Author: Maggie Kerkman

We knew it was bad. We didn’t know it was this bad. Today the US Geological Survey released its preliminary estimates of just how much oil is escaping from the well. The survey was independent—the only thing BP provided was raw data. Two separate study teams used two different methods to come up with estimates. One looked at pictures of the water’s surface provided by NASA. The other looked at live underwater pictures of fluid coming out of the well. Combining that info leads scientists to estimate that 12000-19000 gallons of oil are escaping the well each day. That’s two to three times the estimates initially provided.

Meantime, BP is still continuing its efforts to plug the well. Their latest attempt is called “top kill.” There have been conflicting reports as to its success. Most, including BP, say it’s too early to tell. We may know more this afternoon. President Obama plans to talk about the oil spill response at about 1245pm EST. He’ll be visiting the Lousiana coast tomorrow.

Fox News’ Maggie Kerkman files dispatches on the latest action from the Texas Board of Education as it nears final approval of social studies textbook guidelines that could affect what winds up in the lessons of students around the country.

UPDATE – 4:50 p.m. local time (5:50 p.m. ET):

Debate on postponing vote on high school guildines until July.

Terri. Don’t see what postponing would do.

Mercer. Sounds rational to wait till July.

Bradley. Been on long enough to remember last ss vote. Vote is gonna go party lines 10-5. Just like last time but other way. We need to finish today

Hardy. I still have concerns about product. How would this impact staff?

Hs subchapter c postponement.

Kright issue is quality of doc.

knight. not behave like spoiled brats bc we don’t get our way

Craig. Generally doc is good. Make 6 experts review it in next two months. Even better. Don’t need to postpone 2011. Might be worth taking a little bit of time.

Allen. Us History not ready to move forward. Overrun with too many expectations.

Agosto. We are rewriting history. If. We do this in July, and we all come together. There’s this side/ vs that side. Feels like two boards.

Vote fails 6-8

4:19 p.m. local time (5:19 p.m. ET):

Not in heating room but doc unit Ayse Weiting says they are splitting curriculum so they can vote only on HS social studies curriculum. Will revisit k to 8  later. Doing final heated arguments now.

It’s Thursday and the crowds have cleared out from yesterday’s testimony about the new social studies curriculum that Texas School Board members are considering. Members worked into the night hearing about 120 members of the public, either “for” or “against” the new standards. With the testimony over, board members are getting down to brass tacks. This is where the real work gets done. The board is taking up member amendments one by one, grade level by grade level. They’re starting out with Kindergarten, on up to grade 12.

The discussion moves forward in inches. Two of the main topics so far have been: deleting historical figures John Smith from Kindergarten; and deleting Nathan Hale from grade 1. What’s wrong with John Smith and Nathan Hale, you ask? Nothing, say the backers of the amendments. But they say they’ve received feedback from teachers who want the names out. For example in Kindergarten, the original working group who developed the standards wanted only two historical studied. The board members added another three. Member Pat Hardy heard from teachers that the number was unwieldy, so she wanted to trim where she could. The motion passed and John Smith is out of Kindergarten.

Hardy was also the author of the amendment to strike Hale from the list of historical figures studied in the First grade. Apparently Hardy received feedback from teachers that their students couldn’t get past the Hale’s hanging. They would draw hangman pictures. Since Hale is studied in the Fifth grade, Hardy argued he was covered. That amendment also passed, but the vote was close.

These are just two small battles, but they’re good examples of how this process is creeping along.

Tomorrow’s battle over what should be included in Texas social studies curriculum is about to get really interesting. The curriculum that’s decided on will be used to create social studies textbooks in Texas, and- because Texas is such a big textbook purchaser-across the country. More than two hundred people have signed up to speak publicly at tomorrow’s meeting of the Texas Board of Education. Each person will have three minutes to speak. It doesn’t take a math major to figure out that the testimony may stretch well into the night. Board members may also introduce new amendments to the current draft of the curriculum. Outgoing Board Member Don McLeroy has already announced he has several to wants to be discussed. McLeroy is part of a conservative voting block behind many of the changes in the draft curriculum. Opponents believe McLeroy is pushing a political agenda. McLeroy says he is trying to correct a liberal slant in the standards. Expect a long, heated debate. The final vote will be held this week.

