DOT seeks tougher pipeline oversight

DOT seeks tougher pipeline oversight

WASHINGTON

Legislation sent to Congress on Wednesday would increase from $1 million to $2.5 million the maximum fine for the most-serious pipeline violations involving deaths, injuries or major environmental harm, the Department of Transportation said. It also would pay for an additional 40 inspectors and safety regulators over the next four years.

The proposal follows several accidents, including last week’s huge gas explosion in suburban San Francisco, that have called attention to the nation’s aging pipelines and how they are monitored.

Candidate makes history with check

SACRAMENTO, Calif.

California Republican gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman gave her campaign an additional $15 million Sept. 7. The latest contribution brings Whitman’s personal spending in the race to $119 million, shattering the record for most money ever spent by one political candidate on a single election in American history.

Whitman’s latest cash infusion comes just one month after writing a $13 million check to her campaign.

Mexico celebrates its bicentennial

MEXICO CITY

Just one day without massacres, beheadings or shootouts.

On its 200th birthday Wednesday, Mexico wanted its citizens — and the world — to forget its vicious drug war and remember the country’s epic history, music, whimsical folk art and continuing crusade for wider prosperity and democracy.

All were on display with a $40 million fiesta, two years in the making. About 60,000 revelers crowded along Reforma Avenue, the capital’s main promenade, cheering and yelling “Bravo!” at the start of the 1.7-mile parade of floats and dances.

Hayward defends BP safety record

LONDON

Outgoing BP CEO Tony Hayward said Wednesday that he understood anger directed at the energy giant in the wake of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill but insisted his company had a strong safety record and was not solely to blame for the disaster.

Testifying before a British parliamentary committee, Hayward acknowledged BP had failed both to stop the spill and to plan adequately to respond to an accident of that scale.

Closed hearing sought in Army case

FORT WORTH, Texas

The media and others should not be allowed to hear testimony next month from about three dozen survivors of last year’s Fort Hood shooting rampage because the suspect, an Army psychiatrist, will be unable to get a fair trial, his attorney said Wednesday.

Defense attorney John Galligan said he has requested that the Oct. 12 Article 32 hearing, similar to a civilian grand jury proceeding, be closed “to all spectators.” The issue is to be addressed at a hearing today in Fort Hood.

Maj. Nidal Hasan is charged with 13 counts of premeditated murder and 32 counts of attempted premeditated murder in the Nov. 5 shooting.

Report: Illegal drug use up sharply

WASHINGTON

The rate of illegal drug use rose last year to the highest level in nearly a decade, fueled by a sharp increase in marijuana use and a surge in ecstasy and methamphetamine abuse, the government reported Wednesday.

Gil Kerlikowske, the director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, called the 9 percent increase in drug use disappointing but said he was not surprised given “eroding attitudes” about the perception of harm from illegal drugs and the growing number of states approving medicinal marijuana.

Combined dispatches