In brief: FBI investigates Clinton email security

Washington – The FBI is looking into the security of the private email server that Hillary Rodham Clinton used when she was secretary of state, according to the Washington Post.

In addition, the FBI has asked Clinton lawyer David Kendall about the security of a thumb drive, containing copies of Clinton’s emails, that Kendall possesses, the newspaper reported.

The Post report cited two anonymous government officials.

Clinton’s emails have been under scrutiny since it was revealed she used a private server in her New York home while she was the top U.S. diplomat. Government and congressional investigators have been trying to determine whether she sent or received classified information on unsecured email.

Toxic algae problem bigger than expected

A vast bloom of toxic algae off the West Coast is denser, more widespread and deeper than scientists feared even weeks ago, according to surveyors aboard a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration research vessel.

This coastal ribbon of microscopic algae, up to 40 miles wide and 650 feet deep in places, is flourishing amid unusually warm Pacific Ocean temperatures. It now stretches from at least California to Alaska and has shut down lucrative fisheries. Shellfish managers on Tuesday doubled the area off Washington’s coast that is closed to Dungeness crab fishing, after finding elevated levels of marine toxins in tested crab meat.

So-called “red tides” are cyclical and have happened many times before, but ocean researchers say this one is much larger and persisting much longer.

Milwaukee archdiocese reaches $21 million deal

Madison, Wis. – The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Milwaukee said Tuesday that it will pay $21 million to more than 300 victims of clergy abuse in a settlement that would end a four-year bankruptcy proceeding.

The proposed deal, which will be part of a reorganization plan submitted to a bankruptcy court later this month, was to be reviewed by a judge overseeing the case at a Nov. 9 hearing.

Milwaukee is one of 12 Roman Catholic dioceses nationwide to file for bankruptcy in the past decade over a flood of abuse claims. The settlement announced Tuesday is among the smallest per-victim payments yet in these cases. The actual amount each victim receives will be determined by an appointee of the bankruptcy court.

The settlement was reached after three days of negotiations in July between the archdiocese, the creditors’ committee and attorneys for abuse survivors, the archdiocese said.