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Passenger Roberto Fusco said events unfolded quickly as the plane broke up and seawater rushed in.
"They told us they had to make an emergency landing. Then there was panic. Everyone struggled to get their life jackets on," Fusco said from his bed at Villa Sofia Hospital, where he was being treated for minor arm and leg injuries.
He said he took a deep breath, released his seat belt and plunged into the water. When he surfaced, a fellow passenger helped him and his girlfriend onto a wing.
"I saw the pilot on the wing," Fusco said. "He was in a terrible state. He had blood all over his face."
On Sunday, a coast guard boat, helicopter and half-dozen motorboats searched for the missing. The bodies might be in part of the plane that is still submerged — either the tail or the front end, which sank after impact, said Gaspare Prestifilippo, a division chief at the Palermo port.
Overnight, authorities hauled the mangled fuselage out of the sea with at least one of its wings still attached. Rescue crews had not found the flight data recorder, Prestifilippo said.
"We did all that we could in a very short time," Cuffaro said Sunday outside Palermo's Civic Hospital. "But you know the dynamics of the disaster, so the result is what it is, unfortunately."
Of the 23 survivors, 16 were being treated at the Civic Hospital, but none suffered life-threatening injuries, said Dr. Mario Re, head of the hospital's intensive care unit. The most seriously injured were the pilot, co-pilot, a flight attendant and two passengers.
Relatives of the victims were flown overnight to Palermo to identify the dead, said Michele Gandolfo of the morgue at the Giaccone University Polyclinic.
Another flight with more relatives of the victims was arriving Sunday, and Cuffaro said all loved ones would be put up at hotels around Palermo.
"We're trying to help as best as possible those who are in need and accompany with our prayers those who are unfortunately no longer with us," Cuffaro said.
Pope Benedict XVI (search) said Sunday he was praying for the victims, the vast majority of whom came from the Bari area.
"I share in the mourning of the families and of the entire ecclesiastic and civil community of the city," he said during his traditional Sunday blessing at the papal summer residence at Castel Gandolfo in the hills south of Rome.
Palermo Prosecutor Piero Grasso said authorities had ruled out terrorism. The plane apparently hit the water intact, but the tail broke off from the main wreckage hours later, rescuers said.
The crash will be investigated by ENAV, Italian prosecutors and Tunisian authorities.
The ATR-72, which was built in France, has a two-person crew and seats up to 74 passengers. Its maiden flight was in 1988.
The plane was delivered to Tuninter in 1992 and had flown 29,710 hours, ATR said in a statement.
What time JUC-DBG ANTYODAYA EXPESS depart from JALANDHAR CITY Railway Station?
JUC-DBG ANTYODAYA EXPESS (22552) departs from JALANDHAR CITY Railway Station at 10:00.
How much time JUC-DBG ANTYODAYA EXPESS take to reach DARBHANGA JN Railway Station?
JUC-DBG ANTYODAYA EXPESS reach on day 2 to DARBHANGA JN Railway Station. The arrival time of JUC-DBG ANTYODAYA EXPESS at DARBHANGA JN Railway Station is 13:00.
JUC-DBG ANTYODAYA EXPESS covers 1400 km to reach DARBHANGA JN Railway Station at average speed of 52 km/hr. JUC-DBG ANTYODAYA EXPESS passes through 15 stations.
U.S. President Donald Trump has granted a pardon to former Arizona lawman and political ally Joe Arpaio, less than a month after he was convicted of criminal contempt. Grace Lee reports.
A controversial presidential pardon for the self-proclaimed "toughest sheriff in America". "I have fought on the front lines to prevent illegal immigration." U.S. president Donald Trump granting a pardon to Joe Arpaio on Friday evening, less than a month after the former Arizona lawman was convicted of criminal contempt by a federal court, in a case involving his department's racial profiling policy. A White House statement says: "Throughout his time as Sheriff, Arpaio continued his life's work of protecting the public from the scourges of crime and illegal immigration," and that after more than 50 years of service to the nation he's a worthy candidate for a Presidential pardon. But civil rights groups are calling the controversial pardon a "presidential endorsement of racism". Arpaio, who campaigned for Trump in 2016, was known for his crackdown on undocumented immigrants and investigating unfounded Trump-supported claims questioning former President Barack Obama's citizenship. He was convicted for defying a judge's order that his deputies stop detaining Latino motorists solely on suspicion that they were in the country illegally. Arpaio had been scheduled to be sentenced on October 5th and faced a maximum of 6 month's jail time. There was some speculation Trump was originally planning to announce the Arpaio pardon last Tuesday night, during a political rally in Phoenix.
