Sun Herald providing more ammo for Barbour naysayers.

Gov. Haley Barbour had hand in release of convicted killer Joseph Goff

The Sun Herald has learned that Gov. Haley Barbour helped in the early release of convicted killer Joseph Goff, whose release today after serving eight years of a 20-year sentence has drawn outrage from law enforcement and the community.

A spokeswoman for Barbour on Thursday had said, “The inmate’s release is set by state sentencing laws. The governor has no role.”

But 130 days of the time off Goff received was granted by Barbour in Executive Order 956 for work Goff did cleaning up after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita in Simpson, Quitman, Marion and Walthall counties, according to South Mississippi lawmakers, the Mississippi Department of Corrections and the Attorney General’s Office.

Barbour’s office has not yet responded to a follow-up call from the Sun Herald today seeking further comment and information.

“This is just unbelievable, to give a murderer 130 days off because he cleaned up after a storm, which is what an inmate should be doing anyway,” said state Sen. Michael Watson, R-Pascagoula. “It’s beyond me, to be honest with you. I’m almost at a loss for words.”

Goff shot and killed Kyle Todd, 19, while Todd was standing by a Christmas tree inside his family’s Gautier home on Dec. 8, 2001. Todd died in his mother’s arms. He was a former valedictorian at Gautier High School and the son of Carla Todd, president of the Jackson County Chamber of Commerce.

CL: Lawmakers push for more drilling permits

WASHINGTON — The administration's "slow-walking'' of drilling permits in the Gulf of Mexico is costing thousands of jobs and crippling the Gulf region's economy, Gulf Coast officials told Congress Wednesday.

"We continue to feel the burden of regulatory uncertainty, which has led to the freezing of investment and expenditures and consequently a drag on our economy,'' Scott Angelle, secretary of Louisiana's Department of Natural Resources, told members of the House Natural Resources Committee.

Wednesday's hearing focused on the impact of last year's moratorium on deepwater drilling permits in the Gulf of Mexico.

Gulf Coast lawmakers and officials from Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama say, even though the temporary ban was lifted late last year, federal officials have been slow to issue permits. They say that's created a "de facto'' ban on drilling in deep and shallow waters.

Rep. Doc Hastings, R-Wash., chairman of the committee, vowed Wednesday to introduce legislation later this month that would speed the permit process and reverse the administration's plan to ban offshore drilling outside the Gulf of Mexico.

"The Obama administration seems unmoved by thousands of lost jobs, rapidly rising gasoline prices and the threat these high prices pose to our economy,'' Hastings said.

Later Wednesday, Gulf Coast lawmakers, including Republican members from Mississippi, warned again that the administration's inaction in issuing new drilling permits will decimate the region's economy.

Fourth District Rep. Steve Palazzo said last year's moratorium has cost the region as many as 12,000 jobs and has made residents in the Gulf feel "powerless.''

"We just keep getting hit on every front,'' Palazzo said. '"Please, we need these jobs.''

Third District Rep. Gregg Harper also urged the administration to issue more permits and expand energy production in the Gulf.

"Instead of slowing the approval process for new offshore drilling permits, the president should be promoting increased domestic energy production from oil, renewables, natural gas, clean coal technology and nuclear power - ultimately leading to an energy-independent America,'' Harper said in a statement.

Read More

Ricky Dombrowski says Secretary of State Hosemann on a power grab.

Oil Rig Explodes Off Coast of Louisiana

Here we go again? I hope not.

Sun Herald: Blast rocks rig in Gulf


GRAND ISLE, La. -- The Coast Guard is responding to an explosion involving an offshore petroleum structure in the Gulf of Mexico.

Petty Officer Casey Ranel says the blast was reported by a commercial helicopter company about 9:30 a.m. today. Seven helicopters, two airplanes and four boats are en route to the site, about 80 miles south of Vermilion Bay along the central Louisiana coast.

Ranel says it hasn’t been determined whether the structure is a production platform or a drilling rig or whether workers were aboard. Ranel says smoke was reported but it is unclear whether the rig is still burning.

