In this Times-Picayune interactive graphic chronicling the first 100 days of the disaster, Ryan Smith and Dan Swenson bring together many of those threads, presenting the story of what happened day by day. It maps the spread of oil on the surface of the Gulf, fishing restrictions, and the areas of shoreline that have been affected. It also points up BP's various efforts to cap the Macondo well.
Incorporated in the graphic are video vignette of the stories of six people deeply affected by the oil spill:
Pam Patrick, a Bucktown seafood vendor who asks, "How much more can we get knocked down?" Thomas "Uptown T" Stewart, an Uptown oyster shucker who boasts of his "tasty oysters, but they are from Florida at the moment." Mari Darr~Welch, a beach portrait photographer whose summer business is a quarter of what she would have expected without the spill. Nick Collins, a fourth-generation oyster harvester from Golden Meadow facing "grim realities." Chief Albert Naquin, leader of the Biloxi-Chitimacha community on Isle de Jean Charles, whose fears have not been realized. Kevin Vanderbrook a recreational fisher from Covington who finds renewal on the water.
From Kristen Psaki of Huffpo, a post about how BP and - probably with the blessing of the freaking U.S. Government - is getting ready to screw Louisiana AGAIN. Here is an excerpt from the above link:
Unfortunately, the meeting unexpectedly turned into a "listening session" describes (Craig)Taffaro, "Here we are thinking we're going to a meeting to discuss post-capping activities, and we're handed a plan before there's even a discussion. It just sort of illustrated the very source of our frustration."
Jittery local officials are trying to stop BP PLC from removing some of the equipment and workers the company deployed along the Gulf Coast to cope with the Deepwater Horizon oil spill as it prepares to start sealing its damaged oil well for good on Tuesday.
Though the leak was stopped after the well was capped temporarily in mid-July, elected officials in several Louisiana parishes say manpower and equipment must remain there because the true scope of the disaster is still not understood.
Also because we are in the HEART of hurricane season. The damn well hasn't even been permanently capped yet and the relief well hasn't been completed due to trash in the line (I'm no engineer, the words are mine). We don't know what could happen because THIS DISASTROPHE IS NOT OVER, Y'ALL!!
More from the Kristen Psaki of Huffpo Has the oil disappeared? Or, do we need to be asking a few different questions: Why are parish presidents and affected community members easily able to spot oil slick and sheen? What is the process for cleaning up the millions of gallons of subsurface oil that now seems to be out-of-sight and out-of-mind?
Good questions, Kristen. Keep at this, we need you here, because without reporters like you, we'd be screwed due to the depth of the federal gov't involvement in this disastrophe.
US lawyers say tens of thousands of affected people in the Gulf, particularly those in the fishing and tourism industries, are weeks away from bankruptcy.
BP will begin its legal offensive this month to cap its liabilities from the Gulf of Mexico disaster by offering those affected one-off compensation payouts in return for them waiving the right to sue. Lump-sum compensation offered in return for waiving the right to sue, but uncertainty remains for those indirectly affected.
The Senate is expected to consider its own version of energy legislation next week, before senators leave for their August recess. But even if that measure is approved, House and Senate negotiators would need to reconcile differences between the two bills.
Now…in most investigations, back even in the Watergate days, people said, “follow the money.” And that’s correct. In this case, you’ve got to follow the money. Who saves money by using these toxic dispersants? Well, it’s BP.
But then the next question—I’ve only seen one article that describes it—who owns BP? And I think when you look and see who owns BP, you find that it’s the majority ownership, a billion shares, is a company called BlackRock that was created, owned and run by a gentleman named Larry Fink. And Vanity Fair just did recently an article about Mr. Fink and his connections with Mr. Geithner, Mr. Summers and others in the administration. So I think what’s needed, we now know that there’s a cover-up.
Dispersants are being used. Congress, at least three Congress folks—Congressman Markey, Congressman Nadler and Senator Mikulski—are on the case. And I think the media now has to follow the money, just as they did in Watergate, and tell the American people who’s getting money for poisoning the millions of people in the Gulf.
Now let’s connect the dots. The Obama administration owes Larry Fink bigtime for his central role in keeping the U.S. economy from completely crashing. The corporation owned by Larry Fink, Blackrock has been the recipient of millions (billions?) in government contracts. BlackRock also owns a majority–one billion shares–of BP Therefore Larry Fink has a powerful economic motivation to keep the full horror of what BP has done to the Gulf of Mexico hidden from the American public.
Now I have no idea if President Obama is aware of all this or not. I think this situation strongly suggests that Tim Geither has even more influence in the administration than anyone has previously thought. Kaufman mentioned in the Democracy Now interview that Larry Summers is also close to Larry Fink. Apparently the two became friends when Summers was working in hedge funds. (Oh, and BTW, 49% of BlackRock is owned by Bank of America.
24 hours before the mainstream talking heads of all political stripes were declaring that only one barrel of oil had been skimmed from the Gulf on Tuesday, so it looked pretty much as if the crisis were over.
On the 100th day after the Deepwater Horizon explosion, the people of Grand Island are angry. At least, the two dozen who showed up to a meeting with the local BP representative on Thursday night are angry. Voices were raised, and one woman cried. "People are scared," said Mayor David Camardelle. "They think BP is going to pull out. They don't know how they are going to pay the rent." Residents spent an hour sharing a spectrum of worries while sitting in rows of hard purple chairs under the fluorescent lights of the community center. They said that they are getting sick, that they aren't being hired to do the work, and that BP is spraying dispersant every night -- but all that does is sink the oil, so they will keep having to deal with it. Karen Hopkins, who runs the office at the currently-nonoperational Dean Blanchard Seafood and dock, said that her reimbursement check got dramatically reduced the day after an interview that she gave aired on CBS. Blanchard himself stood up and shouted that his dock wasn't being used for any cleanup efforts, when usually at this time of year it is a hub for fishermen.
At the front of the room, BP representative Jason French sat wearing a blue shirt and an impassive expression, taking the heat and occasionally addressing issues. "I can promise you that your checks weren't cut because you gave an interview," he said to Hopkins -- adding that anyone, including contracted cleanup workers, is free to speak to the media. Perhaps her paperwork had been re-evaluated, he said. Perhaps a mistake had been made. He would look into it.
Residents' anger shows up in dozens of signs posted along the islands single main road. "BP, we want our beach back," says one on handpainted plywood. Another, professionally printed on yellow plastic, reads, "Cannot fish or swim. How the hell are we supposed to feed our kids now?"
In the video below, Dean Blanchard is the cajun who does all the speaking from the audience. The man has lost $15 million dollars of business in Grand Isle and now can't pay his bills because of BP's ineptitude and the fact that they are hiring ousiders to do the cleanup and even bringing in their own fuel to sell to the boats cleaning up.
The frustration and pain in Blanchard's voice towards the end of the clip is very moving. ""
