President Barack Obama announced on Saturday the establishment of an independent presidential commission to probe a huge oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico that has already shut down a popular tourist beach in Louisiana.
Thick, sticky oil crept deeper into delicate marshes of the Mississippi Delta, an arrival dreaded for a month since the crude started spewing into the Gulf, as anger and frustration mounted over efforts to plug the gusher from a blown-out well and contain the spill.
The thick globs of oil now coating delicate grasses along Louisiana's fragile coast threaten a slow and painful death for countless waterfowl, wildlife and their wetland habitat.
