Help Buju Banton Pay His Lawyer (What's His Name Again?)

I always say lawyers should get paid for good work.

That's why like-minded citizens can band together and help Buju defend himself (wire instructions included!):

Markus told the Observer that the cost of the first trial has taken a huge financial toll on the artiste and asked fans, friends and supporters of the artiste to assist in any way they can.

Very true.  That's one advantage the government always has when they decide to retry a case -- they never run out of money.

On the other hand, does anyone else find it unseemly (obscene?) that Ken Feinberg has already collected $2.5 million for three months' work on the Deepwater Horizon disaster:

The $850,000 monthly payments to Feinberg’s firm will continue through year-end and then will be reviewed, a person familiar with the contract said today.

The money goes to seven professionals at Feinberg’s firm and is paid by BP separately from the fund to help victims, according to the person, who spoke on condition of anonymity about details not spelled out in today’s report. Among those being paid is Feinberg’s brother David, according to the report. David Feinberg is listed on the firm’s website as director of special projects.

The payments from BP help offset the “significant distortion” the project is causing to the Feinberg firm’s business, Mukasey said in the report today. Feinberg Rozen has turned away three mediation requests since June, according to the report. 

 Ok, three mediation requests but come on!

The last time I used Feinberg for a mediation he was billing well north of $1000 an hour, and that was quite a while ago.

How's that compare to the hourly rate of an Article III judge, like Judge Barbier who is presiding over the actual MDL litigation?

BTW, the Judge picked the steering committee to oversee the prosecution of the Deepwater Horizon litigation, and our own Ervin Gonzalez made the list, which you can see here.

Mitch Widom, Plaintiff's Lawyer?

I meant to say Mitch Widom, Plaintiff's Lawyer!

That's the takeaway for me from this Julie Kay article examining all the Florida lawyers who have applied for leadership roles in the BP Oil litigation:

Grossman is seeking a position as co-lead counsel for the state of Florida with Widom. The Grossman-Bilzin team already represents the Florida Keys stone crab industry. 

I like that -- the "Grossman-Bilzin team" -- good luck, you crazy knuckleheads!

(PS -- AAJ membership available here)

I kid, but these guys are highly qualified, as evidenced by Big Stu and Big Mitch's application for leadership here.

But you boys better hurry, because the 2010-11 Supreme Court term isn't looking too good for plaintiffs at the moment.

Darn you/bless you, Chamber of Commerce!

Welcome, Summer Associates!

Boy I remember a time when downtown was thick with young, fresh-faced, overeager summer associates, prepared at the drop of a hat to "sheperdize" a case or bring you an important "fax."

Now, according to the ever intrepid Julie Kay, not so much:

But one firm that completely eliminated its summer associate program in Miami now regrets it — especially since business has picked up. Jim Miller, litigation chair at Akerman Senterfitt, said the firm had no summer associates in Miami this summer but is already planning to resume the practice next summer.

“You don’t want to have summer associates unless you plan to hire them,” he said. “But we regret not doing it.”

 Yep.  Who in the world knew Providence would guide one of the world's worst environmental disasters right through our solid oak front doors?

Ca-Ching!

Meanwhile, the question of transparency in law school graduate hiring continues to simmer, with one 3L actually on a hunger strike to bring attention to the issue.  As ATL points out:

We’ve written about the Law School Transparency project before. It’s an organization asking entirely legitimate questions. LST wants law schools to provide accurate statistics about employment outcomes for graduates. It’s hard to understand why law schools aren’t willing to support the Law School Transparency group, other than a base desire to keep prospective law students in the dark about their post-graduate employment options.

Even incoming ABA President Steve Zack, in an otherwise full-throttled endorsement for going to law school, raised the question of transparency:

What advice would you give someone entering law school now, or thinking about going for a law degree?

