In brief: Lawmakers want investigation into Shell
ANCHORAGE, Alaska – Calls for federal scrutiny of Royal Dutch Shell PLC drilling operations in Arctic waters swelled Thursday with a request for a formal investigation by members of Congress.
The House Sustainable Energy and Environment Coalition called on the Interior Department and the Coast Guard to jointly investigate the New Year’s Eve grounding of the Shell drilling vessel Kulluk on a remote Gulf of Alaska island, and a previous incident connected to Arctic offshore drilling operations in 2012.
Shell Alaska spokesman Curtis Smith said in an email that the company is in full support of, and is providing resources for, the investigation of the grounding by the Unified Incident Command, made up of federal, state and company representatives. Smith said the findings will be available to the public.
Shell incident commander Sean Churchfield said at an Anchorage news conference later Thursday that two more salvage crews had boarded the vessel and found damage to emergency and service generators, and to the Kulluk’s upper deck.
The vessel is upright and stable, and the Coast Guard has said there is no indication of a fuel leak.
Salvage is in the assessment stage, Churchfield noted, and options are being developed.
Clinton eager to return to work
WASHINGTON – Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, sidelined for almost a month by a string of medical problems, is upbeat and planning to return to work next week, the State Department said Thursday.
One day after being released from the New York hospital that was treating a blood clot in her head, Clinton was at home resting, but was far from idle. She spent the day engaging with senior staff, reviewing paperwork and calling in to a meeting of her foreign policy advisory board, said her spokeswoman, Victoria Nuland.
Police: Teens drug parents to use Web
ROCKLIN, Calif. – Two California teenagers were arrested after they gave one of the girl’s parents milkshakes spiked with prescription sleeping pills so she could use the Internet past her curfew, police said.
The medicated shakes worked, but the parents became suspicious when they woke up groggy the next morning, Rocklin police Lt. Lon Milka told the Sacramento Bee in a story Thursday. They obtained a drug kit from police so they could test themselves for tampering,
The tests came back positive, and the couple went back to police with the results. Their 15-year-old daughter and her 16-year-old friend were taken to Juvenile Hall on Saturday and booked on suspicion of conspiracy and willfully mingling a pharmaceutical with food, Milka said.