Latest local news, weather and high school sports for Northern Michigan

Wednesday, May 26, 2010  BP on Wednesday launched its latest bid to plug the gushing well in the Gulf of Mexico by force-feeding it heavy drilling mud, a maneuver known as a "top kill" that has never before been tried 5,000 feet underwater.

Tuesday, May 25, 2010  The leader of botched containment efforts in the critical hours after the Exxon Valdez tanker ran aground wasn't Exxon Mobil Corp. It was BP PLC, the same firm now fighting to plug the Gulf leak.

Thursday, May 20, 2010  BP conceded Thursday that more oil than it estimated is gushing into the Gulf of Mexico as heavy crude washed into Louisiana's wetlands for the first time, feeding worries and uncertainty about the massive monthlong spill.

Wednesday, May 19, 2010  Scientists are anxiously awaiting signals about where a massive oil slick in the Gulf of Mexico may be heading, while containment of the looming environmental catastrophe proves elusive.

Tuesday, May 18, 2010  Grilled by skeptical lawmakers, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar on Tuesday acknowledged his agency had been lax in overseeing offshore drilling activities and that may have contributed to the disastrous oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

Monday, May 17, 2010  UPDATED 9:15 a.m. CDT. BP said Monday it was siphoning more than one-fifth of the oil spewing into the Gulf, as worries escalated that the ooze may reach a major ocean current that could carry it through the Florida Keys and up the East Coast.

Friday, May 14, 2010  President Obama angrily decried the "ridiculous spectacle" of oil industry officials pointing fingers of blame for the catastrophic spill in the Gulf of Mexico and pledged on Friday to end a "cozy relationship" between the oil industry and federal regulators.

Friday, May 14, 2010  BP is trying to thread the needle to reduce the amount of oil gushing into the Gulf of Mexico. Undersea robots are trying to insert a small tube into the jagged pipe the oil is escaping from.

Thursday, May 13, 2010  The first firm evidence of what likely caused the disastrous Gulf of Mexico oil blowout — a devastating sequence of equipment failures — drives home a central unsettling point about America's oil industry: key safety features at thousands of U.S. offshore wells are barely regulated.

Wednesday, May 12, 2010  A key safety device known as the blowout preventer used in the BP oil rig in the Gulf had a hydraulic leak and other problems that likely prevented it from working as designed, congressional investigators said Wednesday.

Tuesday, May 11, 2010  UPDATED 4:05 p.m. CDT with AP video. BP PLC told Congress Tuesday its massive Gulf oil spill was caused by the failure of a key safety device made by another company.

Monday, May 10, 2010  Several hearings on the still-gushing oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico are set for this week.

Friday, May 07, 2010  Updated with AP video. It was part engineering marvel, part video game challenge Friday as crews painstakingly worked to lower a box the size of a house over the ruptured oil well that has spewed an estimated 3 million gallons of crude into the sea.