IF iDir.com

An "ineffective" safeguard failed to prevent an explosive mixing of air and fuel at a Husky Energy refinery in Superior, Wisconsin, leading to a blast and fire in the plant's gasoline-producing unit in April, a U.S. industrial safety group said on Wednesday. Air seeped through a hole in a valve within a fluidic catalytic cracking unit (FCCU), the U.S. Chemical Safety Board (CSB) said, causing an April 26 explosion that led to a massive fire and a 24-hour-long evacuation of residents living within miles of the plant. The board said 36 people sought medical treatment after the blast, including 11 working at the refinery.

Wed, 12 Dec 2018 16:45:34 -0500

Erica Treadway, 31, Kayla Williams, 25, and Cody Beverly, 21, have been stranded deep inside the Rock House Powellton mine near the town of Clear Creek since they crawled through a ventilation shaft into the caverns on Saturday after riding to the site on all-terrain vehicles. A fourth person who was with the group when they entered the mine, 43-year-old Eddie Williams, found his way out on Monday to alert authorities that his friends were missing, Raleigh County Sheriff's Office Lieutenant Mark McCray said.

Wed, 12 Dec 2018 16:37:59 -0500

Mayor Rahm Emanuel laid out a multi-pronged plan on Wednesday to tackle Chicago's huge pension burden, urging the city council to approve the issuance of $10 billion of bonds to boost funding for the city's four retirement systems. Emanuel, who leaves office in May after declining to run for a third term as mayor, also called for changing the Illinois Constitution and earmarking new revenue from a possible casino and legalized marijuana for pensions. "Issuing these bonds and depositing the proceeds directly into our pension funds would immediately increase the health of our pension funds to levels not seen in at least a decade before asking more of Chicago's hard-pressed taxpayers," the mayor said in a speech to the city council.

Wed, 12 Dec 2018 16:33:53 -0500

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross on Thursday downplayed talk that President Donald Trump's administration is poised to warn Americans against traveling to China.

Wed, 12 Dec 2018 13:43:30 -0500

Assistant U.S. Attorney Seth Aframe told a federal jury in Concord, New Hampshire, at the start of a trial that the kickbacks to Christopher Clough, 45, were part of the Arizona drugmaker's overall effort to boost sales of its opioid, Subsys. Patrick Richard, Clough's lawyer, said his client had no idea Insys was trying to bribe medical practitioners like himself and that he prescribed Subsys to patients at his pain clinic believing it was a good treatment. "This isn't a case about individual greed but corporate greed," he said.

Wed, 12 Dec 2018 12:52:53 -0500