Will They Try And Sell The Levees Next?

Some things are just totally ridiculous:

At least three meetings have been held in recent months to discuss selling or leasing the Causeway to The Shaw Group, a Baton Rouge engineering, design and management firm that has had a high profile in Jefferson Parish since Hurricane Katrina.

The talks have included Broussard, St. Tammany Parish President Kevin Davis, Causeway General Manager Robert Lambert and Shaw representatives, but the Parish Council members said they were not privy to the discussions.

Aaron Broussard needs psychological counseling.

Much Needed Bill

Let's hope this bill passes.


The 144 Tulane University scholarships awarded by legislators each year would be history if a freshman lawmaker gets his way in the regular session that opens March 31.

Rep. Dee Richard, I-Thibodaux, said his House Bill 272 is a follow-up on legislation passed at the recently ended special session called by Gov. Bobby Jindal to revise the state ethics code.

Katrina Relief Network To Close

A network of private relief workers that helped thousands of battered families put their lives together after Hurricane Katrina has begun unraveling with thousands of families still on waiting lists, even as its managers cast about for new sources of money to keep it going at a reduced level.

As the network shrinks, about 4,600 families will have to wait longer for help, officials of the network said. Some might become entangled in more red tape -- and face longer waits -- as their files are shifted from laid-off workers into new hands.

Members of the network are sorting through their cases, trying to prioritize which families need immediate help before the program shuts down March 31 and their cases are transferred, said Tom Costanza, a local Catholic Charities relief executive who leads the board of the Greater New Orleans Disaster Recovery Partnership, a coalition of private relief groups.

New Orleans Homeless Rate

New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin appealed to federal lawmakers this past week to provide funds and housing vouchers to help the city's homeless problem.

The percentage of New Orleans' homeless is one of the highest recorded since U.S. housing officials began tracking homelessness in the mid-1980s, said Dennis Culhane, a University of Pennsylvania professor who has studied homeless trends for more than 20 years.

Many of the homeless are Katrina evacuees who returned to unaffordable rents or who slipped through the cracks of the federal system designed to provide temporary housing after the storm, said Mike Miller, UNITY's director of supportive housing placement.

There are also out-of-state workers who came for the post-Katrina rebuilding boom but lost their jobs, and mentally ill residents in need of services and medication, he said. Many of the city's outreach homeless centers and public mental health services have been closed since Katrina.

Nagin has suggested reinstating a city ordinance that would make it illegal to sleep in public places. Homeless advocates say the law would just crowd the jails.

New Orleans Jazz Fest

The New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival is back in full swing with the first appearance of the Neville Brothers since Hurricane Katrina devastated the Gulf Coast. New Orleans' first family of funk closes out the festival on May 4 at the New Orleans Fair Grounds Race Course.

This year's jazz fest also returns to its pre-Katrina seven-day schedule.

The 39th annual festival's opening weekend is April 25-27. The traditional laid-back Thursday, May 1, kicks off the second weekend of performances, ending May 4. Besides the Nevilles, other May 4 acts include Santana, Maze featuring Frankie Beverly, the Derek Trucks Band, Keb Mo and a Tribute to Mahalia Jackson featuring Irma Thomas (the subject of this year's beautiful jazz fest poster). Thomas headlines her own R&B revue on April 27.

Stevie Wonder makes his jazz fest debut May 2. Also on May 2, Michael Franti and Spearhead are sure to deliver a spiritually uplifting show and Chicago's John Prine will take the stage. Don't miss Aaron Neville's Gospel Soul on May 3, the same day Parrothead nation takes over the fairgrounds with the appearance of Jimmy Buffett and his Coral Reefer Band.

Bill Clinton: On Green Building In New Orleans

Former President Bill Clinton said energy efficient, green building can be a key part of New Orleans' comeback from Hurricane Katrina.

Clinton, here for a gathering of college students as part of his Clinton Global Initiative University, said the city's history and culture, combined with a commitment to a sustainable economic future, would allow for "the complete ascendancy, its return, as the most unique city in the country."

Mayor Ray Nagin said Clinton — who in 2006 named the New Orleans metro area as part of his Clinton Climate Initiative focused on addressing global warming — has been providing advice on how best to move forward from the August 2005 storm. He called Clinton a friend and "wonderful man."

The city has pledged to follow what Nagin in January called a "greening road map," a 10-year plan that he said would, among other things, incorporate so-called green technology and building techniques into the repairs of city buildings damaged by Katrina. Nagin also has said he has committed to green living in his personal life, taking steps including having solar panels installed at his home.

