Repost from CBC News

Sturgeon County neighbourhoods evacuated after train carrying crude oil derails

12 cars overturned on the railway in Sturgeon County northwest of Edmonton

CBC News, Oct 22, 2017 9:32 PM MT

RCMP asked residents in River’s Edge and Noroncal to evacuate their homes as a precaution after a train derailed Sunday afternoon. (Teri Gosselin)

Residents of two neighbourhoods in Sturgeon County, Alta., were allowed to return home Sunday evening after their homes were evacuated in the aftermath of a train derailment Sunday afternoon, county officials say.

At about 1:45 p.m., 12 cars overturned on the railway northwest of Edmonton.

The rail cars were carrying crude oil and two of them leaked, releasing about 30 to 50 litres, said Sheila Moore, communications officer for Sturgeon County.

Those leaks have been stopped, CN spokesperson Patrick Waldron said in a statement Sunday evening.

‘Pretty unsettling’

A resident of River’s Edge Place, Teri Gosselin, heard the clatter Sunday she described as the “craziest noise” she’d ever heard.

“Just the loudest kind of metal-on-metal noise you could ever imagine,” she told CBC News.

“Pretty unsettling.”

Gosselin and one of her roommates went to check out what happened, when a CN crew member told them to step back because there was hazardous material on the ground.

“You couldn’t quite smell the oil but you could see the sheen of oil or some sort of fuel on the cars,” she said. “Train parts everywhere.”

No danger detected

Residents were given the green light to return home after CN personnel assessed the area and determined there was no apparent danger, Moore said.

RCMP had asked residents in the River’s Edge and Noroncal neighbourhoods to evacuate as a precaution, although police didn’t believe there was a danger to the public, Const. Kathleen Sossen told CBC News.

The evacuation affected approximately 46 homes in the Sturgeon Valley area.

Sturgeon County officials say it will take a couple of days to clean up after a CN train derailed Sunday afternoon. (Teri Gosselin)

The county had set up a reception centre at Namao Hall on Hwy 37 for evacuees.

No injuries or property damage have been reported, Moore said.

Waldron said the company has activated its emergency response plan and environmental teams are on scene to start cleaning up.

“We continue to work alongside local emergency responders,” Waldron said. The cause of the incident is under investigation, he said.

Moore said the county expected clean up efforts to continue over the next couple of days.

Baltimore MD, Clean Water Action, Crude By Rail, Crude Oil, Derailment, Explosion, Keeping Watch on Earth News, Local land use authority, Local Regulation, Oil refineries

Baltimore council members propose ban on new crude oil facilities

October 20, 2017 Roger Straw

From an email by Jennifer Kunze, Maryland Program Organizer,
Clean Water Action
[See also the Baltimore Sun story, below]

Thu, Oct 19, 2017

Hi everyone,

Just wanted to share the exciting news that the Baltimore zoning code change to prohibit new or expanded crude oil terminals has been officially introduced! You can download the bill here, and here is some coverage of it in the Baltimore Sun and our local NPR station. Taylor and I would be happy to answer any questions about it!

Have a great day,

Jennifer Kunze
Maryland Program Organizer
Clean Water Action
Website – Facebook – Twitter

Repost from The Baltimore Sun

Baltimore council members propose ban on new crude oil facilities

By Ian Duncan, October 16, 2017

Two members of the Baltimore City Council want to ban new crude oil terminals from the city as part of an effort to limit the number of oil trains traveling through the area.

Council members Mary Pat Clarke and Ed Reisinger introduced a proposed change to the city’s zoning laws Monday that would add the oil terminals to a list of banned facilities, ranking them alongside nuclear power plants and incinerators.

“Crude oil shipments are potential hazards to residents and entire neighborhoods,” Reisinger said in a statement.

The council members said they were turning to the zoning code because federal law stops city authorities from directly regulating rail. They hope limiting the terminal capacity will mean there will be less interest in sending oil trains to Baltimore.

Two existing facilities in Baltimore would be allowed to stay but could not expand in any way under the proposal.

For years environmental activists have been sounding the alarm about crude oil that is transported by rail, which can lead to deadly explosions in the case of an accident. In 2013, 47 people died when a train carrying crude oil exploded in Canada.

Precise details of the shipments are scarce, but with the price of oil low, the practice is widely believed to currently be at a low ebb. Rob Doolittle, a spokesman for CSX Transportation, said no oil trains have operated in Baltimore or anywhere else on the company’s network for months. Doolittle also said the company has never run dedicated oil trains through the city, but had moved small amounts of crude on mixed trains.

