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Despite tens of thousands of people writing their MPs, and multiple MPs asking for approval of the Digital Economy Bill to be delayed, it looks like the Leader of the House of Commons, Harriet Harman, has decided that the bill will be rushed through via a “wash up,” no matter what. Glyn Moody points us to an image showing that a lot of MPs simply decided not to even show up for the discussion, which is a bit of a disgrace.

Even worse, though, is that Harman is pretending that the bill is not being rushed through, even though the bill will go through the wash up process. Her argument seems quite disingenuous — suggesting that even though the bill won’t get to go through the normal process of debate, there will still be opportunities to make changes after the bill has been approved — though it appears that some politicians seem to think that’s mere window dressing, and the later debate/amendments will never actually happen. The whole thing seems quite bizarre. Basically, it looks like the plan is to approve the bill and debate it later. There still will be a brief debate and vote tomorrow evening which, in theory, could kill the bill, but most reports appear to believe it’s a foregone conclusion that the current bill will be approved — and then (maybe, possibly, but probably not really) the controversial bits will be debated later.

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The Federal Reserve could conceivably divest itself of mortgage securities in a matter of about half a decade with little financial or economic impact if it chooses to follow that path, a central bank official said Tuesday.

“It is likely that the Federal Reserve will have to sell a nontrivial amount of its [mortgage] holdings if it is to be able to normalize its balance sheet in the next two decades,” Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis President Narayana Kocherlakota said. “I am optimistic that we will be able to normalize our balance sheet by the end of the teens” by way of a combination of active selling of assets, coupled with the passive process of allowing securities to mature.

Kocherlakota, who isn’t currently a voting member of the interest rate setting Federal Open Market Committee, was speaking before the Minnesota Chamber of Commerce, in Bloomington, Minn. His comments came from a text to be delivered before that group, and in his address he said he expects to see a modest recovery, low inflation and continued difficult circumstances for the labor market.

But the meat of his remarks centered on how the Fed can return its balance sheet, which has more than doubled to just north of $2 trillion, back to levels seen before the start of the financial crisis. A major driver of the balance sheet’s expansion has been a program, ended in March, that had the Fed buy some $1.25 trillion in mortgage securities, along with considerable amounts of agency securities and long term Treasurys.

The large size of the balance sheet has the potential to become an inflationary problem for the economy if not managed properly. Kocherlakota and other central bankers have been thinking about ways the Fed can start reducing the balance sheet in a way that doesn’t thwart the recovery and drive a big surge in rates. While Kocherlakota didn’t say much about the timing for starting the active sale of mortgage securities, he did say it would be an important piece of the puzzle.

Allowing a passive process suggests that by “as late as 2030, the Federal Reserve will still be holding something like $250 billion in mortgage-backed securities,” the official said. Fortunately, “our structure means too that the Federal Reserve can credibly commit to selling its (mortgage securities) slowly over time,” he said.

Kocherlakota speculated that if the Fed were to commit to selling between $15 billion to $25 billion in mortgage per month, it would, along with passive efforts, have all mortgages off the Fed’s books within five years from the start of the process. The official said the plan is doable: “I feel confident that this pace of sales would be sufficiently slow that it would have little or no impact on MBS prices and long-term interest rates.”

The central banker’s comments on the economy were guarded. “The economy is on the mend and should continue to recover over the next two years — in terms of both GDP and unemployment — but at slower rates than we would like,” he said.

Kocherlakota expects the U.S. economy to grow just a bit lower than consensus, expanding by about 3% over the next two years.

Calling current inflation levels “relatively tame,” Kocherlakota said “the outlook for inflation is basically promising, as long as the Federal Reserve and Congress work together appropriately.” He added “the Federal Reserve is keeping inflation at levels consistent with good long-run economic performance.”

Kocherlakota was downbeat on housing, saying the sector “will recover eventually.”