New Orleans Going 'More Green'

The American Society of Interior Designers is meeting at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center this weekend. The group has just unveiled its ReGreen guidelines, a manual intended to reshape thinking about home renovations developed in partnership with the United States Green Building Council.

Linda Sorrento, manager of the ReGreen program, said the new guidelines are the first comprehensive national directives for green renovations, as opposed to new construction.

ICF Gets Big Payoff

Kathleen Blanco's fiasco:

ICF International of Fairfax, Va., has secured a potentially big raise recently from the state of Louisiana.

In the waning days of Gov. Kathleen Blanco's administration, state officials increased the management contract ceiling from $756 million to $912 million — this, after the Legislature wanted to fire ICF over its handling of the homeowner recovery program, called Road Home.

Road Home was created in June 2006 as a state-run, federally funded plan to compensate homeowners for the breach of New Orleans' government-run levees. Homeowners can apply for grants to repair their homes, or obtain buyouts if they don't want to fix things up.

Yet, 56,000 applicants — nearly 40 percent of the qualified total — had yet to receive a cent as of last month. Plagued by cost overruns and delays, Road Home is expected to cost the taxpayers $10 billion in federal money and has become another glaring symbol of frustration and red tape in post-Katrina New Orleans.

Thanks for nothing, Kathleen Blanco

What Some Won't Do For Friends

I found this article very disturbing.

The Jefferson Parish Council loosened its rules for alcoholic beverage permits Wednesday, allowing a key player in former Gov. Edwin Edwards' corruption trial to apply for liquor permits for two Harvey establishments.

The council voted unanimously to expand the regulations to include people who have been pardoned automatically upon completion of a criminal sentence or who have had any misdemeanor conviction dismissed. The revision also allows companies to apply if they have terminated ties to a person whose prior conviction would have otherwise scuttled their liquor-license application.

The new language has the caveat that none of the crimes in question may involve violence or narcotics.

Council members approved the expanded terms on the same day the council was scheduled to consider granting two liquor licenses to Bobby Guidry, the former owner of the Treasure Chest Casino in Kenner who was convicted of bribing Edwards in exchange for a riverboat gaming license. He was sentenced in January 2001 to three years' probation, including five months in a halfway house.

Guidry applied to the parish for liquor licenses for the Royal Palm and Alligator Pear, two restaurants he is opening on Manhattan Boulevard in Harvey.

Does Louisiana really want to change its image?

Ellenese Brooks-Simms' Daughter Helped Mother Conceal Bribes

Ellenese Brooks-Simms parenting skills have created another criminal in her family. It seems that "Mama Simms" has taught her daughter to follow in her footsteps:

Stacy Simms, a City Hall appointee under two New Orleans mayors and the daughter of former Orleans Parish School Board President Ellenese Brooks-Simms, pleaded guilty in federal court Tuesday to helping her mother access a series of bribes that totaled $140,000 over several years.

Simms, 47, a city appointee from 1994 to 2004, was hired by former Mayor Marc Morial and continued to serve during the first two years of Mayor Ray Nagin's administration. She worked in the office of communications as director of community affairs and special events.

More recently, Simms has worked for the Fair Grounds as a consultant. She also has served on the boards of the Urban League of Greater New Orleans and the Committee for a Better New Orleans.

The charge to which Simms pleaded guilty Tuesday, misprision of a felony, is itself a felony. It refers to knowing of a federal crime and helping to conceal it; it is a charge prosecutors often assign to defendants who have agreed to cooperate in public-corruption cases.

A summary of the government's case says that Simms allowed a bank account to be opened in her name and "used as a clearinghouse for bribe payments."

Simms faces a maximum penalty of 3 years in prison, though she is likely to receive far less because of her cooperation. She is scheduled to be sentenced on June 18 by U.S. District Judge Eldon Fallon, who accepted her guilty plea Tuesday.


Does "Mama Simms" have any grandchildren who may be seeking a plea deal?

Jeff Parish Gets Bamboozoled

T-P:


The Sewerage & Water Board of New Orleans has acknowledged it overcharged Jefferson Parish by $566,645 for its share of the operating costs to keep Pump Station No. 6 churning water out of the 17th Street Canal and into Lake Pontchartrain during heavy rains and hurricanes.

N.O. Ambassadors On The Move

After what they described as a highly successful first year, the founders of the Fleur-de-lis Ambassadors Program said Friday that the initiative to tell the story of New Orleans' recovery to the rest of the nation will continue in 2008.

Tulane University President Scott Cowen and City Council President Arnie Fielkow, joined by Entergy New Orleans Chief Executive Officer Rod West and lawyer Kim Boyle, created the program in March 2007.

