This guy is a lawyer out of New Orleans and is fighting the big oil companies!  Right on!  Check out his blog!

http://www.stuarthsmith.com/gulf-seafood-safety-update-fisherman-pulls-up-sick-visibly-oiled-crabs-and-black-goo-off-florida-panhandle

I don't need to label which picture is which do I?

Friday, June 17, 2011

From Courthouse News Service
http://www.courthousenews.com/2011/06/17/37457.htm

BP Wins a Big One in Oil Spill Litigation By SABRINA CANFIELD 

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     NEW ORLEANS (CN) - Ruling in favor of Transocean and BP, a federal judge on Thursday dismissed third-party environmental claims in a giant pleading bundle in the Deepwater Horizon oil spill litigation, saying the fact that the oil flow has stopped makes those lawsuits irrelevant.
     "The injunction at this stage would be useless, as not only is there no ongoing release from the well, but there is also no viable offshore facility from which any release could possibly occur," U.S. District Judge Carl Barbier wrote. "The Macondo well is dead, and what remains of the Deepwater Horizon vessel is on the ocean floor, where it capsized and sank in 5,000 feet of water.
     "Moreover, BP and the agencies comprising the Unified Area Command have been and are cleaning up the Gulf of Mexico. An injury is not redressable by a citizen suit when the injury is already being addressed."
     Judge Barbier is overseeing the massive, consolidated oil spill litigation, which has been divided into "bundles," based upon the nature of the claims.
     In instances where claims in the D1 bundle pertain to how the oil is being cleaned up, Barbier ruled that even if he allowed those claims to go forward, the claimants are not directly involved in the cleanup, so a ruling in their favor would not affect how the cleanup is progressing.
     "The D1 defendants do not unilaterally direct the cleanup activities in the Gulf; such activities have been under the control of the National Incident Commander, Federal on-Scene Coordinator, Unified Area Command, and the Coast Guard in cooperation with other federal agencies. Thus, plaintiffs cannot show that an order from this court would actually resolve any potential deficiency in the ongoing cleanup," Barbier wrote.
     "In order to prevail on their claims for injunctive relief, plaintiffs must demonstrate an ongoing violation of various statutes on which plaintiffs' claims for relief is based. Because the Macondo well is dead and is no longer discharging oil, plaintiffs' only claims are confined to seeking environmental citizen suit injunctive relief of a prospective nature to stop noncompliance in the form of a continued release of oil. Thus, the citizen suit claims brought by the plaintiffs are moot, because no future-orientated injunction can provide any meaningful relief for plaintiffs in terms of stopping discharges that already concluded in mid-July 2010."
     Transocean's Deepwater Horizon drilling rig, operated by BP, exploded and burned 50 miles off the Louisiana coast on April 20, 2010, killing 11 and setting off the worst oil spill in history. Millions of gallons of oil were spilled in the next 87 days.
     More than 100,000 people have filed lawsuits seeking damages from the spill.
     The lawsuits dismissed on Thursday belonged to the D1 pleading bundle.
     D1 bundle claims were filed by third-party organizations that alleged environmental damages under the Clean Water Act; the Endangered Species Act; the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act; and the Emergency Planning and Community Right-To-Know Act.
     This was the first ruling arising from issues addressed during a May 26 hearing on the defendants' motions to dismiss particular bundles.
     Claims with varying types of damages were included in more than one bundle, depending on type of claim.
     In dismissing the D1 claims, Barbier said the claims could still be heard if they seek damages for violations other than environmental claims.
     "To the extent that plaintiffs assert claims under general maritime law and/or state law, the court will consider those claims separately when it addresses the pending motions to dismiss the B1 bundle master complaint," Barbier wrote.
     During the May 26 hearing, Barbier indicated that he might find the claims asserted in the D1 bundle were moot.
     "The fundamental argument is that this is all moot because the well is sealed," Barbier said.
     During the hearing, Ervin Gonzales, of the plaintiff steering committee, said the cleanup has not been adequate and "the environment is suffering."
     Greg Buppert, an attorney for Defenders of Wildlife, told Barbier at the hearing that "the Endangered Species Act is not linked to the well spill; it is linked to the take of species."
     In response, Barbier cited the federal government's investigation of the spill. Federal attorneys have said that criminal charges will be filed if the investigation turns up evidence of willful negligence by the defendants.
     Because of the continuing investigation, the government has tried to keep certain issues undercover. For instance, autopsy results of the hundreds of dead baby dolphins that have washed up along the Gulf Coast have been kept private, and independent scientists have not been allowed to conduct their own autopsies.
     "Isn't that what the federal government is doing?" Barbier asked on May 26. "It sounds like you think they may not do it right."
     Later that day, Barbier told Buppert: "It's speculative right now. You're surmising that somebody is going to do something that you don't like."
     Attorneys did not immediately return calls for comment.  

