Owner: New Orleans Bulletin URL:nobulletin.blogspot.com Join Date: Thu, 17 Aug 2006 13:43:16 -0500 Rating:1 Site Description: Your source for lively discussion about the current governmental and political scene in Louisiana with a focus on the New Orleans area and post-Katrina recovery. Site statistics:Click here
New Orleans as Petri Dish? 2006-10-22 14:20:00 Best of the week's news, this is excerpted from an AP story as it appeared in KansasCity.com:
If the world is a classroom, Orleans
.htm">New Orleans
is a petri dish.
The city, notorious for having one of the worst public school systems in the country, has emerged from the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina as an experiment in education.
Privately run charter schools, relatively limited before last year's storm, Read more:Petri
Dems Reject "Dollar Bill" ... 2006-10-15 14:29:00 From the AP by Doug Simpson:
An eight-term Democratic Louisiana congressman whose Capitol Hill office was raided earlier this year as part of a bribery investigation failed Saturday to win the endorsement of the state's Democratic Party.
Rep. William Jefferson was passed over by the party's State Central Committee in favor of state Rep. Karen Carter. The committee voted 69-53 to endorse Carter Read more:Dollar
Of surveys and photographs ... 2006-10-08 15:48:00 About the size of Shreveport
Repopulation projections by Mayor Ray Nagin turn out to be a bit too optimistic according to a new survey. It estimates a current population of 187,525, or about 41 percent of the 454,000 people estimated to be living in Orleans Parish before the storm hit Aug. 29, 2005.
A spokeswoman for the Louisiana Recovery Authority, Natalie Wyeth, called the results "the Read more:photographs
, surveys
Saints go marching in ... 2006-10-01 15:15:00 Nancy Armour of AP reported on THE game: Flood-Ravaged New Orleans Revels in Its Old Self
For anyone who questioned why the Saints
would go back to a flood-ravaged city, or wondered if a football game could really make a difference in the lives of people mired in misery, you have your answer.
New Orleans was a rollicking, raucous sight to behold Monday night. Fans in the Superdome let loose Read more:marching
Streetcar named St. Charles ... 2006-09-24 14:42:00 From "Slow return for New Orleans streetcars," an AP story by Mary Foster:
The St. Charles
streetcar line - the oldest continuously operating streetcar line in the world - may be rumbling along at least a short strip of its namesake avenue by the end of the year for the first time since Hurricane Katrina.
Workers are repairing the system that supports the overhead electrical lines that power Read more:named
What if they don't want to come back? 2006-09-17 14:30:00 From an AP story titled "Many poor Katrina evacuees plan to stay in Houston, survey says"
Despite obstacles such as high unemployment and no health insurance, nearly 70 percent of the poorest evacuees who fled New Orleans for Houston after Hurricane Katrina plan to stay, according to a Rice University survey.
The study, conducted in July and scheduled for release Friday, shows that almost 69
Nagin's first 100 days 2006-09-10 15:14:00 From the Associated Press, by Michelle Roberts:
When he was re-elected, Mayor Ray Nagin promised to act quickly on housing, crime, debris removal and other issues in the first 100 days of his new term. As that mark arrives today, his results appear mixed.
He has some new staff members and a visible reduction in the number of flooded cars and debris in populated areas, but violent crime has
Embattled Bill Jefferson … 2006-10-29 14:38:00 Bill Jefferson
is struggling to retain his seat as U.S. Representative from the Second District of Louisiana against Karen Carter and several other candidates. This report is excerpted from the Associated Press, via MSNBC:
(Bill) Jefferson arrived on the New Orleans scene in the 1970s as a Harvard-educated lawyer from the backwaters of north Louisiana, the sixth of 10 children brought up in a
Inspector General Approved ... 2006-11-05 15:45:00 The office of InspectorGeneral
was finally created by the New Orleans City Council, eleven years after the idea was endorsed by voters.
