Prudhoe Bay, Alaska
BP oil spill: BP reported a new leak at its Alaskan oil fields this week, setting back the company’s attempts to rebuild its reputation after last year’s disastrous spill in the Gulf of Mexico. The oil giant said that a pipe had burst during testing at its 30,000-barrel-per-day Lisburne field in the north of the state, spilling between 2,100 and 4,200 gallons of methanol and oily water onto tundra and nearby wetlands. In January, a minor spill forced the firm to temporarily shut the 800-mile Trans Alaska Pipeline System, driving up the price of a barrel of crude by $2. And in May the company was fined $25 million by the Environmental Protection Agency for a series of leaks in 2006. BP says it has since replaced corroded pipes with new lines, at a cost of about $500 million.
Phoenix
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Pat-down dustup: A 61-year-old woman was arrested this week for allegedly protesting airport security rules by grabbing the breast of a TSA agent at Phoenix’s Sky Harbor International Airport. Transportation Security Administration officials said the incident occurred when Yukari Miyamae—a translator who regularly flies between Boulder, Colo., and Phoenix—refused to step inside a body scanner, out of fear of radiation exposure. TSA agent Barbara O’Toole suggested that she undergo a pat-down instead. “Oh, like this?” Miyamae allegedly replied, before reaching out and twisting O’Toole’s left breast. Miyamae was arrested on suspicion of sexual abuse, but was then released without being charged with a crime. Miyamae told an interviewer that she was fed up with being manhandled at airports. “I go through this every week, and every week there is some problem,” she said.
Central and eastern U.S.
Massive heat wave: Trapped under a heat “dome” that’s compressing hot, moist air beneath it, 32 states and the District of Columbia this week declared heat emergencies as searing temperatures caused at least 13 deaths and drove people across the Midwest and eastern U.S. indoors. In Blackwell, Okla., a 70-year-old man who’d been rushed to the hospital died with a body temperature of 108 degrees; another man was similarly baked to death while mowing his lawn near Wichita. The heat index, a measure of temperature and humidity, reached a record-breaking 131 degrees in parts of Iowa, where the combination of heat and moisture buckled the pavement on Interstate 380. Meteorologists linked the high humidity to this spring’s floods, which left the soil saturated in much of the Midwest. As the heat dome drifted eastward, Boston, New York, and Washington, D.C., were bracing for temperatures in excess of 100 degrees.
Austin
Perry nearly ready? Dining with potential donors and telling reporters that he’s “what America needs,” Texas Gov. Rick Perry inched closer this week to a formal announcement that he will run as a Republican candidate for president. In a week of interviews and appearances, Perry said he was “getting more and more comfortable every day that this is what I’ve been called to do.” If he announces in August, as expected, he will likely be too late for Iowa’s Ames Straw Poll, on Aug. 13. But his entry will shake up the GOP field, challenging the Tea Party primacy of Rep. Michele Bachmann, a fellow social conservative who is virtually tied with former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney for the lead in Iowa.
Orlando
Casey Anthony in hiding: Protected by armed guards, Casey Anthony, 25, faced an angry crowd of protestors as she walked out of Orange County Jail and immediately went into hiding. “A baby killer was just set free!” shouted an onlooker as the SUV carrying Anthony left the jail. Anthony’s July 5 acquittal of first-degree murder charges in the death of her 2-year-old daughter, Caylee, shocked and outraged many followers of the high-profile trial. “Her life is going to be very difficult for a very long time,” said her attorney, Cheney Mason, who said she’ll need continuing protection from people with a “lynch-mob mentality.” Anthony was convicted of four misdemeanor counts of lying to police and sentenced to four years, but was released after three years of time served. She is reportedly weighing $1 million offers to tell her story in a TV interview.
Washington, D.C.
Obama–Dalai Lama meeting: President Obama met with the Dalai Lama at the White House last week, despite stern warnings from Beijing that such a summit would harm U.S.-Chinese relations. During a 45-minute talk, Obama “underscored the importance of the protection of human rights of Tibetans in China,” according to the White House. The president also reiterated official U.S. policy that Washington does not support independence for the Chinese region. The administration had tried to placate Beijing ahead of the talks by limiting publicity for the event. The meeting was announced only hours in advance, shortly before the Dalai Lama was due to wrap up a 10-day visit to Washington, and was closed to the media. However, Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Ma Zhaoxu still condemned Obama for hosting the Tibetan spiritual leader, saying the move “severely interferes in China’s internal affairs” and “hurts the Chinese people’s feelings.”
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