PALO ALTO, Calif. — Critics began panning the first leg of California’s futuristic high-speed rail network as a “train to nowhere” soon after officials decided to build it not in the major population centers of Los Angeles or San Francisco, but through the state’s Central Valley farming belt. Read full article > >

More here:
Plans for high-speed rail are slowing down

I have this game I play when I meet college students. “What’s your major?” I ask. The student might say, “English,” “psychology,” “political science” or “engineering.” And then, in my mind, after factoring in some other information, I say to myself “job” or “no job,” depending on the major. Read full article > >

Read more:
Not all college majors are created equal

I have this game I play when I meet college students. “What’s your major?” I ask. The student might say, “English,” “psychology,” “political science” or “engineering.” And then, in my mind, after factoring in some other information, I say to myself “job” or “no job,” depending on the major. Read full article > >

Read the rest here:
Not all college majors are created equal

Joe Torre has resigned his post with Major League Baseball in order to join a group trying to purchase the Los Angeles Dodgers. Since February, Torre had been responsible for major league operations, on-the-field operations, on-the-field discipline and umpiring. MLB announced his resignation this morning. Read full article > >

View original post here:
Joe Torre resigns from MLB to pursue purchase of Dodgers

BBC chief political correspondent Norman Smith looks back at the major political news events of 2011.

Read more here:
VIDEO: Norman Smith’s political review of 2011

Now is the time for President Obama to complete his evolution on the subject of same-sex marriage. Supporting the right of all Americans to marry the person of their choice would be the right thing to do. Strange as this may sound, it might also be good politics. More to the point, it would not be the almost certainly disastrous political move it would have been even in the last presidential campaign, when none of the major Democratic candidates supported the right to marry. Read full article > >

Continued here:
The good politics of gay marriage

Husain Haqqani, Pakistan’s ambassador to the United States, has offered his resignation to defuse a growing controversy at home that threatens to aggravate already precarious relations between that country’s powerful military and its civilian government. In a letter sent Wednesday to Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari, Haqqani said in an interview, he wrote that “I do not want to be a distraction from the major challenges facing our country and our government.” Read full article > >

Read the original post:
Pakistani ambassador offers resignation

Baseball player Wilson Ramos, who plays for the US Major League Washington Nationals, is freed in Venezuela, two days ago after being kidnapped.

Follow this link:
Kidnapped US baseball star freed

The UK should stop using the term “special relationship” to describe its alliance with the US, Sir John Major says, arguing it is outdated and “patronising”.

Continue reading here:
Major warns over UK-US alliance

Rick Perry has launched a highly visible effort to recover from a major gaffe during Wednesday’s presidential debate, giving interviews on the major morning television shows, appealing for donations from supporters and agreeing to poke fun at himself alongside David Letterman on “The Late Show” Thursday night. Read full article > >

See the original post:
Rick Perry makes light of gaffe, vows not to quit

NEW YORK — Long regarded as the best closer in baseball, Mariano Rivera now has more saves than anyone else, too. Rivera set the major league record with No. 602, pitching a perfect ninth inning Monday and preserving the New York Yankees’ 6-4 win over the Minnesota Twins. With fans standing and cheering from his first pitch to his last, Rivera retired Trevor Plouffe, Michael Cuddyer and Chris Parmelee to end it. Parmelee looked at strike three — it appeared to be Rivera’s signature cutter — and Yankee Stadium roared in approval. Read full article > >

Continue reading here:
Mariano Rivera gets 602nd save in Yankees win over Twins

The Irish government has started contributing towards the cost of the major A5 Londonderry to Aughnacloy road upgrade, the BBC learns.

View post:
Irish government’s £19m to A5

The competition to supply new trains for Crossrail, the major London train link, is delayed until January 2012.

Read the rest here:
Crossrail delays competition bid

After a planned $4 toll increase on the major Hudson River crossings drew gasps and political backlash, the agency unveiled a more modest measure.

More here:
City Room: Port Authority Proposes Less Drastic Toll Increase

Luke Donald says he would swap his world number one ranking for Phil Mickelson’s four major victories as he prepares for the US Open.

Read this article:
Donald targets first major title