Peanut Butter News

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RALEIGH, N.C. — Thousands of people were told to start evacuating a North Carolina island Wednesday morning as Hurricane Earl threatened to sideswipe the East Coast.

The 800 or so year-round residents of Ocracoke Island were told they do not have to go, but Emergency Services Director Lindsey Mooney said officials hoped they would follow about 5,000 tourists ordered to leave for the mainland from 5 a.m.

“I don’t remember the last time there was a mandatory evacuation order for the island,” Hyde County Commissioner Kenneth Collier said.

More evacuations along the Eastern Seaboard could follow, depending on the path taken by the Category 4 storm, which was whipping across the Caribbean with winds of 135 mph.

Full Story at news.Yahoo.com

COPIAPO, Chile – Rescuers are lowering capsules containing rehydration tablets, glucose and oxygen down a long hole to 33 miners who surprised the world by staying alive while trapped a half-mile underground for 2 1/2 weeks.

Raising hopes further Monday, a second bore hole punched into the chamber where the miners are entombed and a third probe was nearing the spot, Mining Minister Laurence Golborne reported.

The hole that reached the miners Sunday will continue to be used to lower supplies, the second will be for communication and the third will provide ventilation, Golborne said.

Their ordeal, however, is far from over.

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MIAMI — Two new scientific reports Tuesday raised fresh fears about the environmental fallout from the world’s worst offshore oil spill and questioned government assurances that most of the oil from the ruptured well in the Gulf of Mexico was already gone.

In one of the reports, researchers at the University of Georgia said about three-quarters of the oil from BP’s blown-out Macondo well was still lurking below the surface of the Gulf and may pose a threat to the ecosystem.

Charles Hopkinson, who helped lead the investigation, said up to 79 percent of the 4.1 million barrels of oil that gushed from the broken well and was not captured directly at the wellhead remained in the Gulf.

Full Story at CNN.com

(CNN) — If you think you’ve heard it all, follow this tale of a hungry black bear who went for a ride, literally.

Douglas County, Colorado, Sheriff’s deputies early Friday got a call about a honking car and a commotion inside. Perhaps it was teenagers or a thief, they thought as they approached Ralph Story’s 2008 Toyota Corolla.

It turns out it was a thief, albeit the furry variety.

The deputies’ first clue to something unusual was that the car was 125 feet below its normal parking spot in the driveway of the Storys’ Larkspur home, which sits on five acres.

Full Story at CNN.com

Los Angeles, California (CNN) — Hundreds of firefighters battled a third wildfire in the Los Angeles area early Friday as two more raged within 60 miles of one another.

The latest — known as the Crown Fire — has ignited more than 5,000 acres, fire officials said.

About 500 firefighters were at the scene, with mandatory evacuations in effect for nearly 2,000 residences.

Areas affected included some parts of Leona Valley, Ritter Ranch, Anaverde and Palmdale in northern Los Angeles County.

Full Story CNN.com

(CNN) — One hundred days after an oil well operated by BP ruptured in the Gulf of Mexico, and 13 days after crews finished capping the well to contain the gushing crude, the man who is overseeing the federal response is optimistic that steps planned for the coming days will finally, permanently seal the well.

“The relief well, while it is deep, is something that has been done before,” said retired Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen. “The technologies involved here are not novel, but obviously, the depth is a challenge here. But we are optimistic we will get this done.”

Full Story at msnbc.com

MARSHALL TOWNSHIP, Mich. — Crews were working Tuesday to contain and clean up more than 800,000 gallons of oil that poured into a creek and flowed into the Kalamazoo River in southern Michigan, coating birds and fish.

Authorities in Battle Creek and Emmett Township warned residents about the strong odor from the oil, which leaked Monday from a 30-inch pipeline built in 1969 that carries about 8 million gallons of oil per day from Griffith, Ind., to Sarnia, Ontario.

Full Story at news.CNET.com

Everything from high-tech imaging gear to plastic bags with screens is being tested by a “skunk works” team at BP set up to evaluate cleanup methods in the Gulf of Mexico.

The oil company’s High Interest Technology Team, based in Mobile, Ala., is currently sifting through thousand of proposals to fix the leak or reduce damage to the environment. BP recently began testing some new products, including a machine that removes oil from sand and an oil-water separator made from hardware store components, including plastic bags, mesh from lawn furniture, and plastic pipes.

Full Story msnbc.com

WASHINGTON — Senate Democrats on Thursday gave up plans to attempt to pass an energy-global warming bill that caps greenhouse gases, abandoning a priority of President Barack Obama.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said no Republican was willing to back a comprehensive energy bill, a development he called “terribly disappointing.”

Democrats have been trying for more than a year to pass a plan that charges power plants and other large polluters for their heat-trapping carbon emissions, which contribute to global warming. The House voted 219-212 last year for a “cap and trade” plan featuring economic incentives to reduce heat-trapping gases from power plants, vehicles and other sources.

Full Story at CNN.com

(CNN) — Imagine a star so luminous that it would burn the Earth up if it were anywhere near, a star that outshines the sun as much as the sun outshines the moon. A monster even in the abyss of space.

The star is not some scientist’s celestial dream. Astronomers used a Very Large Telescope — the instrument’s official name — to detect the most massive star discovered to date. In scientific lingo, it’s a “hypergiant.”

Led by Paul Crowther, professor of astrophysics at England’s University of Sheffield, the team of astronomers studied two young clusters of stars, NGC 3603 and RMC 136a.

Full Story at CNN.com

(CNN) — Testing continues and scientists are evaluating the results to decide whether to resume collecting oil from BP’s ruptured deepwater well, the company said Monday.

BP’s statement came hours after Thad Allen, the federal government’s oil spill response director, said that testing had revealed a “detected seep a distance from the well.” He ordered the company to quickly notify the government if other leaks were found.

“When seeps are detected, you are directed to marshal resources, quickly investigate, and report findings to the government in no more than four hours,” Allen said in a letter to BP Chief Managing Director Bob Dudley released late Sunday.

Full Story at msnbc.com

HOUSTON — A Taiwanese-owned “super skimmer” sent to help clean up the Gulf of Mexico oil spill has been a bust, the U.S. Coast Guard said after tests on the ship.

“While its stature is impressive, ‘A Whale’ is not ideally suited to the needs of this response,” Coast Guard Rear Adm. Paul Zunkunft, a federal on-scene coordinator, said in a statement late on Friday.

The vessel will not be deployed as a part of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill response.

The tanker collected virtually no oil in two weeks of tests, Zunkunft said at a news briefing earlier on Friday.