But that's the point of this article. The Gov. did notice the surcharges on its bill and wants them removed. I wonder how long they were on hold before they got to talk with someone who would listen to their story, review the bill, and make a plan to remove the charges or not.

Interesting that there's no office or central representative that we could ask, "what does the [Tea, TEA] Party mean anyway? Can't even ask the people who are funding it. Some Party.

Speaking of "ground water", I believe the island is susceptible to high tides now and it (the island) is not getting any higher. A recent study (http://www.bcdc.ca.gov/planning/climate_change/TreasureIslandStudy.pdf) used 55" as a plausible/high level for sea level rise (SLR) by 2100. It rose 8 inches in the last 100 years, according to the same study. Plus the island is isolated as far as public transportation - perhaps people are looking to build in a place near SF that most people have trouble getting to?
Seems like a poor choice for a place to invest in the long term, if it's going to be underwater.

... and I thought, "Like Hari Seldon?"

How long before a software virus cripples a good amount of cars and brings "transportation to a halt"?

Cut my cord last year. At the rates they charge and the intermittent and barely-broadband service they provide, I can live without their content.

It's blatantly an attempt to control corporate regulations by holding hostage the definitions of acceptable research.

Is anyone going to address the NSA surveillance issue behind the law? It's pretty well established that they're sucking up every possible piece of information because their world view is based in maximum paranoia (if the other guys are capable of doing this, they're probably doing this). Yet their info-vacuum yields little to no results. If we judged their potential for abuse like they judge the world's threats, there would be no NSA. So what kind of intelligent intelligence agency do we rebuild the NSA and it's ilk into? Anyone? Boehner?

The show first aired in 1964 - it's been on for nearly 50 years. I think they know something about how they're structured and what they're doing.

He's not a traitor, or a hero, he's a whistleblower.
He points out what appears to be wrongdoing, and it's up to our system of justice to determine if that's true and fix it.
After he points it out, the issue stops being about him. Except for people who are offended that they've been made accountable for crimes, and try to make the issue about him instead.

To ascribe several personality factors as crucial to social or financial success is speculation, worthy of research, maybe interesting.
To then anoint specific groups as possessing those traits, especially just on the basis of hearsay, is bigotry.

Absolutely! Snacking is my favorite sport, and I work at it daily.

How about letting someone borrow your car and having it drive home alone?

And Lara Logan's firing, or rather suspension, or at least a long unwanted vacation from 60 minutes after airing that, um. false Benghazi piece by Morgan Jones who turned out to be Dylan Davies with a different story for US government agencies - Surely 60 minutes apologizes sufficiently when it turns out to be made up!

Oracle may be (" ...one the more reputable companies..."). Corporations are by design unaccountable, hierarchical, not democratic. So they can do whatever their structure can get away with, and everyone is supposed to sit back and allow the process of capital maximization all the room it wants. It's not even that the ends justify the means, it's that the means are justified by the unquestionable right to lean towards the end, and you have no right to even ask what that end might be. Put another way, it's evil.