The Mobile, Alabama

Serving the Azalea City on the Bay

All the news you need; one simple URL.

Main Menu

21561

Press Stories

Revival with what worshippers say are 'miracles of healing' continues in Mobile (with video)

At the Bay of the Holy Spirit Revival on Friday night in downtown Mobile, throngs of worshippers gathered to pray, sing and be witness to what they believed to be miracles of healing.

(Press-Register/Roy Hoffman)The Rev. John Kilpatrick prays with the Rev. Delia Knox and her husband, Bishop Levy Knox, Friday night, Sept. 3, 2010, at the Arthur R. Outlaw Mobile Convention Center.

MOBILE, Ala. -- At the Bay of the Holy Spirit Revival on Friday night in downtown Mobile, throngs of worshippers gathered to pray, sing and be witness to what they believed to be miracles of healing.

Among them was the Rev. Delia Knox, a Mobile pastor, known to be paralyzed for the last 22 years, who stood and took steps from her wheelchair at the Aug. 27 revival.

A video of that episode, titled “Delia Knox Walking,” posted on YouTube, has received at least 85,000 hits.

According to the Rev. John Kilpatrick, pastor of the Church of His Presence in Daphne — organizer of the revival — the YouTube video was recorded and posted on the Internet by someone who had taken it with a cell phone.

Knox and her husband, Bishop Levy Knox, are pastors of Living Word Christian International Ministries in Mobile.

On Friday, the Knoxes sat on the front row of a packed ballroom of the Arthur R. Outlaw Mobile Convention Center as the crowd joined in prayer with the evangelist, the Rev. Nathan Morris.

As Morris asked those with illnesses to come forward, he spoke of God, Jesus Christ and the Holy Ghost, often pressing his hand against foreheads.

Many believers crumpled to the floor, some shaking in seeming ecstasy.

Revival events

The Bay of the Holy Spirit Revival is set to continue Monday evening at the Arthur R. Outlaw Mobile Convention Center. The event begins at 7, according to revival information posted on the Internet. More services are scheduled at various dates through Sept. 25.

As the revival was entering the third hour, Delia Knox, accompanied by her husband, struggled to stand from her wheelchair.

Grimacing then smiling, crying and sweating, Knox moved through the jubilant crowd. At one point her husband and others seemed to remove their hands altogether and she balanced on her own, lurching forward for brief moments before needing to be steadied again.

Exhausted from the effort, Knox returned to her wheelchair.

“It’s overwhelming,” she said of the experience moments later. “It’s a God thing. It’s so sacred that I have to be careful not to put words on it.”

Levy Knox, who called it “a miracle of God,” said, “She got up by herself. Tonight it was another stage of development. She began to walk on her own.”

In a 2007 Press-Register interview, Delia Knox told of a wreck 20 years earlier that that changed her life.

With family in Ontario, Canada, she was a passenger in the car as they rode home from church on Christmas Day 1987, she said. Another car struck theirs. The driver, she said, was drunk.

In that interview she noted the 20 years that had passed: “I determined long ago that I would not look at the anniversary as a time of mourning the loss of my legs, but (would instead) look at it as a celebration of victory in life.”

Morris, the evangelist, said he had never met Delia Knox prior to the Aug. 27 service. “I saw she was in the wheelchair. Suddenly, something took place in her body. She said she felt feeling in her body. She was crying.”

“I pray for thousands upon thousands of sick people,” said Morris in an interview prior to the event. “I want to say loud and clear, we’re not healers. Jesus is the healer. All he told preachers to do is lay hands on the sick, pray for the sick.”

“God came in and miracles began to break out,” said Kilpatrick.

"It’s wise to confirm as much as possible,” Kilpatrick said, a reference to what he said is medical review of some of the purported healings. “It’s not just somebody’s word.”

He said that “skepticism doesn’t mix in” to the miracles of healing that he has witnessed.

“America and the public are tired of seeing farces and counterfeits,” he said. “If they ever see something that they feel is really Christ, it really touches them. If I put my head on my bed at night and I knew this was a fraud, I couldn’t sleep. ... But I’m at peace, because I know what I saw.”

Error in ADEM review of landfill indicated arsenic; other testing continues

BAY MINETTE, Alabama -- An enforcement letter ordering future action to correct arsenic detected in groundwater tested at Magnolia Landfill came from misinterpreted data, according to officials.

BAY MINETTE, Alabama — An enforcement letter ordering future action to correct arsenic detected in groundwater tested at Magnolia Landfill came from misinterpreted data, according to officials.

A letter sent by the Alabama Department of Environmental Management this spring in response to testing data from September 2009 asks the county to take swift corrective action due to elevated arsenic levels presented in regular testing at the Summerdale facility.

The problem is, officials said last week, complete testing showed arsenic was never a problem. The testing took place in Sept. 2009, was submitted in yearly reports and ADEM responded with a letter earlier this year. County officials responded with a letter explaining the error on March 23.

“They sent us the letter requiring us to investigate the issue based on preliminary testing,” said Jim Ransom, Baldwin County’s solid waste director. “If they had looked at the completed tests, they would have seen there was not a problem.”

But the letter from ADEM found its way into news accounts questioning the landfill’s ability to handle oily waste and the story was published nationally and through some outlets abroad on Aug. 25.

Scott Hughes, a spokesman for ADEM, said Friday that all the state’s landfills are required to conduct regular groundwater testing and submit the results to the state agency. He said the Baldwin facility’s testing indicated there was an elevated level of arsenic and other compounds like acetone — something both local officials and a state-recommended testing consultant deny. Asked about the possibility of an error in assessing the results, Hughes said that might be possible concerning arsenic.

But there was more to the data, he said. Tests showed vinyl chloride and acetone and that forced the facility to perform more extensive testing — a process still ongoing.

