Citizen Cartwright

Can Iran be trusted to adhere to a nuclear deal?

The country, which has been under sanctions for years, has a long history of illicit nuclear procurement using front companies and other methods of skirting sanctions, says Reuters.

And now Britain has informed a U.N. panel that monitors Iran’s sanctions compliance about an active Iranian nuclear procurement network linked to two blacklisted firms, according to a confidential report by the panel that’s been seen by Reuters.

Report: 40 percent of Americans breathe unhealthy air

And some cities have experienced their highest number of unhealthy days ever, according to the American Lung Association’s annual report on air quality.

"We know that urban populations with poor air quality have higher incidence of atherosclerosis and COPD," says Dr. Len Horovitz, a pulmonary specialist at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City. "There is even the question of whether lung cancer may be linked to air quality. We need to clean up our environment.”

You can plug in your zip code here and get the report’s grade for the quality of your air.

How stores use big data to know what you'll want to buy

The amount of consumer behavioral data being mined by retailers has grown exponentially in the past five years or so, says The Wall Street Journal.

For example, the systems of Applied Predictive Technologies currently are combing through more than $4 trillion in clients’ sales data.

A typical apparel retailer now maintains about 4 terabytes of data (enough to fill nearly a million books), compared with 180 gigabytes in 2008 (enough to fill roughly 50,000 books), APT says.

Chico’s, for instance, captures data on 90 percent of sales through its loyalty program, which offers a 5 percent lifetime discount to anyone who signs up.

Also in the news

Taliban gains pull U.S. units back into the fight in Afghanistan

United States now is seeing the Ukrainian rebels as a Russian force

In speech to Congress, Prime Minister Abe lays out a more assertive role for Japan

FBI helped facilitate ransom for U.S. hostage killed in January drone strike

Republican negotiators reach budget deal, take aim at Obamacare

Obama administration steps back from effort to end the federal death penalty

Supreme Court justices hotly debate use of a lethal injection drug

Supreme Court rules that states may bar judicial candidates from personal fundraising

Gender bias issue could tip Chief Justice Roberts into voting in favor of gay, lesbian couples

Fed’s downgrade of economic outlook signals a longer rate hike wait

Canadian partnership shielded identities of donors to the Clinton Foundation

Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders announces he’s running for president as a Democrat

California governor sharply increases the state’s target for greenhouse gas emissions cuts

The industries with the highest percentage of employees who drink and drug

Insurers are flouting Obamacare rule covering birth control, studies find

Half of U.S. hospitals could do more to prevent serious infections, study says

FDA approves injected, fat-absorbing compound to reduce double chin

Justice Kennedy’s ‘conflicting signals’ on gay marriage

Swing vote Justice Anthony Kennedy left little doubt during Supreme Court arguments two years ago that a part of the federal anti-gay marriage law was doomed, says The Associated Press.

But when the justices heard arguments Tuesday in a case about the right of same-sex couples to marry anywhere in the United States, Kennedy’s comments were less clear-cut and his potentially decisive vote less certain than two years ago, AP says.

Kennedy caused leaders of the gay rights movement who were in the courtroom to “squirm” with several of his queries, says The New York Times.

He asked, for example, whether “there has not been really time” for “the federal system to engage in this debate.”

But while Kennedy on Tuesday left people on both sides of the issue with hopes and fears about the outcome in the landmark civil rights case, his track record as the author of the court’s three earlier rulings in favor of gay rights “probably gives same-sex marriage supporters less to fear,” says AP.

Tuesday’s hearing reinforced the expectation that the court will find a constitutional right to marry for gays and lesbians, given Kennedy’s past writings and the tone of his questions and comments in court, says a Times news analysis.

But the court set up the issue in a way that enables it to look as if it is responding to changing national norms rather than imposing them, the Times says.

After the backlash to some of its previous landmark cases on race and abortion, the justices have been wary of getting too far ahead of the country and appearing to foist major social change rather than letting it be resolved by the political system, says the Times.

SEC to propose new rules on executive pay

The proposal expected Wednesday is intended to give investors a better understanding of the link between corporate executives’ pay each year and total shareholder return.

Such disclosure gives the public “much more opportunity to be critical of the disconnect between pay and performance,’’ says Steven Seelig, a senior regulatory adviser for Towers Watson & Co., a human-resources consultancy.

The proposal is a requirement of the 2010 Dodd-Frank law.

U.S. kids not learning much about citizen responsibilities

A fundamental point of this blog is that democracy depends on informed citizens.

But we the people don’t know much about civics and history, according to federal test scores released Wednesday.

The share of eighth grade students scoring at or above proficiency in civics last year was 23 percent and U.S. history 18 percent, according to the National Assessment of Educational Progress.

Also in the news

Erosion of Syrian army is forcing government to rely on Syrian and foreign militias

Saudi king names new heir to the throne in government shakeup

Wang Jianlin, a billionaire at the intersection of business and power in China, is Asia’s richest man

Corker stops progress of budget agreement, even as pressure for more spending builds

Federal mortgage agency says it needs more resources to police nonbank lenders

Breastfeeding may lower risk of breast cancer recurrence, researchers say

Washington’s focus this week on Japan

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is in town and on Monday got a tour of the Lincoln Memorial from President Obama.

Tuesday’s state dinner involves the unveiling of the Obama presidential china, in “Kailua Blue” inspired by the president’s Hawaii home.

Abe is to address a joint meeting of Congress on Wednesday.

Abe’s visit marks just the eighth official state visit in the six years of the Obama administration, and I hope you’re getting the gist of the way such events set much of Washington atwitter.

As far as policy, Obama and Abe have reached agreement to tighten the two countries’ defense cooperation and are pressing toward an agreement to remove trade barriers across the Pacific Rim, as both leaders move to counter rising economic and military threats from China.

Another issue is Abe’s “ambivalent signals” about Japan’s imperial wartime past, which, along with his push to reassert his nation’s role in regional security after more than half a century of pacifism, has alarmed neighbors including China, but especially South Korea.

Biggest meatpacker to eliminate antibiotics

Tyson plans to largely eliminate antibiotics used in human health from its chicken production, a decision aimed at allaying mounting public-health concerns over drug-resistant bacteria.