The official noted that in the wake of the March jobs data, it’s clear there’s been some “good news in labor markets.” But Kocherlakota said “the outlook for unemployment is not promising” and “I would be surprised if unemployment were below 9% by the end of 2010 or below 8% by the end of 2011.”

Mega Brands Inc. may have managed to avoid creditor protection with its recent recapitalization plans, but analysts are not buying into a recovery for the embattled toy maker.

Anthony Zicha, analyst with Scotia Capital, dropped his coverage of the company on Monday, citing concerns about the viability of the company's business model.

"In the past three years, the company has lost significant shelf space at major retailers and, in our opinion, has failed to make significant incremental innovations to existing product lines," he said in the note. "Furthermore, reputational risk still remains high."

To wit, Mega reported a 2009 fourth-quarter loss of 60 cents a share, almost double Mr. Zicha's forecasted loss of 33 cents a share.

On Monday, credit rating agency Moody's lowered its probability of default rating for Mega to a D from Caa3 after the company completed its debt-financing plan on March 30th.

"The recapitalization transaction … is viewed as a distressed exchange which is considered a default under Moody's definition," the report said.

And just last week, Benoit Caron with National Bank Financial also dropped coverage.

A quick check on Bloomberg shows Gerrick Johnson with BMO Capital is the last analyst on the Mega Brands beat as of Tuesday. However, the BMO Capital Web site also said that Mr. Johnson is currently "restricted from issuing research on Mega Brands for legal and regulatory reasons."

Eric Lam

On March 24, California’s Air Resources Board (ARB) released a new economic analysis that found that California can grow its economy while meeting air pollution reduction goals of its Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006 (AB 32).

This post is the second in a series. The first summarized ARB’s modeling methods and findings about gross state product. This one covers jobs. Subsequent ones will discuss the following topics:

• household income
• energy price "shock risk" reduction
• how CARB's work compares to other analyses

1. What is the big picture jobs impact of California’s climate policy?

ARB modeling indicates that statewide employment is going to grow dramatically during the decade leading up to 2020 whether or not the measures laid out in the AB 32 Scoping Plan are fully implemented. According to the Employment Development Department, California employment in 2009 totaled approximately 16.1 million jobs.

Total labor demand is forecasted to grow to more than 18.4 million jobs in California with or without AB 32, as shown in Figure 1. In truth, the difference in labor demand between the business as usual and AB 32 scenarios is barely visible.

Figure 1 – Gross State Economic Productivity in 2020 with and without AB 32 Implementation

2. What do the numbers suggest for specific sectors?

With a few exceptions, employment in California’s major economic sectors will look very similar with or without AB 32. Many sectors are forecasted to gain jobs thanks to AB 32, including the biggest one: services.

Others, such as mining, utilities and retail trade, may lose jobs relative to business as usual growth, but will still grow dramatically between 2010 and 2020.

Utility sector labor demand reduction is anticipated as a positive consequence of energy efficiency investments, whereas retail trade labor declines will result from less gas being sold (e.g., fewer gas station attendant jobs) once people begin driving more fuel efficient vehicles.

This is good news for the overall economy: consumers will end up with more money in their pockets because of the savings they’ll get from using less energy and fuel.

Figure 2 – Jobs by Sector in 2020 with and without AB 32 Implementation

3. Do these findings about job growth make sense?

While it might seem logical to conclude that environmental regulation will be a drag on the economy, plenty of evidence indicates the opposite is true. Environmental regulations can translate into more efficiencies that reducde costs and more competitive industries employing more people.

