Amount of oil in ocean could escalate; Washington approves medical marijuana;

All of these stories are reported by The New York Times
In a closed door briefing for members of Congress, a senior BP executive conceded Tuesday that the crippled Deepwater Horizon oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico could conceivably spill as much as 60,000 barrels a day of oil, more than 10 times the estimate of the current flow. The scope of the problem has grown drastically since the rig exploded and capsized into the gulf. Now, the discussion with BP on Capitol Hill is certain to intensify pressure on the company, which is facing crisis of confidence similar to what the Toyoda Motor Company has with uncontrolled acceleration-despite its efforts to control the damage to its reputation as a corporate citizen, the problem may be worsening. Amid growing uncertainty about the extent of the leak, and when it might be stanched, pressure on BP intensified on multiple fronts on Tuesday, from increasingly frustrated residents of the Gulf Coast to federal, state and local officials demanding more from the company. Instead, the company has dispatched executives to hold down meetings in the affected region, and it has turned to lower-profile social media outlets to trumpet its cleanup efforts and moves to organize volunteers. At Tuesday's briefing, David Rainey, the BP vice president for the Gulf of Mexico production, said the company was employing a variety of untried techniques to staunch the oil gushing from the well 5,000 feet below the surface. At the briefing, Mr. Rainey and officials from Transocean and from Halliburton, which was providing cementing services on the platform, also acknowledged that they did not know how likely it was that the oil from the spill would be caught up in the so-called loop currents in the gulf and be carried through the Florida Keys into the Atlantic Ocean. Also on Tuesday, the company's chief executive, Tony Hayward, told Senator Bill Nelson, Democrat of Florida, that the spill would clearly cause more than $75 million in economic damage, the current cap on liability for drilling accidents. While BP continues to acknowledge its responsibility to shut off and clean up the oil, it is being barraged by government officials and civil lawyers who are redoubling efforts to ensure that the company's legal obligations are clearly defined and strictly enforced. BP has significantly stepped up its lobbying on Capital Hill, spending nearly $16 million in 2009, more than triple what it spent just two years before, according to data compiled by the Center for Responsive Politics, a watchdog group. BP is playing to a particularly skeptical and vigilant audience in the gulf, where people have become accustomed to frustrating clashes with insurance companies and government agencies in the five years since Hurricane Katrina.
It's amazing how a story in this caliber can be so heavily downplayed until they realize its worse than it is. Oil spilled into the ocean is bad, not matter how much it is and no matter what body of water it is. It just so happens that instead of some oil being in the water, there is a shitload of oil in the water. It's a good thing that BP is paying for this because the government nor anyone else should have to. It could hurt the economy, the animals, the environment and the means of oil production. Even though the amount of oil in the ocean is escalating, I don't buy it taking years for it to clean up. Once they block the shores with concrete walls, people will be safe. Everything that becomes a potential disaster takes a long time to fix. It will just take longer than expected to clean it up.

The District of Columbia Council approved a measure on Tuesday that would allow people with certain chronic illnesses to obtain medical marijuana from a handful of dispensaries regulated by the city. The 13-member council voted unanimously to allow doctors to recommend marijuana for people who are infected with H.I.V., as well as people with glaucoma, cancer or "chronic and lasting disease." Some doctors say marijuana helps relieve nausea, vomiting, certain AIDS syndrome and some side effects of chemotherapy. For glaucoma patients, the drug is believed to help lower eye pressure. The measure, which Mayor Adrian Fenty is expected to sign into law, thrusts the debate over medical marijuana into the hands of Congress and the White House, which must decide within 30 days whether to allow the city to proceed with the plan. To block, the law from taking effect, the House and the Senate must pass a joint resolution and President Obama must approve. If federal lawmakers do not intervene, Washington will join California and 13 other states that allows residents to use marijuana for medical purposes. The measure requires patients, their caregivers, dispensaries and cultivators to register with the city, restricts dispensaries to a maximum of 95 plants, and prohibits district agencies from arresting medical marijuana users or denying them from other services. Public support for medical marijuana has remained constantly high in recent years. In an Associated Press-CNBC poll conducted in April, nearly two-thirds of the respondents supported legalizing medical marijuana.
Wow, Washington is actually close to approving medical marijuana. There have been talks about passing the law for several months, so this doesn't come much as a surprise. I don't understand why people are so against medical marijuana, never mind marijuana. It's not like the drug can actually kill you unless you smoke two pounds in one sitting which is absolutely impossible by the way. Plus, patients need to find more ways to cure if not contain the illness anyway and I think medical marijuana will do the job. I think this is a big step for attempting to legalize marijuana. I don't think that the gateway drug will be illegal for much longer with 14 states approving medical marijuana.