Congressional appropriators got off to an early start this spring with both the House and Senate Appropriations Committees approving FY 2013 Commerce-Justice-Science spending bills in April with House and Senate floor consideration expected this month.

The Ocean Observatories Initiative (OOI) Team took a number of opportunities in April to spread the good news on program progress and introduce the revolutionary capabilities in ocean observation the OOI will offer to a variety of new audiences.

The Interagency Ocean Observation Committee (IOOC) is bringing together community leaders in ocean observing, research, policy, management and decision-making to develop a coordinated ocean observing strategy for the next decade.

The first Advisory Committee Workshop for the Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative Information and Data Cooperative (GRIIDC) was held on April 4-5 in Corpus Christi, Texas at the Harte Research Institute on the Texas A&M University – Corpus Christi campus.

It may never be as well known as the Cretaceous extinction, the one that killed off the dinosaurs. Yet the much earlier Permian extinction – 252 million years ago – was by far the most catastrophic of the planet’s five known paroxysms of species loss.

U.S. District Judge Carl Barbier said he’s leaning toward approving a preliminary settlement between BP and private plaintiffs that will allow final Gulf oil spill claim payments to begin.