Clarke said the dip in the market meant it was the right time for the council to take up the proposed restrictions.

“It doesn’t put jobs in jeopardy,” she said. “We don’t know when the marketplace may change. If it does we want to have already capped out the capacity of Baltimore facilities.”

The operator of one of the existing terminals declined to comment; the other did not respond to questions.

Environmental groups say there’s reason to think that if the price of oil picks up again, companies would seek to expand the number of terminals in Baltimore. That’s what happened during the last boom several years ago, but the plans were blocked.

Jennifer Kunze, an organizer with Clean Water Action, said it makes sense to put limits in place now.

“This is really a preventative measure,” she said.

Climate Change, Climate change denial, Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ), Keeping Watch on Earth News, Trump

Trump Names Climate Denier to Head White House Environmental Council

October 14, 2017 Roger Straw

Repost from DeSmogBlog

Trump Names Climate Denier Kathleen Hartnett-White to Head White House Environmental Council

By Steve Horn, October 13, 2017 09:32

President Donald Trump, as first reported by EnergyWire’s Hannah Northey‏ on Twitter and as stated in a White House press release, has named Kathleen Hartnett-White to chair the Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ).

Hartnett-White, as previously reported by DeSmog, is a prominent climate change denier and former Chairman and Commissioner of the Texas Council on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) under then-Texas Governor Rick Perry. Perry now heads up the U.S. Department of Energy and is reported to have advocated for her to run CEQ. She is also an outspoken advocate of hydraulic fracturing (“fracking”) and of exporting oil and gas to the global market.

Long seen as the presumptive front-runner to take the CEQ role, Hartnett-White also worked on President Trump’s presidential campaign on his Economic Advisory Team. And her name was once floated to head up the U.S.Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), as well, currently led by Scott Pruitt.

The head of the CEQ coordinates interagency science, climate, and environmental policy, and is tasked to oversee things like the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) review process and agencies’ compliance with that law. The CEQ as an entity itself was actually a creation of NEPA, mandated by that law.

Though CEQ oversees the NEPA process, it remains unclear how seriously Hartnett-White will take the NEPA review process, for decades seen as a bedrock of U.S. environmental regulation since NEPA became law in 1970.

Hartnett-White has long positioned herself as an opponent of environmental and climate actions taken by regulatory agencies. She currently works as a fellow-in-residence at the Texas Public Policy Foundation, which receives fundingfrom ExxonMobil, the Heartland Institute, Koch Industries and others. White also helped head up the Texas Public Policy Foundation’s Fueling Freedom Project, which had among its stated goals to “explain the forgotten moral case for fossil fuels” and “end the regulation of CO2 as a pollutant.”

In September 2016 during campaign season, Politico’s Morning Energy reported that Hartnett-White was “among a small group of people who have Donald Trump’s ear on energy policy.” Hartnett-White and Stephen Moore, who also worked on Trump’s campaign, co-authored a 2016 book titled, Fueling Freedom: Exposing the Mad War on Energy. The book promoted fracking and said the U.S. shale gas bounty could be worth $50 trillion, a statement which has been called false by an energy analyst who crunched the numbers.

The book also claimed that all of the net jobs gained in the U.S. between 2007-2012 can be linked to the fracking revolution, which they wrote has spawned “millions of new jobs in the energy sector.”

But according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, during that time period, the number of oil and gas industry workers ranged from a low of about 140,700 jobs in 2007 to a high of 194,700 in 2012.

Image Credit: Fueling Freedom: Exposing the Mad War on Energy

Hartnett-White Is a Climate Science Denier

Not only a fracking promoter, Hartnett-White has also called carbon dioxide in the atmosphere a major benefit for society.

“No matter how many times, the President [Obama], EPA and the media rant about ‘dirty carbon pollution,’ there is no pollution about carbon itself! As a dictionary will tell you, carbon is the chemical basis of all life,” White wrote in September 2015.

“Our flesh, blood and bones are built of carbon. Carbon dioxide (CO2) is the gas of life on this planet, an essential nutrient for plant growth on which human life depends. How craftily our government has masked these fundamental realities and the environmental benefits of fossil fuels!”

Likewise, Hartnett-White gave a talk for the Texas Public Policy Foundation in November 2015 on a panel titled, “Not a Pollutant: CO2 is the Gas of Life.”