EDF examined the job generating potential of AB 32 in 2009. We found that employment is likely to be spurred in several sectors and their supply chains, including:

• Biofuels, particularly those used for transportation and electricity
• Construction, particularly solar installation, heating, ventilation and air conditioning contractors, as well as for new electricity generation and transmission facilities
• (Clean) Technology, particularly associated with energy efficiency, advanced materials and nanotechnology, high efficiency vehicles, photovoltaics and related software
• Environmental engineering services associated with testing and compliance
• Consumer products, particularly biodegradable packaging, plastic ware and nontoxic household cleaners
• Information technology, particularly environmental-related software
• Transportation and logistics such as fuel cells, diesel retrofits and hybrids
• Waste and water purification and conservation

EDF also found that existing public policies and economic conditions are already acting to transform the state’s economy to be more efficient and reliant on cleaner energy sources.

AB 32 measures will ultimately prompt higher energy productivity (more output per unit of energy used) from our vehicles, appliances and buildings, which will help our economy be more competitive in a global marketplace and less exposed to risks related to dependence on imported fuel (more on this last topic in a future post).

The act also calls on the state to use more renewable energy technologies, which is already creating jobs and will continue to do so. A UC Berkeley report found that renewable energy generates more jobs per unit of energy produced and per dollar of investment than the fossil fuel-based energy sector. AB 32 will also continue to draw increased energy-related research and development (R&D) investment into the state.

California is enjoying the economic productivity of more than 40,000 green jobs, a category that has grown dramatically while other employment opportunities have declined. With current statewide unemployment rates above 12 percent, the job generating potential of AB 32 is increasingly important. To put that importance into perspective, in the absence of our recent green job growth, the current statewide unemployment rate would exceed 13 percent.

Melting glaciers have become a well-known symbol of climate change.

Why? “It’s one of the simplest indicators of climate change,” says Eric Rignot, a senior research scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion
Laboratory and a professor at the University of California, Irvine. “Glaciers melt when temperatures are increasing. It’s just basic physics.”

We also have access to numerous images of disappearing glaciers. Yet sometimes it’s hard to know exactly what the pictures are showing.

Below are some of the best photos that glaciologists say illustrate what they are seeing — a worldwide retreat in glaciers due to warming temperatures. The photos represent what is happening both in an individual glacier and in the various regions around the world. 

“You don’t need to be a scientist to appreciate the magnitude of change of these glaciers,” says Rignot. “There shouldn’t be any doubt about these images.”

 

(Photo: NASA)
Jakobshavn Isbrae, Greenland

Glaciologists agree that Jakobshavn is a good example of what’s happening with glaciers because it has a longer record than most glaciers. There is data going back as far as 1850. Jakobshavn was retreating slowly for a long time, but then in 2000 the glacier started retreating much more rapidly.

What’s more, three of the biggest glaciers in Greenland changed dramatically in the same time period, according to Leigh Stearns, an assistant professor at the University of Kansas. “These glaciers are really dynamic and they are changing much faster than we thought ice sheet glaciers could change,” she says.

 

Left: 1938. Right: 2005. (Photo: U.S. Geological Survey)
Grinnell Glacier, Glacier National Park, Montana

These photos accurately reflect what is happening at Grinnell Glacier, which has been reduced by nearly 90 percent over the past century, and elsewhere in Glacier National Park, according to glaciologists. “When Glacier National Park was formed back in 1912 there were 100 glaciers in the park,” says Lonnie Thompson, a professor at the Ohio State University. “This year there are 26 glaciers, and those are expected to disappear within the next 30 years.”

 

August 1941. (Photo: U.S. Geological Survey)

August 2004. (Photo: US Geological Survey)
Muir Glacier, Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve, Alaska

Some of the largest glacial losses are happening in Alaska. Glaciologists say the above photos reflect real change that is taking place. “Alaskan glaciers are really shrinking a lot,” according to Marco Tedesco, an assistant professor at the City College of New York. “There is no debate about Muir Glacier. It’s a dramatic change to liquid water.”

 

Left: Summer 1917. Right: Summer 2005. (Photo: The Glacier Photograph Collection, National Snow and Ice Data Center/World Data Center for Glaciology.)
Pedersen Glacier, Kenai Fjords National Park, Alaska

Pedersen Glacier is another example of the massive glacial retreat taking place in Alaska. Glaciologists like the above photos because they are taken from the same spot and the perspective is the same.

