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MERITBADGES GAY SCOUTS PETITION AMAZON TEDS.WARREN—THEASSOCIATEDPRESS The Boy Scout uniform of Pascal Tessier, 17, a gay Eagle Scout from Kensington, Md., includes his merit badges and a rainbow-colored neckerchief slider, as he speaks in front of a group of Boy Scouts and scout leaders, Wednesday, outside the headquarters of Amazon.com in Seattle. The group delivered a petition to Amazon that was started as an online effort by Tessier and gathered more than 125,000signatures, urging Amazon to stop donating money to the Boy Scouts due to the organization's policy of excluding openly gay adults from leadership positions, despite recently accepting gay youth as scouts. By Jonathan Fahey The Associated Press NEW YORK Electricity prices are probably on their way up across much of the U.S. as coal-fired plants, the dominant source of cheap power, shut down in response to environmental regulations and economic forces. New and tighter pollution rules and tough competition from cleaner sources such as natural gas, wind and solar will lead to the clos- ings of dozens of coal-burn- ing plants across 20 states over the next three years. And many of those that stay open will need expen- sive retrofits. Because of these and other factors, the Energy Department predicts retail power prices will rise 4 per- centonaveragethisyear,the biggest increase since 2008. By2020,pricesareexpected to climb an additional 13 per- cent, a forecast that does not include the costs of coming environmental rules. The Obama administra- tion, state governments and industry are strug- gling to balance this push for a cleaner environment with the need to keep the grid reliable and prevent prices from rocketing too much higher. "We're facing a set of questions that are new to the industry," says Clair Moeller, who oversees transmission and technol- ogy for the Midcontinent Independent System Opera- tor, which coordinates much of the electric grid between Minnesota and Louisiana. Coal is the workhorse of the U.S. power system. It is used to produce 40 per- cent of the nation's electric- ity, more than any other fuel. Because it is cheap and abundant and can be stored on power plant grounds, it helps keep prices stable and power flowing even when demand spikes. Natural gas, which ac- counts for 26 percent of the nation's electricity, has droppedinpriceandbecome more plentiful because of the fracking boom. But its price is on the rise again, and it is still generally more expen- sive to produce electricity withgasthanwithcoal.Also, gas isn't stored at power plants because the cost is prohibitive. That means it is subject to shortages and soaring prices. ENERGY Cleaner air could push electricity bills higher AJ MAST — THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Molten metal is cast at Rochester Metal Products Corp. in Rochester, Ind. The hulking induction furnaces the plant uses to melt scrap iron consume enough electricity to power 7,000households. By Ahmed Saka The Associated Press JOS, NIGERIA Boko Haram assaulted three villages in northern Nigeria, killing 48 people, residents said Wednesday, hours after twin bombings claimed at least 118 lives in this central city in an attack the govern- ment blamed on the Islamic extremists. One of the villages at- tacked between Tuesday night and early Wednesday is near the town of Chibok, where more than 300 school- girls were kidnapped last month by Boko Haram, ac- cording to residents and a state intelligence agent who spoke on condition of ano- nymity because he is not au- thorized to give information to reporters. Apagu Maidaga of Al- agarno said residents of that village hid in the bush and watched while the extrem- ists set ablaze their homes of thatch-roofed mud huts. "We saw our village up in flames as we hid in the bush waiting for the dawn; we lost everything," he told The As- sociated Press in a telephone call. In Jos, where at least 118 people were killed in twin bomb attacks Tuesday on a bustling bus terminal and a market, residents joined rescue workers armed with body bags in looking for missing loved ones. Most victims were women and children vendors, said Mohammed Abdulsalam of the National Emergency Management Agency. "We expect to find more bodies in the rubble," Abdul- salam said. "Allahu akhbar!" some young Muslim men yelled provocatively at an AP pho- tographer near the scene, using the war cry of Islamic militants that means "God is great" within hearing of sol- diers at a checkpoint. Jos is tense with