Finally a foothold for NFL in L.A.?Developer's stadium proposal could finally lure a franchise back to the nation's second-largest metropolitan area, an obsession of the NFL     

 From the Los Angeles Times ANALYSIS  California voters exercise their power -- and that's the problem Residents relish their role in the lawmaking process, but they share the blame for the state's severe dysfunction.  By Michael Finnegan

May 20, 2009

Californians are well known for periodic voter revolts, but on Tuesday they did more than just lash out at Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and the Legislature over the state's fiscal debacle.

By rejecting five budget measures, Californians also brought into stark relief the fact that they, too, share blame for the political dysfunction that has brought California to the brink of insolvency.

Rightly or wrongly, voters in the special election refused either to extend new tax hikes or to cap state spending. They also declined to unlock funds that they had voted in better financial times to set aside for special purposes.

Nearly a century after the Progressive-era birth of the state's ballot-measure system, it is clear that voters' fickle commands, one proposition at a time, are a top contributor to paralysis in Sacramento. And that, in turn, has helped cripple the capacity of the governor and Legislature to provide effective leadership to a state of more than 38 million people.

Clogged freeways, the decline of public schools, an outdated water system and a battered economy are just a few of the challenges demanding action by state leaders. Instead, they are consumed by yet another budget crisis, one that voters worsened Tuesday.

"No one's really stepping back and confronting the harsh realities that face our state in a critical sense, because of constraints put on our elected leaders," said Mark Baldassare, president of the Public Policy…

Scientists develop software that can map dreams The secret world of dreams has been unlocked with the invention of technology capable of illustrating images taken directly from human brains during sleep.   By Danielle Demetriou in Tokyo
Last Updated: 3:17PM GMT 11 Dec 2008 The research investigated how electrical signals are captured and reconstructed into images Photo: GETTY A team of Japanese scientists have created a device that enables the processing and imaging of thoughts and dreams as experienced in the brain to appear on a computer screen.While researchers have so far only created technology that can reproduce simple images from the brain, the discovery paves the way for the ability to unlock people's dreams and other brain processes.A spokesman at ATR Computational Neuroscience Laboratories said: "It was the first time in the world that it was possible to visualise what people see directly from the brain activity."By applying this technology, it may become possible to record and replay subjective images that people perceive like dreams." The scientists, lead by chief researcher Yukiyaso Kamitani, focused on the image recognition procedures in the retina of the human eye.It is while looking at an object that the eye's retina is able to recognise an image, which is subsequently converted into electrical signals sent into the brain's visual cortex.The research investigated how electrical signals are captured and reconstructed into images, according to the study, which will be published in the US journal Neuron.As part of the experiment, researchers showed testers the six letters of the word "neuron", before using the technology to measure their brain activity and subsequently reconstruct the letters on a computer screen. Since Sigmund Freud published The Interpretations of Dreams over a century ago, the workings of the sleeping human mind have been the source of extensive…

 Sarah Palin looms large as early 2012 Republican contenders gatherTim Reid, Washington Sarah Palin took centre stage among a troupe of potential White House hopefuls yesterday as they gathered for the Southern Republican Leadership Conference, traditionally seen as the unofficial launch of the party’s presidential nomination battle.Ms Palin, the 2008 Republican vice-presidential nominee, wasted no time in doing what has become second nature to her in recent months: excoriating President Obama before a rapturous and adoring conservative crowd.She accused Mr Obama of “coddling enemies and alienating allies”, of sending “gold stars and cookies to the President of Sudan” and of “sending letters to Iran’s mullahs” while failing to support the Iranian reform movement.Although Ms Palin was the star attraction at the New Orleans conference the list of speakers read like a roll call of potential Republican candidates for the 2012 presidential election. They included Bobby Jindal, the Governor of Louisiana, Rick Perry, the Governor of Texas, and Newt Gingrich, the former House Speaker.Two other Republican presidential hopefuls — both potentially strong contenders — chose to stay away, perhaps because they are viewed by the crowd as not conservative enough.Mitt Romney, the former Massachusetts Governor and failed 2008 presidential candidate, is having trouble with the Right because he passed healthcare reform in his home state. Healthcare legislation is a radioactive subject among conservatives after the passage of Mr Obama’s Bill last month.Tim Pawlenty, the Governor of Minnesota, has been criticised for accepting federal stimulus funds to help his state.Every speech was thick with attacks on Mr Obama. Mr Gingrich called him the most radical president in history and said that he was running a “secular, socialist machine”. Liz Cheney, daughter of Dick Cheney, the former Vice-President, said that Mr Obama had set America on a path…

 Compared to Europe, the US can at least make a pretence of democracyNation states have been superseded by greater forces. Greece's people are now seeing the naked disregard for their will Gary Younge guardian.co.uk, Sunday 14 February 2010 21.00 GMT Article historyFor a candidate who ­campaigned on the ­slogan of change, Barack Obama's devotion to continuity has been little short of remarkable. The two principal issues that underpinned his election victory in 2008 were the economy and the war in Iraq. In both instances, he kept the people George Bush had selected to execute failing policies and instructed them to create success. The electoral map and America's image in the world were indeed changed by Obama's victory. But the key personnel – US defence secretary Robert Gates and Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke – remained exactly the same.Shortly before Christmas this strategy seemed on the verge of coming unstuck when Democrats and Republicans threatened to derail the nomination of Bernanke to his second term. Democratic senator Jeff Merkley argued that while the Fed chairman had "shown himself to be quite adroit with the fire hose", he was also among those responsible for the fire. "For many years I held the Federal Reserve in very high regard," said Republican senator Richard Shelby. "I fear now, however, that our trust and confidence were misplaced." It took Obama's intervention to rescue the nomination and secure a comfortable victory for Bernanke on the Senate floor.The fact that there was much populist grandstanding in all of this should go without saying. Nor is that necessarily a bad thing. This is politics in a democracy. Elected officials have to explain themselves to the voters. This was their chance to make…