Pottstown-Area Church Leader Responds To ‘Duck Dynasty’ Controversy

Location of Lower Pottsgrove Township in Montgomery County (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

LOWER POTTSGROVE TOWNSHIP, PA — A national controversy hit close to home Friday afternoon after three-year-old videosof Phil Robertson speaking at a local church resurfaced.

Robertson, the patriarch of the family featured on the hit TV show “Duck Dynasty” on A&E, made what some perceived as anti-gay comments in an article in GQ Magazine. The article is published in the January 2014 edition of the magazine.

His controversial comments have started a firestorm of online discussion and led to Robertson’s indefinite suspension from the popular reality show.

But the faith-based comments Robertson made in the GQ article were echoes of statements he made while speaking at events long before the show on A&E started.

Read more:  http://www.pottsmerc.com/general-news/20131220/pottstown-area-church-leader-responds-to-duck-dynasty-controversy

Gas Industry Gives Pennsylvania Stores Taste For The South

Map of Pennsylvania highlighting Lycoming County (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

PENNSDALE, Pa. — The land of scrapple and chipped ham is starting to get a taste for jambalaya and boudin.

Thanks to an influx of Southerners filling jobs in north-central Pennsylvania’s booming natural gas industry, a region not often placed on many culinary maps is finding itself flush with the foodways found below the Mason-Dixon line, arguably the source of some of the nation’s richest culinary traditions.

Suddenly, convenience stores stock sweet tea, barbecue is a hot seller, and the almost Norman Rockwell-quaint Country Store in Pennsdale even makes its own boudin, a pork sausage popular in Louisiana.

Store owner and Pennsylvania native Tom Springman had never heard of boudin until a few months ago, when a customer — a relocated Southerner — came in looking for a local source.

Read more: http://www.timesherald.com/article/20130424/NEWS03/130429757/gas-industry-gives-pa-stores-taste-for-the-south#full_story

BP Gets Record Fine In Gulf Oil Spill

English: Platform supply vessels battle the blazing remnants of the off shore oil rig Deepwater Horizon. A Coast Guard MH-65C dolphin rescue helicopter and crew document the fire aboard the mobile offshore drilling unit Deepwater Horizon, while searching for survivors. Multiple Coast Guard helicopters, planes and cutters responded to rescue the Deepwater Horizon’s 126 person crew. Français : Les restes en feu de la plateforme Deepwater Horizon. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Editor’s note:  GOOD!!!!!!!!!!!!

NEW ORLEANS — Oil giant BP has agreed to pay the largest criminal penalty in U.S. history, totaling billions of dollars, for the 2010 oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, a person familiar with the deal said today.

The person, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak on the record about the deal, also said two BP employees face manslaughter charges over the death of 11 people in the explosion of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig that triggered the massive spill.

The person said BP will plead guilty to obstruction for lying to Congress about how much oil was pouring out of the ruptured well.  The person declined to say exactly how much the fine in the billions of dollars would be.

BP made a net profit of $5.5 billion in the third quarter, it reported last month.

Read more: http://readingeagle.com/article.aspx?id=428304

This just in, according to Lancasteronline.com, the settlement is $4.5 billion!  Read full story:

http://lancasteronline.com/article/ap/778336_BP-agrees-to-pay–4-5B–3-employees-charged.html

Isaac Steers Clear Of Direct Blow On New Orleans

Location of Orleans Parish in Louisiana (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Hurricane Isaac sidestepped New Orleans on Wednesday, sending the worst of its howling wind and heavy rain into a cluster of rural fishing villages that had few defenses against the slow-moving storm that could bring days of unending rain.

Isaac arrived exactly seven years after Hurricane Katrina and passed slightly to the west of New Orleans, where the city’s fortified levee system easily handled the assault.

The city’s biggest problems seemed to be downed power lines, scattered tree limbs and minor flooding.  Just one person was reported killed, compared with 1,800 deaths from Katrina in Louisiana and Mississippi.  And police reported few problems with looting.  Mayor Mitch Landrieu ordered a dusk-to-dawn curfew just to be sure.

But in Plaquemines Parish, a sparsely populated area south of the city that is outside the federal levee system, dozens of people were stranded in flooded coastal areas.  The storm pushed water over an 18-mile levee and put so much pressure on it that authorities were considering intentionally puncturing the floodwall to relieve the strain.

Read more: http://thetimes-tribune.com/news/isaac-steers-clear-of-direct-blow-on-new-orleans-1.1365207

Isaac Becomes Category 1 Hurricane Near Gulf Coast

(Updated at 1:13 p.m.) MIAMI — Isaac became a hurricane Tuesday that could flood the coasts of four states with storm surge and heavy rains on its way to New Orleans, where residents hunkered down behind levees fortified after Katrina struck seven years ago this week.

Shelters were open for those who chose to stay or missed the chance to get away before the outer bands of the large storm blow ashore ahead of a forecast landfall in southeast Louisiana on Tuesday night or early Wednesday.  However, with the exception of some low-lying areas, officials had not ordered mass evacuations.

The U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami said Isaac became a Category 1 hurricane Tuesday with winds of 75 mph.  It could get stronger by the time it’s expected to reach the swampy coast of southeast Louisiana.

In Houma, a city southwest of New Orleans, people filled a municipal auditorium-turned-shelter.  However, in the bayou country of Terrebonne Parish off Highway 24, storms pose a perennial dilemma for those living a hardscrabble life.

