A Texas oil company is indicted over a Southern California oil spill

Associated Press / National Public Radio

A Houston-based oil company and two subsidiaries were indicted Wednesday for a crude spill that fouled Southern California waters and beaches in October.  Prosecutors say the disaster was caused in part by failures to act appropriately when alarms repeatedly alerted workers to a pipeline rupture.  Amplify Energy Corp. and its companies that operate several oil rigs and a pipeline off Long Beach were charged by a federal grand jury with a single misdemeanor count of illegally discharging oil.