BP investors are increasingly worried that the quarterly dividends they bank on will be suspended due to mounting political pressure on the energy giant to not divert its financial resources away from compensating people in the Gulf Coast suffering losses due to the massive, ongoing oil spill.

President Barack Obama explicitly mentioned the dividend last week when he said during a visit to Louisiana:

... There are reports that BP will be paying $10.5 billion -- that's billion with a B -- in dividend payments this quarter.

Now, I don't have a problem with BP fulfilling its legal obligations. But I want BP to be very clear, they've got moral and legal obligations here in the gulf, toward the damage that has been done. And what I don't want to hear is, when they're spending that kind of money on their shareholders and spending that kind of money on TV advertising, that they're nickel-and-diming fishermen or small businesses here in the gulf who are having a hard time.

Such comments are making BP investors very nervous and helping to drive down the company's stock price.

The WSJ.com reports:

Shares in BP PLC plunged 15% in late-afternoon New York trading, as political pressure on the company over its handling of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill mounted and investors worried it might be forced to suspend its dividend.

The stock price hit its lowest level since 1996 a day after President Barack Obama said that he would have fired BP Chief Executive Tony Hayward by now if he worked for him.

BP shares have now lost just over half their value, giving up about $90 billion in market capitalization, in the seven weeks since the spill started.

Amid the increasing backlash against the company, shareholders are now increasingly bracing for the possibility that BP will be forced to reduce or even cancel its dividend, a key income source for investors and savers in the U.K. Concerns are also rising about the price tag BP will ultimately face.

Politicians in the U.S. say BP should be using all its resources to stop the spill and clean up the Gulf, not rewarding shareholders. The U.S. government's point man on the oil spill, Adm. Thad Allen, joined the chorus of criticism Wednesday, demanding BP provide more detail on how it is meeting damage claims from individuals and businesses impacted by the spill. Meanwhile, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar insisted that the Obama administration would make BP pay salaries of oil services workers who lose their jobs as a result of the oil spill.

When the U.S. government invested the better part of $80 billion last year to bail out GM and Chrysler, a large part of the rationale was that it would save U.S. jobs. And it likely did in the short term.

But some auto industry experts are saying that in order to repay loans and other help as quickly as possible, and to compete effectively with other automakers on more fuel-efficient vehicles, it's likely the two U.S. automakers will have to expand the number of employees they have in Mexico at the expense of U.S. workers.

That's because Mexican workers make so much less than their U.S. counterparts, in some instances about $26 a day compared with the about $30-an-hour wage paid to GM assembly line workers.

An excerpt from a Bloomberg News story explains:

June 9 (Bloomberg) -- Mexico's share of North American auto production may rise at a quicker pace as General Motors Co., Ford Motor Co. and Chrysler Group LLC seek out workers making less than 10 percent of what their U.S. counterparts earn.

The lower labor costs may help the U.S. companies build smaller cars profitably amid demand for fuel-efficient vehicles in the wake of last year's recession. Mexico's gains will come at the expense of workers in the U.S. and Canada, said Dennis DesRosiers, president of DesRosiers Automotive Consulting Inc.

"There is going to be more capacity put into North America and Mexico is going to get more than its fair share," DesRosiers said from Richmond Hill, Ontario.

Moves to Mexico may speed up when Chrysler and GM reduce some of the political pressure they face by paying back government bailout money, said Michael Robinet, vice president of global forecasting for CSM Worldwide in Northville, Michigan. The U.S. government has distributed about $80 billion in the Auto Industry Financing Program to support the industry.

DesRosiers says Mexico's share of North American auto production will rise to 19 percent over the next decade from an average 12 percent in 2000 to 2009. Over the same period, the U.S. will lose 7 percentage points to 65 percent of the market and Canada's share will hold at 16 percent, he said.

For years, thousands of cliff swallows have migrated from Villa Ventana, Argentina, to Orange County, California, to build their mud nests among the ruins of the Mission San Juan Capestrano.

By custom, the San Juan Capistrano Fiesta Association throws a Swallows Day Parade -- "the nation's largest non-motorized parade" -- in their honor, complete with horses, colonial costumes, and marching bands.

