From the New York Times, in April 2010, Arizona adopted the nation’s toughest law on illegal immigration, provoking a nationwide debate and a Justice Department lawsuit. On July 28, one day before the law was to take effect, a federal judge blocked the state from enforcing its most controversial provisions. These included sections that called for officers to check a person’s immigration status, while enforcing other laws that required immigrants to carry their papers at all times.

The law, known locally as SB1070, was aimed at discouraging illegal immigrants from entering or remaining in the state. It coincided with economic anxiety and followed a number of high-profile crimes attributed to illegal immigrants and smuggling. However, federal data suggests that crime is falling in Arizona, as it is nationally, despite a surge of immigration. The law also requires police officers, “when practicable,” to detain people they reasonably suspect are in the country without authorization and to verify their status with federal officials, unless doing so would hinder an investigation or emergency medical treatment. The law also makes it a state crime – a misdemeanor – to not carry immigration papers. In addition, it allows people to sue the local government or agencies if they believe federal or state immigration law is not being enforced.

The legislation’s supporters said it reflected frustration over inaction by the federal government, while critics said it would lead to harassment of Hispanics and turn the presumption of innocence upside down. Although the federal ruling is not final, it seems likely to halt, at least temporarily, an expanding movement by states to combat illegal immigration, by making it a state crime to be an immigrant without legal documents and by imposing new requirements on state and local police officers to enforce the immigration law.

In her ruling on July 28, United States District Court Judge Susan Bolton, in Phoenix, said that issuing a preliminary injunction barring enforcement of some elements of the law “is less harmful than allowing state laws that are likely preempted by federal law to be enforced.”

“There is a substantial likelihood that officers will wrongfully arrest legal resident aliens,” she wrote. “By enforcing this statute, Arizona would impose a ‘distinct, unusual and extraordinary’ burden on legal resident aliens that only the federal government has the authority to impose.”

Gov. Jan Brewer, a Republican who signed the law and has campaigned on it for election to a full term, said the state would appeal the decision. Legal experts predicted that the case could end up before the Supreme Court.

The Arizona law had inflamed the national debate over immigration and provoked an outcry across the border. Mexico’s Foreign Ministry has said that it worried about the rights of its citizens and relations with Arizona. Cardinal Roger M. Mahony of Los Angeles said the authorities’ ability to demand documents was like “Nazism.” President Obama had criticized the bill shortly before Governor Brewer signed it. The Arizona law, he said, threatened “to undermine basic notions of fairness that we cherish as Americans, as well as the trust between police and our communities that is so crucial to keeping us safe.”

Immigration reform had been a dormant issue nationally, until the passage of the Arizona law in April 2010. Republicans and Democrats had agreed for years on the need for sweeping changes in the federal immigration laws. President George W. Bush, for three years, pushed for a bipartisan bill before giving up in 2007, after an outcry from voters opposed to any path to legal status for illegal aliens. But immigration reform came back to life in April 2010. About 20 other states are considering similar laws, and Democratic governors have complained to the White House of the political fallout of opposing the Arizona measure.

After the Arizona law passed, a coalition of top Senate Democrats laid out the contours of a proposed overhaul of immigration laws, and appealed to Republicans to join them in pursuing it, even as doubts mounted about the prospects of winning approval of legislation in 2010. The Justice Department, on July 6, had filed a lawsuit in a federal court in Phoenix to challenge the state law, contending that controlling immigration is a federal responsibility. Polls, however, suggest that a majority of Americans support the Arizona law, or at least the concept of a state having a strong role in immigration enforcement. The lawsuit had been expected since mid-June 2010, when the Obama administration officials first disclosed that they would contest the legislation, adding to several other suits seeking to have courts strike it down.

