Disasters

"A series of internal investigations over the past decade warned senior BP managers that the company repeatedly disregarded safety and environmental rules and risked a serious accident if it did not change its ways."

"More than half of the federal judges in districts where the bulk of Gulf oil spill-related lawsuits are pending have financial connections to the oil and gas industry, complicating the task of finding judges without conflicts to hear the cases, an Associated Press analysis of judicial financial disclosure reports shows."

Impacts of the Gulf oil spill on wildlife, beaches, and tourism continue to spread.

"During President Obama's visit to the Louisiana coast, he got an earful from local officials about his six-month moratorium on deep-water drilling in the Gulf of Mexico. Many people -- from work boat captains to offshore caterers -- say shutting down the industry for that long could be a bigger economic blow to the region than the oil spill itself."

Oil spill National Incident Commander Adm. Thad Allen has put out a written directive that news media have "uninhibited access" to spill response operations unless security or safety problems prevent it. It is not clear whether his order will have any impact on BP.

"An Indian court Monday convicted seven former senior employees of Union Carbide's Indian subsidiary of 'death by negligence' for their roles in the Bhopal gas tragedy that left an estimated 15,000 people dead more than a quarter century ago in the world's worst industrial disaster."

"President Barack Obama said Saturday that he will stand with Gulf Coast residents 'until they are made whole' from the oil spill catastrophe."

Jane Lubchenco, the administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), told reporters yesterday that funding cuts in recent years for instrumental ocean observation programs have left scientists trying to track the movement of spilled oil partly in the dark.

"If you happen to be wondering if it's any easier to get access to an oil-befouled public beach/wildlife refuge near Grand Isle, Louisiana, if you're teamed up with a fancypants PBS producer, I scouted out the answer today: No."