In recent years, the migration patterns of the cliff swallow have changed slightly. Birds have bypassed the traditional nesting site, favoring higher ground and, it seems, chichier accommodations.

This March, a colony took up residence in the eaves of the "Tuscan-inspired" club house at the Vellano Country Club, The Orange County Register reports.

In an interview with NPR's Melissa Block, Travis Blaylock, the facility director at the club -- whom the newspaper calls the "chief bird watcher and guardian" at Vellano -- recounted what happened. Above all, he was amazed at the speed of the migration.

(You can see a photo gallery on The Register's website, here.)

"It actually looked like a scene from Indiana Jones, with bats flying over," he said. "But it was the swallows. It was amazing how many of them came here, in a day's period, and started building the nests."

It was an unexpected event, that's for sure. One day, I came here, and I saw a couple nests being built up there, and I said, "Oh, great. We have some birds." And a day later, there were thousands of them here.

So far, members of the club have shared Blaylock's enthusiasm for the birds, he said.

The swallows built their nests on the back of the club house, far from the pro shop. And serendipitously, the color of the mud the used matches the stucco facade.

The new residents do make a mess, which Blaylock has to clean up. But that's a small sacrifice, he said. He brings more than one change of clothes to work, and has this advice for club members: "Don't open your mouth when you look up."

Joran van der Sloot, a Dutch citizen now in Peruvian custody after reportedly confessing to murdering a woman there, recently received $25,000 from U.S. law enforcement officials in a sting meant to secure evidence of his alleged extortion attempt against the family of Natalee Holloway, an American teen who went missing in Aruba five years ago.

U.S. agents didn't arrest him, however, because they wanted to gather evidence that would lead to a murder charge in the Holloway case.

Van der Sloot was suspected in Holloway's disappearance and presumed death in 2005 when she took a high-school graduation trip to the Caribbean island but never charged for lack of evidence.

That U.S. agents didn't immediately arrest the 22-year old suspect may have been fatal for Stephany Flores. After receiving the money, van der Sloot flew to Lima Peru where he met Flores who was last seen alive on hotel security video entering a room with him.

As NPR's Dina Temple-Raston reported for the network's newscast:

The Natalee Holloway murder investigation was resurrected about six weeks ago.

That is when van der Sloot allegedly reached out to her family and offered information about her disappearance in exchange for cash...

... Last month the FBI videotaped van der Sloot accepting $25,000 in exchange for details on Holloway.

Days later van der Sloot flew to Peru to enter a poker tournament.

That's were he met Stephany Flores.

The New York Post, which first reported the sting payment to van der Sloot, asserts that it was FBI money that funded van der Sloot's trip to Lima.

Federal agents trying to build an extortion case against Joran van der Sloot secretly gave him the cash that wound up funding his trip to Peru, where he killed a young woman exactly five years after the disappearance of Natalee Holloway, The Post has learned.

Van der Sloot tried to shake down Holloway's mother by offering information about her daughter's 2005 disappearance, and agents decided to set him up with a $25,000 payoff, a source told The Post yesterday.

An intermediary acting under the direction of the FBI gave van der Sloot the dough in Aruba on May 10 -- and four days later, he flew to Peru, where he allegedly murdered 21-year-old Stephany Flores in his Lima hotel room.

By David Gura

At the White House this morning, President Obama met with Mahmoud Abbas, the president of the Palestinian Authority. He said that, in light of Israel's recent raid on six vessels that attempted to break the country's blockade of the Gaza Strip, the two leaders spent a lot of time talking about the subject.

"Our conversation was focused on how do we actually allow more goods, more services into Gaza," Obama told reporters. "How do we allow businesses to thrive? How can we get construction moving? How can we put people to work in Gaza?"

As the United Nations and other countries continue to call for an independent investigation into the Israeli Defense Forces raid, which took place in May, Obama tried to strike an optimistic tone.

"We should be able to take what has been a tragedy, and turn it into an opportunity to create a situation where lives in Gaza are actually directly improved," he said.

Obama spoke of "a new conceptual framework," which would be based on talks with the president's European counterparts -- as well as Egypt, Israel and the Palestinian Authority. He said he hopes it will isolate extremists and make it so "people in Gaza can thrive and succeed."

