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Archive for the ‘World News’ Category

Elena Kagan has been conformed by the senate as the newest Supreme Court justice, approving President Barack Obama’s second pick as president and making her the fourth woman to serve in the 221-year history of the court.

Senate confirms Elana Kagan 63-37 as Supreme Court Justice.

Kagan, Obama’s solicitor general and the former dean of Harvard Law School, will join the high court after its summer recess ends later this year, replacing retiring Justice John Paul Stevens, 90. As expected, the 63-37 vote confirming Kagan, who also served in the Clinton administration, was largely along party lines, with just five Republicans voting with Democrats to confirm her – and one Democrat, Senator Ben Nelson (D-Neb.), voting no.

Full Story: Politico

The Louisiana Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill is an environmental nightmare of colossal proportion. BP is drilling a “relief well” to divert the oil, but it could take three months to complete. By then, the Exxon Valdez disaster that destroyed Prince William Sound, Alaska in 1989 is expected to pale in comparison to this disaster.

The Coast Guard said the growing slick is 45 miles wide at its broadest point and 100 miles long – about the length of New Jersey’s coastline… Read Full Story

HOUSTON, TX – Offshore injury lawyers, Gordon, Elias and Seely, LLP, have filed a lawsuit on behalf of the family of Karl Kleppinger, Jr, one of the missing 11 men, who to this date has not been found.

Initially, the law firm contemplated filing a possible Temporary Restraining Order (TRO) in the Transocean Deepwater Horizon explosion that took place on April 20, 2010. A TRO is filed for many reasons – one of which would be to preserve evidence or not to cause spoliation of evidence… ... Read Full Story

HOUSTON, TX – Eleven people are still missing after an oil rig explosion on April 20th in The Gulf of Mexico 41 miles off the coast of Louisiana. The families said that they were told by representatives early Friday morning that their loved ones are considered dead.

Transocean Deepwater Horizon sinking into The Gulf Of Mexico on April 22, 2010

Todd Elias, a Houston maritime lawyer, who is representing Tracy Kleppinger, the wife of worker Karl Kleppinger Jr. of Natchez, Miss., said his client was told by rig owner Transocean Ltd. that her husband Karl Kleppinger, Jr is considered deceased. Attorney, Steve Gordon, said the company has sent grievers to be with Tracy Kleppinger.  ... Read Full Story

NEW ORLEANS, LA – The US Coast Guard held a press conference at 3:00 p.m. at Coast Guard 8th District headquarters in the Hale Boggs building in the New Orleans Central Business District to update the status of the oil rig explosion of Deepwater Horizon that took place Tuesday night at 10:00 PM in the Gulf of Mexico 52 miles off the coast of Venice, LA.

An explosion rocked an offshore oil drilling platform, sending a column of fire into the sky and touching off a frantic search at sea for at least 11 originally reported missing. Most of the 126 workers on the rig Deepwater Horizon were believed to have escaped safely after the explosion that happened about 10 p.m. Tuesday, April 20, 2010.

Photo Courtesy: Dan McDonald - Coast Guard vessels try to extinguish the fire on DEEPWATER HORIZON. These pictures are believed to have been taken by a nearby Chevron worker

Rear Adm. Mary Landry, commander of the Coast Guard’s 8th district headquarters; David Hayes, deputy secretary for the U.S. Department of the Interior; Adrian Rose, vice president of Transocean; and David Rainey and vice president of BP were at the conference to answer questions… ... Read Full Story

VENICE, LA – An explosion has occurred on Transocean’s oil rig, “Deepwater Horizon”, in The Gulf of Mexico about 52 miles south of Venice, LA. The explosion, which happened around 10 p.m. Tuesday night, forced all personnel to abandon ship. The USCG is on the scene, along with several other vessels, conducting search patterns for the missing.

Photo taken 10 miles out from the explosion in The Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Venice, LA

Plaquemines Parish President Billy Nungesser in an interview with WDSU.com, said there were 15 people still not accounted for. He said that earlier the Coast Guard located and had a visual contact with one of the rescue capsules off the rig but didn’t know if all of the missing people were on there now… ... Read Full Story

sonia-sotomayor

I am concerned about Sonia Sotomayor being confirmed as the latest supreme court judge. I am not comfortable with her decision in New Haven Connencut that ruled against the firefighters being promoted on merit. That was a bad decision and is being appealed to the Supreme Court. I am also very uncomfortable with her remarks found on the Youtube video where she speaks of policy being made from the bench.

Her latest quote “I would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences would more often than not reach a better conclusion [as a judge] than a white male who hasn’t lived that life.” doesn’t bother me as much. I don’t think she is a racist.

Leading conservative commentators and news outlets have jumped on the 2001 Sonia Sotomayor quote claiming that she has said that Latinas are better than white men. If you read the quote in context, it’s clear that Sotomayor was merely saying that it’s inevitable that a judge’s personal race-based and gender-based experiences will impact judging, particularly in race and sex discrimination cases. As a result, she said, while such formative experiences can be enriching and contribute to wise decisions, a judge should also be aware of them in order to avoid being wholly dominated by them. She vowed “complete vigilance in checking my assumptions, presumptions and perspectives.”… ... Read Full Story

KHARTOUM (Reuters) – Lawyers from the Pentagon’s legal office will meet with families of Sudanese Guantanamo detainees to discuss how they might be released, a Sudanese foreign ministry official said Friday.

The U.S. delegation arrived in the Sudanese capital on Thursday as the diplomatic detente between Khartoum and the new administration in Washington is showing further signs of a thaw. U.S. Senator John Kerry and U.S. Special Envoy Scott Gration have both visited Sudan this month… ... Read Full Story

Reported by The AP Associated Press

UNDERHILL, Vt. – The unassuming ship captain who escaped the clutches of Somali pirates said upon his triumphant arrival home Friday that he was just an ordinary seaman doing his job, not a hero, and he praised the Navy for its daring rescue mission.

“They’re the superheroes,” Richard Phillips said. “They’re the titans. They’re impossible men doing an impossible job, and they did the impossible with me. … They’re at the point of the sword every day, doing an impossible job every day.”… ... Read Full Story

Reorted by AP Associated Press

TEHRAN, Iran – Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said Saturday she is “deeply disappointed” by Iran’s sentencing of an American journalist in closed-door trial.

A lawyer for journalist Roxana Saberi said the 31-year-old dual American-Iranian citizen was convicted of spying and sentenced to eight years in prison.

Clinton said in a statement the U.S. is working with Swiss diplomats in Iran to get details about the court’s decision and to ensure Saberi’s well-being. Clinton said the U.S. will “vigorously raise our concerns” with Tehran. She said Saberi was in Iran to learn more about her cultural heritage.

Saberi, a dual American-Iranian citizen, was arrested in late January and initially accused of working without press credentials. But earlier this month, an Iranian judge leveled a far more serious allegation, charging her with spying for the United States… ... Read Full Story