The federal government added its weight to the core argument in those suits, which also argued that the Arizona law usurps powers to control immigration reserved for federal authorities. The main suit was brought by the American Civil Liberties Union, the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, and other civil rights groups. The mere fact of being present without legal immigration status is a civil violation under federal law, but not a crime. The Justice Department contended that the law would divert federal and local law enforcement officers by making them focus on people who may not have committed crimes and by causing the “detention and harassment of authorized visitors, immigrants and citizens.” The Justice Department suit was also aimed at stemming a tide of similar laws under consideration in other states. “The Constitution and the federal immigration laws do not permit the development of a patchwork of state and local immigration policies throughout the country,” the suit says.

White House officials said President Obama was not involved in the Justice Department’s decision to sue. But the suit came after steps by President Obama to frame the immigration debate in terms that would favor Democrats in advance of midterm elections in November, including a speech in July when he restated his commitment to overhaul legislation that would give legal status to millions of illegal immigrants.

On July 28, Judge Bolton in Phoenix blocked central provisions of the Arizona law from taking effect.

The judge broadly vindicated the Obama administration’s high-stakes move to challenge the state’s law and to assert the primary authority of the federal government over state lawmakers in immigration matters. Arizona’s lawyers had contended that the statute was written to complement federal laws. Judge Bolton, who was appointed by President Bill Clinton in 2000, rejected that argument, finding that four of its major provisions interfered or directly conflicted with federal laws. The Arizona police, she wrote, would have to question every person they detained about immigration status, generating a flood of requests to the federal immigration authorities for confirmations. The number of requests “is likely to impermissibly burden federal resources and redirect federal agencies away from priorities they have established,” she wrote.

While opponents of the Arizona law had said it would lead to racial profiling, the Justice Department did not dwell on those issues in its court filings. Judge Bolton brought them forward, finding significant risks for legal immigrants and perhaps American citizens. There is a “substantial likelihood that officers will wrongfully arrest legal resident aliens,” she wrote, warning that foreign tourists could also be wrongly detained. The law, she found, would increase “the intrusion of police presence into the lives of legally present aliens (and even United States citizens), who will necessarily be swept up” by it.

The federal ruling shifts the political pressure back onto President Obama to show that he can effectively enforce the border and to move forward with an overhaul of the immigrations laws, so that states will not seek to step in as Arizona did.

Despite ample campaigning for president, it looks like hip hop star Wyclef Jean will not be the face that helps restore the “pearl of the Antille,” as he so affectionately calls his homeland, Haiti. After the earthquake that destroyed much of the country, Wyclef Jean spoke out about his desire to help Haiti, by running for president. But while his bid for presidency came with positive reaction from Haiti residents, winning over others proved much harder.

Actor Sean Penn, who has been active with his relief organization, questioned Jean’s motives: “I have to say I’m very suspicious of it, simply because he, as an ambassador at large, has been virtually silent. For those of us in Haiti, he has been a non-presence.” Ex-Fugees band mate, Pras, said he couldn’t see Jean managing all of Haiti’s problems: “The reality is this, we need a real leader. Not just a regular leader, but a transformative leader. Someone that’s gonna be able to galvanize the Haitians down on the field, the Haitian-Americans, the international community. It’s a collective support—to take this country to the 21st century. And I’m just not convinced Wyclef is the one for that.” As if answering claims mismanaging $400,000 in earthquake relief donations wasn’t enough, doubts from colleagues and even death threats put Jean under fire. Yet, he never took himself out of the run. Only after he was challenged by a constitutional condition did he have no choice.

According to the Haitian electoral board, legal conditions keep the star from running for president. As a prerequisite for contention, all candidates must reside in Haiti for at least five years before the election. While Jean was born in Haiti, he currently lives in New Jersey and pays taxes to the United States. So, what does Wyclef Jean have to say about losing this bid for candidacy? The star, who said he would proceed with efforts to improve the education of Haiti’s youth if plans fell through, asserted his commitment: “I’ll never quit. I’ll run in another five years.” As for Haiti, 34 candidates await the arrival of the November 28 election.