I think the key is making sure that Israel's security means are met, but that the needs of the people in Gaza are also met." And it seems, to us, that there should be ways of focusing narrowly on arms shipments, rather than focusing in a blanket way on stopping everything and then, in a piecemeal way, allowing things into Gaza.

At the conclusion of his brief remarks, Obama reiterated his call for a two-state solution, with "a Palestinian state side-by-side with an Israel that is secure."

Abbas will have lunch with George Mitchell, the United States Special Envoy for the Middle East. Tomorrow, he'll speak at the Brookings Institution, in Washington.

Moments ago, the United Nations Security Council voted overwhelmingly to impose a fourth round of sanctions against Iran.

"The new sanctions, a modest increase from previous rounds, took months to negotiate, but did not carry the symbolic weight of a unanimous Security Council decision," Neil MacFarquhar, United Nations correspondent for The New York Times, reports.

The United States had sought broader measures against Iranian banks, its insurance industry and other trade, but China and Russia were adamant that the sanctions not affect the day-to-day economy. Washington and Beijing were wrangling down to the last day over which banks to include on the list, diplomats said, and in the end only one appeared on the list of the 40 new companies to be blacklisted.

Susan Rice, the United States Ambassador to the United Nations, said she was pleased with the Security Council's vote.

"Today, I'm proud to say that this council has risen to its responsibilities," she said. "Now Iran should choose a wiser course."

According to Linda Fasulo, reporting for NPR, "among other things, the ten-page resolution calls the vigilance of the business dealings with Iran's banks, including Iran's central bank, and expands a UN weapons embargo."

Forty firms, tied to Tehran's nuclear program, become subject to a foreign asset freeze, and the measure would also establish a cargo-inspection arrangement similar to one imposed on North Korea.

In addition, it bars Iran from investing in uranium activities abroad, and launching ballistic missiles capable of carrying nuclear weapons. Iran continues to deny allegations that it is working to produce a nuclear arsenal.

Twelve nations voted in favor of the resolution; Turkey and Brazil, two countries that brokered a nuclear deal with Iran a few weeks ago, voted against it; and Lebanon abstained.

Vice President Joe Biden is in Nairobi, Kenya, today, meeting with Salva Kiir, his Sudanese counterpart. According to NPR's Gwen Thompkins, the future of Sudan, Africa's largest nation, "appears uncertain."

The country's Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA), which settled the civil war between North and South Sudan, calls for Southerners to vote on the question of independence in January, 2011.

In a brief statement that followed his meeting with Hosni Mubarak, the president of Egypt, on Monday, Biden "reaffirmed our commitment to supporting stability in Sudan, including Darfur, and the full implementation of Sudan's Comprehensive Peage Agreement (CPA) and preparing for the referendum on southern self-determination in 2011."

That short sentence speaks volumes. The Obama administration has yet to reach consensus on how the United States should approach the situation, Thompkins reports.

Biden said that, in the wake of Israel's raid on a flotilla that attempted to break its blockade of Gaza, he and Mubarak talked about the situation in the Middle East:

Today, President Mubarak and I reiterated our commitment to reaching a comprehensive peace in the region. The United States recognizes and appreciates Egypt's leadership in support for these efforts. The status quo is unsustainable for all sides. It is vital to make progress in the proximity talks between Israelis and Palestinians to enable the parties to move to direct negotiations as soon as possible that will result in an end to the occupation that began in 1967 and to a two-state solution to the conflict with Israel and a Palestinian state living in peace and security. In addition, we are consulting closely with Egypt, as well as our other partners, on new ways to address the humanitarian, economic, security, and political aspects of the situation in Gaza.

Following the raid, Egypt decided to open its border with Gaza.

According to the White House, South Africa is the next stop on the the vice president's trip. He is scheduled to meet with South African Deputy President Motlanthe, South African Foreign Minister Nkoana-Mashabane, and other world leaders at the World Cup. Biden will also be in the stands at Royal Bafokeng Stadium, where the United States will play England on Saturday.

