Testing the charging circuit on a laptop motherboard Part 2

Tom Hanks Praises Vets for Charging WWII Memorial

Actor Tom Hanks has jumped into the national dialogue over the government shutdown, praising military veterans who stormed the World War II Memorial in Washington, D.C. earlier this week.

“Good for the veterans. Good, go see it. We should all have access to them all the time,” he told a journalist at a screening of his new movie, “Captain Philips,” adding, “Sorry that they didn’t have it.”

Story continues below video.

The memorial, which Hanks helped to fund after he starred in “Saving Private Ryan,” was closed as part of the shutdown.

But a group of veterans broke through the barricades around the monument on Tuesday, and it now remains open to visitors.

“Did they assault it with helicopters? Landing craft? Did they bust through in a jeep?” Hanks, who has often spoken up for veterans, joked.

When he learned that they had help from some congressmen, the two-time Oscar winner said, “Good! We should all have access to our national monuments and parks. It’s as simple as that.”

A park ranger told GOP Rep. Randy Neugebauer of Texas at the memorial site on Wednesday that it was “difficult” to have to deny access to veterans and apologized for the closure.

Neugebauer was part of a group of lawmakers that gathered at the memorial after reports it had been closed as a result of the shutdown.

Referring to veterans, he asked, “How do you look at them and say— how do you deny them access? I don’t get that.”

Related stories:
Rep. Jeb Hensarling: ‘Disgusting’ for Obama to Use WWII Vets as Pawns
Ed Asner: Hollywood Mum on Syria Over Fears of Appearing Racist

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Tom Hanks Praises Vets for Charging WWII Memorial

Power companies look at charging customers for solar energy

By Claudia Assis

Utilities in a few solar-friendly states are looking for ways to charge their solar customers for energy, a story by the Associated Press said.

That includes creating extra fees for solar customers, or attempting to roll back or end programs that allow solar customers to trade the solar power they generate on sunny days for grid power the rest of the time.

Rooftop solar panels are becoming more common and cheaper worldwide, and not only as a way to be more environmentally conscious.

IKEA, which this week started selling solar panels in a store in the U.K., said customers could recoup their costs in seven years.

Utilities are afraid they will lose so many customers to solar power that they won’t be able to afford to build and maintain the grid, the AP said.

Power companies reviewing their options include Southern Co.’s /quotes/zigman/241351 /quotes/nls/so SO subsidiary Georgia Power, which is looking at a fee for renewable energy users. Georgia Power has asked state regulators to add a new fee beginning next year.

Arizona Public Service Co., a unit of Pinnacle West Capital Corp. PNW /quotes/zigman/238424 /quotes/nls/pnw PNW , is looking at a fee or at curbing an energy swap program. California utilities were going in the same direction, but state legislators voted to allow the state’s solar rate plan to continue and even expand.

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WHAT REALLY HAPPENED

Power companies look at charging customers for solar energy

Former aide sues San Diego mayor, charging sexual harassment

1 of 6. Attorney Gloria Allred introduces Irene McCormack Jackson, the mayor’s former director of communications and plaintiff in a sexual harassment lawsuit against the City Of San Diego and its mayor Bob Filner, during a press conference in San Diego, California July 22, 2013.

Credit: Reuters/Sam Hodgson

By Marty Graham

SAN DIEGO | Mon Jul 22, 2013 8:21pm EDT

SAN DIEGO (Reuters) – San Diego Mayor Bob Filner, facing pressure to resign over allegations of making lewd comments and unwanted advances toward women, was hit with a sexual harassment lawsuit on Monday by a former aide who accused the 70-year-old mayor of asking her to “get naked” and kiss him.

The lawsuit was brought by the mayor’s former press secretary, Irene McCormack Jackson, three days after the county Sheriff’s Department set up a telephone hotline to field complaints of sexual misconduct against him.

McCormack Jackson is the first woman since the scandal broke a week and a half ago to charge publicly that the mayor, a Democrat and former 10-term U.S. congressman from California’s second-largest city, had harassed her.

Filner’s representatives could not immediately be reached for comment on the lawsuit. The mayor has recently admitted to inappropriate behavior toward female staff members but has indicated that he would not step down.

The 11-page suit, filed in San Diego County Superior Court, accuses Filner on one occasion of placing McCormack Jackson in what she described as a virtual “head lock” – drawing her close with an arm gripped around her neck – while he suggested they get married and asked, “Wouldn’t it be great if we consummated the marriage?”

The complaint quotes Filner on a separate occasion, last month in the press secretary’s City Hall office, as telling her, “When are you going to get naked? Come on and give me a kiss.” The lawsuit said she responded by telling him he should leave.

“The past six months turned out to be the worst time of my entire working life,” McCormack Jackson told a news conference. “I had to work and do my job in an atmosphere where women were viewed by Mayor Filner as sexual objects or stupid idiots. I saw him place his hands where they did not belong on numerous women.”

CALLS FOR RESIGNATION

McCormack Jackson was hired by Filner in January but resigned as the mayor’s spokeswoman in June and is now director of communications for another city department.

Calls for Filner’s resignation began on July 11, when former San Diego city councilwoman and fellow Democrat Donna Frye joined two attorneys in leveling allegations that at least one woman, who they did not name, had accused the mayor of harassing her.

Filner responded by acknowledging that he had “failed to fully respect the women who work for me and with me, and that at times I have intimidated them.”

He went on to say he had “reached into my heart and soul and realized I must and will change my behavior,” adding that he was seeking professional help and that he and his staff would undergo sexual-harassment training.

Days later, Frye and the two lawyers, Marco Gonzalez and Cory Biggs, called again for Filner’s resignation and gave more graphic details of his alleged behavior. Frye said then that the mayor had made unwelcome advances against two constituents and had “jammed his tongue down” the throat of one of them.

Marco and Gonzalez said a client who worked for Filner had alleged he groped her and suggested that she not wear panties.

In recent days, a number of prominent local Democrats have publicly urged Filner to quit, including San Diego-area U.S. Representatives Susan Davis and Scott Peters and San Diego City Council President Todd Gloria.

Filner’s top two aides also have resigned since the scandal emerged.

Before he was elected mayor in 2012, Filner represented the southern portion of San Diego and much of the California-Mexico border area for 20 years in the U.S. House of Representatives, including a stint as chairman of the House Veterans Affairs Committee.

(Writing by Steve Gorman; Editing by Dan Whitcomb and Lisa Shumaker)

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Reuters: Politics

Former aide sues San Diego mayor, charging sexual harassment