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 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

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…

Since an ongoing investigation of great magnitude is already being conducted by The Coast Guard and the Minerals Management Service on possible causes of the explosion, the law firm of Gordon, Elias & Seely, LLP, state that it is foolish to either stop or interfere in this ongoing investigation and filing a TRO would only be done for sensationalism.

Men suffered great fear and mental anguish

So far, based upon the investigation of Gordon, Elias & Seely, LLP, they have determined that there were a series of explosions prior to the main explosion. This means that the people that may have died in the main explosion suffered great, great fear and mental anguish. This further means that the families of these great workers that gave their lives to Transocean have a very large monetary Jones Act claim for what is called conscious pain and suffering. These are very important facts that apparently have been attempted to be suppressed by Transocean and British Petroleum (BP) that will be revealed in the Coast Guard investigation.

Workers are remembered

At 11 am, April, 26,2010, the rigs in the Gulf ceased work, heads bowed, and the whistles blew in remembrance of those who worked on the rig.

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. 

“Right now we’re trying to find anybody who has any information, anybody who might have seen him and what happened,” said R. Todd Elias, the family’s attorney. “The family would like to have some information about what happened to him, and so far Transocean isn’t telling us anything. They just tell us they don’t know.”

In response, the law firm of Gordon, Elias and Seely LLP., has filed a wrongful death lawsuit Friday afternoon in Harris County, Texas, against Transocean and BP, which leased the rig.

Carolyn Kemp, the grandmother of missing worker Wyatt Kemp of Jonesville, La., also said today that Kemp’s family had been informed that he was dead.

At a news conference Friday afternoon, a vice president of Transocean, Adrian Rose, confirmed that the company has been calling next of kin but denied that loved ones have been told the workers are deceased.

“We can’t be definitive yet, not until search and rescue efforts are completed,” Rose said.

The U.S. Coast Guard said Friday it has suspended the active search for 11 missing crew members of the Transocean Ltd.

None of the 11 missing crew have been found and remain missing to this date.

On April 22, 2010, the Deepwater Horizon sank to the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico

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…

Unfortunately there is no news on the whereabouts of the missing workers.

“We have no idea where the 11 unaccounted-for personnel are,” Landry said.

This is not the news that the families, who are anxiously awaiting news of their missing loved ones, wanted to hear.

The Coast Guard was notified of the fire at 10 p.m and told that platform workers were evacuating, she said.

There were 126 people on the unit, 11 of whom are still unaccounted for. The case is “an ongoing rescue case,” Landry said.

Rose said the cause of the accident is still unknown.

There were six BP workers on the rig at the time of the accident and 29 Transocean. The rest were “third-party personnel,” Rose said. Three of the injured workers are critical, he said.

He said Transocean is “deeply saddened” by the event. He gave the family response-team number for families of workers on the rig: 832.587.5110.

Rainey said BP’s primary focus for now is supporting the Coast Guard’s rescue effort and provide support for the injured.

Rainey said any pollution is minor at this time.

MAP

Deputy Interior Secretary Hayes said Interior has set up a command center here to respond to the accident.

“Continuing the search and rescue mission” is the primary focus now, Hayes said.

An oil-spill response team has also been set up, he said.

Adm. Landry said the search and rescue will continue through the night if necessary and the Coast Guard has the equipment it needs to search during dark or foggy conditions.

Conditions for search-and-rescue are good, Landry said. Most of the spilled fuel is burning off and is still burning as of 3 p.m.

Platform crews are still on their way in to shore and have not been interviewed about the incident, one of the company officials said.

Adm. Landry said “tremendous resources” can be brought to bear in response to this accident.

Nola.com contributed to this story.

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…

There were a total of 126 workers with 15 still unaccounted for. Four were airlifted to the Belle Chasse Naval Air Station. Two of the four have been released and two others remain there in critical condition, Nungesser reported.

Seven workers were reported critically injured. In a statement from the Coast Guard, “Three were met by ambulance at Coast Guard Air Station New Orleans; two were medevaced to West Jefferson hospital in New Orleans, LA. by air ambulance and two were flown to Mobile Trauma Center in Mobile, Ala.”

