Political patience wanes as Gulf oil spill grows

ON THE GULF OF MEXICO (AP) — Political patience is washing away for BP executives who can’t stop a broken underwater well from spewing oil into the Gulf, where crews lowered a new containment box to the seafloor in preparation for the latest bid to funnel the gusher to a waiting tanker. In back-to-back U.S. Senate inquiries on Tuesday, lawmakers chastised officials from BP PLC and its drilling partners over attempts to shift blame to each other. They were asked to explain a “cascade of failures” that led to the catastrophic explosion on board a drilling rig and the blown-out wellhead that has spewed at least 4 million gallons of oil into the Gulf over three weeks.