Late yesterday--around the time Dzokhar Tsarnaev was taken into custody--Florida attorney general Pam Bondi announced the state of Florida is suing BP and Haliburton for damages related to the Deepwater Horizon spill.
The state's announcement came the same day the state of Mississippi and the city of Tampa announced their own suits against BP and its partners.
"The state of Florida suffered considerable economic losses as a result of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill," Bondi said in a news release. "BP and Halliburton must be held accountable."
Bondi will file the suit under the federal Oil Pollution Act, just barely within the law's three-year statute of limitation, in U.S. District Court in Panama City.
The state declined to say how much money in damages it will seek. But officials said Florida lost revenues from various sources as a result of the spill, including sales taxes, corporate taxes, documentary stamp taxes and taxes on alcoholic beverages and cigarettes.
The full 12-count complaint, viewable
here, also seeks damages under federal maritime law and Florida common law due to the "egregious nature" of BP and Haliburton's misconduct.
Florida becomes the fourth jurisdiction to sue BP for the spill. Alabama and Louisiana are already at trial now, and Mississippi and Tampa filed separate lawsuits yesterday. The only question you have to ask here is what took Florida so long to file.