 

Left: July 1978. Right: July 2004. (Photo: Glacier Photograph Collection of the National Snow and Ice Data Center/World Data Center for Glaciology.)
Qori Kalis Glacier, Peru

Professor Lonnie Thompson has been mapping the retreat of Qori Kalis Glacier up the valley since 1978. In fact, he took the photo on the right. “In our first 15 years of observation it was retreating at a rate of 6 meters per year and in the last 15 years it’s been averaging 60 meters per year,” says Thompson. “It is the world’s largest tropical ice cap and it has lost about 25 percent of its area since we started observing it.”

 

Related links

• Researching global warming basics
• Saving energy at home
• Saving gas

Check out Yahoo! Green on Twitter and Facebook.

The day that the Obama administration unveiled the so-called New START nuclear arms control treaty with Russia to cut the nuclear stockpiles of the two largest nuclear-armed countries by 30 percent, Joe Cirincione, a longtime nonproliferation wonk, offered some friendly advice to the negotiating teams. “Enjoy the victory of the moment,” Joe told me, “get some R&R and come back for another tour of duty.” What, more cuts? Well, sure — this is a vision-of-a-nuke-free-world we’re talking about, something at the heart of the Obama agenda, and while you won’t get there overnight, you also won’t get there at all if you leave office with the U.S. possessing 1,550 warheads under New START.

It didn’t take two weeks for Cirincione’s urging to become part of the brand-new Nuclear Posture Review. From page eleven:

The President has directed a review of post-New START arms control objectives, to consider future reductions in nuclear weapons. Several factors will influence the magnitude and pace of future reductions in U.S. nuclear forces below New START levels. …

Conduct follow-on analysis to set goals for future nuclear reductions below the levels expected in New START, while strengthening deterrence of potential regional adversaries, strategic stability vis-à-vis Russia and China, and assurance of our allies and partners.

Address non-strategic nuclear weapons, together with the non-deployed nuclear weapons of both sides, in any post-New START negotiations with Russia.

At a briefing for reporters at the Pentagon, Ellen Tauscher, the undersecretary of state for arms control who played a crucial role in negotiating New START, said that in her dealings with the Russians, she took note of a “Russian willingness” to “talk about new things, … a new effort” for arms reductions after New START is ratified.

All this is laid out before Presidents Obama and Medvedev even sign New START in Prague on Thursday, let alone Senate ratification, which is far from a forgone conclusion. How’s that for ambition?

One remarkable aspect of the recent runup in oil is that it’s decidedly not the result of a weak dollar. That was not the case in 2007 and 2008 when oil was going nuts, and New York restaurants were pricing their menus with euro symbols.

There’s no surefire way to measure oil ex-dollars, but measuring it in gold is a reasonable approach, since it’s the anti-currency. So let’s look at little further.

At the end of 2008, the number of barrels you could buy with one ounce of gold surged to ridiculous highs, the combination of a deflationary collapse (the oil drop) and global fear (the gold spike). But look since 2000 and the trend is clear. One ounce of gold is buying you less and less oil. We appear to be reverting to trend. Oil can go a lot higher.

Join the conversation about this story »

by Ashley Braun

The buns should have bread the writing on the wall: They’re nothing but the vehicle for Americans’ daily meat-to-mouth resuscitation. Which is why KFC said buh-bye to bread in order to shove even more gross industrial chicken Double Down hungry throats. KFC is shooting for a more manly vehicle for getting meat to the gullet, opting for the Hummer of the food world: more meat.

The recipe for total organ failure? Two slabs of bacon, along with Monterey Jack and pepper jack cheese, between two fillets of chicken (this is where the buns get the middle finger), all slathered with the Colonel’s special sauce. That’s 32 grams of grease that KFC’s Double Down will get ya. Because the Colonel isn’t too chicken to add more chicken.