The Council voted 7-0 Thursday to create an inspector general's office to seek out waste, fraud, corruption and inefficiency in the government of a city that is, according to the T-P, "long fabled for easy morals and flexible ethics" The unanimous vote was
EXTRA: Mobile Laundromat ... 2006-11-08 12:52:00 MOBILE LAUNDROMAT RETURNS TO NEW ORLEANS TO PROVIDE FREE LAUNDRY SERVICES TO HUNDREDS OF LOCAL RESIDENTS
New Orleans Saints Kicker John Carney fluffs and folds for a cause ______________________________________________
WHO: The service is available to all local families in need of clean clothes
WHAT: Starting November 13th, the Tide CleanStart mobile laundromat returns to New Orleans to deliver Read more:Mobile
Rebuild in flood zones, hand you the bill ... 2006-11-12 14:30:00 From an editorial in USA Today:
The definition of insanity, according to Benjamin Franklin, is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.
Ben, welcome to New Orleans.
Nearly three-quarters of 14,534 New Orleanians who've applied for federal grants say they'll rebuild their Hurricane Katrina-damaged homes in flood
areas — even though city restrictions are unlikely to
NOPD: Of Standards and Fees … 2006-11-19 14:49:00 NOPD lowers standards!
The T-P reports that the New Orleans Police Department has voluntarily withdrawn from the Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies. The NOPD has been accredited by CALEA since the 1990s.
In a news release, Police Superintendent Warren Riley cited "overwhelming structural and financial devastation" imposed on the city by Hurricane Katrina as the reason the Read more:Standards
Katrina Humor ... 2006-11-26 15:31:00 From Luanda, the Angola Press:
Dark humor brightens life in battered New Orleans
A Hurricane Katrina
evacuee walks up to a woman in a bar and says, "Want to go back to my place?"
"I`d love to," the woman replies.
"So would I," the man says.
In New Orleans, struggling to get back on its feet more than a year after Hurricane Katrina, stand-up comedy and satire are surging in popularity, as Read more:Humor
Wild about Harry ... 2006-12-03 15:00:00 From "All Things Considered:"
There's nobody quite like Harry
Lee.
The Chinese-American lawman, now in his seventh term in office, has a penchant for putting his foot in his mouth, but it only seems to increase his popularity.
The 74-year-old, 300-pound sheriff -- down from 400 pounds, he proudly points out -- sits at his desk surrounded by his large gun collection.
"I'm still as full of
A new low for area voters … 2006-12-10 13:58:00 Pardon me, but last night's election returns have me a bit wobbly. Yesterday I cast what could well be my last vote in District 2. I joined the 15% or so of the electorate who thought this election "deserved" their vote.
I was one of the 43% who felt that we should "Vote against the crook. It's important." Jefferson concedes that he will be indicted. As some pundit says "An indictment is not a
Scandal-plagued Jefferson kept off Ways and Means ... 2006-12-13 13:32:00 EXTRA - From AP via CNN:
House Democrats, insistent that they will hold lawmakers to higher standards, decided Tuesday that Rep. William Jefferson
will not return to an influential committee until a federal corruption investigation involving him is completed.
Speaker-to-be Nancy Pelosi said the Democratic Steering Committee had resolved that Jefferson, who last Saturday won a runoff election Read more:Means
, Scandal
FEMA at work ... 2006-12-17 15:17:00 From an AP story carried by WTOL-TV, based on a Government Accountability Office report:
The government is squandering tens of millions of dollars in Hurricane Katrina disaster aid, in some cases doling out housing payments to people living rent-free, investigators said Wednesday. The Federal Emergency Management Agency has recouped less than 1 percent of the $1 billion that investigators
New Orleans losing some of its brightest ... 2006-12-24 14:40:00 From AP via charlotte.com:
It wasn't the flooding that drove Dr. David Jones out of Orleans
.htm">New Orleans
for good. His house in the Lakeview neighborhood stayed dry. Instead, it was the way Hurricane Katrina eroded the orthopedic surgeon's practice.
With fewer patients to treat and no patience for the sluggish pace of the city's recovery, he moved his family and practice to Raleigh in July.
"I love New
New Orleans wants you back ... 2006-12-31 14:07:00 From Jessie Halladay and The Courier-Journal:
… a visit to the Big Easy is different now.
Crowds are smaller. Getting a table at Cafe Du Monde for a batch of melt-in-your-mouth beignets covered in powdered sugar isn't quite as tough, and you can make your way down Bourbon Street with much less jostling.
