CASINO ROYALE / THE NYSE

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New York Stock Exchange building in New York / Credit: Reuters/Lucas Jackson

Casino Royale is the New York Stock Exchange. The Wall Street gang has invaded Washington and Obama is being held hostage by its ringleader, Goldman Sachs ~ who have highjacked his administration and will effectively prevent any true reform: Allen L Roland

Let's get real ~ the high score trader culture has taken over Wall Street and the biggest trader in this freewheeling Casino Royale is Goldman Sachs ~ where the house always wins.

It's Rivero's rule in action ~ all organizations and corporations, for that matter, will eventually reflect the character and moral integrity of its leaders. Lloyd Blankfein, CEO of Goldman Sachs, was originally a floor trader dedicated to the big score and now over 70% of Goldman's activities are committed to this trading culture as explained by Cornelius Hurley ~ " Now it's all about the score. Just make the score, do the deal. Move on to the next one. That's the trader culture' said Hurley, director of the Morin Center for Banking and Financial Law at Boston University and former counsel to the Federal Reserve Board. " Their business model has completely blurred the difference between executing trades on behalf of customers versus executing trades for themselves. It's a huge problem." http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/19/business/19client.html?partner=rss&emc=rss

Huge problem it is and Gerald Celente, Director of Trends Research Institute, has had it correctly pegged for months. Watch his April 22 six minute Video interview where he explains, in detail, how the Goldman gang has Hijacked Washington ~ and how he sees little chance for meaningful reform. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CMbIs1gOpas

Adding to this unholy Wall Street alliance with Washington are the growing tensions between the Obama administration and the scientific community over the gulf oil GUSHER, where prominent oceanographers are rightfully accusing the government of failing to conduct an adequate scientific analysis of the damage and of allowing BP, with its Goldman ties, to obscure the true scope of this environmental disaster.

Also, the Main Stream Media also ignores Goldman Sachs' ties to Corexit Dispersant ~ journalist Paula Quinlan questions why BP is using the 100 % toxic, 54 percent effective dispersant Corexit to clean up the oil when twelve other dispersants proved more effective in EPA testing. http://www.picassodreams.com/picasso_dreams/2010/05/media-ignores-goldman-sachs-ties-to-corexit-dispersant.html

Allen L Roland
http://allenlrolandsweblog.blogspot.com/2010/05/casino-royale-nyse.html

This weblog is sustained through donations from people like yourself. Please send check or Money Order to Allen L. Roland, PO Box 1221, Sonoma,CA 95476 Also accept Visa, MasterCard and Discover ~ call (707) 935-1908.

Freelance Alternative Press Online columnist and psychotherapist Allen L Roland is available for comments, interviews, speaking engagements and private consultations ( allen@allenroland.com )

Allen L Roland is a practicing psychotherapist, author and lecturer who also shares a daily political and social commentary on his weblog and website allenroland.com He also guest hosts a monthly national radio show TRUTHTALK on http://www.conscioustalk.net/

ONLY THE TRUTH IS REVOLUTIONARY

Kerry – Lieberman: Corrupt Climate Science Used To Destroy US Economy

The Kerry - Lieberman American Power Act (APA) is a disastrous, unnecessary solution for a non-existent problem. Worse, it’s a problem that exists only in a grossly inadequate computer model whose projections have never been correct. It is predicated on the false assumption that an increase in CO2 causes a temperature increase. Every record of any duration for any period in Earth’s history shows temperature increases before CO2 increases. The false assumption is the basis of all global warming and climate change used in the corrupted research and models of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). It is impossible to imagine such an unjustified basis for any action, except to undermine the US economy for political gain.

It will make the US economy uncompetitive, dramatically increase the cost of living and give more power to the government. This is already proven in the failure of countries that have pursued similar alternative energies and green economies.

The name of the Act is in the deceptive tradition of climate-based energy policy. It was carbon credits, then carbon tax, cap and trade, and now the APA but they are all the same and completely unnecessary. Carbon credits were designed as a global equalization of wealth. Developed nations had to pay for the sin of making their money by using fossil fuels and producing the planet destroying global warming. Cap and Trade appeared virtuous by capping the planet-destroying CO2 while creating trade and business opportunity. It is actually the same old tax grab with more government control. The APA invokes patriotism and implies energy independence, especially from oil. The spill in the Gulf is unfortunate but has reinforced the push. As Rahm Emmanuel, White House Chief of Staff said, “Never let a serious crisis go to waste.”

