California Braces for Showdown on Emissions
A landmark California law designed to curb greenhouse emissions could be overturned by a ballot initiative in November. Passed four years ago, the Global Warming Solutions Act calls for the power industry in California to put a cap on greenhouse emissions.
The initiative to suspend the act is supported by a group of out-of-state oil companies. With California being one of the leading “green” states, suspension of the law could prove a setback for emission control across the country. “It would have big implications,” said George P. Shultz, chairman of a campaign to defeat the ballot initiative. “That is one reason why these outside companies are pouring money in to try to derail the same thing. At the same time, the reverse is true: they put this fat in the fire and if we win, that also sends a message.”
OneUnited Bank received special treatment beyond what was disclosed
Boston-based OneUnited Bank received special bailout benefits beyond what was disclosed, the Washington Post reports. Despite a withering financial condition, the bank was allowed federal aid—it was permitted to count $12 million of federal bailout money as part of its capital before the aid even arrived. OneUnited is the only bank to receive TARP benefits and fail to pay promised dividend payments back to the government.
OneUnited and Rep. Maxine Waters (D-California) are at the center of an ethical investigation. The congresswoman is accused of diverting funds to the fledgling bank, despite no recommendation to do so. Waters’ husband is a former board member of the bank. Waters maintains that there was nothing unusual about awarding funds to OneUnited.
Relief bore reaches BP’s damaged well; end in sight
Officials announced that a newly drilled relief well in the Gulf of Mexico has intercepted BP’s famously damaged oil well. “Through a combination of sensors embedded in the drilling equipment and sophisticated instrumentation that is capable of sensing distance to the well casing,” Admiral Thad Allen, federal commander of the spill said, “BP engineers and the federal science team have concluded that the Development Driller III relief well has intersected the Macondo well.”
Over the next few days, crews will begin to pump cement into the well’s outer ring to complete the “bottom kill” of the well. The breaching of BP’s well means that the end of the crisis may finally be in sight.
Commuters suffer after deadly storm hits NYC
Thursday evening, a possible tornado hit metro New York . A Queens woman was killed when a tree fell on top of her parked car. Numerous other minor injuries were reported in the metropolitan area as a result of the quick, but shocking storm.
There have been reports of overturned vehicles due to the intense wind, which was the main cause of the damage. One New Yorker compared the storm to the poltergeist. The National Weather Service will determine whether or not a tornado may have touched down after it assesses the damage.