Emails Raise Questions About Chevron’s Bay Area Oil Spill Response
Aaron Cantu, Capital & Main
Capital & Main
This article was produced by the award-winning journalism nonprofit Capital & Main. It is co-published here with permission.
The morning after a quarter-inch hole in a pipeline owned by Chevron leaked petroleum fluids into the San Francisco Bay on February 9, Richmond Mayor Tom Butt struck an optimistic tone about the incident at the oil giant’s refinery.
“I think in the big picture it’s going to be OK,” Butt told one local press outlet.
On his blog several days later, Butt wrote the city had “dodged a bullet on what turned out to be a relatively small spill with no lingering effects.” In a city council meeting a week after the spill, he offered no thoughts when a counselor brought up the incident.
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For years the San Diego Sheriff’s Department resisted making public announcements when someone died in a county jail.
Now department officials are pledging to change their policy and issue press releases within 24 hours, following completion of a preliminary autopsy.
The decision follows complaints from family members and their advocates, who have been kept in the dark often for months as in-custody deaths were investigated internally.
The policy change was announced at the Tuesday evening meeting of the Citizens’ Law Enforcement Review Board, the volunteer civilian oversight panel that investigates complaints about county Sheriff’s and Probation department misconduct.
Proposal would let recall targets see who signed petition
Apr. 13, 2021 at 6:00 am
KATHLEEN RONAYNE, Associated Press
California politicians facing recalls would be allowed to see the names of people who sign the petitions to oust them under legislation that cleared its first committee Monday.
If passed, it would take effect next year, meaning it would not apply to the expected recall election against Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom. But leaders of that effort showed up at the Capitol in opposition to the proposal, saying it would discourage people from signing future petitions for fear of retaliation.
“This is a dangerous and reckless bill,” said Orrin Heatlie, the lead proponent of the Newsom recall. “It would stifle the process.”