Moniz backs natural gas 'revolution'

Energy secretary nominee Ernest Moniz backs increased use of natural gas

Associated Press -

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New York City to pay Occupy Wall Street protesters for damaged property

By Jonathan Allen | Reuters – 9 hrs ago

Reuters/Reuters - An Occupy Wall Street activist is arrested while protesting in the streets of New York's Financial District on the one-year anniversary of the movement, in New York September 17, 2012. REUTERS/Andrew Burton

By Jonathan Allen

NEW YORK (Reuters) - New York City has agreed to pay Occupy Wall Street protesters more than $100,000 for property damaged or lost when police cleared out their encampment in a downtown Manhattan park in 2011, according to court documents signed on Tuesday.

The settlement includes $47,000 for books and library equipment lost or damaged in the raid onZuccotti Park, where the protesters, campaigning against economic inequality, had camped for nearly two months, setting up tents and a ramshackle library.

Hundreds of books were damaged, and more than 2,000 books were never returned after police raided the park early on November 15, 2011, said Norman Siegel, an attorney for the protesters.

Brookfield Office Properties, named in the protesters' federal lawsuit as owner of Zuccotti Park, will reimburse the city one third of the $47,000 in library damages, the documents said.

The city also agreed to settle two related federal lawsuits by paying the protesters $75,000 for lost or damaged computers and network and broadcasting equipment, and $8,500 to an environmental group for 16 lost or damaged "energy bicycles" used as power generators at the park, the documents said.

The lawsuits were filed in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.

In the raid, police arrested more than a hundred protesters and dismantled the encampment, which city officials said had become a health and fire safety hazard.

The encampment had been most visible fixture of the Occupy Wall Street movement, which inspired similar protests in dozens of cities across the United States and around the world.

"This settlement creates a record that what they did that night was wrong," Siegel said.

The city acknowledged in court documents that the damage and loss of property were "unfortunate" and said it was important to "adhere to established procedures in order to protect the legal rights of the property owners."

But city officials in a separate statement on Tuesday defended the eviction from Zuccotti Park.

"It was absolutely necessary for the city to address the rapidly growing safety and health threats posed by the Occupy Wall street encampment," the statement said.

"There are many reasons to settle a case, and sometimes that includes avoiding the potential for drawn-out litigation that bolsters plaintiff attorney fees."

The park's library had been an "eclectic" collection of titles, including many political and history books, Siegel said.

(Editing by Ellen Wulfhorst and Todd Eastham)

China and California sign deal to boost investment

With eye on Chinese investment, Brown notes the limits on what California will offer

Associated Press -

BEIJING (AP) -- California and China signed an agreement Wednesday to look for ways to boost trade and investment, even as Gov. Jerry Brown acknowledged the state's reputation for red tape and its limited willingness to offer tax incentives.

Brown told executives of mostly American companies that California has ranked at the bottom of nearly annual surveys of the business climate of U.S. states for 37 years. Having just resolved a $27 billion budget deficit, Brown said he's not inclined to offer deep incentives to investors.

Still, he said the aggregate income of Californians is $1.9 trillion, and that the state remains a magnet for risk-taking venture investors, start-up entrepreneurs and other smart, creative people.

"There's a problem there," Brown told the American Chamber of Commerce in China. "But somebody is getting part of that 1.9 trillion. If you don't want some of that, well then stay out."

The message contrasts with the usual sales pitches by governors who tout the advantages of their states. While Brown's administration seeks more Chinese trade and investment, California is already a well-known destination for Chinese.

Chinese Vice Commerce Minister Wang Chao told Brown on Wednesday that a third of Chinese exports to the U.S. end up in or pass through California, and that China imports electronics, machinery, chemicals, fruit and other goods from the state.

California attracted $854 million in investment from China between 2003 and 2010 when outbound Chinese investment was just starting, said a 2011 report by the Rhodium Group, a New York-based consultancy. California's colleges and universities host a quarter of the 102,000 Chinese getting tertiary education in the U.S., according to the Institute of International Education.