fears the attack blamed on Islamic ex- tremists could inflame reli- gious rivalry. The city in cen- tral Nigeria sits on a volatile fault line dividing Nigeria's mainly Muslim north from the predominantly Christian south and has been a flash- point in the past for deadly conflict between adherents of the two religions. NIGERIA Militants attack in Jos again as city counts dead By Lisa Baumann The Associated Press HELENA, MONT. Four gay couples announced Wednes- day they are suing Montana over its constitutional ban on same-sex marriage, making North Dakota and South Da- kota the only two states with similar bans and no lawsuits seeking to overturn them. The Montana suit was be- ing filed in federal court in Great Falls. It lists as plain- tiffs four Montana couples who are either unmarried or who were married out- side the state. The lawsuit alleges the ban denies same-sex cou- ples the freedom and dig- nity afforded to other Mon- tanans, and denies them the state and federal legal pro- tections and benefits that come with marriage. "We want Aden to grow up knowing that we are a family like any other fam- ily," plaintiff Shauna Gou- beaux said in a statement of her and wife Nicole's 1-year- old son. "Marriage is part of being a family. By being plaintiffs in this case, we are showing him his mom- mies will stand up for what is right and stand up for him." In addition to Shauna and Nicole Goubeaux, the plain- tiffsare Angie and Tonya Ro- lando; Ben Milano and Chase Weinhandl; and Sue Haw- thorne and Adel Johnson. Gov. Steve Bullock re- leased a statement in sup- port of the couples. "Montanans cherish our freedom and recognize the individual dignity of every one of us," he said. "The time has come for our state to rec- ognize and celebrate — not discriminate against — two people who love one another, are committed to each other, and want to spend their lives together." State marriage bans have been falling around the coun- try since the U.S. Supreme Court last year struck down part of the federal Defense of Marriage Act. After Montana's law- suit, only North Dakota and South Dakota will remain as having a gay marriage pro- hibition that isn't under re- view, according to the Hu- man Rights Campaign. GAY RIGHTS 4 couples sue Montana to strike down same-sex marriage ban At least 48 people killed Wednesday By E. Eduardo Castillo The Associated Press MEXICO CITY Americans studying in Latin Amer- ica have stopped looking so intently at Mexico, which has dropped from first to fourth for U.S. students go- ing abroad in the region in 10 years. Only about 4,000 U.S. students study in Mex- ico, with crime and drug vi- olence being the main de- terrent. More American students go to Costa Rica, Argentina and Brazil today than Mexico. The U.S. government wants to boost the number to 100,000 for Latin Amer- ica, one reason for coin- ciding visits Wednesday by both Secretary of State John Kerry and former De- partment of Homeland Secu- rity Secretary Janet Napoli- tano, who heads the 10-cam- pus University of California system. Napolitano, in an inter- view with The Associated Press, said she wants to in- crease exchanges between UC and Mexican universi- ties at all levels, from un- dergraduates to faculty and researchers. Student ex- changes would help cor- rect misperceptions on both sides of the border that Mex- ico is dangerous and that the United States is unfriendly to Mexicans, she added. "The best way to change that is to have an actual ex- perience," Napolitano said. "There has to be marketing on both sides of the border if we're going to make this work." Kerry will announce the new exchange goals to launch a bilateral forum for higher education, innova- tion and research. President Barack Obama's new higher education exchange initia- tive aims to have 100,000 U.S. students studying in Latin America and 100,000 from the region in the U.S. by 2020. A similar program in Mexico, "Proyecta," has the goal of sending 100,000 Mexican students a year to the U.S. by 2018. Little more than 14,000 Mexicans study there today. EDUCATION Mexico, US seek to boost student exchange program Select"Subscribe"tabinlowerrightcorner Complete information for automatic weekly delivery to your email inbox That's it! This FREE service made possible by the advertisers in TV Select Magazine Kindly patronize and thank them. Click on their ads online to access their websites! FREE online subscription to TV Select Magazine Digital edition emailed to you, every Saturday! 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