Briefs

Almost a thousand people have sought treatment near Chevron’s Richmond refinery in northern California after a fire at the plant sent large plumes of smoke billowing over the area. Residents flocked to area medical centers with minor complaints, such as respiratory problems and eye irritations, after the blaze broke out on Aug. 6 at the 240,000-barrel-a-day refinery. Chevron has established a compensation fund to reimburse the medical expenses. It contained the fire in several hours but has struggled to get the refinery back in full operation. The fire and outage sent California spot gasoline prices spiking in the largest single-day increase since at least November 2007.

Chief executives of the top five U.S. military contractors earned a combined $107 million last year, 43 percent more than chiefs at the five biggest U.S. banks. (That’s a reversal from 2007, when defense execs got $97 million, 41 percent less than the bankers.) The defense chiefs probably won’t see their pay slide sharply even if the U.S. trims military spending, says Paul Dorf, managing director of Compensation Resources. Despite concerns about automatic budget cuts, he says, their companies have continued to generate investor returns.