Vinyl chloride is used in production of plastics like polyvinyl chloride pipes, and was once used as a propellant in aerosol sprays. It is a known carcinogen and has been linked to liver damage in people exposed to the chemical. Acetone is a commonly used solvent and is not generally considered toxic. Its fumes can cause throat irritation over time, according to online chemical manuals.

Hughes said the amounts indicated “are at extremely low levels — not at all an amount that would impact human health.” Of several wells on the site, he said, only one or two showed a possible increase in those two compounds.

“Our testing showed there was an arsenic concentration there,” said William W. “Billy” Cooch of Highland Technical Services in Birmingham late last week. “But that is not uncommon. Arsenic is naturally occurring in groundwater throughout the state of Alabama. If tests find a statistically significant increase, then that prompts a response from the state agency.”

But in this case, he said, the response was in error and county officials explained that. Cooch said the explanation “addressed the arsenic issue and satisfied ADEM” and the agency “required no further action.”

Technicians for Highland performed the first round of tests on the water drawn from test wells in and around Magnolia Landfill. One set of preliminary tests indicated technicians needed to do more specific tests, and once those were done, the results indicated there was no significant increase in arsenic or other compounds, Cooch said.

“The letter came when the ADEM reviewer didn’t see the secondary test results,” Cooch said. “The more stringent secondary test showed there wasn’t a problem.”

As for any acetone found, Cooch said the chemical is commonly used in labs doing tests on groundwater, and contamination of samples likely was the source of that initial finding. Hughes also said lab contamination is possible, and the ongoing testing at the landfill should clearly show if there is any elevation of acetone or vinyl chloride contaminants there.

“I don’t remember Magnolia ever having acetone confirmed in any secondary testing,” Cooch said.

Baldwin County Public Schools eye $257 million budget for 2011

LOXLEY, Alabama -- Even with an additional $23.5 million expected from the new 1-cent sales tax, Baldwin County Public Schools will operate on a budget reduced by $8.7 million in the coming year, officials said Thursday.

LOXLEY, Alabama — Even with an additional $23.5 million expected from the new 1-cent sales tax, Baldwin County Public Schools will operate on a budget reduced by $8.7 million in the coming year, officials said Thursday.

The proposed budget for 2011 will total nearly $257 million, down from $266 million in the 2010 year. But the plan does not include additional layoffs, according to Chief Financial Officer Jean McCutchen.

The new plan cuts $2.9 million from instructional services, $2.7 million from instructional support and $2.5 million from capital outlay spending. The only increases came in operations and maintenance, with general administration expenses totaling about $1.25 million.

McCutchen said administrative costs amounted to 3 percent of the total budget, among the lowest in the state.

Teachers accounted for 52 percent of the proposed budget spending.

McCutchen said she budgeted revenue conservatively, estimating $103.2 million in state revenue, $35.7 million in federal money, and $121 million in local funding from property, sales, alcohol and other taxes and other local funding sources.

All local tax revenues in the county should bring in about $97.8 million, McCutchen said, but state revenue sharing among school systems will take about $43.8 million of Baldwin’s total, leaving $53.9 million in local funding.

In the 2010 budget, records show, the system paid 147 teachers from local funds. For 2011, that number is down to 108. McCutchen stressed that these are the teachers left on the payroll after resignations, layoffs and retirements to date.

The federal jobs bill passed last month will mean $5.45 million for the county system. The money will go to pay teachers and support staff, nurses, janitors and bus drivers, freeing up money from the general fund to be used to build the fund balance.

School systems are required to keep operating expenses on hand. Baldwin’s fund balance should have been more than $20 million. Years of proration and declining tax revenue left Baldwin’s fund balance in the red. With the 1-cent, 3-year sales tax passed in March, the system projected building the fund to about $5 million at the end of this year. With the additional federal money, the balance was higher than expected.

"The jobs bill is providing relief for us," McCutchen said. "That will be our cushion that will help us in the event of proration."

McCutchen said she anticipates the state might announce from 3 to 5 percent proration in the coming year, and planned for that in the budget.

Hard hit by Baldwin’s real estate market decline and a steep drop in sales tax revenue, the county’s school funding fell victim to the economic downturn. Without the added sales tax revenue, officials projected the system would be $5 million in deficit by this year’s end, and $31 million short by 2012.

McCutchen has said that the Baldwin end-of-year fund balance was $22.4 million at the end of fiscal year 2008 and that the system’s goal had been to maintain a balance equal to 1½ months of operating budget, or about $27 million.

McCutchen budgeted $23.5 million in revenue from the new tax that paid for 307 employees, including teachers and support personnel, in the 2011 proposed budget. Other local revenue paid for 181 employees and state foundation dollars paid for 1,900 employees. Various other sources paid for hundreds more for a total employee roll of 3,244 jobs included in the 2011 plan.

Superintendent Alan Lee told board members at the budget hearing in Loxley on Thursday that his plan is to "place more teachers in the classroom over the next two years" and continue to trim administrative jobs as attrition takes place.

Board President Tracy Roberts fielded questions from board members Frank Trione and Norm Moore regarding filing legal action to force changes in calculating revenue sharing, also known as Education Foundation funds. Both men said the law says the state should use current property values when calculating the foundation contribution each county makes. But the state’s values are usually two years behind. Using the 2010 value of property rather than the 2008 appraisal could mean $5 million for Baldwin, they said. Roberts said she is in favor of pursuing the money, but was not sure about footing the bill for legal expenses to get it.

All board members present said the fund balance was of utmost importance. Angie Swiger, Elmer McDonald and Robert Wills did not attend the meeting.

Roberts said the board would vote on the budget next Thursday.

Mullet festival to go on without mullet

LILLIAN, Alabama -- Even without its namesake, the 24th annual Perdido Bay Mullet Festival will continue this year, providing seafood and fun in Lillian on Monday, organizers said. The Labor Day festival has been a tradition on Perdido Bay for a quarter-century, Bill Cornell, president of the Optimist Club of Perdido Bay, said. The festival, which is organized by...