The IPCC Provide Corrupt Scientific Basis

It provides the leverage to achieve the stated Obama administration goal of energy independence and a shift to alternative energy. However, it is much more than that because as Richard Lindzen said “Controlling carbon is a bureaucrats dream. If you control carbon you control life.”

The IPCC Reports and especially the Summary for Policymakers (SPM) are used to demonize CO2. Ironically, they provide evidence of how inadequate they are for taking such dramatic, drastic and unnecessary political action.

In the Reports what is initially included and then excluded tells the story. For example, a graph (Figure 1) showing the Medieval Warm Period (MWP) was included in the 1990 IPCC Report. It was a problem for Michael Mann and the Climatic Research Unit (CRU) so it disappeared in later reports and then was replaced in the 2001 Report by the corrupted ‘hockey stick’ graph, as they rewrote history.

Figure 1: Temperatures of Europe for last 1000 years.
Source: IPCC 1990 (Fig; 7c) Report

Figure 2 shows a table from the 2001 Report. It identifies estimates of some factors causing changes in radiative forcing because of human activities. Why do they then include “solar irradiance” as the only “natural” forcing. The column “LOSU” on the right side is critical and amusing. It stands for “Level of Scientific Understanding” so by their own measure only two are considered high and that is very debatable. Four of nine variables are low yet they are only the ones they chose. Even more bizarre they claimed solar irradiance explained at least 50% of temperature change up to 50 years ago, they were 90% certain that since then it was all attributable to human increases in CO2.

Figure 2: 2001 IPCC Radiative Forcing Table
Source:

Figure 3 shows the same table in the 2007 Report and mysteriously the LOSU column, estimated forcing values and spatial scale disappear.

Figure 3: 2007 IPCC Radiative forcing table.
Source:

A few years ago Environmental Scientists at Rutgers University listed processes that must be included in any computer model. They include, a) Wind, b) Radiation, c) Clouds, d) Precipitation, e) Air-sea exchanges of moisture, energy, and momentum, f) Air-land exchanges of moisture, energy and momentum, g) Soil moisture, h) Ground water, i) Chemistry of greenhouse gases, j) Aerosols, k) Ocean temperature, salinity, currents, l) Sea ice, m) Snow, n) Glaciers, o) Vegetation p) and Ocean biota. We have virtually no measures and only crude estimates of most of these variables. The models are inadequate scientifically in a multitude of ways. Consider the following comment about underlying mathematical issues.

“A number of recent papers analyzing the nature of climate models have yielded a stunning result little known outside of mathematical circles—climate models like the ones relied on by the IPCC contain “irreducible imprecision.” According to one researcher, all interesting solutions for atmospheric and oceanic simulation (AOS) models are chaotic, hence almost certainly structurally unstable. Furthermore, this instability is an intrinsic mathematical property of the models which can not be eliminated. Analysis suggests that models should only be used to study processes and phenomena, not for precise comparisons with nature.”

Three reasons for Kerry – Lieberman; a massive tax grab, crippling of the US economy, and offer of salvation through total government control

So the science is wrong and the computer models don’t work. Even if all human produced CO2 was eliminated tomorrow we would not be able to detect the difference in the amount in the atmosphere. The total humans produce is within the error of the estimate of at least three natural sources. For example, with the recent recession human production has decreased with no effect on global measurements. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) treats CO2 as a pollutant based on an ignorant ruling by the US Supreme Court. Kerry – Lieberman proposes to improve the environment by reducing CO2 when an increase is beneficial to the planet’s plants. Too bad the plants don’t get a vote.

There is no scientific justification for claims CO2 is causing global warming. It is a non-existent problem. Reducing the amount is harmful not helpful to the economy or plants and not necessary. It will cripple industry with draconian rules and taxation to make the entire economy expensive and uncompetitive. Alternate energies will not provide adequate power replacement and increase costs through the subsidies necessary to make them even remotely viable. Green jobs will cost regular jobs as Spain and other jurisdictions have discovered. Energy independence is easily achieved with conventional sources and a transition to nuclear power and coal for home and industry, natural gas for vehicle power and the oil industry for petrochemical needs. There are only three reasons for Kerry – Lieberman; a massive tax grab, crippling of the US economy, and offer of salvation through total government control.

Mortgage delinquencies drag on economic recovery

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The mortgage crisis is dragging on the economic recovery as more homeowners fall behind on their payments.

