Here are some of the stories we’ve been following this week.

  • The EB-5 Immigrant Investor Program will end in early December, but lawmakers are working on an extension that will include changes to the popular program.

    Picture taken from a Sûreté du Québec helicopter of Lac-Mégantic, the day of the derailment. [CC BY-SA 1.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

  • Irving Oil, the company responsible for the oil train derailment in Quebec that caused an explosion in Lac Mégantic and killed more than 40 people, will pay $4 million towards fines and implementing new safety standards.
  • A coal ash landfill in Pennsylvania may never receive another shipment of coal ash, thanks to a recent settlement between the site’s owners and environmentalists. The settlement requires the landfill to be repaired and prohibits it from storing any more coal ash for at least another month.
  • Wildfires caused extensive damage throughout California’s Wine Country. However, owners still owe taxes on their properties because state law does not consider land affected by fire as damaged.
  • Residents in Texas whose private wells were flooded during Hurricane Harvey are urged not to use water from the wells for cooking, drinking, or bathing. About 60 percent of the wells in Harris County tested positive for bacteria following the hurricane.
  • More than 40 U.S. military bases across the globe have water contaminated from the use of firefighting foam.
  • The Senate voted earlier this week to make it more difficult for class-action lawsuits to be brought against banks and credit card companies.
  • Norway has the world’s largest sovereign wealth fund, and it had a great third quarter with returns of 3.2 percent.
  • San Francisco is usually the number one city when it comes to raising money for startups. However, New York City recently took over the top spot.