Conrad Black Seeks Travel To Canada

Conrad Black. Appearing in a Chicago courtroom today, Conrad Black heard some of the terms set for his bail. Apparently, the one he finds most onerous is that he cannot travel to his home in Canada. U.S. District Judge Amy St. Eve has restricted his travel to the United States. He will be back in court on August 16th. The BBC story is here.

Was a Deepwater Horizon Warning System Turned Off? The Washington Post is reporting that the rig's chief electronics technician has testified thatthe "gas alarm" had been "inhibited." The story raises many questions, and answers few of them. Most notably: Why would people do that? The Post story says it was done to keep the alarm from distrubing the crew. But obviously that can be at most a partial answer. Surely, the crew would want to be distrubed if it believed the alarm was a genuine safety device. So something else must have been going on.