National / International News

The ACLU argues the portrait, hanging inside a Jackson, Ohio, middle school violates the Establishment Clause. The school says the portrait is not government speech, but protected speech by the students.

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Rafael Nadal's doctor warns the Spaniard against playing too much tennis after recovering from a serious knee injury.

A fishmonger from north London who has been smoking fish for decades has been told his business is too smoky.

Financial news and data provider Thomson Reuters says it is to cut 2,500 jobs, or 4% of its workforce, as it reports sluggish sales growth.

In last night's State of the Union speech, President Barack Obama laid out his plans to keep the state of the union strong. He also said, that "our work must begin by making some basic decisions about our budget, decisions that will have a huge impact on the strength of our recovery."

New York Times Washington Bureau Chief David Leonhardt has a new e-book out about that very thing, it’s called "Here’s the Deal" -- and it’s about the decisions and choices, some of them tough, that we have to make with respect to our debt and national deficit.

He says in part that our actions make it so that "we are pro deficit. We say we're not, we say the deficit is a terrible thing but then you come back to us and you ask us, are we willing to pay higher taxes? No. Are we willing to accept fewer Medicare and Social Security benefits? No. Do we want to make big cuts to the military? Mostly no. And that's really the deficit."

He says the answer to reducing the deficit and getting what we want is economic growth. And the federal government has to jump in and do things that the private sector won't do. It should be responsible for what amounts to basic research and innovation: "The Internet, radar, penicillin, the jet engine, radio all these things started as a government program. And they started because this really early stage stuff isn't profitable and you need someone other than the private sector to do it."

Leonhardt believes that despite the political divide in this country, we have the capability to get things right. He believes that America comes into the 21st century economy with more advantages than any other country.

Electronic scanners like those used in airports will not replace full body searching in prisons in Northern Ireland after they failed to detect nearly half of all test items during a pilot scheme.

President Obama is urging Congress to boost the federal minimum wage to $9 an hour. But other workers who make more than the minimum, currently at $7.25 an hour, could see their pay go up too as employers adjust their pay scales.

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A woman tells the trial of Dale Cregan she was told if she spoke to police the "one-eyed Scotchman" would kill her.

The search for a rugby fan who disappeared after Wales' Six Nations game against Ireland in Cardiff is to switch to the mouth of the River Ely.

Images of holey foods, like Swiss cheese, aerated chocolate and lotus pods, are freaking out people on the Internet. Urban Dictionary has even coined a term for it: trypophobia. These photographs may make your skin crawl and stomach churn, but here's why you shouldn't panic.

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Quick, when I say Intel, what comes to mind? The stuff inside your PC, right? The chips that make it run. Well, Intel has decided to get into something a little more visible: Internet TV. And you won’t be the only one watching it, the TV will be watching you.

Intel says it’s making a TV set top box that’ll deliver Internet TV and will have a built-in camera that’ll recognize you. It’s part of a growing trend on the part of tech companies, which are trying to make gadgets that can get to know you, said Michele Reitz, an analyst at Gartner.

“It really is just about personalization, having the ability to recognize you and then give you options that’ll recognize you,” Reitz said. “So for instance, if it's your 6-year-old kid,” the TV might say, ‘Hey Junior, here’s some cartoons you can watch.'"

But if Reitz walked into the room, it’ll show her something more age-appropriate.

Privacy, of course, is going to be an issue. But the Internet TV space is getting crowded. And tech giants -- from Google to Apple and Samsung -- need to find a way to differentiate themselves.

Computer chips have been Intel’s bread and butter, says Vijay Rakesh, an analyst at Sterne Agee. But that market is slowing down and Intel needs to pivot toward smartphones, tablets and other mobile devices.

“In your TV, there is mobile connectivity. In your cars, there’s mobile connectivity,” said Rakesh. “It’s always an opportunity for somebody like Intel to step in.”

Brian Steinberg, an analyst with Tech Savvy, says the living room is the one frontier that no tech company’s captured. And if Intel can capture the TV, it’ll get closer to capturing all the devices -- your phone, your tablet -- that’ll talk to it, he said.  

