BP Will Pay Record Settlement to Louisiana

Posted: November 15, 2012 | Author: | Filed under: Breaking News, Gulf Oil Spill | Tags: , | 29 Comments

The Justice Department has announced a $4.5 billion dollar settlement in the BP oil spill that includes a number of very interesting things. This includes criminal indictments against two BP workers.

Two BP employees have been indicted on manslaughter charges in the 2010 Gulf oil spill disaster.

The federal indictment unsealed Thursday in New Orleans names BP well site leaders Robert Kaluza and Donald Vidrine. The indictment claims they acted negligently in their supervision of key safety tests performed on the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig before an explosion killed 11 workers in April 2010.

The indictment says Kaluza and Vidrine failed to phone engineers onshore to alert them of problems in the drilling operation.

The charges come on the same day that BP announced that it has agreed to pay $4.5 billion in a settlement with the U.S. government to plead guilty to felony counts related to the deaths of 11 workers and lying to Congress.

Also Thursday, BP said it will pay $4.5 billion in a settlement with the U.S. government over the the spill.

BP has also pleaded guilty to other criminal charges.

BP will pay approximately $4.5 billion and plead guilty to criminal charges as part of a settlement with the U.S. government over the deadly Deepwater Horizon rig explosion and massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010, the London-based oil giant said Thursday.

The settlement total, to be paid out over five years, includes $1.25 billion in criminal fines — the largest such penalty ever.

In addition, a BP executive has been indicted on charges he lied to authorities about his work estimating the Gulf spill rate and two BP employees have been indicted on manslaughter charges, The Associated Press reported.

U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder and other federal officials were expected to comment on the wide-ranging settlement later Thursday at a news conference in New Orleans.

BP said it would plead guilty to 11 felony counts of misconduct or neglect relating to the death of 11 workers, one misdemeanor count under the Clean Water Act, one misdemeanor count under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, and one felony count of obstruction of Congress.

This indictment is the one I find most interesting.

Separately, a federal indictment unsealed Thursday charges David Rainey, who was BP’s vice president of exploration for the Gulf of Mexico, on charges of obstruction of Congress and false statements, the AP reported. He is accused of lying to federal investigators when they asked him how he calculated a flow rate estimate for BP’s blown-out well in the days after the disaster.

This obstruction charge has to do with the way they calculated the gusher rate.  This is a separate settlement from the suit settled in March that had to do with individuals impacted by the oil spill. This is a huge settlement.  None of these fines will be tax deductible.

The day of reckoning comes more than two years after the nation’s worst offshore oil spill. The figure includes nearly $1.3 billion in criminal fines – the biggest criminal penalty in U.S. history – along with payments to certain government entities.

“We believe this resolution is in the best interest of BP and its shareholders,” said Carl-Henric Svanberg, BP chairman. “It removes two significant legal risks and allows us to vigorously defend the company against the remaining civil claims.”

The settlement, which is subject to approval by a federal judge, includes payments of nearly $2.4 billion to the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, $350 million to the National Academy of Sciences and about $500 million to the Securities and Exchange Commission. The SEC accused BP of misleading investors by lowballing the amount of crude spewing from the ruptured well.

London-based BP said in a statement that the settlement would not cover any civil penalties the U.S. government might seek under the Clean Water Act and other laws. Nor does it cover billions of dollars in claims brought by states, businesses and individuals, including fishermen, restaurants and property owners.

A federal judge in New Orleans is weighing a separate, proposed $7.8 billion settlement between BP and more than 100,000 businesses and individuals who say they were harmed by the spill.

This settlement ought to go a long way to boost the economy of coastal Louisiana and to restore the ecosystems.  It’s about time.   However, this doesn’t end things.

Stuart Smith, a Louisiana lawyer representing some of the businesses affected by the accident, told the BBC the deal was far from over.

“They have not settled with the state of Louisiana for the natural damages… they haven’t settled with Florida, Alabama [or] Mississippi yet.”

He added that there were other significant claims still to be settled, including offshore oil and gas industry damages as a result of the moratorium on deepwater drilling put in place after the accident, casino losses, fisheries, financial institutions and real estate developers.

“So I think they’re still looking at billions of dollars in exposure even with this settlement,” he said.

I hope the long term effects of the spill continue to siphon money from BP.  We have yet to see the biggest health effects and there are still many issues remaining at the bottom of the gulf impacting our wildlife and the entire set of plants and sealife that support the many many birds, animals, fish and reptiles that call the gulf home.  I still haven’t put a toe in the Gulf and I’m very cautious about eating Gulf Seafood.  This has really changed every one’s life down here and they should pay and pay and pay and pay …

It’s the Granny Starver! Breaking NEWS on Romney VP Pick

Posted: August 10, 2012 | Author: | Filed under: Breaking News, Republican politics, Republican presidential politics | Tags: , , | 29 Comments

Wow! Romney sources are saying that Paul Ryan–champion of mass starvation and homelessness–will be the VP nomination. This ought to put the Senior Citizens vote up for grabs for sure! Ryan is known around these parts as the “granny starver”.

Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), chairman of the House budget committee, knew some Catholics were spoiling for a fight with him Thursday when he was scheduled to speak at Georgetown University, a Catholic institution. Nearly 90 faculty members and administrators sent him a letter expressing concerns with his recent comments that his proposed budget, which includes massive spending cuts to programs for the poor but not a single tax increase, was inspired by his Catholic faith.

“I am afraid that Chairman Ryan’s budget reflects the values of his favorite philosopher Ayn Rand rather than the gospel of Jesus Christ,” said Father Thomas Reese, a fellow at the Woodstock Theological Center at Georgetown, in a press release Tuesday. “Survival of the fittest may be okay for Social Darwinists but not for followers of the gospel of compassion and love.”

The complaints seemed to resonate with Ryan. On Thursday, he went on record denouncing Ayn Rand, who believed altruism is evil, brushing off his well-documented obsession with her as a teenage romance. Ryan told the National Review’s Robert Costa: “I reject her philosophy. It’s an atheist philosophy. It reduces human interactions down to mere contracts and it is antithetical to my worldview. If somebody is going to try to paste a person’s view on epistemology to me, then give me Thomas Aquinas. Don’t give me Ayn Rand.”

During his speech, though, Ryan didn’t back away from any of his budget proposals, which would dramatically reduce the number of people on food stamps and radically scale back Medicaid, the health care program for the poor. Instead, he championed such proposals as a means to liberate the poor. Calling the budget “hardly draconian,” he said:

Our budget builds on the historic welfare reforms of the 1990s—reforms proven to work. We aim to empower state and local governments, communities, and individuals—those closest to the problem. And we aim to promote opportunity and upward mobility by strengthening job training programs, to help those who have fallen on hard times. My mentor, Jack Kemp, used to say, “You can’t help America’s poor by making America poor.”

But Paul, you can making America poorer by creating more poor people.

Romney will announce his pick on Saturday in Virginia. Wow, talk about ‘bold’ move.  Two angular jaws on two boring and stuck up white dudes! Two greased back pompadours!  Two bold followers of cults of deviant personalities!

Ryan is a bold pick who will energize the Republican Party, but putting him on the ticket is fraught with risk and instantly puts Ryan’s budget plan front and center in the 2012 campaign.

Romney will announce his choice in Norfolk on Saturday morning at the beginning of a four-day bus tour through key battleground states, the campaign said Friday night. The Weekly Standard reported earlier Friday that Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker has been asked to be ready to make the case for Ryan beginning Saturday.

Romney’s alliance with the 42-year old Ryan has become the most dramatic development of the 2012 presidential campaign. Romney had been presumed for much of the last few months to be set on a safe pick, such as Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio), or former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty.

But now, Romney, who is 23 years older than Ryan, will signal that he is willing to roll the dice. President Barack Obama’s reelection campaign and Democratic political groups have been eager for Romney to pick Ryan, the architect of plans to slash government spending and overhaul entitlement programs that Democrats believe are political losers.

Just one more reason to note vote for Willard.

Breaking News: “Texas Judge Guts Vote Registration Law”

Posted: August 3, 2012 | Author: | Filed under: Breaking News | Tags: , | 17 Comments

This is via the Houston Chronicle.

A federal judge in Galveston on Thursday partially blocked new Texas registration laws that critics say amount to vote suppression because they prevent large voter registration drives.

U.S. District Judge Gregg Costa blocked the state from enforcing five provisions of the laws that its defenders say are aimed at preventing voter fraud.

“Today’s ruling means that community groups and organizations like Voting for America and Project Vote will be able to run community voter registration drives in Texas,” plaintiff’s attorney Chad Dunn said. “These drives are important to reaching the millions of Texans, including three-quarters of a million African-Americans and 2 million Latinos, who are eligible but still not registered to vote.”

Dunn represents two Galveston County residents and the nonprofit voter registration group Voting for America, an affiliate of the nonpartisan Project Vote based in Washington, D.C.

“They don’t care how you vote as long as you get registered and participate,” Dunn said.

The plaintiffs sued Galveston County Tax Assessor-Collector Cheryl Johnson and Texas Secretary of State Hope Andrade

“It was a scholarly opinion, he obviously put a lot of thought into it, but I am very disappointed by the outcome,” Johnson said. State officials could not be reached for comment.

Costa granted a preliminary injunction on five sections of the law until a trial on whether the entire law violates the plaintiffs’ civil rights and the 1993 National Voter Registration Act.

Key points

Under the ruling, the state may no longer require that deputy voter registrars live in Texas, a law Voting for America said prevented it from organizing voter registration drives.

It also may not prevent deputy registrars from registering voters who live outside their county; prevent organizations from firing or promoting employees based on the number of voters registered; prevent organizations from making photocopies of completed voter registration forms for their records; or prevent deputy registrars from mailing completed applications.

Johnson said allowing groups to copy registration applications could violate privacy rights.