I tell them that they are lucky to be in our profession because the law is going to change more in the next ten years than it has in the last 200 years. When I started practicing law, we hung up a shingle. Today, graduates register a domain name. The one area that I have real concern about is the cost. I think it’s time for there to be--and this will probably be pretty controversial--some truth-and-lending documents that go to applicants to law schools. There’s not enough information given to people considering the legal field.

So dear young ones, do enjoy the free lunches, the law firm "mixers," in addition to the desperate back-stabbing, rumor-mongering. brown-nosing, and win-at-all-costs mentality of your peers.

All that will change once you become an associate, I am sure.

Friday Morning Digital Dump

Let's see, what do people want to talk about this morning?

Ervin makes a pitch for bringing the Gulf Oil Disaster to Miami:

Ervin A. Gonzales, a Florida lawyer, argued that “clearly, Louisiana is the most affected state, but there may be appearances of conflict” for judges and jurors. He suggested Miami.

Note to NYT -- I know Hispanic names are tricky, but it's Gonzalez, not Gonzales.

(Doesn't anyone fact-check anymore?)

Big surprise -- people don't always understand contracts that they sign, especially when there's lots of fine print:

The agency says DIRECTV buried additional fees in small print in service agreements with customers. For example, it cited a $5 charge for a second receiver; a $19.95 fee for complex installation, handling and delivery; $6 per month for DVR service; and $10 a month for HD access. But the company's offers of free installation in up to four rooms and free HD DVR receiver upgrades didn't include information about these fees.

In addition, the suit says customers who thought they were signing a one-year contract based on ads that offered to lock in a price for a full year were actually signing two-year contracts.
And, the suit says, ads that claimed the service offers more than 130 HD channels, including local channels and exclusive sports packages, added in fine print ``eligibility for local channels based on service address. Programs not delivered in HD in all markets,'' and ``Blackout restrictions and other conditions apply.''

The consumer services department says these conditions didn't clearly explain to consumers that even with the most expensive programming packages, they wouldn't get all channels all the time.

Bit of a hodge-podge of a complaint if you ask me, but here's the important thing: the contract specified a pool of exactly 2530 feet! 

Karmic payback's a b@$ch:

Sam Wyly also funded the Swift Boat campaign that torpedoed Massachusetts Democrat John Kerry's 2004 presidential campaign.

What else -- Thor trailer here (boo, it's been taken down), and happy birthday to Buddy Guy!

A Ticket Attorney, A Furniture Attorney, And A Traffic Hearing Examiner Go Into A Bar......

And one of them comes out a Palm Beach circuit court judge:

Lemoine fired the first salvo by touting records that show he has handled 684 cases in Palm Beach County courts, compared to Daire's 143, Small's 118 and Goodman's 18. The records, he says, prove who has the needed experience.

Goodman counters that Lemoine is mainly a ticket doctor, which lends itself to high volume. Lemoine said traffic cases represent about 20 percent of his practice. Lemoine, in turn, writes off Daire's high numbers, saying many of the cases are to collect money from customers who stiffed the furniture stores.

Oy, good thing something like this could never happen here in Miami-Dade.

In other news, blind pig......Glenn Garvin.

Finally, Miami is in the running to land the BP Oil Spill litigation:

A federal judicial panel is meeting Thursday in Boise, Idaho, to consider whether to consolidate some or all of the lawsuits for pretrial decisions before a single judge, a development that most observers say is a foregone conclusion. BP and the other companies favor federal court in Houston — near their major U.S. operations — while a majority of plaintiffs' attorneys have suggested New Orleans, closer to the broken well and to many of the hardest-hit victims. Courts in Florida, Mississippi and Alabama also are being suggested as venues.

Bring home the bacon -- this could do more for the local economy than 15 Super Bowls.

Gelber vs. Aronberg on BP Resignation

Here's an interesting video that puts together a point-counterpoint from the candidates on Dan Gelber's resignation from Akerman as that firm took on the massive BP Oil Spill defense work.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again -- Dan was slightly slow off the dime on this issue, and initially offered some weak tea in defense of his original argument that no conflict exists.

