LAS VEGAS – A huge non-nuclear explosion expected to generate a mushroom cloud in the Nevada desert will meet state air quality regulations, officials said yesterday.
State regulators have raised questions about pollution and hazardous materials from the planned June 2 detonation of 700 tons of ammonium nitrate and fuel oil, an official with the Nevada Division of Environmental Protection said.
But the Nevada Test Site has a blasting permit, and state officials said they had no plan to try to block the Defense Threat Reduction Agency's experiment, dubbed “Divine Strake.”
Associated Press
Governor tells Bush no to offshore drilling
SACRAMENTO – Worried that growing pressure from oil and gas industries could undercut California's efforts to protect its coast, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger yesterday urged the Bush administration to maintain a moratorium on new offshore drilling.
“I continue to believe that California reaps tremendous benefits from our ocean and coastal environments, and I am unwilling to put the environment at risk for the sake of new energy exploration,” the Republican governor wrote in a letter to Lynn Scarlett, the acting secretary of the interior.
Congress is considering numerous bills that would open the nation's coastal waters to more oil exploration. The Department of Interior also is undergoing its periodical review of oil and gas leases, this one spanning 2007-2012.
Copley News Service
Human smuggling ring halted in Wash.
SEATTLE – U.S. and Canadian authorities said yesterday that they have broken up a human smuggling ring suspected of illegally shepherding dozens of Indian and Pakistani nationals into Washington state from British Columbia.
A federal grand jury in Seattle has so far indicted 14 U.S. and Canadian men for their roles in the alleged scheme. Twelve had been arrested as of yesterday.
Leigh Winchell, special agent in charge of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Seattle, said investigators on both sides of the border have worked closely for more than a year, apprehending roughly 50 people who had paid as much as $35,000 each to be smuggled into the United States.
Winchell said none of those smuggled or involved in the operation were suspected of terrorist activity.
Associated Press