Their aim was to combat misperceptions, convey the importance of New Orleans' economic and cultural revitalization, and offer a positive view of the city's post-Katrina status to media, business, civic and political leaders in other major U.S. cities. |Read on|

Black Mayors To Meet In New Orleans

The National Conference of Black Mayors will bring its annual convention to New Orleans in June after deciding to relocate it from Detroit in the wake of a scandal involving that city's mayor, the group's president said last week.

St. Gabriel Mayor George Grace, who also serves as the mayors association president, said the convention will be held in New Orleans June 4-8. The event initially had been scheduled to take place in Detroit in April.

George said the group was concerned that the controversy surrounding Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick would distract from the event.

Since uncovering it in January, the Detroit Free Press has been reporting on an alleged affair between Kilpatrick and his now former chief of staff, Christine Beatty.

HUD Criticized Over Hurricane Katrina Response

A United Nations treaty committee ruled Friday that the United States' response to Hurricane Katrina has had a greater negative impact on displaced black residents and called on the federal government to do more to guarantee that they can return to affordable housing in their hometowns.

The U.N. committee also ruled Friday that the U.S. government must make sure displaced residents have a greater say in plans that affect their return.

Housing advocates in New Orleans proclaimed the decision as a victory in their protracted battle with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, saying the U.N. finding proved that HUD failed to consider alternatives to its plans to demolish four large public housing complexes and replace them with a mixed-income model with fewer total units.

Mandeville Mayor Reimburses Toy Fund

Mandeville Mayor Eddie Price has given $2,300 back to the police charity that bought him Wal-Mart gift cards and other presents with money donated by local residents to help needy people.

Price wrote the check to the Mandeville Police Citizen Service Fund on Wednesday after a Times-Picayune article disclosing the gifts prompted angry reactions from people who have given to the fund, which runs a well-publicized Christmas toy drive. |Read on|

Port of New Orleans to Undergo Expansion

The Port of New Orleans, battered by Hurricane Katrina 2½ years ago, will undergo a $1 billion expansion that port officials say will be key to the city's economic rebound.

The port's plans come as much of the rest of the city struggles to return to pre-Katrina conditions. The centerpiece of the plan is a $478 million expansion to the port's container cargo terminal that would increase its capacity, according to a copy of the plan released Tuesday.

The expansion to its container operations would help New Orleans capture some of the projected boom in international shipping in the coming decade and infuse the city with much-needed jobs and revenue, said Gary LaGrange, the port's president and CEO.

Grading Louisiana

Interesting report card on Louisiana:

Despite the ravages of Hurricane Katrina, Louisiana retained its B grade in a public interest group's national report card of how well states manage public resources.The report's analysts, however, offered a stinging rebuke of the way Louisiana state
government decides how to spend money on public construction projects.

Louisiana scored just above the national average of B- in "Grading the States 2008," a 50-state assessment released Monday by the Pew Center on the States' Government Performance Project and "Governing" magazine. Pew's previous report was conducted in 2005. The reports examine each state based on a range of performances and conditions, from budget and finance to roads and bridges.

Louisiana was one of 18 states scoring above average. The highest grade was an A- scored by Utah, Virginia and Washington. Among Louisiana's neighbors, Texas had a B+, Arkansas got a C, and Mississippi and Alabama scored a C+.

Extremely Lengthy Federal Probe Nets Misdemeanor Charge

Lawyer Roy Rodney was charged with failing to file his 2002 income taxes. The feds have been investigating Mr. Rodney for several years.


That's it...their long, long, probe resulted in a misdemeanor charge.

Crime & Safety In N.O.

Some New Orleans residents have been ripped off by shady contractors during their rebuilding efforts.

What should those residents do when a former New Orleanian returns with the hope of continuing to rip them off?

Private Bill - "For the Relief of Michael Anthony Hurley"

Michael Hurley, a British citizen with a four-decade-old drug arrest on his record, couldn't persuade the U.S. immigration service to let him stay in the country, so he asked Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., to write a bill for him.

In 2006 and again in 2007, Landrieu introduced bills titled "For the Relief of Michael Anthony Hurley" designed to grant him legal status so he could remain with his new bride in Louisiana.

Thousands of people are barred from the United States every year because of drug convictions, but only a handful get personalized legislation. Unlike many immigrants, Hurley had political connections. His brother-in-law, Lafayette attorney James "Kirk" Piccione, is a Landrieu supporter, having given $4,250 to her campaigns over the years including a $1,000 contribution six weeks after the first bill was filed, according to a review of the data by the Center for Responsible Politics.