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Obama assembled all the major players - California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, GM CEO Fritz Henderson, Michigan Representative John Dingell - some of whom are still locked in lawsuits over California's earlier attempts to pass its own stricter fuel-efficiency standards. (Under the Clean Air Act, the state has the right to implement auto-pollution regulations that are tougher than national laws, provided that the Environmental Protection Agency issues a waiver, which was denied under George W. Bush.) For Obama, the simple fact that these habitually warring parties were willing to come together on the new requirements was as important...
...Washington Congress Takes a Swipe at Credit-Card Issuers The U.S. House and Senate have approved a major reform of the credit-card industry, limiting unpopular practices like abruptly hiking interest rates, issuing confusing agreements and peddling cards to minors. The banking industry warned that the bill, which would take effect in early 2010, could lead to more rejected credit applications and the return of annual fees...
...potential mother of all maxi-disasters is named Mount Vesuvius, which lies just 7 miles to the east of Naples and is by all accounts the volcano that poses the greatest risk of taking a major human toll. The eruption in A.D. 79 destroyed the cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum and killed about 16,000 people. There are 18 towns on the city's outskirts, with a combined population of more than 550,000, that could be devastated if the volcano roars again...
...good news is that unlike earthquakes, volcanoes give warning signs--gaseous and seismic--before erupting. Still, volcanology is not an exact science, and evacuation plans are never simple. The fear of sounding a false alarm of a major eruption--which would force an unnecessary evacuation of half a million people for weeks--is right behind the fear of not forcing people to flee when the big one hits, explains Franco Barberi, a top volcanologist and the head of the National Commission on Major Risks. "You need to distinguish risks," says Barberi, noting that a full evacuation would probably take three...
...couple moved into I Tatti.APOGEE AND DEATHWidely regarded as the preeminent authority on Renaissance art, Berenson published several books on the Italian Renaissance and advised a number of museums and collectors in the United States, including most notably Isabella Stewart Gardner. Berenson once said famously that most of the major Italian pictures in America entered with his stamp on their passports.In the 1930s, despite having converted to Roman Catholicism, Berenson faced insecurity, first under Fascist authorities and later under the Nazis. “We are at the heart of the German rearguard action, and seriously exposed...