On Friday, a court struck down a production quota for an advanced biofuel. Cellulosic biofuel is produced by breaking down plant matter, and has gotten a lot of hype lately: it passes every green test, can be harvested from marginal land, and has relatively high yields. Some see it as a potential replacement for corn-based […]

Israel’s top leadership is worried that chemical weapons are going to fall into the hands of the Syrian rebels or perhaps Hezbollah, and plans for “preventive operations” are already in place, Reuters reports: Should Lebanon’s Hezbollah guerrillas or rebels battling forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad obtain Syria’s chemical weapons, [Silvan] Shalom [Israel’s vice […]

Here’s something we haven’t seen in a while: good news from Greece. The good news isn’t that the Greek economy is doing well. It isn’t. The good news is that the Greek people seem to be resisting the temptation to turn toward extremism in the wake of the greatest economic disaster in a democratic country […]

The “reset” policy with Russia that was one of the Obama administration’s signature endeavors in its first term came closer to death this week, as the United States pulled out of a key working group on civil society in Russia. The decision came after weeks of heightened tensions between the two countries, beginning with the passage […]

Chinese patrol vessels nearly crashed into Filipino fishing boats recently, steaming up alongside and blasting the fishermen with sound horns. On another occasion Chinese authorities ordered Filipino fishermen to leave the Scarborough Shoal, a disputed island chain where the fishermen had taken refuge in bad weather.In response to this escalation of aggressive behavior the Philippines […]

An “attack on Syria is considered attack on Iran,” an advisor to the supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said today. It was the strongest such support for Butcher Assad yet in Syria’s two-year-old civil war in which 60,000 people have been killed.“Syria plays a very key role in supporting, or God forbid destabilizing, the resistance front,” Ali […]

Illinois is still paying the price for the failure to to put its pension costs in line this month. The Wall Street Journal reports that S&P has just downgraded Illinois’ credit rating from A to A- citing a “poor track record” on budgetary issues and the repeated failures to pass any form of pension reform. Illinois […]

Rahul Gandhi, the 42-year-old scion of India’s most famous and powerful family, is widely unpopular, according to a recent India Today poll of almost 13,000 Indians. The poll also found that the Congress Party, which Rahul is expected to lead into next year’s national elections, is on track to drop 50 seats in parliament (to around 160); Congress’s […]

Obamacare may have survived the Supreme Court, but some states are determined that it won’t have the last say on healthcare policy. Vermont and Michigan are both unhappy with Obamacare, and are both pursuing alternative policies to solve the problem the Affordable Care Act didn’t even attempt to address: rising costs.In red Michigan, Gov. Rick […]

Former Detroit mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, who apparently broke more laws during his time in office than most people ever knew existed, will be spending the weekend in prison after violating his parole.The AP reports that this distinguished example of a modern American urban politician was trying to hide assets from the poor people he systematically […]