In brief: European bank action keeps Greek hopes alive
ATHENS, Greece – Greece braced for more chaos on the streets outside its mostly shuttered banks today, as Athens and its creditors halted talks on resolving the country’s deepening financial crisis until a referendum this weekend.
Banks have been closed all week to prevent a crash from mass money withdrawals, while a few have been reopened to help pensioners without ATM cards.
But they are still in business. The European Central Bank left the terms of its emergency $100 billion cash support to Greece unchanged, a day after Athens slipped into arrears with the International Monetary Fund and its bailout program expired.
The move kept chances alive for a settlement between Greece and creditors. And Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis publicly thanked the ECB and its president, Mario Draghi, for the decision.
“This allows us to breathe. It’s a very positive move and a move of good will on the part of the European Central Bank. I welcome it,” Varoufakis told state television.
Greece is seeking a third bailout from the eurozone rescue fund after the previous deal expired this week without agreement on the terms of final payouts.
In Athens, crowds of anxious, elderly Greeks thronged banks Wednesday beginning before dawn, struggling to withdraw their maximum of 120 euros ($134) for the week after the government reopened some banks to help pensioners who don’t have bank cards.
“It’s very bad,” said retired pharmacy worker Popi Stavrakaki, 68. “I’m afraid it will be worse soon. I have no idea why this is happening.”
Business associations and the country’s largest labor union urged the government to cancel the vote.
And the Council of Europe – an independent body that monitors elections and human rights – told the Associated Press the referendum would fall short of international standards.
Man admits starting wildfire
YREKA, Calif. – A 25-year-old Northern California man has pleaded guilty to starting a wildfire that destroyed 157 homes and other structures in the city of Weed in September and forced thousands of residents to evacuate.
Ronald Beau Marshall entered the plea in state court on Tuesday to a felony charge of recklessly causing a fire that burned buildings and forestland, the Siskiyou Daily News reported.
Prosecutors and law enforcement officials arrested Marshall three weeks after the blaze was spotted Sept. 15 near an apartment building where the Weed resident once lived. He originally was charged with multiple counts of arson.
Investigators initially alleged that Marshall appeared to have lit a small fire in hopes that it would spread to the apartment complex.
Siskiyou County District Attorney Kirk Andrus told the Daily News that further investigation showed that Marshall did not intend to cause the wildfire, which flared out of an early morning campfire he told authorities he made to keep warm.
He has been jailed on $2.5 million bail since his Oct. 11 arrest.
Police chase offer rejected
CLEVELAND – A prosecutor has offered to drop charges against five white police supervisors accused of failing to stop a car chase that ended in a deadly 137-shot barrage of police gunfire and the deaths of two unarmed black people if they’re willing to say they endangered the public and meet other conditions, attorneys for two supervisors said Wednesday.
Attorneys said their clients have rejected the deal and are prepared to go to trial. Calls to attorneys for the other supervisors weren’t immediately returned.
The supervisors were part of a 22-mile chase that included more than 60 cars and 100 Cleveland police officers. They are charged with misdemeanor dereliction of duty.
The car chase ended in neighboring East Cleveland, where patrol officers fatally shot driver Timothy Russell and passenger Malissa Williams. None of the supervisors fired their weapons.
Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Tim McGinty has said that if the supervisors had done their jobs, Russell and Williams would still be alive. His office did not respond Wednesday to requests for comment.
Water use cut 29 percent
SACRAMENTO, Calif. – California’s drought-stricken cities set a record for water conservation, reducing usage 29 percent in May, according to data released by a state agency Wednesday.
Regulators hope the savings will last through summer as California communities are under order to cut water use by 25 percent compared to 2013 levels. Gov. Jerry Brown announced his mandatory conservation order in April.
California is in a four-year drought that has devastated some rural communities, prompted some farmers to leave fields unplanted or tap expensive water supplies and dented fish populations.
May’s water savings were the best showing since the state started tracking conservation last summer. The report followed several months of tepid conservation, 13.5 percent in April and 4 percent in March.