NPR 2010-05-31

New plans to try to contain BP's massive oil spill are in place. NPR's Neda Ulaby reports the company's managing director visited the Sunday news talk shows today to explain its latest containment 1 strategy.

It's clear that no long-term solution is yet in place. But Bob Dudley said that BP is hopeful that a new effort can help stanch 2 the oil that's now stretching 150 miles along the Gulf 3 coastline, and he reminded "FOX News Sunday" the company has laid three million feet of absorbent barriers to protect the shore.

"This is almost an operation led with the oversight 4 of the Coast Guard that is almost military now. The beaches in Louisiana, there are three beaches where there's oil. There's 800 people out there every day" working to clean them up.

Dudley said good weather has helped workers skimming oil off the water surface. He admitted the company had 760 safety violations 5 over the past three years, the most of any oil company. The next highest offenders 6 had only eight. Neda Ulaby, NPR News.

The commander of NATO and US forces in Afghanistan is pointing a finger toward Iran. General Stanley McChrystal says there's clear evidence the Taliban have been getting weapons and some training in Afghanistan's western neighbor.

The revving 7 and rumbling 8 goes on in Washington as motorcyclists from around the country make their way to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. Ride organizers say they are honoring fallen troops as well as prisoners of war and those missing in action. NPR's Allison Keyes is watching the Memorial Day weekend tradition.

I am standing 9 at 17th and Constitution Avenue, and as far as you can see at either direction there are motorcycles, men on motorcycles; men and women on motorcycles; men, women and children on motorcycles. It is the 23rd annual Rolling Thunder tributes to the nation's veterans.

NPR's Allison Keyes in downtown DC watching the 23rd annual Rolling Thunder Ride.

A lot of motorcycle tributes today to Dennis Hopper after the actor's death yesterday at age 74. The star and director of the cult 10 classic "Easy Rider" once said the film was never a motorcycle movie to him but rather about what was going on in the country politically in 1969 when it came out. The movie about a cross-country motorcycle trip is getting a lot of play this weekend.

"All we represent to them, man, is somebody who needs a haircut."

"Oh no. What you represent to them is freedom."

"What the hell is wrong with freedom, man? That's what it's all about."

Hopper died at his home in Venice, California. He had been diagnosed with prostate cancer in 2009.

And the Indy 500 is underway in Indianapolis. Veteran driver Davey Hamilton's day didn't last long; he lost control of his car on the opening lap and spun 11 into the inside of the retaining wall.

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In Colombia, polls will be closing within the hours. Voters cast ballots 12 between two vastly different presidential candidates. NPR's Juan Forero is in Bogota. He says the Obama administration is keeping a close eye on the election.

Whoever wins power in this country of 45 million will be the caretaker of billions in US aid, assistance used to fight Marxist rebels and drug-trafficking. Voters are choosing from a crowded field, but there are two main candidates - a former Defense 13 Minister Juan Manuel Santos who knows his way around Washington and Antanas Mockus, the son of Lithuanian immigrants who became famous for his quirky and creative ways of governing Bogota as mayor. Santos says he'll build on current President Alvaro Uribe's top security policies. Mockus says he'll fight corruption 14 and improve education. Neither candidate though is likely to get the votes needed to avoid a runoff. That second round would take place on June 20th. Juan Forero, NPR News, Bogota.

The chairman of the Joint 15 Chiefs of Staff says the legislation repealing 16 the military's "Don't ask, don't tell" policy does give the Pentagon time to complete its review, but Admiral Mike Mullen tells CNN today he would have preferred that Congress had waited.

Second seed Venus Williams is out of the French Open. She was defeated by Nadia Petrova 6-4, 6-3 in the fourth round. It's a chilly 17 windy day in Paris, and Williams says that was part of the problem.

"I feel like I had a day where I wanted to hit the ball crosscourt and it went down the line. And sometimes that happens; sometimes that it gets really cold too, it's hard to feel the racquet. It just wasn't a good day."

The women's event had been shaping up for another Williams sister's final. Now Venus will have to wait until next year.