SAN JOSE, Calif.
Tanker-crash driver has troubled record
James Mosqueda, the driver of a gasoline-filled tanker that crashed and exploded on a section of Oakland’s MacArthur Maze early Sunday morning, collapsing an elevated section of freeway, was involved in at least two hit-and-run accidents in the 1970s, according to Sacramento County court records.
Both resulted in property damage, and Mosqueda was convicted in one of the incidents.
The truck driver also has been arrested numerous times on suspicion of drug possession and intent to sell illegal substances, including marijuana and heroin, court records showed. He was convicted in at least one of the cases and has spent almost a year in jail.
He also has had several brushes with the law over carrying a loaded firearm in a public place and committing burglaries, which also have drawn jail time.
But none of those violations precluded him from driving a truck carrying hazardous materials, according to the California Department of Motor Vehicles and the Transportation Security Administration.
Mosqueda, 51, had been on his truck-driving job with Sabek Transport for 10 months.
BOULDER
Arctic sea ice melting faster, scientists say
Arctic sea ice is melting about three times as fast as computer models predict, National Center for Atmospheric Research scientists were to report today.
Computers have predicted floating sea ice would disappear from the Arctic as soon as 2050 or sometime after 2100.
International scientists used those forecasts in the United Nations’ climate-change assessment released this year.
Actual sea ice is melting about 30 years ahead of that schedule, scientists from Boulder-based NCAR and the University of Colorado wrote in an article for today’s online version of Geophysical Research Letters.
RICHMOND, Va.
Gun-buy loophole in Va. Tech case closed
Virginia’s governor closed the loophole Monday in state law that allowed the Virginia Tech gunman to buy weapons despite a court ruling that he was a threat and needed psychiatric counseling.
Gov. Timothy Kaine issued an executive order requiring that a database of people banned from buying guns include the name of anyone who is found to be dangerous and ordered to get involuntary mental health treatment.
Seung-Hui Cho, 23, was told to get counseling in 2005 after a judge ruled that he was a danger to himself. But because Cho was treated as an outpatient and never committed to a mental health hospital, the court’s decision was not entered into the database. Cho used the guns he bought to kill 32 people and himself.
The measure would not have prevented Cho from acquiring guns by several other means that require no background check in Virginia, including buy-and-trade publications, individual transactions among gun collectors or hobbyists, and gun shows.
NASSAU, Bahamas
Dad preparing to take Smith’s infant to U.S.
Larry Birkhead, the father of Anna Nicole Smith’s infant daughter, obtained a U.S. passport for the girl Monday and was making final arrangements to take her to the U.S., his attorney said.
A Bahamian judge last week authorized Birkhead to take 7- month-old Dannielynn out of the country. Attorney Emerick Knowles said his client planned to leave for the U.S. within days. He did not disclose Birkhead’s destination.
