AOL News has a new home! The Huffington Post.
Click here to visit the new home of Politics Daily!Hot on HuffPost:
See More Stories
Executive Behind Lavish Conference Leaves Agency
Walker Recall Effort Struggles To Gain Momentum
Billy Nungesser
Six Things You Probably Didn't Know About the Oil Spill
By Laura Parker - AOL NewsWASHINGTON -- Of the tens of thousands of people who worked to clean up the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, many had competing loyalties and agendas. Unified, they were not. Complicating matters, local, state and federal officials felt enormous pressure to avoid being seen as in cahoots with BP. Because the federal government's response was slow off the mark, President Barack Obama got much of the blame. In the Oil Spill Commission's final report, the following excerpts from "Chapter Five: Response and Containment," give a first look at some of what went on behind the scenes: 1. The Myth of ...
4 Most Glaring Errors Cited by Obama's Oil Spill Panel
By Laura Parker - AOL News
(Oct. 7) -- Scientists describe the official response to BP's Gulf of Mexico oil disaster as a giant science experiment carried out in real time since it was the first in U.S. history involving a deep-water oil rig. Yet the preliminary assessment released this week by the Oil Spill Commission, which was appointed by President Barack Obama back in May, does not look kindly upon the makeshift efforts of government officials or the U.S. Coast Guard. In response, the Obama administration defended itself for having "significantly mitigated the impact of the spill" by using all available ...
Massive Fish Kill Hits Mississippi River Near Oil Spill [VIDEO]
By David Knowles - AOL News(Sept. 14) -- The river looked like a road paved with dead fish. Local residents spotted hundreds of thousands of dead fish floating atop the Mississippi River late Friday evening near Bayou Chaland in Plaquemines Parish, La., just north of the Gulf of Mexico, a spot that has been affected by the BP oil spill, the Times Picayune reported. Local authorities have asked the Environmental Protection Agency and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to help investigate the cause of the fish kill, which included several different fish species, as well as crabs, shrimp, freshwater eel ...
Gulf Pol Rages Away as BP Swaps in Junior Spill Boss
By Laura Parker - AOL News(Aug. 7) -- "I'm trying to be nice and stay off TV. That's what they want," said the man who spent weeks tethered to Anderson Cooper, ranting on CNN with equal rancor about government indifference and BP arrogance. Yet for Plaquemines Parish president Billy Nungesser, lowering his profile has proved impossible. A few days ago, there he was on ABC, accusing BP of a "lying," "covering up" and "underplaying" the extent of the damage it has done. "It's Plaquemines Parish against the world," he told AOL News. Since BP's Deepwater Horizon rig blew up April 20, Nungesser, 51, with his ample girth ...
Tests on New Gulf Oil Well Cap Delayed
By Lauren Frayer - AOL News(July 13) -- A new cap affixed to its blown-out well, BP started running tests today to see whether it can halt the flow of America's worst-ever oil spill for the first time since the disaster began off Louisiana's coast 84 days ago. But the British oil giant then delayed the tests after government officials said more analysis was required on the strategy, according to The Associated Press. The tests involve slowly shutting three giant valves on the cap, an 18-foot-high, 150,000-pound stack of metal pipes and valves lowered into place Monday. No pressure test results were in yet, but readings ...
Ivor van Heerden, the Controversial Cassandra of the Gulf
By Ben Sandmel - Politics DailyLIVINGSTON, Louisiana -- Dr. Ivor van Heerden, the former deputy director of Louisiana State University's Hurricane Center, was one of several experts to presciently predict the disastrous consequences -- including catastrophic levee failure -- if a major hurricane were to hit the New Orleans area. "Louisiana is a terminally ill patient requiring major surgery," van Heerden told the PBS program "Nova" in 2004. In the course of encouraging transformative hurricane preparation, van Heerden additionally called for the restoration of Louisiana's coastal wetlands. Decades of erosion due to oil ...
Nungesser, La. Pols 'Cozy' With Big Oil Before BP Spill
By Andrea Stone - AOL News(June 18) -- Billy Nungesser may have emerged as the media star of the BP oil spill disaster, but the Plaquemines Parish president, like nearly every other Louisiana elected official, has been a friend to the oil and gas industry. Though he is the most-well-known face of Gulf Coast residents angry that the busted well is still spewing oil nearly two months after the Deepwater Horizon rig exploded, the national media's go-to guy will potentially profit from the disaster. The New Orleans Times-Picayune reported that Nungesser, who has been touted as a possible lieutenant governor candidate, ...
Louisiana Gets OK to Build Sand Berms to Protect Marshes From Oil
By Ben Sandmel - Politics DailyNEW ORLEANS, La. -- Louisiana officials reached a major milestone midweek when the federal government approved construction of six sand berms to keep BP's oil spill from reaching precious coastal marshes. For weeks, an increasingly anxious Gov. Bobby Jindal and Plaquemines Parish President Billy Nungesser pushed to start building the berms while the federal government studied the plan. On Wednesday, Jindal thanked President Barack Obama, albeit begrudgingly. "We would have preferred it came through weeks ago," Jindal said. "We would have preferred they approved the whole plan [approximately ...
Follow Politics Daily
POPULAR
- Nancy Pelosi Confirms House May Skip Up or Down Vote on Senate Health Bill
- Debrahlee Lorenzana: A Double Take on Those Double D's
- Campbell Brown Quits CNN With Shockingly Frank Farewell
- Palin Earnings Estimated at $12 Million
- The Five Most Racist Obama Cartoons?
- Jimmy Carter Leaves Church Over Treatment of Women
- Soraya M., Stoned to Death for Being an "Inconvenient Wife''
- No posts are available.
News From Our Partners
- Dragon arrives at space station in historic 1st
- Picking new leader, Egyptians search for superman
- Egyptians vote in first free presidential vote
- Moon chips from Vegas casino mogul sent to NASA
- Egyptians vote to rid nation of autocratic rule
- More Stories »
- 'Masters of the Universe' Sure Have Fragile Egos
- Romney: My Mistakes 'Haunt Me'
- Newt Lauds Romney: He's Like Eisenhower
- Irked Senate Panel Votes 30-0 to Cut Pakistan Aid
- GSA Bash Organizer Steps Down
- More Stories »
- Know Your Enemy
- Obama’s Challenge in Egypt
- The Edwards Waiting Game
- Are Doctors Doing Too Much?
- The Pagan Cult of Reagan
- More Stories »
- Ambition Counteracting Ambition
- Robert Blagojevich Speaks Out
- In Iowa, Obama Calls Romney's Words 'A Cow Pie of Distortion'
- In Iowa, Obama Calls On Congress to Act on Clean Energy Tax Credits
- Romney Has Interesting Morning in Inner-City Philly
- More Stories »
Top News
More News
More on Aol
Local News
More Blog/Sites
Sites and Services
HuffPost Politics