So David could certainly raise that as a legitimate issue.

But now that the issue has been resolved, I'm not following David in his continuing pursuit of it.

Could BP move to recuse Dan from the case if he is elected Attorney General?

Not likely in my view.

On the other hand, Dan has a slight case of exaggerated vapors in his reaction to it all, don't you think?

What strikes me, as I listen to Dan explain the timeline, is that it's pretty clear he didn't get much of a heads up from the firm as it aggressively (and successfully) sought out the business.

That's BigFirm life for you.

Aronberg Tars Gelber With "BP's Law Firm"

I've previously criticized my friend Dan Gelber's initial reaction over his firm Akerman getting all the BP Florida work.

Basically, when the news broke Dan did what lots of politicians do (he was joined by several other Akerman state legislators) -- he went into defense mode.

Specifically Gelber argued there was no conflict for two reasons I thought were pretty bogus:

1. He's "of counsel" (a contract lawyer) and therefore doesn't make any more money from the firm receiving the humongous BP business; and

2. The firm would build a "Chinese Wall" and isolate him from any BP work at Akerman.

As I detailed in my original post, both arguments and the conclusion (no conflict) are beyond weak, and to his credit Dan thought better of his initial reaction and left the firm shortly after making his initial comments on the matter.

Apparently, on the same day Dan announced his resignation, his opponent -- also my friend -- Dave Aronberg called for Dan to resign, leading to a predictable pissing match over who should get credit for Dan doing the right thing.

Now Dave has ratcheted it up with a flier that seems a bit over the top:

Aronberg, of Greenacres, recently began using the name of a defunct statewide Democratic group — the Florida Mainstream Democrats — to help raise money for his campaign.

And last week, Aronberg's campaign mailed Democratic voters a flier with a picture of an oily bird to attack Gelber, of Miami Beach, for working at the law firm retained by BP to handle its civil litigation in Florida.

State Rep. Rick Kriseman, the former chairman of Florida Mainstream Democrats, said he was "disappointed" Aronberg was using his group's name.

"It's misleading people," said Kriseman, who closed the political committee earlier this year after struggling to raise enough money.

He also is no fan of the BP ad for much the same reason. In a call that went to Democratic voters this weekend, Kriseman said he was "disappointed and frustrated that Dave Aronberg has sent out to Democratic voters mail pieces which are very misleading and are simply not true. Dan Gelber has been a leader in going after BP for the damage they have caused our communities."

The St. Petersburg Democrat said he had been neutral in the attorney general race, but decided to record the automated phone call for Gelber's campaign after he saw Aronberg's flier.

At least two other Democratic representatives, Luis Garcia of Miami Beach and Keith Fitzgerald of Sarasota, have lent their names to Gelber in opposition to the flier, which tells voters that 80 million gallons of oil gushed into the Gulf of Mexico before Gelber quit Akerman Senterfitt. It also refers to Gelber has having worked for "BP's law firm."

Ok, now it's Dave's turn for some criticism -- oily birds and "BP's law firm."

Dan might have reflexively defended his Akerman connection when the news first broke -- in fact I suggested Akerman might have thrown him under the bus to go after the BP business -- but days later Gelber did the right thing and it's time to move on.

The flier is beneath Dave's good judgment and I hope we never see another ad like it.

Like I always say, play nice kids!

Does BP Dream of Electric Gene Stearns?

Charlie Crist thinks so:

The council recruited veteran Miami attorney Gene Stearns as an unpaid adviser. Stearns is a former aide to Democratic Gov. Reubin Askew and a champion of minority voting rights. It also recruited Dan Gerber, a Republican and a “toxic tort” expert who is a member of the conservative Federalist Society. Both are routine inhabitants of Florida Trend Magazine’s “Legal Elite.”

Ok, I have no problem adding Gene Stearns to any "legal dream team," and I happen to know and like Dan Gerber but first of all -- Dan's from Orlando.

