Morning Mix: BP Takes Responsibility, Goldman Takes Heat, United Takes Continental

(NEW ORLEANS) — Oil giant BP has agreed to pay a criminal penalty in the billions of dollars for the 2010 oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, a person familiar with the deal said Thursday. The person, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak on the record about the deal, also said two BP PLC employees face manslaughter charges over the death of 11 people in the explosion of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig that triggered the massive spill.

BP Plc lost a motion to dismiss the issue of a potential finding of gross negligence, which could trigger fines as much as US$17.6-billion, in the trial over its role in the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill. BP lawyer Andrew Langan asked for a partial ruling Monday as the lawyers for the plaintiffs suing the company rested their case. “We don’t think there has been a finding of gross negligence” against BP, Langan told U.S. District Judge Carl Barbier in New Orleans, who is conducting the nonjury trial.

Today's top headlines: The spill in the Gulf of Mexico could be the most expensive ever, the Governator embraces health care reform, Shanghai set to open the doors on its World Expo, and Warren Buffet gets ready to talk Goldman Sachs.

Today's top headlines: Goldman execs lick their wounds from a Senate grilling, that oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico is heading to shore, President Obama hits the Midwest on a Main Street Tour, and Ford faces the flip side of having a profitable quarter.

BP's damaged public image was left in tatters Friday after furious US lawmakers pilloried the energy giant's boss, accusing him of stonewalling on the causes of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill.In hostile questioning on Thursday, lawmakers tried and failed to win answers about the spill from BP's chief executive Tony Hayward."I can't pass judgment on those decisions," he told openly disbelieving members of a key House panel investigating the worst environmental disaster in US history. "I think it's too early to reach conclusions."