Two of the rescue boats that turned up on the scene had medical facilities on the boats. These are research vessels and they were able to treat some of the minor injuries on the scene offshore as the workers were rescued out of the water.

MAP

The platform, which remains on fire, is a large drilling rig. It’s one of the large floaters in the deep waters so it’s a massive facility and it is leaning very badly to one side. The coast guard commander told Nungesser that there was a good chance it would roll over later on in the day.

“It’s burning pretty good and there’s no estimate on when the fire will be put out,” Coast guard commander O’Berry said.

There are four fire vessels fighting the flames on the scene.

The company said its emergency and family response teams are working with the Coast Guard and lease operator BP Exploration & Production in a coordinated effort. The names and hometowns of injured persons are being withheld until family members can be notified.

Transocean is the world’s largest offshore drilling contractor and the leading provider of drilling management services worldwide.

The rig named “Deepwater Horizon” is operated by Transocean, which is the world’s largest offshore drilling contractor.

WDSU.com contributed to this 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.”…

Rush Limbaugh, in an apparent reaction to the quote, said that Sotomayor is a “reverse racist” who “has put down white men in favor of Latina women.” Fox News’ Megyn Kelly said it shows Sotomayor thinks “that Latina judges are obviously better than white male judges.”

Michelle Malkin, meanwhile, said it shows that Sotomayor wants her personal experiences to “cloud her jurisprudence.”

“I can and do aspire to be greater than the sum total of my experiences, but I accept my limitations,” she said — the opposite of what critics claim she said. This quote is from a socialist. So if you beleive your future is determined by the friends you keep, then we should have something to worry about.

Obama has stated that he is looking to appoint a judge with empathy. When was that ever a requirement in determining consitiutional law. The constitution is what it it. It is not a living document that should be activated and changed from the bench.

I predict that Sonia Sotomayor will be confirmed. The democrats outweigh the Repubicans on this one.

If you need to find a lawyer, visit our attorneys directory.

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…

“They are here to collect information for their (the prisoners’) civil defense to facilitate their release,” said Mohammed Omar, who heads the consulates and expatriates section at the foreign ministry.

“They will also meet concerned Sudanese parties from the interior and justice ministries as well as the security and intelligence apparatus and a representative from the lawyers’ syndicate,” Omar told Reuters.

Omar said the delegation would remain in Sudan until Wednesday. U.S. embassy officials in Khartoum have declined to comment on the visit.

Since taking office in January, U.S. President Barack Obama has ordered the closing down of the prison camp at the Guantanamo military base in Cuba.

Washington has had tense relations with the Islamist government of Omar Hassan al-Bashir, who came to power in Africa’s largest country in a 1989 coup.

The United States imposed economic sanctions on Sudan in 1997 and labeled it a “state sponsor of terrorism.”

Ties were strained further by the conflict in Darfur, which both Obama and his predecessor George W. Bush have called genocide, a description Sudan’s government rejects.

Bashir has however struck a more conciliatory tone in his recent comments on the United States. Obama has said the United States will seek a way to restart talks between rebels in Darfur and the Khartoum government.

(Reporting by Yara Bayoumy; Editing by Giles Elgood)

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.”…

Phillips was saved on Easter Sunday, when Navy snipers killed three pirates with three simultaneous nighttime gunshots.

“I’m not a hero, the military is,” he said, appearing healthy and invigorated at a brief airport news conference shortly after his arrival.

Phillips’ wife, Andrea, and their adult children, Daniel and Mariah, went on board the corporate jet to greet him at the Burlington airport. Phillips, wearing a cap from the USS Bainbridge destroyer, which rescued him, waved to a small, cheering crowd and hugged his daughter as he walked inside a building for a private reunion.

He later emerged to praise his fellow crew members of the Maersk Alabama cargo ship.

“We did it,” he said. “We did what we were trained to do.”

When Phillips was rescued, his arms were bound. On Friday, abrasions and scabs could be seen on the insides of his forearms. Asked what the high-seas hostage experience was like, he said: “Indescribable, indescribable.”

The captain, who spoke for just a couple of minutes, was to be feted later at his home in nearby Underhill with his favorite beer and a homemade meal.