Also, I wonder if there's any issue conflict at a minimum with some of Dan's writings or positions taken in the past with respect to the damage issues that will have to be sorted out before Special Master Feinberg?

Oh well, I'm sure they'll sort all that out.

Besides, what do I know?

Just like nearly everyone on these here intertubes, my strongly-held opinions are factually inaccurate and not especially subject to change, even when presented with direct proof that my "facts" are wrong.

(It's a self-esteem issue.)

Bill McCollum Actually Gets Something Right.

I've mediated before Kenneth Feinberg, and he's a big-shot, very expensive guy who happens to be exceptionally good at what he does.

That's why I was a bit puzzled by this Herald story on how he intends to interpret claims by Floridians under the new $20 billion compensation fund:

Feinberg said he'll come up with ``an expansive'' definition in the coming weeks. But when he appeared before the U.S. House Committee on Small Business last week, Feinberg said he would use ``Florida law'' as one measure of eligibility.

When asked about whether Florida businesses could make a claim based on the ``the public misperception of tar balls on beaches,'' Feinberg testified that it was a ``tough'' issue.

``Clearly, under Florida law, I think it's fair to say that it's not compensable. If there's no physical damage to the beaches and it's a public perception, I venture to say that it is not compensable,'' Feinberg said, noting ``that's in this area where some discretion's going to have to be exercised.''

Those are fighting words for McCollum.

McCollum said Tuesday that Feinberg was wrong on two counts. First, McCollum said, Feinberg shouldn't use Florida state law to decide how he'll pay claims under the federal Oil Pollution Act. Second, McCollum said, Feinberg misunderstood the strictness of state law.

For instance, McCollum said, a Key West hotel that is losing business because of the misperception of oily water and beaches could still get damages.

``I believe what Mr. Feinberg was saying was under Florida's law, you couldn't get any damages or recovery from that. In fact, we believe he's quite wrong about that.''

It's unclear the context of Feinberg's remarks on Florida law, but I doubt he is suggesting that claims under the federal oil pollution act should be construed pursuant to Florida common law.

So that whole issue is a red herring.

On state tort and statutory claims brought solely under Florida law, however, I think McCollum has a point with respect to "misperception" claims. Also, by the time these claims are heard there will in fact be some oil dispersion along Florida's beaches (there already is).

You can read the entirety of McCollum's halfway-decent letter to Feinberg here.

Pre-4th of July Holiday Weekend Roundup.

Boy it feels awfully slow around town, huh?

Lots of people closing up and heading out to various vacation spots, responding to emails remotely and with multiple spelling and grammatical errors (I don't mean you, of course!)

Yet here I sit, sipping my cafecito and responding to annoying motions and inane letters (again, I'm not referring to your brilliant missives).

Do you care who gets elected judge in Broward? Thankfully I rarely have to go there, but if you do the Herald's initial recommendations are here.

It appears lawyers besides Akerman are jostling for BP business, and our own J.B. Harris makes a WSJ appearance.

I agree with J.B. -- there's absolutely no reason to trust the fund to do right by claimants without professional assistance and exhaustive investigation. And there are likely additional remedies not covered by the fund, which appears to not be focusing on economic claims anyway.

But what do I know -- perhaps the oddest legal twist is offered by Miami's Steph Nagin, who offers debt settlement software to other attorneys and this somehow relates to the Gulf Oil Spill:

Attorneys using Morgan Drexen’s integrated legal software has helped residents in Louisiana settle over $800,000 in debt, Mississippi $728,000, Alabama $745,000 and Florida $306,000. These figures are courtesy of Morgan Drexen, Inc.

Nevertheless, Morgan Drexen’s president, Steph Nagin, is concerned that personal debt for many families will dramatically increase.

