you know, venice once called itself very proudly the fishing capital of the world. to reclaim that title, the fishermen and business people here need financial help. so you will understand why the people in venice and, indeed, across the gulf coast are looking at the man who will decide how much they will get for all that they have lost. ken feinberg is the $20 billion man. >> here's another reason you've got to fill out the form. >> reporter: today he barnstormed the mississippi coast, explaining the new gulf coast claims facility, replacing the bp claims service that made few people happy. >> i will come back here as much as possible. >> reporter: feinberg wants people whose jobs and businesses were harmed by the spill to apply for an emergency payment equal to six months' losses, but those people are skeptical of a man appointed by president obama and administering funds from bp. >> when the administration and bp set up this program, they set it up with me as totally independent. if anybody thinks that i'm beholden to either the administration or bp, i can only t

venice is one area where you look at the future of the environment, where you work -- look in venice during parts of the year high tide and low tide it floods st. mark's square in those areas. but i think if you also look at the document here, someone brought the issue about global warming and the issues of global warming and tides and next 100 years or so how many feet it will go up, or you look at 100-year flood area, i think the document address that is adequately. the seismic issue, if you look at the density of the north part of treasure island, has the least development on north knot side regarding density, i thinkle' have some soccer or field there. i think we need to focus here, people say, well, this is a very tough document. well, part of the issue is our planning code is the most comprehensive planning code in the world at this time because people have voted it in and the board and certain sections. you can't make it any simpler than it is now because the way the rules and regulations are set up. if you look at the adequacy, i want to turn specifically with the comments ab

jay gray has the latest from venice, louisiana. >> reporter: this afternoon, engineers finished pushing in cement to seal the well from the top. now there's a growing sense the flow of oil may be finally over. >> this is not the end but if will assure us there will be no chance of oil leaking into the environment. >> struggling fishermen meeting in alabama raise it a bit differently. >> the area to the west is dead. >> reporter: for many, the problems and frustration from almost three months of crude pouring into the gulf are still very much alive. >> i'm excited about the well being capped. but my neighbor who's fixing to lose his home and close his business, it don't mean a whole lot to him. >> there continue to be lingering questions about how much oil is still in the water. government scientists say 75% of the 207 million gallons from the spill is gone now. but those who worked and live on the water aren't so sure. >> like they're jumping the gun way too quick. >> they worry there's still crude weighed down by chemical dispersants below the surface. >> they should have never put the

i'm joel brown in venice, louisiana, the latest on the spill coming up. >>> well we're seeing quite a bit of sunshine across the bay area the noon and here is why. it's called an eddie and it's sitting just off the coastline swirling there and it is just sucking all those clouds to the immediate coast and it is allowing us the opportunity to pick up a whole lot of sunshine pretty early in the day. we'll taye a look at your photographed highs forecasted highs and the cool-county coming later this week in a few minutes. ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, they were mall . >>> [ yelling ] > ter filing moments for some volunteer firefighters in russia. they were driving to a mall village and caught in a fire storm. they tried to back up but hit another car. the ordeal lasted about 5 minutes before the driver managed to get away from the fire. more than half the holmes in the village have now been destroyed. >>> and at least 9 people are now dead after a driver at a connecticut beer warehouse went on a shooting spree at work just this morning. the suspected gunman is among the dead. the shooter was reportedl

>> anne thompson in the harbor there at venice, louisiana. anne, thanks. >>> investigators are looking into lightning as the possible cause of a plane crash this morning in colombia. the 737 broke apart upon hitting the ground. all 131 aboard initially survived, though one passenger died en route to the hospital. a lot of people upon seeing this wreckage are crediting the pilot with averting a far greater air disaster. >>> now we move to iraq where a milestone is fast approaching after more than seven years of war -- the end of u.s. combat operations. our chief foreign correspondent richard engel is with the fourth striker brigade as they carry out one last mission to get out and come home. >> reporter: at camp liberty in baghdad, soldiers lower the flag of the last combat brigade in iraq. >> i never dreamed i would be one of the last ones out. in all honesty, when it started up, it felt like it wasn't ever going to stop. >> attention! >> reporter: for 31-year-old staff sergeant tim osborn from ohio, the war has been his 20s. he was here in 2