Revelers at today's St. Patrick's Day Parade will see hundreds of familiar marchers, but they won't see the mayor or City Council, who are boycotting the event because it excludes LGBT groups. This is the first time in the parade's 252-year history that both the mayor and City Council as a body will not take part in the celebrations.
Gay rights activists say this move sends a major message.
"By gestures, city leaders can help us consider the meaning of cultural events," said Brendan Fey, who has organized his own St. Patrick's Day Parade in Queens that allows LGBT groups to march openly.
Aside from the council and LGBT groups, two beer companies -- Heineken and Guiness announced over the weekend they would drop their sponsorship of this year's parade. .
Although individual members can march on their own, the vast majority of council members said they would stand by City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito's boycott. The last mayor to not march in the parade -- for the same reason -- was David Dinkins in 1993. Other city agencies, such as the NYPD and FDNY, will participate.
City Councilman Danny Dromm, who is openly gay and a Catholic, said the parade's organizers are behind the times since attitudes toward LGBT groups have changed, even within the Vatican. He added that Dublin's St. Patrick's Day Parade changed its policies toward LGBT members,who can openly march.
"It may not be immediate but I think [the council's decision] pushes the issue to the forefront and applies presser to the organizers and increases the call for them to change," he said.
William Donohue, president of the Catholic League, however, felt that the council and mayor's decision ruins the spirit of the parade.
"That some want to deny Irish Catholics their constitutional rights, when no one is stopping them from having their own parade, is a sad commentary on the state of our culture," he wrote in an op-ed last week.
Former Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who supports LGBT equality measures, criticized Mayor Bill de Blasio's decision not to march contending that he needed to show support for the city's Irish community.
Councilman Jimmy Van Bramer, who is openly gay, disagreed and said fighting to change the policy will result in a St. Patrick's Day parade that is more enjoyable for all New Yorkers.
"The St. Patrick's Day Parade is a fun and opportune way to celebrate the Irish American culture. They may be the last ones to the party but eventually they will come around," he said of the LGBT policy.
The team behind the watch stopped taking pre-orders on Thursday, after pre-selling 85,000 devices and raising more than $10 million on Kickstarter.
The Pebble smartwatch, a smartphone-connected watch that recently became the most-funded Kickstarter project ever, is sold out.
The team behind the watch stopped taking pre-orders on Thursday, after pre-selling 85,000 devices and raising more than $10 million on the crowd-sourced funding platform Kickstarter.
The Pebble team earlier this week updated its Kickstarter page to say that it would limit the number of pre-orders to 85,000. As of Thursday, the project had raised more than $10.1 million from 66,550 backers, with eight days left.
You can still pledge $1 to get exclusive Pebble updates, but advance ordering of the watch is now closed. The Pebble smartwatch will eventually go on sale again at getpebble.com for $150.
"We've thought a lot about this decision, and we feel it's time," an update on the Pebble Kickstarter page reads. "You, our backers, were the first group of people to believe in Pebble, and we want to return our focus to creating the most awesome watch possible for you."
The project was posted on Kickstarter last month with the goal of raising $100,000 during the 40-day funding period. After just a week, the Pebble smartwatch had already raised more than $3.5 million, making it the most-funded Kickstarter project ever.
The watch is water-resistant and sports an electronic-paper (e-paper) display that is easily readable outdoors. It can be customized with several apps designed for cyclists, runners, and golfers. Another app lets users control music on their phone, and Pebble said more apps are in development.
Last week, the much talked-about watch got its first app partner. When the watch becomes available this fall, it will be integrated with he popular workout-tracking app RunKeeper, allowing cyclists, hikers, walkers, and skiers to track their fitness right from their wrist.
Another Kickstarter project making headlines is Etcher, which will turn the iPad into an Etch A Sketch. It has raised about $10,000 with 29 days to go.
For more, see PCMag's "The Digital Watch: A Brief History" slideshow below. Also check out our recent interview with Kickstarter co-founder Yancey Strickler.
A hero of our time, a victim, or a criminal? RT re-visits Joel Tenenbaum – a student who is being sued by major U.S. record companies for downloading several songs off the Internet without paying for them.
The record labels who are going after Joel are about to hit a key stage in their court pursuit, which has been going on for the last 6 years.
