Free Republic

Hundreds of villagers in eastern China riot against polluting factoryThursday ?June 30, 2005 Hundreds of Chinese villagers have marched on a battery factory which they say is poisoning their children and held 1,000 workers hostage, residents and officials said. About 600 people from Jianxia village in the eastern province of Zhejiang took control of the Zhejiang Tianneng Battery company and barricaded workers inside, resident Han Cheng told AFP Thursday. But a promise made Thursday afternoon by factory managers to stop production and carry out investigations helped defuse the tense five-day standoff. "The problem has been more or less solved this...

Just a few weeks after Los Angeles gas prices reached $5 a gallon for the first time ever, the region has set another record, topping out at more than $6 for a gallon of regular unleaded, AAA reported Tuesday. The average in the L.A.-Long Beach area now stands at $6.01 per gallon following 28 consecutive days of increases. Fuel costs in the region are about 17 cents higher than they were a week ago and $1.22 more than they were a month ago, according to the Auto Club. “Who knows what’s going to happen in another month or two,” one...

The state Department of Water Resources on Monday appealed a judge's decision that threatens to halt water from being pumped out of the delta. The decision will give the state more time to secure the authority it needs to send water to millions of Californians, officials said. The appeal stays an April 18 order by an Alameda County Superior Court judge, who ruled that the state's water pumps illegally kill chinook salmon and delta smelt. The ruling would have shut down the Harvey O. Banks pumping station near Tracy within 60 days. The decision was a victory for environmentalists and...