The race in the Republican primary for Escambia County District 2 is a dogfight. The top candidates – incumbent Gene Valentino, former County Administrator George Touart, State Rep. Dave Murzin and newcomer…
Oil Academic Task Force
Press Release: Chancellor Frank T. Brogan and chair of the Oil Spill Academic Task Force to visit University of West Florida TALLAHASSEE – Chancellor Frank T. Brogan and Dr. W. Ross Ellington…
BP contacts can’t answer many questions, no surprise
State Senator Don Gaetz emailed last week to the media and his constituents the list of BP Contacts in Florida. I had reporter Ryne Ziemba contact them to find who they were,…
BP exec admits that they don’t know how much is leaking
I will work on my notes on the press conference a little later, but I did learn that BP doesn’t know how much is leaking from the well every day. The BP…
Live BP press conference
From Houston, Texas: BP CEO Tony Hayward says that BP has done a “good job of containment.” What is being done for containment: An air force of planes deploying dispersants. One million…
Nodine questioned in woman’s death
Mobile County Commissioner Steve Nodine is being questioned about the death of Angela Down. Fox 10 News reports: It happened just before Sunday night in Gulf Shores. “We received a call about…
BP bosses sued over alleged bribery
In efforts to better understand the company that is responsible for the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, I spent hours reading articles in the British press on BP. Came across…
Transocean had $270M payout
While Gulf Coast counties and municipalities struggle with finding funds to pay for their preparations for the BP oil spill, Transocean Ltd, the owner of the Deepwater Horizon rig leased by British…
Transcript of Olbermann interview
I really thought I sounded more literate and knowledgeable than this: OLBERMANN: That we know about the B.P. waiver agreement offering up to $5,000 to Gulf Coast residents in exchange for their…
Original draft of C.C. Elebash viewpoint
We received the original draft of C.C. Elebash’s viewpoint that ran in Friday’s daily newspaper. “I hate the maritime park. I hate the baseball park. I hate the maritime park. I hate…
State has BP $25 million; none reaching local level
I confirmed yesterday with the office of Florida CFO Alex Sink that the state has received the $25-million block grant from British Petroleum. However, local officials are getting frustrated with the state…
BP ad runs in Sunday Pensacola News Journal
Pensacola’s daily newspaper fulfilled the Gannett mission of being a marketing solution…this time for British Petroleum. The ad, titled “The Gulf Oil Spill Response,” tells readers that -“BP has done and continues…
Don’t touch oil, tarballs
The St. Pete Times warns of the BP oil spill’s toxicity. This s$%# can kill you. I have interviewed workers that were part of the Exxon Valdez cleanup. Twenty years later, they…
Tarballs hit Dauphin Island
Mobile Press Register is reporting that tarballs suspected to be part of the Deepwater Horizon oil leak have been sighted along the shore at Dauphin Island. This sighting was at Saturday noon…
Blog ranked #1
Latest Influence ranking by BlogNetNews.Com has ricksblog.biz in the number one spot, up from seventh spot last week. Blogs ranked by BNN Influence: 1 ricksblog.biz 2 The Buzz (St. Pete Times) 3…
NYT: What happened on the oil rig
I have been working on this story for four days and was so close to having it ready for The Daily Beast by Monday. Offshore workers and their wives have talked with…
As predicted: containment box has problem
BP always, always, always gives the best case scenario, over promises, under delivers and down plays damages and risks. This is according to attorney Brent Coon who dealt wit BP in the…
IN turns down BP Oil Spill ad
We received an insertion order from Valassis and Mindshare for a BP Oil Spill ad. I and my staff made the decision that we will not accept the order and turned down…
Too much to think last night
We aren’t supposed to win. British Petroleum is a global oil company, which made $5.6 billion the first three months of 2010. We are a community recovering from three hurricanes, a depressed…
Buzz: Pelicans for Pelicans
The Pensacola Pelicans, the area’s minor league baseball team, is working on a special fundraiser with its league, American Association of Independent Baseball, to help rescue and treat Pelicans and other birds…
