While the U.S. Border Patrol has its hands full trying to stop the flow of illegal aliens into our country, a Duke University professor says the nation is in danger of losing too many legal immigrants to their native homelands.

On Tuesday President Obama announced his "battle plan" regarding the Gulf of Mexico oil leak in a televised address from the Oval Office. He opened his comments reminding Americans of other challenges facing the nation: the current recession and the ongoing "war" in Afghanistan (despite his 2007 campaign promise that ending the war would be "the first thing I will do" as President). He said we're now waging a war "against an oil spill that is assaulting our shores and our citizens."

As crude oil continues to gush into the Gulf of Mexico following an explosion on the Deepwater Horizon rig, BP faces an uncertain future. The London-based oil company which operated the rig has seen its shares plummet by 36 percent since the April 20 accident, according to Bloomberg Businessweek. The article quoted investment analysts noting this $58 billion loss could make the company a prime target for takeover. Forecasters predict efforts to plug the leak may continue through the end of 2010 due to complications from weather and the depth of the well, and costs of the recovery could exceed the company’s 2009 profits.

The White House special climate envoy has assured U.N. delegates from more than 40 countries the U.S. is ready to move forward on a comprehensive international climate change treaty without Congressional approval. Delegates met last week in an informal negotiating session preliminary to the upcoming United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) to be held in Mexico later this year. CBS News reports that Todd Stern, Obama's special envoy for climate change, admitted cap-and-trade legislation is unlikely to pass the U.S. Senate this year but said it is "not crucial" to progress in Mexico.

Hawaii has a message for those who question whether President Barack Obama was born there: Get off our backs! The state Department of Health (DOH) set up a special page on its website to help handle dozens of requests it receives monthly from "birthers" trying to obtain evidence of the President's origins. And Democratic state Senator Will Espero recently introduced two bills in an attempt to stem the tide.

President Obama is turning up the heat on Congress to pass comprehensive climate-change legislation, meeting today with key Senators from both parties at the White House. He hopes to craft a bill that will revive stalled efforts to implement a cap-and-trade carbon tax and reduce emissions from so-called greenhouse gases.

President Obama's fiscal year 2010 EPA budget calls for carbon reductions that would require raising the cost of gasoline to $7 per gallon within the next 10 years. A report released this month by Harvard University's Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs explained that for Obama to reach his goal, he would need to employ a one-two punch approach, hitting both utility and transportation sectors with strong emissions-reducing taxes.

Obama's Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has announced its timetable to start regulating industrial greenhouse gas emissions under the Clean Air Act. Responding by letter to lawmakers' requests, EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson said the agency will target large facilities beginning in 2011 but will wait until 2016 to require smaller plants to comply. However, automobile manufacturers will receive new greenhouse-gas emission standards late next month.

Three major U.S. corporations have withdrawn from a highly influential climate-change lobbying group, and political pundits say their departure sounds the death-knell for cap-and-trade legislation in the Senate.

The Obama administration is shifting some responsibility for its animal disease tracking system to the states. U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Secretary Tom Vilsack announced Friday his agency will develop a "flexible" system to trace livestock across state lines by requiring farmers and ranchers to participate in state tracking programs overseen by USDA.