* Senate Votes to Audit Federal Reserve * Goldman Sachs and Other Banks Report “Perfect” First Quarters * Agency Overseeing Offshore Drilling to Be Split Up * Cameron to Lead Coalition British Government * Link Between Times Sq. Bomber and Pakistani Taliban Questioned * Clinton Meets with Karzai in Washington * Hersh: US Carrying Out “Battlefield Executions” in Afghanistan * Environmental Groups Criticize Kerry-Lieberman Climate Bill * Arizona Bans Ethnic Studies in Public Schools * UN Human Rights Experts Criticize Arizona Law * Massachusetts Town Bans Sale of All Bottled Water * 40 Years Ago: KKK Bombs Transmitter of Pacifica’s KPFT in Houston * More Headlines…
* Oil-spill As Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill Spreads, BP, Halliburton and Transocean Executives Deflect Blame for Spill at Senate Hearings
As thousands of gallons of oil continue to spew daily from a damaged well in the Gulf of Mexico, representatives from BP, Transocean and Halliburton were grilled by lawmakers in back-to-back hearings on Capitol Hill Tuesday. Industry executives from all three corporations began with prepared testimony that involved blaming each other for the explosion and deflecting responsibility for the unfolding environmental and economic disaster. We air excerpts and speak with marine biologist Rick Steiner. For the past week he has been working at the site of the oil spill and on the Louisiana coast, where he collected several samples of the oil washing up ashore. [includes rush transcript] * Kagan-question Glenn Greenwald v. Lawrence Lessig: A Debate on Elena Kagan’s Supreme Court Nomination
If confirmed, the fifty-year-old Elena Kagan would be the Court’s youngest member. She would become the fourth female Supreme Court justice in US history and the third on the Court’s current bench. She would also be the first justice in nearly four decades without any prior judicial experience. Kagan’s nomination has divided progressives in part because so little is known about her judicial views. Her nomination sparked a heated debate between two noted legal commentators: Harvard Law professor Lawrence Lessig and constitutional law attorney and Salon blogger, Glenn Greenwald. Greenwald first appeared on Democracy Now! last month making his case against Kagan’s nomination. On Monday, he was interviewed on The Rachel Maddow Show. Right after Greenwald, Rachel Maddow interviewed Lawrence Lessig, who criticized some of Greenwald’s comments. This led to them both penning articles online yesterday criticizing each other and defending their position on Kagan’s nomination. [includes rush transcript]