Sunday, April 24, 2011 The California Controller’s office reports that eleven state agencies have given US$13.3 million in pay and travel advances that have not been collected. Governor Jerry Brown issued an executive order to recover uncollected loans by the agencies. A press release from the governor’s office states, “The Governor’s Executive Order seeks to recover taxpayer dollars by directing state agencies and departments to clear salary and travel advances

Tuesday, June 27, 2006 Australian Minister for Vocational Education and Training, Gary Hardgrave has announced the government will provide AU$15.8 million to establish an Australian Technical College in North Adelaide. The minister said the government was entering into a partnership with the Archdiocese of Adelaide and consortium of industrial and manufacturing companies. The North Adelaide college will be located in Elizabeth and be operated as an independent non-government school. The

Saturday, December 8, 2007 Delegates at the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Indonesia are wrestling with a proposal that would allow developing nations to earn billions of dollars through carbon trading by leaving idle forests such as those in Borneo, the Amazon and Congo basins. The news comes on the same day that it was announced that forest clearance in the Amazon Rainforest was falling compared to previous years.

Tuesday, March 29, 2005 Johnnie Cochran, U.S. lawyer famous for getting O.J. Simpson acquitted of murder charges in the 1990s, died Tuesday afternoon in his home in Los Angeles, California. He had been suffering from complications of an inoperable brain tumor. “The family of Attorney Johnnie L. Cochran, Jr. and members of The Cochran Firm are deeply saddened by the passing,” his family said in a statement to the press.

Tuesday, March 22, 2011 0 A.D. is a historical, open source, strategy game, published by Wildfire Games. It focuses on the period between 500BC and 500AD. The game will be released in two parts: the first covering the pre-AD period, and the second running to 500AD. With development well underway, Wikinews interviewed the development team. Aviv Sharon, a 24-year-old Israeli student responsible for the project’s PR, compiled the below Q&A,

Thursday, December 1, 2011 Today saw Edinburgh’s Scottish National Portrait Gallery reopen following a two-and-a-half-year, £17.6m (US$27.4m) refurbishment. Conversion of office and storage areas sees 60% more space available for displays, and the world’s first purpose-built portrait space is redefining what a portrait gallery should contain; amongst the displays are photographs of the Scottish landscape—portraits of the country itself. First opened in 1889, Sir Robert Rowand Anderson’s red sandstone building

Tuesday, January 27, 2009 Starting February 1, Cospas-Sarsat will discontinue monitoring the frequencies that are used for analog-based emergency position-indicating radio beacons (EPIRB), the 121.5 and 243 MHz frequencies. Search and rescue (SAR) groups worldwide will only monitor the 406 MHz frequency, which is dedicated to digital locators. The 406 MHz digital band has many advantages over the older analog systems. Since the locators send data to satellites, rather than

Sunday, February 17, 2008 I am dismayed at the in-humane handling of cattle that has resulted in the violation of food safety regulations at the Hallmark/Westland Meat Packing Company. In a press release today, California-based Hallmark/Westland Meat Packing Co. indicated that it has voluntarily recalled just over 143 million pounds (65 million kilograms) of raw and frozen beef products, which is considered to be the largest single recall of beef