anne thompson in venice, louisiana, tonight. we'll stay on it. >>> president obama spent part of this day speaking to a conference of the disabled american veterans about his plan to end the u.s. combat mission in iraq. the plan, he says, is on track, even as his approval numbers on the wars there and in afghanistan has taken a hit. this is happening with congressional elections coming up fast. we get the story tonight from our chief white house correspondent chuck todd. >> reporter: focusing on november today, an animated president obama urged supporters at an atlanta fund-raiser to ignore republican efforts to make this election about him. >> they don't have a single idea that's different from george bush's ideas, not one. they're bidding on amnesia. [ laughter ] >> that's what they're counting on. they're counting on that you all forgot. >> reporter: the president began the day addressing the annual convention of the disabled american veterans where he touted his planned drawdown of troops in iraq. >> as a candidate for presi

nbc's chief environmental correspondent anne thompson joins us tonight from venice, louisiana. anne, good evening. >> reporter: good evening, lester. bp says the static kill is working extremely well, but tonight there's a new controversy over just how much oil is left in the gulf. 107 days after the leak to poison the gulf began, president obama delivered some good news. >> a report out today by our scientists show that the vast majority of the spilled oil has been dispersed or removed from the water. >> reporter: but many of louisiana's fishermen who still can't fish because of the spill find the government's claims hard to believe. >> i think they're jumping the gun way too quick. >> they should have never put the dispersant on to begin with. that's why they wanted it they wanted the oil to sink because you can't see it. >> they need to go to orange to sink. beach, alabama. it's pouring in. >> reporter: the report says 33% of the oil was recovered, burned or chemically dispersed. 25% evaporated or dissolved. 16% broken down naturally into microscopic droplets and 26% is on o

jay gray reports from venice, louisiana. >> reporter: this weekend, in marinas across south louisiana, a blessing of the fleet. >> asking god's protection on our waterways as well for the restoration, for the cleanup efforts. >> reporter: the entire gulf coast could use some divine intervention right now. crews have cleared away debris from the bottom of the primary relief well. a process that's delayed the start of the static kill. >> that's could come as early as tomorrow night or into tuesday. it will depend on the final testing with the q4000 and the systems will be needed to inject the mud in there. >> reporter: mud and cement that could permanently seal the well. on the water's surface, the search for oil continues. along with concern that the crude is hiding below. weighed down by chemical dispersants. massachusetts representative ed markey issued a statement this weekend blasting bp and the epa for using those dispersants. it says in part bp often carpet bombed the ocean with these chemicals and the coast guard allowed them to do it. incident commander thad allen pushed back.

joel brown, cbs news, venice, louisiana. >>> coming up next, high-tech help for bay area women trying to breast-feed. it's part of a bigger push to get more moms to do it. but is it going too far? ,, ,,,, with my friends we'll do almost anything. out for drinks, eats. i have very well fitting dentures. i like to eat a lot of fruits. love them all. the seal i get with the super poligrip free keeps the seeds from getting up underneath. even well fitting dentures let in food particles. just a few dabs of super poligrip free is clinically proven to seal out more food particles so you're more comfortable and confident while you eat. a lot of things going on in my life and the last thing i want to be thinking about is my dentures. [ charlie ] try super poligrip free. and a lot of people, when they get a denture, they think the best way to clean it is by brushing it with toothpaste. toothpaste contains abrasives that scratch dentures, leaving microscopic crevices where bacteria can grow, and bacteria can cause bad breath. the best way to go is to soak them in polident. only polident is prove

joel brown has more from venice, louisiana. >> reporter: engineers finished pumping cement down a mile of pipe, finally sealing bp's blown out well. they say they'll continue to monitor the well to make sure everything went as planned. >> this is not the end but it will virtually assure us that there will be no chance of oil leaking into the environment. >> reporter: the next step, the relief well. where teams will pump concrete this time through the so-called bottom kill, to reinforce thursday's top kill. but plugging the well is just the beginning of a long recovery for the gulf coast. the 205 million gallons of oil spilled has managed to stain more than just the water. louisiana's seafood industry has been hit hard. it needs to rebuild its reputation. since the spill, various labs have given gulf fish a clean bill of health. >> if it's alive, it has not been impacted by the oil spill. >> reporter: but for fishermen like richie, who's been making a living by helping with the clean-up, that's little xft. you don't know how long you'll have a check from bp and you also don't know what'