Psst … for a meaty bonus, scroll down to the bottom of this story for the fictional precursor to the Double Down chicken-on-chicken sandwich. Compliments of 30Rock’s Tracy Jordan!

Related Links:

How much renewable juice does it take to power an Apple iPad?

How to improve a Hummer’s mileage and add retro style

What to make of the Pollan/Schlosser agreement with Wendy’s?

Kate Gosselin’s got bigger problems than those two left feet she keeps tripping over on ABC’s Dancing With The Stars. TMZ.com insiders claim Jon Gosselin — who Kate divorced after a well-publicized cheating scandal last year — is now going after the single mother of eight for spousal support and custody of their brood.

The cash-strapped ex-reality star’s legal team plans to use DWTS as evidence that Kate does not spend “quality time with the 8 kids.”

With gas prices going up again it might be worth it to consider public transportation instead.

In some cities, it’s a better exchange than others, according to the American Public Transportation Association’s monthly transit savings report.

The average price for regular fuel in the U.S. has risen to $2.83 a gallon — nine cents higher than a month ago and about 80 cents higher than a year ago. Factor in the cost of parking and New York City residents save the most by opting for mass transit: $1,149 a month and $13,784 a year.

Both Boston and San Francisco residents also, on average, save more than $1,000 a month by using public transportation, according to the report. Nationally, public transit riders save about $9,293 a year and about $774 each month.

There were some surprises in the list of top 20 cities for saving. Some relatively smaller cities, such as Cleveland, Minneapolis and Honolulu all ranked in the top 15, allowing citizens to save between $800 and $900 a month.

The more populated Washington, D.C., meanwhile, fell relatively low on the list in 15th place, with residents saving $757 a month. And in last place, Pittsburg, where locals could save $681 a month or $8,174 a year if they opt for mass transit instead.

To be sure, public transportation has its downsides, for example, crowded trains and buses, the lack of functioning escalators and no cell phone service underground. And the crowds are likely to be even worse — and the prices higher — this year as transit systems make cuts and raise fares to adjust for battered state and local budgets.

To calculate how much you would save, if any, here’s a handy tool from the public-transportation association.

Below are the top 20 cities for savings and how much a consumer can expect to save per month:

1. New York $1,149
2. Boston $1,032
3. San Francisco $1,015
4. Chicago $955
5. Seattle $938
6. Philadelphia $928
7. Honolulu $894
8. Los Angeles $839
9. San Diego $827
10. Minneapolis $826
11. Denver $804
12. Portland $803
13. Cleveland $803
14. Baltimore $786
15. Washington $757
16. Miami $754
17. Dallas $736
18. Atlanta $724
19. Las Vegas $719
20. Pittsburgh $681

The first time I picked up the HTC HD2, I felt like I was holding an object from the future. This phone’s display is so large, and yet its body is so relatively thin and light, it was more like holding a “communicator” than a phone. So alluring was the form factor that I used the unlocked device as my daily phone for several weeks, despite its lack of American 3G and reliance on the aged Windows Mobile 6.5 OS beneath HTC’s glorious Sense user interface.

Now the HD2 has come to the US in a branded, locked to T-Mobile form. Gone is the silver exterior, traded in for a sleek matte black with copper/grey trim, but added is compatibility with T-Mo’s HSDPA 3G data network. The phone retains its massive 4.3″ capacitive touch display, multitouch enabled version of Opera Mobile 9.7 for Web browsing, and 5 megapixel camera with VGA video capture. T-Mobile has added some multimedia goodies to the mix, including a Barnes and Noble-branded e-Reader, mobiTV live television and Blockbuster streaming video services, and full-length copies of both Transformers movies pre-loaded into the phone’s 16GB of internal storage. 

