COFFEE BREAK 174

+ updated at 4:14pm ESDT on Wednesday, May 5 (cinquo de mayo)

+ The Abundancetrek Blog is coming back to life (hopefully!) with a new series of posts (hopefully!).  Go to Joyful Wandering -- 1. 

+ IT'S UNSEASONABLY HOT. Once again the temperature along the Erie Canal has soared above 80 degrees F.  This is the Sixth day this year that we have seen the temperature rise above 80 and it's early May. The overall record of the past several decades shows global warming is well underway and this year's weather is underscoring this trend.

4:17pm UPDATE: Very chilly weather is coming our way for the next few days.  So, I guess the Global Warming Deniers around here can gloat again ... as they did this winter when we had several very cold spells.  I suppose that if you want to be in denial, you can always find the evidence you are looking for.

+ Two segments of Democracy Now! focus on the huge and dangerous power of the oil industry and particularly BP:
BP Oil Spill Highlights Poor Safety Record, the Worst of Any Oil Company in America
AND
BP Funnels Millions into Lobbying to Influence Regulation and Re-Brand Image

+ Democracy Now! offers Phoenix Suns to Protest Arizona Anti-Immigrant Law. "Opposition continues to grow against Arizona’s anti-immigrant law, which allows police officers to stop and interrogate anyone they suspect is an undocumented immigrant. On Tuesday, city councils in the Arizona towns of Flagstaff and Tuscon both passed measures to sue the state over the new law. Meanwhile in California, the Oakland City Council unanimously voted to boycott Arizona. The National Basketball Association’s Phoenix Suns have announced their players will wear jerseys showing their team name as 'Los Suns' in a playoff game tonight to protest to the new law. Today is also the Mexican holiday of cinquo de mayo. On Tuesday, Phoenix Suns point guard and NBA All-Star Steve Nash spoke out against the law in an interview with ESPN. Steve Nash: 'I’m against it. I think this is a bill that really damages our civil liberties. I think that it opens up the potential for racial profiling and racism, and I think that it’s a bad precedent to set for our young people, and represents our state poorly in the eyes of the nation and the world. I think we have a lot of great attributes here and I think it’s something we can do without and hopefully it will change a lot in the coming weeks.'"

+ Democracy Now! reports the following very troubling news: BP: Spill Could Be 10 Times Current Estimate. "The oil giant BP has privately conceded the size of its oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico could be ten times greater than current estimates. The New York Times reports a senior BP executive told a closed-door Congressional briefing that a ruptured oil well could be spewing as many 60,000 barrels of oil a day. The expanding oil slick meanwhile has hit the shores of Louisiana’s Chandeleur islands, a wildlife refuge 60 miles from New Orleans."