There is surprise and relief that that vast amounts of the spilled oil from the damaged Deepwater Horizon oil rig have disappeared from the surface of the Gulf of Mexico.

A new federal report indicates that the oil has been evaporated, burned, skimmed, recovered from the wellhead or dispersed – much of which is in the process of being degraded. A significant amount of this is the direct result of the robust federal response efforts.

Thirty-three percent of the total amount of the spilt oil was captured or mitigated by the Unified Command recovery operations, including burning, skimming, chemical dispersion and direct recovery from the wellhead, according to a federal science report released today.

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President Barack Obama

At a time when the Arizona immigration law is making illegal immigrants uneasy, a plan for helping them may be afoot.

An internal U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) memo, “Administrative Alternatives to Comprehensive Immigration Reform” signals that the federal government may be, at the least, considering a plan to legalize some undocumented immigrants living in the United States.

According to reports from El Nuevo Herald, the memo, prepared for the head of the USCIS, pointed to perhaps making it legal for some undocumented workers to work in America and place a stay of pending deportation for others. The memo, which was released in Washington last week, was directed to Alejandro Mayorkas, USCIS director.

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Arizona Governor Jan Brewer

U.S. District Judge Susan Bolton blocked the provision of the law that could have resulted in the arrest of legal immigrants, and granted a preliminary injunction that prevents police from questioning people about their immigration status.

The provision that has been the real source of the controversy related to the bill requires police to “make a reasonable attempt” to determine the immigration status of a person stopped, detained or arrested if the officer has a “reasonable suspicion” that the person is in the U.S. illegally.

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President Obama signs unemployment extention bill - White House Photo

Following Congressional grandstanding and delays, last week the president inked the legislation extending critical unemployment insurance to Floridians and another 2.3 million unemployed Americans, who are finding it difficult to land jobs in the current economic climate.

The extension of unemployment benefits was one of three important legislations the president signed last week to help ease the economic pressures from the prolonged recession. The other legislations were, the new Wall Street Reform (financial regulatory) Law and the Improper Payment Elimination and Recovery Law, aimed at removing waste and inefficiencies from the federal administration.

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