In a September 2016 interview with Politico, Hartnett-White advocated for the creation of a ”blue ribbon commission” on climate change, similar to the “red team-blue team” one being floated by Pruitt’s EPA. The commission, Hartnett-White told Politico, would create an “alternative scientific methodology” to the one used by the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). She has also stated on the record that the UN has “revealed themselves” as advocating for communism.

Six years ago at a forum convened by Americans for Prosperity (AFP), funded by the Koch Family Foundations, Harnett-White actually even went so far to say that there “there is no environmental crisis—in fact, there’s almost no major environmental problems.” (starting at about 18:55).

Extreme Power Abuse from AFPhq on Vimeo.

Past as Prologue

Under the presidency of George W. Bush, someone with similarly pro-fossil fuels views also ran CEQ. Before taking over the helm at CEQ in the Bush White House, Philip Cooney served as a lawyer and lobbyist for the American Petroleum Institute (API), which itself has a long track record of funding climate change denial.

Cooney came under a cloud of scandal and resigned when it was revealed that he had heavily edited scientific data showing a link between carbon emissions and global warming in official U.S. governmental reports.

“In handwritten notes on drafts of several reports issued in 2002 and 2003, the official, Philip A. Cooney, removed or adjusted descriptions of climate research that government scientists and their supervisors, including some senior Bush administration officials, had already approved,” reported The New York Times. “In many cases, the changes appeared in the final reports.”

Soon after he resigned, Cooney was hired by ExxonMobil, another key funder of climate change denial.

Harnett-White, too, has some instructive history to look back upon. In 2007, she came under fire for lack of climate and environmental action while chairing TCEQ. This motivated the watchdog group Public Citizen to create a billboard image near the TCEQ headquarters demanding to “Get White Out” and also build a website by the same name.

Public Citizen said she had not done enough to halt issues such as climate change or slow mercury and air pollution. They also stated that she had tried to erode democracy by eliminating the right to comment publicly on a proposed project unless one lived within two miles of its proposed site.

“Chairman White has failed to lead our environmental agency in the right direction. Instead of acting to curb the serious threat from global warming, the TCEQ buried its head in the sand, and determined that global warming impacts would not have to be considered in the contested case hearings for any of the coal plant permits,” Get White Out’s website said of her tenure.

The paper of record in Dallas, Texas, The Dallas Morning News, agreed with this sentiment in a July 2007 editorial written at the end of Harnett-White’s tenure at TCEQ, chiding her track-record in harsh terms.

“She has been an apologist for polluters, consistently siding with business interests instead of protecting public health,” wrote the paper. “Ms. White worked to set a low bar as she lobbied for lax ozone standards and pushed through an inadequate anti-pollution plan.”

In an example perhaps paralleling the Cooney situation most closely, during Harnett-White’s tenure at TCEQ, the agency regularly lowered the statistical data — as compared to federal EPA data — for the amount of alpha radiation traceable in drinking water in places such as Harris County, Texas.

“For years, tests performed by the Texas Department of State Health Services showed the utility provided water that exceeded the EPA legal limit for exposure to alpha radiation,” reported the broadcast news outlet KHOU, based out of Houston, in 2011. “However, the TCEQ would consistently subtract off each test’s margin of error from those results, making the actual testing results appear lower than they actually were.”

In her interview with KHOU, Hartnett-White defended TCEQ‘s actions on this issue during her tenure there.

“As memory serves me, that made incredibly good sense,” said Hartnett-White. “We did not believe the science of health effects justified EPA setting the standard where they did. I have far more trust in the vigor of the science that TCEQ assess, than I do EPA.”

As mandated by the U.S. Constitution’s “advise and consent” clause, Hartnett-White will go through a U.S. Senate confirmation hearing process, during which she will likely face questions about her past record of denying climate change and promoting fossil fuels. The Environmental Working Group says it is dismayed by the choice.

“At least Butch and Sundance had to put some effort into robbing banks and trains,” Ken Cook, EWG‘s president, said in a press statement. “If Hartnett-White joins Administrator Pruitt, polluters will stroll through the front doors of both the EPA and the White House, no questions asked, as the rampant looting of environmental and public health protection policies continues.”

Image Credit: YouTube Screenshot

Gun control, Mass shootings

Mass shooting in Las Vegas, NV

October 8, 2017 Roger Straw

[Apologies for the belated posting of this October, 2017 page. – RS]

This page is dedicated to those who have suffered gun violence in the United States. Our guns are out of control. Senseless, that we cry out only after mass shootings. Below you will find most recent postings at top, followed by an archive going back several years.

