Mike Brock News

BP Plc, citing low oil prices, tried to whittle away at $13.7 billion in potential fines under the Clean Water Act on Tuesday as the penalty phase started in its trial over the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill. BP said its fine should be modest as it took extensive steps to mitigate the worst offshore disaster in U.S. history and that the defendant named in the case, BP's exploration and production unit, known as BPXP, cannot afford a big penalty. "There has been no collapse of the ecosystem," BP lawyer Mike Brock said in opening statements, contending that the Gulf has been more resilient than thought. Environmental groups say it could take decades for the Gulf to recover.

A man who jumped from a cruise ship into the Atlantic ocean was rescued by the crew of a gambling ship early on Wednesday after spending more than seven hours in the sea, Coast Guard and cruise officials said. The unidentified 23-year-old man was a passenger on Royal Caribbean's Sovereign of the Seas, a 2,280-passenger ship on a four-day cruise out of Florida's Port Canaveral. His sailing companions reported him missing about 2 a.m. on Wednesday and crewmen searched the vessel, finding a note in his stateroom "indicating that he might have been considering jumping from the ship," Royal Caribbean spokesman Michael Sheehan said. The crew turned the ship around…