NEW ORLEANS — An internal BP probe of the 2010 oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico didn’t explore whether decisions by upper-level management or cost cuts had a role in causing the disaster because investigators didn’t have access to its partners’ employees and records, a BP executive testified yesterday at a trial designed to assign blame to the companies. ...

NEW ORLEANS — An expert witness for people and businesses who sued BP over the Gulf oil spill says he found ample evidence that the company’s cost-cutting culture led to the disaster. University of California-Berkeley engineering professor Robert Bea testified today at a civil trial. He says BP PLC didn’t implement a safety management program on the rig that exploded ...

POPLARVILLE — A Pearl River County judge has ruled against a group of residents who sought to block development of five acres near the construction site of a sand drying plant in Pearl River County. The Alliance Consulting Group is locating the plant on 30 acres between Nicholson and Picayune. The $30-million plant will service the oil industry. It will ...

PICAYUNE — The former head teller of a Picayune bank has pleaded guilty to participating in the theft of $117,000 from a vault. Vonetta Jordan, of Poplarville, pleaded guilty to bank fraud in U.S. District Court in Gulfport. She will be sentenced by U.S. District Judge Sul Ozerden on May 23 and faces up to 30 years in prison and ...

POPLARVILLE — A Pearl River County judge has scheduled a hearing tomorrow on a petition from some residents seeking to block development of five acres near the construction site of a sand drying plant in Picayune. The Alliance Consulting Group is locating the plant on 30 acres between Nicholson and Picayune. The $30-million plant would service the oil industry, and ...

GULF OF MEXICO — BP and the federal government have agreed that 34 million gallons of oil captured during the massive 2010 spill in the Gulf of Mexico can’t count toward civil penalties the oil giant faces. The agreement is contained in a court filing yesterday. It came in response to BP’s argument that workers either burned the collected oil ...

GULF OF MEXICO — BP acknowledged today it had failed to reach a settlement in advance of next week’s civil trial on the Deepwater Horizon accident and is ready to defend itself vigorously against allegations of gross negligence in the U.S.’s biggest environmental disaster. Rupert Bondy, the group’s general counsel, said in a statement that settlement demands were “not based ...

OXFORD — Former Southaven city contractor James Malcolm Harris Jr., who was recently indicted on bank fraud charges, has requested that his March 4 trial be postponed to give his attorney enough time to prepare for the case. The Commercial Appeal reports Harris’ attorney, David Hill, filed a motion for a continuance on Feb. 15 in federal court in Oxford. ...

INDIANOLA — Former Indianola Municipal Court deputy clerk Tina Parker has been sentenced after previously pleading guilty to embezzlement, according to State Auditor Stacey Pickering. As part of the plea agreement, approved by Circuit Judge Margaret Carey-McCray, Parker was ordered to repay $35,000 in restitution, $982.50 in court costs, $300 in attorney fees and a $20 bond fee over the ...

VICKSBURG — Ameristar Casino’s protests over Warren County property tax levies for 2012 and 2013 will be heard Oct. 14 in Warren County Circuit Court. The Vicksburg Post reports the separate lawsuits filed by the casino have been combined by Circuit Judge M. James Chaney. The Ameristar claims in the most recent of the two cases, filed Jan. 4, that ...