By Roger Straw, October 8, 2017

UPDATE – following the mass shooting in Las Vegas, NV

By Roger Straw, June 12, 2016

UPDATE – mass shooting in Orlando FL

This Michael Moore tweet says it all:

I have nothing 2 say that hasn’t already been said on this the 163rd day of a yr in which there’ve already been 173 mass shootings in the US

— Michael Moore (@MMFlint) June 13, 2016

Here is the latest sad mass shooting statistic from The Guardian (6/14/2016):

Previously (October 7, 2015):
I will take a brief time out … again … from my reporting on crude by rail to raise the awful issue of gun control and the almost daily occurrence of mass shootings in the United States. (Mass shooting is defined as four or more people shot in an event, or related series of events, likely without a cooling off period). See below.

– Roger Straw, Editor, The Benicia Independent

IMPORTANT: The Guardian’s report, “994 mass shootings in 1,004 days: this is what America’s gun crisis looks like,” is a shocking visual representation of the almost daily mass shootings in the U.S.

The Guardian article is based on statistics gathered by Mass Shooting Tracker. The current page on Mass Shooting Tracker shows three more mass shootings on the day after the college campus shooting in Roseburg, Oregon:

10/2/2015 – 1 dead, 4 wounded in Baltimore, MD
10/2/2015 – 3 dead, 1 wounded in Inglis, FL
10/2/2015 – 1 dead, 4 wounded, again in Baltimore, MD

Your news media simply CAN’T KEEP UP with the flood of mass shootings. So far in 2015, (on October 7, the 280th day of the year) 379 have been killed in mass shootings, and 1094 have been shot and survived. Who knew, you might ask? Well, survivors, for sure. Their lives will never be the same. Nor will those of families, friends and neighbors of those who are killed or injured in these mass shootings.

LOCAL: Note this story from last week about the gunshot slaying of a local family: 16-year-old Benicia boy suspect in his family slaying.

FROM BENINDY ARCHIVES…
For a short time in May 2013, not long after the Sandyhook Elementary shooting in Newtown, Massachusetts, the Benicia Independent’s “single-issue focus” was on gun control. At that time, I linked to a series of stories showing that the issue extends to our small town of Benicia. (See archive copy below.)

Gun Violence is a problem in Benicia

By Roger Straw
May 16, 2013, 2:30 PM

Gun violence is in fact a BENICIA problem … it is time to take action in EVERY city and town. Here are 21 links to Benicia Herald reports of gun violations in Benicia April, 2010 to May 16, 2013.

BREAKING: Armed Liberty High student accused of threatening classmate

By Donna Beth Weilenman
Staff Reporter
Benicia police arrested a 17-year-old Liberty High School student they said made threats Wednesday to kill a classmate, and Thursday brought a gun to campus, Lt. Frank Hartig said. The youth’s identity was not disclosed, but he was accused of felony counts of terrorist threats and possessing a firearm on school grounds, as well as misdemeanor accusations of possessing a firearm with an obliterated serial number; of being a minor in possession of ammunition; possession of an assault weapon; and being a minor in possession of a concealed firearm, Hartig said.
May 16, 2013

County youth homicide rate on the rise
Solano ranks 6th in California
By Donna Beth Weilenman
Staff Reporter

Solano County has been ranked sixth among California counties in youth and young adult homicides, said Marty Langley, policy analyst for the the Violence Policy Center, Washington, D.C. San Joaquin County topped the list that is based on 2011 statistics, and several counties reported no homicides among those 10 to 24, the age range that is the focus of the center’s report.
March 7, 2013 at 11:01 am

Police search reveals drugs, ‘suspected Molotov cocktail’
By Donna Beth Weilenman
Staff Reporter

Benicia police arrested a Benicia man early Monday in the Solano County Square parking lot after a police dog detected drugs in the vicinity of the man’s car. A search turned up drugs, weapons and a suspected incendiary device, Lt. Frank Hartig said Tuesday afternoon.
December 11, 2012 at 3:39 pm

Man sought in Benicia robbery dies in standoff Police: After chase to Treasure Island, Duncan Phillips shot himself
By Donna Beth Weilenman
Staff Reporter

A man sought by Benicia police in the Thanksgiving Day armed robbery of one woman and theft of another women’s car died early Tuesday of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot after a lengthy standoff on Treasure Island, San Francisco police said. Duncan Phillips, 29, had been the subject of a Benicia police search after he was suspected of attacking and robbing a 52-year-old woman at her apartment on the 900 block of Southampton Road, Lt. Frank Hartig said.
November 27, 2012 at 4:18 pm

