While locals were transfixed with tales of bomb robots and former political kingpins going to jail, a bevy of lawyers and reporters from all over were hunkered down at the federal courthouse. BP, the feds, the state and other parties began their trial today to determine what the responsible parties have to pay for the Big Oozy. The courtroom tussle is expected to last all day, every day for months. Thanks to the wonders of Twitter and Judge Carl Barbier's embrace of technology, members of the public who can't sit through the whole thing can find out what's happening in the courtroom. Click through for the best tweets from today's opening statements:

Barring an eleventh-hour settlement, BP is set to unleash another unchecked torrent on the Gulf Coast that will require many days to solve. This time, however, the action won't be at the bottom of the Gulf, but in federal court on Poydras St. And it might even be more gross.

BP and the feds will settle the rest of the Big Oozy blame game in the court. The British oil giant is sending signals this week that they're ready to go to trial with the U.S. government, and let a judge decide how much the company will have to pay for the 2010 Gulf oil disaster. The meat of the trial, set to begin Monday in federal court in New Orleans, will determine whether BP was "grossly negligent" in its operating of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig.

BP already acknowledged its criminality for the Big Oozy. Today, the owner of the Deepwater Horizon comes clean. Transocean agreed to enter a guilty plea to a criminal charge for the 2010 disaster, and pay $1.4 billion in settlement money to the feds, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. One billion dollars worth of settlement money will go toward paying for Clean Water Act penalties. The Swiss company promised to shell out another $400,000 for settling civil and criminal penalties.

Showing once again that he's well aware of the equal importance of perception and reality, David Vitter wrote a letter to BP today to urge the oil giant to make good on some of the post-Big Oozy promises they aired in the papers and on TV. In the letter, Louisiana's junior senator tells BP big shot Lamar McKay that the company shouldn't be hiring European contractors to do Gulf of Mexico work.

As any supermarket tabloid editor could tell you, sheen never goes away completely. Out above the wreckage of the Deepwater Horizon, another oil sheen was spotted on the surface of the Gulf earlier in November. That means even after fixing the leaky dome, loose oil is still seeping out.

BP won't be doing any new business with the federal government in the coming months. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced today that the oil giant won't be allowed to sign new contracts with the U.S. government. The temporary suspension comes as a result of a "lack of business integrity" the British company showed in the Big Oozy, according to EPA.

Updated 5:15 p.m.

BP admitted that their part in the Deepwater Horizon oil disaster was criminal today.The oil company is set to plead guilty to criminal charges brought against them for the Big Oozy, and pay $4 billion in fines over the next five years, as part of an agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice. A total of 14 charges were brought against the company by the DOJ today, and three BP employees were charged in connection with the disaster and spill - including two rig employees who will now face manslaughter charges.

When Jim Letten's office wasn't busy getting sued for commenting on nola.com, they were busy charging people with wrongdoing this week. The local U.S. Attorney's office threw the book at one man who concocted a pair of schemes to steal $1.4 million during the Big Oozy, and another who threatened to blow up a nuclear reactor. Click through for details on the separate cases:

The dome that was leaking oil at the bottom of the Gulf has a new lid. BP capped and plugged the latest oil seepage coming from the site of the 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster this week. The leak was emanating from the discarded, 40-foot-tall containment dome, which was used in a failed attempt to stanch the Big Oozy. The dome discharge created a sheen at the surface of the Gulf. Underwater robots, or ROVs, descended to the deep on Tuesday to cap the dome's "stove pipe" opening at the top, and plug connection ports on the side of the structure.