When people think of Africa, “great economy” isn’t exactly the first thing that comes to mind, but the World Cup this past summer has proved to jumpstart South Africa’s economy.

When South Africa won the bid for the Cup in 2004, people didn’t have the highest expectations, but the country spent a reported $30 billion on infrastructure for it.  This was only the beginning of jumpstarting their economy.  From the time that they found out they were hosting the Cup, South African delegates started implementing new policies on hiring new workers to fix the highways, construct a new airport, expand the existing airports, and building new stadiums. All in all, the improvements for the cup opened about 66,000 new jobs.

Security throughout the whole country also started to level out at an unprecedented rate, but the government deployed about 40,000 extra police just in case.

Lots of people made assumptions that all of the new stadiums that were being built for the Cup would go to waste after it was over, but spokesman Themba Maseko said that during the bidding process, all host cities had to submit ways that the stadiums would be used when the Cup was over to prevent that.  They also say that the 700 buses that were used to take fans to the stadiums will continue to be used.  The Cup, at least for now, has given South African residents a sense of pride and unity that will continue to flow for months to come.

The World Cup has also helped the economy for the future because now South Africa is one of the hottest spots to be.  Now that people around the world have had a sneak peek at the country, more are going to want to see it up close and personal.

Although South African residents and officials are on cloud nine right now, they know that they are going to have to work hard if they want to continue this harmony throughout the country.  Leaders need to be creative and visionary in order to keep jobs open and the unity alive.  The world is just going to have to wait and see what South Africa has in store next.

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – Two escaped convicts from Arizona and a woman who accompanied them were charged with murder and carjacking Monday in the deaths of an Oklahoma couple who authorities said were targeted because of their camping trailer.

Federal prosecutors in New Mexico filed murder and carjacking charges against John McCluskey, 45; Tracy Province, 42; and their alleged accomplice, Casslyn Welch, 44.
They’re accused in the deaths of Gary and Linda Haas of Tecumseh, Okla.

Authorities said the three fugitives saw the couple at a rest area along Interstate 40 in eastern New Mexico Aug. 2, three days after the men escaped from the Arizona State Prison in Kingman. An arrest warrant says the three were tired of traveling and sleeping in a car they stole in Flagstaff, Ariz., and decided “it would be a good idea to target someone driving a camper or trailer.”

Prosecutors say McCluskey shot and killed the couple inside their travel trailer. The three fugitives drove the truck and trailer to a remote area of New Mexico’s Guadalupe County, where they unhitched, burned and abandoned the trailer, authorities said.

U.S. Attorney Kenneth Gonzales said at a news conference Monday that the Haases were traveling to Pagosa Springs, Colo., for a camping trip. He described them as “two people on vacation who happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time.”

McCluskey and Welch, who is his cousin and fiancee, were captured at a Forest Service campground near Springerville, Ariz., last week. Province was arrested Aug. 8 in Wyoming and has been returned to Arizona.

Gonzales said efforts were under way to extradite all three to New Mexico.

Asked if New Mexico would become the first place to prosecute the three for their crime spree because it is the location of the most serious charges, Gonzales said, “That’s certainly our position.”

He cautioned, however, that the process takes time, and he had no estimate when the three would be brought to New Mexico.

The trio also face charges in Arizona including kidnapping, armed robbery and aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. They are accused of hijacking a tractor-trailer shortly after the escape.

A third escaped convict, Daniel Renwick, split up from the rest of the group and was arrested two days after the jailbreak in Rifle, Colo.

MANILA, Philippines – A 12-hour hostage drama aboard a hijacked Philippine bus ended in bloodshed Monday when an angry ex-policeman demanding his job back gunned down eight Hong Kong tourists before police stormed the vehicle and a sniper killed him.

The aftermath of the bus hijacking.

At least seven captives survived, four of whom were seen crawling out the back door of the bus after Philippine police stormed it Monday evening when the hostage-taker started shooting at the 15 Chinese tourists inside, said police Senior Superintendent Nelson Yabut.

