In brief: Drill moratorium claim called error
Washington – An Obama administration report last summer wrongly implied that independent oil industry experts had reviewed and approved its moratorium on deep-water drilling after the Gulf oil spill, an investigation by the Interior Department’s Inspector General has found.
The report caps a controversy that began when the May 27 Interior Department report articulating stepped-up safety measures, including a moratorium on deep-water drilling, said that the recommendations “have been peer-reviewed by seven experts identified by the National Academy of Engineering.”
Ten days later, the experts publicly distanced themselves from the report, saying they agreed with the technical recommendations but had not reviewed the moratorium. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar apologized to the experts, asserting that his department had made a mistake.
The Inspector General’s report, released Wednesday, was in response to a June request by Republican members of Congress. Investigators found that the experts had never been asked to review the moratorium, and the Interior Department had not intended to suggest they had. Rather, a mistake had occurred as late drafts of the May report shuttled between the Interior Department and the White House.
Senate write-in tally may be slow
Juneau, Alaska – Alaska election officials began counting more than 92,500 write-in ballots Wednesday in a Senate race that may hinge on voters’ penmanship and their ability to spell “Murkowski.”
Murkowsi. Murkowsky. Even, possibly, Muckowski. All were variations of Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski’s name noted by ballot counters and immediately challenged by observers for Joe Miller, her GOP rival in the still-unsettled Nov. 2 race.
Murkowski ran as a write-in candidate after losing Alaska’s GOP primary to Miller, a tea party favorite, in August. In the election, voters cast several thousand more ballots for write-in candidates than they did for Miller, and it’s those write-in ballots that are now in question in the count. Election officials had hoped to finish by Friday, but Wednesday’s plodding pace indicated it may take longer.
An early tally of 19,203 ballots Wednesday showed Murkowski winning 89 percent of the write-in vote without dispute. Another 8.5 percent of ballots were counted for her but contested. There were two write-in votes for “Joe Miller.”
California colleges OK large fee hike
San Francisco – California State University students are bracing for higher tuition bills after the 23-campus system’s governing board approved a plan Wednesday to raise fees 15.5 percent by next fall.
The CSU Board of Trustees voted 14-2 to increase tuition for undergraduate, graduate and credential programs for the 2011 winter and spring terms. By a 13-3 vote, they approved another 10 percent hike next fall, when California undergrads will pay $4,884 for an academic year.
University officials said they need to raise student fees again to offset deep cuts in state funding.