Analysts expect improvement soon, but the number of homeowners in default or at risk of foreclosure will have a lingering effect on the broader economy.

More than 10 percent of homeowners with a mortgage had missed at least one payment in the January-March period, the Mortgage Bankers Association said Wednesday. That's a record high and up from 9.1 percent a year ago.

A big jump in the number of borrowers who have missed three months of mortgage payments drove the increase.

One encouraging sign is the number of homeowners just starting to show trouble is trending downward. As of March, nearly 3.5 percent of borrowers had missed one month of mortgage payments, down from about 3.8 percent a year earlier.

Around 4.3 million homeowners, or about 8 percent of all Americans with a mortgage, are at risk of losing their homes, the trade group's top economist estimates. They have either missed at least three months of payments or are in foreclosure.

Should loan modification programs fail to help, their homes will go up for sale either as a foreclosure or short sale -- when the bank agrees to sell the property for less than the original mortgage amount.

Many analysts have been forecasting home prices will dip again as more of these homes go up for sale at deeply discounted prices.

"It's certainly a weight on the economy," said Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody's Analytics, who predicts home prices will fall about 5 percent and hit the bottom next spring. "Nothing works all that well in the economy when house prices are falling."

Federal tax credits boosted home sales this spring but they expired last month. As a result, mortgage applications to purchase homes fell to the lowest level in 13 years this week, the Mortgage Bankers Association said in a separate report Wednesday.

The latest foreclosure figures from the trade group are adjusted for seasonal factors. For example, heating bills and holiday expenses tend to push mortgage delinquencies up near the end of the year. Many of those borrowers become current on their loans again by spring.

Without adjusting for seasonal factors, the delinquency numbers dropped, as they normally do from the winter to spring.

More than 4.6 percent of homeowners were in foreclosure, also a record. But that number, which is not adjusted for seasonal factors, was up only slightly from the end of last year.

Jay Brinkmann, the trade group's chief economist, said the foreclosure crisis appears to have stabilized. Seasonal adjustments may be exaggerating the change from the previous quarter, he added.

"I don't see signs now that it's getting worse, but it's going to take a while," he said. "A bad situation that's not getting worse is still bad."

The Obama administration's $75 billion foreclosure prevention program has barely dented the problem.

About 25 percent of the 1.2 million homeowners who started the program over the past year had received permanent loan modifications as of last month. About 23 percent of those enrolled dropped out during a trial phase that lasts at least three months. Many more are in limbo.

The administration's program hasn't been able to help Dan Felipe, 61, of Winton, Calif.

He fell into financial trouble as the economy went south. So he took out $70,000 in loans to keep his business afloat.

In danger of losing his home, he tried to get a mortgage modification from Bank of America. The bank signed him up for the government foreclosure plan last August, but hasn't lowered his mortgage payment permanently.

"I was never in this kind of mess," Felipe said. "I've taken care of my family for the last 20 years."

A Bank of America spokeswoman said Felipe's mortgage appears to not qualify for the Obama program. She said the bank will re-examine his case and consider him for other alternatives.

Economic woes, such as unemployment or reduced income, are the main catalysts for foreclosures this year. Initially, lax lending standards were the culprit. But homeowners with good credit who took out conventional, fixed-rate loans are now the fastest growing group of foreclosures.

Those borrowers made up nearly 37 percent of new foreclosures in the first quarter of the year, up from 29 percent a year earlier.

The risky subprime adjustable-rate loans that kicked off the foreclosure crisis are making up a smaller share of new foreclosures. They made up 14 percent of new foreclosures in the January-March period, down from 27 percent a year earlier.

North Korea Crisis Looms As Clinton Heads To Asia

WASHINGTON — Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton's three-nation Asia tour is likely to be dominated by a new crisis with North Korea – this time accused of sinking a South Korean naval ship with a deadly torpedo attack.

South Korea's release Wednesday of a report blaming North Korea for the March 26 sinking of the South Korean warship Cheonan changed the outlook for Clinton's trip, her fifth to Asia as America's top diplomat.

Just hours before Clinton departed, the White House called the ship sinking an "act of aggression" that is "one more instance of North Korea's unacceptable behavior and defiance of international law." In a statement, officials called it "a challenge to international peace and security and ... a violation of the Armistice Agreement" that ended the Korean War.

The State Department added that the evidence ruled out any alternative explanation and the United States was "already working very closely with our ally (South Korea) and consulting with our partners regarding appropriate steps."

