Pipeline ignites at refinery in Texas
CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — A Monday morning fire at a Citgo refinery in Corpus Christi, Texas, has been extinguished with no injuries, according to the petroleum company.
The fire began in a pipeline owned by a third party shortly after 8:30 a.m. and was put out shortly before 11 a.m. with “no threat to the surrounding community,” Citgo said.
The owner of the pipeline has not been identified.
Corpus Christi Fire Chief Robert Rocha said the fire forced the closure of Interstate 37 in the south Texas city, but that it has since reopened. People in nearby homes and businesses were ordered to shelter in place until monitors found the air to be safe.
“We’re still trying to figure out what happened,” Rocha said. “We encountered heavy fire conditions coming from a buried pipeline.”
Rocha said no one was injured.
Bezos pledges $10B to climate fight
NEW YORK — Amazon founder Jeff Bezos said Monday that he plans to spend $10 billion of his own fortune to help fight climate change.
Bezos, the world’s richest man, said in an Instagram post that he’ll start giving grants this summer to scientists, activists and nonprofits working to protect the planet.
“I want to work alongside others both to amplify known ways and to explore new ways of fighting the devastating impact of climate change,” Bezos said in the post.
Bezos, who founded Amazon 25 years ago, has a stake in the company that is worth more than $100 billion.
Amazon has an enormous carbon footprint. Last year, Amazon officials said the company would work to get 100% of its energy from solar panels and other renewable sources by 2030.
The online retailer relies on fossil fuels to power planes, trucks and vans to ship billions of items around the world. Amazon workers in its Seattle headquarters have been vocal in criticizing some of the company’s practices, pushing it to do more to combat climate change.
In his Monday post, Bezos said he will call his initiative the Bezos Earth Fund. An Amazon spokesman confirmed that Bezos will be using his own money for the fund.
Bezos only recently became active in donating money to causes as other billionaires such as Bill Gates and Warren Buffett have done. In 2018, Bezos started another fund, committing $2 billion to open preschools in low-income neighborhoods and give money to nonprofits that help homeless families.
Florida manatee deaths down last year
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Fewer manatees died in Florida in 2019 compared with the year before.
Statewide, manatee deaths decreased to 606 last year, down from 824 in 2018.
Experts say it appears the main cause of the decline is the reduced effect of red tide algae. Twenty-one manatees died of red tide in 2019, compared with 288 in 2018, said Jaclyn Lopez, a spokeswoman for the Florida Center for Biological Diversity.
The Sun-Sentinel reported that boats and other watercraft were the biggest cause of manatee deaths last year, causing at least 136 of the fatalities, or about 22%. According to Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission data, 129 of the animals were not recovered.
A cause of death hasn’t been determined in 119 cases. Bro-ward and Miami-Dade counties saw fewer deaths, although manatee deaths increased slightly in Palm Beach County.
Teacher loses in transgender dispute
PORTSMOUTH, Ohio — A federal judge has dismissed a professor’s lawsuit against a small, public university in Ohio that rebuked him for not addressing a transgender student using the student’s preferred gender terms.
Nicholas Meriwether’s federal lawsuit alleged that Shawnee State University officials violated his rights by compelling him to speak in a way that contradicts his Christian beliefs.
However, school officials contended that such language was part of his job responsibilities, not speech protected by the First Amendment, in arguing that the case should be dismissed.
U.S. District Judge Susan Dlott dismissed it last week, agreeing that the manner in which Meriwether addressed the student wasn’t protected under the First Amendment.
Asked whether Meriwether would further pursue the matter, his attorney, Travis Barham of Alliance Defending Freedom, said Monday that they are evaluating their next steps.
“This is wrong,” Barham said in a statement. “Public universities have no business compelling people to express ideological beliefs that they don’t hold.”
Meriwether had received a written warning for violating the school’s nondiscrimination policy and unsuccessfully challenged his reprimand in a grievance process. He said he treated the student like “other biologically male students.”