Utility ordered to provide plan to stop natural-gas leak

Utility ordered to provide plan to stop natural-gas leak

LOS ANGELES

A California regulator has issued an emergency order requiring a utility to provide a plan to stop an uncontrolled leak from a massive natural gas storage field outside Los Angeles.

SoCalGas on Wednesday was given a day to provide data from the persistent leak that has worried neighbors of Porter Ranch who have complained about a sickening stench wafting for weeks.

The rare leak began Oct. 23 in what is believed to be the largest natural gas storage facility in the West. The gas company pumps natural gas a mile-and-a-half into an abandoned oil well for storage when demand is low and removes it when demand increases.

The state’s oil and gas supervisor says he made the order to prevent damage to life, health, property, or the environment.

GOP group vows to block refugees

LAS VEGAS

Defiant Republican governors are demanding that the Obama administration suspend plans to resettle thousands of Syrian refugees in their states.

The state leaders charged Wednesday that screening challenges make it all but impossible to identify terrorists among those seeking refuge in the United States so soon after deadly attacks in Paris.

Governors from New Mexico to Michigan pleaded with the president to suspend the refugee program — at least temporarily. Republican governors from Texas and Indiana claimed the legal authority to block the federal resettlement efforts unilaterally.

Despite the tough talk, it may not be that easy.

The Refugee Act of 1980 dictates that refugee resettlement within the United States is managed by the federal government. Individual states do not have the legal authority to block refugee placement.

‘Make something good happen’ after attacks, Clinton says

EAST LANSING, Mich.

Former President Bill Clinton says after the Paris attacks it is more important than ever that citizens “make something good happen” in whatever way they can.

He told a crowd at a Michigan State University public service forum Wednesday that those not in the military can still define their citizenship by service.

Clinton says national borders are “more like nets than walls” and people make decisions daily that either “bring us together or tear us apart.”

He received a public service award from the university. The school is joining the Clinton Global Initiative University and offering a minor in entrepreneurship and innovation.

Rubio: Cruz’s stance hurt programs

MIAMI

Republican presidential candidate Marco Rubio says his rival Ted Cruz worked with Democrats to harm U.S. intelligence programs by restricting the federal government’s bulk phone records collection program.

Rubio criticized the Texas senator during an interview on Wednesday with conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt.

Cruz voted in favor of a bill Congress approved last June that killed the National Security Agency’s disputed bulk phone records collection program. It was replaced with a more restrictive measure to keep the records in phone companies’ hands.

Rubio says the USA Freedom Act weakened national security. Cruz has argued that it struck “the right balance between protecting our privacy rights and our national security interests.”

Associated Press