jay gray has details from venice, louisiana. >> reporter: it was a picture-perfect day off the florida coast this morning. the first family sharing the gulf waters with a school of tortoise before ending the day with a scoop of ice cream. the president hopes his weekend visit will convince tourists to come back to the gulf coast. louisiana shrimpers are making their way back out on the water. >> they say the water is clean. the seafood is safe. all we can do is try. >> reporter: as captains prepare to lower their nets, many for the first time since the well collapse, they must deal with the same problem they faced for almost four months here. uncertainty. fears over the safety of the seafood have filtered down now from consumers to the distributors who still haven't figured out how they'll handle the catch. >> when we come in tomorrow we'll find out whether we'll be able to sell the shrimp we catch. as for the price we'll get for the shrimp, no one knows. archlths the spill site, an armada of ships vournd the well as they continue pressure tests trying to figure out in f the bottom kil

>> anne thompson starting us off once again from venice, louisiana. anne, thanks. >>> breaking news from chicago tonight. as you may know, jurors who have been struggling with the fate of their former governor, rod blagojevich, have finally reached a verdict, the decision tonight in the corruption case that accuses him, among other things, of trying to sell a vacant u.s. senate seat. the seat vacated by barack obama. nbc's john yang with us from federal court in chicago tonight. john, good evening. >> reporter: good evening, brian. when they arrested rod blagojevich in december 2008, u.s. attorney general fitzgerald said he was conducting a corruption crime spree that would make abraham lincoln spin in his grave. out of 24 charges against blagojevich, including racketeering, extortion, bribery, of those 24 charges they could only agree on one. they found him guilty of lying to the fbi. on the other 23 counts, a mistrial. this is clearly a big embarrassment for the prosecution, but it's not over yet for rod blagojevich. the prosecutors say they are rea

. >> reporter: bp's point man on the clean jam came to venice, louisiana, for a choreographed pr event to tour the gulf. >> thank, guys. >> reporter: but doug suttles was hounded by questions about the company's use of dispersants. what impact do you think the dispersants has had? >> hang on here. >> reporter: not just the dispersants but the frequency of their use. they said the coast guard routinely approved bp's requests to dump thousands of gallons a day to break up the oil, despite a federal order to use them sparingly. >> some of those requests were accepted as they were asked and sometimes they modified those. that process has been running sin the beginning. >> reporter: bp pumped almost 2 million gallons of dispersants into gulf waters. scientists are divided on what impact that will have on marine life. it's a prospect that worries many fishermen. this man believes the dispersant sank oil into the oyster beds that he fishes. >> we're not going to be able to fish for a couple years. i mean, i've been doing this and i don't know how to do something else. >> reporter: bp says it'

in studio 6, he is defining wooden furniture for venice, but the two architect failed urban planning in rome's suburbs, which has created an explosive social situation. >> we wanted to deal with rome's outskirts, but we have only just started. because it is such a huge area. and not a look around the villa reveals little evidence of its past famous alumni. despite having some of the world's most acclaimed figures from the arts world among former residents, villa massimo does not keep the collection. occasionally, alumni are moved to write about their time in italy. this is a reading from "oranges and angels," the latest work by a 2007 artist and resident. >> in february, having just arrived in rome, we were shocked when strangers began reaching for our things. we did not need an invoice or servants, but the next time, we accepted their help, as everyone seems to, and looked on as even packed our purchases into plastic bags. i know the supermarket he is describing here, but i have not encountered the helping hands yet. a story that really made an impression on me in rome was my trip t

