Law and Policy

I had hoped to write a full article concerning my thoughts on the subject of the BP Settlement Fairness Hearing held Thursday, November 8, but I (along with 3 others) was wrongfully accused of “live streaming audio,” and forcibly removed from the federal courtroom. I won't go into that now, but you can read Ada McMahon's article for more information. [...Read more]

Crossposted from Facing South. Following Hurricane Katrina and the BP oil spill, Gulf Coast community leaders raised concerns about the failure to prioritize hiring local residents for recovery jobs -- but an innovative new Mississipp [...Read more]

By Susan Buchanan, crossposted from The Louisiana Weekly.  Vietnamese and Cambodian fishermen in Village L’est and Versailles in New Orleans East were among the first residents to return after Katrina, only to see their livelihoods crushed a few years later by the BP spill. [...Read more]

Stephen Teague is a staff attorney at the Mississippi Center for Justice, where his main work is providing free legal assistance to people who have claims with the Gulf Coast Claims Facility (GCCF), the mechanism that was set up to compensate those who suffered economic losses as a result of the BP oil disaster.  He recently spoke about the GCCF with Bridge The Gulf and the Institute for Southern S [...Read more]

March 30, 2012 - The Gulf Coast Regional Health Outreach Program will be funded through a $105 million grant awarded by BP, “to promote physical, mental and behavioral health of the Gulf region,” over a period of 5 years. [...Read more]

March 25, 2012, This is an initial analysis, based on information provided by the Plaintiffs Steering Committee, regarding the health claims outlined in the BP settlement. The final details of the proposed settlement have not been hammered out as of yet – all the more reason we must approach these issues now. [...Read more]

A lot of worry is swirling around about what would happen if BP settles. [...Read more]

Last week, U.S. District Judge Carl Barbier decided that in the civil trial against BP for their oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, the oil company’s history of accidents and poor safety records won’t be admissible as evidence. Maybe that’s appropriate; I’m no legal expert so I can’t make that call. [...Read more]

They are calling it “the biggest environmental litigation in the country’s history.”  And why shouldn’t they? It is the biggest environmental disaster in American history; in fact, the largest in the history of the oil industry - ever.
  [...Read more]

Crossposted from Facing South. Date on which the Gulf oil spill trial is scheduled to begin in New Orleans unless a settlement is reached: 2/27/2012 [...Read more]