More New Math -- EVs In Cold Weather

The headline at The Los Angeles Times: Electric cars can go only half as far in freezing weather, AAA find.

So, what does the article say? Actually less than half as far.

Testing by AAA has found that how far an electric vehicle can travel on one charge varies widely depending on the weather. Frigid temperatures can reduce that distance by 57%.

Fifty-seven percent is almost 60 percent, which is getting pretty close to two-thirds. One can assume one gets better results a) under test conditions; and, b) with a new battery.

The raw numbers actually don't look too good, considering that when one loses the charge, one needs to stop for serious recharging:

The average EV battery range in AAA’s test was 105 miles at 75 degrees but dropped 57% to just 43 miles at 20 degrees. Heat also sliced the cars' ranges but by not as much: The cars averaged 69 miles per full charge at 95 degrees, 33% less than in 75-degree weather.

The cars tested: the 2013 Nissan Leaf,  a 2012 Mitsubishi iMiEV and the electric version of a 2014 Ford Focus.

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In Other California News: From the nation's most liberal court?

San Jose Mercury News is reporting:

Anyone arrested for a felony in California can now expect both an unpleasant trip to jail and a demand for a sample of their precious DNA.

To the dismay of civil liberties advocates, a federal appeals court on Thursday unanimously upheld California's law allowing collection of DNA samples from anyone arrested for a felony, citing a U.S. Supreme Court ruling last year backing a similar Maryland law. A special 11-judge 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals panel rejected the American Civil Liberties Union's argument that California's law is broader than Maryland's and poses a greater threat to privacy rights.

California's controversial five-year-old law permits collection of DNA from people at the point of felony arrest without review by a judge and even if criminal charges are never pressed, raising concerns that it intrudes on privacy rights for those arrestees who may never appear in a courtroom. Maryland's law permits collection only from those charged with a serious felony, and after a judge finds probable cause they've committed a crime.

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Extreme Weather? Hardly

DailyCaller is reporting:

The “hurricane drought” in the U.S. continues, as last year saw the lowest number of hurricanes since 1982, according to government storm data.

For the 2013 hurricane season — which runs from June 1st to November 30th — thirteen named storms formed in the North Atlantic Ocean, the Caribbean and the Gulf of Mexico. Only two of those storms reached hurricane strength, according to the National Hurricane Center.