Among the conditions offered by AT&T is a promise to observe “network neutrality” principles, an offer of $19.95 per month stand-alone digital subscriber line service and a vow to divest some wireless spectrum.
In a few cases, the recipients have been asked if they are willing to appear in advertising spots. The reaction has been mixed: Cindy McKean, 36, a Venetian Isles resident in New Orleans who feels "very thankful and very blessed" with her family's Road Home rebuilding grant, the amount of which she wouldn't disclose, said she and her husband, a firefighter, have turned aside the advertising idea.
ICFI stock chart.
Noting that not a single St. Bernard Parish resident has received a Road Home check, the Parish Council on Tuesday demanded that the state government declare every house in the parish 100 percent damaged and start writing checks to compensate residents.
All but five houses flooded in St. Bernard, most to the rooftops.
At Tuesday's council meeting, rage poured from local officials over the continuing delays of the Road Home program, which at last count had paid fewer than 100 of the 87,000 Louisiana homeowners who have applied for federal rebuilding or buyout grants.
Whatever you've heard about New Orleans, the reality is much worse. Think of it as a vast open wound, this once-great American city that is still largely in ruins, with many of its people still writhing in agony more than a year after the catastrophic flood that followed Hurricane Katrina.
NEW ORLEANS – Three top-ranking Army Corps of Engineers officials who led the agency's reconstruction work after Hurricane Katrina are stepping down, prompting critics to again question whether the Corps is able to protect the city from future disasters.
The latest retirements include two top civilians and the New Orleans district engineer. They come on the heels of the retirement of the agency's chief, Lt. Gen. Carl A. Strock, who said in August he was leaving his post for “family and personal reasons.”
The departing Corps officials dismissed suggestions that they are leaving because of criticism showered on the agency after Katrina. Forensics investigations into what caused flood walls to collapse revealed flawed work in the past largely caused the flooding of the central parts of New Orleans.
Looking Ahead to Reapportionment
According to a new Election Data Services prediction, if the 2010 reapportionment were held today, six states would gain one seat apiece in the House of Representatives -- Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Nevada, and Utah -- and Texas would gain two seats. Those seats would come from seven states losing one seat each -- Iowa, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Missouri, New York, Ohio, and Pennsylvania.
"The states of Georgia, Nevada, Louisiana, and Massachusetts are new states [this year] on the list of changes."
The tally for Hurricane Katrina waste could top $2 billion next year because half of the lucrative government contracts valued at $500,000 or greater for cleanup work are being awarded without [sic] little competition.
Federal investigators have already determined the Bush administration squandered $1 billion on fraudulent disaster aid to individuals after the 2005 storm. Now they are shifting their attention to the multimillion dollar contracts to politically connected firms that critics have long said are a prime area for abuse.
In January, investigators will release the first of several audits examining more than $12 billion in Katrina contracts. The charges range from political favoritism to limited opportunities for small and minority-owned firms, which initially got only 1.5 percent of the total work.
"Based on their track record, it wouldn't surprise me if we saw another billion more in waste," said Clark Kent Ervin, the Homeland Security Department's inspector general from 2003-2004. "I don't think sufficient progress has been made."
"They have always failed to understand the magnitude of this undertaking or commit the amount of resources they need to get the job done," said Sam Jones, deputy director of the Governor's Office of Community Programs.
. . . . . .
So far, however, the contract has been very good for ICF. After the company went public, it distributed $2.7 million in one-time bonuses to 30 of its top managers. Byrne said he was not one of the recipients, but he declined to reveal his salary or say what any other executives in charge of the Road Home contract are making.
"It is private information and we won't disclose that," ICF spokeswoman Gentry Brann said. "It wouldn't be fair to the employees."
. . . . . .
"We are ahead of what we said in our contract we would meet," Brann said.
Jones said ICF officials are making a "false argument."
"To meet their contractual obligations, there are benchmarks you have to meet and they were not meeting them," Jones said. "That's it. Our bells first went off when they weren't meeting even the earliest projections. We don't need to find out six months from now that they are going to fail to meet the contract expectations. We can't wait until then."
"Listen," says James Lemann, whose mother's garage became the sanctuary. Down the block, swinging metal groans in a slow breeze; otherwise, the street is silent. "It's a beautiful sunny afternoon," says Lemann, 48. "Do you hear saws? Do you hear any hammers?"
ATLANTA and NEW ORLEANS, Dec. 21 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Doing its part to help rebuild the Crescent City, EarthLink (Nasdaq: ELNK) officially launches the City of New Orleans' municipal wireless network today -- the company's third market build out this year. The approximately 20-square mile Wi-Fi mesh network covers parts of the Orleans parish.
EarthLink is supporting the City's rebuilding efforts by providing a free tier of service available up to 300Kbps for residents and businesses in New Orleans throughout the coverage area (http://www.emnwifi.net/cities/neworleans/). Consumers can access the free tier by logging onto the Web site https://featherwifi.net through the Wi-Fi
access software embedded in their desk- or laptop computer.
"As I expressed by phone, I have serious concerns about the effectiveness and expediency of the program," Powell said in a letter to Sudhakar Kesavan, chief executive of the Virginia-based ICF International.