Rep. Edward Royce, the top Republican on the House Foreign Affairs subcommittee on terrorism, said the United States and South Korea should take the evidence on the Cheonan sinking to the U.N. Security Council.

"We cannot allow North Korea to take the lives of 46 South Korean sailors with a torpedo attack and pretend it didn't occur," Royce said in an interview Wednesday.

North Korea denies it attacked the South Korean warship, and has said that sanctions or other forms of retaliation would trigger "all-out war," raising the prospect of an escalating crisis on the heavily armed Korean peninsula.

The U.S. has 28,500 troops in South Korea.

The centerpiece of Clinton's trip, which includes scheduled stops in Japan, China and South Korea, was supposed to be a new round of U.S.-China strategic and economic talks. Clinton is headed for Beijing on one leg of the the trip, where trade and other concerns may be eclipsed by efforts to get China to support new sanctions against North Korea in the U.N. Security Council.

But with the Chinese holding the most leverage over reclusive North Korea, its support for any international response to Pyongyang will be critical to its success.

In Beijing on Thursday, Chinese officials appealed for calm. Vice Foreign Minister Cui Tiankai called the sinking "unfortunate," but stopped short of backing Seoul in the growing dispute, instead reiterating China's long-standing views on the need to maintain peace on the Korean peninsula.

"The parties involved should stay calm and exercise restraint ... to avoid escalation of the situation," Foreign Ministry spokesman Ma Zhaoxu told a separate briefing later Thursday. Ma said China was still assessing the results of South Korea's investigation.

Kurt Campbell, the top U.S. diplomat for Asia, acknowledged that a main reason for Clinton's trip "will be to have the closest possible consultation with Japan, China and South Korea on the next phase" of the North Korean situation. He said it would be a prime agenda item in Clinton's talks with Chinese President Hu Jintao, Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi and State Councilor Dai Bingguo.

"A central issue of discussion for Secretary Clinton with her interlocutors ... will be on their assessments of developments in North Korea and their reaction to the report," he said.

During her China stop Clinton also will be trying to convince China to agree to tougher U.N. sanctions on Iran, something China has traditionally has opposed. China has reluctantly agreed to support watered-down new economic penalties, thus far.

The focus will be a far cry from the original intent of the economic and trade issues that were the reason the U.S.-China strategic talks were begun in 2006 by the Bush administration under then-Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and expanded by the Obama administration in 2009.

The talks were intended to keep pressure on China to allow its currency to rise in value against the dollar as a way to narrow America's huge trade deficit with China, the largest trade gap the United States runs with any country.

Treasury officials insist the economic issues, including China's currency, will be a major part of the discussions next week, but they play down any suggestions that China might announce it is starting to let its currency, the yuan, rise in value against the dollar.

At her first stop in Tokyo on Friday, a key issue is expected to be a U.S.-Japan dispute over the relocation of Marine Corps Air Station Futenma on the southern island of Okinawa.

After a subsequent good-will visit to the World Expo in Shanghai on Friday and Saturday, Clinton will join Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner in Beijing for the two days of talks with Chinese leaders.

___

AP Economics Writer Martin Crutsinger and Associated Press Writer Foster Klug contributed to this report.

Caffeine May Slow Alzheimer's Disease and Other Dementias, Restore Cognitive Function, According to New Evidence

ScienceDaily (May 18, 2010) — Although caffeine is the most widely consumed psychoactive drug worldwide, its potential beneficial effect for maintenance of proper brain functioning has only recently begun to be adequately appreciated. Substantial evidence from epidemiological studies and fundamental research in animal models suggests that caffeine may be protective against the cognitive decline seen in dementia and Alzheimer's disease (AD).

A special supplement to the Journal of Alzheimer's Disease, "Therapeutic Opportunities for Caffeine in Alzheimer's Disease and Other Neurodegenerative Diseases," sheds new light on this topic and presents key findings.

Guest editors Alexandre de Mendonça, Institute of Molecular Medicine and Faculty of Medicine, University of Lisbon, Portugal, and Rodrigo A. Cunha, Center for Neuroscience and Cell Biology of Coimbra and Faculty of Medicine, University of Coimbra, Portugal, have assembled a group of international experts to explore the effects of caffeine on the brain. The resulting collection of original studies conveys multiple perspectives on topics ranging from molecular targets of caffeine, neurophysiological modifications and adaptations, to the potential mechanisms underlying the behavioral and neuroprotective actions of caffeine in distinct brain pathologies.