Submitted photoParticipants dance to band music at the 2009 Perdido Bay Mullet Festival. The 2010 festival is Monday.

LILLIAN, Alabama -- Even without its namesake, the 24th annual Perdido Bay Mullet Festival will continue this year, providing seafood and fun in Lillian on Monday, organizers said.

The Labor Day festival has been a tradition on Perdido Bay for a quarter-century, Bill Cornell, president of the Optimist Club of Perdido Bay, said. The festival, which is organized by the Optimist Club of Perdido Bay, will take place as scheduled at the Lillian Community Club on Labor Day, Cornell said.

This year, however, the club will serve catfish instead of mullet. Cornell said organizers worried about public concerns over Gulf seafood quality following the Deepwater Horizon oil spill and decided to switch to a freshwater fish.

“We’re going to go on with everything as planned,” he said. “The only thing is that we’ll be serving catfish instead of mullet. Both are very popular and we decided it would be a good thing to do this year.”

He said substituting catfish will not result in any changes in prices for fried seafood plates.

Cornell said Wallace Seafood of Elberta is providing the catfish at about the same cost that the club would have paid for mullet. “We got it at about the same price so that’s not going to change,” he said.

The Mullet Festival has been the only fundraiser for the Optimist Club since the group was established 25 years ago, Cornell said.

“It helps us do a lot of things,” he said. “We have 32 programs with kids and this raises money for all that.”

The festival will begin with the Bud Morris 5K Run/Walk at 7:30 a.m. and the 1-Mile Fun Walk around 8 a.m. The runners’ party will be from 8 to 10:30 a.m. Breakfast will be $4 per person and served from 7 to 9 a.m. The catfish or ham dinner will be held from 11 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Carry-outs are available. The cost is $8 per person and children younger than 8 can eat without charge.

Other activities include the Mullet Fling or the Golf Pitch and silent auction, according to organizers.

Plants and used books will be on sale to benefit the Lillian-Perdido Bay Library and craft and vendor booths will be set up.

Live music by Big Jake and the Tag-a-Longs will be performed from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

A drawing will be held at 3 p.m.

Optimist activities supported by the festival include Christmas breakfast and visits with Santa Claus, an Easter egg hunt, fishing rodeo, essay and oratorical contests and scholarships.

The club also supports the Special Olympics by providing meals for contestants and their families, turkey dinner for the Association for Retarded Citizens of Baldwin County, support for an autism program at St. Benedict School, Thanksgiving dinner turkeys for needy families and food baskets at Christmas.

The members read to kindergarten and first-grade classes at Elberta Elementary School, and help with math at the elementary and middle schools. Recently they have been helping at the Shepherd of the Bay Lutheran School by providing “cubbies” for the children.

Anyone wanting more information on the club or activities can call Cornell at 251-962-2855 or Membership Chairman Mike Russell, 251-961-3248.

Beautiful weather doesn't entice holiday weekend crowds to Dauphin Island

Buddy Robinson has been visiting Dauphin Island on holiday weekends like this one for decades.

(Press-Register/David Ferrara)The beaches of Dauphin Island are empty on Saturday, Sept. 4, 2010.

DAUPHIN ISLAND, Ala. — Buddy Robinson has been visiting Dauphin Island on holiday weekends like this one for decades.

“You couldn’t ask for better weather,” he said Saturday, looking south into the Gulf of Mexico.

Judging by the crowd, however, it might as well have been the middle of autumn, not the unofficial end of summer, the final weekend of the year to enjoy the sun and the sand.

“I’ve seen days in October that had more people than this,” said Robinson, 44, of Mobile.

He stood with six fishing poles jammed into the sand, as a few people from the small, scattered crowd ducked under his lines stretching into the water.

The fish were biting Saturday, but Robinson just threw them back into the water.

He didn’t even want to check them for oil or contaminants, he said. Since the Deepwater Horizon oil rig exploded in April, sending millions of gallons of oil into the Gulf, he only fishes here for recreation.

“We’re not eating them,” he said. “It ain’t clean.”

A couple of hundred yards away, six boats were anchored near the shore, where Vanessa Cooper sat with friends and pondered the lack of people.

“It’s very strange,” she said. “It’s isolated.”

The boats are usually squeezed tightly together on this spot on Labor Day weekend, her husband, Casey Cooper, said. A few of their friends decided not to visit Dauphin Island this year, he said, blaming the oil spill.

“It’s kind of sad,” he said. “But we bring everything with us. The party’s where we go.”

Their friend, Cindy Pierce, observed, “I think everybody wrote off their summer after that oil spill.”

To their west, mounds of sand piled up to block the oil stretched past the pier, walling off the sea view from the road.

Traffic on the island was scarce for much of the late morning and early afternoon.

Puddles lined Bienville Boulevard leading to the last public beach on the west end, which was closed. On the northern edge remained the large, rectangular pools, created months ago when chunks of the island were dug out to create sand berms for protection of the southern edge of the west end.

The green box fencing that had been used to line the northern shore of the island had been crumpled and dropped in piles in front of houses.

Don Rhodes, who owns the Pelican Nest RV Resort and Campground, said he had hoped that this weekend would be a relief from the summer that the oil prevented.

But instead of the parked cars lining Bienville Boulevard and blocking the entrance to his park, he looked across at a mostly empty beach.

“We felt like this weekend would be really good,” Rhodes said. “But it just ain’t.”

Ammonia leak response to be focus of community hearings

After a blast of sirens, a voice blared a warning through the loudspeakers: Take shelter indoors.

An apparent ammonia leak along the Theodore Canal this morning sent dozens to the hospital and caused businesses and homes to be evacuated.

(Press-Register/Bill Starling)An apparent victim of an ammonia release is taken on a stretcher to a waiting ambulance Monday Aug. 23, 2010.

After a blast of sirens, a voice blared a warning through the loudspeakers: Take shelter indoors.