"As I write this letter, only 92 homeowners have received financial assistance out of over 80,000 applicants, or .1 percent of applicants," he wrote. "This rate must dramatically improve."
ICF International, which is running the $7.5 billion program, is under pressure to speed up help for homeowners.
President Bush’s point-man on the hurricane recovery weighed in Wednesday in a letter that takes ICF to task for getting financial assistance to only 1 percent (sic) of applicants.
Since the program began this summer, 92 homeowners have received funding. More than 80,000 homeowners have applied for assistance.
“I have serious concerns about the effectiveness and expediency of the program,” Don Powell wrote ICF.
ICF spokesman Dwight Cunningham said late Wednesday that the company is preparing a response.
“We have received the letter from Chairman Powell and we are responding,” he said.
A New Orleans lawmaker recently pitched a tent on the State Capitol lawn and vowed to stay there until the program improved.
Rep. Charmaine Marchand, D-New Orleans, took down her tent Wednesday, a day after meeting with Blanco and other top officials for three hours at the Governor’s Mansion.
Marchand, whose legislative district includes the heavily hit Lower 9th Ward in New Orleans, complained of homeowners receiving offers of $87 from ICF for their property.
The maximum allowable under the program is $150,000.
New Orleans Sen. Ann Duplessis, who has been part of Blanco’s team looking at improving the Road Home program, said in a prepared statement, “The changes make sense when you consider how diverse the New Orleans housing market is. We have an entire team of local professionals dedicated to the real estate and housing industry, and they will now play a vital role in making the Road Home program work better for our people.”
Almost 60 years after Louisiana spurned an offer from President Harry Truman for billions of dollars in federal oil and gas royalties, President Bush on Wednesday made it a reality.Still, it would have been better to have had the money that Leander Perez threw away on the Truman deal.Bush signed legislation that will allow Louisiana to share in the 37.5 percent royalty that the federal government receives from new drilling in 8.3 million acres in the Gulf of Mexico.
He also provided leadership and support for preparations and response to imminent threats to public health such as the U.S. Federal Government's response to the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) threat, as well as other public health emergencies, including the hurricanes that occurred in 2005 and 2006 in Florida and along the Gulf Coast.
". . . we expect to double local hiring and team with an even greater number of local firms. We are honored to play such an important role in helping displaced residents rebuild their communities."
Words such as “will,” "expect,” and similar words or phrasing, identify forward-looking statements. These statements are not guarantees and involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those anticipated in the forward-looking statements.(In other words-- we sound like we're promising performance, but don't take that seriously. There's actually a whole paragraph which essentially says, don't hold us to any promises we make.)
ICF International (Nasdaq: ICFI) announced today that the underwriters of its initial public offering of shares of its common stock, which began trading on The Nasdaq Global Select Market on September 28, 2006, have fully exercised their overallotment option to purchase an additional 700,500 shares. All of the overallotment shares were sold by ICF. With the exercise of the underwriters’ option, the aggregate net proceeds to ICF of its offering were approximately US$48.7 million.
ICF International Receives Expression of Support from the State of Louisiana
"a Senior Director at The White House Office of Homeland Security, a key official and advisor to Secretary Ridge at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security,
. . . . . . . .
In 1999, Mr. Byrne joined the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) in New York City and served as FEMA Operations Chief at Ground Zero in Manhattan. In 2001, he joined The White House Office of Homeland Security where he was responsible for guiding policy and initiatives for national homeland security efforts. In 2003, Mr. Byrne served as the first Director of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Office for National Capital Region Coordination. At DHS, he reported directly to Secretary Ridge and was responsible for regional preparedness, response, recovery, and information sharing."
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
At ICF Consulting Mr. Byrne will lead a division of more than 200 professionals who provide advisory, technology, and implementation services for homeland and national security clients at the U.S. Departments of Defense and Homeland Security, other federal agencies, and state and local governments throughout the country.
"Unfortunately, $239 million in unnecessary tax credits for insurance surcharge reimbursements were passed." --- Jim Brandt, President of PAR
Speaking in Lafayette last Thursday, U.S. Sen. David Vitter, R-Metairie, joined in the harsh criticism of the private firm responsible for awarding recovery grants in Louisiana's "Road Home" program.
ICF International Inc. is the contractor hired by the Blanco administration to dispense $7.5 billion in federal funds for repair of owner-occupied houses damaged by last year's hurricanes. It is a lucrative undertaking for the Fairfax, Va.-based company. In all, ICF expects to make $756 million off the Road Home contract.
Vitter says the program is an "utter disaster." Of 80,000 applications sent in recently, he says he knows of 60 checks that were mailed out.
The senator is not alone in his criticism. Even Gov. Blanco, who worked with the Louisiana Recovery Authority and the Office of Community Development in structuring the program, has expressed disappointment. In mid-November, she reportedly demanded that ICF explain why only 27 families had received money from the program, when an estimated 123,000 homes need restoration.
The administration did not strongly defend the program when state lawmakers launched a blistering attack on it during a recent House and Senate committee meeting. Suzie Elkins, director of the governor's Office of Community Development, which monitors the program, said 68 of the 123,000 eligible homeowners have received grants.
