California hospitals slip overall in quality of care rating, Santa Barbara oil platform to be removed from coastal waters, Coachella festival fashion sales boost.
Santa Barbara's oil ‘Platform Holly’ to be removed from coastal waters
There are 27 oil platforms from Santa Barbara down to Orange County, most constructed in the 1960s and 70s. And pretty soon, there will be one less.
Santa Barbara's Platform Holly will be decommissioned and removed from its ocean home. The watery oil producer made headlines in 2015 when erosion in a pipeline lead to the disastrous Refugio Beach oil spill.
What does this mean for Santa Barbara's coastal environment and California's offshore drilling? Take Two's A Martinez spoke with Linda Krop, Chief Counsel for the Environmental Defense Center.
Interview Highlights
The environmental impact
The state will develop an decommissioning plan and that will be available for public review. They will look at different options. The last platforms that were removed in our region were removed about 20 years ago. And the technology has really advanced since then.
This platform is in relatively shallow waters and there's new technology so, we believe it can be removed with minimal impact. You're going to have some impact. You're going to be using heavy machinery to remove the platform so you're going to have some short term impacts. But in the long term, the benefits to the environment are going to be significant.
Overseas, they have more experience with platform decommissioning– much more than in the United States. So, we don't have the latest information, but we will learn that in the review process.
From "rigs to reefs"?
Well, the science is not clear on that. In fact, there was a scientific report prepared by the University of California several years ago that looked at our region and the natural reef system that we have here, and concluded that platforms do not provide any habitat. So, our preference is that the platform be removed.
They're not natural, they are surrounded by piles and piles of toxic debris that has fallen overboard from the platforms. There are 4 platforms removed in 1996 offshore Summerland. Chevron left behind these huge piles of debris mounds that are filled with all sorts of toxic materials.
Our goal, from an environmental standpoint, is to remove them completely and restore the environment. But also, there's a safety consideration. If you leave buried platform structures that people can't see on the surface anymore, you definitely have a risk that someone is going to tangle their anchor, or fishing gear or whatever, and that would be a huge safety problem.
Quotes edited for clarity.
To hear the full interview with Linda Krop, click on the blue Media Player above.
Sports Roundup: the NFL and the suicide of Aaron Hernandez
Former Patriots star tight end Aaron Hernandez hanged himself in his cell on Wednesday morning. Hernandez was serving a life sentence for a 2013 murder and was, just days ago, acquitted on a double murder charge. He was 27.
Just five years ago, Hernandez signed a $40 million contract with the Patriots and had a huge impact on the famed team's offense.
But since his college days at Florida, there were reports of violence - he'd been accused of shooting people two other times.
There were early warning signs of bad behavior so should the NFL have done something about it before or after he was drafted him? How might violent episodes by other players in the future affect league decision going forward?
For more, A Martinez talks to Brian and Andy Kamenetzky for Take Two's weekly sports segment K2.
To listen to the full segment, click the blue play button below.
New Analysis reveals: Oroville dam may have been doomed from the very beginning
To the troubled Oroville Dam in Northern California and the assessment out this week that’s bringing some troubling news to light:
“The evidence shows there were pervasive design flaws and those defects and flaws were propagated during construction. We have enough photographic detail to provide some very interesting insight into how they actually constructed the spillway versus what the design drawings showed."
Pervasive design flaws and shotty construction... that according to Robert Bea, author of the first major independent assessment into the Oroville dam, highlighting some key findings in his analysis.
Ralph Vartabedian wrote about this for the L.A. Times. He spoke to A Martinez to break it all down.
To listen to the full segment, click the blue play button below.
The Styled Side: What it takes to create a style buzz at Coachella
Coachella is more than a musical festival – it's one of the West Coast's best answers to New York Fashion Week.
Designers and stylists converge there, too, to catch the eyes of festival goers.
Michelle Dalton Tyree from Fashion Trends Daily tracked what sandals company Teva did for this year's fest to be the buzz of the desert.
"Outdoorsy types have been wearing Tevas for years," she says, "but they were not exactly considered fashionable until recently."
However once "ugly" shoes have been making a comeback as the latest trend is being comfortable.
And it makes sense to have footwear made for being outside all day in the sun at Coachella or, in the coming months, Bonnaroo, Bumbershoot and more.
"We see Coachella as really the starting point for festival season," says Alivia Birdwell of Teva. "That’s really the main time where people are searching for festival style, like what to wear."
Last year, Teva went to Coachella and created a DIY Teva station in coordination with retailer DSW.
This year it was all about social media.
"Teva partnered with several social media stars, including identical twins Tess and Sarah Behannon who have a rabid following and over 200,000 Instagram followers," says Tyree.
And on Instagram you'll see tons of pics of the Behannons at Coachella in their Tevas.
The strategy is paying off for the company: those kinds of posts are getting more likes and shares compared to Teva's other images.
Plus, google "festival sandals" and Teva's blog post is the first thing that comes up.
"Even if people don't go to Coachella itself, the trends still trickle down," says Tyree.