California: Discarded water bottles clog state’s landfills

Californians toss nearly 3 million plastic water bottles into the trash each day, creating a crisis for landfills, state officials said Friday.

Just 16 percent of the bottles sold in California are being recycled. If that doesn’t improve, the Department of Conservation projects the number of water bottles discarded during the next 10 years would be enough to stretch the 1,100 mile length of California’s coast, 6 inches deep and as wide as a two-lane highway.

As summer approaches, the department is urging consumers to recycle their bottles and lobby service stations, convenience stores and workplaces to set up recycling bins.

California is one of 10 states with a recycling program that requires consumers to pay a deposit on beverage containers. But residents are passing up $26 million in unclaimed deposits on the water bottles, the department estimated.

Denver: Presbyterians delay vote on gay clergy

Leaders of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) delayed a vote Friday on whether to repeal a ban on actively gay clergy, saying the measure was too divisive.

The 215th General Assembly, gathered for its national convention, instead referred the issue to a task force that deals with divisive theological and policy issues. The panel will report its findings in 2006.

“This is not the time to pass this overture,” said the Rev. David Kincaide of Des Moines, Iowa. “The people of my congregation and many throughout the church are becoming increasingly frustrated and weary of the battle.”

Previous assemblies have twice voted to overturn the provision. But for the ban to be terminated, the church’s regional governing bodies — called presbyteries — must also agree, and they rejected repeal efforts by large margins in 1997 and 2001.

California: 2 children found killed; police seek father

A mother returned home from work to find her two children had been slain, and police were searching for the younger child’s father.

The 3-year-old boy and his 9-year-old half-sister appeared to have been strangled Thursday, Santa Clara Police Sgt. Steve Bauer said.

Early Friday, a car believed to have been driven by the boy’s father, Jose Zacarias, was found on a highway about 40 miles southwest of Santa Clara. Authorities were searching the area.

Witnesses reported seeing Zacarias with the boy Thursday before the mother arrived home.

Police said the family lived together and Zacarias was known to care for the children during the day.

Washington, D.C.: Interior Department creates study guidelines

The Interior Department adopted a new code of scientific conduct for research done by staff, consultants and contractors Friday after a controversy surrounding biologists who falsified data in a study of the reclusive Canada lynx.

The code was developed by a panel of scientists and ethicists to ensure the department’s research and analysis meets standards of the scientific community and guidelines set by the Clinton White House in December 2000, Interior Secretary Gale Norton said.

The Interior Department’s inspector general recommended developing the rules after finding that wildlife biologists had submitted bogus fur samples to a lab in 1999 and 2000.