Commissioner of Administration Jerry Luke LeBlanc acknowledged that the pace is unsatisfactory.
The Associated Press says New Orleans lawmakers feel there is a lack of urgency on the part of state officials, and, according to the wire service, blame it on the fact that those officials "don't return home each day to devastated neighborhoods where people sleep in gutted homes without furniture or in rat-infested trailers."
BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) -- Lawmakers are looking for legal ways to oust the contractor hired by Gov. Kathleen Blanco's administration to hand out recovery grants in Louisiana's "Road Home" program.
On Friday, both the House and Senate sent the governor's office similar, unanimous resolutions, directing her staff to fire ICF International Inc. - though lawmakers acknowledged they don't have the authority to order that. However, they said the resolution shows how dissatisfied they are with ICF's slow doling out of grants.
"It's something we deeply regret," chamber president Sue Edmunds said Wednesday. "Our organization has worked very well with the governor. We have been pleased with her efforts on behalf of this community."
Dinner with Blanco was the last item up for bid at the fundraising auction last week. Edmunds said the bidding opened at $1,000 and dropped to $500 before the auctioneer accepted a $1 bid from bank executive Malcolm Maddox, a regional chairman for Capital One.
Others were trying to bid on the dinner when the bidding abruptly closed, according to Edmunds.
Tom Tate, lobbyist for the Louisiana Association of Educators, blamed House Republicans for taking a political shot at Blanco that cost public schoolteachers a $2,100 pay raise.
“I believe that, to a person, they were after Gov. Blanco,” Tate said.
“After the session, when Republican lawmakers go back to their hometowns, I think they are going to have some answering to do,” he said.
Blanco said her proposed raise could have moved the pay of public schoolteachers to the regional average, which has been a goal for years.
"Raises dead; session continues"
"WASHINGTON — Though Louisiana gained billions in offshore oil and gas royalty revenue at the close of Congress, it was unable to push through funding for the Morganza-to-the-Gulf hurricane protection project over the objections of a lone Oklahoma senator.
U.S. Rep. Charles “Charlie” Melancon, D-Napoleonville, and U.S. Rep. Richard Baker, R-Baton Rouge, were able to get partial funding of the 1,700-square-mile project approved in the House but couldn’t get it through the Senate.
Likewise, U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., introduced legislation in the Senate for full funding. U.S. Sen. David Vitter, R-La., the chief advocate of the plan, proposed a bill that would at least partly fund the project.
But in the waning hours of the Senate’s conclusion Saturday, no one was able to persuade budget hawk U.S. Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., to lift his hold on any project legislation. Under Senate procedure, any senator can block legislation."
. . . . . .
"Jerome Zeringue, executive director of the Terrebonne Levee and Conservation District, called the setback “frustrating.”
Only one of two things can happen in the future, he said. “We’re either going to wash away, or Congress will authorize it and we’ll build.”"
"Entergy Corp. has filed two letters of intent to construct commercial nuclear reactors. (CityBusiness file photo)"
"Once again the train is chugging around City Park's 2-mile track.
Square D/Schneider Electric donated a new locomotive and ADA-accessible coach to the park.
The 50 'experts' called to take the inaugural ride at noon Wednesday are first-graders at Our Lady of Divine Providence School.
Entry is via the rear entrance to the Amusement Park off Stadium Drive.
'In many ways City Park is like the little engine that could. Despite what sometimes seems like insurmountable odds, the park keeps chugging forward. We are deeply appreciative of Square D’s generosity and their donation of the new locomotive and coach,' said Bob Becker, City Park CEO."
"While the US government's failures to respond to Hurricane Katrina have been well documented, fewer people realize its role in stopping the displaced from receiving the aid necessary to pull their lives back together to return and rebuild.
FEMA arbitrarily denied thousands of vulnerable displaced families access to housing aid until a federal judge ruled against the agency last week, describing FEMA's system for delivering aid as 'Kafkaesque', likening it to the writer's disturbing tales of horror. Still FEMA has refused the judges orders to begin payments while it mounts its appeal. Hurricane survivors, leaders from ACORN and Members of Congress like Maxine Waters (D-CA), Al Green (D-TX), Sheila Jackson Lee (D-TX) and Rep. Barbara Lee (D-CA) pressed federal officials in Washington, DC, New Orleans and Houston this week to follow the judge's orders and resume payments to save displaced survivors facing eviction.
Thousands of families have been permanently evicted from New Orleans public housing by the city's US Department of Housing and Urban Development administrator, HANO. The agency plans to use relief funds in a saddening twist to bulldoze 5,000 habitable apartments, the majority of the city's subsidized housing, senselessly denying their former tenants their right to return home. They plan to start building mixed income housing in its place with room for about 10% as many low income people, further shrinking the city's stock of affordable housing as rental prices have already risen 70% by some accounts."
"In the latest twist to the demographic transformation of New Orleans since it was swamped by Hurricane Katrina last year, hundreds of babies are being born to Latino immigrant workers, both legal and illegal, who flocked to the city to toil on its reconstruction.
