BP Doesn't Show For Community Meeting

Several hundred people affected by the oil spill came to the Mobile Civic Center Wednesday night for a community forum to get some answers.
The Coast Guard was there, the Environmental Protection Agency was there, but guess who was invited that didn't show up?
BP.
James Nowell is a shrimper from Bon Secour.
He said BP is "hiring people that have got regular jobs and we're out of work. We need work."
Nowell said BP officials had promised him they'd hire him and other unemployed shrimpers.
But, so far, he hasn't heard from them.
Nowell said, "We have complained to BP: complained time after time to them. They won't listen."
Nowell came to the community forum sponsored by the Mississippi-Alabama Sea Grant Consortium because the group said BP and representatives of other agencies would be there.
But BP wasn't there.
Audience members asked the moderator why not.
He said, "I think they said they were over-extended right now."
After hearing that, Nowell said BP "should have been here. They were supposed to be here. That was the reason I came, to ask them, and they should have been here."
Ray Foster is a commercial shrimper, who said he, too, has applied for work with BP.
Foster said BP is "working all the sports boats and won't put any commercial boats on."
What did Foster think about BP being a no-show?
He said, "I don't think its right. Of course, that's the way they've done us all the time. Every time I call them, they say they're going to call me back. No call back."
Nowell had his say Wednesday night anyway.
He told the forum BP hires "people who have regular jobs and bring in from people from out of state. And, they're (BP) not here, so I wanted to let you people know what's going on."
The Mississippi-Alabama Sea Grant Consortium will host another forum Thursday in Mobile at the Mobile Civic Center from 9 am to Noon.
There's no word yet on whether BP will show up for that meeting.