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THEASSOCIATEDPRESS An oil slick is seen as the Deepwater Horizon oil rig burns in 2010. The last-ditch safety device that didn't stop the 2010BP oil spill had multiple failures, wasn't tested properly, and still poses a risk for many rigs drilling today, another federal investigation board BySethBorenstein TheAssociatedPress WASHINGTON The key last-ditch safety device that failed to prevent the 2010 BP oil spill remains a potentially catastrophic problem today for some offshore drilling, ac- cording to a federal safety board investigation. The report issued Thurs- day by the U.S. Chemical Safety Board details the multiple failures and im- proper testing of the blow- out preventer and blames bad management and op- erations for the breakdown. They found faulty wiring, a dead battery and a bent pipe in the hulking device. "The problems with this blowout preventer were worse than we understood," safety board managing di- rector Daniel Horowitz said in an interview. "And there are still hazards out there that need to be improved if we are to prevent this from happening again." The safety board, like the National Transportation Safety Board, can investi- gate but has no regulatory power. It recommended new safety standards and regula- tions in its report. If the offshore oil drilling industry doesn't adopt them and regulators don't tighten up oversight of these de- vices, it "opens the possibil- ity of another catastrophic accident," lead investigator Cheryl MacKenzie said at a news conference Thursday. But investigators also noted that the industry is working on new designs that could fix many of the prob- lems the safety board out- lined. And the American Petroleum Institute issued a statement saying the re- port "ignores the tremen- dous strides made to en- hance the safety of offshore operations." The nation's worst off- shore oil spill followed an ex- plosion that killed 11 workers at the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig, about 50 miles off the Louisiana coast. The blowout preventer anchored to the top of the underwater well should have stopped the leak. In such emergencies, the device uses multiple mech- anisms — including clamps and quick-release blades — to try to choke off the oil flowing up from a pipe and disconnect the rig from the well. It can operate automat- ically when pressure or elec- tricity is cut off or manually. The one that failed was 9 years old, nearly 57 feet tall and weighed about 400 tons. After it broke down, an esti- mated 172 million gallons of oil spewed into the Gulf for 87 days. Robert Bea, a professor of engineering and expert in oil pipelines at the Univer- sity of California Berkeley, praised the report and said blowout preventers are like cruise ship lifeboats, used only in last resort but cru- cial. In this case, and poten- tially in some others still out there, a blowout preventer may be "deeply flawed" or full of holes, said Bea, who was not involved in the new study. Board:Oildrillingrisks remain from device woes Another disaster likely if oil companies don't make changes ENVIRONMENT By Jennifer Mcdermott The Associated Press NORTH KINGSTOWN, R.I. Tobacco sales on Navy ships and in stores on Navy and Marine Corps bases would be a thing of the past under a plan being considered by Navy Secretary Ray Ma- bus, but some congressional members are pushing back. The Navy Department, which includes the Marine Corps, would be the first military department to pro- hibit tobacco sales. "We know tobacco hurts you. We know tobacco kills you. We know it makes you lessfit,andone of ourbigini- tiativesistohavesailorsthat are fit and resilient," Mabus said in an interview during a visit to Rhode Island this week. "And so the whole idea is that we want to encourage sailors who smoke to quit." Congress is considering a measure that would prevent Mabus from instituting a sales ban, with the prohibi- tion's opponents arguing it overreaches on a habit that is unhealthy but still legal. Tobacco use costs the Defense Department an es- timated $1.6 billion annu- ally in medical costs and lost work time, said spokes- woman Joy Crabaugh. A 2011 Defense Depart- ment survey found that 24 percent of troops smoke, compared with about 20 percent of civilians. More than 80 percent of heavy smokers in the military said they used cigarettes to re- lax and to relieve stress. Smoking is allowed in designated areas on Navy ships and at Navy and Ma- rine Corps installations, and Mabus' proposal would not change that. Smoking has been prohibited on subma- rines since December 2010. Cigarettes in military ra- tions were discontinued in the 1970s. Mabus has already ended tobacco discounts at Navy and Marine Corps ex- changes, or retail stores. (When it comes to alcohol, sailors can buy it on bases but not on ships.) He noted that CVS Care- mark announced this year it would stop selling tobacco at its drugstores and said the military is an extension of the movement. "We'll be following all sorts of things around this country designed to dis- courage smoking," he said. "And you are seeing smok- ing going down." Feedback from sail- ors and Marines has been mixed, said Cmdr. Tamara Lawrence,spokeswomanfor Mabus. Some say they un- derstand, others say it is not a big deal to buy cigarettes elsewhere, and others worry about it affecting their right to smoke, she said. Some opponents in Con- gress are trying to stop Ma- bus. Rep. Duncan Hunter, a California Republican who served in the Marines, at- tached a measure to the 2015 defense spending bill to