(MONTGOMERY)— Alabama Attorney General Troy King traveled to Jackson, Mississippi, yesterday for a meeting of the Gulf Coast States Attorneys General with Mr. Jack Lynch, Senior General Counsel for the United States for British Petroleum.
NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana, May 10, 2010 (ENS) - The Deepwater Horizon oil spill is keeping lawyers busy. At least half a dozen class action lawsuits have been filed on behalf of fishermen, shrimpers, restaurant owners, real estate brokers, property owners, and other Gulf coast residents affected by the oil a day flowing for the past two weeks from the wellhead left uncapped by the explosion and sinking of the oil rig Deepwater Horizon in April.
The defendants in all these lawsuits include various divisions of oil giant BP, formerly British Petroleum, which is considered the responsible party in this incident; Transocean, Ltd., the owners/operators of the Deepwater Horizon; Halliburton Energy, which was involved in "cementing" operations to cap the oil rig when the explosion occurred; and Cameron International Corporation, manufacturers of the rig's blow-out-preventers, which failed to operate properly and prevent the oil spill.
BP will not be happy with Mike Mason. Mason is a 27 year oil industry veteran who worked on oil rigs at BP facilities on the North Slope of Alaska. He knows the ins and outs of blowout preventers. And he says that cheating on tests for blowout preventers is widespread in the industry. He says he's witnessed BP cheating on such tests in the North Slope. 
On January 21, 2005, Corporate Crime Reporter ran an article detailing Mason's allegations of BP's cheating on blowout preventer tests. At the time, Mason was working for Nabors Alaska Drilling Inc. - a BP contractor on the North Slope. Mason witnessed two blowouts of BP wells on the North Slope in 2003 - one on July 3 and one on December 6.
BRETON ISLAND, La. - As the oil spill from the Deepwater Horizon spreads across the Gulf of Mexico, environmentalists and government officials have been working frantically to protect shoreline habitat like this island in the Breton National Wildlife Refuge, eight miles off the coast of Louisiana.
Experts say the spill could have devastating effects on wildlife of all sizes offshore. Some shoals where female blue crabs leave their eggs are already covered in oil, a Tulane professor said.
The recall includes certain liquid infant's and children's Tylenol, Motrin, Zyrtec, and Benedryl products made by McNeil Consumer Healthcare and distributed in the United States, Canada, Dominican Republic, Dubai (UAE), Fiji, Guam, Guatemala, Jamaica, Puerto Rico, Panama, Trinidad & Tobago, and Kuwait. A full list of recalled products with lot numbers is available on the FDA website.
Drill, baby, drill is turning into sue, baby, sue. Class-action lawsuits against operators of the exploded Gulf of Mexico oil rig multiplied Friday as the oil began washing onto Louisiana shores. Commercial fisherman, shrimpers, charter-boat operators and beachfront property owners began signing up as plaintiffs in at least 18 proposed suits already filed in courthouses from Texas to Florida. More court actions were expected.
The massive gush of oil spilling from the site of the rig that exploded last week exceeds the worst-case scenario predicted by oil giant BP when it filed its exploration plan with the government. The scale of the disaster is also having political repercussions, putting lawmakers who support offshore drilling on the defensive.
Yesterday, the estimated size of the spill quintupled to over 210,000 gallons a day. In BP's exploration plan, which allowed it to avoid filing a more detailed site-specific plan, the company outlined a worst-case scenario of 162,000 gallons a day.
Oil from a massive spill in the Gulf of Mexico was starting to ooze ashore, threatening migrating birds, nesting pelicans, river otters and mink along Louisiana's fragile islands and barrier marshes.
Crews in boats were patrolling coastal marshes early Friday looking for areas where the oil has flowed in, the Coast Guard said. Storms loomed that could push tide waters higher than normal through the weekend, the National Weather Service warned.
A top adviser to President Barack Obama said Friday that no new oil drilling would be authorized until authorities learn what caused the explosion of the rig Deepwater Horizon. David Axelrod told ABC's "Good Morning America" that "no additional drilling has been authorized and none will until we find out what has happened here." Obama recently lifted a drilling moratorium for many offshore areas, including the Atlantic and Gulf areas.