He said the hostage-taker was killed with a sniper shot to the head after he wounded a police sharpshooter.

Police and ambulances were lined up next to the vehicle in the pouring rain after the standoff ended. Local hospitals reported seven bodies of hostages were brought in. One other hostage was hospitalized in critical condition, and five others were unharmed.

Two of the surviving hostages were wounded in serious condition and the remaining five are under observation, Hong Kong leader Donald Tsang told reporters in the Chinese territory as he expressed shock and anger at the police response.

The bloodshed rattled the Philippines and raised questions about police ability to deal with hostage-takings.

“How can I be satisfied when there were people who died?” Philippine President Benigno Aquino III told reporters late Monday. But he said the situation deteriorated rapidly from the time the hostage-taker initially showed willingness to release his hostages.

Hong Kong issued a warning against travel to the Philippines and requested that Hong Kong tourists still in the country return. All upcoming tour groups were also canceled.

“I am very saddened by this tragedy. I am angered by the cold-blooded behavior of this murderer,” said Tsang, the Hong Kong leader.

The crisis began when the dismissed policeman, Rolando Mendoza, 55, armed with a M16 rifle seized the busload of Hong Kong tourists to demand his reinstatement in the force.

ORLANDO, Fla. – The federal job safety agency fined SeaWorld Orlando $75,000 on Monday for three violations uncovered while investigating the February death of a trainer who was grabbed by a killer whale and dragged underwater.

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration categorized the most serious violation as “willful,” or showing indifference or intentional disregard for employee safety. That citation, carrying a $70,000 penalty, was for exposing workers to drowning hazards when interacting with killer whales.

The agency proposes not allowing trainers to have any physical contact with Tilikum, the killer whale responsible for trainer Dawn Brancheau’s death in February, unless protected by a physical barrier.

The OSHA report described Tilikum as having “known aggressive tendencies.” The six-ton whale was one of three orcas blamed for killing a trainer in 1991 after the woman lost her balance and fell in the pool at Sealand of the Pacific near Victoria, British Columbia. Tilikum also was also involved in a 1999 death, when the body of a man who had sneaked by SeaWorld Orlando security was found draped over him.

Sea World trainers were forbidden from getting in the water with Tilikum because of the previous deaths. But the killer whale still managed to grab Brancheau’s long hair as she laid on her stomach on a cement clab in three inches of water. The cause of death was drowning and traumatic injuries.

The OSHA report also suggests that trainers not work with other killer whales at the park, either in the water or out of water, unless they are protected by a barrier, deck or oxygen-supply system underwater.

“SeaWorld trainers had an extensive history of unexpected and potentially dangerous incidents involving killer whales at its various facilities, including its location in Orlando,” OSHA said in a statement released with the report.

The second citation, deemed serious, was for failing to install a stairway railing system beside the stage in Shamu Stadium. That citation carried a $5,000 penalty.

The third citation was considered “other-than-serious” and was for failing to have weather-protected electrical receptacles at the stadium. That citation didn’t have a penalty.

SeaWorld spokesman Fred Jacobs said the park will contest the citation.

“SeaWorld disagrees with the unfounded allegations made by OSHA today,” Jacobs said in a statement.

VINEYARD HAVEN, Mass. – Michelle Obama will join former first lady Laura Bush in ceremonies marking the ninth anniversary of the United Flight 93 crash in Pennsylvania during the Sept. 11 attacks.

First Lady Michelle Obama and Laura Bush.

Mrs. Bush had previously confirmed her participation, saying we “must never forget the brave sacrifice of these extraordinary men and women.”

Passengers aboard the flight are believed to have struggled with its hijackers before the jet crashed in a field near Shanksville, Pa., killing all aboard.

Mrs. Obama’s press office confirmed her role as the first lady vacationed with her family on Martha’s Vineyard.

