Hurricane Earl

The East Coast is getting an unwelcome guest for the Labor Day weekend. His name is Earl and he’s going to bring wet, stormy weather and cause the cancellation of countless picnics and BBQs.

In an already shaky economy, Hurricane Earl’s untimely visit will  bring frowns to tourists and business owners up and down the eastern seaboard as locals and visitors are told to evacuate or stay home. North Carolina has ordered evacuations for coastal areas and the Governor of Virginia has declared a state of emergency.

With Hurricane Earl still hundreds of miles offshore, the latest advisory from the National Hurricane Center has the storm skirting across Cape Hatteras and turning north for a potential landfall on the coastlines of Massachusetts and Maine early Saturday.

Use iCurrent to track Hurricane Earl:

• Hurricane Earl
• Hurricane Tracking
• Emergency Preparedness
• FEMA

Girls witch Satchels

It was a big week for Education. Teachers are sprucing up classrooms, parents are stocking up on school supplies, and kids are loading their backpacks for first day of school.

Much to their chagrin, teachers in the L.A. Unified School District got their report cards early this year. Last week, The Los Angeles Times published a report that analyzes and grades teacher performance based on the test scores of students. Of course, the Times is naming names so all the world can see the teachers with the lowest marks.

At the higher end of the education spectrum, For-Profit Universities took a hit. The U.S. Department of Education released a study showing that too many graduates from for-profit universities such as The University of Pheonix, Kaplan, and Corinthian Colleges are not paying back their loans. This stoked the fear of a student loan bubble and forced Wall Street to send the companies who run these institutions to detention.

For more, check out these iCurrent channels:

• Back to School
• For-Profit Education
• No Child Left Behind
• Education Reform
• Education

Chupacabra by fmstir

Chupacabra has been spotted again and it’s causing quite a fuss. The latest sighting of the wily cryptid was in Hood County, Texas where a rancher reported “the ugliest creature he has ever seen” in his barn.

First spotted in Puerto Rico in 1990, “El Chupacabra,” or “goat sucker,” has been spied in a number of areas across the Americas from Maine to Chile. Legend has it that the beast attacks and drinks the blood of livestock, and shows a particular fondness for goats.

DNA tests will be performed on this latest Chupacabra candidate. It may turn out to be just a ugly coyote or a hairless dog, but we advise to stay aware – you never know when “El Chupacabra” will strike.

Follow El Chupacabra and other Cryptids on iCurrent:

• Chupacabra
• Cryptids

Thanks to BP, we have a new vocabulary word: Top Kill. This is the process where thick, heavy mud is poured into a well in an effort to push the oil back down. Hopefully, this will successfully stem the flow of 5,000 barrels of oil per day that are gushing into the Gulf of Mexico  and causing unfathomable damage to the local economy and ecosystem.

This accident, along with the tragic explosion at the Upper Big Branch coal mine in West Virginia, sharpens the argument that the United States needs to break from its dependence on fossil fuels. While it’s not possible to instantly switch to other sources of energy, the time is right to begin the weening process.

Luckily, there is a lot of innovation happening in the areas of Green Energy and Clean Technology. New companies with names like First Solar and Fuel Tech are popping up with the promise of more earth-friendly technologies like better photovoltaic products or cleaner coal processing. Other Ventures are focusing on a variety of areas such as biomass, better battery technology, and offshore wind farms.

Check out the iCurrent Channels related to Clean Energy:

• Wind Power
• Bio-Energy
• Solar Energy
• Renewable Energy

In the United States it seems we’re always gearing up for an election. The pundits have been salivating for November’s Midterm Elections since President Obama took the oath of office. And there is already chatter about who’s in and who’s out of the running for the 2012 Republican Presidential nomination

Over the pond in the UK, elections do not drag on and on forever.  While the upcoming general election has been anticipated – British law requires an election every 5 years – it was only formally scheduled for May 6th when Prime Minister Brown visited the Queen on April 12th and asked her to dissolve Parliament.

A month of formal campaigning doesn’t leave the major candidates much time to drag each another through the mud, but this year a spanner has been thrown into the works in the form of debates among the three major party candidates, televised live in primetime. Live debates are new to British politics and it’s really turned the race on its head.

