Cross Country
More State Action on Climate Change
The Governator is bringing in reinforcements for his battle against global warming. Last week, California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger was joined by the governors of four other western states— Arizona, Oregon, New Mexico, and Washington—to set a regional target for cutting greenhouse gases. Last year, Schwarzenegger signed into law the country's most aggressive climate change bill, targeting a 25 percent reduction in heat-trapping gases by 2020. The new Western Regional Climate Action Initiative, announced in Washington, D.C., will help California meet its goal, most likely through a cap-and-trade program, which puts a ceiling on emission levels and creates a market for entities to sell and buy pollution credits. New England states have created a similar coalition, though it targets only emissions from utilities. States have been acting in the absence of federal legislation, generating apprehension among utility providers and others who see a patchwork quilt of regulation as burdensome and costly. The coalition of western states is likely to add more fuel to the federal debate over a comprehensive climate change bill.
Prescription for Big Trouble
Scandals involving the use of performance-enhancing drugs have focused on high-profile athletes up to now, but last week, authorities turned the spotlight on a less sexy but crucial part of the illicit-drug puzzle: the distributors. After an investigation by the district attorney in Albany, N.Y., agents busted an Orlando pharmacy suspected of using the Internet to widely distribute steroids, human growth hormone, and other drugs. The Albany Times-Union said four people associated with Signature Pharmacy, including the married co-owners, were arrested and held without bond. The paper also said a handful of pro athletes were among the pharmacy's customers, but the Albany DA, David Soares, insists he's not concerned with the "celebrity factor." Indeed, the pharmacy's client base is most likely made up of ordinary Joes who want to be less ordinary; human growth hormone is approved only for specific medical conditions but is touted by some as a way to turn back the clock by maintaining muscle mass, avoiding fat gain, and keeping skin taut.
The Windy City's Enduring Dynasty
The Democrats are suddenly running the show in Congress, and presidential candidates are getting in and out of the 2008 race so fast, it's hard to tell the players without a score card. But in Chicago, for more than 50 years, it's been a pretty good bet that the mayor is going to be named Daley.
Last week, Mayor Richard M. Daley, who's been in office 18 years, won his sixth term in a landslide victory over two obscure opponents, garnering 71 percent of the vote in the process: Hizzoner got more than 80 percent of the vote in 21 of the city's 50 wards. If Daley, 64, finishes a full four-year term, he will have served as boss a year longer than his father, Richard J. Daley, who was mayor for 21 years.
The younger Daley won re-election despite opposition from organized labor and a federal probe into his administration's hiring practices. Some of the mayor's top aides have been indicted, but Daley, a Democrat, has not been accused of any wrongdoing.
A Weighty Flap on Sorority Row
College Greeks have long faced accusations of being narrow minded, but rarely are those concerns so literal as now at DePauw University, where former members of the school's struggling Delta Zeta sorority say sisters were told to leave the house because of their weight. A months-old controversy on the Greencastle, Ind., campus, the issue received a national spotlight last week when the New York Times reported that the 23 girls ousted after a reorganization by the sorority's national officers included the only black, Korean, and Vietnamese sisters, as well as all those considered overweight. Six of the 12 students who were asked to stay quit in protest. Delta Zeta national president Debbie Raziano said the article "grossly mischaracterizes the situation" and contends the sisters either were already on "alumnae" status because of a previous sorority vote or were put there because of a lack of commitment to recruiting. But DePauw President Robert Bottoms has chided the sorority and tightened control over Greek life.
A Really Tall Order in the Big Apple
Mean streets no more. At reasonable prices. That's how New York City is advertising itself these days. The city is on a PR blitz to fight its stereotype as pricey and exclusive: Think Sex and the City, not Law and Order. The city's goal is 50 million visitors each year starting in 2015. (That's up from 44 million in 2006.) True, NYC is already a top U.S. destination; in fact, the number of visitors has increased each of the past five years following a slight dip after September 11. But the city now has a Madison Avenue ad exec on board and a cool $15 million extra per year to splurge on attracting even more visitors over the next five years. NYC will announce four new overseas offices this week for the effort, which will eventually have about a dozen outposts to compete with cities like Dubai and Sydney that are trying to draw international travelers as well. Of course, the effort has a few skeptics. Gotham, affordable and friendly? Fuhgeddaboudit.
With Bret Schulte, Katherine Hobson, Will Sullivan, Silla Brush and Associated Press
This story appears in the March 12, 2007 print edition of U.S. News & World Report.