BP argues against spill settlement change
NEW ORLEANS – A federal appeals court heard dueling arguments Monday on whether a judge should have approved BP’s multibillion-dollar settlement for compensating victims of its 2010 oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
Theodore Olson, a lawyer for BP, said the class-action deal it reached last year with a team of private plaintiffs’ attorneys “became something else” after U.S. District Judge Carl Barbier upheld a court-appointed claims administrator’s interpretation of terms governing payouts to businesses.
“I don’t understand how you can now disagree with what’s in there,” Judge Eugene Davis of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals told Olson.
“Black became white,” Olson told Davis, one of three judges on the panel that heard the case. The judges didn’t indicate how soon they would rule.
The plaintiffs’ lawyers who brokered the agreement on behalf of tens of thousands of Gulf Coast residents and businesses urged the panel to uphold Barbier’s approval of the settlement.
BP, however, argues Barbier’s approval shouldn’t stand unless the company ultimately prevails in its ongoing dispute over payments to businesses.
Senate clears vote on gay rights legislation
WASHINGTON – A major gay rights bill has cleared its first hurdle in the Senate.
On a vote of 61-30, the Senate voted to move ahead on the legislation that would prohibit workplace discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity.
The bipartisan vote increases the chances that the Senate will pass the bill by week’s end, but its prospects in the Republican-led House are dimmer.
Speaker John Boehner remains opposed to the bill, arguing that it will lead to frivolous lawsuits and undercut job creation.
A vote would come 17 years after the Senate rejected a similar discrimination measure by one vote.
The Obama administration has said passage of the bill is long overdue.
Brazil admits it spied on foreign diplomats
RIO DE JANEIRO – The Brazilian government confirmed Monday that its intelligence service targeted U.S., Russian, Iranian and Iraqi diplomats and property during spy activities carried out about a decade ago in the capital Brasilia.
The relatively low-key surveillance was reported by the Folha de S. Paulo newspaper, based on Brazilian intelligence service documents it obtained from an undisclosed source.
It describes surveillance that pales in comparison to the massive spy programs carried out by the U.S. National Security Agency, efforts detailed in thousands of documents leaked by Edward Snowden.
But the revelation forced the Brazilian government to defend its espionage while remaining the loudest critic of the NSA programs that have aggressively targeted communications in Brazil, including the personal phone and email of President Dilma Rousseff, who cancelled a state visit to Washington in response.
Associated Press