By Frank James

By now, everyone knows that Washington Nationals ace pitcher, rookie Stephen Strasburg is the real deal.

His debut lived up to all the hype, with the 21-year old throwing furious heat into the seventh inning. He had 14 strikeouts and no walks, getting his first major league win against the Pittsburgh Pirates in a 5-2 win Tuesday evening.

But what I had somehow missed in all the coverage leading up to his debut is this: the young man uses dip, that is, smokeless tobacco.

Reading some of the Washington Post coverage Wednesday morning, I came across a description of the Nats clubhouse scene which starts off with a mention of Strasburg's wife:

While Rachel was making an early run on the Nationals' Team Store -- coming away with a bagful of limited-edition Strasburg 37 jerseys, and paying full price -- her husband was taking batting practice in an indoor cage, with a tin of dip tobacco in his back pocket and a pinch between his gum and lower lip.

As Phil Rizzuto and Harry Caray might have said: Holy Cow! Or as was said in an earlier baseball era, say it ain't so.

So Strasburg has a weakness after all.

Major League Baseball has for years wanted to get rid of smokeless tobacco, a known carcinogen which causes some of the most hideous cancers of the mouth and throat imaginable. It has been banned in the minors since 1993, though players there still sneak it.

For years, there's been a concerted effort to keep young people from starting the dip habit, especially because of the mistaken impression that it's safer than smoking tobacco.

The mlb.fanhouse.com site has an informative story that provides plenty of background on the use of the product in the majors and efforts to prohibit it. Apparently, the players' union has opposed a ban.

But there are players who support a ban, who understand that they are role models to youngsters, according to the Fanhouse piece:

An excerpt from the piece:

"I would be for [a ban]," A's infielder Eric Chavez said. "I don't do it. Sometimes when I'm watching the games you see a guy throw in a big dip and the camera focuses in on it, I know kids are watching. You want guys to be able to do what they want. Everyone is an adult, but you also have to be aware of the message that you send to kids. ... Since I don't dip, I think I'd be an advocate for trying to get it out of the game, or at least off the field."

As was made clear last night, Strasburg draws a lot of attention and will no doubt be a role model for many youngsters, especially because, by all accounts, he is a humble and level-headed young man.

So his use of snuff is the kind of practice many people will find worrisome, not only for the personal health of one of the most gifted young pitchers baseball has ever seen but for the message it could send to many youngsters who may try to imitate their newest hero.

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) says four American troops were killed when their helicopter was shot down in Afghanistan's Helmand Province.

NPR's Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson just filed this report from Kabul:

According to Afghan officials, the helicopter was providing cover during a joint operation with Afghan forces in Sangin, a district that is important to the region's robust opium trade, when it was shot down by a rocket-propelled grenade. The Taliban has claimed responsibility for the attack.

"A spokesman for the United States military, Lt. Col. Joseph T. Breasseale, confirmed that all four victims on the helicopter were American soldiers, but he declined to identify them or give further details pending notification of next of kin," The New York Times reports.

It has been a deadly month for NATO troops in Afghanistan. The death toll has risen to 28, as Western and Afghan forces prepare for operations to clear the Taliban out of their southern strongholds.

By David Gura

Photos and videos, coupled with vivid descriptions in print and on the radio, give us some sense of the scale of the disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, how it has affected marshes and wildlife and local economies.

We can see video of the oil spill in real time, pouring into the Atlantic Ocean. There are ample aerial images, showing it spreading. Newspapers, magazines and websites feature heartbreaking pictures of birds, dolphins and turtles, rendered unrecognizable by the oil.

But there are certain facets of the spill that have proven hard to convey to those of us many miles from the Gulf. What does it smell like? What is the consistency of the oil? What does it look like to marine mammals and southern flounders, animals that continue to swim in the polluted Atlantic?

On Monday, Rich Matthews, a photographer for the Associated Press, tried to answer some of those questions. He donned goggles, grabbed a camera, and slipped into the Gulf waters.

"I want people to see the spill in a new way, a way they haven't yet," he wrote in an amazing piece, datelined "UNDER THE MURKY DEPTHS OF THE GULF OF MEXICO.

