In a successful operation Sept. 2, BP replaced the "blowout preventer" on the Deepwater Horizon well, although the "bottom kill" relief well is still underway five months and counting after the disaster began. (VOA, Sept. 2) Also Sept. 2, a new explosion ripped through an offshore oil platform off the Louisiana coast, throwing 13 crew-members into the water. All were rescued alive by a Coast Guard vessel. Mariner Energy of Houston, Texas, the owner of the platform, deployed three firefighting vessels to the scene and extinguished the fire. No oil is believed to have leaked from the platform, called Vermillion Block 380. (ENS, Sept. 3)

Our August issue featured the story BP: The Case for Public Ownership by Billy Wharton, a reprint from In These Times. Our multiple-choice Exit Poll was: "Should BP be nationalzied?" We received 16 votes. The results follow:

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Aug. 9 issued a statement calling on governments to work to improve the human rights conditions of the world's indigenous peoples. The statement, made on the International Day of World's Indigenous People, urged world governments to come into compliance with the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, which was adopted by the UN in 2007. The treaty outlines the global human rights of the approximately 370 million indigenous people and bans discrimination against them.

Three months have now passed since the Deepwater Horizon oil gusher began in the Gulf of Mexico. The "spill" (as it is generally called, not quite accurately) was only last week brought under tentative and temporary control. Politicians exploit the disaster, while some environmentalists warn (hyperbolically, we hope) of a potential "Earth extinction event" if it isn't contained. Our June Exit Poll (extended into July for lack of responses) was: "Will future generations note April 20, 2010 as a greater turning point than Sept. 11, 2001?" We finally received the following responses:

Two lawsuits have been filed against BP alleging violations of the Rackteer Influenced Corrupt Organizations (RICO) statute in connection with the recent Deepwater Horizon oil spill. The first lawsuit, a class action filed on behalf of US residents affected by the oil spill, was filed last week and alleges that BP engaged in a scheme to secure profits by deceiving the public.

Now isn't this rich. Washington state troopers are giving $124 tickets to motorists who use hand-held cell-phones, enforcing a new law that critics say isn't tough enough. (The Columbian, The Daily News, Longview, WA, June 11) And last month, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon banned all UN employees from using cellular devices while driving in an effort to take the prohibition global. Ban is teaming up with US Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood and Jennifer Smith, president and co-founder of a national advocacy group, FocusDriven, for the global campaign. Ban told reporters in New York:

We wish we were joking. From the NY Daily News, June 1:

Move over C-3PO.

The Japanese space agency is embarking on a mammoth $2.2 billion project to put humanoid robots on the moon and create an unmanned robot lunar base by 2020, according to Prime Ministers office.

A natural gas pipeline exploded June 8 near the town of Darrouzett in the Texas Panhandle's Lipscomb County, killing two construction workers and injuring three others. The men were working for a contracting company hauling caliche when a bulldozer struck the pipeline. Fire trucks responded from a number of nearby counties, including from across the state line in Oklahoma. A video of the site showed a blackened patch of grassland hundreds of feet in diameter, with the smoldering carcasses of three 18-wheel trucks, a van, a flatbed truck and two tractors.