“Their show of support honors the lives and memories of these 40 heroes and everyone we lost on September 11th,” said Neil Mulholland, head of the National Park Foundation. The group is helping build a memorial at the Shanksville site.

President Barack Obama continues to be criticized by families of those killed at ground zero on Sept. 11 for saying Muslims have a right to exercise their religious freedom, including at a planned mosque two blocks from the site.

United Flight 93 was traveling from Newark, N.J., to San Francisco when hijackers seized control. Forty passengers and crew were killed in the crash.

Construction on a permanent memorial to the victims is under way. Its first phase is expected to be dedicated in time for next year’s 10th anniversary of the crash.

LOS ANGELES – Next month’s opening of the Robert F. Kennedy Community Schools will be auspicious for a reason other than its both storied and infamous history as the former Ambassador Hotel, where the Democratic presidential contender was assassinated in 1968. With an eye-popping price tag of $578 million, it will mark the inauguration of the nation’s most expensive public school ever.

In this photo taken on Tuesday, Aug. 10, 2010, the Visual and Performing Arts High School is seen in Los Angeles. Next month's opening of the Robert F. Kennedy Community Schools will be auspicious for a reason other than its both storied and infamous history as the former Ambassador Hotel, where the Democratic presidential contender was assassinated in 1968. With an eye-popping price tag of $578 million, it will mark the inauguration of the nation's most expensive public school ever. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)

The K-12 complex to house 4,200 students has raised eyebrows across the country as the creme de la creme of “Taj Mahal” schools, $100 million-plus campuses boasting both architectural panache and deluxe amenities.

“There’s no more of the old, windowless cinderblock schools of the ‘70s where kids felt, ‘Oh, back to jail,’” said Joe Agron, editor-in-chief of American School & University, a school construction journal. “Districts want a showpiece for the community, a really impressive environment for learning.”

Not everyone is similarly enthusiastic.

“New buildings are nice, but when they’re run by the same people who’ve given us a 50 percent dropout rate, they’re a big waste of taxpayer money,” said Ben Austin, executive director of Parent Revolution who sits on the California Board of Education. “Parents aren’t fooled.”

At RFK, the features include fine art murals and a marble memorial depicting the complex’s namesake, a manicured public park, a state-of-the-art swimming pool and preservation of pieces of the original hotel.

Partly by circumstance and partly by design, the Los Angeles Unified School District has emerged as the mogul of Taj Mahals.

The RFK complex follows on the heels of two other LA schools among the nation’s costliest — the $377 million Edward R. Roybal Learning Center, which opened in 2008, and the $232 million Visual and Performing Arts High School that debuted in 2009.

The pricey schools have come during a sensitive period for the nation’s second-largest school system: Nearly 3,000 teachers have been laid off over the past two years, the academic year and programs have been slashed. The district also faces a $640 million shortfall and some schools persistently rank among the nation’s lowest performing.

Los Angeles is not alone, however, in building big. Some of the most expensive schools are found in low-performing districts — New York City has a $235 million campus; New Brunswick, N.J., opened a $185 million high school in January.

Nationwide, dozens of schools have surpassed $100 million with amenities including atriums, orchestra-pit auditoriums, food courts, even bamboo nooks. The extravagance has led some to wonder where the line should be drawn and whether more money should be spent on teachers.

“Architects and builders love this stuff, but there’s a little bit of a lack of discipline here,” said Mary Filardo, executive director of 21st Century School Fund in Washington, D.C., which promotes urban school construction.

Some experts say it’s not all flourish and that children learn better in more pleasant surroundings.

Many schools incorporate large windows to let in natural light and install energy-saving equipment, spending more upfront for reduced bills later. Cafeterias are getting fancier, seeking to retain students who venture off campus. Wireless Internet and other high-tech installations have become standard.

Some pricey projects have had political fallout.

