Gulf oil spill

From CNN: In the weeks since an oil rig exploded and later sank into the Gulf of Mexico, President Obama has dealt with the tragedy with his signature cool, calm and collected approach.

From the Chicago Sun-Times: The Rev. Jesse Jackson says the Gulf Coast oil spill is a result of the federal government’s weak enforcement of the nation’s environmental laws.

METAIRIE, La. — BP used giant shears to slice off a pipe Thursday in the company’s latest bid to contain the Gulf of Mexico oil, but the cut was irregular and placing a cap over the gusher will now be more challenging, Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen said.

PENSACOLA, Florida — BP’s top executive acknowledged Thursday the global oil giant was unprepared to fight a catastrophic deepwater oil spill as engineers were forced yet again to reconfigure plans for executing their latest gambit to control the blown-out oil well in the Gulf of Mexico.

PORT FOURCHON, La. — The BP oil slick drifted within striking distance of the Florida Panhandle’s white sand beaches for the first time, raising the stakes another notch as submersible robots made another risky attempt to control the underwater Gulf of Mexico gusher.

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama gave the leaders of an independent commission investigating the Gulf oil spill marching orders Tuesday to thoroughly examine the disaster and its causes to ensure that the nation never faces such a catastrophe again. He said if any laws were broken, people will be prosecuted.

PORT FOURCHON, Louisiana— With the ambitious “top kill” having failed to stop a massive oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico over the weekend and a relief well at least two months away, BP was ramping up its efforts to clean up the Louisiana coast.

NEW ORLEANS — The best hope for stopping the flow of oil from the blown-out well at the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico has been compared to hitting a target the size of a dinner plate more than two miles into the earth, and is anything but a sure bet on the first attempt.

COVINGTON, Louisiana — A risky procedure is failing to stop the oil spewing into the Gulf of Mexico, and BP said Saturday it is considering scrapping it in favor of yet another method to contain the worst oil spill in U.S. history.

From Yahoo News: Perhaps you saw news footage of President Obama in Grand Isle, La., on Friday and thought things didn’t look all that bad. Well, there may have been a reason for that: The town was evidently swarmed by an army of temp workers to spruce it up for the president and the national […]

GRAND ISLE, Louisiana — President Barack Obama personally confronted the spreading damage wrought by the crude gushing into the Gulf of Mexico and the bitter anger that’s rising onshore, meeting with local officials and kneeling to pick up tar balls on an oil-fouled beach.

NEW ORLEANS — Intent on showing firm command of the deepening crisis in the Gulf of Mexico, President Barack Obama flew to coastal Louisiana Friday for his second in-person update on the country’s most devastating oil spill.