ZRM Newswire for June 01, 2010

[wa3zrm]

Gorelick to Head BP Legal Team

Main Justice ^ | June 2, 2010 | Ryan J. Reilly
Posted on Wednesday, June 02, 2010 8:37:57 PM

Former Deputy Attorney General Jamie Gorelick will head the legal team for British Petroleum as it prepares to respond to legal challenges related to the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, Greenwire reported Wednesday.
Former Deputy Attorney General Jamie Gorelick (photo by Ryan J. Reilly / Main Justice).

“We have been retained to help the company respond to the numerous congressional inquiries that are underway,” Gorelick, now of Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr LLP, said in an e-mail to Greenwire. “We have not been retained to advocate for any position.”
Attorney General Eric Holder said on Tuesday that the Justice Department had opened a criminal probe into who was responsible for the oil spill, but declined to name the target. Investigators are considering both civil actions and criminal charges, Holder said.
Gorelick served as Deputy Attorney General under then-Attorney General Janet Reno during the Clinton administration. Gorelick also sat on the bipartisan Sept. 11 Commission.
BP has worked with Gorelick before; she was a lobbyist in 2007 when she helped BP respond to an inquiry from the House Energy and Commerce Committee, according to Greenwire.
Kenneth Green, resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, told Greenwire that Gorelick’s knowledge of the Justice Department will help BP steer “the ins and outs of the process. You want an inside player for that.”
The company that owned and leased the Deepwater Horizon rig to BP, Transocean Ltd., has recruited Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom, while Halliburton Co. — which worked on the rig — has hired Patton Boggs LLP, Greenwire reported.

[wa3zrm]

Porn Actor Goes on Rampage, Kills 1 Injures 2 at Calif. Office

Fox NY ^
Posted on Wednesday, June 02, 2010 8:15:48 PM

A pornographic actor who was threatened with losing his job went a on a rampage at a Van Nuys, Calif. production facility Tuesday night, killing one co-worker and injuring two, the Los Angeles Times reported.
Stephen Hill, 30, who had been working and living at the offices of Ultima DVD Inc. for several months, lashed out when he was told by employees of the business that he would be losing his job and needed to make other living arrangements.
Hill reportedly attacked one co-worker in the office with a “machete-like” weapon around 10:20 pm local time Tuesday night.
Two other employees who came to the defense of their co-worker were also injured by Hill. One of them later died in a local hospital.
The extent of the other two employees' injuries is unclear, though police said both are expected to survive.
Following the attack, Hill fled the scene in a SUV and is still on the run. Police are looking for a blue Toyota RAV4 with license plate 5YTC423.
Hill had acted in several porn movies, according to Los Angeles police

[wa3zrm]

Breaking News: EPA Takes Control of Clean Air Permit

The Austin Chronicle ^ | 5/28/2010 | KATHERINE GREGOR
Posted on Wednesday, June 02, 2010 8:11:58 PM

On Tuesday, for the first time in any state, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency seized control of Texas' jurisdiction over granting a clean air permit.
The takeover affects one key operating permit governing Flint Hills Resources' crude oil refinery in the Corpus Christi area (to which the EPA formally objected in December), but it sends a powerful message that Texas must comply with federal law.
EPA Region 6 Administrator Al Armendariz said the EPA is prepared to take control of Texas' entire air-permitting system because it violates the Clean Air Act, if TCEQ doesn't immediately begin requiring Texas air-quality permits that are federally sufficient.
"If the state agency is unwilling or unable to issue those permits, the EPA must and will do so," he told The Dallas Morning News on Tuesday. Armendariz says the EPA will begin issuing its own permits for several plants for which it has filed formal objections; those include facilities owned by Exxon Mobil Corp., Chevron, ConocoPhil*lips, and Dow Chemical Co.
"The time for delay and for partnership and for compromise is very quickly coming to an end," Armendariz said. "We have to get the Clean Air Act implemented in the state of Texas."