Monday Newsbreak: 6/2

--The Discovery space shuttle "successfully" took off Saturday to deliver an important Japanese section to the International Space Station, as well as parts to facilitate repairs to its faulty toilet. However, once again, some debris from the shuttle was lost not long after launch, although authorities claimed that this shouldn't be cause for concern. But how would you like to be on a jet plane that just took off, only to find that a little part of it came off on takeoff? Transfer that concern to the shuttle, with the enormous heat involved in its reentry through Earth's atmosphere, and you may understand why the application of the word "successful" to describe its launch can only be accurately applied once it has safely returned!

--The Florida and Michigan primary disputes were settled, with the Democratic National Committee halving each delegation's votes as a punishment for their violation of party rules. Which is what they should have done earlier, as the Republicans did with little fallout. Leaders of Hillary Clinton's campaign, which had counted on a windfall of Michigan delegates by seeking to retroactively change the decision to not count the votes in that state (on whose ballot Barack Obama's name was not even entered), were furious when her opponent was awarded 29 1/2 votes, based on different estimates of his support then in Michigan. But I credit Obama's willingness to leave Clinton with advantages in both states as a generous concession that he did not have to make. If the rules had been overturned as Clinton had wanted, no one would ever have been able to trust the Democratic National Committee in the future. Why do I get the feeling that, if Clinton and Obama's roles were reversed, that Obama would not be behaving in such an unseemly, vindictive way? Hillary most definitely feels entitled to the nomination by dint of her having been married to President Bill, even though she has held but one elected post in her lifetime. Why can't her supporters see that? Why couldn't we have had instead a more experienced and dignified woman candidate such as California Senator Dianne Feinstein?

--Steve Newman's Earthweek feature picked up an article in Nature magazine featuring UC Riverside's Martin Kennedy's piece warning of impending, greatly accelerated global warning should the vast amounts of methane currently trapped in polar ice be released into the atmosphere (through the ice's melting). The resulting warming could dwarf even the most dire scenarios depicted by activist Al Gore in his movie An Inconvenient Truth.

--Hurricane season has begun in the Atlantic and already the first tropical storm, Alberto, has formed and gone inland around Belize. After erroneous projections for the last fews years, all bets are off as to how severe this year's batch of storms will be (or where they will strike, for that matter).

--I'm disappointed to report my inability to be able to watch any WNBA games so far this year. Most of them that have been televised were shown on a channel that comes in poorly on my TV. Hopeful, after the NBA playoffs end, ESPN and ESPN2 will show more of them on their channels. As for the NBA, I am thoroughly dejected at the failures of the San Antonio Spurs and Detroit Pistons to play up to their potentials as they lost to the Los Angeles Lakers and the Boston Celtics, respectively. Well, for all the good it's going to do, I'm picking the Lakers to knock off the Celtics in the final series!