'America's Most Wanted' comes to New Orleans

Cops Helping Cops was established in 2006. The organization has helped to raise money, collect materials and recruit volunteers to build homes for New Orleans police officers.

On this week’s episode of America’s Most Wanted, AMW will team up with Cops Helping Cops. The show and the organization will offer one deserving New Orleans officer a chance to rebuild a life left in ruin after Hurricane Katrina.

Also, America’s Most Wanted will help to hunt down fugitives in the New Orleans area. The New Orleans Special Edition episode of America’s Most Wanted airs on Saturday, February 23 from 9 PM to 10 PM ET/PT on FOX.

New Orleans Chef to visit Jackson bookstore

Chef Susan Spicer has been called one of the brightest culinary stars in New Orleans. Her light shines on her restaurants Bayona and Herbsaint. Fans nationwide have anticipated her cookbook, Crescent City Cooking: Unforgettable Recipes from Susan Spicer's New Orleans (Knopf, $35). Co-written by Paula Disbrowe, the cookbook features recipes that have made Spicer and New Orleans famous. Now Mississippians will get a chance to meet Spicer at a book signing this weekend in Jackson.

Featuring more than 170 recipes from Let's Get the Party Started to Killer Cocktails from the Quarter, Crescent City Cooking boasts more than 80 photographs by New Orleans Times-Picayune photographer Chris Granger. The pictures alone will make you want to try the recipes but they also give you a sense of New Orleans. Each of the creative recipe's instructions are easy to follow.

N.O. Homeless Housing Plan Focuses On Shelters

The City of New Orleans was faced with two options for dealing with the homeless: One option focused on moving the homeless into permanent housing while the other option was to place them in shelters. One would think that the permanent housing option would be more feasible. Which plan do you think the City of New Orleans chose? According to the T-P, the City chose the shelters.

The city plans to partner with the New Orleans Mission, rather than UNITY for the Homeless.

While UNITY has focused on moving the homeless into permanent housing -- a relatively new tactic national experts say produces results -- the mission will employ a more traditional sheltering approach. The mission aims to provide communal housing until people can save for their own apartments.

UNITY's approach, often called "housing first," may be in vogue, but does not address the causes of homelessness, said the mission's director, Ron Gonzales.

According to the experts, what New Orleans most needs, they say, is a coordinated, long-term plan that uses field-tested methods -- like those used here by UNITY -- that have produced impressive declines in homelessness in dozens of cities, including New York, Chicago, Seattle, Denver, Dallas and St. Louis.

Do you think New Orleans made a bad decision?

9/11 Victims' Children Help New Orleans

Nineteen young people who lost a parent during the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, are in town this week to pitch in with volunteer work at Habitat for Humanity's Musicians Village residential development in the Upper 9th Ward.

The visit was organized by Tuesday's Children, a 9/11 family support organization, in partnership with Habitat for Humanity, the Hope for Stanley Foundation and City Council President Arnie Fielkow.

The Stanley Foundation is a rebuilding support group created in honor of Stanley Stewart, who played a lead role in helping evacuate Hurricane Katrina victims from the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center after the storm.

Study: More New Orleans' Felony Cases Go To Court

T-P:

The number of felony cases accepted for prosecution by the Orleans Parish district attorney grew by 63 percent from the first part of the year to the last quarter of 2007, perhaps evidence of an improved working relationship between prosecutors and the New Orleans Police Department, the Metropolitan Crime Commission concluded in a report to be released today.

The study is the third report issued by the Crime Commission looking at 2007 arrests made by police and cases prosecuted in court, tracking the performance of a criminal justice system still rebounding from Hurricane Katrina.

While the group saw improvement in the number of people who will be prosecuted for felonies at Criminal District Court and an increased conviction rate, it still identified areas that call out for policy changes by police and prosecutors, said Rafael Goyeneche, president of the commission.

Violent Crime May Be Rising In New Orleans

From the T-P:

The New Orleans Police Department released the latest crime statistics, along with an analysis that showed violent crime stayed relatively flat, on a per-capita basis, in the fourth quarter of 2007 compared to the fourth quarter of 2006. But a comparison of statistics from both full years, using the population estimates favored by NOPD, shows that violent crime has increased substantially.

Further, per-capita crime statistics for both of the past two years represent a substantial jump from per-capita crime rates before Katrina, the figures show.

