Cedric Howard, 34, reportedly refused to put down his weapon

California would nearly triple the number of oil refinery safety inspectors under a proposal on the governor's desk that backers say would help close regulatory gaps that federal investigators found played a role in a fire at a Chevron refinery last year. [...] even a beefed-up staff likely would struggle, critics say, given the huge task of assuring safety at the state's 15 oil refineries and 1,600 other chemical processing plants. A spokesman for the Western States Petroleum Association said the trade group representing California's major oil refineries “stands ready to work” with Cal/OSHA, the governor and the Legislature “to ensure that there continues to be a robust and well-trained” refinery safety effort. In an interim report in April, federal investigators blamed the Chevron fire — which happened Aug. 6 in Richmond, was caused by the rupture of a corroded pipe and sent 15,000 people to seek treatment for breathing problems — on weak state oversight that left Chevron free to simply monitor rather than eliminate corrosion risks at its crude oil unit. State Sen. Loni Hancock, D-Berkeley, spearheaded the budgetary changes that require Cal/OSHA to hire 15 new inspectors for its Process Safety Management Unit out of new oil industry fees as well as to train and deploy four more inspectors out of existing agency funds.

Carmen Keever de Garza had successful curio shops in Mexico before moving to San Antonio with her family and becoming a realtor for about 20 years.