As oil reaches the coastline, frustration grows among the residents of Venice, Louisiana. Now the town, which was just putting itself back together after Katrina, is forced to do it all over again. Except this time its residents are dealing with the frustration of having to replenish something much larger than their homes — the ocean.

With an estimated 200,000 gallons a day of oil continuing to leak into the Gulf of Mexico, Gov. Bobby Jindal of Louisiana said he has decided to take matters into his own hands.

I knew this institute would give me the opportunity to do things I’d never done before, but I must have glanced over the “aerial acrobatics” clause in the paperwork.

The only bird I can name off the top of my head is a pigeon. In my defense, I am from New York City where most wildlife is viewed from a safe distance in one of our zoos. So when some sort of animal that isn’t someone’s pet gets too close to me, I get suspicious of its intentions and a “freak-out” is imminent.

Surprisingly, despite bans on fishing off the coast and well-publicized closing of some of the state’s oyster beds, many businesses and local restaurants that specialize in seafood said they have yet to feel the effects of the oil spill.

To the untrained eye, the effects of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill on the marshlands of Southern Louisiana might not be easily recognizable from the air. But one look at the oil-stained sand dunes about 20 miles from Venice, La., and the reality of the ever-encroaching oil becomes apparent.

A former administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, William Reilly, and Bob Graham, a former Florida governor and Democratic U.S. senator, will head the seven-person commission, Obama said.

The Louisiana Children’s Museum is opening its massive blue doors to families who have been affected by the oil spill along the coast of the Gulf of Mexico.

For the past month, Laura Underwood, a hair stylist in Houma, La., has swept the floor of the Aha! salon, gathering hair clippings and stuffing them into grocery bags. She also asked other salons for their leftover hair but under one condition—that they wash it first.

Since late April, salons in different parts of the country have been gathering excess hair from haircuts in hopes it would be used to clean up the oil spill. But even though the idea was rejected on Friday by the people in charge of all response efforts, neither the salons nor the organization that started the initiative are letting up.