Newsvine Mobile

To assess how heavy a blow the BP oil spill has dealt the Gulf of Mexico, researchers are closely watching a staple of the seafood industry and primary indicator of the ecosystem's health: the blue crab.

The Canadian company whose pipeline spilled hundreds of thousands of gallons of oil into a southern Michigan waterway has nearly 1,000 workers on cleanup duty. It hired about 80 companies, from wildlife rescuers to environmental response crews, and is settling about 800 damage claims with area residents.

A 3-foot-long Asian carp discovered in a Chicago waterway near Lake Michigan appears to have spent most of its life there and may have been planted by humans who didn't know what type of fish it was or the environmental risk it posed, researchers said Thursday.

The company that operates a pipeline that spilled oil into a southern Michigan river has filed a proposed plan with federal regulators to eventually restart service.

For generations, Americans viewed films in stately, single-screen theaters that were pillars of city business districts — an experience that faded with the rise of suburban multiplexes and the decline of downtowns.

Groups representing states and cities in the Great Lakes region kicked off a $2 million study Thursday of how to slam the door on exotic species such as Asian carp by cutting links between the lakes and the Mississippi River watershed.

Despite being rebuffed twice by the U.S. Supreme Court, five states filed suit Monday with a lower court demanding tougher federal and municipal action to prevent Asian carp from overrunning the Great Lakes and decimating their fishing industry.