KA here:

These graphs are so absolutely shocking, yet so unexpected.  We have known that the oil and corexit would kill massive amounts of sea life but to see the average numbers, and the numbers from after the oil spill will leave you dumbfounded.  Especially since BP claims they cleaned it all up and it had no ill effects to the sea life community.  Look at the white bar, that is this year just up until June 12th!  I mean, wow, we still have another half of a year of more death to be recorded!  BP, you will not get away with this.  The people will not just turn a deaf ear and a blind eye to your injustice.  Not this time. 

http://www.nmfs.noaa.gov/pr/health/mmume/cetacean_gulfofmexico2010.htm

KA here:

Lies lies lies!  Feinberg do you really think we are gonna let your lies just go by.  The audacity that he has to say that no one in the clean up process has gotten ill.  Does he have access to a computer?


Story from http://bridgethegulfproject.org/node/379

“Feinberg says no claims filed on cleanup illnesses,” ran an erroneous Associated Press headline last week, stirring up more mistrust of the BP claims process among Gulf Coast residents.  It is simply not true that sick cleanup workers have not filed medical claims with the Gulf Coast Claims Facility (GCCF), administered by Kenneth Feinberg.  Rather, Feinberg and the GCCF appear to be categorically rejecting those claims, saying there is not enough scientific proof that links the illnesses to the BP disaster.

Feinberg told Bridge The Gulf in a recent interview that the GCCF has received “a couple hundred” health claims related to BP cleanup, but has denied all of them for lack of documentation.
 
What proof do they need?
Feinberg says that the GCCF, which was set up by BP to compensate those impacted by its disaster in the Gulf, would theoretically grant health claims related to the cleanup effort.  But he said he has, “reservations about whether those claimants can offer proof,” that the BP disaster caused their ailments.
 
“What proof do they need?,” asks Sean Kelley, a cleanup worker whose health claim was denied by Feinberg for insufficient documentation. Kelley had direct exposure to the oil. He removed oil from containment booms and laid boom for nearly two months along the Alabama and Mississippi coast.  Kelley believes that exposure to BP’s crude oil caused a number of his current health problems, including nausea, headaches, rashes, blurred vision, infections, cardiac issues, and neurological problems like uncontrollable shaking in his limbs, memory loss, and brain fogs that last for hours. He had internal bleeding as well.
 
Kelley’s denied claim included medical bills from multiple doctor visits, and the results of a test showing his blood contains alarming levels of toxins that are found in BP’s crude oil.
 
If it is going to reject claims like his, Kelley says, “[the GCCF] has to come out and say what link and documentation they need.”
 
The GCCF has yet to provide clear guidelines for a cleanup claim it would grant. Even a doctor’s note linking an individual’s cleanup work to their health symptoms might not be enough, says Feinberg, because the “medical community” needs to agree on the linkage.

The burden of documentation
Advocates on the Gulf Coast wonder how many will go untreated – or even die – waiting for the “medical community” to connect their illnesses with the BP disaster. 

“No doctors will help anybody,” says Kindra Arensen of Buras, Louisiana. Arnesen, her husband (who worked on the cleanup), and their two children have had infections, respiratory illnesses, headaches, and other ailments since the oil and dispersant disaster began.
 
