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NEW ORLEANS (AP) — With a newly installed cap keeping oil from BP’s busted well out of the Gulf during a trial run, this weekend offered a chance for the oil company and government to gloat over their shared success – the first real victory in fighting the spill. Instead, the two groups have spent the past two days disagreeing over what to do next with the undersea machinery holding back the gusher.

Meanwhile a seep that had been detected in the area around the well was causing new concerns.

The apparent disagreement began to sprout Saturday when the government’s point man for the spill, retired Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen, said the cap bottling up the oil would eventually be hooked up to a mile-long pipe to pump the crude to ships on the surface. But early the next day, BP chief operating officer Doug Suttles said the cap should shut the oil in until relief wells are finished.

After nearly three months of harsh criticism as it tried repeatedly to stop the leak, BP PLC capped the nearly mile-deep well Thursday and wants to keep it that way.

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(Via SD)

The Chinese government is clamping down on Twitter-like microblogging services in a bid censor political opposition, according to sources quoted by the Reuters news agency.

Twitter itself has been banned for a year. This week, a number of alternative services from sites including NetEase.com and Sohu.com were also shut down.

The companies themselves deny the outages are due to government intervention. “NetEase’s micro-blog is very popular and growing fast, so we had to perform maintenance to upgrade features,” a spokesman for NetEase told Reuters.

But the agency quotes unnamed sources saying the closures are the result of a major campaign to tighten Internet controls, although “nobody will publicly announce the reason”. China’s Oriental Morning Post has made similar claims.

Earlier this month, the Associated Press profiled Chinese dissident Yu Jie, who uses Twitter to share his thoughts and experience with sympathisers around the world.

Jie uses a web proxy to access the site. “In C

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A new report issued by FICO, still the number one company that provides credit scores lenders view to assess an individual’s credit risk, shows a number of interesting facts about the current U.S. economy.

1. More Americans have poor credit than ever before.
2. There are also more Americans with excellent credit than there have been in the past.
3. The number of people with a mid-range score (650 – 699) has dropped.

43.4 Million Americans Probably Cannot Get a Loan

According to the FICO report, 43.4 million Americans have a FICO score below 599, which is considered poor. This number represents 25.5 % of all Americans. Their poor credit score will make it harder (or impossible) for these people to:

Get a mortgage
• Buy a car with a loan
• Get an unsecured credit card
• Rent an apartment
• Sign up for a cell phone plan

Additionally, these individuals may pay higher interest rates if they can get credit, and may pay more for car, homeowners’ or renter’s insurance.

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PROVIDENCE – On Friday, Rhode Island became the 33rd state to join the States for Passenger Rail Coalition.

The States for Passenger Rail Coalition was established in 2000 to support intercity passenger rail initiatives and to advocate for federal funding for those initiatives. Membership is open to state departments and agencies in charge of official transportation responsibilities, such as the R.I. Department of Transportation.

“Due to our central location along the Northeast Corridor, Rhode Island has been and continues to be an active participant in funding capital improvements within the corridor for commuter, intercity and freight rail,” said Michael P. Lewis, RIDOT director.

Frank Busalacchi, chair of the coalition and secretary of the Wisconsin Department of Transportation, said, “It’s vitally important for the coalition to keep growing as an organization. We are ve

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