“My life is derailed because of this. I should be working, doing my research as opposed to fighting the 4 biggest record companies in the country for money that we really don’t think I owe them,” says Joel Tenenbaum.
Joel’s legal team is a group of Harvard law students and a professor, who are helping the music fan fight back. To them, winning the case is as important as having the people of America being aware and speaking up for their rights.
“If we’ve already won partway in the court of public opinion, then at least we’ve won part of the battle,” says Debbie Rosenbaum, one of Joel's lawyers.
Over the last several years, more than 30 thousand people have been pursued by the music industry for illegally downloading music off the web. The majority of the cases stay secret, since people don’t want their private information disclosed in an endless legal procedure.
“There’s a whole lot of room for abuse. I have personally been what I would call abused. They have been at my home at 6 in the morning, trying to serve me papers. They have called me at all hours of the day, trying to talk to me. They have tried to harass me, they have done this to Joel and this is regular and repeated," says Judy Tenenbaum, Joel’s mother.
Hearing after hearing, Joel’s only hope is that a win in court will set a precedent for other music lovers. Attempts to have the trial webcast for the first time in U.S. history, to get millions of people involved, have been denied by the court.
This case of a regular Boston university student has dragged on for years. Its eventual outcome may make Joel and his family bankrupt. Still, he and his team just want this nightmare to end.
For now, the trial is expected to take place in July.
Fast horse racing results: Who won the 3.15 at Ayr live on ITV?
QUEEN OF BERMUDA toughed it out at Ayr to land the Group 3 Firth of Clyde Stakes.
Shumookhi cut out much of the running but Joe Fanning cut him down as he pulled nicely clear in the last furlong.
The 9-2 favourite got the job done as William Haggas doubled up on the day after Young Rascal's win earlier on at Newbury.
The next race is the 3.30 Group 3 sprint back at Newbury. Can Take Cover bow out in style?
Don't miss out on all the latest news with Sun Racing.
Check out each-way bets for the racing today at Ayr and Newbury.
The Western Balkans are no stranger to conflict. Successor states to the former Yugoslavia fought a series of nationalist wars that spanned the 1990s, and today the region (which typically includes Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Kosovo, Macedonia, Albania, and EU members Croatia and Slovenia) is seeing renewed unrest. The 2012 Maribor protests in Slovenia and the Macedonian protests in 2017 have been followed in 2018 by the assassination of Serb opposition figure Oliver Ivanovic, Croatia’s decision to cut short a diplomatic visit to Serbia, and demonstrations against gang violence in Montenegro. World Policy Journal spoke with Jasmin Mujanovic, a fellow at the East West Institute, a policy consultant at the Freidrich Elbert Foundation, and the author of Hunger and Fury: The Crisis of Democracy in the Balkans, about roadblocks to democracy in the Western Balkans and the weakening influence of the West in the region.
WORLD POLICY JOURNAL: Could you provide an overview of the state of democracy in the Western Balkans?
JASMIN MUJANOVIC: The state of democracy in the Western Balkans is rough. It is in decline. It is arguably even coming apart. We can see this in a number of ways and by a number of metrics. It doesn’t matter all that much whether we are talking about the states that are formally part of the EU, like Slovenia or Croatia, or about the aspirant countries like Serbia—either way we see a decline. We see it in the frequency of physical violence in parliaments. We see it in what are described as anti-system protests, which started in 2012 in Slovenia, and continue across the region to this day. We see it in various indices of press freedom, corruption, transparency, and government accountability. By any metric you want to use, the quality of democracy in the region is low, and it is in decline. What is striking about that is that arguably no other region in the world has been exposed to as much outside state building and top-down international pressure as the Western Balkans. It’s still being called the laboratory of internationally led democratization. This was supposed to be the success story. And yet, nearly three decades after the Yugoslav Wars, we are on the precipice of a genuine crisis of democracy, and crisis of politics.
WPJ: What have been the roadblocks to democratization in these countries?
