May 20, 2011, 12:05 AM
Scientists may have found a way to predict earthquakes. According to a team of NASA and Russian space and physical scientists, in the days before the March 11 Tohoku earthquake in Japan, the atmosphere directly above the epicenter rapidly heated up. In a presentation delivered in...
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May 19, 2011, 9:22 AM
State officials moved a step closer yesterday to allowing more California schools access to a limited pot of money set aside for urgent seismic repairs. A three-member committee of the State Allocation Board, which controls funding for school repairs and construction, is recommending that...
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May 18, 2011, 12:05 AM
Officials will review proposals today that would make it easier for schools with potentially dangerous buildings to qualify for seismic repair funds. Only 20 buildings are currently eligible, but the new proposals could give anywhere from 83 to 189 additional buildings access to a $200 million...
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May 13, 2011, 12:05 AM
By June 10, nuclear power plant operators must verify under oath that they have updated and adopted additional safety and equipment procedures mandated by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission after the 9/11 attacks. The bulletin, issued Wednesday at a conference sponsored by the industry's...
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May 12, 2011, 12:05 AM
Legislators voted yesterday to fast-track an audit of the office that oversees public school construction after a recent California Watch investigation found it had routinely failed to enforce earthquake safety laws. During a morning hearing, members of the Joint Legislative Audit Committee...
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May 10, 2011, 12:05 AM
Key members of the state Senate have asked for an audit of the office that oversees public school construction in response to a recent California Watch investigation that found systemic failures in the way earthquake safety laws are enforced. Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg;...
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April 27, 2011, 5:37 PM
State regulators will loosen the criteria for schools to access millions in unspent seismic repair funds and will require building inspectors to reveal whether they have been convicted of a crime before taking the state's certification test, officials said today. Scott Harvey, acting chief...
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April 27, 2011, 12:05 AM
Today, after trying for more than two years to get regulators to listen to his concerns about seismic hazards at Pescadero High School, Bryan Burns will get his chance to speak to a statewide audience. When he got an e-mail confirmation he was one of several tapped to testify in front of a...
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April 25, 2011, 12:05 AM
Gov. Jerry Brown’s office announced last week that he signed two bills that provide up to seven years of deadline extensions for seismic upgrades at some of the state’s riskiest hospital buildings. Like many things in Sacramento, though, the bills are complicated and rely on...
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April 20, 2011, 12:05 AM
Scientists who have surveyed earthquake damage in Japan say the soil condition intensified the destruction, and their findings raise concerns about geologically similar areas in California, Oregon and Washington. In a report released this week, a team of scientists –...
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April 20, 2011, 12:05 AM
A school construction inspector previously convicted of a felony in a construction safety-related case has worked on at least 15 school projects in Southern California in the last few years, records show. California Watch reported April 9 that the Division of the State Architect – the...
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April 18, 2011, 10:49 AM
The Schwarzenegger administration hamstrung the ability of state regulators to ensure schools are built safely by imposing hiring freezes and furloughs during a school building boom, an official with a prominent architects lobby said recently. Kurt Cooknick, director of regulation for the...
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April 14, 2011, 12:05 AM
Groups representing parents, teachers and state engineers are calling for reforms to the state's oversight of seismic safety in public schools. At the same time, the chief building official for the state’s community college system says districts are "working feverishly...
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April 13, 2011, 9:09 AM
State construction officials were ordered yesterday to examine ways to make it easier for schools with potentially dangerous buildings to qualify for seismic repair funds. Five years ago, voters approved nearly $200 million in bond funds for seismic repairs at thousands of school building...
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