The throng of babies gurgling in the handful of operational maternity wards here has come as a big surprise — and a financial strain — to this historically black and white city, which before the hurricane had only a small Latino community and virtually no experience of illegal immigration.
'Of all the myriad things that have changed after Katrina, this wasn't high on anybody's priority list,' said Dr. Mark Peters, chief executive of East Jefferson General Hospital in Metairie."
"And Sunday night was the Saints' graduation party. A 42-17 blowout on national television of the Dallas Cowboys (8-5), winners of four straight and five of their previous six and a popular choice as NFC's best team, makes New Orleans a certified championship contender. Not just a feel-good story but a really good team."
"Blanco said she will not abandon the city, but stressed that 'I want to see a plan' from New Orleans officials for ending reliance on the state help. State Police and Guard personnel 'will be extended beyond December, but we will go month to month until I get a clear plan. . . . We want to see an exit plan,' she said."
"The quest to correct Perez's mistake came to fruition Saturday about 1:50 a.m., when the Senate, as the clock ticked toward adjournment, approved a package the House had passed just hours earlier. It allows new drilling in the Gulf and gives Louisiana and three other Gulf Coast states a share of the royalties."
"Overcoming the specter of a roiling federal corruption probe that threatened to draw the curtain on his 16-year career on Capitol Hill, U.S. Rep. William Jefferson survived the fight of his political life Saturday, easily defeating state Rep. Karen Carter to win his ninth term in the 2nd Congressional District.
Guilty pleas by aides and associates who admitted to bribing the New Orleans Democrat, and the revelation in court documents that FBI agents had found $90,000 in marked bills in Jefferson's freezer, had prompted pundits to begin inking his political obituary.
Instead, Jefferson, 59, scored a decisive win largely by routing Carter in Jefferson Parish. That may have attested less to his appeal than to the power of Jefferson Parish Sheriff Harry Lee, whose bitter attacks on the challenger appeared to have been a factor in sharply suppressing turnout that Carter needed, especially among white voters.
"So in 2006, Galatoire's changed things up. People would at last be able to reserve these most coveted holiday Friday lunch tables – but for a price and to the benefit of deserving local charities. It started at Mardi Gras this year and continued again this month for the upcoming pre-Christmas Friday lunch. In both cases, the public was invited to an auction in the restaurant's dining room and with bubbling flowing freely from the sponsoring French champagne maker Veuve Clicqout they bid on the right to snag a table for the big day. Bids started at $100 a seat and rose quickly from there. For the Friday lunch before Christmas, people bid up to $1,000 for the smallest tables and over $5,000 for the largest 12-person tables. For that money they will get simply a table for lunch – the bill for the meal itself is not included – and a potential tax write-off.
The haul, by the end of an hour of champagne-fueled, fast-paced bidding was $54,000, a hefty holiday gift going entirely to the local Children's Hospital and Covenant House, a nonprofit helping children in need. Hopefully a new tradition will be born and continued for years to come.
"An annual report released Tuesday put Louisiana at the bottom of its health rankings, while concluding that the nation's health improved slightly.
Minnesota topped the list for the fourth straight year with Vermont second, followed by New Hampshire, Hawaii and Connecticut. At the other end, Louisiana was followed by Mississippi, South Carolina, Tennessee and Arkansas."
"The Bush administration is challenging a court order requiring it to make housing payments to thousands of families whose homes were damaged by Hurricane Katrina.
U.S. District Judge Richard J. Leon said last week that confusing, often contradictory letters to hurricane victims from the Federal Emergency Management Agency didn't explain why housing funding was cut. He said that violated the Constitution, and he ordered the agency to restart the program immediately."
"The group Environmental Defense released a report urging Congress to take certain steps to control MRGO, called “Mr. Go.” It claims the channel costs taxpayers $11.8 million a year to maintain and degrades wetlands and cypress forests.
The report comes 10 days before the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is to present Congress with a plan to close MRGO to oceangoing ships, if not all water traffic."
" That's right, the Corps of Engineers is taking a 'strategic pause' between essentially completing repair work to broken levees and 'strengthening flood protection in New Orleans' according to the NYT"
"Following the Saints' rout of the 49ers on Sunday, the team announced that season tickets will be available at the same per-game price for those who renew for the 2007 season."
"n a flyer distributed to 25,000 residents, Lee blasts comments made by Carter in Spike Lee’s Katrina documentary. In the film, Carter blasts Gretna Police and Jefferson Parish deputies for blocking the Crescent City Connection and preventing evacuees from fleeing the city. Her comments included allegations that the actions were 'inhumane and unacceptable.”"Geez! He's still connected, isn't he. Same ole same ole. Wonder how often he visits Edwin in the pen.
"He's a joy, all right; just ask Devery Henderson.
'I love watching him make people miss,' he said. 'I've been around some fast guys, but he's the fastest. But I will say one thing: Sometimes it's tough blocking for him, because he's so quick you don't know where he might be. But you also know, if you get just get in someone's way, Reggie might take it all the way.'"
"More than 15 months after Hurricane Katrina, Mayor Ray Nagin is ready to open a city office to direct New Orleans' recovery, with a leading regional planner and disaster recovery expert in charge.