JM: I think the biggest factor is the lack of elite transition in a lot of these countries, as well as the lack of popular participation in politics. There are elites across the region who have been in power for generations—people who were one time avowed Marxists and communists, then transformed overnight into imperial fascists, and then again transformed overnight into Europeanist pacifists or whatever else was necessary. Many of them are now preparing for a third or fourth mutation as Western influence weighs on the region. I refer to this as elastic authoritarianism, the way in which the ideological edifice of the state continues to change—not just in the last 25 or 30 years, but over the better part of the last century—while socio-economic positions and political conditions remain static. The only way these kinds of politics can be confronted or changed, as we’ve seen in other parts of the world, is by a greater degree of popular participation—not just at the ballot box, but also through acts of civil disobedience, through protest, through social mobilization. That is something we have not seen in the Balkans. The idea of social opposition, social mobilization, grass-root mobilization, and civil society opposition doesn’t have a long history in this region; it’s something we’ve been able to talk about only within the last decade.
WPJ: Looking at this protest and opposition, you’ve argued that we may be seeing a turning point for genuine democratization. Can you tell me more about that?
JM: What we have seen in happen Macedonia over the last year or two, I think, is a good indicator of what I’m talking about. There’s an entrenched authoritarian regime that refuses to play by the constitutional rules; they engage in all kinds of vulgar manipulations and attack the rights of citizens in a free society. There is wiretapping, police harassment, etc. You get to a point where there is so much popular discontent with the regime that people take to the streets. They are prepared to confront the regime. They no longer trust the performance of elections. So they go to the streets for an existential confrontation with the regime, and that precipitates a crisis of legitimacy which, with sustained civic mobilization and citizen pressure, leads to a moment of rupture. In Macedonia, an important thing is that the opposition party—which itself is implicated in corruption scandals and very much has an authoritarian streak—finally begins to realize that if it ever wants to hold power again, it has to get on board with this popular discontent. So the party has to become democratized through these protests. Young people start to join the party, activists start to join the party. A real mechanism is created to translate anger in the street into institutional change. Eventually there is international mediation and elections where the opposition party wins and forces the government to concede power. After sustained popular pressure through a combination of international and domestic opposition to the regime, and the government gives up power, there’s finally a moment of rupture and a moment of transformation. That is the role these systems can play in these regimes. It can really only happen with mass mobilizations, when there is popular recognition that the status quo can no longer continue. But this change obviously is very tricky and requires a tremendous amount of pressure. Unfortunately, oftentimes it seems to take a single crystallizing issue to get people to go out on the streets and stay there.
WPJ: You describe these activists and organizations as leading the way. In what areas can they generate the most political change?
JM: It varies. That’s sort of the irony. The Western Balkans have had established “professional NGOs” for decades now, and they’ve done valuable work. In particular, for people in various marginalized communities, such as LGBT people or the Roma, basic social services have come from foreign-funded NGOs. But the real issue is that things have become so bad in the Western Balkans that we need to see more autonomous, grass-roots, “uncivil” society. We need to get to the point where people’s disillusionment and anger is translated into mobilization, and it’s very difficult to accomplish that with foreign-backed NGOs. We don’t want to move toward a crash regime change model. I do think there needs to be some interplay between professional NGOs and sustained civil society, but the actual impetus for change and mobilization has to come from a genuine, local, grass-roots push for change. When that moment crystallizes, professional NGOs, political organizers, and activists of various sorts can help give those protests structure, create movements, and channel that frustration into politically effective and relevant actions, but they themselves can’t author the protests.
WPJ: To reshape the question, what issues can grass-root organizations focus on to create political change from a local perspective?
JM: Corruption, and the ways we can see corruption manifested. It’s a bit of a catch-all term, but we’re talking about clientelism, cronyism, and all the ways that the everyday experience of authoritarianism profoundly affects people’s lives and work. This includes the daily humiliations that all citizens experience, unless they are from the chosen caste of the politically well-connected. If you’re going to the hospital, taking your kid to the doctor, going to the municipality to get a form, or going shopping, you can see corruption play out in all kinds of interesting and disturbing ways. So as an issue it’s really powerful and emotional, and allows the potential for organization. A lot of the work that can and should be done by grass-root organizations is to crystallize the effects of corruption, putting it into a coherent narrative and helping people identify the parties responsible. This has happened in Serbia, Slovenia, and Bosnia. Ultimately, it is the one issue that gets to the heart of a lot of the problems in the region.
WPJ: We’re seeing a rise of nationalist groups around the world. Is the Western Balkans experiencing a similar trend?