Texas School Board members are meeting in Austin this week for what’s sure to be a showdown over the curriculum for social studies textbooks.

Conservative board members have moved to reverse what some see as liberal bias in the classroom and in textbooks. Critics charge the interim changes whitewash American history and downplay the role of African-Americans, Latinos and women.

Why should you care?

Texas is such a huge purchaser of textbooks that often other states will buy books that were originally created for Texas standards. Those standards are revised for each subject about every 10 years.

At issue this week is the social studies standards for children in kindergarten through the 12th grade.

Originally a committee of teachers and community members came up with revisions to the curriculum. Those revisions went through what’s called a “first reading” in January. A block of eight conservative board members found fault with the preliminary revisions and made changes.

More revisions were made during the “second reading” last March. Then, Texas board members voted 10-5 to adopt changes in line with social conservative views. Some liberal board members stormed out of the meeting after they felt their concerns weren’t being addressed.

Now it’s down to the final vote this week.

Board members are meeting beginning Tuesday at 1pm CST, but they won’t pick up the social studies curriculum till Wednesday at 9am CST.

That’s when the public will be able to talk directly to board members about the draft revisions that came out of the March meetings.

So far, 206 people have signed up to speak. Each will have three minutes to make their views known.

The Texas Board of Education has already been receiving calls and emails from the public about the revisions for the past month.

You can see a summary of the first three weeks of  public opinion to the board. click here

The issue is complex.

Conservatives on the board say the curriculum they received in January and March was way out of whack. Now liberal board members are saying the standards have ticked to far to the other side.

**FOX News will have gavel to gavel coverage of the meetings.  Check back for updates. **

It’s a race against time for people here in Plaquemines Parish, Louisiana. A massive oil spill looms less than 20 miles from the coastal town of Venice, threatening wildlife and the livelihoods of people who work in the area. More than 700,000 feet of orange boom have been stretched along the Louisiana coastline in anticipation of the inevitable- oil reaching shore. Louisiana has a complex and fragile eco-system, which is already suffering from the effects of coastal erosion. Some worry the oil spill may spell its death knell. Experts increased their estimates and now say 5000, not 1000, barrels of oil are spewing into the water after a drilling rig exploded off shore last week.

There are about 700 shrimpers in Venice. Many have volunteered to help in the effort to shield the coastline with a boom, but so far they haven’t mobilized. Earlier today, our photographers were able to get out near where the spill happened and where the cleanup efforts are underway. They say they noticed the smell long before they got near any oily water. The area near the site of the spill, they say, is black. In video they captured, you can see the wake of the back of the boat. It’s brown.

You see the pictures of tornado damage on TV, but it doesn’t do them
justice. Yazoo City was one of the areas hardest hit by the deadly
tornado that tore through the region Saturday. We were able to drive down one street with some of the worst damage. It is severe and extensive. House after house is missing a roof, windows or walls. Crunched cars are scattered along the road, lifted and moved several feet from where they were parked by their owners. Huge old trees are uprooted or snapped.
And it goes on like this. We turned around after about a mile.

We met Joe Martin just as he was coming back to his childhood home.
Martin wasn’t in the home at the time of the storm and was seeing the
damage for the first time. The home is a total loss. Martin’s father
has built it just after he returned from World War Two. Martin was ten
at the time and remembers helping him build the house. Martin’s mother
planted azaleas out front- all gone now from the storm. So are the
trees that stood there for decades. Martin says they won’t rebuild.
There’s no replacement for that house.

They say there are hundreds of people without homes today in
Mississippi. Take one look at one street in Yazoo City and it’s easy
to understand why.

A tornado destroyed the Hillside Baptist Church but today its members gathered next to the rubble and gave thanks to God. It was a two story building but you wouldn’t know it by looking at it. Now it is just a pile of wood and concrete and steel. Before they started, members picked through the wreckage to find church books so they could hold their service. I heard one woman say “We don’t need a building to be a church.”

Dale Thrasher was the only one inside that church when the tornado hit yesterday. He dove under the Communion table and says “God wrapped him arms around me. ” When the storm had passed, he looked up and saw the sky. He didn’t have a scratch on him.

Today Thrasher talked to his fellow church members and told them they will build back again, bigger and better.