newshour correspondent tom bearden reports from venice, louisiana . >> reporter: the b.p. well may be capped but you wouldn't know it from all the oil that's still washing up on this beach. people are still laboriously scooping it up with shovels, still having to endure the august heat and humidity . it took us nearly an hour to reach these beaches from the main operating base in venice and this is just one zone where a work force of over 2,000 ventures out everyday. you guys have a huge area you cover. >> we do . when you look at our 17 divisions from barataria by a, bell chase is up here. >> reporter: fred "le monde" is in charge of b.p.'s clean up operations in the gulf. >> we know there's still oil out there and our job is to make sure we protect the coastline. >> reporter: the workers gather each day shortly after dawn for the commute. some live near headquarters, others live in floating hotels . the government has announced that three quarters of the oil spilled has disapaoefrd. the remaining one-fourth is still a big problem. >> it is. it comes in as... we call them

the board office sloketted at 1650 mission street, room 304, between duvos and venice avenues. this meeting is broadcast live on san francisco government television, sfgtv cable channel 78 and d.v.d.'s of this meeting are available for purchase from sfgtv. thank you for your attention. at this point we'll conduct our swearing in. if you intend to testify at any of tonight's hearings, please stand, raise your right hand and say i do after you have been sworn in or affirmed. do you solemnly swear or affirm that the testimony you're about to give will be the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth? thank you. >> thank you. moving to the agenda, item number one, which is public comment, is there any member of the public here who would like to speak on an item that is not on tonight's agenda? please step forward. >> could i have the overhead projector on, please. and could you leave this on until i take it off? good afternoon, president and commissioners. can i -- there is a copy of the section 108.8 appeals board n subsection 108.8.1 said an appointment member will be spec

. -- venice gets its first woman gondolier. first though, you know it is serious when french government ministers cut short their summer holiday. president sarkozy has ordered ministers back to discuss how they will reform the pension scheme. the forecast for the economy has been cut, too. >> it is our rare sight to see a french politician returning to their office in august, but such is the situation at the moment. there is little time to wait. pressure is building over france's considerable debt. mr. zucker is the needs to find savings in feet -- mr. sarkozy need to find savings if he is to deal with the debt problem. critics say that the forecast was based on its shaky figures from 2011. those figures were reassessed the day. -- reassessed today. the economy is on expected to grow by 2%. critics point to the unemployment figures, which are still stagnant at 10%. no wonder the president's approval rating is suffering, and with all this bad news around, the government has been left with limited room to maneuver. and then looki

s points man on the oil crisis came to venice, louisiana, for a p.r. event. but they were hammered about the impact of the dispersants. >> what impact have they had on the oil? >> hang on a second here. >> reporter: it is the frequency of their use that is raising concerns here. congressional investigators say the coastguard routinely approved b.p.'s request to use chemicals to break up the oil despite an order to use them sparingly. >> some of those requests were accepted and sometimes they modified those and that process has been running since the very beginning. >> pumping 2 billion-gallons of chemical dispersants in the water. it is a prospect that worries much fisher man because of the effect it may have on the oysters. >> we are not going to be able to fish for a couple years. i have been doing this and i don't know how to do something else. >> reporter: b.p. saying it is getting closer to killing the leak. >> we need to get the casing around and cemented. that's underway. >> reporter: the first part of the two-step operation will begin as early as mond

for more we go to kristen dahlgren in venice, louisiana. good morning to you, kristen. >> reporter: good morning. one official called this a lethal injection. static kill, of course, was pushed back because of tropical storm bonnie and then delayed another day because of debris in the relief well. we may now be less than 24 hours away from what some are calling the beginning of the end. out at the well overnight, last minute preparations that could by tonight have hundreds of barrels of mud flowing into and filling the leaking well. >> the sequence of events that has to be followed before they can actually start pumping mud into the capping stack itself. >> reporter: mud will pour in from the top, the so-called static kill, followed by a bottom kill through the relief well in about a week. in louisiana's bayous this weekend, there were signs of a new beginning. >> i would eat their food. the seafood out of the gulf here. and i would feed to my family. >> reporter: but for those who live here, the spill is still a dark stain on everything an

