FBI Seeks Evidence in California Boat Fire
Federal and local investigators on Sunday carried out search warrants involving the owners of a diving boat that caught fire off the California coast in the middle of the night last week, killing 34 people.Agents from the FBI, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, the U.S. Coast Guard and the Santa Barbara Sheriff's Office searched the offices and two additional vessels owned by Truth Aquatics of Santa Barbara, owner of the Conception, on which the deadly blaze occurred last Monday…
California to Ban Crude from Trump Offshore Drilling Plan
California will block the transport of petroleum from new offshore oil rigs through its state, officials told Reuters, a move meant to hobble the Trump administration’s effort to vastly expand drilling in U.S. federal waters. California's threat to deny pipeline permits for transporting oil from new leases off the Pacific Coast is the latest step by states trying to halt the biggest proposed expansion in decades of federal oil and gas leasing. Officials in Florida, North and South Carolina…
Oil Train Regulation Passes in California
California lawmakers on Friday passed legislation requiring railroad companies to tell emergency officials when crude oil trains will chug through the state. The bill would require railroads to notify the state's Office of Emergency Services when trains carrying crude oil from Canada and North Dakota are headed to refineries in the most populous U.S. state. It passed its final vote in the Assembly 61-1, with strong bipartisan support within the state legislature in Sacramento. The bill now goes to Democratic Governor Jerry Brown for his signature. "We have a spotlight on this issue because of the seriousness of the risk to public safety that it presents," said the bill's author, Democratic Assembly man Roger Dickinson, whose district encompasses parts of Sacramento along the trains' route.
USAF Rescue Far From Land Chinese Sailors
Two Chinese sailors died and six are missing after their boat caught fire and sank in the Pacific Ocean, the U.S. Air Force said on Sunday. The boat sank on Friday and the survivors were picked up by a Venezuelan fishing boat. Seven sailors were in good condition, Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Arizona said on its website. Two of the Chinese sailors died of burns and two were critically burned, it said. Rescue teams from Davis-Monthan flew on Saturday to the Venezuelan vessel, about 1,100 nautical miles (2,050 km) west of Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, to provide medical care. Airmen parachuted into the water and used inflatable life rafts to reach the fishing vessel.
