MSNBC:
Attorney General Eric Holder said Tuesday that federal authorities have opened criminal and civil investigations into the Deepwater Horizon explosion and oil spill.
Holder would not specify which companies or individuals might be the targets of the probe. He said federal clean air and pollution laws give him the power to open the investigations.
Federal agencies, including the FBI, are participating in the probe and "if we find evidence of illegal behavior, we will be forceful in our response," Holder told reporters after meeting with state and federal prosecutors in New Orleans.
MSNBC also reports that the Coast Guard is investigating reports of oil washing ashore in Alabama and seen near Mississippi. NOAA had already forecast that the oil slick could reach Mobile Bay as early as Wednesday, but today reports indicate that tarballs are already washing ashore on Dauphin Island just outside Mobile.
Similar reports of tarballs on Dauphin Island emerged in May, but these appear more serious because the slick is not far behind. Alabama's State Department of Health has warned against swimming at the beaches on Dauphin Island and the state has also closed oyster beds. A reporter for the Press-Register saw an oil slick a few miles off the shore near Pascagoula, MS and said a shrimping boat was nearby towing boom in circles.