After a firestorm over the $197.5 million Newton North High School in Massachusetts, Mayor David Cohen chose not to seek re-election and state Treasurer Timothy Cahill reined in school construction spending.
Now to get state funds for a new school, districts must choose among three designs costing $49 million to $64 million. “We had to bring some sense to this process,” Cahill said.

In Los Angeles, officials say the new schools were planned long before the economic pinch and are funded by $20 billion in voter-approved bonds that do not affect the educational budget.

Still, even LA Unified Superintendent Ramon Cortines derided some of the extravagance, noting that donations should have been sought to fund the RFK project’s talking benches commemorating the site’s history.

Connie Rice, member of the district’s School Bond Oversight Committee, noted the megaschools are only three of 131 that the district is building to alleviate overcrowding. RFK “is an amazing facility,” she said. “Is it a lot of money? Yes. We didn’t like it, but they got it done.”

Construction costs at LA Unified are the second-highest in the nation — something the district blames on skyrocketing material and land prices, rigorous seismic codes and unionized labor.

James Sohn, the district’s chief facilities executive, said the megaschools were built when global raw material shortages caused costs to skyrocket to an average of $600 per square foot in 2006 and 2007 — triple the price from 2002. Costs have since eased to $350 per square foot.

On top of that, each project had its own cost drivers.

After buildings were demolished at the site of the 2,400-student Roybal school, contaminated soil, a methane gas field and an earthquake fault were discovered. A gas mitigation system cost $17 million.

Over 20 years, the project grew to encompass a dance studio with cushioned maple floors, a modern kitchen with a restaurant-quality pizza oven, a 10-acre park and teacher planning rooms between classrooms.

The 1,700-student arts school was designed as a landmark, with a stainless steel, postmodernistic tower encircled by a rollercoaster-like swirl, while the RFK site involved 15 years of litigation with historic preservationists and Donald Trump, who wanted to build the world’s tallest building there. The wrangling cost $9 million.

Methane mitigation cost $33 million and the district paid another $15 million preserving historic features, including a wall of the famed Cocoanut Grove nightclub and turning the Paul Williams-designed coffee shop into a faculty lounge.

Sohn said LA Unified has reached the end of its Taj Mahal building spree. “These are definitely the exceptions,” he said. “We don’t anticipate schools costing hundreds of millions of dollars in the future.”

From The Associated Press

NEW YORK – The Pakistani-American who police say admitted to igniting a failed car bomb in busy Times Square has made no court appearance since his arrest early this week and, though he is cooperating, authorities remain unsure he was acting alone.

New York City Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly declined Friday to discuss what Faisal Shahzad is telling investigators, including what his motives were. He was arrested Monday aboard a Dubai-bound plane two days after the nighttime bomb scare cleared several blocks of the bustling district.

“This individual is cooperating. In these types of situations, you let the information flow, so to speak,” Kelly said.

Police have surveillance images of Shahzad around Times Square and video that shows his car traveling to the spot where they say he left a smoking sport utility vehicle May 1 rigged with a gasoline-and-propane bomb.

Law enforcement officials say they are trying to find links between the Bridgeport, Conn., man and possible financing sources, including the Pakistani Taliban, which has both claimed responsibility for and denied roles in the botched bombing.

A money courier was being sought who may have funneled cash to the 30-year-old budget analyst, a law enforcement official told The Associated Press. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the investigation.

Gen. David Petraeus, head of U.S. Central Command, said Friday the Times Square suspect had apparently operated as a “lone wolf” who did not work with other terrorists. Petraeus said in a statement to the AP that the alleged perpetrator was inspired by militants in Pakistan but didn’t necessarily have direct contact with them.

Investigators believe Shahzad had some bomb-making training in Pakistan as he claimed to investigators, and his training may have been sponsored in part by the Pakistani Taliban, a senior military official told the AP. But it was not clear where the training took place nor the quality of it, the official told the AP on the condition of anonymity because the investigation is continuing.