We’re here in Yazoo City, Mississippi, a town about 35 minutes from Jackson. A tornado tore a 3/4 mile path of destruction at about noon today. AP is reporting at least 10 dead in the state.

Driving in, we saw an acre of old tall trees that were still standing, but looked like they’d been sawed in half. A bar made of brick that had been there for fifty years is now like a grotesque doll house. The bar is there. The back wall and bathrooms are there, but the front, ceiling and sides are all gone. An old jutebox and video games are tossed among the rubble. A whole church nearby is gone. Of the three crosses on the hill nearby, one is gone, two are still standing but are damaged.

Although 11 workers are still missing from the oil rig explosion off the coast of Louisiana, 115 others were saved because they were able to make it safely to special lifeboats. We’re live today at Anderson/Ryan, a company in Houston that makes lifeboats. Anderson/Ryan is not the company who supplied the lifeboats that were on the rig that had the explosion, but they have similar models. We were able to look inside several lifeboats, including one that can carry up to 65 people. The boats all have the same specs mandated by the government- they’re made of fire retardant material, have diesel engines that can go about 6 knots (about 7 miles an hour) and contain special sprinkler systems. They’re also self-righting. That means if a huge wave flips the craft over, it will come right back to where it needs to be.

You can see how all these things would be critically important by imagining how harrowing it would be moments after an explosion. Survivors of this week’s explosion said they had just 5-10 minutes to evacuate the rig. Rigs come equipped with enough lifeboats to evacuate the entire crew on both sides of the vessel. That’s so if the giant rig lists to one side or the other, everyone will still find a spot in a lifeboat. The lifeboats look like small orange submarines. Once everyone’s inside safely, the hatches are closed and a helmsman will lower the craft on two cables all the way down to the sea. That trip can be about 120 feet down. Imagine that with flames coming off the rig.

Once safely in the water, the lifeboats all meet at a predetermined spot. They have food for more than a week, plus diesel fuel to run for about 24 hours. They also have radio equipment and emergency beacons. Survivors of this week’s explosion say practice is what helped them get off the boat alive. Generally crews do a full run through of their evacuation, including lowering the lifeboats into the water (if conditions are right), about once a week.

As the U.S. Coast Guard continues to search for 11 workers missing in an oil rig explosion off the coast of Louisiana, concern is widening about the potential for a “major” spill because of the explosion. BP and the Coast Guard are moving assets in to help combat a possible spill. At a news conference this afternoon, officials talked about a one mile by five mile “sheen” that’s on the water now, the result of the explosions on the rig. The rig itself has slipped underwater. There’s a remotely operated vehicle that’s underwater checking for damage. Two pipelines in the area were closed as a precaution. The Deepwater Horizon sat 42 miles off the coast of Louisiana.

Although the search continues for the 11 missing workers, officials say they have reports from survivors that the missing may have been near the site of the explosion and may not have been able to evacuate. Published reports say workers on the rig only had 5-10 minutes to escape. The survivors, about 115 of them, are safe and have been reunited with their families. The Coast Guard has seached about 2000 square miles looking for the missing.

It is a beautiful Spring day here in Oklahoma City, not unlike the day fifteen years ago when the city was forever changed. Timothy McVeigh parked a truck loaded with explosives in front of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building and at 9:02 am, the truck exploded, killing 168 people, including 19 children. Today survivors, rescuers and relatives of the victims gathered to remember those who died. They began a memorial service with 168 seconds of silence, one for each victim. Oklahoma City Mayor Mick Cornett talked about the choices made after the bombing, saying “We have chosen strength. We have chose optimism. We have chosen freedom.”

Former Governor Frank Keating, current Governor Brad Henry and Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano spoke. The ceremony ended with survivors and relatives of victims reading each name of the 168 who died.

After the ceremony, people stayed, giving one another hugs and crying. They also visited the individual chairs, each representing a victim who died in the bombing. The chairs are placed near where each person was found.

For us, we may not think about the Oklahoma City bombing until anniversaries like this one. But for those who lost loved ones fifteen years ago and for those who still wear its scars, the bombing is never far from their minds.

The man who’s suspected of planting thirty-six bomb-like devices in and around mailboxes in East Texas may have had a beef with the US government. Investigators arrested 52-year old Larry Eugene North yesterday after they say they spotted him planting a device near a shopping center in Tyler. North had been under 24 hour surveillance for about a week. After police arrested North, they found a second explosive device inside North’s van.