SH

Then there is this from the New York Times:

NYT: Oil Rig Explodes in Gulf of Mexico, Coast Guard Says

A commercial helicopter company reported the blast around 9:30 a.m. CDT Thursday, Coast Guard Petty Officer Casey Ranel said. Seven helicopters, two airplanes and four boats were en route to the site, about 80 miles south of Vermilion Bay along the central Louisiana coast.

The Coast Guard said initial reports indicated all 13 crew members from the rig were in the water. One was injured, but there were no deaths.

The platform owned by Mariner Energy (NYSE:ME) is in about 2,500 feet of water, the Coast Guard said, and was not currently producing.

About 206 million gallons of oil from an undersea well spilled into the Gulf after BP's (NYSE:BP) Deepwater Horizon rig exploded April 20, killing 11 workers.

NYT

Another Jackson County Embezzlement Charge Investigation By Auditor Pickering Results In An Arrest

State Auditor Stacey Pickering, center, speaks at a press event
Tuesday at the Jackson County Courthouse in Pascagola with
Jackson County District Attorney Tony Lawrence, left, and
Jackson County Sheriff Mike Byrd.

Seems like the State Auditor has been busy on the Gulf Coast for the past several months, and the work is now bearing fruit. This is the second announcement of an arrest in as many days.

Former court clerk Diehl surrenders to police
Former Pascagoula court clerk Rhonda Diehl surrendered to authorities after being indicted on three counts of embezzlement, Jackson County Sheriff Mike Byrd said this morning.

A city employee for 25 years, Diehl is accused of stealing a total of $17,175 over a three-year period while serving as the city's court clerk. She resigned in January, Pascagoula Police Chief Kenny Johnson said, at the conclusion of their investigation.


The city began an internal investigation after noticing irregularities in the city court funds. They called on Jackson County District Attorney Tony Lawrence and State Auditor Stacey Pickering to assist in the investigation, which ultimately led to authorities identifying Diehl as a suspect.


The city, Johnson said, has since put in place additional precautionary measures to "quickly" detect any type of embezzlement involving city funds.


As for Diehl's arrest, Johnson said, "it's a shame."


SH

A report this morning on yesterday's arrest in the Mississippi Press said:

There are two other pending embezzlement cases in Jackson County.


One involves two suspects and an undisclosed amount of misappropriated money from the Jackson County Fair Commission, which Pickering said he could not comment on because the investigation was ongoing. The missing funds were discovered in August 2009.

Sounds like we can expect at least one more arrest, and another very big feather for the Auditor's cap.

Auditor Pickering issues demand for $1.2 Million against former Jackson County Employee

Former Jackson Co. clerk accused of stealing $890,000

A former Jackson County employee is charged with embezzling $890,000. The indictment against Ginger Lashley, 50, released Tuesday accuses her of using her position as a clerk to steal money from 2001 until November 2009 when she was fired and arrested.

The indictment alleges Lashley diverted county money into a personal savings account at a local bank. That account, entitled "Jackson County Food Drive," received regular deposits of county checks according to court papers.


Jackson County Sheriff Mike Byrd said bank officials became suspicious of the account in 2009 and alerted investigators. Byrd said the frequency and size of the deposits seemed suspect. He added there is no official county account for a "Jackson County Food Drive."


Lashley was first accused last year of stealing $125,000 of county money. However, as investigators dug deeper, the amount of money that disappeared from county coffers grew.


State Auditor Stacy Pickering said his office issued a demand against Lashley for $1,232,579.73, which includes the amount she is accused embezzling along with investigative costs.


"This is one of the largest embezzlement cases we've investigated by the State Auditor's Office and represents a significant loss to taxpayers of Jackson County," Pickering said.


Jackson County Board President Mike Mangum said since the investigation started, the County has implemented safe guards to prevent this type of activity from happening again.


"As public servants, we take this situation very seriously and understand our first responsibility is to be good stewards of the taxpayer's money," Mangum said.


