Word: branches
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...other banks give toasters and electric blankets to their customers. Carl Cochran got something better. Two months ago, a local branch of the Bank of America credited the San Francisco freelance writer with more than $4,000 in an account that, he jokes, usually has a balance of "about $6.15." Cochran claims he informed a teller of the mistake, but the bank insisted the amount was correct. Exasperated, Cochran withdrew the funds and notified bank officials that he was holding their money hostage...
...California, 22% of the state's 3,857 county libraries have closed down, and in the past year several thousand library staffers have been sent packing. In Hartford, Conn., funds are so short that since 1968 the nine-branch public library has not been able to count and check the half-million books that are supposed to be in its collection. In Fitchburg, Mass., library officials believe they could halt the loss of $8,000 worth of unreturned and stolen books each year by installing a $20,000 electronic detection system. The system would thus earn back its cost...
...staff seemed unable to gather basic information on dumpsites, sample hazardous materials, or even follow elementary safety precautions; several staff members were injured and hospitalized because of poor sampling methods. To make matters worse, "material documenting hazardous conditions at waste facilities have been sitting in files for years," says branch chief Kaufman. "It would look very bad for these officials if they came to light now," he adds...
...step on the sensitive toes of its regional offices, top administrators have quietly suspended all action on chemical dumps despite evidence that 90 per cent of the nation's 50,000 hazardous waste desposal sites are leaking. "Because of pressure from the White House to fight inflation," EPA branch chief William Sanjour reports, "we were directed to avoid regulating hazardous waste from the oil and gas industry, electric power companies, and other large industries. We were told to do things which we knew were not right. We were required to write public documents which we knew were misleading...
...twisting has turned the EPA's regulatory efforts into, as one congressman put it, "a complete joke." Top agency officials have exempted from regulation more than half of all hazardous wastes--some tens of thousands of substances known to cause birth defects, mutations, radiation poisoning and infectious diseases. Branch chief Sanjour observes, "Whereas previously these wastes may have been disposed of inadequately and secretly, they can soon (thanks to a clean bill of health from EPA) be disposed of inadequately and openly." He concludes, "The actions taken by EPA are, quite simply, illegal...