Request for information: Louisiana’s U.S. senators and the Senate Judiciary Committee chairman are asking the U.S. Department of Homeland Security for information about the man identified as the driver of a bus that hit a firetruck and other vehicles in Louisiana, killing two people and injuring three dozen, The Associated Press reports. State police have said Denis Yasmir Amaya Rodriguez, 37, an illegal Honduran immigrant who has no driver’s or commercial license, was driving the bus. The senators want to know how and when Amaya Rodriguez entered the United States and every date on which a law enforcement agency encountered him. The 11-point list of requests also asks whether he ever applied for immigration benefits, whether he was associated with any criminal gang, and for his “complete alien file.” Amaya Rodriguez was arrested on two counts of negligent homicide and one each of negligent injury, reckless driving and driving without a license. The senators asked for the information by Sept. 12. Read the full story.
Penalty lifted: The Internal Revenue Service is granting a regulatory waiver requested by U.S. Sen. Bill Cassidy to allow those impacted by August floods in Louisiana early access to retirement funds without penalty, The Associated Press reports. Cassidy says the hardship waiver will be critical for helping Louisianans get back on their feet quickly. He says since so many living in the affected areas didn’t have flood insurance, “every tool possible needs to be implemented to allow them access to much needed emergency funds.” The hardship waiver will be in effect until Jan. 17, 2017, to allow flood victims access to emergency funds to account for losses that began Aug. 11.
Taking precautions: Oil and gas operators in the Gulf of Mexico are evacuating platforms and rigs in preparation for Tropical Depression No. 9, the U.S. Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement says. Personnel have been evacuated from a total of nine production platforms, or 1.2% of the 750 manned platforms in the Gulf of Mexico. Production platforms, structures where oil and natural gas are produced, remain in the same location throughout a project’s duration while oil rigs typically move from location to location. Personnel also have been removed from one non-dynamically positioned, or DP, rig, and a total of seven DP rigs have been moved off location out of the storm’s path as a precaution. Tropical Depression No. 9 is projected to become a tropical storm today and is expected to cross Florida, Georgia and South Carolina before entering the Atlantic Ocean. Read the full announcement.