Nagin, a Miami resident who was recently renamed a Florida Super Lawyer an accolade he has enjoyed for many consecutive years, says; “BP is attempting to cap the well and clean up the oil but who will help those families in debt, who may be hounded by many unscrupulous debt settlement companies? Floridians and residents of the Gulf States have alternatives and using an attorney-based platform has brought great success. Many of the debts settled this year by the attorneys supported by Morgan Drexen have been settled on average at 38% of the balance.”

I have no idea what any of that means, but if the Bar says it is ok who am I to judge?

(God Bless America.)

Dan Gelber and Akerman: Who's Zooming Who?

The always intrepid Julie Kay breaks the slightly late resignation of Dan Gelber from Akerman in the wake of that firm getting the massive BP business:

State Sen. Dan Gelber has resigned his counsel position with Akerman Senterfitt two weeks after saying his firm’s representation of BP was a “non-issue.”

Gelber is joined by state Sen. Joe Negron, who quit Akerman in the last week to join Gunster in West Palm Beach. Two other state lawmakers are still working at Akerman: state Sen. Alex Villalobos and state Rep. Joe Gibbons, a nonlawyer consultant.

Read the letter from Dan Gelber to supporters

Gelber, who now plans to run full-time for Florida attorney general, said he planned to quit immediately after being told by the Daily Business Review that his firm has been hired to represent BP for all Florida civil litigation. “I knew immediately I would have to,” he said. “But it doesn’t happen overnight. I’ve been a lawyer for 25 years. I have a lot of clients to tell.” But Gelber also said it was not an issue since he was of counsel and not an equity partner at Akerman, Florida’s largest law firm. Villalobos, who also is of counsel, agreed and shared a letter he wrote to Akerman’s managing partner, Andrew Smulian, on May 24 asking that the four legislators who work at Akerman be “walled off” from any BP discussions or documents.

As I said, I know and like both of these candidates, and they are eminently qualified and will make terrific AGs.

But Gelber should have immediately tendered his resignation in light of Akerman's retention, and not argued irrelevancies like his of counsel relationship and whatever Chinese Wall his firm thought was high enough to erase any perception of conflict.

And even if he decided last week he had to resign (before Aronberg demanded it), that is one week after the story broke and therefore one week too late. He should have included his resignation in his first public statement on this matter.

But really this episode shows you how little regard Akerman holds for its "of counsel" partners.

When they ran the conflicts check, the issue with Dan obviously came up.

And rather than support their partner and stay on one side of that issue, they seem to have decided that gelt is the better part of valor and the dude running for office will have to deal with the consequences.

Two weeks later, he did.

Conflict? What Conflict?

Julie Kay breaks the story of Akerman representing BP in the Gulf Oil disaster, a huge piece of business worth many millions of dollars.

But there's a little wrinkle:

State Sens. Alex Villalobos and Dan Gelber are taking the lead in calling for a special legislative session to ban offshore drilling in Florida waters.

Yet the two work for Akerman Senterfitt, the law firm that has been retained to handle BP’s oil spill defense work in Florida.

Villalobos and Gelber both said they don’t think there is a conflict in their dual roles as attorneys with the law firm defending BP in court. Two other state legislators at the firm, state Sen. Joe Negron and state Rep. Joe Gibbons — are also of counsel at Akerman.

Villalobos, who chairs the Senate rules committee and sits on the policy and steering committee on energy, environment and land use, wrote to Akerman chairman Andrew Smulian on behalf of the firm’s four legislators on May 24.

He requested that the four be “walled off” and isolated from any “discussions, documents or activities of any kind between the firm and BP.”

He noted the legislators’ “of counsel” status at the firm means they have no ownership stake or access to the firm’s financial records and do not share in firm profits.

“By serving in the ‘of counsel’ relationship, the legislators who are associated with the firm are not involved in any manner with this client nor do we have access to files or information relating to the firm’s representation of BP,” the letter stated.

The problem is that the state is preparing to sue BP.

This would mean that if Dan Gelber is elected Florida's Attorney General, he will be supervising a highly significant piece of litigation against his own firm (or possibly former firm).