I jump off the boat into the thickest patch of red oil I've ever seen. I open my eyes and realize my mask is already smeared. I can't see anything and we're just five seconds into the dive.

Dropping beneath the surface the only thing I see is oil. To the left, right, up and down -- it sits on top of the water in giant pools, and hangs suspended fifteen feet beneath the surface in softball sized blobs. There is nothing alive under the slick, although I see a dead jellyfish and handful of small bait fish.

Matthews doesn't -- in fact, he can't -- spend much time in the water. After ten minutes, he is on the back on the boat, trying to scrape the oil, which is is "thick and sticky, almost like a cake batter," off his body.

It does not wipe off. You have to scrape it off, in layers, until you finally get close to the skin. Then you pour some Dawn dishwashing soap and scrub.

Of all the articles in California's newspapers about the gubernatorial primaries there, the headline of a piece in The San Jose Mercury News probably describes them best: "California governor's race comes down to three things: Money, money, money."

With more than 60 percent of the vote, Meg Whitman, the former CEO of eBay, won the Republican primary. Some 600,000 Californians voted for her.

Although those numbers are certainly significant, another set of figures will probably attract more attention:

"Whitman entered the race promising to spend as much as $150 million of her own money on her campaign," The Sacramento Bee reports. "By primary day, she had put in $71 million and raised an additional $16 million."

In the Mercury News, the analysis was as good as the headline:

Billionaire Republican hopeful Meg Whitman has more than anyone else and is willing to spend tons of it. Her GOP opponent, Steve Poizner, also has millions but chose to hold onto his wallet until the final weeks of the campaign. Meanwhile, the presumed Democratic nominee, Jerry Brown, is spending his campaign cash like a monk browsing at a Goodwill store.

(Needless to say, the reporters who penned that last sentence are finalists for The Two-Way's simile-of-the-day award.)

Whitman spent more than four times as much as Poizner.

In the general election, she'll face former Gov. Jerry Brown, winner of the California Democratic primary yesterday.

The Mercury News surveys the [gilded] road to November:

Will Whitman, the former eBay CEO, exceed her promise to spend $150 million of her fortune to try to buy herself, in essence, the headache of running a state with a budget gap almost 15 times her net worth?

Now that the long-trailing Poizner, a former Silicon Valley entrepreneur, is closing the point gap between himself and Whitman, will he write another huge check to his campaign in the belief he could actually win the June 8 primary?

Will Brown, the wily state attorney general and former governor, make his relative paucity of cash his campaign mantra, hoping to convince voters that, when it comes to the mother's milk of politics, less is more?

In a runoff election in Arkansas yesterday, Sen. Blanche Lincoln defeated the state's lieutenant governor, Bill Halter, by five percentage points.

Here's how The New York Times set up the race: "The White House supports Mrs. Lincoln, but Mr. Halter has the multimillion dollar backing of organized labor and other left-leaning groups."

Just after midnight, the two-term senator's campaign said Lincoln had "rolled to a dramatic primary runoff election victory on Tuesday night proving again she is not to be underestimated."

In an email message to her supporters and volunteers, thanking them for their help, Lincoln took one more dig at Halter, whose campaign benefited greatly from the support of labor unions, including the Service Employees International Union (SEIU).

"Tomorrow, when all those outsiders who flooded the state get back on their airplanes and buses to go back where they came from, our campaign will stay rooted right here in Arkansas," she said.

NPR's Ken Rudin, blogging about last night's results, said that "the left, and labor unions, went all out to defeat her, mostly over a centrist voting record that included abandonment of the public option in the health care bill and her opposition to the Employee Free Choice Act ("card check"), a cause dear to labor's heart."

When Lincoln barely finished ahead of Halter in the May 18 primary -- by just two points -- and when the SEIU, among other unions, announced they would increase their efforts to defeat her in the runoff -- many people thought Lincoln was finished. Estimates of what labor spent to defeat her ranged between five and ten million dollars.

Before the runoff yesterday, John Brummett, a columnist for the Arkansas News Bureau in Little Rock, wrote that he hoped for a Halter victory, looking forward to the general election:

I previously wrote that Lincoln would be stronger in the general election because of Halter's burden of national liberal and labor associations. But I have reconsidered, determining I had underestimated three things: Lincoln's negatives, Halter's ability and the frustration with our governmental ineptitude that imperils all incumbency.

