"U.S. officials closed commercial and recreational fishing in a large swathe of waters hit by the growing oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said on Sunday."

"Calling the expanding plume of oil rising from the floor of the Gulf of Mexico a crisis of dramatic proportion, President Barack Obama told Louisiana oyster farmers and the country Sunday that the full force of the federal government was focused on assisting southeast Louisiana."

"A top adviser to President Barack Obama  says no new oil drilling will be authorized until authorities learn what caused the explosion of the rig Deepwater Horizon."

"US President Barack Obama has said 'every single available resource' of government will be deployed to help contain the Gulf Coast oil leak."

"Lawmakers on Tuesday asked the owner and operator of the oil rig that exploded last week in the Gulf of Mexico for documents as part of a congressional investigation into the accident."

"Gov. Bobby Jindal [Thursday] morning issued a declaration of emergency stemming from the oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico."

"The US government made its first major moves on Apr. 27 in response to the Apr. 20 explosion and fire on the Transocean Ltd. Deepwater Horizon semisubmersible rig in the Gulf of Mexico as the Departments of Interior and Homeland Security launched a joint investigation."

"Three words: oil-soaked shorebirds."

"Oil from a massive spill in the Gulf of Mexico was starting to ooze ashore, threatening migrating birds, nesting pelicans and even river otters and mink along Louisiana's fragile islands and barrier marshes."

"As a sheen of oil moved closer to the Louisiana coast Wednesday, officials with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration revised their estimates of the amount of oil that has been leaking from the oil well from 1,000 barrels a day to up to 5,000 barrels a day."

A congressional hearing Wednesday highlighted the environmental dangers of the 100,000 trailer FEMA has sold, but there is apparently little Congress can do about it.

"The federal Bureau of Indian Affairs has canceled the developer's lease of Passamaquoddy tribal land in Maine where the company wanted to build a liquefied natural gas terminal."

"As efforts failed Tuesday to contain the flow of tens of thousands of gallons of oil leaking from an exploded well deep in the Gulf of Mexico, emergency response teams are considering a controlled burn-off of the oil on the water's surface as early as today."

"BP crews raced to protect the Gulf of Mexico coastline as a remote sub tried to shut off an underwater oil well gushing 42,000 gallons a day from the site of a wrecked drilling platform."

"A slow-motion environmental disaster may be in the making with the discovery Saturday that 42,000 gallons a day of crude oil is spewing from a well on the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico near where a huge drilling rig sank last week -- and it could be months before it's stopped."