"WASHINGTON -- The federal government is fighting with itself over a massive fire at a Chevron refinery in California that sent 15,000 people to hospitals with respiratory ailments."
"TUOLUMNE CITY, Calif. -- Crews were finally gaining ground by late Monday on a massive wildfire burning near Yosemite National Park as officials also expressed optimism that no water or power disruptions would come from the blaze burning along the shores of the main reservoir that supplies San Francisco."
"Even the best national data on chemical accidents is wrong nine times out of 10."
"A Dallas Morning News analysis of more than 750,000 federal records found pervasive inaccuracies and holes in data on chemical accidents, such as the one in West that killed 15 people and injured more than 300."
"In fact, no one at any level of government knows how often serious chemical accidents occur each year in the United States. And there is no plan in place for federal agencies to gather more accurate information.
"The blaze, now 134,000 acres, pushes into Yosemite National Park. Each day, what it does depends on the wind."
"A 'complete breakdown of safety' in 2010 has not been sufficiently addressed, a neglect that may spell trouble for its other aging lines, the report says."
"SALMON, Idaho -- U.S. wildfire managers facing increasingly strained resources have opened talks with Pentagon commanders and Canadian officials about possible reinforcements of personnel and aircraft to battle dozens of blazes raging across the drought-parched American West."
"Yosemite area wildfire destroys two homes and sends tourists, residents packing. Although officials haven't closed Yosemite, wildfire has forced the closing of one of three entrances to the national park."
As wildfires rage across the West, the costs of the fight to protect lives and property are up. But budget cuts imposed by an austerity-minded Congress have meant that funds to protect people are down.
"At least three people were killed by an ammonia gas leak from a pipeline owned by state oil monopoly Pemex in southern Mexico on Tuesday and 1,500 people were evacuated from the area and taken to shelters, the company said."
"The Interior Department [Wednesday] proposed a new rule designed to strengthen the safety of offshore oil and gas production technologies as industry reaches into deeper and riskier waters."
