Today marks the one-year anniversary of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, which “killed 11 workers and sent more than 200 million gallons of oil spewing into the Gulf waters:”

BP oil spill: The environmental impact one year on — As the BBC asked yesterday afternoon, “what environmental impact did one of world’s largest accidental oil spills have on the region’s wildlife and habitats, and has it been as bad as it was feared at the time?” At this point, scientists still cannot say for sure: it is still “too soon for long-term impacts to manifest themselves, such as disruptions to ecosystems’ food chains.”

One Year After BP, The Coast Isn’t Yet Clear — On NPR’s site, Brentin Mock of the Ocean Conservancy’s Gulf Restoration Center in New Orleans wrote that “the BP Deepwater Horizon blowout brought into focus the legacy of degradation and pollution that has troubled Gulf waters for generations … America can’t afford to keep the Gulf on injured reserve for too long, though. The Gulf Coast supports a $34 billion tourism industry and supplies the nation with 40% of its seafood. This is a working coast of fishermen, energy producers, restaurant owners, hotel managers, shipbuilders and tour guides.”

Last area of Gulf Of Mexico closed by BP oil spill is reopened to fishing — According to the Associated Press, “one day before the anniversary of the Deepwater Horizon disaster, the federal government says fishing can resume in the last Gulf of Mexico waters closed … with the opening of about 1,040 square miles of water nearest the sunken rig, all federal waters in the Gulf are open to fishing.”

Also, we wanted to congratulate a couple of our non-profits on their recent news coverage. Many Catalogue cheers for their incredible work at the international and local level.

Is your rug slave-free? — GoodWeave USA appeared this past Monday on The CNN Freedom Project, which seeks “to end modern-day slavery and … amplify the voices of the victims, highlight success stories, and help unravel the complicated tangle of criminal enterprises.” GoodWeave is certainly one of those successes, as its market-based approach renders child labor practices in the rug industry both more visible and less profitable.

Friday’s Heroes: The Literacy Council of Prince George’s County — On WUSA9′s Hero Central this past Friday, the Literacy Council was the featured non-profit. As Executive Director Taneika Tukan pointed out, 1 in 5 adults in the county lack basic literacy skills — last year, they served over 1,400 students in 11 different sites. As 29-year-old student Allister Alexander says, “It is so important to me, I can’t even find words to describe it.”