"Epidemiological studies first revealed an inverse association between the chronic consumption of caffeine and the incidence of Parkinson's disease," according to Mendonça and Cunha. "This was paralleled by animal studies of Parkinson's disease showing that caffeine prevented motor deficits as well as neurodegeneration "Later a few epidemiological studies showed that the consumption of moderate amounts of caffeine was inversely associated with the cognitive decline associated with aging as well as the incidence of Alzheimer's disease. Again, this was paralleled by animal studies showing that chronic caffeine administration prevented memory deterioration and neurodegeneration in animal models of aging and of Alzheimer's disease."

Key findings presented in "Therapeutic Opportunities for Caffeine in Alzheimer's Disease and Other Neurodegenerative Diseases":

• Multiple beneficial effects of caffeine to normalize brain function and prevent its degeneration
• Caffeine's neuroprotective profile and its ability to reduce amyloid-beta production
• Caffeine as a candidate disease-modifying agent for Alzheimer's disease
• Positive impact of caffeine on cognition and memory performance
• Identification of adenosine A2A receptors as the main target for neuroprotection afforded by caffeine consumption
• Confirmation of data through valuable meta-analyses presented
• Epidemiological studies corroborated by meta-analysis suggesting that caffeine may be protective against Parkinson's disease
• Several methodological issues must be solved before advancing to decisive clinical trials

Mendonça and Cunha also observe that "the daily follow-up of patients with AD has taught us that improvement of daily living may be a more significant indicator of amelioration than slight improvements in objective measures of memory performance. One of the most prevalent complications of AD is depression of mood, and the recent observations that caffeine might be a mood normalizer are of particular interest."

The supplement was funded by the Associação Industrial e Comercial do Café, while leaving full scientific independence to all contributors. The entire issue has been made available on a no-fee basis at http://iospress.metapress.com/content/t13614762731/.

Gulf Oil Spill: Government Remains Blind To Underwater Oil Hazard

The Obama administration is actively trying to dismiss media reports that vast plumes of oil lurk beneath the surface of the Gulf of Mexico, unmeasured and uncharted.

But the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, whose job it is to assess and track the damage being caused by the BP oil spill that began four weeks ago, is only monitoring what's visible -- the slick on the Gulf's surface -- and currently does not have a single research vessel taking measurements below.

The one ship associated with NOAA that had been doing such research is back in Pascagoula, Miss., having completed a week-long cruise during which scientists taking underwater samples found signs of just the kind of plume that environmentalists fear could have devastating effects on sea life of all shapes and sizes.

Meanwhile, the commander of the NOAA vessel that the White House on Friday claimed in a press release "is now providing information for oil spill related research" told HuffPost on Tuesday that he's actually far away, doing something else entirely.

"We are in the Western Gulf doing plankton research," said Commander Dave Score, reached by satellite phone on his research vessel, the Gordon Gunter. "So I really don't know. I'm just on orders."

Indeed, you can track the Gordon Gunter right here.

Two other NOAA research vessels are also in the area, but not monitoring the spill: The Thomas Jefferson, which has spent the last five days in Galveston, Texas; and the Oregon II, which has been under repair in Pascagoula for almost six months.

NOAA director Jane Lubchenco on Monday decried media reports about plumes of underwater oil as "misleading, premature and, in some cases, inaccurate." (See the Huffington Post and New York Times coverage.)

Lubchenco implicitly criticized scientists on the Pelican, a research vessel operated by the NOAA-affiliated National Institute for Undersea Science and Technology (NIUST), for being hasty in its pronouncements to the media.

"No definitive conclusions have been reached by this research team about the composition of the undersea layers they discovered," Lubchenco said in her statement. "Characterization of these layers will require analysis of samples and calibration of key instruments. The hypothesis that the layers consist of oil remains to be verified."

NIUST, while partially funded by NOAA, is a cooperative venture with the University of Mississippi and the University of Southern Mississippi. And it was the Pelican crew's idea -- not NOAA's -- to start taking underwater measurements, although NOAA was perfectly happy to take credit for it, initially.

NOAA officials did not respond to repeated questions from the Huffington Post on Tuesday, and therefore did not explain how they could possibly assess or track underwater oil without having any vessels out taking measurements. Nor did they explain how the Gordon Gunter showed up in an administration press release.

