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Chevron refinery in Richmond issued violation notices for flaring event

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:15:37 GMT

(KRON) -- The Bay Area Air Quality Management District has issued four notices of violation to the Chevron Richmond Refinery for a flaring event on Monday. Three of the notices were for visible emissions and one was for public nuisance violation.Monday's flaring incident saw smoke visible in parts of the East Bay and beyond. The flaring was due to a loss of power at the facility, according to Chevron. A safety mechanism activated on the refinery's internal electrical system at about 3:30 p.m. Monday, Chevron said in a news release Tuesday. Concord teen who donated his heart to be honored at Rose Parade "This caused a loss of power to a portion of the facility, including a steam generation plant," the release stated. "Subsequently, our safety flares were activated as we worked to stabilize the operating units impacted by the outage."Loss of steam also impacted other equipment at the facility, Chevron said, which contributed to the flaring.Both Chevron and the BAAQMD are continuing ...

Jewish groups sue UC Berkeley over ‘unchecked’ antisemitism

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:15:37 GMT

(The Hill) -- A pair of Jewish organizations filed suit against the University of California (UC) system, the University of California, Berkeley, and school administrators on Tuesday over allegations of a "longstanding, unchecked spread of antisemitism" at the school. The 37-page suit, filed Tuesday in the Northern District of California by the Louis D. Brandeis Center and the Jewish Americans For Fairness In Education (JAFE), claims antisemitism has been allowed to "take root and grow" at the UC Berkeley School of Law (Berkeley Law) for over a year. The suit argues intervention is needed, especially in the wake of the militant group Hamas' surprise incursion against Israel last month that killed over 1,200 people and sparked an ongoing conflict in Gaza. In the weeks that followed Hamas's Oct. 7 attack, a surge in antisemitic incidents was reported in several parts of the U.S. and in Europe.The suit accuses nearly two dozen student organizations at UC Berkeley Law of practicing poli...

Rosalynn Carter’s intimate funeral is being held in the town where she and her husband were born

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:15:37 GMT

PLAINS, Ga. (AP) — Rosalynn Carter received her final farewells Wednesday in the same tiny town where she and Jimmy Carter were born, forever their home base as they climbed to the White House and traveled the world for humanitarian causes.The former first lady, who died Nov. 19 at the age of 96, had her intimate funeral at Maranatha Baptist Church in Plains, where she and her husband spent decades welcoming guests and where a wooden cross Jimmy Carter fashioned in his woodshop is displayed. Earlier tributes were held in nearby Americus and in Atlanta.The former president was in attendance in his wheelchair.Rosalynn Carter will be buried in a plot she will one day share with her husband of 77 years. The former president, now 99, left home hospice care to attend Tuesday’s memorial, where two other presidents and all the living first ladies joined the extended Carter family before Wednesday’s more intimate hometown funeral.Vernita Sampson, a school bus driver and Plains native, ...

Nigeria’s leader presents $34 billion spending plan for 2024, prioritizing the economy, security

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:15:37 GMT

ABUJA, Nigeria (AP) — Nigeria’s leader on Wednesday presented a 27.5 trillion naira ($34.8 billion) spending plan for 2024 to federal lawmakers, with a focus on stabilizing Africa’s largest but ailing economy and tackling the nation’s deadly security crisis.The primary objective next year is to sustain the “robust foundation for sustainable economic development” that the new government has set in motion, President Bola Tinubu said in Abuja, the capital. Now lawmakers will deliberate and vote on the plan.Tinubu projected that the economy would grow by at least 3.76% next year and listed infrastructure and social welfare programs among the government’s priorities to reduce hardship in the country of more than 210 million people.In his six months in office, Tinubu introduced economic reforms that the government said would grow the economy and attract more foreign investment. Those reforms — including the removal of costly gas subsidies — have instead worsened the hardship f...

Finland closes last crossing point with Russia, sealing off entire border as tensions rise

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:15:37 GMT

HELSINKI (AP) — NATO member Finland on Wednesday closed its last remaining border crossing with Russia after the government decided to seal the entire border with its eastern neighbor amid rising political tensions.The Cabinet of Finnish Prime Minister Petteri Orpo decided to temporarily close the entire 1,340-kilometer (830-mile) border between the two countries a day earlier over concerns that Moscow was using migrants to destabilize the Nordic country in an alleged act of “hybrid warfare.” The Raja-Jooseppi crossing point in Finland’s Arctic Lapland region, located some 250 kilometers (155 miles) from the northern Russian city of Murmansk, closed at 2 p.m. Wednesday, according to the checkpoint’s normal November schedule.Ville Ahtiainen, a deputy commander with the Finnish Border Guard in Lapland, told reporters that the remote border crossing, located in the middle of rugged wilderness, was quiet during the four hours it remained open Wednesday, with a handful of vehicles passin...

