(LA Times) UC Berkeley’s Goodwin Liu will be nominated to the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, The Times has learned. Though he will face opposition from conservatives, he has admirers in that camp as well.

Reporting from Washington – President Obama will nominate UC Berkeley law professor Goodwin Liu to the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals on Wednesday, The Times has learned.

Liu carries credentials that some conservatives love to hate — including a leadership position in a progressive legal group and a record of opposing the confirmation of Supreme Court Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr.

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(AP) HUNTSVILLE, Ala. – A woman opened fire during a biology faculty meeting at the University of Alabama’s Huntsville campus Friday, killing three people and injuring three others, officials said. The shooter was caught outside the Shelby Center, a science building, without incident, according to university spokesman Ray Garner. Local media reported the shooter was a faculty member, though Garner said he could not identify her. A man was also being detained.

All three of those killed and two of the injured were faculty members. The third injured person was a staff member. No students were involved in the shooting.

Huntsville Hospital spokesman Burr Ingram said two of the injured were in critical condition and the third was in stable condition.

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Newswise — The environmental community is voicing concern after President Obama suggested Congress might move an energy bill forward without a carbon-trading system in place.

According to Rafael Reuveny, a professor at the Indiana University School of Public and Environmental Affairs in Bloomington, the entire negotiation in Congress is “politics as usual” and meant to stall or defeat vital climate change legislation.

“We are trying to win this fight for our lives through consensus. Such compromise will never materialize — not in this country and not internationally,” said Reuveny, co-author of Complex Transformations: Democracy and Economic Openness in an Interconnected System (Cambridge University Press, 2009). “No matter how often President Obama pleads for it, bipartisanship has become a joke. So, while the two sides continue this ridiculous game, Rome — read: the planet — is burning.”

Continue reading "Professor: Obama Should Issue Executive Order on Greenhouse Gas Emissions" »

(Daily 49er) In the past week, psychology professor Kevin MacDonald had his class interrupted by an organization claiming his views and recent involvement in political organization the American Third Option party are seen as racist and anti-Semitic.

MacDonald, a tenured professor at Cal State Long Beach, has been making headlines on the matter since he was investigated by the Southern Poverty Law Center in 2006. The SPLC tracks hate crimes and groups across America.

“I’m used to being harassed,” MacDonald said. “I expect to be harassed because people on the left don’t like what I think. So what? We should be allowed to teach.”

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(WTOL) – Orlando Reyes-Cairo was hired as a professor of Spanish at Owens Community College in 1999, which is one year after he got out of jail for attempted unlawful sexual conduct with a 13-year-old boy in north Toledo.

Representatives of Owens Human Resources Department say there was not a policy in place in 1999 to do to do background checks or to require potential employees to disclose such convictions. Reyes-Cairo served one year in prison for the conviction.

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