September 8, 2010
- Meg Whitman and Carly Fiorina have wavered on Proposition 23, trying to appease their conservative base without alienating independent voters. Fiorina finally came out in favor of it last week.
A November ballot measure that would rescind California's landmark global warming bill until unemployment drops significantly has become an albatross for the Republican candidates for governor and U.S. Senate.
September 7, 2010
- Oxygen levels have dropped drastically in waters near the blown-out BP well, but not enough to lay waste to all marine life there, biologists' findings suggest.
Oxygen levels fell significantly in deep-sea areas of the Gulf of Mexico contaminated by the BP oil spill, researchers said Tuesday, but not enough to create biological "dead zones" that cannot harbor marine life. - DNA from a bait bag and a fuzzy photograph positively identify the Sierra Nevada red fox, last seen in the Sonora Pass area in the 1920s, the U.S. Forest Service announces.
The genetic signature of canine slobber on a bait bag of chicken scraps and a fuzzy photograph from a motion-sensitive camera north of Yosemite National Park have confirmed the existence of a red fox, thought to have been all but wiped out, the U.S. Forest Service announced last week.…
- Catamaran will resume daily runs to Avalon in February.
The Catalina Flyer, a 500-passenger catamaran that makes daily trips to Santa Catalina Island from the Balboa Pavilion in Newport Beach, may halt operations for a few months so its owner can buy and install engines that comply with a state environmental law.
September 6, 2010
- The unique event has gone on for 75 years. Organizers weren't going to be stopped by an oil spill, even one that hurt the seafood industry. 'We're going to overcome this,' says the festival king.
After the BP oil spill, the organizers of one of America's more unusual civic celebrations began fielding the phone calls, the ones that invariably asked: Are you really going to have it this year?
September 5, 2010
- With the replacement of the failed blowout preventer and a cement plug in place, the well's seal is almost permanent, the federal spill response chief says. The final step will be to plug the well from the bottom.
With a new blowout preventer in place and a 5,000-foot column of cement filling its core, the BP well is no longer in danger of leaking oil, the federal spill response chief said Saturday — although he said it must still be plugged from the bottom for the job to be…
September 4, 2010
- BP sprayed chemicals massively in confronting the gulf spill, but scientists aren't sure how much good — or bad — they did.
In the wake of the BP oil spill, gaping questions remain about a key tool used during cleanup: the nearly 2 million gallons of chemical dispersants sprayed over the water or onto the gushing wellhead on the seafloor. Do the chemicals help recovery, hinder it — or neither?…
- Much of the land of the native Houma people is now underwater, and after the oil spill, one healer's great-grandson fears that the traditional plants once used to save the ill will soon be lost too.
Jason Pitre grew up hearing stories of how his great-grandfather healed babies on the cusp of death using herbs and plants found along Louisiana's bayous. The tribal healer, or traiteur , was known by the native Houma people for his potions and salves that seemed to treat any sickness.… - The donation to the Proposition 23 campaign comes from a subsidiary of Kansas-based Koch Industries, which owns refineries and controls 4,000 miles of oil pipelines.
The fight over a November ballot initiative to suspend California's global warming law has escalated sharply with the Koch brothers, oil billionaires and "tea party" backers, making a million-dollar entry into the fray. - Thursday's fire caused no leak or injuries; its cause is still being investigated. But the incident resounds through the oil-dependent region, and on Capitol Hill.
Louisianans expressed relief Friday that another offshore tragedy had been averted: A second oil facility that caught fire this week did not cause a leak, and no one was hurt.