Danny Wilson, who heard the alarm while he was walking among the tropical plants at his Theodore nursery, didn’t trust the advice, he said.

Instead, he and his employee hopped into his pickup truck and drove away — as dozens nearby were being rushed to hospitals from an ammonia leak on the Theodore Industrial Canal.

“I just locked the gate and left,” Wilson said. “I didn’t want to be locked up in my office. ... I know it really scared a lot of people. There was a lot of fear afterward. It’s the unknown that scared so many people.”

The response to the Aug. 23 incident at Millard Refrigerated Services has generated a number of questions in the public mind — from how long it took the company to dial 911 to when the sirens were sounded 40 minutes later.

Mobile County Commissioner Mike Dean, whose district includes the canal area, said he plans to initiate community meetings with industry leaders, as well as restart an emergency calling system that the county cut from its budget last year.

A timeline of the ammonia leak

9:05 a.m. — Millard Refrigerated Services on Deer River Road detected an ammonia leak at its warehouse and began an internal response.

9:25 a.m. — A 911 dispatch center received a call from the company reporting the leak.

9:35 a.m. — Mobile County Emergency Management Agency was notified about a hazardous materials incident at the warehouse.

9:40 a.m. — Mobile Fire-Rescue Department requested an evacuation inside Hamilton Boulevard to the north, Industrial Canal to the south, Dauphin Island Parkway to the east and Rangeline Road to the west.

9:50 a.m. — Mobile Fire-Rescue Department reported that the ammonia leak was secured. The department requested the evacuation be cancelled and people be asked to take shelter indoors.

10:05 a.m. — The Emergency Management Agency sent an alert to local media to broadcast a warning.

10:08 a.m. — Sirens in the Theodore Industrial Canal area were sounded by the Emergency Management Agency.

Sources: Millard Refrigerated Services and Mobile County Emergency Management Agency

Dean also said he believes that Millard Refrigerated Services should pay for the costs of the response to the leak, similar to BP PLC paying for the oil spill cleanup. He said he plans to bring up the issue at the next County Commission meeting.

The company — which prepares chicken for worldwide shipment at its Theodore warehouse — has said that it reacted and had the leak under control quickly. Still, the spewing ammonia sickened more than 120 people, sending some to intensive care.

Dean said he has requested about $180,000 in the county’s budget to rejoin the emergency calling system, although he is still figuring out how to pay for it.

The system uses automated phone calls to warn people of chemical spills or hazardous weather. Currently, only people within the city of Mobile’s limits and police jurisdiction can receive those calls.

Mobile County and the county EMA dropped out of the system when grants and state money dried up.

Dean said the county had a “pretty good response time” to the ammonia leak, but companies have a responsibility “to call us quicker, sooner.”

Dean said, “People want to complain because they didn’t know soon enough. Well, we’re going to let you know as soon as humanly possible, but our No. 1 priority is to contain the accident ... the problem.”

Several federal regulators — the Environment Protection Agency, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board and the Occupational Safety & Health Administration — are probing the leak.

Millard Refrigerated Services was cited for two violations by OSHA in 2007, including failing to provide maintenance and operations employees access to its safety standards and information about potential hazards, according to OSHA records.

An OSHA spokesman said those standards include training, response to leaks or spills and other safety information.

The goal is to “identify deficiencies before you have a catastrophic failure or a leak,” the spokesman said.

Steve Huffman, spokesman for Mobile Fire-Rescue Department, said the department’s hazardous materials unit — which responded to the leak — is based at Moffett Road and Western Drive.

The department has hazmat-trained firefighters in other units.

He said the city of Saraland also has a hazmat unit.

Huffman said firefighters go on yearly tours of some company sites. “We like to think we’re prepared for whatever,” Huffman said. “You don’t know that until it happens sometimes. We do everything possible to make sure we have the right equipment and the right training. ... You plan for what you know and what’s available and hope that’s good enough.”

With blowout preventer on surface, investigators closer to learning what went wrong at Gulf oil spill site

Investigators looking into what went wrong in the Gulf of Mexico oil spill are a step closer to answers now that a key piece of evidence is secure aboard a ship.

In this Sept. 4, 2010 picture, the Helix Q4000, center, the vessel responsible for lifting the Deepwater Horizon blowout preventer stack from the sea floor, is seen from a helicopter during its landing approach on the Gulf of Mexico near the coast of Louisiana. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)

ON THE GULF OF MEXICO — Investigators looking into what went wrong in the Gulf of Mexico oil spill are a step closer to answers now that a key piece of evidence is secure aboard a ship.

Engineers took 29½ hours to lift the 50-foot, 300-ton blowout preventer from a mile beneath the sea. The five-story high device breached the water's surface at 6:54 p.m. CDT, and looked largely intact with black stains on the yellow metal.

FBI agents were among the 137 people aboard the Helix Q4000 vessel, taking photos and video of the device. They will escort it back to a NASA facility in Louisiana for analysis.

The AP was the only news outlet with a print reporter and photographer on board the ship.

The blowout preventer was placed into a metal contraption specifically designed to hold the massive device at 9:16 p.m. CDT Saturday. As it was maneuvered into place, crew members were silent and water dripped off the device.

Crews had been delayed raising the device after icelike crystals — called hydrates — formed on it. The device couldn't be safely lifted from the water until the hydrates melted because the hydrates are combustible, said Darin Hilton, the captain of the Helix Q4000.

Hydrates form when gases such as methane mix with water under high pressure and cold temperatures. The crystals caused BP PLC problems in May, when hydrates formed on a 100-ton, four-story dome the company tried to place over the leak to contain it.

As a large hatch opened up on the Helix to allow the blowout preventer to pass through, several hundred feet of light sheen could be seen near the boat, though crews weren't exactly sure what it was.

The April 20 explosion aboard the Deepwater Horizon killed 11 workers and led to 206 million gallons of oil spewing from BP PLC's undersea well.

