Leaving old drilling-rig pieces in the ocean has big support in Legislature
Posted in News, Politics, Science on July 11th, 2010 by admin – Comments Off
A plan to let oil companies leave large parts of decommissioned drilling rigs in the ocean off California’s coast, saving them hundreds of millions of dollars, is sailing through the Legislature at a time when the Gulf of Mexico spill has made the industry politically toxic.
The “rigs to reef” idea, which proponents say would create marine habitat, has been around for more than a decade. Former Gov. Gray Davis vetoed such a proposal in 2001, citing a lack of proof that abandoned oil rigs help the environment.
Mexican street gang leader arrested in fatal shooting of U.S. official
Posted in News on July 2nd, 2010 by admin – Comments OffMexican authorities said Friday that they have arrested the leader of a Ciudad Juarez street gang who ordered the fatal shooting attack on a U.S. consular worker in the border town in March.
Federal police said Jesus Ernesto Chavez told them that consular employee Lesley A. Enriquez, 35, was targeted because she was providing visas to rivals.
Police said Chavez, 41, also confessed to having taken part in a January shooting attack on a teen party that killed 15 people and raised an unusual outcry in Mexico over the runaway violence that has made Ciudad Juarez the deadliest city in the nation.
More in Southland getting away for the Fourth, but frugally
Posted in News, economy, what on June 29th, 2010 by admin – Comments Off
More than 2 million Southern California residents are expected to pack up the kids and gas up the car for the Fourth of July weekend, but they haven’t returned to their pre-recession spending habits for the holiday.
Although more people are leaving home for the holiday, the average vacationer will be driving instead of flying, traveling a shorter distance and spending less than last year, according to surveys and an economic analysis by the Automobile Club of Southern California.
For the upcoming Independence Day weekend, an estimated 2.57 million Southern California residents plan to leave home, a 19% increase over last year, according to the Auto Club.
Despite the substantial jump, the number still falls short of returning to the pre-recession levels of 2007 when 3.05 million Southern Californians traveled for the holiday. “We’ve still got a ways to go,” Auto Club spokeswoman Marie Montgomery said.
G-20 nations reach compromise on economic goal
Posted in Health, News, economy on June 28th, 2010 by admin – Comments OffLeaders of the world’s biggest economies acknowledged there is no one-size-fits-all solution to the world’s economic troubles, agreeing in Toronto to halve the budget deficits of most industrialized nations by 2013, while giving each country the leeway to cut spending at its own speed.
The compromise was the result of divisions between the Obama administration, which emphasizes the need to continue stimulating growth and job creation, and some of its principal allies, which have grown alarmed over soaring debt levels.
Unclear if Tropical Storm Alex will hit oiled Gulf
Posted in News, what on June 26th, 2010 by admin – Comments OffTropical Storm Alex formed in the western Caribbean on Saturday, and forecasters said it was unclear if it would hit the massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
Forecasters at the National Hurricane Center in Miami said early Saturday that the storm has maximum sustained winds of about 45 mph. Most storm models show Alex traveling over the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico over the weekend, hurricane forecaster Jack Bevens said.
Bevens noted it’s too soon to say with certainty if the storm will pass over the oiled Gulf, though for now it’s not expected to hit the spill. A storm’s predicted track can quickly change as conditions shift.
Suicide is called another casualty of BP oil spill
Posted in News, what on June 25th, 2010 by admin – Comments OffThe charter boat captain they called Rookie made his home back where the oak and pine woods humming with cicadas meet the Bon Secour River and where the asphalt peters out into a dead end.
This is where friends came to ask how William Allen “Rookie” Kruse was doing, back in April, when the Gulf of Mexico oil spill ended his $5,000 fishing trips for marlin and red snapper and put a crimp in his wife Tracy’s seafood business.
Fine, he said.
California welfare cards can be used in many casino ATMs
Posted in News, gaming on June 24th, 2010 by admin – Comments OffCalifornia welfare recipients are able to use state-issued debit cards to withdraw cash on gaming floors in more than half of the casinos in the state, a Los Angeles Times review of records found.
The cards, provided by the Department of Social Services to help recipients feed and clothe their families, work in automated teller machines at 32 of 58 tribal casinos and 47 of 90 state-licensed poker rooms, the review found.
State officials said Wednesday they were working to determine how much money had been withdrawn from casino ATMs by people using the welfare debit cards.
A rapid-fire chain of events led to Gen. McChrystal’s downfall
Posted in News, Politics, what on June 24th, 2010 by admin – Comments OffGen. Stanley A. McChrystal’s team knew it had a problem on its hands last Thursday, when fact checkers for Rolling Stone magazine sent in questions for an upcoming cover story.
Did the Afghanistan commander’s inner circle really refer to itself as “Team America”? read one question that landed on the desk of McChrystal’s press aide, Duncan Boothby.
It was hardly the most explosive revelation in the piece, but it served as an early warning that McChrystal’s decision to allow generous access might have backfired.
BP agrees to $20-billion escrow fund; cancels dividends
Posted in News, what on June 16th, 2010 by admin – Comments OffThe Obama administration has reached a preliminary agreement with BP executives that would see the oil company pay $20 billion over several years into an independently controlled escrow account to be established to compensate Gulf of Mexico residents affected by the disastrous oil spill, and BP’s board of directors has eliminated the company’s stock dividend, at least temporarily.
The agreement on the escrow account was negotiated in a meeting at the White House on Wednesday morning, the first face-to-face gathering between President Obama and senior BP leadership. A White House official said that, under the terms of the deal, the fund would be administered by attorney Kenneth Feinberg, currently serving as the special master for executive pay under the Troubled Asset Relief Program. Feinberg ran a fund that compensated victims of the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
Immediately after the meeting, BP Chairman Carl-Henric Svanberg said that the oil company’s board of directors has decided not to pay any more dividends this year.