More than thirty different devices have been found since just the beginning of the year. Some of them were pipe-bombs. Others were Molotov cocktails. Some had been planted inside U.S. mail collection boxes. Others had been left outside businesses. No one was hurt by the devices. The big question that remains is why? Investigators aren’t telling  because the case is ongoing- but they offered some clues. First Assistant US Attorney Brit Featherstone said it was obvious North “…did not particularly care for the U.S. government” based on what he wrote on the explosive devices themselves. Featherstone also said North had been defrauded of money he had come into because of  a lawsuit. Featherston said, “It’s fair to say he was irritated with the individuals he thought were responsible for the loss of that money.”

What’s also interesting to note is who’s involved in this case. The Treasury Inspector General of the Tax Administration played some kind of role. That office is responsible for the protection of IRS employees. No one at the press conference would say exactly how or why the Treasury Inspector General was involved. Investigators also wouldn’t talk about why they first started looking at North.

North’s first court appearance is today. Investigators say he’s the only one involved in the case.

The University of Texas is recalling its students from a study abroad program in Monterrey, Mexico. That comes after the U.S. State Department put out a travel warning authorizing the departure of families of consultate workers in border cities in Northern Mexico. In addition, there was also a warning from Overseas Security Advisory Council, which mentions incidents where drug traffickers set up checkpoints on main highways between Monterrey and the border with the U.S. All of that was enough for UT Austin to pull the plug on the Monterrey program last week, not just for now, but through the summer and fall semesters as well. UT Austin is not the only school to do so. The Chronicle of Higher Education reports that Michigan State University and the University of Wisconsin at Eau Claire have also recalled students studying abroad in Northern Mexico.

Federal investigators are scrambling to find out who’s leaving suspicious—and potentially explosive devices—at locations around East Texas. The devices keep coming. Two more were found just this week. In all, more than a dozen devices have been found in five different counties since just the beginning of the year. So far, no one’s been hurt, but investigators are becoming more concerned with each device they find. The more recent devices have looked like pipe bombs. Earlier ones were more like Molotov cocktails. Some of them have been placed in mailboxes. For example, of the two incidents yesterday, one was found in a collection box in Longview, Texas. That’s about two hours east of Dallas. The other was found in a residential mailbox in nearby Lake Cherokee. Teams from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives are dismantling the devices and shipping them off to an ATF lab for investigation. The US Postal Inspection Service and ATF have increased their reward in the case. They’re now offering $25,000 for tips that lead to the arrest or conviction of anyone involved. Longview, TX is in the same general area that was targeted by church arsonists earlier this year. The ATF made two arrests in that case.

Publicity stunt or an artist trying to communicate? Dallas native Erykah Badu is catching flak for her latest video, “Window Seat.” It begins with her parking at JFK assassination site, Dealey Plaza, in a late model car. You hear archival footage from the day of the assassination. After parking, Badu walks down Dealey Plaza, stripping her clothes off till she’s completely naked. The word “Evolving” is on her back. At the end of the video, she’s near the site where President Kennedy  was killed. You hear a gunshot and Badu falls, and blue “blood” streams from her head to form the word “Groupthink.”

Here’s the offical video from Badu’s website (the nudity is blurred out). 

On her Twitter account, Badu says “The butt naked truth is powerful America !!!!” Badu’s fans are supportive of the video– saying they respect her individualism and think the video is a masterpiece. Others in Dallas consider the video tasteless and offensive. For starters, there are at least three children who Badu walks by when she’s stripping. Moreover, for a pop singer to put herself in the same category as a beloved assassinated President– many consider it beyond poor taste.

The city of Dallas says Badu and her photographer did not have a permit to film the video. In a statement, Frank Librio with the city of Dallas says that this was an incident of “…guerilla filming, where production companies… usually shoot these scenes in one take knowing that if they are discovered they would face arrest and/or penalties.”

Badu’s new ablum “New Amerykah, Part Two” is out today.

