ProPublica Reporting Network

In the last week, 10 news organizations have gotten on board for our BP spill claims project: AL.com, the Biloxi Sun Herald, The Florida Independent, GulfLive.com, MSNBC.com, New Orleans Metblogs, The Texas Independent, The Texas Tribune, Time Magazine and The Washington Independent.

These publications join others that have signed on since we launched almost two weeks ago, including American Public Media's Public Insight Network, The Bradenton Herald, Huffington Post Green, NOLA.com, The Gambit Weekly, The Lens, The Miami Herald, St. Petersburg Times, Tallahassee Democrat, and Yahoo! News.

Kenneth Feinberg, the independent paymaster chosen by President Obama to administer damage claims from the Gulf oil spill, will drop the contractor that BP has been using to manage the claims process and hire two new companies to replace it.

 Examining the handling of 140,000 claims filed for damages from the BP oil spill is a job too big for any one newsroom. 

Earlier this morning, we reported that BP is delaying its decisions about many damage claims from the Gulf oil spill. We wrote that the company is putting off decisions about numerous claims that are not explicitly covered by the Oil Pollution Act, the 1990 federal law that holds oil companies responsible for covering direct "removal costs and damages" from a spill, without telling claimants why their claims were put on hold.

In a press release sent out several hours after our story, BP confirmed that many claims will be deferred until Kenneth Feinberg, the independent administrator appointed by President Obama to oversee the compensation process, takes over the claims system in mid-August.