Cleanup workers and coastal residents have been diagnosed with acid reflux, stress, and the flu, but seldom chemical poisoning.  Some patients say that when they brought up exposure to BP’s crude oil and toxic dispersants, their doctors have laughed, refused to do further testing, or privately admitted they can’t take on BP. 
 
There are other obstacles to the GCCF process that keep people away from filing claims, medical or otherwise.  John Bean, a former clean-up worker, resisted filing a medical claim because he didn’t want to sign away his right to sue BP.  Giving up that right is a requirement for those who accept a final settlement, which covers all future damages.

Claimants can accept an interim payment without abdicating the right to sue, but that option only reimburses past expenses.  This means that people have to pay for expensive medical bills out of pocket, and then hope that the GCCF reimburses them.  So far it has not.

This creates a Catch-22 for many sick residents and clean-up workers, Sean Kelley explains; They cannot provide documentation for their claims without tests and doctors visits, but they cannot afford the tests and doctors visits without the GCCF settlement.
 
Despite these obstacles, John Bean decided to finally file his claim last Friday. Without health insurance, he is facing headaches, diarrhea, vision problems, and a rash that is, “driving me insane.”  He decided to file because he needs the money for his medical care.

But rather than helping him file a claim, Bean says a GCCF representative told him he had to file for workman’s compensation with the cleanup subcontractor he worked for.

Feinberg: BP’s agent
“What’s the point?” says Kindra Arnesen when asked if she’s filed a medical claim with Feinberg.  “They're not paying out income claims.  So surely they're not going to pay our medical claims,” she says. “[Feinberg’s] not here for the people of the Gulf.  He here's for BP."

Arnesen’s point is backed up by the Louisiana District Court, which ruled in February that Feinberg was acting on behalf of BP and had to cease claiming to be neutral.  Prior to the order, Feinberg frequently told claimants at Town Hall meetings, “I don’t work for BP,” and projected the image that he wanted what’s best for Gulf Coast residents.
 
That was just one in a series of missteps that have raised serious concerns about the fairness and transparency of Feinberg’s claims process.
 
Arnesen says that given Feinberg’s clear bias, suing is the only chance she has to get BP to redress her family’s illness.

~Ada McMaho, Writer from Bridge the Gulf

This time we are showing some of Charles Taylor's Pictures.  Please feel free to pass them on and share this message!  These pictures were taken from Bay Saint Louis, Mississippi and most came from May and June of this year.  They still come in on the oceans tide day after day death and destruction.

Laurel here:

Look what it feels like to take a nice little stroll down a beach in Mississippi.  Thanks BP.  You have killed everything in site.  Proof.

Wow.  This is an amazing documentary!  I love the people from this part of the country.  I know I have said that before but they just touch my heart... Please take the time to watch this wonderful piece of art.

The truth is.....

by Kindra Arnesen on Thursday, June 9, 2011 at 10:16pm

Today no one knows what the total impact on the Gulf & any and all the Gulf supports, by the BP blow out will be. Corruption is a CRIME AGAINST HUMANITY ( Obama's words). Fact is the entire time the disaster in the Gulf has unfolded, we have witnessed more corruption than we knew exisited in OUR government. I believe we have a human right to clean air, clean water, clean food, & to live with the security our tax dollars pay for. Before 4-20-10, I felt that our government was doing their job. We were busy working, rebuilding, & raising our family. I thought pay my taxes, raise productive members of society, and help those in my path, I was living the AMERCIAN DREAM. Them WAM BP!!!I thought if I went to their meetings voiced my concerns along side my fellow citizens that Washington would hear what was really going on & they would stand & do the job they were elected to do. I am a much different person today then I was before BP. Today I am well aware that our federal government is NOT OURS, they are bought & paid for reps of corporations, & banks, from all over the globe. The whole bunch of em are sell outs!!