Convention business is only 40 percent of what it was before Katrina struck in August Read more:New Orleans
, Orleans
, wants
EXTRA: Houston Murder Rate Climbs ... 2007-01-04 16:52:00 From AP via Yahoo News:
HOUSTON - The number of murders last year in Houston
hit a 12-year high and increased by 13.5 percent over 2005, figures the mayor attributes in part to the arrival of evacuees from Hurricane Katrina.
Houston had 379 homicides in 2006. That was the most since 1994, when 419 murders were reported, police said. In 2005, the city had 334 homicides. Mayor Bill White
Recovery Czar ... 2007-01-07 15:40:00 From the web site of his namesake agency:
Edward J. Blakely has been appointed by New Orleans Mayor C. Ray Nagin as Executive Director for Recovery
Management, where he will coordinate and direct Hurricane Katrina recovery efforts in New Orleans.
He also will act as the primary recovery interface to all regional, state, and federal agencies. In addition, Blakely will also serve as the Mayor's
Participation in the Recovery … 1970-01-01 00:59:59 How satisfied are you with the way your federal dollars are being spent on the Louisiana recovery? Is the rate of progress sufficient given the size of the project? What do you think is being done well, and what not so well? Could you come up with a sentence or two describing what has been done so far, and what remains to be done?
Let's talk about the recovery on two fronts. The first we'll Read more:Participation
, Recovery
Opinions and Updates… 1970-01-01 00:59:59 Reader CW questions our choice of a mayor:
What a disgrace,your mayor is to the US people as well as to the city of NY. Does he realize they're deciding on a type of building to honor the lost lives IN THAT HOLE? It's a wonder he got re-elected after his last remarks,,,and his lack of leadership before Katrina hit. Vital stuff to prevent flooding, broke, but I'm sure he can find someone to Read more:Opinions
Nagin Storms Gotham ... 1970-01-01 00:59:59 We found this AP article, by Beth Fouhy in the Casper WY newspaper, via neworleansnews.net:
NEW YORK -- New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin opened a visit to New York on Friday by expressing regret for describing the World Trade Center site as "a hole in the ground."
He said residents of New York and New Orleans both "understand what tragedy is all about."
Nagin was in town for a two-day pitch to Read more:Gotham
, Storms
Ethnic Cleansing? 1970-01-01 00:59:59 By Adam Nossiter for the New York Times:
The heritage of suspicion and misery separating this city's poorest residents from its comfortable classes is playing out in a fierce battle over the future of the public housing projects here, a fight in which the shelter of as many as 20,000 people is at stake.
It has raged ever since the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development announced
The Projects and Romanticism ... 1970-01-01 00:59:59 More from Adam Nossiter and the New York Times:
"I think the romanticism that goes with the "good old days of public housing' belies the harsh realities of crime and social malaise that had been created as a result of a concentration of low, low income folks," said Michael P. Kelly, who directed the troubled Housing Authority of New Orleans from 1995 to 2000 and now runs its counterpart in Read more:Projects
EXTRA: More Crime Fighters ... 1970-01-01 00:59:59 From AP via MSNBC.com:
More federal crime-fighting help is headed to New Orleans, where the murder rate has rebounded much faster than the population since Hurricane Katrina hit, U.S. Department of Justice officials announced Thursday.
New Orleans is getting nine more agents from the FBI, six from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and new ballistics equipment to replace a system that Read more:Fighters
EXTRA: Louisiana TeachNext program ... 1970-01-01 00:59:59 Lauren Lastrapes writes:
I'm working with the Louisiana
TeachNext program, a program that operates through Delgado and Nunez
community colleges and gives students interested in becoming teachers a chance to get an Associate's of Science in Teaching degree and begin the path toward teacher certification.
This is a new associate's degree program that was devised in order to ensure that
The Projects and "De-Concentration" ... 1970-01-01 00:59:59 More from Adam Nossiter and the New York Times:
This city's politicians have been notably silent on the issue but have occasionally suggested that they, too, are wary of a return to the old days. "We don't need soap-opera watchers right now," President Oliver Thomas of the City Council said last February, commenting on the lives of displaced public housing residents.
The department's goal is Read more:Concentration
, Projects
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