Investigators know the explosion was triggered by a bubble of methane gas that escaped from the well and shot up the drill column, expanding quickly as it burst through several seals and barriers before igniting.

But they don't know exactly how or why the gas escaped. And they don't know why the blowout preventer didn't seal the well pipe at the sea bottom after the eruption, as it was supposed to. While the device didn't close — or may have closed partially — investigative hearings have produced no clear picture of why it didn't plug the well.

Documents emerged showing that a part of the device had a hydraulic leak, which would have reduced its effectiveness, and that a passive "deadman" trigger had a low, perhaps even dead, battery.

Steve Newman, president of rig owner Transocean, told lawmakers following the disaster that there was no evidence the device itself failed and suggested debris might have been forced into it by the surging gas.

There has also been testimony that the blowout preventer didn't undergo a rigorous recertification process in 2005 as required by federal regulators.

Testimony from BP and Transocean officials also showed that repairs were not always authorized by the manufacturer, Cameron International, and that confusion about the equipment delayed attempts to close the well in the days after the explosion.

A Transocean official has said he knew the blowout preventer was functioning because he personally oversaw its maintenance, and he said the device underwent tests to ensure it was working. The device, he said, had undergone a maintenance overhaul in February as it was being moved to the Deepwater Horizon to be placed over BP's well.

Also, according to testimony, a BP well site leader performed a pressure test April 9 on the blowout preventer, and he said it passed.

Some have cautioned that the blowout preventer will not provide clues to what caused the gas bubble. And it is possible a thorough review may not be able to show why it didn't work.

That could leave investigators to speculate on causes using data, records and testimony.

Lawyers will be watching closely, too, as hundreds of lawsuits have been filed over the oil spill. Future liabilities faced by a number of corporations could be riding on what the analysis of the blowout preventer shows.

A temporary cap that stopped oil from gushing into the Gulf in mid-July was removed Thursday. No more oil was expected to leak into the sea, but crews were standing by with collection vessels in case.

The government said a new blowout preventer was placed on the blown-out well late Friday.

Oil spill claims show statewide scope of Deepwater Horizon disaster

Experts knew the coast economy had “linkages all through the state,” said University of South Alabama economist Sam Addy.. “But the degree is what’s surprising. These economic inter-linkages between things like fishing and tourism are deep and significant.”

BP PLC’s oil spill claims payments in Alabama reflect the economic ripple that the disaster sent throughout the state, according to a leading economist.

More than $86 million of the $97 million in individual claims paid by BP through Aug. 23 were delivered to businesses and residents in Mobile and Baldwin counties.

The company also handed out $4 million worth of payments altogether to claimants in heavily populated Jefferson, Shelby and Montgomery counties.

There were no claims payments made in three of the state’s 67 counties: Lamar, Perry and Barbour. And payments in one county — Crenshaw — totaled just $125.

“The coast is important to our tourism sector, and it’s tied into the rest of the state economy, both structurally and spatially,” said University of Alabama economist Sam Addy. “This tells me that we have an asset. We may not think of it as such, but it’s a good asset.”

Experts knew the coast economy had “linkages all through the state,” he said. “But the degree is what’s surprising. These economic inter-linkages between things like fishing and tourism are deep and significant.”

The figures released by BP last week represent claims paid to individuals, not government entities, according to oil company spokesman Ray Melick.

Ken Feinberg’s Gulf Coast Claims Facility took control of payments Aug. 23.

Of the cities outside Mobile and Baldwin counties, payments to claimants in Birmingham topped the list at nearly $2.5 million. That exceeded the claims payments to individuals in Dauphin Island or Fairhope, each totaling about $2.2 million.

Checks cut for claimants in Florence, in the far northwest corner of the state, added up to about $138,000, more than Point Clear, Satsuma, Citronelle and Creola.

A breakdown of the payments by ZIP Code also shows the disparity in types of losses reported, and the amounts sought.

For example:

BP reported paying a $16 claim for a wage loss in Spanish Fort.
Payments of $125 each were made to claimants in Luverne and Cuba, Ala., for loss of rental income.
The company reported paying a $160.63 claim for wage loss in McIntosh.

In essence, Addy said, the dark oil and slippery sheen coated more than the snow-white beaches and fishing communities.

“People living in other counties should not think they are not affected when something happens to Baldwin and Mobile counties,” Addy said. “Our economy is very much interrelated.”

In Mississippi, about $27 million of the $31 million in BP’s business or personal claims payments were made in four counties on the state’s south end: Jackson, Harrison, Hancock and Pearl River.

No payments were sent to 24 of the 82 Mississippi counties.

Addy said the distribution of Mississippi’s claims was more expected.

In Louisiana, BP paid $152 million in business and residential claims, but no checks were sent to anyone in 10 of the 64 parishes. In Florida, which tallied $81 million in claims, there were no claims recipients in 10 of the 67 counties.

Melick said that the distribution reflects ZIP Codes where the payments were mailed, not specifically the home address of the individual who received the claim. For example, someone living in Lamar County could have perhaps requested a check sent to a post office box in Baldwin County.

John Seiselmyer, athlete; today's Mobile's obituaries

Today's Mobile obituaries.

John Seiselmyer

John Seiselmyer, a former Alabama state discus champion, died on Wednesday, Sept. 1.

A Mobile native, Seiselmyer attended St. Paul's Episcopal School, where he captained the Junior Varsity football team and became the state's 4A discus champion in 1999. Seiselmyer was also an all-star baseball player for the Mobile Municipal Park League, a swimmer and an hockey player.

He later attended the University of Wyoming, where he studied geology. He was pursuing an insurance career at the time of his death.

"He was optimistic and saw his future as being great," his obituary says. "He had love and respect for family, friends, music, environmental causes and the outdoors."

Read Seiselmyer's obituary here and sign his guestbook. See all of today's obituaries from the Press-Register here.