Ed Blakely, who helped coordinate recovery planning in California after two natural disasters and in New York City after Sept. 11, has been chosen to lead what is expected to be a five-person office and to serve as the leader for marshaling a recovery process that critics have derided as too slow."
"Among the larger projects in the plan are:
-- A floodgate at the Rigolets, near Slidell, and a dike stretching southwest from there down the middle of Lake Borgne to Proctor's Point in St. Bernard Parish. The intent would be to protect New Orleans and communities fronting on Lake Pontchartrain from catastrophic storm surge.
-- Essentially abandoning increased levee protection of much of Lower Plaquemines Parish for the sake of protecting areas farther up river. The state proposal calls for slicing Plaquemines into three levels of levee protection, with only the areas closest to New Orleans receiving 'Category 5' protection; areas between Oak Grove and Myrtle Grove receiving protection from a 100-year hurricane; and areas to the south of that receiving no greater protection than existed before Hurricane Katrina.
-- Closing the Mississippi River-Gulf Outlet, or MR-GO, the controversial 76-mile shipping channel that connects New Orleans with the Gulf of Mexico. The channel is blamed by many St. Bernard Parish residents and some hurricane protection experts for amplifying Hurricane Katrina's surge and hastening the loss of an estimated 27,000 acres of marshland that once shielded the metropolitan area's eastern flank."
"But That's not the case in Plaquemines and St. Bernard parishes, which suffered massive damage and are generally more at risk from storm surge than the rest of the region. In Plaquemines, 43 percent of applicants say they plan to rebuild, while in St. Bernard, 39 percent plan to rebuild. In Jefferson Parish, where homes tended to sustain relatively light damage, 85 percent of Road Home applicants said they intend to rebuild."
"Among the new additions to the comedy scene is a satirical newspaper, 'The New Orleans Levee,' with the motto: 'We Don't Hold Anything Back.'
The free paper pokes fun at politicians and officials who are supposed to lead the post-Katrina rebuilding effort, said publisher Rudy Vorkapic, 42.
'This isn't making fun of New Orleans. This is making fun of people who are failing New Orleans,' he said. 'This is born out of frustration.'
The latest edition features a playful story on local Congressman"
'It's personal between her and me,' Lee said. 'I'm thinking of getting some people together who she so severely affronted by running her foul mouth. I may spend some money and get the clip of Spike Lee's film and show what she said about those of us on this side of the river.'"
New Book Details How Bin Laden's Master Spy Penetrated CIA, FBI And Green Berets... | The Huffington Post:
"But the most important aspect of that plea session was what was left unsaid. In that Southern District Courtroom nearly two years before the attacks of September 11, Ali Mohamed uttered nothing on the record about his most stunning achievements: how he had slipped past a State Department watch list and into America, seduced a Silicon Valley medical technician into marriage, joined the U.S. Army, and gotten himself posted to the highly secure base where the Green Berets and Delta Force train. He didn't say a word about how he'd moved in and out of contract spy work for the CIA and fooled FBI agents for six years as he smuggled terrorists across U.S. borders, and guarded the tall Saudi billionaire who had personally declared war on America: Osama bin Laden."
. . . . . .
And yet even today, years after pleading guilty to crimes that would have ended any other terrorist's life via lethal injection, Ali Mohamed remains a legal black hole. Minutes after that hearing he was locked away, hidden from public scrutiny; It's been nearly six years and one of the discoveries made in this investigation is that Judge Sands has yet to pronounce sentence.
"LAFAYETTE — In the past two years, 18 people have been sentenced by 15th Judicial District judges for criminal damage to property, but none received as harsh a punishment as City-Parish Councilman Chris Williams, Williams’ attorney said Thursday.
Earlier this year, Williams, in an act of protest, wrote “Dr. Martin L. King Jr. Drive!” on the council desk with permanent marker. He was also charged with past instances of carving the desk and doodling where he sits.
Williams was sentenced by Judge Marilyn Castle to one year of supervised probation, a $1,500 fine and $60 restitution."
"Rep. Rodney Alexander (R-La.), already enmeshed in the ex-Rep. Mark Foley (R-Fla.) page scandal, now faces a new controversy as a former staffer has sued his office for sexual harassment.
Elizabeth Scott, Alexander's former scheduler, claims that Royal Alexander, the Congressman's chief of staff, 'engaged in a course of misconduct' that included 'inappropriate sex-based comments, ogling and touching' and 'sexual advances,' according to Michael Hoare, Scott's attorney. Scott told the Congressman of his aide's alleged improper behavior but the Louisiana Republican took no action to correct the situation, Hoare said....
"
"Why did Alexander's office not insist on an investigation into the allegations of inappropriate conduct between Congressmen and other pages?"
"WASHINGTON (AP) -- Some of the most notorious names in the war on terror are headed toward prosecution after President Bush signed a law Tuesday authorizing military trials of terrorism suspects.
The legislation also eliminates some of the rights defendants are usually guaranteed under U.S. law, and it authorizes continued harsh interrogations of terror suspects."
"Extensive cypress logging has occurred in recent months around Lac Des Allemands in St. Charles and Lafourche parishes and in scattered sites within the Atchafalaya River Basin. Corps officials say logging is permissible in those areas."
