Exxon seeks relief in oil spill case
San Francisco Exxon Mobil Corp. urged a federal appeals court Friday to erase a jury’s $5 billion judgment against the oil giant for the 1989 Valdez oil spill.
Exxon attorney Walter Dellinger told a three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that the company should be liable for no more than $25 million in punitive damages. Punitive damages are meant to deter and punish misconduct.
Exxon said it has spent more than $3 billion on clean-up work and to settle other federal and state lawsuits stemming from the spill. “Deterrence has been so satisfied by that amount,” Dellinger said.
The case stems from a 1994 decision by an Anchorage jury to award punitive damages to 34,000 fishermen and other Alaskans.
The court on Friday did not indicate when it would rule.
Phoenix-area shootings are likely connected
Phoenix Sixteen apparently random shootings that have left three people dead and two wounded in and around Phoenix since last June appear to be connected, police said Friday.
Authorities asked for the public’s help in solving the crimes, which also included killings of dogs and horses.
“We have no motive, no witnesses, and that’s the trouble,” said police Cmdr. Kim Humphrey.
Detectives said they have forensic evidence linking four of the shootings, but would not give details.
FEMA workers accused of seeking kickbacks
New Orleans The FBI arrested two Federal Emergency Management Agency employees Friday after each accepted $10,000 in cash kickbacks from a food services contractor, the U.S. attorney said.
The contractor, who was not immediately identified, notified the government of attempts to bribe him soon after he arrived at a FEMA camp in New Orleans.
U.S. Attorney Jim Letten said the suspects – identified as Andrew Rose and Loyd Hollman, both of Colorado – took the contractor into a locked room to discuss how they could artificially inflate the head count of FEMA workers taking meals at the camp, which would increase the contractor’s revenue. They allegedly told the contractor they would need $20,000 in kickbacks to inflate the figures.