On a coastal marsh south of New Orleans, oil still saturates a 30-foot-wide stretch. Where hip-high grass should be, the oil has formed a hard, dark mat. If you dig though that crust, you find a thick, oozy layer of oil.

"It hasn't weathered or degraded much since it came ashore in early June," says scientist Scott Zengel, a contractor for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, who is overseeing the marsh survey crews.

Wednesday marks the first anniversary of the BP well explosion in the Gulf of Mexico. The eruption led to the worst oil spill in U.S. history. Beyond the cost to the environment, there was a tremendous human loss — 11 workers were killed in the initial explosion. For 15 years, tool pusher, Jason Anderson, worked for the company Transocean �"- a contractor BP hired to operate the well. Host Michel Martin speaks with his wife, Shelley Anderson, about her family's continued struggle to cope with the loss.

Since Politico labeled it "the outburst heard 'round the world" and Matt Drudge declared that for the "first time" a reporter had been "aggressive with Obama," we've been wondering just what did happen when Brad Watson of WFAA-TV in Dallas/Fort Worth sat down with the president on Monday.

Researchers have found evidence that the placenta plays an important role in fetal brain development during the early stages of pregnancy.

Experiments in mice show that during a key period, the placenta becomes a source of the chemical serotonin, which helps determine the wiring of key circuits in the brain.

The finding, published in the journal Nature, could help explain what leads to brain disorders such as autism and schizophrenia. And it shows that the placenta does a lot more than simply transport nutrients from a mother to her unborn baby.

Some marketers of weight-loss products containing acai berries are also purveyors of news you shouldn't use, the Federal Trade Commission says.

The FTC has asked federal courts to put a stop to the activities of 10 different outfits that the commission alleges use "fake news websites" to tout acai berry weight-loss products.

The state legislature is required to draw up new congressional maps to coincide with the latest census figures. But so far Republicans and Democrats on a bi-partisan committee have come up vastly different proposals.

There was a 3.7 percent rise in sales of previously owned homes in March from February, the National Association of Realtors reports.

Still, at a 5.1 million annual rate, sales remained 6.3 percent below the level of March 2010.

And the increase from February was driven in part by investors and others who snapped up bargain-priced foreclosed homes, not by a return to the market by first-time buyers. According to NAR:

The families of the 29 victims of last year's Upper Big Branch mine explosion now have until June 1 to accept $3 million settlement offers from mine owner Massey Energy.

Blue creatures in 3-D can't quite keep up with a 3-D blue movie at the box office in Hong Kong, apparently.

The long-anticipated reworking of the nation's terror alert system gets its formal introduction today when Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano announces that the five color codes used since the early years of the George W. Bush administration are being replaced by two phrases:

-- Elevated Threat: which "warns of a credible terrorist threat against the United States."