• Cities’ growing demand for electric buses is outpacing the supply: Hundreds of orders for electric buses are backlogged, according to Fred Silver, vice president of CALSTART, a clean transportation advocacy group based in California. "Almost every state now has a program. So that is unique—it's gone beyond interest in just a few states," he told The Guardian. Although U.S. cities are clamoring for the emissions-free vehicles, the 650 e-buses that can be found on American roads today aren’t even a blip compared to the 400,000 now carrying passengers in China. Based on current pledges by states, cities, and regional transit authorities, a third of the 70,000 public transit buses in the United States will be electric by 2045, according to this report from the U.S. Public Interest Research Group. The transition to electric must move a lot faster than that.
• Despite turmoil in Iraq that has spooked many investors, Russia is keen to keep going: In the past decade, the Russians have invested $10 billion in Iraq’s energy sector. Since oil and gas contracts are frequently long-lasting, Russia’s deals in Iraq can be expected to increase. When sectarianism boosted chaos and violence in Iraq in 2009, ExxonMobil, Chevron, and other Western oil companies got cold feet. One of the first projects the Russians invested in was West Qurna-2 near Basra. That 25-year operation is now producing 400,000 barrels of crude oil a day, 9% of Iraq’s total production and 12% of its exports, with a goal of 800,000 bbl/d by 2024:
Even sanctions don’t seem to bother the Russians or Iraqis. Some of the companies developing Iraqi oil, including Gazprom and Rosneft, are on U.S. sanctions lists for their connection with the annexation of Crimea and Russia’s involvement in conflict in eastern Ukraine. But Iraqi officials aren’t particularly worried. “For a long time now,” said one in November, “Iraq is working with Russian companies that are sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury and till now those deals have not triggered any strong reactions by the U.S. administration. So we do not see it as an issue.”
• Activists want public art project in Chicago to memorialize the city’s worst race riot of a century ago.
MIDDAY TWEET
• Bolivian police kill 8 more protesters in wake of coup that sent President Evo Morales into exile.
• Witness describes tears caused by Missouri requirement that all women seeking abortions had to obtain a second pelvic exam: The chief medical officer of the state’s last remaining abortion clinic—which forced birthers have sought to shut down—told members of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform this week about the trauma caused women by the requirement. A pelvic exam is already performed on the day of the procedure, but in its efforts to make abortion more onerous and difficult for women, the head of the state health department told staff at Planned Parenthood’s St. Louis clinic that a pelvic examination had to be undertaken when a woman first appears at the clinic for an abortion. “I’m not sure who cried more: the physicians, the staff, the patients,” Dr. Colleen McNicholas, chief medical officer at the clinic said. More than 100 women had to undergo the invasive and unpleasant procedure. McNicholas said the state’s decision after public protest to end the policy in June proved the extra exam had no medical purpose.
• The Mercury News has put together a database of current and former California police officers convicted of a crime in the past decade: This is the largest record of police criminal activity ever compiled in the state. The investigation found that police committed crimes at an average rate of more than one a week.
After DUI and other serious driving offenses, domestic violence was the most common charge. More than a quarter of the cases appear never to have been reported in the media until now. And nearly one out of five officers in the review are still working or kept their jobs for more than a year after sentencing.