OBITUARY: Francis Leigh Benson, 1942-2021
Leigh
was born in Denver on
August 8. 1942. He was a fourth-generation
native of Denver, growing up in a number of places including Denver,
San Diego, and St. Joseph, Mo. He
died March 29, 2021 of a sudden heart attack, after many years of
surgeries and declining health due to back problems. He had a strong
faith in the Lord. One
of the last things he said to his wife, Diane, shortly before he
passed was “maybe today I get to go home to the Lord and get rid of
this body of pain.”
For
many years he
Kern County Sued Over Fast-tracking of Tens of Thousands of New Oil Wells biologicaldiversity.org - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from biologicaldiversity.org Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
A coalition of community and environmental groups on Wednesday sued Kern County over its adoption of an ordinance to fast-track permitting for more than 40,000 new oil and gas wells over the next 15 years.
On Monday, the Kern County Board of Supervisors approved a single environmental impact report and other conditions that they say satisfy legally required environmental reviews and public comments. It affords companies a seven-day turnaround time for new permits, rather than a process that can take years.
“This ordinance is a disaster for public health in Kern County, particularly for low-income communities and . communities of color that live next to oil wells and are already harmed daily by fossil fuel pollution,” said Chelsea Tu, senior attorney at the Center on Race, Poverty and the Environment, which represents three groups from towns in Kern County the Committee for a Better Arvin, Committee for a Better Shafter, and Comité Progreso de Lamont in the lawsuit.
The venerable Keno City Hotel was reduced to smoking rubble Friday evening after a devastating fire.
The hotel, which was first built in the 1920s, according to owner Leo Martel, caught fire early Friday evening.
Martel, who told the Star this morning he was still in shock, was having dinner with friends, including longtime resident Mike Mancini, at Mancini’s nearby restaurant when the fire was detected.
“We spotted a bunch of smoke coming from around the hotel,” Martel said. “The roofline was on fire.”
He and other residents rushed to the scene to see what could be done.
They began trying to move vehicles parked on-site, but some were frozen into the ground or wouldn’t start in the cold weather, making it more difficult.