Doug Helton, the emergency response coordinator in Seattle who is NOAA's trajectory expert, answered his phone but wouldn't say much. "It's still a pretty dynamic situation as to what's in the field today, as opposed to yesterday," he hedged, before saying he would call back after getting clearance from NOAA's public affairs office. There was no call back.

"The fact that NOAA has missed the ball catastrophically on the tracking and effects monitoring of this spill is inexcusable," said Rick Steiner, a University of Alaska marine conservationist who recently spent more than a week on the Gulf Coast advising Greenpeace. "They need 20 research ships on this, yesterday."

Steiner explained: "This is probably turning out to be the largest oil spill in U.S. history and the most unique oil spill in world history," on account of it occurring not on or near the surface, but nearly a mile below.

"They should have had a preexisting rapid response plan," he told HuffPost. "They should have had vessels of opportunity -- shrimp vessels, any vessel that can deploy a water-column sampling device -- pre-contracted, on a list, to be called up in an event that this happened. And they blew it. And it's been going on for a month now, and all that information has been lost."

Steiner gave credit to the scientists on the Pelican, but noted that at most they had sampled less than 1 percent of the affected waters. "The Pelican happened to drop some of their sampling devices into a plume and found it, but there have to be plumes elsewhere, and the biological implication are vast."

NOAA officials "haven't picked it up because they haven't looked in the right places," he said. "There have to be dozens of these massive plumes of toxic Deepwater Horizon oil, and they haven't set out to delineate them in any shape or form."

Frank Muller-Karger, an oceanography professor at the University of South Florida who will be testifying before the House Energy Committee on Wednesday, said that testing for oil beneath the surface should be a top priority.

"I think that should be one of our biggest concerns, getting the technology and the research to try to understand how big this amorphous mass of water is, and how it moves," he said.

"It's like an iceberg. Most of it is below the surface. And we just have no instruments below the surface that can help us monitor the size, the concentration and the movement."

Muller-Karger said there are all sorts of implements that researchers should be deploying, including optical sensors and current meters. "I think that now people are really scrambling to get some vessels out there," said Muller-Karger. "I think we're going to need a fleet of research vessels."

In addition to measuring the amount of oil, researchers need to study the effect on fish larvae and bacteria, he said. "Very big fish and very prized fish are moving in to spawn -- it's a critical time of the year," he told HuffPost. "Larvae from the fish may end up eating droplets of oil.

On Tuesday, Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla,) released four new videos showing oil billowing out of the Deepwater Horizon blowout site.

Steiner said NOAA is not only failing to fully measure the impact of the spill, but, he said, "if they rationally want to close and open fisheries, then they need to know where this stuff is going."

As it happens, NOAA announced Tuesday that it is doubling its Gulf fishing ban to encompass 19 percent of the federal waters.

But Steiner said it is quite possible, for instance, that some plumes are being carried by a slow deepwater southwest, toward the coast of Texas. More oil than is already visible could be entering the Loop Current, which could carry it past the Florida Keys and up the Atlantic coast.

"And truly, they really need 20 or 30 vessels out there yesterday," Steiner said. "And I think they know that. And so all the spin -- that they have this under control, that there's no oil under the surface to worry about -- they're wrong, and they know it."

UPDATE:

The New York Times on Thursday reported that boats under contract to BP have taken some underwater samples, and top ocean scientists are complaining that the government has failed to make public a single test result:

Tensions between the Obama administration and the scientific community over the gulf oil spill are escalating, with prominent oceanographers accusing the government of failing to conduct an adequate scientific analysis of the damage and of allowing BP to obscure the spill's true scope....

The administration acknowledges that its scientific resources are stretched by the disaster, but contends that it is moving to get better information, including a more complete picture of the underwater plumes.

"We're in the early stages of doing that, and we do not have a comprehensive understanding as of yet of where that oil is," Jane Lubchenco, the NOAA administrator, told Congress on Wednesday. "But we are devoting all possible resources to understanding where the oil is and what its impact might be."

And according to the Times, it's not just independent scientists who are pressing for more information -- it's also other branches of the federal government:

Lisa P. Jackson, administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, told Congress on Wednesday that she was pressing for the release of additional test results, including some samples taken by boats under contract to BP.

New US weekly jobless claims make surprise jump

New claims for US unemployment benefits have risen for the first time in five weeks, official data showed Thursday.

The Labor Department said initial jobless claims totaled 471,000 in the week ending May 15, up 25,000 or 5.6 percent from the prior week's revised figure of 446,000.

The figure was higher than the average analyst forecast of a drop to 439,000 new claims.