Threats

Journalists covering an Arkansas oil spill in a suburban neighborhood said they were threatened with arrests, kicked out of the disaster site and had to seek permission from ExxonMobil to fly over the evacuated area.

An ExxonMobil pipeline ruptured in Mayflower, Ark., on March 29, causing 22 homes to be evacuated in the small town located north of Little Rock. So far, more than 19,000 barrels of oil have been collected.

Postings by an anonymous message board commentator predicting and encouraging the assassination of a presidential candidate do not qualify as true threats capable of criminalization, a federal appeals court ruled Tuesday.

The embattled chief of a coal-producing company warned an ABC News producer that he was “liable to get shot” if he took video of him.

The incident occurred earlier this week in Kentucky when the producer, Asa Eslocker, was seeking comment from Massey Energy CEO Don Blankenship regarding his controversial relationship with the chief justice of the West Virginia Supreme Court.