Oct 12, 6:45 PM EDTNo one to even claim the bodies.
Nearly 3 dozen Katrina victims remain unidentified in La.
NEW ORLEANS (AP) -- The bodies of 65 Hurricane Katrina victims, of which just half have been identified, remain unclaimed more than a year after the storm, the Orleans Parish coroner said Thursday.
In all, more than 1,300 bodies were collected in Louisiana after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita battered the region last year. Of those, 33 remain unidentified as investigators exhaust DNA and other tests, said coroner Frank Minyard.
'It's getting tougher,' he said. The number of unidentified bodies continues to fall slowly; in August, there were 49."
"GRAY, La. (AP) -- Senior citizens seeking aid from the state's hurricane housing grant program won't be penalized if they choose to move out of state or into rental housing rather than reconstruct their damaged homes, Gov. Kathleen Blanco announced Thursday.
The move exempts the elderly from a penalty that is levied against other homeowners who seek grants but don't rebuild their homes in Louisiana."
"
A New Orleans judge widely criticized for granting thousands of free and reduced bail bonds to felons accused of violent crimes has been sidelined by the Louisiana Supreme Court on recommendation of its judicial disciplinary panel.
In an order issued Wednesday, the high court barred Criminal District Judge Charles Elloie from exercising 'any judicial function' pending the outcome of a continuing investigation of his conduct by the Judiciary Commission and the court.
In its recommendation, the commission said it has reason to believe that Elloie has violated the law and rules of judicial conduct and that he will continue doing so, threatening the administration of justice and the public, unless he is suspended from office. "
"At liberal blog community TPMCafe, Greg Simon, President of FasterCures, gives a fascinating account of the makeshift partnership between former Vice President Gore and FasterCures to 'to airlift approximately 270 medical patients and evacuees from the New Orleans airport to hospitals and shelters in Knoxville and Chattanooga, Tennessee.'
This must-read is a factual, shocking inside-gaze at the federal 'rescue' effort. FEMA tried desperately to stop this mercy mission. ('Over the next three hours...I was called by an array of Majors and Lieutenant Commanders telling me to stop. Major Webb from GPMRC , Grant Meade from ESF. Major Lindquist from TRANSCOM all telling me they would not cooperate and they did not know how we had gotten permission to land.')
One big challenge of this mission of mercy was to obtain landing clearance in New Orleans. It took Gore's connections to make it happen. According to blogger Greg Simon, 'Sen. Barack Obama called Gore and asked how had Gore managed to land in New Orleans when the Senator had been refused landing rights to help.' "
"Yet Carl A. Ventrice, Jr., an associate professor in the department of physics at UNO, and other faculty dispute such claims. Ventrice, who has accepted a position at another university beginning this fall, believes UNO could lose another 100 faculty members in a new wave of departures next year in response to the administration’s disregard of faculty tenure, academic freedom and governance through its financial exigency and restructuring plan."
Frist smiled and spoke unremarkably from the lectern, reeking of silverback testosterone.
"It's all going to be private enterprise before it's over,' Billy Wagner, emergency management chief for the Florida Keys, currently under hurricane watch for tropical storm Ernesto, said in April. 'They've got the expertise. They've got the resources.' But before this new consensus goes any further, perhaps it's time to take a look at where the privatisation of disaster began, and where it will inevitably lead.
The first step was the government's abdication of its core responsibility to protect the population from disasters. Under the Bush administration, whole sectors of the government, most notably the Department of Homeland Security, have been turned into glorified temp agencies, with essential functions contracted out to private companies. The theory is that entrepreneurs, driven by the profit motive, are always more efficient (please suspend hysterical laughter).
We saw the results in New Orleans one year ago: Washington was frighteningly weak and inept, in part because its emergency management experts had fled to the private sector and its technology and infrastructure had become positively retro. At least by comparison, the private sector looked modern and competent."
"An investigation into the layoffs of nearly 300 New Orleans-area professors was stonewalled this week when none of the university presidents would meet with the association conducting the probe.
“We hoped to interview the president of the institutions by the end of August,” said Jordan E. Kurland, associate general secretary for the Washington, D.C.-based American Association of University Professors. “But they questioned the way we wanted to proceed and proposed different procedures. They were not able to meet under our system that we’ve used for the last 80 years — and used pretty well. So we’ll likely work out something that meets both of our needs.”
The AAUP’s mission is to advance academic freedom and shared governance at colleges and universities. About 45,000 members are in the AAUP, which consists of faculty, librarians and academic professionals at two- and four-year accredited schools."
"BATON ROUGE — 'The Road Home' pilot program began in earnest Friday as 42 applicants qualified to receive financial assistance for losses fromThis is great news. I don't understand why it hasn't gotten more play in the media.
Hurricane Katrina totaling almost $1.5 million.
“We are off to a great start, and thousands more homeowners will be served
in the coming weeks,” said Gov. Kathleen Babineaux Blanco. “The Road Home program launched the day the state of Louisiana received federal dollars for compensation. We opened 10 Housing Assistance Centers statewide this week and are closing on the first disbursement accounts in record time."
