Gas price-gouging penalties OK’d
The House on Wednesday approved criminal penalties and fines of up to $150 million for energy companies caught price gouging, yet lawmakers acknowledged there is no quick and easy fix to higher pump prices.
With bipartisan support, the House approved on a 389-34 vote a measure that would create a price-gouging law and permit large fines and jail time for violators.
The Senate has yet to consider the legislation.
The House did reject a Republican bill that supporters said would make it easier to build refineries in hopes of easing tight gasoline supplies.
Buckhannon, W. Va.
Rescuer apologizes for false hope
One of the first rescuers to reach the trapped Sago miners apologized to the miners’ families Wednesday, asking them to forgive the miscommunication that led them to believe their loved ones had survived.
“We apologize for any of the problems or heartaches that the miscommunications caused,” said Ronald Hixson as he choked back tears during a second day of hearings into the Jan. 2 explosion that trapped the West Virginia miners underground.
About 50 family members accepted with applause.
Initial reports from the mine had indicated that 12 miners survived. It was three hours before the families learned the agonizing truth: Only one survived.
Hixson, a rescuer with the U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration, said he used a walkie-talkie to report that 12 of the miners were dead and one was alive. But that message transformed as it was relayed to the outside world via walkie-talkies and phones.
Washington
Transit systems urged to be alert
U.S. mass transit systems should remain alert against possible terror attacks, the Homeland Security Department said in a new warning that highlighted suspicious activity at unnamed European subway stations last fall.
Homeland Security spokesman Russ Knocke said Wednesday there is no specific or credible intelligence to indicate U.S. transit systems are being targeted, and he described the notice, sent Tuesday, as a routine reminder for transit authority operators, state security advisers and police to remain on guard.
The notice said a foreign man was arrested in November in an unnamed European city after videotaping the interior and exterior of several subway cars and stations, including trash cans and stairwells. Three other people were later arrested for similar activity, the notice said.
Knocke said Homeland Security has no immediate plans to raise the nation’s terror threat alert level. It was not immediately clear why the arrests months ago prompted the new notice.