In November, Lincoln will face Rep. John Boozman (R-AR). Late last night, he issued a statement about Lincoln's victory:

I congratulate Senator Lincoln on securing her party's nomination. We have worked together over the years and she won a hard fought victory tonight. The fact remains, however, that the people of Arkansas have rejected the Obama-Pelosi-Reid agenda. We are going to run an aggressive campaign making the distinctions clear on Obamacare, card check, cap-and-trade, job killing stimulus legislation and the tax-and-spend initiatives that continue to plunge our nation further into enormous debt.

Republican women won elections in California, Nevada, Maine and one faced down slurs in South Carolina to place well in primaries scattered across a dozen states yesterday. Political Junkie Ken Rudin, with assists from our pal Mark Memmott, wrap up the notable races.

In Iowa, Democrat Roxanne Conlin has won her primary and will face incumbent Republican Senator Chuck Grassley.

In Maine, state senate president Libby Mitchell took the Democratic gubernatorial nomination and will face Republican Paul LePage, mayor of Waterville, who has support from tea party activists. (HT to our friends at Maine Public Broadcasting!).

ISRAEL EASES GAZA BLOCKADE

Some humanitarian items are starting to enter the Palestinian territory, mostly food. The blockade is at the heart of Israel's deadly raid on a flotilla of ships last week carrying similar supplies to Palestinians.

USED OIL: I WONDERED ABOUT THAT
One of the problems crews are facing is what to do with the oil that's made it to the surface of the ocean. NPR's Larry Abramson explains on Morning Edition when the oil finally gets to land, it's separated from the seawater. Some of it can be used to power ships but the rest, especially the water, is hazardous material.

Meanwhile, the White House says President Obama will return to the southern US coast early next week for another first hand briefing on efforts to fight the oil spill.

MORE UN SANCTIONS AGAINST IRAN
NPR's Michele Kelemen says the US has the votes in the Security Council to pass a resolution against Iran, rebuking Iranian leaders for continuing to refuse to reveal more about their nuclear program.

The Security Council is scheduled to meet at 10 AM, Eastern.

NBA FINALS: GAME 3
And Los Angeles is back on top, winning 91-84 over Boston in the NBA finals.
Here's the highlights reel:

It was an alarming report -- an oil sheen ten miles long was spotted at another off-shore oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico, an indication of a leak. The Mobile (Ala.) Press-Register had a story about what appeared to be a leak from the rig named the Ocean Saratoga.

Yet, Coast Guard officials appeared not to know about the leak when they were asked about it Tuesday.

It turns out there is indeed leaking oil near the Ocean Saratoga but a relatively small amount. And has been leaking for six years. Nearby wells were damaged in 2004 by Hurricane Ivan and has been leaking about a half barrel a day, according to Taylor Energy Co.

SAN FRANCISCO/HOUSTON (Reuters) - Diamond Offshore Drilling Inc shares fell Tuesday on reports of an oil leak near its Ocean Saratoga rig in the Gulf of Mexico -- a leak that turned out to be six years old and relatively small.

Some investors and environmentalists had feared the worst given the small leak's proximity to the gusher resulting from the Deepwater Horizon disaster in April.

But the U.S. Interior Department said less than a third of a barrel per day of oil had been leaking from the wells owned by Taylor Energy, Diamond's client, since they were destroyed in a mudslide caused by Hurricane Ivan in 2004.

"There are hundreds of small oil leaks every year in the Gulf of Mexico, and each is reported immediately to the National Response Center to ensure appropriate actions are taken to mitigate all potential environmental impacts," the Interior Department said in an emailed statement.

You might want to mark your calendar for this one. BP is likely to mean British Pinata next week when its CEO Tony Hayward is scheduled to appear on Capitol Hill before the House Energy and Commerce Committee chaired by Rep. Henry Waxman on Thursday, June 17 at 10 am ET.

It will be Hayward's first appearance before Congress to testify about the Deepwater Horizon accident and the resulting massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.