Can a Chinese Wall (how anachronistic is that?) and "of counsel" relationship cure that issue?

(Both Dan and Dave Aronberg are buddies and both are immensely qualified btw.)

SFL Friday -- Mysteries of Love Edition!

Well it's almost that time, and as I gather my windsurfing essentials my mind lingers on the Gulf Oil disaster.

Question -- why is the media fixated on whether you can see oil on the beaches?

Given the historic volume of oil released, and the length of time the oil has been gushing, isn't it a reasonable assumption that the Gulf ecosystem will be severely impacted whether or not you can anecdotally spot surface oil off the shoreline?

Still, it's good to know we have assembled the right legal team:

The co-chairman of the group Gov. Crist created about a month ago to look out for the state's legal claims against BP and others was one of many lobbyists last year for the group that ambushed the Legislature with a bill to end the ban on oil drilling in state waters. Former Florida Attorney General Jim Smith also was a lobbyist for BP about a decade ago, and his son was a registered lobbyist in Tallahassee for BP last year."Hey, I'm a lawyer," Mr. Smith said in an interview Thursday, meaning that his work for the oil industry won't affect his work for the state going after the oil industry. "I'm not concerned about (a conflict)," as he leads the Oil Spill Legal Advisory Council.

"Hey, I'm a lawyer" -- well that settles it!

Don't lawyers run conflicts checks anymore?

Oh hail I'm outta here.

Before I rev up the van please remember to always dress appropriately for work, people have been writing about it for a long time, and Cameron Diaz reveals her beauty secret (hint hint -- it's also an effective diet).

Have a wet hot American weekend!

Judges Recuse Themselves in Gulf Oil Disaster

Judges are dropping like flies in the Gulf Oil disaster, recusing faster than you can say "worst environmental catastrophe of our lifetimes."

Curiously, one judge has not issued an order of recusal:

BP and other defendants in spill cases asked the multidistrict panel to put the case in Houston, home of each one’s U.S. operational headquarters. The companies asked that the case be assigned to Judge Lynn Hughes.

Hughes has lectured for an oilfield industry professional group that pays his travel expenses, according to filings obtained from the Judicial Watch website.

Mutual Funds

Hughes also owns six mutual funds that include shares in companies involved in the spill, including one fund whose largest component is Anadarko Petroleum Corp., a minority partner in the damaged well, according to the filings.

Among Hughes’s reported mutual fund holdings are Legg Mason Aggressive Growth Fund, which was almost 10 percent Anadarko at the end of March, and AIM Basic Value Fund, which included shares of Halliburton and Transocean as of the same period.

Hughes, in an e-mail, declined to discuss any aspect of the oil spill case before him or any potential conflict of interest.

The mutual fund issue doesn't really bother me.

I'm more torn over the oil industry lecturing, and would want to know more about the circumstances of how this judge got invited to speak to oil industry professionals in the first place.

Still, given the stakes, one would think it would be prudent for the integrity of the federal judiciary to find someone who is absolutely squeaky clean (unlike our precious Gulf).

"We Seemed To Float Right Through the Air"

I've had this song stuck in my head the last few days (here in a beautiful arrangement set to the classic dance scene from Picnic), and it's impossible to not feel hopeful, romantic, and wildly optimistic listening to it.

Perhaps that's why I get such a kick from this story:

When asked to predict the outcome of civil and criminal cases, lawyers are often too optimistic.

That's the result of a survey co-authored by Elizabeth Loftus, a University of California-Irvine psychologist and law professor, along with other academics, published this month in the American Psychological Association's Psychology, Public Policy & Law.

The article is titled "Insightful or Wishful: Lawyers' Ability to Predict Case Outcomes."

“The higher the expressed level of confidence, the more likely lawyers were to fall short of their goals,” Loftus said in a UCI release about the survey. “In addition, male attorneys were found to be more overconfident than female attorneys.”