JM: If the Western Balkans are known for anything to the international audience, unfortunately, they’re known for nationalism. I think it’s a bit of a caricature, though, and we have to understand the purpose of nationalism in the Balkans. It is, to my mind, a top-down, engineered politics, and it serves the function of insulating elites, especially in moments of regime crisis, from meaningful demands for social change. Insomuch as we’re seeing a resurgence of nationalism in the Balkans, I think on the one hand it actually has to do with the wave of protests we’ve begun seeing since 2012. And on the other hand, it has to do with the worldwide crisis of liberalism. Elites in the Balkans are looking at the election of Donald Trump and the Brexit referendum. They are concluding that this is the twilight of the West, that the most powerful architects of the postwar order in the Balkans are checking out—that these countries are being consumed with their own internal crises and deciding to pivot. There’s simultaneously a growing social domestic discontent, so countries in the Balkans are once again, more and more overtly, flirting with nationalist themes, ideas of partition, territorial skirmishes, etc. They’re also looking for new benefactors. They’re looking to new international actors who are willing to sponsor the nationalist ploys that will allow the current leaders to remain in power. So they’re reaching out to Russia, Turkey, China, the Gulf states, and other regimes that will look favorably upon authoritarian or sectarian regimes, unlike—traditionally, at least—the Western states.
WPJ: Croatia is the only Western Balkan state that’s a member of the European Union, and Montenegro joined NATO just last year. Serbia is also looking to join the EU. At the same time Russia has been invested in maintaining relationships with the Balkan states. How do you expect the international community at large to respond to the current situation in the region?
JM: We’ve reached a point where similar things are happening in the Balkans and the international community more broadly. They just may be more vulgar and acute in the Balkans because of the historical and social context. But the stability and integrity of the democratic project in the Balkans is profoundly related to the integrity, health, and vitality of the Western and international democratic project. That’s certainly the sense in places like Russia. The reason the Russians are interested in the Balkans is not that there is a meaningful historical relationship between the Balkans and Russia. That’s mostly propaganda and mythology. The reason Russia is interested in the Balkans is that they understand this is a strategically vulnerable area where the weakness of local governance and democracy makes it a cheap and fertile place to create problems for the international community, primarily the United States and the European Union. I think that understanding those crises as being part of one phenomenon actually gives us the tools and the narrative framework to reassess and reboot the process of engagement in the region. We need to be concerned about Russia’s growing influence in the Balkans. We need to be concerned about the resurgence of the far right in Croatia. We need to be concerned about these societies becoming a black hole for money laundering, organized crime, and extremist groups. Because what happens in these societies is no longer an isolated issue. It directly affects the the international community; we are all in it together. That being the case, we need to still do the political legwork to ensure that there is a real, meaningful sense of shared democratic stability and accountability in Europe.
WPJ: What would that legwork look like?
JM: That’s the million-dollar question. I think we have to start with small steps and build on them. One of the things I’ve been pushing hard for is making sure that law enforcement agencies and networks in Europe and the United States are better plugged in with law enforcement in the region. It’s also something that will ingratiate the West and the international community in the minds of Balkan citizens who, in some ways, are quite disillusioned with the rest of the world. Focusing on organized crime, corruption, gray markets, black markets, and money laundering, and beginning to help local citizens dismantle these criminal and political networks, goes a long way to restore trust, accountability, and transparency in government. It also directly translates to security issues; many of the security issues facing the West are directly tied to the Balkans. There are some black-and-white ways in which the collapse of accountable governance and democratization in the Western Balkans has begun to significantly undermine the stability of the international community. So going after those low hanging fruit is where this process has to begin.
WPJ: Going back to the local roots of these problems, what ethnic tensions are at play in local organizations and movements?
JM: In some ways it’s the elephant in the room, especially when you’re talking about Bosnia and Kosovo, which were most directly affected by war, genocide, and ethnic cleansing. When you still have these deeply fragmented and deeply traumatized communities, it’s obviously a significant political factor. But it’s a factor that’s often greatly overstated. Ethnic and nationalist politics are manufactured and remanufactured everyday by the tabloids and the state media because they understand that as long as citizens are afraid of and angry at each other, it keeps the elites in power. At the same time, the degree of ethnic acrimony between these various communities is not insignificant. But even in communities that were incredibly hard hit by conflict, people who experienced violence show a remarkable willingness and capacity to associate with one another. And I think that’s why it’s important to invest in meaningful democratization—it’s the only system where we can allow people to have the space and opportunity for contestation without that leading to violence. With any deterioration in democratic quality, any shift toward authoritarianism, I think the end result will ultimately be a return to sectarian politics and, very possibly, conflict.
WPJ: On that note, what are the prospects for democracy moving forward?