State's Delegates move to McCain

Although Mike Huckabee led Louisiana's Republican presidential preference primary last week, state Republican Party officials Saturday rounded up at least 43 of the state's 47 GOP national convention delegates for rival John McCain. Huckabee may end up with no delegates at all from Louisiana.

Pro basketball stars & legends volunteered in New Orleans

With the NBA having set up shop in the Crescent City for this weekend's All-Star extravaganza, current stars, legends, WNBA standouts and other celebrities took to the streets, lending a helping hand to assist in building houses, painting schools and planting sod at 10 sites throughout the city as part of the NBA Cares All-Star Day of Service. More than 2,500 others joined the pro basketball players, undeterred by afternoon showers.

It was the largest single-day effort by the NBA, as well as the largest single volunteer effort since Katrina wrecked the region in 2005.

What's New In New Orleans?

The imposing presence of Robert A. Cerasoli as the city's first inspector general is the clearest sign that the changes Hurricane Katrina wrought on New Orleans in 2005 were not limited to physical devastation. By declaring war on municipal corruption, Cerasoli has signaled that life in the Big Easy no longer will be so easy.

A sign of change that transcends federal dollars was the arrival last August of Cerasoli, the nation's foremost inspector general, who served 10 years as Massachusetts state IG. "I was amazed when I arrived to find that just about everybody I met had been the victim of a holdup," Cerasoli told me. He wondered why crime was much more rampant in New Orleans than in Atlanta, a larger city with a smaller police force.

Cerasoli is working closely with U.S. Attorney Jim Letten to crack down on corruption.

Study confirms Formaldehyde in FEMA Trailers

Hurricane victims have been complaining about FEMA trailers making them sick for a very long time. Now a recent study has confirmed that the FEMA trailers contain formaldehyde.

The study found:

--Average levels of formaldehyde in all units was about 77 parts per billion -- a level higher than U.S. background levels. And that exposure "over time at this level" can affect health. Levels measured ranged from 3 ppb to 590 ppb.

--The levels -- measured in the winter and long after residents moved in -- likely underrepresent long-term exposures since formaldehyde levels tend to be higher in newer travel trailers and during warmer weather.

--Indoor temperature was a significant factor for formaldehyde levels in this study independent of trailer make or model.

--Formaldehyde levels varied by model -- "mobile homes, park homes and travel trailers" -- but all types of trailers tested had some high levels.

--At the levels seen in many trailers, health could be affected.

New Orleans Airport Traffic Increases

Annual passenger traffic at Louisiana's largest airport jumped nearly 21% in 2007 and reached about three-quarters of the number handled before Hurricane Katrina hit in August 2005, the airport reported Tuesday. Just over 7.5 million passengers either embarked or disembarked at Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport in 2007, an increase from about 6.1 million in 2006.

In 2004, the last full year before Katrina totally disrupted the airport, a record 9.7 million passengers passed through the airport. After the storm shut down most traffic for the last four months, the tally dropped to 7.8 million. A major challenge for the airport has been rebuilding the number of flights coming through New Orleans. By May, the airport, which had 132 daily flights in December, will have seven more flights.

That total will represent 86% of the pre-Katrina level, along with 80% of pre-storm number of seats, said airport spokeswoman Michelle Wilcut.

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This news probably has the contract thief, Stan "Pampy" Barre, counting his ill-gotten dollars.

Nick Baroni and Son Gets Light Sentence

Who write these recommended guidelines?

Nick Baroni and his son receive a year and a day for defrauding the Navy.


Saying he found the outpouring of sentiment about the case "strange," Williams said that as a judge from the "free state of Maryland," he was free to ignore "all the stuff going on in Louisiana" and make his own judgment based on evidence and sentencing guidelines.

Although free to ignore those guidelines, Williams decided on a sentence for Nick Baroni, 63, and his son, Keith, 39, within the recommended guidelines: 10 to 16 months.

Former New Orleans City Council President, Oliver Thomas, would have done better with this deal. Though true, he failed to cooperate with the feds, but his sentencing guidelines were more harsher.

Road Home Program

This editorial excerpt, about the Road Home Program, says it best:

A program that lacks follow-up, is slow in processing appeals and can't resolve thousands of cases that are more than a year old has systemic problems. When legislators say they keep getting phone calls from frustrated applicants with the same complaints about the program, that reflects a systemic problem.

Unfortunately, one of those systemic problems has been the Office of Community Development, and it's surprising that Gov. Bobby Jindal has not yet made changes in leadership at OCD.

