A federal judge has set aside nearly seven hours for opening statements in a trial over the deadly rig explosion in the Gulf of Mexico that resulted in the nation's worst offshore oil spill.

Monday's order by U.S. District Judge Carl Barbier divides up 400 minutes of opening statements by lawyers for the plaintiffs, government entities and companies involved in the trial scheduled to start Feb. 27.

Plaintiffs' attorneys will go first and get 75 minutes to speak.

BP PLC, owner of the blown-out well, gets 90 minutes. Rig owner Transocean Ltd. and cement contractor Halliburton each get an hour.

Barbier gave the federal government 45 minutes and allocated 20 minutes for state governments.

The remaining 50 minutes will be split by other companies sued over the 2010 disaster.

President Barack Obama's campaign is asking top fundraisers to support a Democratic-leaning outside group that is backing the president's re-election bid, reversing Obama's opposition to "super" political action committees, which can spend unlimited amounts of cash to influence elections.

Obama's campaign urged wealthy fundraisers in a Monday night conference call to support Priorities USA, a super PAC led by two former Obama aides that has struggled to compete with the tens of millions of dollars collected by Republican-backed outside groups.

Obama has opposed the Supreme Court's 2010 Citizens United decision that stripped away some limits on campaign contributions. The new super PACs can't coordinate directly with campaigns, but many have played a major role in the Republican primary contests, raising millions of dollars to use in negative advertising in early contests such as Iowa, South Carolina and Florida.

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A painstakingly slow hand count of Clark County’s presidential caucus vote delayed final results by more than a day, prompting accusations of fraud and conspiracy from supporters of Rep. Ron Paul, doubts from national Republicans about Nevada’s ability to run a caucus and derision from national political observers, who called for Nevada’s status as an early caucus state to be summarily yanked. While no evidence of fraud was uncovered, the prolonged count capped a caucus marked by disorganization, bickering and bumbling at nearly every turn.

By the time Clark County finished counting, the vote had long been tallied in the rest of the state, a victory had been declared (Mitt Romney) and the candidates had given their speeches and left the state. Only their lawyers stayed behind to monitor the count. “We are going to get this right,” Clark County Chairman David Gibbs said early Sunday morning. “If it takes us a little bit of time to get it right, we are going to take the time.”