Lashley began working for the county in 1998. Investigators say the embezzlement began in 2001 when Lashley was working in the Accounts Payable office.


WLOX

NRCC's 2010 Race of the Day: Mississippi's 4th District

This November, voters in Mississippi’s Fourth Congressional District have a prime opportunity to take back a Republican seat in this traditionally conservative district. For the past seven years, the Fourth has been held by Democrat Gene Taylor, who, despite the region’s reputation as a Republican stronghold, has managed to maintain his grip on this district. This fall, Taylor faces off against popular Republican state Rep. Steven Palazzo—putting Republicans in the perfect position to take Mississippi’s Fourth on Election Day.

Covering the southeastern region of the state, Mississippi’s Fourth is rated by the Cook Voting Index as R+22, making it one of the two most Republican districts in the nation currently held by a Democrat. Extending across the coastal southern edge of Mississippi from the Louisiana border to the Alabama border, the district spans fifteen counties in total. It also includes three of Mississippi’s most heavily populated cities: Gulfport, Biloxi, and Hattiesburg. Showing a Republican voting trend in both of the last presidential elections, George W. Bush swept this district with 68% of the vote in 2004, while John McCain won with 67% of the vote in 2008.

Unlike the past two election cycles, Taylor faces an electorate that is fed up with what his party is doing in Washington. By casting his vote for Nancy Pelosi, Taylor ushered in Pelosi’s reckless liberal agenda that is killing jobs and ruining the economy. Supporting Pelosi and other Democrats like Barney Frank of Massachusetts proves Taylor is a Blue Dog in name only. Further confirming that Taylor has lost touch with his conservative constituents is the fact that 70% of Taylor’s political donations come from out-of-state committees. Failing to represent his voters and tarnished by his support for the Pelosi agenda, 2010 is the time to retire Gene Taylor.

Stepping up to the plate to take down Taylor is state Rep. Steven Palazzo. He learned the value of public service early, enlisting in the Marine Corps Reserves in 1988 and spending time in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait while serving in the Gulf War. Today, Steve still serves in the MS National Guard and recently spent a year supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom. Rising from a modest middle class upbringing to become a leader in the business community, Palazzo knows the value of hard work--and a dollar. His knowledge of the corporate world as well as his military experience set Palazzo above the competition. He will fight to promote job creation, free market principles, limited government, and fewer taxes for small businesses.

Enrolled in the National Republican Congressional Committee’s Young Guns program, Steven Palazzo is the perfect candidate to represent Mississippi’s Fourth District voters. He will represent “Mississippi values”—God, family and country—and bring fiscal responsibility back to Washington. Steve and his wife, Lisa are the proud parents of three young children.

I hope you’ll take a few minutes to learn about Steven on his website, and become a fan on Facebook to stay updated with the latest news and information from his campaign.

Townhall

MBJ: MDOT chief arrested for public drunk

The Biloxi Police Department confirmed to the Mississippi Business Journal that a Larry L. Brown, Sr., 67, was arrested at the Beau Rivage Resort at 6 a.m. Friday and charged with public intoxication and disorderly conduct.

That’s the same name and age as Mississippi Department of Transportation Executive Director “Butch” Brown.

Reached on his cell phone Friday afternoon, Brown confirmed that he had “just left” the Beau Rivage. He said he had attended a planning session and had spoken to a group of economic developers.

Brown denied, however, that he had been arrested. “I haven’t been involved in anything drunk or disorderly,” he said.

A mugshot provided to the Mississippi Business Journal by the Harrison County Jail appears to be Brown, based on a photo of Brown on www.transportation.org, the website for AASHTO, a non-profit, non-partisan association that represents highway and transportation departments in the U.S. Brown is the president of AASHTO.

Calls to the Beau Rivage were not immediately returned.

Mississippi Business Journal

WDSU: 500 Fishermen Claim BP Didn't Pay Them (Video)

Congressman Harper Discusses the BP Drilling Incident with GOP Leaders(Video)

Yesterday, Congressman Harper discussed his thougts with GOP leaders about the Gulf Oil Spill, and the steps needed to correct the situation.