Shahzad has told investigators that he trained in the lawless tribal areas of Waziristan, where both al-Qaida and the Pakistani Taliban operate, and that he came up with the attack plan himself.

Investigators have not been able to establish whether Shahzad was recruited for the Times Square operation by the Pakistani Taliban or another militant group — or whether Shahzad came up with the attack plan himself, the official said.

American officials have been quoted as saying they believe the Pakistani Taliban, which has no history of attacks on U.S. soil, had a role in the Times Square plot, either in funding or motivating and training.

Half a world away Friday, police cleared the streets around Times Square and called in the bomb squad to dismantle what turned out to be a cooler full of water bottles. Earlier in the day, police were called in to check a suspicious package that turned out to be someone’s lunch.

Since the bomb scare in the heart of the city, false-alarm calls are up dramatically, nerves are jangled, and media and law enforcement are rushing to the scenes to make sure the reports aren’t something bigger.

More than 600 calls came in since the attempted car bombing a week ago — about 30 percent higher than normal, police said.

Times Square vendor Walter “Candyman” Wells said the constant scares aroused more suspicion.

“I think they’re testing us, whoever is doing this,” Wells said, sitting on a stool near his table of T-shirts. “They’re playing chess with us right now, but they ain’t gonna win. ‘Cause we’re the Bobby Fischers.”

From The Associated Press

ON THE GULF OF MEXICO – The deadly blowout of an oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico was triggered by a bubble of methane gas that escaped from the well and shot up the drill column, expanding quickly as it burst through several seals and barriers before exploding, according to interviews with rig workers conducted during BP’s internal investigation.

While the cause of the explosion is still under investigation, the sequence of events described in the interviews provides the most detailed account of the April 20 blast that killed 11 workers and touched off the underwater gusher that has poured more than 3 million gallons of crude into the Gulf.

Portions of the interviews, two written and one taped, were described in detail to an Associated Press reporter by Robert Bea, a University of California Berkeley engineering professor who serves on a National Academy of Engineering panel on oil pipeline safety and worked for BP PLC as a risk assessment consultant during the 1990s. He received them from industry friends seeking his expert opinion.

A group of BP executives were on board the Deepwater Horizon rig celebrating the project’s safety record, according to the transcripts. Meanwhile, far below, the rig was being converted from an exploration well to a production well.

Based on the interviews, Bea believes that the workers set and then tested a cement seal at the bottom of the well. Then they reduced the pressure in the drill column and attempted to set a second seal below the sea floor. A chemical reaction caused by the setting cement created heat and a gas bubble which destroyed the seal.

Deep beneath the seafloor, methane is in a slushy, crystalline form. Deep sea oil drillers often encounter pockets of methane crystals as they dig into the earth.

As the bubble rose up the drill column from the high-pressure environs of the deep to the less pressurized shallows, it intensified and grew, breaking through various safety barriers, Bea said.

“A small bubble becomes a really big bubble,” Bea said. “So the expanding bubble becomes like a cannon shooting the gas into your face.”

Up on the rig, the first thing workers noticed was the sea water in the drill column suddenly shooting back at them, rocketing 240 feet in the air, he said. Then, gas surfaced. Then oil.

“What we had learned when I worked as a drill rig laborer was swoosh, boom, run,” Bea said. “The swoosh is the gas, boom is the explosion and run is what you better be doing.”

The gas flooded into an adjoining room with exposed ignition sources, he said.

“That’s where the first explosion happened,” said Bea, who worked for Shell Oil in the 1960s during the last big northern Gulf of Mexico oil well blowout. “The mud room was next to the quarters where the party was. Then there was a series of explosions that subsequently ignited the oil that was coming from below.”

According to one interview transcript, a gas cloud covered the rig, causing giant engines on the drill floor to run too fast and explode. The engines blew off the rig and set “everything on fire,” the account said. Another explosion below blew more equipment overboard.

