At least 26 other states are weighing measures like Prop. 209. For years, shirking child support obligations was as easy as hopping across a state line. The directory, required by last year's welfare reform law, is a database that will contain information on everyone hired in the United States after October 1. Fleeing overseas may not provide impunity for long. The sun is a source of warmth, but it has rarely figured into discussion of global warming.
New research tosses a bright yellow wild card into the debate.
The sun brightened .036 percent from 1986 to 1996, scientist Richard Willson of Columbia University estimated last week in Science magazine. Over a century, that might warm Earth 1 degree, about as much as temperatures rose this century, triggering current greenhouse alarms. Some environmentalists resist evidence that solar variation affects the climate, because this would reduce human guilt. Many conservatives advocate solar theories for the same reason. The new study may not serve either view.