s point man on the oil crisis came to venice louisiana for a carefully choreographed p.r. event to meet workers and tour the gulf. but the ceo was hounded about questions about the company's use of dispersements? >> what effect do you think the chemicals on the marine life. >> reporter: they say the coastguard routinely agreed to b.p.'s request to use chemicals. >> some of the requests were accepted as they asked. sometimes they modified those. >> reporter: b.p. pumped 2 million gallons of chemicals into the water. it is a prospect that worries many fisherman about the effect on the wildlife. >> reporter: this man believes that oil was sunk into the oyster beds that he fishes. >> we won't be able to fish for a couple years. i have been doing this and i don't know how to do something else. >> reporter: b.p. says it is getting closer to permanently killing the leak. >> we need to get the casing cemented and that's underway. >> reporter: the first part will begin as early as monday night sealing the well by the ends of august. but the effect on the sea life will likely last m

for more on this, we go to nbc's kristen dahlgren in venice, louisiana. kristen, good morning. >> reporter: hey, good morning, lynn. at this point we were supposed to at least be close to the start of that so-called static kill, but they found a hydraulic leak as they were about to do that last key test, so now they have to fix that before they can move forward with the kill. one mile beneath the surface, one more delay. crews hope to fix a hydraulic leak today to get back to the business of sealing the well. if they're able to do that and complete one more key test, heavy mud will begin pumping through the blowout preventer, choking the macondo well from the top down. >> what you want is the pressure to slowly decrease until it becomes zero in the well. that means the amount of mud is equal to the pressure being pushed up. >> reporter: if it works, it could be all that's needed, and a relief well would only be used to verify that and give an extra measure of mud and cement from the bottom. but an end to the well is hardly an end to the story. government

nbc bay area's jay gray is in venice, louisiana, with the story tonight. >> reporter: right now, a crucial time on the floor of the gulf p gulf, using the injection test. >> it's designed to establish communication or a path for fluids to throw from the q 4000 down to the well. second to be to establish pumping rates. >> if it works the team also begin the static kill, pumping the thick mud through the containment trying to dry the oil back down below the seabed. even then, the fight which has already lasted 105 days won't be over. >> when we're done the static kill, we'll have some choices to make. >> the most important choice, how to send in cement to permanently seal the well. >> decide whether, is it beps based on what we observed during the static kill, to cement the well in a similar fashion that we did with the static kill? or is the best way to wait and intersect it with the relief well and cement it from there? >> the primary relief well, long considered the ultimate fix, will be ready in a couple of weeks. but even when the cement flows and the oil does not, there will still be p

she joins us now from venice, louisiana. anne, i thought we'd never hear those words. >> reporter: boy, i certainly didn't. there was a time i doubted it, lester, but we do have very good news tonight, and that is that this well is cemented shut from the top. it took five hours to do that. and for the first time in 108 days, officials say the people of the gulf of mexico can be assured that virtually no oil from the mccondo well will leak into their waters. however, that's not the end of the story. national incident commander thad allen has ordered bp to cement the well from the bottom as well, and bp says it will do that through the relief well process, which could start as early as next week. lester? >> anne, what about the oil collection process, given there's still a lot of oil in the gulf, does this now add more resources as they wind down at the well site itself? >> reporter: they get to shift the resources. instead of having all those large skimmers that they've had out at the leak site as a precautionary measure sinc

venice seems to be every italy connoisseur's... prague has always been beautiful... germany... the irish civilization... the eiffel tower was built... hope you've enjoyed the magic of... on sunday mornings when i'm in paris, you're likely to find me here... [ pipe organ playing ] ...in the saint sulpice church with its magnificent pipe organ. for organ lovers, a visit here is a pilgrimage. after mass, organ enthusiasts from around the world scamper like sixteenth notes up the spiral stairs into a world of 7,000 pipes. before electricity, it took three men working out on these 18th-century stairmasters to fill the bellows which powered the organ. the current organist, daniel roth, carries on the tradition of welcoming guests into the loft to enjoy his performance. a commotion of music-lovers crowd around a tower of five keyboards below a forest of pipes. saint sulpice has a rich history with a line of 12 world-class organists going back over 200 years. like kings or presidents, the lineage is charted on the wall. and overseeing all this: johann sebastian bach. [ pipe organ playi

