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This story originally appeared in the Jackson Free Press. It was added to the Mississippi Free Press website in 2025.
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Washington, D.C., attorney Kenneth Feinburg, who is handling the oil-spill claims process, spoke at the Southern Governors’ Association’s annual meeting yesterday. Samuel Wantman

Washington, D.C., attorney Kenneth Feinberg, who starts his job of overseeing the BP claims process today, is hosting three meetings on the Mississippi Gulf Coast this morning regarding payments for victims of the Deepwater Horizon oil disaster.

The meetings, which are being held in Bay St. Louis, Biloxi and Pascagoula will provide citizens with information about the Gulf Coast Claims Facility, an independent body Feinberg formed to handle claims and make payments from BP’s $20 billion escrow fund.

Feinberg said the new fund aims to pay individuals within 48 hours of finalizing claims, and businesses within seven days, The Sun Herald reported Sunday.

GCCF will operate from the 35 claims offices BP set up with the same contracted staff. BP officials paid a total of $375 million in claims before turning over the program to Feinberg.

Mississippi native Donna Ladd and partner Todd Stauffer founded the Jackson Free Press in 2002 in the capital city. The heavily awarded local newspaper did many investigations heralded across the state and nation and served as a paper of record due to its diversity, inclusion, in-depth reporting and deep connection to readers and dedication to narrative change in and about Mississippi. In 2022, the nonprofit Mississippi Free Press, founded by Ladd and JFP Associate Publisher Kimberly Griffin in 2020, purchased the journalism assets and archives of the Jackson Free Press. A Google grant through AAN Publishers enabled Newspack's integration of the JFP archives into the Mississippi Free Press website to become part of a more searchable archive of recent Mississippi history and essential journalism.