This strikes me as so empirically true.

How many times have you had to deal with a lawyer on the other side who is ridiculously overconfident of his chances of success?

Again, I recognize bluster serves a function and is part of the game, but at some point it actually enhances your cognitive decision-making process to realistically assess negative outcomes.

Oops, I'm getting all jargony again.

Remember we were discussing that magic 5000 barrels a day number?

Turns out it's probably total bullcrap:

Scientists said that the size of the spill was directly related to the amount of damage it would do in the ocean and onshore, and that calculating it accurately was important for that reason.

BP has repeatedly said that its highest priority is stopping the leak, not measuring it. “There’s just no way to measure it,” Kent Wells, a BP senior vice president, said in a recent briefing.

Yet for decades, specialists have used a technique that is almost tailor-made for the problem. With undersea gear that resembles the ultrasound machines in medical offices, they measure the flow rate from hot-water vents on the ocean floor. Scientists said that such equipment could be tuned to allow for accurate measurement of oil and gas flowing from the well.

Richard Camilli and Andy Bowen, of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts, who have routinely made such measurements, spoke extensively to BP last week, Mr. Bowen said. They were poised to fly to the gulf to conduct volume measurements.

But they were contacted late in the week and told not to come, at around the time BP decided to lower a large metal container to try to capture the leak. That maneuver failed. They have not been invited again.

Note to BP lawyers assisting in or facilitating this strategy: F^&K YOU.

Oh hail.

It must have been moonglow, way up in the blue
It must have been moonglow that led me straight to you
I still hear you sayin', "Dear one, hold me fast"
And I keep on prayin', "Oh Lord, please let this last"

Expect No Mercy.

Does anyone have a handle on how much oil is flooding the Gulf right now?

I scoured the Herald articles today and they seem to be adopting uncritically the "official" 5000 barrels estimate, which equates to 210,000 gallons a day. (This means we will have surpassed the Exxon Valdez spill by mid-June if left unchecked.)

The NYT, however, is reporting potentially higher numbers:

BP told members of Congress the rate could be much, much higher:

In a closed-door briefing for members of Congress, a senior BP executive conceded Tuesday that the ruptured oil well could conceivably spill as much as 60,000 barrels a day of oil, more than 10 times the estimate of the current flow.

A barrel of crude oil contains roughly 42 gallons. In a follow-up story, the Times talked to a BP spokesman for more on the estimate:

"The rate could go up to that," Mr. Suttles of BP said, when asked to verify a report in The Times. "It's not the situation we have at this moment, but it's not impossible."

What are we doing about it? They're working on a "top-hat" maneuver that I admit got me a little bit excited:

the ``top hat'' will be warmed with hot water and injected with methanol....

Sounds intriguing but kids, don't try that at home.

In related news, Governor Crist has appointed former AGs Bob Butterworth and Jim Smith to head up a legal team, presumably to sue the pants off culpable parties:

Gov. Charlie Crist and Attorney General Bill McCollum announced Monday that the state is assembling a special legal team to give free legal counsel on the situation.

The team is to be led by former attorneys general Bob Butterworth, who led the state’s lawsuit against tobacco companies in the late 1990s, and Jim Smith, who was attorney general from 1979 to 1987.

“We would hope at the end of the day that there would be no litigation,” Butterworth snickered (oops!) said in a brief afternoon press conference. “But we have to be prepared.”

Speaking of Big Bill, the NYT picks up swlip's "existence tax" argument and looks at how McCollum forum-shopped so he was certain to draw a Republican-appointed judge (he drew Judge Vinson):

The state’s Northern District includes a courthouse in Tallahassee, six blocks from Mr. McCollum’s office. But Mr. McCollum instead filed the case 200 miles away in Pensacola, bypassing a Tallahassee judge who was named by President Bill Clinton and ensuring that the judge would be a Republican appointee.

Bob Norman: welcome to Broweird!

Finally, RIP Frank Frazetta.