Hsi-Chang Lin

BP has successfully installed and closed a 75-ton cap atop the gushing oil well in the Gulf of Mexico and for the first time in 85 days, oil has stopped flowing into the ocean. While this may come as a huge relief to many whose lives and livelihoods depend on the Gulf waters, some experts estimate that up to 184 million gallons of oil may have already contaminated the sea. (For a sense of scale, imagine one of the world's largest super-massive cruise ships filled up to the brim with sticky crude oil.  Now imagine another one, the exact same size, also filled to the brim with oil. That's roughly 150 million gallons.)

Wall Street giant Goldman Sachs has agreed to pay $550 million to the Securities and Exchange Commission in hopes of settling the fraud suit levied on the company back in April. The settlement is pending approval by a federal judge; if approved, it would be the largest penalty ever assessed against a financial firm in the SEC's history.

BP finally has some good news to report: A recently installed 75 ton cap has, for the first time in 85 days, stopped the flood of crude oil into the Gulf of Mexico from a broken wellhead. While the damage to Gulf shores may have been relatively light thus far, anywhere between 93.5 and 184 million gallons of crude oil has likely contaminated those waters.

In Mason City, Iowa, a roadside billboard juxtaposed the images of President Obama, Adolf Hitler and Vladimir Lenin in an attempt to draw links between what the North Iowa Tea Party believed to be similarities in the socialist agendas of the three leaders. The image drew scathing criticism from across the political spectrum, and the party asked for the billboard to be covered with a public service announcement yesterday.

American Beat poet, author, cartoonist and musician Tuli Kupferberg died this week at the age of 86. Although Kupferberg wasn't a household name, his band, The Fugs, ran in the same circles as The Velvet Underground, Andy Warhol and Frank Zappa and the "Mothers of Invention."

Bombers targeted World Cup fans in Kampala, Uganda, killing at least 64 and injuring one American. Fans were gathered to watch the final match when the attack took place in the normally calm capital. Uganda officials suspect al-Shabab, a Somalia-based militant Islamic group that has previously admitted links to al-Qaida. Reporter for the The New York Times, Josh Kron reports from Kampala.

Last night, California jurors found Officer Johannes Mehserle guilty of involuntary manslaughter in the 2009 shooting death of Oscar Grant. Mehserle, a white BART police officer, shot and killed Grant, an unarmed black train passenger, early in the morning on New Year's Day, 2009. The video of the shooting, caught on cellphone camera, instantly went viral on the internet and led to massive rioting in the city of Oakland. Though Oakland residents demanded to see a guilty verdict, many had hoped Mehserle would be convicted on stronger charges: either second-degree murder or voluntary manslaughter. John Burris, who represented Oscar Grant’s family, said relatives were “extraordinarily disappointed” by what he called a “true compromise verdict.”

On Sunday, Spain's soccer team will go mano a mano against the Netherlands, in what should be one of the most exciting World Cup finals in recent history. Neither team has ever won the World Cup, and members of both the Spanish and Dutch teams attended the exclusive Ajax soccer training academy before the age of ten. That training led to very similar impulses on the field, explains our guest, The New York Times Magazine contributor Michael Sokolove. 

In Tehran, a private organization has introduced a catalog of appropriate haircuts for men, the first such code since the Islamic Revolutions of 1979. The list, presented by the Veil and Modesty Festival, has not been officially sanctioned by the Ministry of Culture, though they say approval is "pending."

The Obama administration has filed suit in federal court, challenging the constitutionality of Arizona’s tough, controversial new immigration law. SB1070 requires state and local police to question and possibly arrest those who exhibit reasonable suspicion of being in the country illegally. The justice department says that this is a federal job, which should not be handled by lcal law enforcement.

Today, music fans around the world remember the work of Gustav Mahler, who would be 150 years old today. Ljubljana, Slovenia kicks off "Mahler Year," a year dedicated to the artist who lived and worked in the city from 1881-1882; and musicians in New York plan to kick off the NYC Summer Mahler Project. Not bad for a man who, in his lifetime, received little recognition for his 11 symphonies.

In Detroit, Mich., a local problem is gaining city-wide attention thanks to the help of some creative reporting and social networking tools. In the city's southwestern neighborhood, known as "Mexicantown," large tractor-trailer trucks take shortcuts down residential blocks, causing property damage and possibly health concerns. 

If a picture paints a thousand words, what story is told by photographs of dilapidated buildings and abandoned factories? Photos of city ruins have been around for centuries, but they have not always been referred to as "ruin porn."  That's a phrase some criticsuse to describe recent photo journalism in Detroit. But does the term apply to art, as well as journalism?

When we speak of robots, we tend to discuss mechanical taskmasters sent to the bottom of the ocean to fix broken pipes or a machine sent to diffuse a bomb. To date, robots have been used to tackle jobs deemed too dangerous or impractical for humans. But, The New York Times has been exploring a new breed of robots designed to execute emotional functions by providing companionship and even conversation.

The Negro Leagues Grave Marker Project is setting out to locate all the unmarked graves of baseball players in the Leagues. Dr. Jeremy Krock, a 52 year old anesthesiologist from Illinois joined up with Larry Lester, a Negro Leagues historian. Lester calls this a quest to follow the "thread that leads to their last resting place." They've made some amazing discoveries, including the resting place of Bill Gatewood, who taught Satchel Paige his "hesitation pitch."

It’s been an exciting World Cup for the U.S. soccer team so far, but today's match is the crucial one. The winner of today's match against Algeria will advance to the second round while the loser will be eliminated. "The U.S. is ranked 14th and Algeria is ranked 30th and it really doesn't matter," says New York Times sports columnist, George Vecsey.

General Stanley McChrystal is scheduled to meet with President Obama later this morning. The general will answer for comments made by him and his aides in a now infamous Rolling Stone profile. This morning the question on everybody's mind is, will those quotes cost the general his job? Takeaway Washington correspondent Todd Zwillich has been gathering reactions from the political class on Capitol Hill, and many of them are staying mum over what they think lies in McChrystal's future.

Special Master for TARP Executive Compensation Kenneth Feinberg—more popularly referred to as the "Wall Street Pay Czar"—has a long history of arbitrating over contentious and sensitive issues. From determining the fair market value of the Zapruder film of John F. Kennedy's assassination to determining the fair market value of the lives of victims of 9/11, Feinberg's history of mediation made him a logical choice to administer the $20 billion escrow fund for victims of BP's oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

Voters in Utah, South Carolina, and North Carolina will head to the polls for a few final runoffs and primary elections. In Utah, incumbent, three-term Senator Bob Bennett was knocked out at the Utah GOP convention in May, and now two Tea Party candidates will face off against each other.

The Tea Party also looms large in the runoff for the Republican gubernatorial primary in South Carolina. There, Tea Party favorite and Sarah Palin pal Nikki Haley is leading over opponent Gresham Barrett, despite accusations of sex scandals and racial controversies. If elected, Haley, a Punjabi Sikh who converted to Methodism, would be South Carolina's first governor who isn't a white man.

Questions remain as to how the government plans to dole out the $20 billion sitting in an escrow account, set up by BP, to businesses and individuals directly affected by the Gulf oil crisis. Will the response by Kenneth Feinberg and his agency be transparent, comprehensive, and quick enough to handle the number and size of financial claims expected to hit their office in the months and years ahead? Furthermore, how will the government's independent operation set to be under way in the "next couple of weeks," differ from BP's emergency claims system, already in place?