“I intend to start calling state representatives tomorrow to change the content of voter registration applications,” she said. Johnson wants social security numbers, dates of birth and driver’s license numbers removed.

“Is there going to be a huge increase in voter fraud? I hope not,” she said, adding that her office would redouble its scrutiny of completed registration forms.

The plaintiffs had asked Costa to block eight sections of the law enacted in 2011 so that they could register voters before the national election in November. Costa declined to block enforcement of laws that make it a criminal offense for a deputy registrar to submit a partially completed form, a restrictive training requirement, and a requirement that deputy registrars wear an identification badge. He left the legality of those laws to be decided at trial.

Some background and interesting tidbits are available at Think Progress.

Though Costa is a recent Obama appointee, he also served as a law clerk for two unapologetic conservatives: former Supreme Court Chief Justice William Rehnquist and Appeals Court Judge A. Raymond Randolph.

Yesterday’s ruling is a major victory not only for voter groups, but also communities who are disproportionately helped by registration drives, including minorities and poorer citizens.

To learn more about the law’s impact, read ThinkProgress’ on-the-ground coverage from Texas last year

Breaking . . . Mitt Romney Has Scheduled Interviews With Major Networks Today

Posted: July 13, 2012 | Author: | Filed under: 2012 presidential campaign, Breaking News, U.S. Politics | Tags: , , , , | 87 Comments

According to Buzzfeed,

Mitt Romney will sit down for interviews with all of the national networks today, according to a network source.

The source said Romney will sit down with ABC, NBC, and CBS, and will air on the nightly news broadcasts. The interviews will likely not be in person, the source said.

The news was confirmed by a Romney staff member.

Talking Points Memo has more detail:

Mitt Romney, beating back a wave of new reports and political attacks concerning his record at Bain Capital, is making a primetime media blitz Friday. He plans to give interviews to all three major networks, plus two cable networks.

Romney will speak from Laconia, New Hampshire with reporters for CBS, ABC, NBC, Fox News and CNN Friday afternoon, with each segment possibly airing as soon as that night’s broadcast, the Romney campaign confirmed to TPM. Romney has typically been cautious in granting interviews, making his first appearance this election cycle on a non-FOX Sunday show just last month.

No interview for MSNBC. Gee, I wonder why Romney doesn’t want to be questioned by Rachel Maddow?

A little more info from the Caucus Blog:

Mitt Romney will submit to five network and cable television interviews this afternoon after several days of being hammered by President Obama’s campaign on his personal wealth and his time at Bain Capital.

The brief interviews — on CNN, CBS, ABC, Fox and NBC — will give Mr. Romney an opportunity to end the week on message. His campaign has been angrily accusing the president of lying about Mr. Romney’s record.

But it also will provide the networks an opportunity to press Mr. Romney on the accusations from Mr. Obama’s campaign, including questions about the timing of Mr. Romney’s departure from the private equity firm he founded.

This is interesting:

The interviews may in part be designed to bolster the reach of Mr. Romney’s advertising campaign, which has been hampered by a quirk in financing which has temporarily left Mr. Romney without the resources to mount an overwhelming response to the Democratic attacks, according to sources close to the campaign.

Most of the money that Mr. Romney has raised in the last several months can only be used in the general election, which begins after the party’s national convention later this summer, the sources said. The long and contentious Republican primary drained Mr. Romney of much of the money he could spend before then.

See, I told you Obama actually has more money than Romney so far. This makes it sound like Romney is going to try to dance around a little longer and try to pass off some bullsh*t to some weak interviewers. Too bad he doesn’t have to guts to talk to Rachel Maddow or Lawrence O’Brien.

I will continue to update in the comments as I get more information.

Breaking News: SCOTUS Upholds Affordable Care Act…Details Coming

Posted: June 28, 2012 | Author: | Filed under: Barack Obama, Breaking News, Health care reform, U.S. Politics | Tags: , , | 99 Comments

My intuition was correct.   I think Judge Roberts made his choice.   His own reputation and that of the Supreme Court was more important to him than his conservative ideology.

The bottom line is that the majority has voted to uphold the ACA.  The majority opinion was written by Chief Justice John Roberts, who joined the more liberal justices.   I will add details and links as I get them.  Please post anything you hear in comments.

The New York Times says the law has has been basically upheld.  Their live updates are here.

But I’m hearing on MSNBC that the Court said the states can opt out of the program. That could be a serious problem for the law if it affects the size of the population pool. The mandate is “technically unconstitutional,” but the government can penalize people who don’t buy insurance–through the government’s power to tax. However the law doesn’t actually include a penalty.

It sounds like the issue the states can opt out on is the Medicaid expansion. That could be a big problem.

News Links

ABC News: The Mandate Can Stay, Supreme Court Says in Health Care Ruling

Washington Post: Supreme Court Upholds Health Care Law, Mandate

LA Times: Supreme Court Upholds Health Care Law as Tax Measure

CNN International: Where in the world can you get universal health care?

CNN: Supreme Court Upholds Obamacare 5-4

I’ll continue to update in the comments.

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