Oil spill claims payments rise sharply in Gulf Coast Claims Facility's second week

In a week’s time, the Gulf Coast Claims Facility paid out almost seven times as much in individual and business claims as it did in the first week, according to figures released on its website.

(AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)Kenneth Feinberg, the administrator of a program set up to compensate Gulf of Mexico oil spill victims, is seen in this June 30, 2010 file photo. The Gulf Coast Claims Facility significantly increased its payments to oil spill victims in its second week of operations.

In a week’s time, the Gulf Coast Claims Facility paid out almost seven times as much in individual and business claims as it did in the first week, according to figures released on its website.

As of Friday evening, the claims process now run by Ken Feinberg had paid out $47.4 million to nearly 6,000 claimants across the Gulf Coast. That’s an average of about $8,000 per claim.

The figures, released on www.GulfCoastClaimsFacility.com, reveal a sharp rise from the week prior, when Feinberg said the process had been “unacceptable” in the first days after he took over from BP PLC. The facility reported about 44,000 claims logged as of Friday.

That still leaves about 38,000 people waiting for checks, like Ben Lyles, who works at Wintzell’s Oyster House in Fairhope.

He said he filed a claim for $7,200 in lost wages on Aug. 23, the day Feinberg took over most of the claims administration from BP.

Lyles said Saturday that he regularly checks the website, and his claim remained in “review” status. When the oil company was handling claims, he said he received three checks for $500.

He’s frustrated, he said, because “They can’t seem to give me any answers.”

In the first week, with about 26,000 claims logged, the facility had reported paying $6 million to 1,200 claimants.

After Feinberg took over, he promised to speed up the process, saying individuals would be paid within 48 hours of filing, and businesses would see a seven-day turnaround.

On June 16, President Barack Obama and BP PLC officials agreed that over four years, the company would put $20 billion into a fund that would cover spill damages, including claims.

Labor Day closings

A list of Labor Day closings.

Alabama Supreme Court justice failed to disclose Greenetrack ties before election

“According to my reading of the canon, it absolutely should have been disclosed and may even have been grounds for Justice Murdock to recuse,” said Montgomery lawyer John Bolton, who represents Greenetrack Inc. of Eutaw.

Justice Glenn Murdock

Alabama Supreme Court Justice Glenn Murdock, who has written at least two key opinions concerning the state’s gambling controversy, did legal work for a co-owner of the Greenetrack dog track and casino prior to his election to the court, according to billing records obtained by the Press-Register.

Murdock did not disclose his ties to Greenetrack to parties appearing before the court, according to lawyers for the gambling industry and for Gov. Bob Riley’s Task Force on Illegal Gambling.

Several of the lawyers said that the omission could violate the state’s Canon of Judicial Ethics, which govern the conduct of justices.

“According to my reading of the canon, it absolutely should have been disclosed and may even have been grounds for Justice Murdock to recuse,” said Montgomery lawyer John Bolton, who represents Greenetrack Inc. of Eutaw.

Murdock, 54, a Republican from Enterprise, represented the Greene County Commission as a lawyer in private practice in the late 1990s. The commission holds an ownership stake in Greenetrack.

Murdock, then a partner with the Wallace, Jordan, Ratliff & Brandt firm of Birmingham, helped the county negotiate agreements to bring video poker machines to Greenetrack in 1998-99, according to legal documents and correspondence with the commission. He also helped draft legislation that proposed to authorize, regulate and tax the electronic gambling machines.

Murdock did not respond to a request for comment for this story.

John Tyson, the Mobile County district attorney and head of Riley’s gambling task force, said he was unaware of Murdock’s work for the commission until contacted by a reporter last week. But he said he saw no conflict of interest for Murdock.

“Frankly, the people in Greene County have known about this for a long time and never made it an issue before. It seems a little late at this point,” said Tyson, whose task force has received a string of favorable rulings from the court in recent months, including those written by Murdock.

The task force, under its former director, David Barber, asked the Supreme Court last year to overturn an unfavorable ruling because the justice appointed to hear the case, Mark Kennedy, did not disclose his work to develop the Wind Creek Casino in Atmore.

(The Birmingham News/Joe Songer)Alabama State Troopers block the entrance to Greenetrack on Thursday morning, July 1, 2010.

It was unclear whether Murdock disclosed his work for Greene County to his colleagues on the court. There was no record of Murdock requesting an opinion from the Alabama Judicial Inquiry Commission, which provides ethics advice to judges.

Birmingham lawyer Mark White, who represents the VictoryLand casino in Shorter, contended that Murdock had an obligation to reveal his relationship with Greene County before ruling on cases affecting the gambling industry.

“That sort of disclosure happens every day in every courtroom in Alabama,” said White, who served on the Judicial Inquiry Commission for eight years and has lectured on judicial ethics. “Typically, I encourage judges to get an opinion from the JIC to help them resolve recusal issues.”

The Canon of Judicial Ethics states that judges should disqualify themselves in matters where their impartiality “might reasonably be questioned,” including cases where they — or a partner — served as a lawyer in the dispute.

Murdock’s firm was discharged by the Green County Commission in June 1999. Greene County officials said they had no complaint about Murdock’s work.

“It was my recommendation to hire Glenn, and in my opinion he did an outstanding job for us,” said Chip Beeker, former chairman of the commission.

Beeker said that Murdock was particularly effective in helping the county increase its share of revenue from the casino in Eutaw. That effort, he said, made Murdock a target for the casino’s owner, Luther “Nat” Winn.

An exceprt from a letter written by Glenn Murdock.

“If anything, he was doing too good of a job,” Beeker said.

Murdock won election to the Alabama Court of Civil Appeals in 2000 and was elected to the Supreme Court in 2006.

In 2001, Murdock recused himself from an appellate case involving a timber company owned by Beeker, citing his prior work on behalf of Greene County.

Murdock authored a landmark opinion in May, when the Supreme Court ruled unanimously that Attorney General Troy King had no authority over Riley’s gambling task force.

