KANSAN.COM / THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN / MONDAY, MAY 3, 2010 / NEWS
5A
ENVIRONMENT
Obama calls for clean-up process to begin in Gulf
ASSOCIATED PRESS
NEW ORLEANS — The White House pledged on Sunday to do everything "humanly possible" to address the Gulf Coast oil spill as President Barack Obama got a firsthand assessment of the environmental disaster.
He heard from advisers about progress on lowering a device that would capture oil flowing from the underwater well off Louisiana, and about shooting chemicals deep near the well in hopes of breaking up the oil before it can reach the surface.
"That's something that hasn't been tried before, and I think it goes to show that we are trying everything that we know and even some things that haven't been tried before." White House spokesman Robert Gibbs told reporters during the flight from Washington.
The leaking oil well is not only an ecological catastrophe but a potential political hazard, as well, depending on how the public judges the Obama administration's response. Then-President George W. Bush stumbled in dealing with Hurricane Katrina in the Gulf in 2005, leaving the impression of a president distant from the immense suffering. His presidency never recovered.
A month ago, Obama said he was ready to expand drilling in some parts of the central and south Atlantic and eastern Gulf areas. On Friday, in a largely symbolic gesture, Obama promised that no new offshore oil drilling leases will be issued unless rigs have new safeguards to prevent a repeat of the Gulf spill.
Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said any comparison between the ruptured BP oil well and Katrina was "a total mischaracterization."
Explaining Obama's visit after the April 20 oil platform explosion, Gibbs said, "Here he's today
to make sure that we are continuing to do all that is humanly possible."
Obama was met at the airport by Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, then left in a motorcade for Venice, about 75 miles to the southeast and the site of a staging area close to the water.
The president received a briefing from his homeland security adviser, John Brennan, and his energy adviser, Carol Browner, on BP's plans to lower a dome that would cap the well at the sea floor
and hopefully halt the flow of an estimated 5,000 barrels a day into Gulf waters.
BP's chairman, Lamar McKay, said Sunday he expects the 40-foot high dome structure to be ready to be deployed in six to eight days. Such domes have been used in other well blowout incidents, but never in such deep waters. The oil would be captured and funneled to the surface.
Protestors break windows spray paint anarchy signs
NATIONAL
ASSOCIATED PRESS
SANTA CRUZ, Calif. — Close to 20 businesses were damaged after a May Day protest in downtown Santa Cruz turned violent, requiring police to call other agencies for help, authorities said.
Police spokesman Zach Friend said an estimated 250 people started marching through the city around 10:30 p.m. Saturday.
paint on retail shops that line the downtown corridor
It was a peaceful but "unpermitted and unsanctioned event," he said, until some in the crowd started breaking windows and spraying
A fire was started in a coffee shop entryway but was extinguished once police cleared the way for firefighters. Friend said.
Eighteen businesses were damaged, with the cost of repairs estimated at between $50,000 and $100,000. No injuries were reported.
Friend said he wasn't sure if the damage was caused by people marching in support of immigrants' rights, or if the group had been "infiltrated by anarchists."
Anarchy signs were spray-paint ed on some of the buildings.
"They're a group of people who seem to fancy themselves as revolutionaries, but what they really are are a group of morons," Friend said.
Once officers arrived from other agencies, police were able to restore order in about 20 minutes, he said.
One person was arrested on suspicion of committing vandalism, though police expect to make additional arrests once investigators have a chance to gather video of the event.
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