Friday, July 9, 2010

• Report: 27,000 Abandoned Wells Pose Threat to Gulf Coast

  
  
  

  Concerns are being raised about the hazards posed by thousands of abandoned oil and gas wells throughout the Gulf Coast. An Associated Press investigation found more than 27,000 abandoned sites are in danger of leaking, with about 13 percent said to be particularly worrisome. Regulations forcing companies to plug the wells have been routinely ignored with no government intervention. We speak with Jeff Donn, the AP reporter who broke the story. [includes rush transcript]

• ProPublica: BP Texas Refinery Had Huge Toxic Release Just Before Gulf Blowout

  
  
  

  Just over three months ago, thousands of pounds of toxic chemicals began spewing into the skies from BP’s massive oil refinery in Texas City. The release began on April 6, two weeks before the explosion on the Deepwater Horizon oil rig, but it took BP weeks to even realize there was a problem. BP now estimates 538,000 pounds of chemicals escaped from the refinery over a forty-day period. We speak with reporter Ryan Knutson of ProPublica and Frontline, who traveled to Texas City to investigate what happened. [includes rush transcript]

• Photographer Harassed by BP Security, Detained by Police While on Assignment at BP Texas Refinery

  
  
  

  We speak with Lance Rosenfield, a freelance photographer who was hired by ProPublica to take pictures of BP’s Texas City refinery that had spewed thousands of pounds of toxic chemicals into the skies. While on assignment, Rosenfield was followed by BP security and then detained by local police. [includes rush transcript]

• Outrage in Oakland: Transit Officer Convicted of Involuntary Manslaughter — Not Murder — in Killing of Unarmed Oscar Grant

  
  
  

  Scores of people were arrested in Oakland, California, Thursday night in protests over the verdict in the Oscar Grant shooting. Grant was the unarmed twenty-two-year-old African American man who was shot dead by Johannes Mehserle, a white transit officer, on an Oakland train platform on New Year’s Day 2009. A jury in Los Angeles convicted Mehserle of involuntary manslaughter, but he was acquitted on the more serious charges of second-degree murder and voluntary manslaughter. [includes rush transcript]

• Gary Rivlin on "Broke, USA: From Pawnshops to Poverty, Inc. — How the Working Poor Became Big Business"

  
  
  

  In his latest book, bestselling author and journalist Gary Rivlin says the rapacious practices of subprime lenders laid the foundation for powerful mainstream banks to get into the subprime business and turn it into a multi-billion-dollar enterprise. He calls this the "poverty industry." And for those in this industry, business is booming. The book is called Broke, USA: From Pawnshops to Poverty, Inc. — How the Working Poor Became Big Business. [includes rush transcript]