The conventional wisdom had David Cameron, a conservative Tory candidate running away with the election over the current PM, Gordon Brown of the liberal Labour Party. But the conventional wisdom didn’t factor in Nick Clegg of the Liberal Democrats. Clegg surprised the voters with his debate performance and got a major boost in the polls, but it remains to be seen if that boost will carry through to election day.

iCurrent Channels:

• 2010 UK Election
• Gordon Brown
• David Cameron
• Nick Clegg

Space Shuttle Lifting Off

Over 5o years after the launch of Sputnik, there  is lots of human activity up in the solar system. Even as NASA winds down the Space Shuttle Program, the shuttles Endeavour and Discovery still have a full schedule of missions that are critical in the construction of the International Space Station. And Mars is constantly being poked and prodded in search of water and interesting rocks by the rovers Spirit and Opportunity.

While the Space Shuttle, the ISS, and Mars missions grab all the headlines, NASA has a lot more going on. There are long-term missions such as Cassini, which  is delving into the mysteries of Saturn and the Hubble Space Telescope, which is expanding our knowledge of space. There are also numerous lesser known missions that never get any headline and are doing equally important research. The EPOXI mission is studying cometery bodies and extrasolar planetary systems, GALEX is mapping the history of star formation, and the Swift mission is focusing on learning more about gamma-ray bursts.

Check out iCurrent to follow the latest channels related to space exploration:

• Space Exploration
• International Space Station
• Mars Exploration
• LCROSS Mission

Sudden car acceleration, vast outbreaks of Salmonella, wonky car seat restraint systems all have one thing in common – they are all related to consumer products that have been recalled. All recalls are important and many raise questions regarding public safety and draw the ire of political leaders who launch much needed investigations and draft stricter legislation.

The latest recall to garner widespread attention is the one involving Toyota. Issues surrounding what Toyota terms ‘Floor Mat Entrapment’ and what car owners call stuck accelerators, has led to several scary incidents on the road and to millions of Toyota vehicles being recalled.

Since there are plenty of recalls happening at any one time, the U.S. Government has a website called Recalls.gov that lists the latest recalls from product groups as varied as food and medicine to tires and cosmetics.

Follow the latest recall news with the following iCurrent Channels:

• Consumer Protection
• Food Recalls
• Automotive Recalls
• Toyota

So far 2010 has been a doozy for politics and with the midterm elections still months away things will no doubt get crazier.

It’s only late February and already so much has happened. The promise of health care reform seems to have sputtered – although President Obama is attempting some last minute CPR. A little-known Republican named Scott Brown defied conventional wisdom and was elected Senator from Massachusetts, taking over the seat of  the Liberal Lion, Ted Kennedy. Several notable members of Congress including Christopher Dodd, Byron Dorgan and Evan Bayh have announced their retirement leaving even fewer moderates amid the august body. Finally, there is a rising tide of populism stemming from the Tea Party Movement.

Midterm elections have historically battered the party in the White House and according to many anaslyses this year will not be kind to incumbents in Congress. But politics is a fast-moving game, and a lot can change between now and November. There are bound to be more exciting twists and turns.

Follow the intrigue on iCurrent:

• Midterm Elections
• Barack Obama
• Tea Party Movement
• Health Care Reform

The Super Bowl is over and the Winter Olympics start Friday. It should be a quiet week in sports, right? Well, not so fast.

This week, off the coast of Valencia, Spain the 33rd America’s Cup is set to begin. The America’s Cup is the oldest active trophy in international sports, dating from 1851 when the schooner America, from the New York Yacht Club, defeated Aurora, of the Royal Yacht Squadron in a regatta around the Isle of Wight.

In 1983, the 132-year American winning streak ended when Australia II took the Cup home to Australia. Dennis Conner’s Stars & Stripes won the Cup back four years later, but American control over the trophy had ended. In the past decade New Zealand and Swiss yachts have dominated the event.

The run up to this year’s race has been full of legal hullabaloo over the size of the yachts and who is the rightful challenger. That all got settled in January and the regatta is set to begin this week. The current Cup holder Alinghi (financed by Pharma heir Ernesto Bertarelli) will face off against BMW Oracle Racing (bankrolled by Larry Ellison) in two massive and expensive 90-foot multihull yachts. May the richest man win.

iCurrent Channels:

• America’s Cup
• Sailing
• Larry Ellison
• Golden Gate Yacht Club