La. Rep. Cries During Oil Spill Testimony

Mutant creatures showing up after BP spill, says Al Jazeera English

(NEWSER) - Shrimp missing their eyeballs (and even eye sockets), fish covered in lesions, deformed crabs, and other mutated sea creatures are showing up in unsettling numbers in the Gulf of Mexico two years after the giant BP oil spill, according to an investigation by Al Jazeera English . "The fishermen have never seen anything like this," says one scientist at Louisiana State University. "And in my 20 years working on red snapper, looking at somewhere between 20 and 30,000 fish, I've never seen anything like this, either." More»

Many in Gulf Coast got rich in unsupervised spending frenzy: Pro Publica

(NEWSER) - A Pro Publica investigation introduces a new word in the Gulf Coast lexicon: spillionaire. As in, the nickname given to someone—usually someone politically connected—who raked in a lot of money from BP's unregulated $16 billion cleanup fund for localities. It puts a particular focus on St. Bernard Parish in New Orleans—along with its vocal president, Craig Taffaro—with tidbits like these:

• A subcontractor there charged BP $15,400 a month to rent a generator, about 10 times higher than usual.
• A company partly owned by the sheriff charged BP more than $1 million a month for land that had been renting closer to the $1,700-a-month range.

Meanwhile, Obama administration issues new drilling safety rules

(NEWSER) - Researchers have detected a 40-fold increase in potentially cancer-causing polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons off the coast of Louisiana’s Grande Isle. The study is especially scary because it only measured PAHs that could seep through a biological membrane, the Huffington Post explains. “This is a measure of what would enter into an organism,” says one professor, “and that means they can essentially be uptaken by organisms throughout the food chain.” More»

Residents fear it's related to oil spill, experts not sure

(NEWSER) - Near Louisiana's Plaquemines Parish, there lies what looks like a gravel road. It's not: It's a waterway clogged with hundreds of thousands of dead fish, crabs, stingrays, and eel—so many that it appears solid. A dead whale was also found in the area, WWL-TV reports. "Fish kills" are fairly common along the Gulf Coast, Yahoo! News reports, often caused by sudden oxygen depletion. This one, however, is different: Usually, only one species of marine life is involved. More»

One person injured; no oil leaks seen

(AP) - An offshore oil platform exploded in the Gulf of Mexico about 100 miles off the Louisiana coast today, but this one appears headed toward a better ending than BP's explosion. All 13 people aboard have been rescued—though one is reportedly injured. Earlier reports that the platform was inactive have proved to be inaccurate, but workers may have been able to shut down active wells after the explosion. More»