Big Sole Blog (BSB)

I saw this photo of President Obama in a Huffington Post slide show of best political pictures. It's captioned as:A light shines behind President Barack Obama as he speaks during a campaign event at Bayliss Park, Monday, Aug. 13, 2012, in Council Bluffs, Iowa, during a three day campaign bus tour through Iowa. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)Knowing that the president has been promoting solar energy,

Last week, a small plane crashed at the intersection of West End Boulevard and Harrison Avenue in New Orleans, La. As it went down, it clipped a minivan, but no one was treated for injuries. The plane crashed along a route I travel often, and I would have taken a photo of the wreckage when I drove by hours later and the police were still there, but my adult son and daughter, who were in the car,

My dad told me yesterday that he heard Wal-Mart was going to stop building mega stores, to get away from big box monstrosities and try to look more like the "little guy." I thought that maybe he had confused the news, but he was fairly accurate in his report.Wal-mart will purue urban areas with smaller stores. That will be good for some communities that grocery stores have abandoned.And its

Vampire Diaries star Ian Somerhalder was born and raised across the lake from New Orleans in Covington, La. I forgot to mention him when I wrote about ABC's show The Gates being filmed in Shreveport, La., in the post about True Blood, which is set in Louisiana, and of course, Anne Rice, who started Louisiana's association with vampires.Last night I was reminded that Somerhalder is from Louisiana

As reported through a Foreign Policy Magazine news brief: BP officials hinted that the company may not make voluntary payments, which it had previously consented to in the wake of the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, if Congress goes forward with plans to restrict the company's activities in the Gulf of Mexico. BP is saying "if lawmakers pass legislation that bars the company from getting new

National media is still on the BP Gulf of Mexico oil leak/spill/greatest environmental disaster of all time/oilpocalypse--whatever the media gurus are calling it now. CNN is reporting on the next phase of well fixing, putting mud in the well, called a "static kill." Next comes relief wells. Watching the video at the top of this post, I marvel at how I'm not breaking out in hives. The video

I am trying to ignore all the doomsday scenarios arising as people project their fears onto the BP Deepwater Horizon leak in the Gulf of Mexico. I prefer to keep a positive mindset, as reflected in one of my poems about the disaster. However, I do read about the fear such as those Gena Haskett explored in her post about doomers and the BP oil spill. Last night, I saw the following in my mail, a

Another poem about the oil leak/spill in the Gulf of Mexico, 2010.Gold and Black to Black Gold BluesBy Nordette N. AdamsRemember when the Saints had us so high,so high that low meant do the slower second lineand the dirge signaled juke joint jig?Remember when New Orleans won the Super Bowland none could silence our wild Tchoupitoulas,Who Dat! hearts? The whole world laughedand leaped to the beat

The probability that the oil from the BP Deepwater Horizon oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico would reach Lake Pontchartrain has been one of my concerns since the oil crisis began, and today I and other New Orleans area residents learned that tar balls have been spotted in the lake in the Rigolets. WWL TV reports:The tarballs floated to the shore in the Treasure Isle subdivision near Slidell."The

A Republican, Lawrence Wilkerson, connects former vice president Dick Cheney's active restructuring of government to favor deregulation of the oil industry and other commercial enterprises to our current disaster, the BP Deepwater Horizon oil rig leak in the Gulf of Mexico. Wilkerson says we should expect more disasters made worse due to deregulation. This video references Shirley Anne Warshaw's

While I prepared for an appointment yesterday, July 1, I listened to this interview of BP's chief of Gulf Coast restoration Bob Dudley on PBS NewsHour. By no means is he as daft as the oil giant's CE0 Tony Hayward, but I'm pretty sure I heard him say that while BP is doing its best to stop the oil leak from the Deepwater Horizon rig, the company did not anticipate this kind of accident. That's

What I feared has come upon me; what I dreadedhas happened to me. ~~ Book of Job, 3:25As I see Alex turn into the first hurricane of the season while oil still kills fish and wildlife in the Gulf of Mexico, I think of Job, and hope we aren't tried as he was.As we on the Gulf Coast brace for potential hurricanes this summer, which means we're praying major storm systems go away from the Gulf Coast

This WWL TV story says that so many fishermen are working for BP right now that areas where the fish are safe are not being fished. Officials propose that BP pays bonuses to get fishermen back to fishing in Louisiana waters and save the Louisiana seafood industry. A lack of fresh seafood hurts local restaurants as well. Talks with BP have stalled, reports WWL.With all the concern about Gulf Coast

Bobby Jindal does his imitation of Mosesat an oil clean-up photo op. Photo by Spencer Platt of Getty ImagesAs I wrote late last night in reference to a CBS report that our La. Gov. Bobby Jindal has not deployed fully the National Guard that President Barack Obama approved, "Finally, a major news outlet is not so impressed by Jindal's hot-faced 'passion' on camera that it won't scrutinize what he

At last some folks in the mainstream media seems willing to question how Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal is handling response to the oil spill. Finally, a major news outlet is not so impressed by Jindal's hot-faced "passion" on camera that it won't scrutinize what he actually is doing or not doing. For instance, Jindal is not using all the National Guards troops the federal government has approved

From the L.A. Times:William Allen Kruse, 55, a charter boat captain recently hired by BP as a vessel of opportunity out of Gulf Shores, Ala., died Wednesday morning before 7:30 a.m. of a gunshot to the head, likely self-inflicted, authorities said."He had been quite despondent about the oil crisis," said Stan Vinson, coroner for Baldwin County, which includes Gulf Shores.Additional reports say

Is it raining oil in Louisiana? Worse, is it raining oil with Corexit in Louisiana? I don't know. As I start this post, I'm collecting some rain in Louisiana in a container outside where it's pouring. My location is about 34 miles from Bay St. Louis, Miss. and technically closer to the Gulf of Mexico than River Ridge, La., where a video producer says it's raining oil. So, I'm about halfway

The AP reports and Nola.com and WWL TV repeat that U.S. District Court Judge Martin Feldman granted a preliminary injunction against the temporary deepwater drilling moratorium the federal government put in place since the BP Deepwater Horizon oil rig blew up and created the nation's worst environmental disaster ever. You may view Judge Feldman's ruling as a PDF here. The White House said it will

BP is not only bleeding oil but also gushing damning documents about its carelessness in the DeepwaterHorizon oil spill case. To me, it feels as though each day we see some new hint of madness.A BP estimate made before the explosion of the Deepwater Horizon noted that as much as 100,000 barrels per day could leak into the ocean if the blowout preventer and wellhead were removed, a higher

I learned reading GreenLAgirl's post, "How to Snap Out of Gulf Oil Spill-Induced Depression" that BP has nixed using the oil booms made from human and animal hair collected by eager volunteers. It will use petroleum based synthetic boom instead, reported the Good blog on June 5. I missed that news, and according to the DeepwaterHorizonResponse.com press release, this decision was made May 21. The