Oil spill menaces Louisiana coast
NEW ORLEANS, April 30 (UPI) -- A massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico is reaching Louisiana, menacing coastal areas and the fishing industry, officials said Friday.
State workers, commercial fishermen and others scrambled to fend off an environmental and economic disaster as the crude snaked its way toward the Mississippi River delta from a collapsed oil rig that exploded April 20, The (New Orleans) Times-Picayune reported.
Eleven of the rig's workers were missing and presumed dead.
Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal declared a state of emergency Thursday.
Oil giant BP, which was leasing the sunken rig, is heading efforts to contain and clean up the 210,000-gallon-a-day spill. President Barack Obama said the federal government is stepping up its involvement.
Top officials from the Homeland Security Department, Environmental Protection Agency and Interior Department were to visit the spill zone Friday to help coordinate the response.
Models from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration indicated the crude oil could move into Breton Sound and Chandeleur Sound by Saturday, The Times-Picayune said.
Officials in Louisiana and Mississippi said at least 10 state and national wildlife management areas and wildlife refuges were in the path of the more than 20,000-square-mile slick.
Louisiana state officials said booms were being used to protect the state's coast, but winds, high waves and high tides forecast for the next several days threatened to splash the oil over the boom lines.
New Orleans residents Thursday reported an oily stench that apparently came from the spill about 90 miles away, the newspaper said. State health and environmental officials asked the EPA for continuous air quality testing and monitoring.
State lawmakers expressed concern about whether the federal government and corporate officials were responding with the speed and resources necessary to avert a disaster.
State Rep. Sam Jones said on the House floor he had "deep concern about the lackadaisical response we have gotten on the oil spill containment," citing memories of the federal government's response to Hurricane Katrina five years ago. "I would ask the president to send all he can now."
Goldman may face criminal charges
NEW YORK, April 30 (UPI) -- The U.S. Justice Department has begun an investigation into Goldman Sachs securities that were allegedly designed to fail, sources told The Wall Street Journal.
The Securities and Exchange Commission, which filed a civil case against the New York investment firm April 16, had referred the case to the Manhattan U.S. attorney's office, the sources said.
A criminal case differs from a civil case because it requires proof that executives at Wall Street's most powerful firm intended to defraud investors.
The SEC charged Goldman with packaging bonds with mortgage-backed securities that were secretly chosen by a hedge fund manager who was betting against them.
On Tuesday, Goldman executives faced 11 hours of questioning by the U.S. Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations.
Goldman executives said the bonds were sold to sophisticated investors who knew there would be bets placed against them.
In after-hours trading, after news of the criminal investigation broke, Goldman's shares fell 2.6 percent to $156.08, the Journal said.
Man attacks schoolchildren with hammer
BEIJING, April 30 (UPI) -- A man armed with a hammer attacked and injured five children in a pre-school class at an east China school before killing himself Friday, officials said.
It was the latest of several attacks on children at schools in China.
Officials said the man doused himself with gasoline and set himself on fire while holding two children, who were pulled away from him by teachers, China's state-run news agency, Xinhua, reported.
The injured children from Shangzhuang Primary School in Weifang were hospitalized in stable condition, officials said.
Earlier this week, a knife-wielding man injured 28 kindergarteners at Taixing in eastern Jiangsu province and another man injured 16 children and a teacher with a knife at a primary school in south China's Guangdong province.
Attacks at other locations occurred earlier in April and in March, officials said.
Obama starts Supreme Court interviews
WASHINGTON, April 30 (UPI) -- President Barack Obama has begun interviewing potential U.S. Supreme Court nominees, including federal Judge Sidney Thomas, officials said.
Thomas, of Billings, Mont., sits on the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. He was nominated by President Bill Clinton and confirmed in 1996.
A senior official did not discuss other recent meetings, but said discussions with possible successors to retiring Justice John Paul Stevens indicated the nominating process was progressing as Obama moves closer to a selection, CNN reported Friday.
Obama hasn't met recently with two other known contenders -- federal Judge Diane Wood and Solicitor General Elena Kagan -- but the official told CNN the president either met with them the last time there was a Supreme Court vacancy or already knows them from other encounters. The official did not comment on whether another short-lister, federal appellate Judge Merrick Garland, met one-on-one with Obama.
Obama has said he would nominate a candidate to succeed Stevens by the end of May so the Senate can complete its confirmation process before the new Supreme Court session begins in October.
