Boy Scouts vote to accept openly gay boys but retain ban on gay adults

GRAPEVINE, Texas -- The Boy Scouts of America's National Council has voted to ease a long-standing ban and allow openly gay boys to be accepted as Scouts. Of the local Scout leaders voting at their annual meeting in Texas, more than 60 percent supported the proposal. Under the proposal drafted by the Scouts' governing board, gay adults will remain barred from serving as Scout leaders. ...

Climate change Do governors actions match his rhetoric

MOUNTAIN VIEW -- The global threat of climate change must be addressed without delay lest we pass a tipping point after which the damage can't be undone, Gov. Jerry Brown told a sustainability technology summit Thursday."What's coming at us is what we ourselves are creating," he said, adding that if action against climate change "is just about like this five years from ...

Berkeley names new schools chief after difficult search

BERKELEY -- The school board Wednesday night named Donald Evans as the new superintendent to oversee the district after a tumultuous search that took over a year.Evans was not at Wednesday night's meeting where board members unanimously approved his $229,500 salary because he was attending his last school board meeting as superintendent of the Hayward school district which he has overseen ...

View from the sidelines Why Aetna aint in Covered California exchange

Covered California health benefit exchange, and that met the requirements of the exchange, were "selected" to be in Covered California, according to its statement today and the ones they provided afterward. But what about the health plans that chose not to participate? It's not that they weren't "selected," at least in some notable cases, it's that they ...

Campbell gobbles up Plum Organics

Campbell Soup Co. is acquiring Emeryville's Plum Organics, a maker of organic baby foods. The terms of the deal were not disclosed. However, the company said that with the addition of Plum Organics' products, Campbell's portfolio of kid-focused soups, beverages and snacks will have annual sales of more than $1 billion. Baby food is currently a $2 billion category in the United ...