press. thofrauthorities are trying determine how many people were killed at the devastating natural gas explosion. and a coroner s office is examining remains found yesterday in one of three dozen homes that were destroyed. three people are missing. four people are confirmed dead. bp is preparing for the final kill of the blown-out well in the gulf of mexico. it s preparing to seal the well for good this weekend. five months after the worst oil disaster in u.s. history. kristin joins us live about the plans for this weekend. 150 days after the oil started flowing into the gulf of mexico, bp says we re only a day away from them declaring this well is finally and permanently sealed. that relief well they started drilling just a short time after this disaster began, that intersected with the macondo well yesterday afternoon. the next step is pumping heavy mud and cement into the well to
as we said at the top of the program, bp has started efforts to hopefully seal the ruptured well for good. it s called static kill and involves pumping heavy mud into the well. it s new that is everyone affected by the spill obviously has been waiting to hear for three months. tom foreman joins us from new orleans with the latest details. tom? reporter: anderson, the static kill has been under way about seven hours now and officials are anxiously watching every dial, every readout, every sign of what s happening on the gulf floor this minute. the effort was launched after a series of tests this morning, which a bp official says produced textbook results, meaning they showed no pressure fluctuations, no obstructions leading from the top of the cap into the well, to the rock and sand through the natural oil reservoir far below.
permanently seal that ruptured well in the gulf. engineers must wait until tomorrow before they can test the strength of the well head because of a technical glitch. when that is finished they will begin operation static kill which involves pumping heavy mud down well which might plug the leak for good. bp cannot be certain until the relief well is finished next week. two men accused of plotting to blow up buildings in new york have been found guilty. one worked as a cargo handler and familiar with the layout of airport. accomplice an engineer helped can with the technical aspects. theirs attorneys say it is just talk. both will be sentenced in december. now back to on the record with greta. greta: the frontlines of the illegal immigration war. griff jenkins went on a ride
frank actively seek her out and say, no, don t go here, i can do it. almost saying, look, it s a boston based bank and they won t be suspicious if i m involved in these types of negotiations. she did go through wit, andrea, and it s create add huge problem for house speaker nancy pelosi. thanks so much, luke. i know you re going to be on top of all of this. we will in the upcoming weeks. and in the meantime we re going to have two ethics trials heading into the election. unless they settle. unless they settle. when no one is windchilling. sunday night at 11:30 p.m. good to see you. thank you. and in the gulf where bp hopes to begin pumping heavy mud into the broken well later today. if it does, the so-called static kill procedure could seal the well for good by thursday. ann thompson joins us by phone from venice, louisiana.
they hope to have that test finished within the hour. they ll take a couple of hours to look at the data, and sometime this afternoon start the data kill process, which involves pumping heavy mud down into the well and pump it from the top and seal it off. they re going to start very slow slowly, a barrel or two a minute. they think it will take a 6 1rks 63 hours to get it all down into the mud. but they do hope to know well before that whether it s working. there s some debate as to what working means. bp thinks it could be the final solution. the relief well would be to verify that the static kill works. admiral thad allen seems to maintain that the relief well is the ultimate solution. work on the relief well expected to be done sometime in mid-august. contessa. kristen, thank you very much. a group of farmers is asking that tom vilsack be fired.