Armed robbery at Fast and Easy Mart
Staff Report

Fast and Easy Mart, 1500 East Fifth Street, was held up Thursday night by armed robbers, police said. The lone clerk described the four assailants as African-American men in the 20s or 30s, wearing dark-colored bandanas over their mouths, police said.
August 17, 2012 at 10:57 am

Held in county lockup, suspect charged with attempted murder of police officer
By Donna Beth Weilenman
Staff Reporter

The 22-year-old American Canyon man identified as the suspect who exchanged gunfire with a Benicia police officer Saturday afternoon remained in Solano County Jail, Fairfield, after his arrest Sunday morning in Vallejo, authorities said Monday. Robert Flores Folster was arrested by Benicia police with help from Vallejo police at 1324 Lincoln Road East in Vallejo on Sunday morning, according to Lt. Mike Greene and Solano County Jail records. Folster has been booked on charges of burglary, endangerment of a child that could result in injury or death, attempted murder, carjacking, receiving stolen property and vehicle theft, according to jail records. All are felony charges. While bail of $1,050,000 was set for the first three charges, Folster is being held without bail on the latter three.
July 17, 2012 at 8:08 am

Drug, gun charges for Benicia juvenile

By Donna Beth Weilenman
Staff Reporter
A 17-year-old Benicia driver who ran a stop sign late Thursday was arrested on weapons and drug charges and was taken to Solano County Juvenile Hall in Fairfield, Lt. Frank Hartig said Friday. Read the rest of this entry »
July 13, 2012 at 4:02 pm

BREAKING: Man robs 7-11 at gunpoint

with 2 comments
By Donna Beth Weilenman
Staff Reporter
A convenience store clerk was robbed at gunpoint early Tuesday, and the suspect not only demanded money from the register’ but the clerk’s wallet as well, Benicia police Lt. Frank Hartig said.
The robber escaped on foot, and the clerk was not harmed, he said. Read the rest of this entry »
June 5, 2012 at 5:19 pm

Police say Rio Vista man had 2 concealed guns

with 2 comments
By Donna Beth Weilenman
Staff Reporter
A Rio Vista man has been jailed after Benicia police accused him of two firearms violations following a traffic stop in a residential area. Read the rest of this entry »
May 25, 2012 at 5:54 am

Gunshots in Benicia lead to charge of endangerment

with one comment
By Donna Beth Weilenman
Staff Reporter
Benicia Police arrested a 20-year-old Napa man early Wednesday and accused him of endangering a child when he negligently fired a revolver from his car while he on the 1300 block of Southampton Road, Lt. Frank Hartig said. Read the rest of this entry »
May 10, 2012 at 1:37 pm

BREAKING: Armed gunman holds up Benicia business

with 43 comments
Staff Report
Benicia police said an armed robber entered a Southampton business Thursday afternoon and escaped with an undisclosed amount of cash.
No one was injured in the holdup at Check Into Cash, 806 Southampton Road, police said. Read the rest of this entry »

Police find 59 guns; resident arrested

with 5 comments

SOME of the 59 guns police confiscated from a Benicia resident Thursday, including a 9mm UZI.
Courtesy BPD
By Donna Beth Weilenman
Staff Reporter
A 49-year-old Benicia man has been arrested and a cache of guns, including an illegal 9 mm UZI assault weapon, were confiscated after Benicia police looked into reports Thursday that the man had been harassing a 20-year-old Martinez woman, Lt. Mike Daley said. Read the rest of this entry »
October 28, 2011 at 3:13 pm

Police arrest parolee on weapons charges
Staff Report

Benicia police on Friday arrested a Magalia, Calif., man after finding a handgun and tools commonly used for car theft in his possession. Police Sgt. John Daley stopped a 1994 Acura on the 900 block of Cambridge Drive at about 6:24 a.m. for an expired registration. After the stop police determined that the passenger, Brad Stancliff, 23, had a felony warrant for his arrest from the California Department of Corrections, according to a Benicia Police Department news release.
April 8, 2011 at 9:41 pm

Police: Man aimed gun at roommate

By Donna Beth Weilenman
Staff Reporter

A 28-year-old Benicia man who police said pointed a handgun at his roommate’s forehead Tuesday evening was arrested and charged with a felony.
Lt. Mike Daley said the 34-year-old roommate called police and said the man had pointed the gun at him about 6:46 p.m. after they had been arguing. Read the rest of this entry »
March 17, 2011 at 5:31 am