'Top kill' stops gulf oil leak for now, official says

Officials are cautionary but say drilling fluid has blocked oil and gas temporarily. Engineers plan to begin pumping in cement and then will seal the well.

Reporting from Houma, La. —Engineers have at least temporarily stopped the flow of oil and gas into the Gulf of Mexico from a gushing BP well, the federal government's top oil-spill commander, U.S. Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen, said Thursday morning.

The "top kill" effort, launched Wednesday afternoon by industry and government engineers, had pumped enough drilling fluid to block oil and gas spewing from the well, Allen said. The pressure from the well was very low, he said, but persisting. The top kill effort is not complete, officials caution.

Once engineers had reduced the well pressure to zero, they were to begin pumping cement into the hole to entomb the well. To help in that effort, he said, engineers also were pumping some debris into the blowout preventer at the top of the well.

As of early Thursday morning, neither government nor BP officials had declared the effort a success yet, pending the completion of the cementing and sealing of the well.

Allen said one ship that was pumping fluid into the well had run out of the fluid, or "mud," and that a second ship was on the way. He said he was encouraged by the progress.

"We'll get this under control," he said.

Allen also said that, later Thursday, an interagency team would release a revised estimate of how much oil had flowed from the well into the gulf before the "top kill" effort began. The Coast Guard had estimated the flow at 5,000 barrels a day, but independent estimates suggested it was much higher, perhaps tens of thousands of barrels a day.

LA Times



Gulf Coast Oil Spill

Is there a double standard being applied with Tulane's Madison campus?

Tulane’s satellite campus raises questions

GAUTIER — Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College President Willis Lott is finding that not all out-of-state institutions face the same scrutiny when they open campuses in Mississippi.

Last March, MGCCC had plans to bring the University of South Alabama to its Gautier campus, in the space that had previously been leased by the University of Southern Mississippi. The decision brought up public opposition from state officials. Yet as New Orleans-based Tulane University plans to open a satellite campus in Madison in June, the same opposition has not arisen.

The Sun Herald reports some differences exist between the two situations. Tulane University already has a satellite campus in Mississippi in Biloxi. Also Tulane is leasing space from the city of Madison, while USA planned to lease space from a community college that had previously leased to an in-state university.

MBJ

BP LAUNCHES LIVE WEBCAM OF RISER FLOW

Today BP launched a live webcam of the riser flow. The webcam can be viewed at http://www.bp.com/.

BP has been providing a live feed to government entities over the last two weeks – including the US Department of the Interior, US Coast Guard, Minerals Management Service (MMS) through the Unified Area Command center in Louisiana – as well as to BP and industry scientists and engineers involved in the effort to stop the spill.

BP continues its work to collect oil by the riser insertion tube tool (RITT) containment system. Once on the drillship Discoverer Enterprise, the oil is then being stored and gas is being flared. The RITT remains a new technology and both its continued operation and its effectiveness in capturing the oil and gas remain uncertain.

BP has, and will continue, to support the government’s work to determine the rate of flow from the well. Since the Deepwater Horizon accident, the flow rate estimate has been established by the Unified Command. Throughout the process, BP has made it a priority to quickly and consistently provide the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the Coast Guard with requested information for the joint command structure to make as accurate an assessment as possible of the rate of flow.

The rate of flow from the riser is determined in a number of ways and by a number of variables. For instance, while the original riser was 19.5 inches in diameter prior to the Deepwater Horizon accident, damage sustained during the accident distorted the diameter at the end of the pipe by about 30 per cent. In addition, a drill pipe currently trapped inside the riser has reduced the flow area by an additional 10 per cent. Thus, some third party estimates of flow, which assume a 19.5 inch diameter, are inaccurate. As well, there is natural gas in the riser. Data on the hydrocarbons recovered to date suggests that the proportion of gas in the plume exiting the riser is, on average, approximately 50 percent.