Read more: http://www.pottsmerc.com/article/20120828/NEWS04/120829390/updated-isaac-becomes-cat-1-hurricane-near-gulf-coast&pager=full_story

Tropical Storm Isaac Slogs Toward U.S. Gulf Coast

NEW ORLEANS (Reuters) – Tropical Storm Isaac churned across the Gulf of Mexico on Monday, disrupting U.S. offshore energy production and threatening to hit Louisiana on the anniversary of devastating Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

The storm swiped south Florida on Sunday before moving into warm Gulf waters, where it is expected to strengthen into a hurricane.

On its current track, Isaac was due to slam into the Gulf Coast anywhere between Florida and Louisiana by Tuesday night or early Wednesday, the seventh anniversary of Katrina hitting New Orleans, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said.

“The weather is going to go downhill well in advance of that and that’s why today is the day of preparation,” said NHC director Richard Knabb.

Read more: http://www.mcall.com/business/sns-rt-us-storm-isaacbre87l0ph-20120822,0,2605372.story

New Orleans Newspaper Cuts Print Edition To Three Days A Week

A true-color satellite image of New Orleans taken on NASA’s Landsat 7 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

NEW ORLEANS, La.  (Reuters) – The 175-year-old Pulitzer Prize-winning New Orleans Times-Picayune newspaper will reduce the number of days it publishes a print edition to three a week, making the Louisiana city the largest in the United States without a daily newspaper.

Advance Publications, which owns the Times-Picayune, said on Thursday it made the change because of the upheaval in the newspaper industry and the necessity to focus on its digital publications.

The company said three of its newspapers in Alabama – the Huntsville Times, Mobile Press-Register and Birmingham News – would also cut back their print editions to three days a week.

Read more: http://www.mcall.com/business/sns-rt-us-media-neworleans-newspaperbre84o03e-20120524,0,1798086.story

BP, Plaintiffs Reach $7.8 Billion Settlement

NEW ORLEANS, La. (TheStreet) — BP(BP) and the plaintiffs in the Gulf of Mexico oil spill case have reached an estimated $7.8 billion settlement.

In a news release early Saturday, the U.K. petroleum giant said it had reached the settlement with the Plaintiffs’ Steering Committee, which represents diverse plaintiffs in the complex case.

The settlement, news of which comes just two days before the trial was scheduled to start, is subject to final written agreement, the release said.

Read more: http://business-news.thestreet.com/the-times-herald/story/bp-plaintiffs-reach-78-billion-settlement/11442438

Gulf Oil Spill Panel Findings Leaked!

Image via Wikipedia

Here is an article about the leaked findings from the presidential panel on the BP Oil Spill Disaster:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/40956664/40777506

BP’s Latest Effort To Stop Oil-Flow Fails!

BP’s latest heavy mud effort to stop the flow of oil into the Gulf of Mexico has failed.  The oil flow was too much for the heavy mud to cap the well.

So until next week, oil will continue to pour in the ocean unabated (18 million gallons and growing).  Next week BP will try a new untested procedure to cap the well.  This procedure involves a robot and cutting of the end of a pipe and placing a cap and seal over it.  It could take 4 – 7 days to complete.

The is now the largest oil spill in US history and growing daily.  The ecological and economic impact of this fiasco will be felt for 50 years!  Up to 40 million gallons of oil could wind up in the Gulf before all is said and done.

The White House stated the leak is enraging as well as heartbreaking.

Gulf Oil Spill, One Month Later

So guess what??  BP still has not contained the gushing oil that continues to pour into the ocean for a month now!  The oil is moving its way inland and up the delta of the Mississippi River.  Now Florida is possibly threatened.  BP says it could be (sit down please) August until this thing in capped but “not to worry” because BP COO Doug Suttles is optimistic that the Gulf “will make a full recovery.”  Well thanks Doug – we can all sleep better knowing that.  Did you call Dionne Warwick and the Psychic Friends Network to get that info Doug????  Y’all have lost all credibility with me.

There has been a lot of finger-pointing and blame game but nobody, including the US Government, has done anything remotely close to stopping the oil spilling into the Gulf of Mexico.  IMHO this is an environmental disaster of epic proportions and the US Government should be diverting any and all resources necessary to shut the oil off!  Tell BP to go back to Britain.  We’ll fix it ourselves and send those knuckleheads the bill!

Somebody better light a fire under some one or some thing before it’s too late.

Full recovery my patoot!

Read About The Latest Plan To Combat The BP Oil Spill

This makes me very leary.  The last line says it all!

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/05/05/gulf-oil-cleanup-untested_n_563893.html

Off-Shore Oil Spill Threatens Louisiana

A massive oil spill is threatening the Louisiana coastline.  BP has been unable to stop the massive flow of oil (210,000 gallons a day) from a well explosion that is leaking from as deep as a mile underwater.  The government is now getting involved because of BP’s inability to solve their own problem.  BP is responsible for the $6 million dollar a day price tag. 

One third of the nation’s seafood comes from Louisiana and the delta area is in great danger.  This could eclipse the Exxon Valdez spill if not contained soon.  Oil has already reached the coastline which is teaming with wildlife.

Louisiana has never fully recovered from Katrina.  This disaster could not come at a worse time.

Louisiana Woman Sells Children For A Cockatoo And $175 Cash!

Obviously Donna Louise Greenwell of Pitkin, LA has a few screws loose.  She was sentenced to two counts of 15 months hard labor, to run consecutively, for offering to sell two children (ages 4 & 5) to a couple (the Romero’s of Eunice, LA) in exchange for a cockatoo and $175 cash to cover the attorney fee’s for the custody transfer.

Donna Louise stated the children were “abandoned to her care” by the parents and she was unable to take adequate care of them.  The children’s parents could not located (how special).  The Romero’s had their sentences suspended for testifying against Louise.  They would have received five years in prison had their sentences not been suspended for cooperating with authorities.

Donna Louise evidently didn’t know about Social Services and Child Welfare??? 

Only in America folks!