Murdock last year was the court’s lone dissenter in a case involving Greenetrack. In that case, the casino was sued in neighboring Pickens County by a customer who sought to recover money he lost while playing video poker, claiming that the games were illegal.

Greenetrack sought to transfer the case to Greene County, a move opposed by the plaintiff. Murdock, in his dissenting opinion, argued that the case should remain in Pickens County. The court majority ruled that the case could be heard in Greene County.

FDA's standards for Gulf seafood may be lower than those in past oil spills

(Press-Register file photo)A Press-Register examination of the process used to reopen state waters around the Gulf to commercial fishing suggests that the Food and Drug Administration used an imprecise testing method, less protective standards than after past oil spills, and seafood consumption estimates that may not account for the dietary habits of Gulf Coast residents.

A Press-Register examination of the process used to reopen state waters around the Gulf to commercial fishing suggests that the Food and Drug Administration used an imprecise testing method, less protective standards than after past oil spills, and seafood consumption estimates that may not account for the dietary habits of Gulf Coast residents.

FDA officials defended the agency’s method, saying that its tests showed unequivocally that seafood from the Gulf was safe to eat and should be returned to the market place.

A primary factor in the limit the FDA set on cancer-causing PAHs — polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons — in Gulf seafood was the agency’s estimate of how much seafood people eat.

For the Gulf spill, the FDA assumed an adult eats about 3 pounds of fish per month, and about 1.6 pounds total of shrimp, crabs and oysters. Such consumption rates offer a built in-safety net, the FDA says, because the agency believes only 10 percent of the people in the U.S. eat that much seafood in a month.

The agency is allowing much higher PAH levels in shrimp, crabs and oysters based on the assumption that people eat more fish than the other types of seafood.

“What’s really reassuring, to keep this in context, there hasn’t been a sample collected yet above Levels of Concern,” said Don Kraemer, a senior FDA official overseeing the seafood testing program.

Dr. Gina Solomon, a University of California toxicologist and a senior science adviser to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, said the FDA’s approach leaves people who like shellfish more vulnerable.

“The FDA’s allowable level of cancer-causing PAHs for Gulf shrimp is about four times higher than for fish, and is far higher than levels that have been allowed for human consumption after previous oil spills,” Solomon said. “These levels are not likely to cause immediate health threats, but for people who like shrimp, these contaminants could pose a significant health problem over time.”

The assumption that people eat more fish than shrimp made a difference in Florida, where all nine of the shrimp samples tested before Florida waters reopened to commercial shrimping were double the level that would have triggered more testing for fish.

The FDA’s higher “Level of Concern” for shrimp meant no further testing was done.

“We don’t think there is anything we need to do to immediately ensure the safety of seafood,” Kraemer said, adding that the FDA would begin to test shrimp in the marketplace after the reopening sampling concludes. “If the levels continue to increase, we need to figure out what is going on.”

Florida officials discounted the FDA results and said their own tests showed no cause for concern.

More protective standards were issued for seafood after significant spills in Alaska, Oregon, Rhode Island, California and Maine, according to figures in a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s document titled “Managing Seafood Safety after an Oil Spill.”

After a spill, health officials set limits based on the BaPE — benzo(a)pyrene equivalent — an estimated total of the cancer-causing PAHs present in seafood.

Federal records show that after the tanker New Carissa ran aground on the Oregon coast in 1999, the state health division said that a 45 parts per billion BaPE standard in shellfish would protect the average consumer.

After a spill in California, that state chose a standard of 34 parts per billion for shellfish.

In the Gulf, the FDA set limits between 132 parts per billion (for shrimp and crab) and 143 parts per billion (for oysters), all at least three times higher than levels in Oregon and California.

The FDA said that it came up with the higher levels based on updated cancer risk data from the EPA, and data that suggest people now weigh more and live longer than when those spills occurred.

Another difference, FDA officials said, is that the agency set its levels based on a 1-in-100,000 risk of developing cancer, while California and Oregon used a 1-in-1 million risk factor.

“Basically, if more health-protective assumptions were incorporated, the allowable levels of the contaminants would go down significantly,” said Solomon, after examining the FDA’s methodology. “More samples might be within a range of concern.”

If fish had registered at even half the PAH level seen in the Florida shrimp, the fish would have been sent off for a more accurate lab analysis and the fishery would have remained closed pending those tests, according to the FDA protocol and agency officials.

But that is not what happened with the Florida shrimp.

Instead, the FDA testing was cited in an Aug. 13 letter granting Florida officials permission to open state waters for shrimping.

FDA officials said they were not concerned that the Florida shrimp samples tested about 30 times higher for PAHs than samples from neighboring Gulf states, because the shrimp remained well below the agency’s Level of Concern.

The “estimated total PAH” level found in nine Florida shrimp samples caught off Pensacola tested between 28 and 31 parts per million, according to the FDA. Shrimp in neighboring Alabama, by contrast, tested between 0.2 and 1.2 parts per million. Mississippi shrimp tested between 1.2 and 1.8 parts per million.

Kraemer said comparing samples from the different states was “not appropriate” due to factors including differences in the laboratories that conducted the testing. He also said FDA scientists do not believe the levels were actually as high as the testing suggested.

In e-mails and telephone interviews, he explained that deficiencies in the fluorescence testing method used by FDA might explain the high levels seen in Florida.

Fluorescence is a quicker and cheaper test than gas chromatography, which the FDA would use for re-testing any samples where initial results showed PAHs at half the Level of Concern for the given seafood type.

Kraemer suggested the FDA’s “estimated total PAH” in the Florida shrimp may be five to 10 times higher than the actual amount present because of “interferences” in the fluorescence tests.

As to why the Florida shrimp tested so much higher than other states, Kraemer said, “we don’t have a good explanation.”

Asked if the agency would test the shrimp further, Kraemer said, “the answer is no.”

All of the FDA’s samples were caught off Pensacola, an area that received large amounts of oil during the spill.

