Monday, March 5, 2012
2.9 quake hits 8 miles north of San Francisco
A magnitude-2.9 earthquake was reported Monday morning about 8 miles northwest of San Francisco, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.
Update at 10:50 a.m. ET: The USGS has now downgraded the quake to a 2.9 magnitude. The initial report was 4.3, which was quickly downgraded to 4.0.
Update at 9:59 a.m. ET: Bay Area Rapid Transit trains are delayed about 10 minutes because tracks had to be inspected, the Associated Press reports.
San Francisco police officer Aldie Esparza says police communications center employees described the quake as a light swaying motion, noting the building is on rollers, the AP reports.
Update at 9:21 a.m. ET: NBC News Bay Area reports an aftershock at 9:03 a.m. ET. NBC also says the Bay Area Rapid Transit system (BART) is reporting no delay, but will run a system check.
Update at 9:12 a.m. ET: A California Highway Patrol dispatcher says the quake was felt throughout San Francisco and as far south as Palo Alto, NBC News Bay Area reports.
The USGS says the quake hit at 8:33 a.m. ET around El Cerrito, Calif., four miles from Berkeley and 10 miles from Oakland.
There were no immediate reports of injury or damage.
In the past 10 days, there have been two earthquakes magnitude-3.0 and greater centered nearby.
Sunday, March 4, 2012
Santorum: I'll beat Romney if Gingrich drops out | Campaign 2012 | Washington Examiner
Rick Santorum indicated that Newt Gingrich should drop out of the presidential race, arguing -- as Gingrich did during his surge -- that splitting the "anti-Romney" vote helped Mitt Romney win the Michigan primary and Washington caucuses and contributes to his overall success so far.
"It's always harder when you've got two conservatives running in the race as we have seen in Washington and we've seen in other states," Santorum said on Fox News Sunday. "We have the anti-Romney vote, if you will. Both Gingrich and I are slugging away."
Santorum stopped short of calling for Gingrich to exit the race, but he noted that their combined support would defeat Romney. "In Michigan, we would have won easily had those two votes been combined," he told Chris Wallace.
He also seems to believe that Gingrich will have to drop out, eventually. "I think Newt has got to figure out, you know, where he goes after Georgia," Santorum said. "And, you know, eventually hopefully the race will settle out and we'll go one on one [with Romney]. And once that happens, we fell very comfortable we're going to win this thing."
Gingrich said after his South Carolina victory that Santorum should drop out before the Florida primary, but Santorum refused and now Gingrich is returning the favor. "I'm taking Rick Santorum's advice," Gingrich told CNN's Candy Crowley this morning. "He stayed in, he was running fourth in every single primary, suddenly he very cleverly went to three states nobody else went to, and he became the media darling and bounced back."