We all know that sometimes beauty is only skin-deep. Does HD2’s allure hold up once you get past that big, beautiful visage? Here are some thoughts after a week or so using the phone on T-Mobile in the San Francisco Bay Area:

– Voice calls have been good on HD2. Not great, but not bad. Signal strength has generally been good, though the phone regularly hops from 3G to EDGE and back (more on that in the next point below). Call quality has been generally fine – this isn’t the best sounding HTC handset ever, but it’s certainly passable.

– Data connectivity has been an issue. When I first turned the phone on and started setting it up, it couldn’t get data via 3G or EDGE; only after I connected to a WiFi network could I set up my Email and social networking accounts. Since then, performance has been better but still erratic. The phone regularly switches back and forth between 3G and EDGE service. WiFi, on the other hand, has worked just fine.

– HD2’s form factor is stunning, but also may be too much for some people. 4.3″ is a lot of screen, and results in a device with a very large footprint. The phone is easily pocketable, and the large display makes for nice, big finger-friendly buttons, Web links, and other UI elements. But some would-be buyers will no doubt be put off by such a large phone. Despite my initial exuberance over the new wave of smartphones with 4″ + displays, HTC’s Nexus One and Desire, with their 3.7″ screens, may in fact have hit the ideal sweet spot between big screen and ergonomic comfort.

– HTC Sense continues to be awesome. Sense will keep you away from Windows Mobile 6.5 a lot of the time, which is great because Sense is as modern and smooth as WinMo is old and clunky. Peep (HTC’s Twitter app) and the animated weather backgrounds are two of Sense on HD2’s highlights for me thus far.

– This thing is a multimedia monster. Photos and videos – including the two Transformers flicks that come pre-loaded – look spectacular provided I’m using HD2 in decent lighting conditions. 16GB of internal memory makes it easy to load the thing up with music, photos, and videos and multitouch-enabled photo browsing is great. The 5 megapixel camera is good but not great, though the dual-LED flash system is one of the more useful cameraphone flashes you’ll find (it’s still no match for a real camera flash, but better than most of the anemic faux-flashes found on cell phones these days).

– While the 4.3″, 800 x 480, capacitive multitouch display is ideal for viewing Websites, the actual Web browsing experience has been just a bit disappointing. Opera Mobile on HD2 is still way better than Internet Explorer on any other WinMo device, but occasional performance lags and the outdated feel of the browser’s menus and display fonts make me wish I was using an Android or iPhone browser instead. Not to mention those data issues I’ve already complained about. When pages load and render, they look great – and I love Opera’s hidden menu bars that free up the entire display for content. But loading, rendering, and scrolling just aren’t as smooth as they should be.

– Speaking of performance lags, having recently tried the forthcoming HTC Evo 4G for Sprint I’m all the more convinced that Microsoft is doing the right thing in totally killing off WinMo 6.5. Both Evo 4G and HD2 are powered by a 1 GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor, and HD2 actually has a bit more RAM than EVO (576 MB vs 512 MB). And yet the pre-production Evo I messed with at CTIA is miles faster, smoother, and all-around nicer to use than the HD2 that T-Mobile sent me. Performance on HD2 isn’t a deal breaker, but it certainly has been frustrating at times in terms of general responsiveness.

– Typing on a virtual QWERTY board is made easier by HD2’s giant screen. But some touchscreen responsiveness and accuracy issues hampered the experience to some extent for me. Hopefully an OTA update can stomp some of the bugs that had me tapping keys multiple times in order to get a response, or erasing mis-typed letters more than I expected to.

More on HD2 coming soon … Maybe I’ll send it off to one of our other editors for a second opinion. In the meantime, HD2 owners, chime in! What say you about your new smartphones?

 

As we come out the other end of this global recession, automakers are struggling to adapt to a new world in which fuel economy standards are getting increasingly tighter and environmental regulations are taking center stage. One way for carmakers to quickly do that is by sharing what they know with other companies so that all the research and development can be pooled and the cost spread out among several players.

