$2.5 Billion Needed To Protect An Oil Company Blowout?

Sometime in Mid-September Culver City is planning to put out an Oil and Gas Drilling Regulations Draft Environmental Impact Report (EIR) for the Public to review and comment on, Citizen Activists have been proposing the City require a surety book of one billion dollars to deal with damages if the oil company has a blowout similar to Porter Ranch or if it causes an explosion like the San Bruno, California fire that destroyed 38 homes. At the current price of Culver City real estate if the City Council rally wants to protect the people and the City’s’ image as a destination spot the Council should require a surety bond of at least $2.5 billion. Culver City has over 140 non-profits in or serving folks in our city. Yesterday Culver City had its first Nonprofit Volunteer Fair-Jim Clarke’s baby with Exchange Club providing financial backing to cover the cost of renting Vets Auditorium and the Rotunda Room. Lotsa folks came through representing such organizations as a paddle tennis association to Greener Way Associates. Another great idea from former Mayor Jim Clarke. Recently gasoline prices were $2.14 regular and premium was $2.43. A new version of Florida’s Stand Your Ground Law was signed by Governor Rick Scott in June 2017. Perhaps you recall the acquittal of George Zimmerman in the 2012 killing of Trayvon Martin, an unarmed black teenager. In July, a Miami judge found the new revised and updated statuteto be unconstitutional. Judge Milton Hirsch ruled this change to the law could only be made by the Florida Supreme Court and not by the legislature. From time to time cities and counties are offering a break to motorists who let the deadline to pay traffic tickets come and go. People who have past due situations can settle for the original cost of the ticket at least in Lake County, Illinois. While in Vermont; more than 140 apartments across the Green Mountain Sate will benefit from $3 million from the National Housing Trust to build, preserve and rehabilitate affordable rental housing. The Brunswick News reports an aggressive search for drugs at a Georgia high school recently by sheriff’s deputies violated the constitutional rights of hundreds of students, according to a lawsuit filed on June 1, 2017. Worth County Sheriff Jeff Hobby went to Worth County high school on April 14, 2017 with a target list of 13 students he suspected of having drugs, the lawsuit says. Only three of the students on the list were at school that day and Hobby asked they be brought to school administration offices. The sheriff had an announcement made that the school was being placed on lockdown and students were

confined to their classrooms, the hallways right outside their classrooms or the gym and their cellphones were confiscated so they couldn’t call their parents according to the lawsuit. Sheriff’s deputies then conducted invasive searches of the student’s bodies, including touching student’s private parts and lifting their clothing in view of other students the lawsuit says. Rumor has it many lawyers will be able to retire big time when the students checks start coming in. Only in the land of the Big Apple (New York City) could the courts in a single day throw out more than 640,000 arrest warrants for people who didn’t pay tickets for minor offenses years ago. The warrants date back a decade or more cite such offenses as riding a bicycle on the sidewalk or being in a park after hours. Do you like the North Carolina living environment and especially the insurance field? Well cowboy start saddling your horse because Allstate plans to more than double its North Carolina workforce by expanding in the Charlotte area creating 2,250 new jobs by 2020. A sandwich shop where a worker was cleared of drugging a police officer’s drink has sued. The owners say Salt Lake City police waited two months to publicly disavow the allegation despite evidence the officer had no drugs in his system. Did you know- if you had a 30-year fixed loan of $250,000 at a 4 percent interest rate, Bi-weekly payments would save a borrower nearly $30,000 in interest charges and have the loan paid off in five fewer years. Amazing, but first check with your financial planner. Don’t look for Cousin Neil next week because I’ll be hitch hiking to Cove Springs, Arkansas where the population in 2010 was 1,720. Officials have decided not to appeal a judge’s decision barring 2016 property tax collection. The ruling means Cove Springs will lose abo8ut $400,000 almost twenty five percent of its annual budget. A federal judge in Baton Rouge permanently blocked enforcement of a Louisiana law that prevented foreign born United States citizens from getting married if they couldn’t produce a birth certificate.