"Now comes Rockey, a plain-talking character who lost it all in Katrina, who nearly died in the hurricane, forced to hang onto a rope for four hours (some of that was captured on film), and now wants to government to do more for Katrina victims. And what a difference a year makes -- not only did Bush, not in Crawford but hard at work in the White House, meet with this 'average American,' but check out the glowing praise our president received in return."
. . . .
This guy is a symbol of the misery that so many people in Louisiana and Mississippi? If we didn't know any better, this couldn't have been more of home run for Bush if the whole thing had been set up by Karl Rove.
Hmmmmm...
In fact, we had a hunch -- that maybe, just maybe, Rockey Vaccarella had a background himself in GOP politics.
And, whaddya know? Turns out that the earthy Vaccarella -- a highly successful businessman in the fast-food industry -- is indeed a Republican pol, having run unsuccessfully under the GOP banner for a seat on the St. Bernard Parish commission back in 1999.
"Jefferson seemed to work as hard for iGate as if he were the owner of the company. He went to Louisville for demonstrations. He pressed the Army to test the technology for use by the military, introduced Jackson to political and business stars, including Bill Clinton and Bill Gates, and went with Jackson to Nigeria to help sell his product. Jefferson even found an investor willing to put millions of dollars into iGate.
At the time of the U.S. Open, Jackson might have appeared cocky about his important supporter. What he didn't realize was that the congressman, while appearing to help, was stealing his company, piece by piece.
And Jackson was paying him to do it.
That, at least, is the view of FBI investigators and federal prosecutors, who have recounted secret meetings in Washington and Louisiana where Jefferson plotted to take over the company from Jackson -- a man he didn't think was up to making the company a success."
"BATON ROUGE - To Tulane historian Doug Brinkley, the crucial moment in post-Hurricane Katrina politics occurred Sept. 2 when Gov. Kathleen Blanco refused to relinquish control of the Louisiana National Guard to President Bush.Gee! A ruthless president?? That could never happen.
'It's such a big moment, the Blanco-Bush moment,' said Brinkley, the author of The Great Deluge: Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans and the Mississippi Gulf Coast. 'Gov. Blanco did absolutely the right thing. She stood up to the president's attempt to take over the National Guard.'
A year later, the president again is trying to take over the National Guard, and not only Louisiana's, but any state's."
. . . . . .
U.S. Rep. Rodney Alexander, R-Quitman, said he could see both sides of the argument, but he favors removing the takeover provision.
"I can understand the governors' concerns," Alexander said. "I can understand the president's concern."
The takeover could be dangerous "if you had a president who would be ruthless," Alexander said.
"The hurricane didn't cause any appreciable contamination that wasn't already there,' said EPA toxicologist Jon Rauscher. 'There are exceptions like Murphy Oil and some localized events like that. But on a broad scale, across New Orleans, the hurricane didn't cause any appreciable change. At this point we don't envision any more broad testing.'"
But the roll of those accused of failing New Orleans is a long one: State and local officials who had no good plan for the disaster, and now preside over a languid recovery. A president who at first seemed remote from the cataclysm, and then made promises that have not been fully realized.
So many did not live up their responsibilities, says G. Paul Kemp, a Louisiana State University engineer and member of Team Louisiana, a group of forensic engineers examining how the flooding occurred. Every time anyone points that out, 'people say, `Oh, we don't want to play the blame game. We've got to get things moving.''
But things are moving agonizingly slow. Piles of debris and wrecked cars are everywhere, and astonishingly, searchers were still finding bodies in ruined homes just weeks ago.
Harried recovery officials say it's only been a year. How much can you expect?
But to Lakeview resident Pascal Warner - who walks through clouds of mosquitoes attracted by a neighbor's fetid, sludge-covered swimming pool still filled with stagnant Katrina floodwater - a year seems like a pretty long time.
'I wouldn't want to spend a year in jail,' the retired stagehand says. 'Would you?' "
"Supporters of a proposed toll road loop around Lafayette gave U.S. Sen. David Vitter an earful Thursday for his adamant opposition to tolls on highways in the state.
Vitter’s stance drew much attention earlier this month when the Republican senator accused Gov. Kathleen Blanco’s administration of quietly seeking federal permission for tolls on Interstates 10 and 12."
"'Hezbollah might be a ragtag group of undereducated extremist militiamen, but at least they're not FEMA.'"
"No matter how you cut it, whether it’s a racist statement or not, in Jefferson Parish the murder rate is going out of site because our young black people are killing each other,” said Lee in a press conference he called to address the soaring crime rate.
Lee said the majority of shootings are young African-American males shooting each other over drugs.
The Louisiana NAACP, which has at times found itself at odds with Lee, said it couldn't argue with the statistics. Dannatus King, the head of the local group said the NAACP is fed up with black on black crime and would help neighborhoods organize in attempts to combat it."
"Blanco, as part of a campaign to get the state a bigger share of federal offshore royalty money, filed a lawsuit claiming that the federal Minerals Management Service has not done enough to protect Louisiana's wetlands from damage from drilling. As part of the suit, she sought an order blocking Wednesday's sale.
