Improved Pipelines Could Stop Oil Spills Before They Start

A rig operated by the Royal Dutch Shell company spilled 54,600 gallons of oil into the North Sea last week. The company knew the spill was happening on Wednesday but didn’t confirm it until Friday, and didn’t say until today how much oil had escaped. Reporters were quick to compare this spill to last year’s Deepwater Horizon disaster and point out that the BP well released a far greater amount of oil. But while it's true that this event may not rank high on the all-time list of oil spills, it's still the largest spill in the North Sea in the past decade.

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Report shows Stimulus worked!!

Looking at recorded spending to date along with estimates of the other effects of ARRA on spending and revenues, CBO has estimated the law’s impact on employment and economic output using evidence about the effects of previous similar policies and drawing on various mathematical models that represent the workings of the economy. Because those sources indicate a wide range of possible effects, CBO provides high and low estimates of the likely impact, aiming to encompass most economists’ views about the effects of different policies. On that basis, CBO estimates that ARRA’s policies had the following effects in the second quarter of calendar year 2011 compared with what would have occurred otherwise:

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Obama :: Fulfilling a promise on immigration

Last week, the Obama administration announced a breakthrough in its enforcement of immigration policy: deportations of undocumented immigrants who pose no threat to national security or public safety have effectively been suspended. The White House can’t change the law unilaterally, but it can choose to prioritize among cases and create a more sensible and more humane immigration policy.

We’re now seeing the benefits as the new policy is implemented.

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