Towards that end, a few weeks ago I reported on a rumor that Renault, Nissan and Daimler were in talks to cooperate and form some sort of mega-alliance in which they would save greatly on research and development costs by swapping technologies that each company is specialized in but that the others may be lacking.

It now appears that a tie-up announcement between the three companies will be coming as soon as tomorrow.

(more…)

Yesterday, Jay Adelson stepped down as the CEO of Digg and was replaced by the company’s founder Kevin Rose. Soon after this change of guard, Kevin Rose announced some sweeping changes for Digg. First of all, the controversial DiggBar, an iFrame toolbar Digg introduced one year ago, will be replaced by basic links from the Digg homepage again. Second, Digg will unban all previously banned domains. All of these changes will go into effect once Digg v4 launches in a few months.

Sponsor

You can sign up for a beta invite for Digg v4 here.

Killing the Toolbar

According to Rose, the Digg toolbar is simply not worth the trouble. According to him, the iFrame “causes confusion when bookmarking, breaks w/iFrame busters, and has no ability to communicate with the lower frame (if you browse away from a story, the old digg count still persists).” Framing content, says Rose, “is bad for the Internet,” something critics pointed out to Digg when the company first launched this feature.

We should note that it’s not clear if Digg will continue to use its URL shortener for these links.

Unbanning Banned Domains

In addition to killing the DiggBar, Digg will also unban all previously banned domains. Besides filtering malware sites and other sites that violate Digg’s TOS, “no other restrictions will be placed on content.” It’s not quite clear how many URLs are currently banned by Digg, but here is a list of some of the more well-known sites that users can’t currently submit to Digg. Unbanning a lot of these sites makes a lot of sense for Digg, especially if it plans to keep the focus on personalized recommendations the company’s former CEO Jay Adelson outlined last month.

Discuss

March is over and done with, and whatever we’ve kept our eyes on is likely already sitting on store shelves and/or the online stores. Or is it?
 
 

It seems the Chinese company behind the Qi Smartbook U2000 has found at least one buyer, as the Rover Computers has tweeted the above picture, showing the 5 inch Windows Mobile 6.5 device with their branding and running the SPB Mobile Shell theme.

The MID is currently being sold in China for around $390 and features a 624MHz Marvell CPU and 3.2 megapixel camera.

No further information is available, but the device should not be too long in coming to market.

Read more at it-chuiko.com

Cardinal Roger Mahony on Tuesday introduced Los Angeles to his successor, San Antonio Archbishop Jose Gomez, saying Gomez would be an advocate for the city’s vast immigrant community as well as the less fortunate.

"Over the years he has been a most effective leader working with priests serving the Spanish-speaking communities across the country, and his leadership in proclaiming the dignity and rights of our immigrant peoples has helped motivate many people to advocate for our immigrants," Mahony said.

Gomez voiced his unequivocal support for immigration reform and said he
wholeheartedly supported Mahony’s advocacy for immigrant rights.

Gomez spoke of his joy of coming to Los Angeles, which he said “like no other city in the world, has the global face of the Catholic Church.”

He recalled how immediately after he was told about his new appointment, “the first thing I saw was a painting of our Lady of Guadalupe in the hallway.

“I felt her love and protection. To Mary of Guadalupe, I would like to entrust my new ministry in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles.”

He invited everyone to “thank God for our diversity and to commit ourselves to things that unite us,” which he explained were “our service to Jesus, the poor, the defense of the unborn child, the immigrant and the disabled.”

Gomez, who was warm and funny in his interaction with reporters, said he had not spent much time in Los Angeles.

“I need to learn about it,” he said. “I don’t know too much about it.”

Mahony, who spoke first, stressed to the pope about the importance of having a Hispanic archbishop. He noted that Los Angeles has the largest Spanish-speaking diocese in the U.S. and the fourth-largest in the world.

