Mayor Eric Garcetti's call to strengthen Los Angeles' water system one pillar of his ambitious plan to ready the city for a major earthquake would cost as much as $15 billion and require decades of work, Department of Water and Power engineers estimate.
Some criminal charges related to a fatal 2012 offshore oil platform explosion of the Louisiana coast have been thrown out by a federal judge. Two companies Grand Isle Shipyards Inc. and Wood Group PSN Inc. that did contract work on the platform had criminal charges related to safety and inspections dismissed, as did two workers, Don Moss of Groves, TX, and Curtis Dantin of Cut-Off, LA. Involuntary manslaughter charges remain against Grand Isle and platform owner Black Elk Energy Offshore Operations LLC. Other charges filed late last year (see Daily GPI,Nov. 20, 2015) also remain.