Search results for

Los Angeles, Calif. is the first major city to computerize all of its traffic signals. According to the city, the average speed has gone from 15 miles per hour to 17.3. This is just one example of the innovative ways cities try to address congestion issues.

The measures include a ban on guns in schools and criminal background checks for private gun sales. They follow a shooting at a crowded shopping mall in a Portland suburb just days before the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut.

Semiprecious stones were the medium of choice for Vasily Konovalenko, a Soviet ballet set designer turned sculptor. His masterful workmanship captured Russian characters, from Cossacks and drunks to country folk and czarist henchmen. He fell afoul of the authorities and left Russia for the U.S. in the 1980s.

The Obama administration has decided to delay for a year a key piece of the health law that will let small businesses provide a choice of health plans to their workers. It is the first admission that the task of rolling out the law is too complicated to accomplish in the time allowed.

Fast-food workers in New York City are on strike for the second time in six months, demanding higher wages that they can live on. Workers complain that $7.25 an hour, New York's current minimum wage, is not enough to live in the city.

A new exhibit in Berlin's Jewish Museum is intentionally provocative. The point, one curator says, is to "get people talking about how they perceive Jews, particularly in Germany today." At the center of the controversy is a display in which a Jewish person sits inside a glass showcase and answers questions from visitors.

The computer maker's chairman Ray Lane has stepped down as executive chairman. He's been on thin ice with shareholders after his role in acquiring a business software company ended up hurting HP's bottom line.

Two white supremacist prison gangs have fallen under suspicion in recent high-profile slayings in Colorado and Texas. Experts say prison gangs of all races and ethnicities have evolved in recent years to include more activity outside the walls.

The remark — which Obama made during a fundraiser — was called sexist by some. Obama said he regretted the "distraction it caused."

Some advocates argue that primary care doctors, surgeons and other specialists could add palliative medicine to their usual care. Removing bottlenecks for certification of palliative care specialists could also help.