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Woman arrested for DUI after double fatal crash on I-80 near Fairfield

Sacramento woman was arrested for DUI after a crash that killed two men in Fairfield early Sunday morning, according to the California Highway Patrol.

Michelle Henry, 42, was driving a Buick Lucerne on westbound Interstate Highway 80 near Air Base Parkway at about 5:20 a.m., the CHP said.

Henry was allegedly traveling at high speed when she struck the rear of a Ford Explorer, causing both vehicles to overturn, the CHP said.

The Buick landed in some bushes on the right shoulder, and the Explorer rolled across two lanes of traffic and came to rest on its roof, the CHP said.

As one of the passengers in the Explorer - a 25-year-old Sacramento man -- got out of the vehicle to help another passenger, a Toyota struck the rear of the vehicle causing it to strike him.

The man was thrown into westbound traffic and killed, the CHP said.

The driver of the Explorer, a Sacramento man, was also killed.

The Solano County coroner's office had not released the victims' identities as of Sunday afternoon.

Henry, who suffered minor injuries, was arrested for felony drunk driving and possession of a loaded firearm.

_{Sun, 29 Jan 2012 22:51:42 -0800}

Report: Brown replaced regulator over oil rules

A top state regulator and his deputy were removed last year after ignoring pressure from Gov. Jerry Brown to relax rules for companies seeking to tap California's oil, according to a newspaper investigation.

The governor asked officials in October to develop a permitting shortcut for firms hoping to employ underground injection, a risky method of oil extraction common in California.

Department of Conservation head Derek Chernow wrote a memo stating that easing regulations on underground injection would violate environmental laws, the Los Angeles Times reported Sunday.

The process, in which a rush of steam, water and chemicals flushes oil from depleted wells, had been linked to spills, eruptions and the death of a worker in Kern County. The federal Environmental Protection Administration had asked the state to tighten its regulations, but the oil industry complained in a letter-writing campaign to Brown that the strict rules were hurting a key state business.

A week after the memo was written, Brown had Chernow removed, along with a deputy, Elena Miller, the Times said. The governor appointed replacements who agreed to stop subjecting every underground injection project to a comprehensive review before issuing a permit.

Administration officials told the newspaper the eased permit rules were part of the governor's broader effort to streamline regulations and spur job creation. Brown wanted to move away from a "one-size-fits-all" approach to permitting in a state with vast geological differences, officials said.

"We have to balance good environmental protection and economic growth," John Laird, Brown's secretary of natural resources, told the Times. "The law allows discretion on how you best protect the environment and move the applications along ... Our goal is to make things run more efficiently."

Catherine Reheis-Boyd, president of the Western States Petroleum Association, a lobbying group, told the Times that regulators had been requesting so much information about every project — "an infinite do-loop" — that they effectively halted production for some firms.

"We've been in business since the turn of the century, and then all of a sudden everything we do out there is not right," said Les Clark, executive vice president of the Independent Oil Producers Agency, a trade group. "It starts snowballing, and before too long you're not going to be in business because the regulations are too costly and too complicated to deal with."

Administration officials said at least 77 well permits that were on hold as of Nov. 15 have since been approved.

Earlier this month, Brown boasted about the expedited permits. At a solar energy farm near Sacramento, he reaffirmed his commitment to all forms of energy development.

"It's not easy," Brown said. "There are going to be screw-ups. There are going to be bankruptcies. There will be indictments and there will be deaths. But we're going to keep going."

Chernow and Miller, who were hired under former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, declined to comment.

_{Sun, 29 Jan 2012 22:17:47 -0800}

Four men stabbed outside Half Moon Bay wedding reception

Four people were stabbed outside a wedding in Half Moon Bay on Saturday night, according to the San Mateo County Sheriff's Office.

Deputies responded to reports of a stabbing on Main Street outside the I.D.E.S. Hall at about 11:20 p.m., according to the sheriff's office.

Four men in their 20s were leaving a wedding reception at the hall when they were approached and stabbed by two suspects.

The four victims were taken to a hospital with serious injuries, and all are expected to survive, according to the sheriff's office.

One suspect was described as a Hispanic man between 18 and 20 years old and about 5 feet 6 inches tall. He had a chubby face, light skin and a short crew cut style haircut.

The second suspect was described as a Hispanic man in his early 20s around 5 feet 11 inches tall and weighing 150 pounds. Witnesses told investigators that he had black curly hair and a long "droopy" face.

Anyone who might have information about the case was asked to contact the San Mateo County Sheriff's Office at (650) 363-4363.

_{Sun, 29 Jan 2012 21:56:09 -0800}

News Source: MedleyStory More Local News Stories