US sanctions financial network tied to Iranian oil sales

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:15:37 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. on Wednesday said it imposed a new round of sanctions on a group of 20 people and firms allegedly involved in a financial facilitation network for the benefit of the Iranian military.The Treasury Department sanctions impact firms and people spanning Hong Kong to the United Arab Emirates.Included in the sanctions package are employees, brokers and purchasers from Iranian firm Sepehr Energy, which is also subject to sanctions.The U.S. alleges that Sepehr acts as a front company for the Iranian government’s oil sales, which “fund its destabilizing regional activities and support of multiple regional proxy groups,” including Hamas and Hezbollah, according to a Treasury statement.A representative from Sepehr Energy did not respond to an Associated Press request for comment. The sanctions block access to U.S. property and bank accounts and prevent the targeted people and companies from doing business with Americans.Iran engages in “illicit finance sc...

Autoworker strike cost GM $1.1B, which it says it can absorb as it announces massive stock buyback

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:15:37 GMT

FILE - The General Motors logo is seen, Jan. 27, 2020, in Hamtramck, Mich. The venture capital arms of General Motors and Stellantis are among investors sinking $33 million into a Minnesota company with technology to make magnets for electric vehicle motors without using expensive rare-earth metals. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya, File)(AP/Paul Sancya) FILE - The General Motors logo is seen, Jan. 27, 2020, in Hamtramck, Mich. The venture capital arms of General Motors and Stellantis are among investors sinking $33 million into a Minnesota company with technology to make magnets for electric vehicle motors without using expensive rare-earth metals. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya, File)(AP/Paul Sancya) DETROIT (AP) — General Motors s...

German authorities arrest a 15-year-old on suspicion of planning an attack

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:15:37 GMT

BERLIN (AP) — A 15-year-old boy has been arrested in Germany on suspicion of planning and preparing a terror attack, authorities said Wednesday.Prosecutors in Duesseldorf said the teenager was detained Tuesday during a search at his home. A court in nearby Leverkusen ordered him kept in custody Wednesday pending a possible indictment, they said in a statement. The prosecutors said they could not give additional details for now.German news agency dpa, which cited unidentified security sources, reported that the 15-year-old and a 16-year-old in the eastern German state of Brandenburg were arrested after allegedly discussing carrying out an attack on “infidels.” The younger suspect allegedly named a synagogue and a Christmas market as possible targets, dpa said. It wasn’t immediately clear how serious the alleged plans were.Germany’s domestic intelligence agency said earlier Wednesday that the threat situation in the country has escalated following Hamas’ Oct. 7 attac...

Prosecutors say paramedics ignored Elijah McClain's distress after stop and killed him with overdose

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:15:37 GMT

BRIGHTON, Colo. (AP) — A Colorado prosecutor said Wednesday that two paramedics ”did nothing" to help an ailing Elijah McClain as he lay on the ground and instead injected him with an overdose of a powerful sedative that killed the 23-year-old Black man after he had been weakened by police neck holds when officers forcibly restrained him walking home from a convenience store.The paramedics are charged with manslaughter and other felonies in the final jury trial over McClain's 2019 death in a Denver suburb. The trial is expected to explore largely uncharted legal territory because it is rare for medical first responders to face criminal charges.Initially no one was charged because the coroner’s office could not determine exactly how McClain died. But social justice protests following the 2020 murder of George Floyd drew renewed attention to McClain’s case, and a grand jury indicted the paramedics and three officers in 2021. The officers already have gone to trial and two were acquitt...

EdFed brings finance learning on wheels to Miami-Dade high schools

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:15:37 GMT

High schoolers in Miami-Dade County are getting a unique opportunity to dive into finance and banking, paving the way for financial confidence as they approach adulthood.Edison Senior High School in Miami hosted a celebratory event on Wednesday, marking the launch of a transformative program. The Educational Federal Credit Union, affectionately known as EdFed, is taking financial education directly to 12 Miami-Dade school campuses through its innovative mobile branch.This mobile branch operates like a traditional bank, offering students, EdFed members, Miami-Dade County Schools employees, and Miami-Dade College students the ability to conduct transactions, withdrawals, and deposits right on campus.Dr. Jose Dotres, the Superintendent of Miami-Dade Schools, expressed his support, drawing on his own experience starting a career in banking after high school. “I started when I graduated from high school, what did I do? My first job was at a bank,” he said. “We always ha...