Last year when this all started I went to my local officals and begged them to evacuate the women elderly and children from Plaqumines Parish, they did not want to cause a state of panic, now we 3 in 5 are sick, most are children, I have brought this issue to everyone & have recieved only brush offs from those paid to look out for us & our communities. We have had no luck with doctors only many rounds of antibiotics has been the BLANKET TREATMENT across the Gulf Coast with little to no sucess. Before doctors can be sufficent in treating patients along the Gulf they need proper training, but until our Federal Officals ADMITT THAT PEOPLE ARE SICK FROM THE CHEMICALS BP FOGGED US WITH this training will not take place, bottom line is people continue to suffer. Is this acceptable????

Fineburg made a statement saying he recieved no health claims, we in this area have no knowledge of a system set up within GCCF that takes health claims now if they in fact have a system set up to pay health claims that is news to me. The only things I am aware that GCCF has a system for is income claims & food claims for those who can't eat the seafood that everyone else can eat. Fineburg has done everything he can to paint the claimants as criminals fraudlent criminals. Trust that before we are made whole Fineburg will be retired,dead of old age or both. SO whats the point, we have no choice but to see this to court. Who knows maybe we will recover 13% a lil more then the Valdez survivors recovered ya thats right they recovered 12% of their losses and most of them are dead.

Fineburg is not our hope or our future my advice to everyone is hire an attorney.

They say its BACK TO BUSSINESS IN THE GULF, that everything is fine.

When shrimp season opened in August everyone was hopeful, we learned quickly that their were very few small shrimp so future crops will see an impact, August season ended around the last week of Novemberfirst week of December. Then we waited in January dead dolphins, turtles, fish, starfish, seahorses, etc washed up all over the shoreline of the Northern Gulf coast this continued trough Febuary March and April, not sure how much of each or how much continues to wash up dead. May 16th brown shrimp opened the fleet poored out into the bayou, soon we heard back small loads were coming in usually a small boat catches 3000 to 4000 lbs the first day this year they were coming in with 300, 500lbs no loads just dissapointment. Shark season opened back in March most of the fleet was tied up after the first week of going in the hole there wasn't enough sharks to pay the fuel. We don't know what as a fishing community holds.

Now the fishermen are being blamed for the deaths of the turtles washing ashore. WOW!!! Everyone reffers to this BP mess as a year ago people seem to forget that the blow out wasn't shut off untill July 2010 only 5 1/2 months before the dead sealife started to wash ashore in record #s . NOAA put it out there that fishermen are breaaking the TED (Turtle Excluder Device) law, NOAA has charged, convicted, & hung the fishermen out to dry NOAA has painted our fishermen as comon criminals with no day in court NOAA has slandered fishermen since NOAA's very begining. Kick them when their down. How is it that NOAA scientist can say that tissue samples are not back yet turn around and put the blame on fishermen. SHAME SHAME SHAME, NOAA, SHAME SHAME SHAME!!!

Last but not least the others who have joined the ban wagan of NOAA & slandering our fishermen, SHAME SHAME SHAME, I feel sorry for those who set out everyday to take out the small guy because they do not have the backbone to face the real problem. SHAME SHAME SHAME!!! try growing a backbone and placing the blame where it should be. SHAME SHAME SHAME

I mean what did our fishermen ever do to anyone to deserve the flow of crap that people send their way. Our fishermen provide a food source for our country and have for generations. And I am dam proud to be the wife of a commercial fisherman and always will be he is not a criminal but a family man who woks hard to provide a good life for our family, He helps those in his path is a wonderful parent, & partner. O & he pays his taxes. So before jumping in and pointing the finger @ our fishermen I ask you this consider the truth for once instead of the crap our officals are feeding you. God bless you and yours.

Thank You, Kindra Arnesen

you may copy and paste

"This is not a normal thing," White 53, said. "I've lived in Gulf Breeze all my life. I grew up on the water, and I always take notice of changes. Something is killing them. I'd definitely say it is related to the oil spill."

White's mother, Chrys Nickelsen, 90, has lived on the Gulf Breeze shoreline since 1955. She cannot recall ever seeing so many sand dollars wash up.

http://www.pnj.com/article/20110607/NEWS01/106070309/All-these-dead-sand-dollars-along-shore-just-don-t-add-up