BP spokesman John Curry would not comment Friday night on whether methane gas or the series of events described in the internal documents caused the accident.

“Clearly, what happened on the Deepwater Horizon was a tragic accident,” said Curry, who is based at an oil spill command center in Robert, La. “We anticipate all the facts will come out in a full investigation.”

The BP executives were injured but survived, according to one account. Nine rig crew on the rig floor and two engineers died.

“The furniture and walls trapped some and broke some bones but they managed to get in the life boats with assistance from others,” said the transcript.

The reports made Bea, the 73-year-old industry veteran, cry.

“It sure as hell is painful,” he said. “Tears of frustration and anger.”

A 100-ton concrete-and-steel vault has been lowered onto the ruptured well, an important step in a delicate and unprecedented attempt to stop most of the gushing crude fouling the sea.

“We are essentially taking a four-story building and lowering it 5,000 feet and setting it on the head of a pin,” BP spokesman Bill Salvin told The Associated Press.

Underwater robots guided the 40-foot-tall box into place in a slow-moving drama. Now that the contraption is on the seafloor, workers will need at least 12 hours to let it settle and make sure it’s stable before the robots can hook up a pipe and hose that will funnel the oil up to a tanker.

On Saturday, the boat with the plumbing equipment for the containment box was about 1.5 miles from the vessel that lowered the box. It’s unclear exactly when the pipework will begin.

“It appears to be going exactly as we hoped,” Salvin said on Friday afternoon, shortly after the four-story device hit the seafloor. “Still lots of challenges ahead, but this is very good progress.”

It could be Sunday or Monday before officials learn whether the box the size of a house can capture up to 85 percent of the oil.

The task became increasingly urgent as toxic oil crept deeper into the bays and marshes of the Mississippi Delta.

A sheen of oil began arriving on land last week, and crews have been laying booms, spraying chemical dispersants and setting fire to the slick to try to keep it from coming ashore. But now the thicker, stickier goo — arrayed in vivid, brick-colored ribbons — is drawing ever closer to Louisiana’s coastal communities.

The Coast Guard and BP said Saturday about 2.1 million gallons of an oil-water mix had been collected, with about 10 percent being oil and the rest water. More than 160 miles of boom to contain the oil has been put out and crews have used nearly 275,000 gallons of chemicals to break up the oil on the water’s surface.

There are still untold risks and unknowns with the containment box: The approach has never been tried at such depths, where the water pressure is enough to crush a submarine, and any wrong move could damage the leaking pipe and make the problem worse. The seafloor is pitch black and the water murky, though lights on the robots illuminate the area where they are working.

If the box works, another one will be dropped onto a second, smaller leak at the bottom of the Gulf.

At the same time, crews are drilling sideways into the well in hopes of plugging it up with mud and concrete, and they are working on other ways to cap it.

Investigators looking into the cause of the explosion have been focusing on the so-called blowout preventer. Federal regulators told The Associated Press Friday that they are going to examine whether these last-resort cutoff valves on offshore oil wells are reliable.

Blowouts are infrequent, because well holes are blocked by piping and pumped-in materials like synthetic mud, cement and even sea water. The pipes are plugged with cement, so fluid and gas can’t typically push up inside the pipes.

Instead, a typical blowout surges up a channel around the piping. The narrow space between the well walls and the piping is usually filled with cement, so there is no pathway for a blowout. But if the cement or broken piping leaves enough space, a surge can rise to the surface.

There, at the wellhead of exploratory wells, sits the massive steel contraption known as a blowout preventer. It can snuff a blowout by squeezing rubber seals tightly around the pipes with up to 1 million pounds of force. If the seals fail, the blowout preventer deploys a last line of defense: a set of rams that can slice right through the pipes and cap the blowout.

Deepwater Horizon was also equipped with an automated backup system called a Deadman. It should have activated the blowout preventer even if workers could not.

Based on the interviews with rig workers, none of those safeguards worked.