“There’s really one single innovation that’s really revolutionalized the way that the iPhone did the smartphone,” said Steinberg.

President Obama was barely into his post-State of the Union road trip today when House Speaker John Boehner poured cold water all over one of the key economic items in the speech. The president proposed raising the minimum wage to $9 an hour. Boehner said it would hurt small business and kill jobs.

Economists disagree about whether raising the minimum wage helps by putting more money in the hands of low-wage workers or hurts by encouraging employers to eliminate jobs. A raise from to $9 an hour, from $7.25 an hour, would add about $3,600 to a minimum wage earner's annual income -- and a business's payroll.

Many minimum-wage workers are employed in the restaurant business, although their wages are often supplemented by tips. At the Marmalade Café in El Segundo, Calif., employees like 32-year-old food runner Alejandro Serbin earn California's $8 minimum wage, plus about $35 a day in shared tips.

Serbin, an immigrant from Mexico City, says a dollar raise would help. "It's so much different for me. Because I have a family I have to support. The rent is high. I have to pay bills, insurance."

Serbin and his wife, who works as a cook, have a 3-year-old and pay about $1,000 a month in rent, not unusual for Los Angeles. He's hunting for a second job and says most of the minimum-wage workers he knows have two or even three jobs.

Selwyn Yosslowitz is one of the Marmalade Café's founders. The restaurant employs about 600 people in nine locations in southern California. Yosslowitz says a dollar increase in the federal minimum wage would likely force him to raise prices or cut labor costs.

"It wouldn't be layoffs," Yosslowitz says. "But maybe you make the hours more efficient. There's lots of people who come in at 9 o'clock right now. I would make sure they come in at 9:30 and cut off half an hour across the board to be able to afford the increase."

Serbin and a co-worker from Peru say their hours are sometimes cut when business is really slow and management sends them home early.

If Congress raises the minimum wage, that ultimately may help boost all the wages at a place like the Marmalade Café, including the better-paid cooks in the kitchen.

A teacher put herself between the gunman and a group of students. Then the deputy helped negotiate a peaceful end to the dangerous situation.

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One man in the UK is thought to have caught the coronavirus from his father. It is thought to be the first confirmed example of the new virus being passed from person to person anywhere in the world.

Police say they have found charred remains in the rubble of a burnt-down cabin where a murder suspect had been hiding.

Until now, a new SARS-like virus showed little signs of being contagious. Only 10 cases have been reported, and all appeared to originate in the Middle East. Health officials now say a British resident likely caught the virus from a family member in the U.K., indicating that the virus can spread between people.

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Chris Froome's Tour of Oman hopes rest on him giving a strong display on Thursday after he slips further behind Peter Sagan.

Scientists who the agency deferred to when it delayed action related to the cancer risks of one chemical had previously worked on behalf of a company that used the chemical. But the EPA didn't know of the possible conflict of interest.

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The Chronicle of Philanthropy's annual list of the 50 most generous donors from 2012 is younger than ever.  The list, released this week, shows there are more donors -- individuals or couples -- under 40 among its ranks. Of the five biggest donors on the list, three are under 40. It's the first time that has happened. And taken together, these under-40 donors account for more than 15 percent of the total amount the Philanthropy's 50 donors contributed in 2012. 

Some bad news? The median amount given away by the Philantropy's 50 donors for 2012 was $49.6 million, compared to a median of $61 million in 2011, and a pre-recession high of $74.7 million. (The chronicle first began tracking this data in 2000.)

Which donors on the list are people keeping an eye on? Along with youth, a lot of the donors are coming from Silicon Valley and high-tech. Marketplace compiled a list of five of the younger, more surprising philanthropists:

1. Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan (No. 2 overall)

The Facebook co-founder and his wife, a pediatrician, gave 18 million shares of their Facebook stock to the Silicon Valley Community Foundation to fund education programs and health awareness. This isn’t the first time the social network guru and his wife have supported education. In 2010, they gave $100 million to support public schools in New Jersey.