Officials in Florida said they had tested shrimp collected from seafood dealers in Panama City and Apalachicola and found no contamination. The officials said that they did not know where those shrimp were caught, and have not tested any shrimp from Pensacola seafood dealers.

Fish from a Pensacola-area seafood dealer tested by the state were free of contaminants, officials said.

Florida officials dismissed the FDA shrimp results because they were done with the fluorescence technique.

The NOAA paper on seafood safety after oil spills also dismisses the fluorescence method, stating, that since it “does not quantify individual aromatic compounds, the results cannot be used to assess risk to human health from consumption of contaminated seafood.”

Kraemer said the agency tested the fluorescence method side by side with gas chromatography and found the results were similar.

The agency declined to release the results of that comparison testing or the full lab reports from the reopening tests to the Press-Register without a Freedom of Information Act request.

Failed blowout preventer on BP oil well reaches the surface

Investigators may now be able to answer the most elusive question since a rig explosion unleashed the massive Gulf of Mexico oil spill more than four months ago, as they get a close-up view of a key piece of equipment for the first time.

(AP Photo/BP PLC)The blowout preventer that failed to stop oil from spewing into the Gulf of Mexico is raised to the surface early Saturday morning.

ON THE GULF OF MEXICO — Investigators may now be able to answer the most elusive question since a rig explosion unleashed the massive Gulf of Mexico oil spill more than four months ago, as they get a close-up view of a key piece of equipment for the first time.

Why didn't it stop the oil?

A crewman guided a crane Saturday to hoist the 50-foot, 300-ton blowout preventer from a mile beneath the sea to the surface. It took about 29½ hours for the blowout preventer to reach the surface of the Gulf at 6:54 p.m. CDT.

FBI agents were among the 137 people aboard the Helix Q4000 vessel, waiting to escort the device back to a NASA facility in Louisiana for analysis.

The AP was the only news outlet with a print reporter and photographer on board the ship.

Crews had been delayed after icelike crystals — called hydrates — formed on the blowout preventer. The device couldn't be safely hoisted from the water until the hydrates melted because the hydrates are combustible, said Darin Hilton, the captain of the Helix Q4000.

The April 20 explosion aboard the Deepwater Horizon killed 11 workers and led to 206 million gallons of oil spewing from BP PLC's undersea well.

Documents emerged showing that a part of the device had a hydraulic leak, which would have reduced its effectiveness, and that a passive "deadman" trigger had a low, perhaps even dead, battery.

There has also been testimony that the blowout preventer didn't undergo a rigorous recertification process in 2005 as required by federal regulators.

Recertifying the five-story device requires completely disassembling it out of the water and can take as long as three months to complete.

Also, according to testimony, a BP well site leader performed a pressure test April 9 on the blowout preventer, and he said it passed.

George Hirasaki, a Rice University engineering professor, said the blowout preventer should have sheared through the drill pipe and shut off the flow of oil. There may have been two sections of drill pipe or a thicker section, called the "collar," that the blowout preventer could not shear through, he said.

He also said the device's hardware was changed, but the on-site drawings were not updated to reflect the changes. Investigators will be looking for any other discrepancies between the device and its drawings.

In short, Hirasaki said, "The BOP failed to do its function. It is important to determine why so that it does not occur again."

However, some have cautioned that the blowout preventer will not provide clues to what caused the gas bubble. And it is possible a thorough review may not be able to show why it didn't work.

That could leave investigators to speculate on causes using data, records and testimony.

The government said a new blowout preventer was placed on the blown-out well late Friday. Officials wanted to replace the failed blowout preventer first to deal with any pressure that is caused when a relief well BP has been drilling intersects the blown-out well.

Once that intersection occurs sometime after Labor Day, BP is expected to use mud and cement to plug the blown-out well for good from the bottom.

Train accident kills one at McDuffie Coal Terminal

An investigation is under way after a Terminal Railroad employee was struck and killed by a train today at the McDuffie Coal Terminal. Alabama State Port Authority and Terminal Railroad officials trying to piece together what happened were unable to locate any witnesses to the accident as of early this evening, according to port authority CEO Jimmy Lyons. The victim was a man in his 20s, according to Lyons. He declined to release further identifying information. He said the victim’s wife had been notified but it was unclear if other relatives had been contacted.

An investigation is under way after a Terminal Railroad employee was struck and killed by a train today at the McDuffie Coal Terminal.

Alabama State Port Authority and Terminal Railroad officials trying to piece together what happened were unable to locate any witnesses to the accident as of early this evening, according to port authority CEO Jimmy Lyons.

The victim was a man in his 20s, according to Lyons. He declined to release further identifying information. He said the victim’s wife had been notified but it was unclear if other relatives had been contacted.

"We are deeply saddened that his happened," Lyons said this evening.

Investigators from the Federal Railroad Administration were en route, said Judy Adams, a port authority spokeswoman.

"That process was launched immediately," Adams said.

Railroad operations at McDuffie Coal Terminal were shut down.

"Nothing’s been moved until we can get investigators on site," Lyons said.

At the time of the accident, the man was a ground person on a train crew. He had been in contact with a Terminal Railroad engineer in a locomotive that was moving train cars. When the engineer lost contact with the man, the train was stopped, Lyons said.

"We haven’t found anyone who actually saw the accident," he said.

Lyons said there were no indications that the train violated any procedures.

A McDuffie Coal Terminal employee who was in the vicinity didn’t see what happened, according to Lyons.

"There was a lot of confusion initially. Details are still very sketchy. It’s going to take some time to piece together what happened," he said.

Port Authority Police worked the accident. Mobile police and fire crews were also dispatched to the scene, officials said.

Apple • Blog • Conspiracy • Energy • Green • Hollywood • Iraq • La • London • Mobile • Mscharity • Myspace • Ny • Paris • Scifi • Scottsdale • Spokane • Whitehouse • Www