U.S. District Judge Kurt Engelhardt on Monday refused to block the sale. But he also said the state would have a strong case when the dispute goes to trial in November.
That led U.S. Sen. David Vitter, R-Metairie, to say Tuesday that the Bush administration should delay the sale until the legal uncertainties are resolved."
Three weeks ago Utah Senator Bob Bennett, who has yet to visit New Orleans or the any of the Gulf Coast post-KTMB, made the following public statement concerning the rebuilding of the city:This is a great post. I'm sorry I missed it when it first appeared.
'Building a city ten feet below sea level does not strike me as inherently, basically a good idea ... '
THE LIE: New Orleans is a city situated ten feet below sea level.
THE TRUTH: The City of New Orleans is not 'built' ten feet below sea level."
"Congressman Charles Boustany Jr. said Tuesday that his call for information from the Federal Emergency Management Agency is still being met with silence and he is not happy about it."
Boustany said he will not file suit for the information, which he believes is not protected under federal public records law, because he does not believe that would be productive.
"Despite asking for millions of dollars from New Orleans customers and the federal government to rebuild its shattered electric and gas system, Entergy Corp. on Tuesday reported millions in profits for the third quarter in a row since Hurricane Katrina struck.
Though its earnings were slightly down from last year, Entergy Corp. reported earning $282 million between April and June on revenue of $2.63 billion. Why, then, is the company's subsidiary, Entergy New Orleans, asking for rate increases of at least $45 per month per customer, and why is Entergy Corp. taking the firm stance that it can't help bail out its hurricane-ravaged subsidiary and instead is asking for federal aid of $718 million?
'Rain or shine, Entergy has made money from New Orleans. This year it and its parent company has profited again. Isn't it time they gave something back?' said Betty Wisdom, a member of the board of directors for the Alliance of Affordable Energy."
"Published: August 09, 2006 12:25 PM ETOne policeman said "he sees it [mental damage from Katrina] all the time now."
NEW YORK A photographer for the Times-Picayune of New Orleans who has undergone severe personal trauma since Hurricana Katrina hit was arrested Tuesday after trying to get police to shoot him to death. Police said he claimed he was depressed after he found out he didn't have enough insurance money to rebuild his Katrina-damaged home.
They said he was seeking 'suicide-by-cop,' but police who found him tasered him instead.
Earlier published accounts had revealed that he had recently taken a leave of absence from the paper and was undergoing therapy.
John McCusker, the photographer, was being held under psychiatric observation and faces unspecified charges.
He had been one of the paper's key photographers in the immediate aftermath of Katrina. 'Katrina didn't flood New Orleans - government failure did,' he told visiting students from Brown University recently."
"When Johnson landed in New Orleans the evening of Sept. 10, he went to Washington High School on St. Claude Avenue where many had sought shelter.
Johnson's White House "Daily Diary" describes the scene.
"It was a mass of human suffering. Calls of 'water, water, water' were resourced over and over again in terribly emotional wails from voices of all ages. The people all about were bedraggled and homeless ... thirsty and hungry. It was a most pitiful sight of human and material destruction."
Hardesty remembers Johnson reaching out to the thirsty crowds.
"People were in the shelter and he asked what they needed and they said, 'We need water.' He looked at the officials and said, 'You have a Coca-Cola bottling plant here, don't you?' They said, 'Yeah.' He said, 'You have a 7-Up bottling plant here, don't you?' They said, 'Yeah.' Then he said, 'For God's sake go out there get some soda and bring it back here.'""
"BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Allstate Insurance Co. bought reinsurance to cover some of the cost of policies all along the East Coast last year, but not for Louisiana — a gamble that cost it $2 billion in claims.Cravins tells it like it is. They gambled, lost, and now want someone else to cover their markers.
The company's models did not predict a hurricane hitting Louisiana, attorney Edward Collins told a joint legislative insurance committee last week. It did buy reinsurance in Texas and Florida, as well as New York and other Eastern states, he said.
'You didn't take care of your business, so the citizens of Louisiana have to pay for your mistake?' asked Sen. Don Cravins, D-Opelousas. 'Now that you've had a loss, you put the burden on the backs of Louisiana citizens to pay for your shortcomings.'"
"Tropical Depression Chris, which earlier this week was predicted to become the first hurricane of the 2006 season and threaten the Gulf of Mexico, is now expected to dissipate over Cuba today."
"CHARLESTON, S.C. - The nation's governors are closing ranks in opposition to a proposal in Congress that would let the president take control of the National Guard in emergencies without consent of governors.Bush is never satisfied, no matter how much power he snatches. Whatever happened to conservatives' concern for states' rights?
The idea, spurred by the destruction and chaos that followed Hurricane Katrina's landfall in Louisiana and Mississippi, is part of a House-passed version of the National Defense Authorization Act. It has not yet been agreed to by the Senate.
The measure would remove the currently required consent of governors for the federalization of the Guard, which is shared between the individual states and the federal government.
'Federalization just for the sake of federalization makes no sense,' said Gov. Kathleen Blanco of Louisiana, a Democrat who had rough relations with the Bush administration after the disaster last year. 'You don't need federalization to get federal troops. ... Just making quick decisions can make things happen.'"
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