The agreement signed Wednesday sets up a joint task force between California, China's Commerce Ministry and six Chinese provinces and regions to look for ways to expand investment and trade. Sectors identified for cooperation include infrastructure, environmental protection, agriculture and bio- and information technology.

Brown said China's commerce minister projected that California will receive $10 billion to $60 billion in Chinese investment between now and 2010. "I'll take the latter number," Brown said.

As part of the seven-day trade mission, Brown, who is traveling with business executives from California, will highlight the state's interest in infrastructure on Thursday by traveling from Beijing to Shanghai on China's showcase high-speed rail. In Shanghai, he will open a new trade office, replacing one that was shut down a decade ago amid an earlier round of cost-cutting.

Support grows for liberal area at Israel holy site

JERUSALEM (AP) — The rabbi of Judaism's holiest prayer site on Wednesday endorsed a proposal to establish a section where men and women can worship together, a groundbreaking motion that could end a decades-old fight against an Orthodox monopoly of the area.

The fight over the Western Wall has reached a fever pitch in recent months, after police arrested female worshippers who prayed at the site wearing religious garments and leading prayers — acts thatOrthodox Judaism permits for men only.

The arrests caused an uproar in Israel and among liberal Jewish leaders in the United States, prompting Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to instruct the semi-governmental Jewish Agency to devise a plan that would permit non-Orthodox forms of worship at the holy site.

The Western Wall's rabbi, Shmuel Rabinovich, told Army Radio Wednesday that while he dislikes non-Orthodox prayer, he would tolerate it in a separate section in order to end intra-Jewish fighting at the site.

"I want everyone to pray according to Orthodox Jewish religious law, but I don't interfere," said Rabinovich, who is Orthodox. "If these things can be done at the Western Wall without hurting others, and this can bring about compromise and serenity, I don't object."

The Western Wall is Judaism's most revered prayer site because it is a remnant of the biblical Jewish temple compound. Worship at the site is administered according to Orthodox Jewish religious custom: the men's section and smaller women's section are separated by a divider, and women are not allowed to lead prayer groups or wear prayer shawls, skullcaps or phylacteries — small boxes strapped to the head and arms during prayer.

The pluralistic Reform and Conservative movements, which allow mixed prayer and female rabbis, have long campaigned for recognition in Israel. The two groups however are largely marginalized in the Jewish state despite being popular overseas, especially in the United States. The emerging plan could represent a significant accomplishment by these liberal streams of Judaism.

Under the plan, unveiled by the Jewish Agency announced on Tuesday, Israel would create a permanent area for mixed-gender and women-led prayer next to a section of the Western Wall that mainly serves as an archaeological site. Currently, liberal Jewish worship is permitted in the area only during limited hours. Under the proposed plan, a platform would be erected to expand the area and allow liberal prayer there 24 hours a day, like the Orthodox section of the site.

The two Jewish prayer sections would be separated by the large wooden ramp that leads to the Muslim Al Aqsa Mosque compound, a site also revered by Jews as the Temple Mount — another reminder of the sensitive, inextricable mesh of religious claims to the area.

Natan Sharansky, the chairman of the Jewish Agency, said he had presented the proposal to Israeli lawmakers and Jewish leaders in Israel and the United States, and hoped it would be accepted.

"One Western Wall for one Jewish people," said Sharansky, a one-time political prisoner in the former Soviet Union. He expressed his hope that the site "will once again be a symbol of unity among the Jewish people, and not one of discord and strife."

The plan will be presented to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and must be approved by Israel's government before it is implemented. Netanyahu's office had no immediate comment.

Women of the Wall, a liberal Jewish women's group whose members have been arrested in controversial monthly prayer sessions in the current female-only section of the site, cautiously welcomed the proposal.

"The principle is the most important issue here," said Peggy Cidor, a board member of Women of the Wall. "The most important thing for us is that someone has at last understood that this cannot continue."