JM: I do think I’m an optimist. At the very least, I put a lot of stock in the possibility for social transformation coming on the back of social mobilization and protest. I think the region has a genuine shot at rebooting the democratic project on its own terms. At times that will be messy and acrimonious. It may have the appearance of chaos, but some of the chaos is necessary for ordinary citizens to recognize their own power and the dignity they have been denied. At the same time, I think we have to be realistic and sober about other countries like Russia, China, Turkey, and the U.K. and the U.S. apparently abandoning the promises of liberalism and democracy. If we wash our hands of the idea of democracy, the idea of civil society, and the idea of government of the people and by the people in the Balkans, then the cost of abandoning our commitment to those values will be far worse than people appreciate. The Balkans will not simply stay quietly authoritarian. We will be on a very short countdown clock, moving toward a new conflict.
Runners can learn from the humorous saying attributed to the great Yankees catcher Yogi Berra, “Baseball is 90 percent mental and the other half is physical."
The great Yogi Berra, an 18-time all-star catcher with the New York Yankees, is probably better known for his wordsmith phrases and quotes, although he once stated he never said half the things he said – another Berra-ism.
“Baseball is 90 percent mental and the other half is physical,” has been attributed to Berra. And he has no idea how accurate that statement really is.
As a runner, how do we go about gearing up that 90 percent mental thing? Running unto itself seems like a pretty easy thing to do. Other than some footwear and appropriately placed clothing (and there are those who will tell you both of those items are optional), isn’t it just left foot, right foot and repeat?
Well yes, the ACT of running is pretty simple and straight-forward. But have you ever seen the shirt that reads, “My sport is your sport’s punishment”? Based on just that statement alone, perhaps it isn’t as simple as it seems. Truth is… the running is easy but the TRAINING is hard. And this is what Berra meant.
Most of you know I am a morning runner. I like getting up before dawn and running in the solitude of darkness and the quiet of morning. And most days it’s a pretty easy thing for me to do. But like anyone, there are days when my motivation is challenged and the mind has to tell the body what to do. On those mornings, I simply remind myself that this is what runners do… we run. It’s a mental reminder to myself that improvement comes from the act of training, not just running.
Self-help “experts” will tell you that there are all sorts of “positive speak” mantras and chants that you can use to “will” yourself to do whatever it is you seek to do. But I would remind them that I’m 5-feet-7-inches tall and no mantra is going to allow me to dunk a basketball into a 10-foot hoop. What you aim to do has to be based in reality. There’s a difference between being “mental” and being “Mental.” And if you can’t run a 5-minute mile, I’m sorry but you’re not going to run a 4-minute mile.
So why exercise the mind? Because the mind is quite a powerful muscle. As a catcher, Berra threw out 49 percent of base-runners attempting to steal, according to the website Sports Reference. As a professional catcher of 19 seasons, I wonder how often Berra practiced throwing out baserunners? And how often did he practice the mental side of that act? Throwing the ball to second base is easy for any major league catcher, but TRAINING to throw the ball… that’s mental!
So why do I awaken at 4:30 most days? Well, quite frankly if it matters to you, you will do it. If it doesn’t matter, you won’t. It mattered to Berra to work on that aspect of his game (along with being an 18-time all-star he played in 10 World Series by the way). And it continues to matter to me, more than 40 years after my first run, to continue to train.
Former standout Lock Haven University runner Andy Shearer is a member of the Middletown Athletic Club, the Greater Philadelphia Track Club and USA Track and Field.
Chevron Pipeline Co., one of two companies accused in a federal lawsuit of contaminating soil beneath the La Mirada Auto Center, has agreed to pay the city $95,000.
The site, purchased in the mid-1980s by the city's Redevelopment Agency for construction of the auto mall, was contaminated with gasoline and tetrachloroethylene (TCE), a toxic degreasing agent, said John Di Mario, a city redevelopment officer.
A Chevron pipeline beneath the property may have transported TCE or have been treated with the substance, Di Mario said. Chevron was not linked to the gasoline contamination, he said.
Jean A. Martin, Chevron's attorney, said there is no direct evidence showing that the company ever transported TCE or used it to treat the pipeline. Martin would not comment on why the company settled.
The primary defendant in the lawsuit by the city's Redevelopment Agency is BET Plant Services, a British equipment rental company that occupied the site. The suit, which seeks $700,000 damages, is scheduled for trial in June.