with them. none of them had serious injuries. no word yet. again, you see the picture of them in the water. they were rescued. no word on the cause of the fire but they are looking into it. bp says the gulf oil disaster has cost the company nearly $8 billion so far. that includes money spent to contain the spill, to drill a relief well, and settle claims from businesses affected by that spill. once again, we are not going too far from the story that will affect a lot of people up and down the east coast. you see it there, hurricane earl, a category 2. still a strong storm, weakening but still a strong storm and could cause all kinds of problems. we have your team coverage right here. gecko: gd news sir, i jugot ae
shannon: the plan is to replace a failed piece of equipment so crews can continue to drilt relief well. al-megrahi was released one year ago and is still alive. senator john kerry says the u.s. is stepping up emergency aid to pakistan donating so far $150 million. new remarks from new york s governor about the ground zero mosque. he says support is growing for a possible slapped swap to move the mosque site. 20% say they would back the president s argument that muslims have the right to build at that site. % say they disapprove of the
shot, huh? president obama takes a dip with his daughter sasha, sending out a measure that gulf beaches are back but it got lost in translation, overshadowed by his comments on the proposed islamic center and mosque near ground zero. first, louisiana seafood, is it safe now? reynolds wolf joining us with an oil and seafood update. if the seafood is safe, we need to get the word out on that. reporter: absolutely. one of the things that helps to reinforce that is finishing up the well. today they re going to be conducting pressure tests inside the well. results should be in later this afternoon, possibly tomorrow. once the tests come in, if favorable, they proceed with the relief wells and bottom kill operation. the relief well, if they resume
the fish and species of shrimp caught in the last few weeks have been clear of any oil. the seafood is safe to eat. probably the most watched seafood and food product right now in the country. savannah? real quickly on the relief well, considering whether to go forward with those plans, but there s some risk involved. reporter: they re going over the tests. they were testing the results of the top kill operation, static kill operation before beginning the bottom kill and the government is waiting on the results. they should come today or tomorrow and then the relief well should resume. probably the weekend for the start of the bottom kill. nbc s charles hadlock in venice, louisiana this morning, thank you. moving on, jurors in rod blagojevich s corruption trial returned to court today for a 13th day of deliberations. will they deadlock? or get it done? nbc s john yang in chicago for us this morning. john, for those keeping track at
this in this current world. so you bet, we are going to continue to look for and make sure that we have the manpower and the resource that is coast guard will need to always be prepared to handle kinds of problems they are being asked to handle. and does it now look as though the oil well is capped for good and we won t need to wait for the relief well, won t need to implement that next stage? say again, please. i don t know if you ve gotten a heads up on what we are going to hear from admiral thad allen within the hour as to whether or not the oil well is plugged for good. i don t know whether the that has been briefed to you yet. yes. what s happening now, a and i think they may be just about finished, is the science team, which is a group comprised of engineers and experts from within the government, some without, but led by secretary of energy steve chu is reviewing all of the ta to make sure