To provide further specificity on the flow rate, the US government has created a Flow Rate Technical Team (FRTT) to develop a more precise estimate. The FRTT includes the US Coast Guard, NOAA, MMS, Department of Energy (DOE) and the US Geological Survey. The FRTT is mandated to produce a report by close of business on Saturday, May 22.

To support this, BP is in the process of providing FRTT with all requested information, including diagrams and schematics showing release points, amounts of oil and gas currently being collected on the Discoverer Enterprise, and subsea video of the oil release point.

Dead dolphins wash up on coast; oil's role unclear

Associated Press


SHIP ISLAND, Miss. — Federal wildlife officials are treating the deaths of six dolphins on the Gulf Coast as oil-related even though other factors may be to blame.

Blair Mase (MACE') of the National Marine Fisheries Service said Tuesday that the carcasses have all been found in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama since May 2. Samples have been sent for testing to see whether a massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico helped kill the dolphins.

Mase and animal rescue coordinator Michele Kelley in Louisiana said none of the carcasses has obvious signs of oil. Mase also said it's common for dead dolphins to wash up this time of year when they are in shallow waters to calve.

The Associated Press found dolphins swimming and playing in oily waters off Louisiana last week.

Cross Posted at Lucy's Revenge

BP officials say containment dome is running into problems.

Cross-posted at Lucy's Revenge

Saturday May 8, 2010--BP officials provided an update on current efforts to stop the flow of oil into the Gulf of Mexico today. According to the company announcement, the attempts to place the containment dome have so far been unsuccessful.

“As we had expressed numerous times, this particular operation has never been done before at this depth and a significant technical challenge was with hydrate formation,” read the company statement.

The statement described hydrate formation as a chemical process when gas combines with water under certain pressure and temperatures that form as crystals, similar to ice.

The dome was lowered to the sea floor yesterday evening. However, as workers began to place it over the source of the leak, a large volume of hydrates formed inside the top of the dome, requiring it to be moved to the side of the leak point. The dome is currently sitting on the sea bed while technicians evaluate options to deal with the hydrate issue.

The company is also simultaneously investigating other techniques to control the source of flow and ultimately stop the source of flow. These include activities utilizing the existing blowout preventer to stop the flow. Additional data will be gathered to see if these options are viable and that work will continue over the next 48 hours. The relief well drilling continues and is at approximately 9,000 feet below the surface of the water and making progress ahead of plan.

BP officials say the company has also deployed over 130,000 feet of boom on Friday alone; approaching a million feet deployed with over 2.3 million additional feet, either coming from existing stocks in the US and other countries to fight the spread of oil already spreading from the leak site.

“We have oil around Chandelier Island, LA and our cleanup teams are responding,” read the statement.

There were five successful offshore burns Friday, and skimming operations skimmed over 17,500 barrels of an oily water mix.

Sun Herald: Oil spill may hit Coast

The sinking of Deepwater Horizon could be catastrophic for Mississippi’s coastline if hundreds of thousands of gallons of crude oil makes its way ashore.

Coast Guard and oil company officials at a news conference Thursday said it was not clear whether the 18,000-foot-deep well was still leaking.

Environmental threats include the 336,000 gallons of oil a day that had been spurting from the rig before it sank, though nearly all of it was burning off in the incessant fire, Coast Guard firefighter Katherine McNamara told the Associated Press.

Coast Guard cutters Zephyr, a patrol boat homeported in Pascagoula, and Cobia, a patrol boat out of Mobile, are involved in the search for 11 rig workers missing since the explosion.

Coast Guard Rear Adm. Mary E. Landry said that the probability of the crewmembers’ survival was decreasing, despite warm waters and calm seas.

At least 700,000 gallons of diesel fuel was in a tank on the rig, but that could have been consumed in the fire before the rig sank, said Doug Helton, incident operations coordinator for the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration’s office of response and restoration.

“The diesel fuel, if it didn’t burn off, will evaporate and not come to shore,” he said.

The crude oil leaking from the newly drilled well is heavier and will last longer.

“It could float around long enough to reach the shore,” he said.

Sun Herald