One might assume that after 21 years of litigation, all the sordid details surrounding the epic Chevron oil pollution case had been made public. Not so. A three-judge federal appeals court panel in Richmond, Va., ruled unanimously on Tuesday that plaintiffs’ lawyers accused of fraud against the oil company must reveal the contents of documents that had been confidential and could hold new information about wrongdoing.
The appellate ruling constitutes the latest victory for Chevron (CVX) as the company seeks to nullify a $19 billion judgment imposed against the company in 2011 by a trial court in Ecuador. The Andean nation’s supreme court has affirmed Chevron’s liability while halving the damages to a still-substantial $9.5 billion.
U.S. Appeals Court Orders Disclosure of Secrets in Chevron Oil Pollution Case
Kansas City, Mo. is crossroads for crude by rail, documents show
Missouri’s largest city has become a crossroads for trains carrying a type of crude oil that has ignited in multiple derailments, according to state documents that the railroads carrying the cargo didn’t want made public.
Each week, as many as 10 trains pass through Kansas City, each carrying at least 1 million gallons of Bakken crude from North Dakota, reports released this month by the Missouri State Emergency Management Agency show.
The railroads initially required states to sign agreements that they wouldn’t make the information public.
Three New York firefighters die of 9/11-related illnesses, FDNY says
Three retired New York firefighters who worked at Ground Zero in the days after the World Trade Center attack died on the same day this week of illnesses possibly connected to toxic dust released on 9/11, fire officials said.
Lieutenant Howard Bischoff and firefighters Robert Leaver and Daniel Heglund died on Monday.
“Losing three firefighters on the same day to WTC-related illnesses is a painful reminder that, 13 years later, we continue to pay a terrible price for the Department’s heroic efforts,” FDNY commissioner Daniel Nigro said in a statement.
EU climate change chief: Obama has six months to take substantial action
Barack Obama has six months to deliver on the promises he made in a rousing speech at the United Nations climate change summit, Europe’s climate action commissioner said.
Obama, in a well-received address on Tuesday, promised the United States would play a leading role in reaching an international agreement to fight climate change, due to be finalised in Paris at the end of next year.
Connie Hedegaard, who is responsible for ensuring the European Union meets its climate change obligations, told the Guardian that after the president’s speech raised expectations, other countries, especially the rising economies of China, India and Brazil, will be looking closely at what the US has to offer in six months.
US-led strikes hit IS-held oil sites in Syria
U.S.-led airstrikes targeted Syrian oil installations held by the militant Islamic State group overnight and early Thursday, killing nearly 20 people as the militants released dozens of detainees in their de facto capital, fearing further raids, activists said.
The latest strikes came on the third day of a U.S.-led air campaign aimed at rolling back the Islamic State group in Syria, and appeared to be aimed at one of the militants' main revenue streams. The U.S. has been conducting air raids against the group in neighboring Iraq for more than a month.
U.S. Army preparing to deploy division headquarters to Iraq
For the first time since the U.S. withdrew from Iraq in 2011 the U.S. Army is preparing to deploy a division headquarters to Iraq.
The move comes as the U.S. is expanding the war against the Islamic State -- also known as ISIS or ISIL. An official announcement is expected in the next few days.
Army Chief of Staff Ray Odierno has said the Army "will send another division headquarters to Iraq to control what we're doing there, a small headquarters."
How a 3-Minute Film Is Making a Long-Term Difference on Climate Change
This is the story of how a three-minute film watched by over 120 world leaders at the United Nations this morning was produced by a newly empty nested mother of three who had never produced a minute of film before.
It began 26 years ago when my friend, Cindy Horn, and I were pregnant with our first born and concerned about what the scientific community was telling us about the man-made threat to the planet that was soon to welcome our innocent babies.
Ebola cases could reach between 550,000 and 1.4 million by late January: CDC
Between 550,000 and 1.4 million people in West Africa could be infected with the Ebola virus by January 20, 2015, according to a report issued on Tuesday by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
The top range of the estimate, 1.4 million, assumes that the number of cases officially cited so far, 5,864 according to the count kept by the World Health Organization, is significantly underreported, and that it is likely that 2.5 times as many cases, or nearly 20,000, have in fact occurred.
Breaking: Flood Wall Street protest LIVE
Flood Wall Street live stream can be seen at http://new.livestream.com/accounts/124908/events/3416732
No coverage available on corporate media outlets. TVNL will link to coverage as it appears.
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