicans have proposed an ambitious platform, in the form of the budget produced by House Budget Committee chairman Paul Ryan and passed by the full House last month. But the Democrats who control the Senate and the White House, and who therefore effectively run things, have no discernible policy agenda.

California: Land of the $100K+ Lifeguard Club
Brian Calle, OC Register
David Hasselhoff and Pamela Anderson aren't the only Baywatchers bringing in the big bucks. As I reported last week, some lifeguards in Newport Beach are pulling in more than $200,000 a year in total compensation. And, it turns out, cities up and down the coast of California are paying similar compensation for lifeguarding positions.After uncovering Newport Beach data on a tip from Jack Wu, a former Newport council candidate, it at first seemed like the practice of paying permanent, full-time lifeguards $100,000 to $200,000 – and allowing them to retire with 90 percent…