prohibit new restrictions on products already sold on military bases. He told the House Armed Services Committee in May, according to a transcript, "We sleep in the dirt for this country, we get shot at for this country, but we can't have a cigarette if we want to." U.S. Rep. Joe Courtney, a Connecticut Democrat, said that while he does not endorse smoking, he sup- ported Hunter's amend- ment because prohibiting the sale of a product that is legally purchased by adults "is starting to get a little bit over the line." "There has to be some sort of a balancing of peo- ple's rights, particularly people who are adults and who are serving our coun- try," Courtney said. Six of the congressmen on the committee are from North Carolina, Virginia and Tennessee, among the top tobacco-producing states. North Carolina and Virginia are also home to major Marine Corps and Navy commands. MILITARY Navy considers banning tobacco sales on bases Branch could be first to make move By Manuel Valdes The Associated Press SEATTLE Seattle police say a Seattle Pacific University student on Thursday dis- armed a lone gunman who entered a building and shot three people. A hospital spokeswoman says one man has died and three other people are in- jured, one critically. Police say the student building monitor disarmed the gunman as he was re- loading. Several police offi- cers held the gunman down after he was disarmed. Police say the gunman is under arrest. The Otto Miller building where the af- ternoon shooting took place has been secured. Harborview Medical Cen- ter spokeswoman Susan Gregg says a man in his 20s has died and a critically in- jured 20-year-old woman has been taken to surgery. Gregg says a 24-year-old man and a 22-year-old man are in satisfactory condition. Gregg says the hospital is not expecting any more in- jured people from the shoot- ing. About 4,270 students at- tend the private Christian university, located in a resi- dential neighborhood about 10 minutes from downtown Seattle. Jillian Smith was taking a mathtestonthesecond-floor of Otto Miller Hall when a lockdown was ordered. She heard police yelling and banging on doors in the hallway. The professor locked the classroom door, and the 20 or so students sat on the ground, lining up at the front of the classroom. "We were pretty much freaking out," said Smith, 20, a sophomore. "People were texting family and friends, making sure every- one was OK." Smith said they sat in the classroom for about 45 minutes, before police came and escorted them out of the building. On the way, they passed the lobby where she saw bullet casings and what appeared to be blood in the lobby carpet and splatter on the wall. "Seeing blood made it real," Smith said. "I didn't think something like this would happen at our school," she added. The incident follows a spate of recent shootings on or near college campuses. Last month, according to police, Elliot Rodger killed six people and injured seven before turning his gun on himself in a rampage in Isla Vista, California, near two universities. SCHOOL SHOOTING Police: University staff disarmed gunman JOSHUA TRUJILLO — SEATTLEPI.COM Seattle firefighters remove a victim from the scene of a shooting at Seattle Pacific University on Thursday. 4 shot, 1 man dead By Ben Fox The Associated Press MIAMI President Barack Obama is moving ahead with his push to close the Guanta- namo Bay prison despite the uproar over the exchange of five Taliban prisoners for a captured American soldier, an administration official said Thursday. The government has been working to reduce a back- log of prisoners already ap- proved after a security re- view for transfer to their homeland or repatriation elsewhere, the official told reporters. The official said a "signif- icant number" of prisoners are on their way toward re- lease, but he declined to say precisely how many or when they would leave Guanta- namo. The remarks were made on condition of ano- nymity amid fierce criticism in Congress over the deci- sion to swap the five Tali- ban for Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl. The U.S. holds 149 men at Guantanamo.Mosthavebeen there without charge since the detention center opened in January 2002 to hold pris- oners suspected of links to al- Qaida or the Taliban. Among the total are 78 who have been cleared for transfer to their homeland or repatriation to another coun- try if the U.S. can get re- quired security assurances. Obama came into office pledging to close the deten- tion center within a year but was thwarted by Congress, whichadoptedrestrictionson transfersabroadandabanon transferring prisoners to the United States for any reason. Last year, Congress eased the restrictions on transfers abroad but left in place a 30- day notice requirement that the Obama administration chose to skip in exchange for rescuing Bergdahl from cap- tivity after five years. Several Republicans in Congress are determined to keep Guantanamo open and bar Obama from transfer- ring any prisoners. Sen. Kelly Ayotte, a Re- publican from New Hamp- shire who is a member of the Senate Armed Services Committeeandachiefpropo- nentofkeepingtheprisonop- erational, said the Bergdahl swap represents a "real-case example" that she and other lawmakers can use in argu- ing for tougher restrictions on Guantanamo detainees. She said Bergdahl's case highlights "the risk that we take when we're transfer- ring high-risk detainees to third-party nationals that we can't necessarily account for their security and ability to get back into the fight." 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