Local Officials: BP Staged Workers for Obama Visit

When President Obama visited Grand Isle beach in Louisiana yesterday, he was treated to the spectacle of hundreds of workers hired by BP cleaning up the beach. Never had so many been on the job before, and shortly after the president left, they did, too. All of which has some local officials seething and accusing the company of staging a "dog and pony show" for the president, reports CNN.

A Jefferson County councilman used that phrase, explaining that he'd never seen more than 20 workers before at the beach. Adds another: "What we want to make clear (is) if they're going to send them, then send them everyday, not just on the day of the president's visit." BP denies it was a PR stunt, saying it's gradually increasing cleanup forces. "And the fact that they were leaving the location late in the afternoon was not unusual. It's not associated with the president arriving." (More Gulf oil spill stories.)