it is going to be at 25 venice, sweet 800, november 17 at 5:30. thank you. >> thank you. next speaker. >> hello. good evening, commissioners. my name is lupe. i work with the human rights commission as well. thank you for putting this together. this is a great symposium and a great place to be able to share a lot of the different views and work going on. one of the things i wanted to quickly talk about was regarding the sanctuary ordinance. there has been a lot of talk about a sanctuary ordinance. it has been in the news and a national debate. we want to remind you what it is about. first of all, the sanctuary ordinance was created back in 1989. it just had its 20-year anniversary. th

venice seems to be every italy connoisseur's... prague has always been beautiful... germany... the irish civilization... the eiffel tower was built... hope you've enjoyed the magic of... [ lilting flute music playing ] the beauty of the highlands is powerfully felt in the vast rannoch moor... hundreds of desolate square miles much enjoyed by hikers and lovers of nature. [ flute music continuing ] [ bagpipes playing ] the windy expanse of the highlands -- this is where piping feels right. roadside pipers entertain travelers for tips on the road into glencoe. boy, that's great. thank you. can you give me a quick tour of your -- of your gear and everything? yeah, surely. you've got your bag, hand-sewn -- hide bag. lovely. then you've got your two bass, your tenor drone. the blowpipe. to fill the -- to fill the bag. yeah. and you've got your standard keyboard. it's where your music comes from. so is you can play the recorder, you can actually -- you have to fill the bag but when you play this -- can i give it a whirl? yeah. okay. so you're gonna power the organ, and then i will try

he runs a sport fishing lodge called sawgrass outdoors north of venice, louisiana. are the sport fishermen going to come back? >> yeah. >> reporter: smith says he and others just have to get their message out. >> we're open for business and we're clean and there is no changers here. >> reporter: with the well capped and the oil mostly gone or cleaned up, the biggest challenge for gulf recovery may be cleaning up a tarnished image. i'm jeffry kofman for "nightline" in buras, louisiana. >> let's hope. finally, a bit of good news. we'll continue to keep an eye on the cleanup, of course. >>> when we return, author elizabeth gilbert and the real story behind her best sell earl, "eat, pray, love." [ male announcer ] the financial headlines can be unsettling. but what if there were a different story? of one financial company that grew stronger through the crisis. when some lost their way, this company led the way. by protecting clients and turning uncertainty into confidence. what if that story were true? it is. ♪ caltrate delivers 1200 mg # of calcium plus vitamin d to

nbc's anne thompson is in venice, louisiana, with yet another complication tonight. is that right, anne? >> reporter: it's right. that's very right, ann. tonight the federal science and bp engineers are trying to figure out what the next steps, what the final steps should be to permanently kill this well. you remember that all along the federal government has said it would not consider the well killed until it was cemented from the bottom through the relief well. well, a pressure test last night revealed another possibility. the static kill, which was a procedure that pumped mud and cement through the well, apparently was so successful that officials now believe the cement went all the way down the well pipe into the reservoir and then up this small space between the outside of the pipe and inside of the casing called the annulus. the problem is they also think it may have trapped 1,000 barrels of oil in the annulus, so if they were to proceed with the relief well as planned and drill into the annulus and then pump mud and cement under heavy pressure, they fear they

san francisco won't become the venice of the west. silicon valley won't become the loss city of atlantis, and salt water won't come out the taps in southern california. why? because however much it costs we can't afford to let this happen. so we will build levies around the airports, we will build a seawall around the san francisco waterfront. flood control is already being incorporated into the planning for the salt pond to wetland conversion project in the south bay and we'll change the way we store and move fresh water around california. economically, we don't have any other choice. but the cost will be enormous. and where we'll get the money and what other important investments and expenditures we'll have to forego to afford this are the bigger questions. but we do have other choices. there may be some areas along the bay shore line where it's more cost effective to remove existing development and replace it with flood-absorbing wet lands than it is to protect the low value structures. there may be areas, particularly in the delta