Absent plate leads to weapons, drug arrest
By Donna Beth Weilenman
Staff Reporter

The occupants of a Ford Thunderbird missing its rear license plate were arrested Tuesday night and charged with weapons and drug violations, Benicia police Lt. Mike Daley said Wednesday. Benicia K-9 Officer Damiean Sylvester noticed the Thunderbird was missing its plate and stopped the vehicle on East Fifth Street at the eastbound Interstate 780 on-ramp, Daley said. Sylvester spoke with the driver and passenger and discovered each had some prescription medicine but no prescriptions, Daley said. The passenger also had a substance police believe is methamphetamine, he said.
March 10, 2011 at 1:32 am

Lone gunman robs store in Southampton

By Marc Ethier
Editor
“Friday the 13th” it was not, but a lone gunman wearing a mask popularized by the horror film series was deadly serious Wednesday when he entered a Southampton Shopping Center store.
The gunman entered GameStop, 821 Southampton Road, at 9:54 p.m. wearing a white hockey mask, according to a Benicia police report. He brandished but did not point a black, semi-automatic-type handgun and demanded cash, then escaped with an undisclosed amount, police said. Read the rest of this entry »
December 30, 2010 at 10:20 pm

Police: Benicia man hospitalized with apparently self-inflicted gunshot wound

By Donna Beth Weilenman
Staff Reporter
A Benicia man was taken to an area hospital early Monday after police found him wounded by a gun he may have fired himself.
The man was listed in critical but stable condition at John Muir Medical Center in Walnut Creek later that day, Lt. Bob Oettinger said. Read the rest of this entry »
December 20, 2010 at 10:23 pm

Gunpoint robbery at Homecoming

with 3 comments
“One suspect pulled a black, semiautomatic gun and stuck it into the stomach of one of the victims.” — Benicia police Sgt. Scott Przekurat
By Donna Beth Weilenman
Staff Reporter
Two 14-year-old Benicia High School students were robbed at gunpoint by four teenagers Friday night after the school’s homecoming game, Benicia police said Monday.
A school administrator appeared shortly after the four robbed the two boys of their wallets, cell phones and a small amount of money, prompting the robbers to scatter, said Sgt. Scott C. Przekurat of the department’s investigations unit.
The victims were walking through the campus after the game and had entered an outside hallway along the school’s A Wing at about 11 p.m. when they were approached by the four robbers, all described as wearing dark sweaters or jackets, dark pants, and flat-billed ball caps, Przekurat said. Read the rest of this entry »
October 18, 2010 at 11:26 pm

Gunshots spur school lockdown

❒ None hurt; police arrest 4 in drive-by
By Donna Beth Weilenman
Staff Reporter
Robert Semple Elementary School was placed on lockdown about 2:30 p.m. Thursday while authorities searched the area for gunmen who apparently were stalking a Benicia man and his girlfriend.
Vincent Winnie, a 22-year-old Vallejo man, and three others were arrested by Benicia police at the Interstate 780-Interstate 80 interchange, Lt. Mike Daley said. They were still being processed by police at press time.
The incident started before 1 p.m. when police received multiple calls of a possible drive-by shooting at the first block of La Prenda Avenue, Daley said. Read the rest of this entry »
October 1, 2010 at 12:32 am

City police seek help on reports of gunshots

BENICIA POLICE Lt. Mike Daley.
Herald file photo
❒ None injured in 2 incidents last week
By Donna Beth Weilenman
Staff Reporter
Benicia police are asking residents to help them solve two incidents involving gunfire that occurred four days apart, Lt. Mike Daley said Wednesday.
The first report was of shots fired on the 400 block of East L Street about 8:10 p.m. on June 29, Daley said. Read the rest of this entry »
July 7, 2010 at 11:50 pm

Autopsy confirms Benicians’ deaths came by gunshot

By Donna Beth Weilenman
Staff Reporter

Autopsies performed Wednesday on the two Benicia residents who died in an apparent murder-suicide confirmed that Walter Little, 48, and his girlfriend, Julie Strack, 49, both died of gunshot wounds, Solano County Deputy Sheriff Corey McLean said.
Little, of 69 Vista Grande, died of an intraoral gunshot wound while Strack, of the same address, died of two wounds, one to the head and one to the neck, McLean said. Read the rest of this entry »
April 17, 2010 at 12:11 am