He said that is the real story today.

He said Gomez’s appointment sends a signal around the world that the church supports Spanish-speaking Catholics.

“I was so grateful to God for this gift of a Hispanic archbishop,” he said.

“I welcome Archbishop Gomez to the Archdiocese of Los Angeles with enthusiasm and personal excitement,” Mahony said. “During the process to select a new Archbishop, I urged that the Archdiocese of Los Angeles deserved to have a Hispanic as the next Archbishop. Los Angeles is the largest Hispanic Diocese or Archdiocese in the United States.”

Gomez, 58, has risen rapidly through the Catholic church and earned a
national reputation.

In replacing Mahony, Gomez would instantly become
the most prominent Latino bishop in the U.S., leading an
archdiocese that by far is the nation’s largest and is dominated by
parishioners with roots in his native Mexico.

If his personal history is any guide, he also could be expected to guide
the Los Angeles church along a more traditional — some would say
conservative — path than Mahony, known as one of the most progressive
archbishops in the country and an impassioned fighter for immigrants’
rights.

Gomez is a
former member of Opus Dei, a conservative and controversial Catholic
organization (known to most Americans because of its unflattering role
in “The DaVinci Code,” which Opus Dei leaders denounced as misleading
and offensive).

Mahony addressed that issue in his statement Tuesday morning: “Some may conclude that since Archbishop Gomez was ordained a priest of Opus Dei he must be ‘conservative.’ In fact, these labels of ‘conservative’ and ‘liberal’ are really unhelpful in the life of the Church. We are all called to a deep relationship with Jesus Christ, and I can attest that both of us share a common commitment to Christ and to the Church, and that both of us are interested in promoting the teachings of the Church fully as well as bringing the words and example of Christ to today’s society and world. I consider ourselves to share an equal commitment to the continued growth of the Church here in Los Angeles.”

Gomez built a reputation in San Antonio as a staunch
traditionalist who reversed some of the more liberal-leaning
initiatives of his predecessor. According to local news reports, he
disbanded a Justice and Peace Commission whose members disagreed with
his support for a state constitutional amendment barring gay marriage,
and he once denounced a local Catholic college for hosting
then-presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton, an advocate of abortion
rights.

Since taking over the San Antonio archdiocese in 2005, Gomez has pleased
some members of the community with his strong anti-abortion stance and
his insistence on traditional church doctrine, while alienating others
who favor a more progressive approach, according to the San Antonio
Express-News.

— Mitchell Landsberg and Jessica Garrison at Our Lady of Angels
Cathedral 

Photo: Archbishop-elect Jose H. Gomez in 2005. Credit: Eric Gay / Associated Press

RELATED

Times coverage on Jose Gomez

Share your thoughts on Gomez’s appointment: Will Mahony successor press for real priest abuse reform?

Google has been consistently improving their mobile search experience over the last several months, with notable changes coming in the form of a revamped product search, news display, and an entirely revamped look and feel.

One of Google’s latest changes to its mobile search offerings adds the ability to star the results of searches you’d like to be able to easily reference in the future.  The starred results appear every time you search for that query, and so long as you’re signed in to your Google account, any changes made while mobile will show up on the desktop.

The change is talked about in depth over at the Google Mobile blog.  

Ah, finally. Next week, KFC begins selling its new "bunless" Double Down chicken sandwich. The Colonel’s latest menu item consists of "two melted slices of Monterey jack and pepper jack cheese and Colonel’s Sauce" sandwiched between two "juicy, boneless white-meat chicken filets." (Choose from original or grilled, which contain 540 and 460 calories, respectively.) The launch follows much consumer buzz and hype about the product since its test introduction in two markets last year. To emphasize the "bunless" aspect, KFC is also donating "unneeded" buns to U.S. food banks. Mm-hm. Cause marketing plus a sandwich with fewer carbs? How can we resist?

—Posted by Elaine Wong