Ms. Elkins' office negotiated a weak contract with ICF that lacked benchmarks and penalties and then had to be browbeaten to add even mild penalties. Even now, the office has yet to negotiate ICF's benchmarks for the first quarter of the year or to determine whether the contractor met all of last year's requirements.

Ms. Elkins also has been a constant apologist for ICF's mishaps and has resisted some efforts to improve the program's performance and transparency. Legislative auditors began citing systemic problems last year -- from data and policy discrepancies to grants that were too low or too high. Ms. Elkins was always quick to dismiss problems or claim that they had been corrected -- even as applicants and sometimes auditors kept exposing more examples of the same issues.

Obama defeats Clinton In La. primary

Illinois Sen. Barack Obama launched another surge in his bid for the Democratic presidential nomination Saturday, defeating New York Sen. Hillary Clinton in the Louisiana primary after caucus victories in Nebraska and Washington state earlier in the day. |Read on|

Cronyism In New Orleans

You can loot from public contracts, in New Orleans, and still collect millions, from other public contracts, while serving time in prison.

All you have to do is appoint your wife as President of your ill gotten business ventures and collect the millions, from the public contracts, when you are released from prison. You gotta love New Orleans' way of punishing crooks.

Barack Obama Speaks To New Orleans' Crowd

Barack Obama, fresh off a strong Super Tuesday showing that left him in a dead heat with U.S. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York for the party's nomination, started his speech at Tulane University by highlighting signs of New Orleans' resiliency: the Endymion parade's return to Mid-City, the streetcar back on its traditional Uptown route, even the Super Bowl success of New Orleans native Eli Manning.

Obama, the only major presidential candidate scheduled to appear in Louisiana before Saturday, also told a crowd of about 3,500 supporters that it will take change in Washington for New Orleans to recover. He pledged that if elected, he would restructure FEMA and make sure there is enough money to protect the area from future storms.

Judge won't drop charges against Rep. William Jefferson

It seems that William "Dollar Bill" Jefferson will have to face the music after all since the judge won't drop the charges:

Facing 16 bribery-related charges stemming from business deals in West Africa, Jefferson sought to unravel the government's case by claiming that some of the testimony provided to the grand jury by six current or former staffers violated the U.S. Constitution.

Come on Jefferson: It is time you pay the piper.

Mardi Gras revelers party in New Orleans

Colorful parades rolled through New Orleans on Tuesday as thousands of revelers turned out to celebrate Mardi Gras in the city still scarred by Hurricane Katrina.

Drinking and dancing partiers jostled for sidewalk space to watch elaborately decorated floats as they passed near neighborhoods not fully recovered from the August 29, 2005, storm that flooded 80 percent of the city and killed more than 1,300 people.

The celebrants, many in costume, begged for beads -- or "throws" in New Orleans slang -- tossed from French Quarter balconies or by masked "krewe" members on floats.

Mardi Gras In The Big Easy

Today is Mardi Gras, in the Big Easy, so come on out and celebrate. You will experience nothing like this before:

Mardi Gras, or Fat Tuesday, is the often raucous end to the pre-Lenten Carnival season. Characterized by family-friendly parades uptown and in the suburbs — and by heavy drinking and lots of near-nudity in the French Quarter — the celebration is highlighted by 12 days of parades and parties.

New Orleans' Fat Tuesday events include Pete Fountain's Half-Fast Walking Club, which starts the day, followed by the Zulu and Rex parades and the meeting of the courts of Rex and Comus Tuesday night.

Party with the revelers and spend lots of money here.

Corruption In The Big Easy

It is very quiet on the home front. There are no new allegations being made about bribery, mail fraud, obstruction of justice, etc. It seems that those who have been caught up in the recent corruption scandals are quietly sitting back and making their deals, with the feds, in the hopes of obtaining lighter sentences.

We haven't heard anything new about former school board member Ellenese Brooks-Simms. Former New Orleans Mayor, Marc Morial's aunt, Lillian Smith Haydel, is still awaiting sentencing. We really don't expect too much to come out of her mouth concerning any other wrongdoing, but it makes you wonder: Why is it taking so long for her to be sentenced? I am also curious as to what other information Ellenese Brooks-Simms will provide. I hope she fully cooperates with the feds in order for the City of New Orleans to really clean house. We are tired of the reputation we now have and we all hope that one day things change.