2. John and Laura Arnold (No. 3 overall)

The hedge fund founder and his wife (a former lawyer and businesswoman) established the Laura and John Arnold Foundation in 2008 to help nonprofits working to improve pension systems and public education. So far the couple has put over $900 million into this fund. The couple has also supported charter schools in New Orleans and obesity research. In 2012, the Laura and John Arnold Foundation founded the Giving Library, an online tool to educate philanthropists on different charities.

3. Sergey Brin and Anne Wojcicki (No. 5 overall)

The Google co-founder and his wife spent 2012 donating money to the Micheal J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research. They also supported the Brian Wojcicki Foundation, which donated to Ashoka, the Human Rights Foundation and the Tipping Point Community, an organization geared toward eliminating poverty in Northern California.

4. Joshua Rechnitz (No. 20 overall)

Amount donated in 2012: $57 million. The heir to the Heilbrunn fortune (he's the grandson of Robert H. Heilbrunn, who invested in undervalued companies beginning during the Depression) spent 2012 donating his time and money to a nonprofit he created to fund an indoor sports complex. He also put close to $7 million into the Powerhouse Environmental Arts Foundation, a nonprofit he created to turn an old fire station into a studio for artists.

5. Jon Stryker (No. 39 overall)

The heir to the Stryker Corporation (a firm that develops and produces medical supplies) fortune donated over $30 million in 2012. All of the money went towards to the Arcus Foundation, a nonprofit he founded in 2000 to fight discrimination against the LGBT community. Last year the foundation awarded 116 grants of more than $17 million.

The Chronicle of Philanthropy's annual list of the 50 most generous donors from 2012 is younger than ever.  The list, released this week, shows there are more donors -- individuals or couples -- under 40 among its ranks. Of the five biggest donors on the list, three are under 40. It's the first time that has happened. And taken together, these under-40 donors account for more than 15 percent of the total amount the Philanthropy's 50 donors contributed in 2012. 

Some bad news? The median amount given away by the Philantropy's 50 donors for 2012 was $49.6 million, compared to a median of $61 million in 2011, and a pre-recession high of $74.7 million. (The chronicle first began tracking this data in 2000.)

Which donors on the list are people keeping an eye on? Along with youth, a lot of the donors are coming from Silicon Valley and high-tech. Marketplace compiled a list of five of the younger, more surprising philanthropists:

1. Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan (No. 2 overall)

The Facebook co-founder and his wife, a pediatrician, gave 18 million shares of their Facebook stock to the Silicon Valley Community Foundation to fund education programs and health awareness. This isn’t the first time the social network guru and his wife have supported education. In 2010, they gave $100 million to support public schools in New Jersey.

2. John and Laura Arnold (No. 3 overall)

The hedge fund founder and his wife (a former lawyer and businesswoman) established the Laura and John Arnold Foundation in 2008 to help nonprofits working to improve pension systems and public education. So far the couple has put over $900 million into this fund. The couple has also supported charter schools in New Orleans and obesity research. In 2012, the Laura and John Arnold Foundation founded the Giving Library, an online tool to educate philanthropists on different charities.

3. Sergey Brin and Anne Wojcicki (No. 5 overall)

The Google co-founder and his wife spent 2012 donating money to the Micheal J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research. They also supported the Brian Wojcicki Foundation, which donated to Ashoka, the Human Rights Foundation and the Tipping Point Community, an organization geared toward eliminating poverty in Northern California.

4. Joshua Rechnitz (No. 20 overall)

Amount donated in 2012: $57 million. The heir to the Heilbrunn fortune (he's the grandson of Robert H. Heilbrunn, who invested in undervalued companies beginning during the Depression) spent 2012 donating his time and money to a nonprofit he created to fund an indoor sports complex. He also put close to $7 million into the Powerhouse Environmental Arts Foundation, a nonprofit he created to turn an old fire station into a studio for artists.

5. Jon Stryker (No. 39 overall)

The heir to the Stryker Corporation (a firm that develops and produces medical supplies) fortune donated over $30 million in 2012. All of the money went towards to the Arcus Foundation, a nonprofit he founded in 2000 to fight discrimination against the LGBT community. Last year the foundation awarded 116 grants of more than $17 million.