We’re out live today at NAS Kingsville. This weekend it will be the site of the Wings over South Texas Airshow. When it’s not hosting airshows every other year, NAS Kingsville trains half of the Navy’s aviators on a plane called the T-45. This weekend, they’re expecting tens of thousands of people to pack in here. It’s no wonder why. They’re doing a practice show today and it’s amazing. What’s even more amazing is that people coming out to the show this weekend won’t have to pay a dime to see it. Parking is free. The airshow is free. All people pay for is food and drinks. There will be planes on the ground for people to hop on and check out. And of course there will be planes flying—among the highlights—the Navy’s Blue Angels will perform.

A conservative-stacked panel of Texas Board of Education members endorsed a draft proposal of the state’s social studies curriculum on Friday. The curriculum, if approved, will be used to create content for textbooks in the Lone Star State.

Conservative members had their way in the 11-4 vote, which came one day after several Democratic board members walked out, claiming the proposed standards dilute the contribution of minorities to American history and culture. The debate, which picked up again Friday morning, ended with only a single Democrat voting to support the new standards.

The draft will go on line for public comment for one month, and then the full Board of Education will meet in May for more debate and a final vote.

The proposed curriculum updates social studies standards used for courses, and by extension, textbooks that eventually may end up in classrooms across the country.

Members worked late into the night to pass amendments on everything from removing references to hip hop music to requiring students to study the concept of American exceptionalism.

The new standards, when approved, will be used in textbooks designed to be in Texas classrooms in the fall of 2013 — but as a practical matter, administrators say it may be later than that.

The debate has spurred national interest, since Texas is such a huge purchaser of books for its 4.7 million students. Textbook publishers often take books that conform to Texas’ curriculum and sell them to schools and districts in states across the country.

Right now, the fate of the social studies books your kids could be studying for the next decade is in the hands of just 15 people. They’re school board members in Texas. The curriculum standards they set – and are deciding on now– are often used by textbook publishers to make books for schools across the country. These books could end up in your child’s backpack in just a few years.

There have been a lot of media reports about what is actually in those standards. In addition to the media reports, you can also go straight to the source material to see what you think. It’s all online at the Texas Board of Education website. Check it out here:

http://www.tea.state.tx.us/index2.aspx?id=3643

You will find the standards and the changes that have been made, by both the review committee and the board members. You can also watch Wednesday’s board meeting live online: http://www.texasadmin.com/cgi-bin/tea.cgi

Don’t like what you see? The Texas Education Agency is encouraging people to send board members their thoughts. You can email any one of the fifteen board members at: [email protected] or you can call and leave a message at 512-463-9007

In a few hours, we’ll know whether the Republican race for the Governor’s seat in Texas will continue another six weeks or whether Republican incumbent Governor Rick Perry can turn his attention to his Democratic opponent. The Republican race has been long and bruising but not the clash of the titans that many political observers expected. In one corner, there’s Perry, who’s been Governor for going on close to a decade. And in the opposite corner, there’s three term Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison. Cal Jillson, a professor at Southern Methodist University in Dallas says Hutchison’s campaign expected her popularity as a Senator to translate into success in the GOP primary for Governor. It hasn’t. Perry’s campaign has been able to ride the tide of anti-DC sentiment and paint the Senator as a part of the problem. Hutchison defends her work in Washington as a continued fight to support her state.  The latest Rassmussen Reports poll released last week showed Perry with 48% of likely Republican voters (see the poll here: http://tinyurl.com/yhfpxf8 ). Perry needs 50% to avoid a runoff and another six weeks of campaigning.

Also in the ring is Republican Debra Medina, the “x” factor in the campaign. She’s a business woman and former head of the GOP in Wharton County, which is near Houston. Tea Party activists love her and tell us not to rule her out. Medina seemingly came out of nowhere. She was in the single digits in the polls until she took part in a couple televised debates with Perry and Hutchison. Her campaign took off. Then came an appearance on the Glenn Beck radio show where she appeared noncommittal when asked whether the government was involved in 9-11. She’s since clarified her statement to say emphatically she doesn’t think the government was involved. Her numbers since the statement have taken a hit, but she could still split the vote enough to send Perry into a runoff with Hutchison.

Early voting ended Friday and it’s been strong, nearly twice what we saw in the last go ‘round four years ago. The Democrats are also choosing their gubernatorial candidate. The two big ones are former Houston Mayor Bill White and hair-care magnate Farouk Shami. Analysts expect White to come out on top in that one.