Firefighter: No record of Calif. building in database

Firefighter: No record of Calif. building in database

OAKLAND, Calif.

The illegally occupied warehouse where 36 partygoers burned to death was not in the database Oakland fire inspectors use to schedule what are supposed to be annual inspections of commercial buildings, a firefighter with knowledge of the situation said Thursday.

There also was no record of the building, called the Ghost Ship by the artist colony that lived there and hosted Friday’s for-pay public concert at the warehouse, ever being inspected by Oakland fire officials, the firefighter said. The firefighter spoke anonymously for fear of retribution.

Typically, fire inspectors pull addresses from the database to request routine inspections for fire hazards, the firefighter said. In 2014, a grand jury said 4,000 out of 11,000 commercial buildings in the city go without what are supposed to be yearly inspections. Oakland officials blamed short staffing and funding.

Russia says Aleppo combat suspended

BEIRUT

Russia said the Syrian army was suspending combat operations in Aleppo late Thursday to allow for the evacuation of civilians from besieged rebel-held neighborhoods, but residents and fighters reported no let-up in the bombing and shelling campaign on the opposition’s ever-shrinking enclave.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, speaking in Germany after talks with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, said military experts and diplomats would meet Saturday in Geneva to work out details of the rebels’ exit from Aleppo’s eastern neighborhoods, along with civilians who were willing to leave the city.

Lavrov said the Syrian army suspended combat action late Thursday to allow some 8,000 civilians to leave the city in a convoy spreading across a three-mile route. However, opposition activists said there was no halt to the government offensive.

More than 50,000 deaths from drug overdoses in US

NEW YORK

More than 50,000 Americans died from drug overdoses last year.

The disastrous tally has been pushed to new heights by soaring abuse of heroin and prescription painkillers, a class of drugs known as opioids.

Heroin deaths rose 23 percent in one year, to 12,989, slightly higher than the number of gun homicides, according to government data released Thursday.

House passes stopgap measure

WASHINGTON

The House on Thursday cleared bills to keep the government running through April and authorize hundreds of water projects, but a Senate fight over benefits for retired coal miners threatened to lead to a government shutdown this weekend.

House members promptly bolted home for the holidays and will return next month to a capital city in which Republicans will fully control all levers of power, with Donald Trump inaugurated as the nation’s 45th president.

The stopgap spending bill passed on a 326-96 vote; the massive water projects measure passed 360-61.

In the Senate, however, Democrats made a last-ditch effort to add two provisions to the bills: A one-year respite for retired coal miners scheduled to lose their health benefits at year’s end and a permanent extension of “Buy America” mandates for steel used in the construction of water projects.

Associated Press