Police escort
After his airport appearance, Phillips, 53, was driven home in a dark sport utility vehicle, a Vermont State Police cruiser leading the way into the small rural community where he lives, past freshly tilled farm fields, a pen with spring lambs in it and clusters of neighbors who came out of their houses to wave as he passed.

He doffed the baseball cap and waved it out the window as he passed Chamberlin’s Garden & Farm Market, where four cars sat idling, their drivers honking their horns.

Arriving at his small white farmhouse, he found it festooned with ribbons, “Welcome Home” balloons and signs, with a flag-waving contingent of about 25 people standing on the other side of the road, cheering.

“To be able to come home, safe and sound, from such a harrowing experience … oh, how Andrea’s heart must be filled with joy right now,” said Kathy Wright, of neighboring Jericho, a friend who waved red, white and blue pompoms when Phillips’ vehicle pulled into the driveway.

There was no immediate plan for a parade or public celebration, owing to the family’s status as somewhat reluctant celebrities.

“We’re respecting the family’s wishes and waiting to see what they’d like to do,” said Kari Papelbon, the town’s zoning administrator.

Yellow ribbons of hope
But all around town, the yellow ribbons that came to symbolize Underhill’s hope during the five days of Phillips’ captivity fluttered in a spring breeze, with lots of late additions as his arrival drew near.

There was a “Welcome Home Captain” sign in front of the Stitch In Time yarn shop, a “Welcome Home Captain Phillips” sign in front of Browns River Middle School and a “Welcome Home Captain Phillips” tar paper sign affixed to a red barn across the street from the family’s home.

Just as telling were a pair of posterboard signs on the fence in front of Phillips’ home.

“Thank You for Your Prayers,” said one.

“Please Give Us Some Time as a Family,” said another, a polite message to members of the media and anyone else hoping to get close.

Police also had kept people away from the airport. Still, two women inspired by the bravery of Phillips, who gave himself to the pirates as a hostage to save his Maersk Alabama crew, sat in the airport’s parking lot with a sign to welcome him home: “You’re a good man, Captain Phillips,” it read.

‘He’s a good man’
“We’re so, so proud of him,” said Lynn Coeby, of Ripton, alongside her mother, Eleanor Coeby. “We think that he has such character and morals and ethics to potentially put his life at risk for his crew, and we wanted to be here to say we think he’s a good man.”

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…

She appeared before an Iranian court behind closed doors on Monday in an unusually swift one-day trial. The Fargo, North Dakota, native had been living in Iran for six years and had worked as a freelance reporter for several news organizations including National Public Radio and the British Broadcasting Corp.

“Saberi has been sentenced to eight years in jail. I’ll definitely appeal the verdict,” lawyer Abdolsamad Khorramshahi told The Associated Press.

The United States has called the charges against Saberi baseless and has demanded her release, and the conviction and prison sentence could put strains on efforts to improve ties.

President Barack Obama has said it wants to engage Iran in talks on its nuclear program and other issues — a departure from the tough talk of the Bush administration.

Iran has been mostly lukewarm to the idea, but on Thursday Iran’s hard-line president gave the clearest signal yet that the Islamic Republic was also willing to start a new relationship with Washington.

U.S.: Jailing not helpful
In a speech Wednesday, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Iran was preparing new proposals aimed at breaking an impasse with the West over its nuclear program.

But it was uncertain how Washington would react to Saberi’s conviction. On Thursday, the State Department said Saberi’s jailing was not helpful and that Iran would gain U.S. good will if it “responded in a positive way” to the case.

The United States severed diplomatic relations with Iran after its 1979 Islamic revolution and takeover of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran.

Human rights groups have repeatedly criticized Iran for arresting journalists and suppressing freedom of speech. The government has arrested several Iranian-Americans in the past few years, citing alleged attempts to overthrow its Islamic government through what it calls a “soft revolution.” But they were never put on trial and were eventually released from prison.

Iran has released few details about the charges against Saberi. Iranian officials initially said she had been arrested for working in the Islamic Republic without press credentials and she had told her father in a phone conversation that she was arrested after buying a bottle of wine.

An Iranian investigative judge involved in the case charged that Saberi was passing classified information to U.S. intelligence services.

Her parents, who traveled to Iran from their home in Fargo in a bid to help win their daughter’s release, could not immediately be reached for comment on Saturday.