News from Central Gulf Focus: La./Miss (Ala contributors)

[Audrey2Katrina]

Mayor's race most expensive in history

By Gordon Russell
Staff writer

Hurricane Katrina may have laid waste to the New Orleans economy, but one small sector was decisively spared from the storm’s wrath: the world of political campaigning.

Final campaign finance reports show the city’s 2006 mayoral race was by far the most expensive in history, with the five major candidates raising a collective $10.8 million and spending nearly all of it. The race was nearly twice as costly as any previous one.

Along with the sheer volume of dollars spent, the latest reports, filed by the campaigns with the state’s Board of Ethics, shed light on some oddities. Perhaps the most glaring: Lt. Gov. Mitch Landrieu, who finished a close second to Mayor Ray Nagin, wound up with $505,000 left in his account.
Emily Sneed, a Landrieu spokeswoman, said the money was coming in so fast, especially in the final days of the campaign, that there was no way to spend it all wisely. She noted that more than half of Landrieu’s leftover money came in after the May 20 runoff. Moreover, more than $700,000 arrived during the final five days of the campaign, she said.

“Our media, our direct mail and our phone banking had all been paid for and allocated according to a campaign plan,” Sneed said. “More spending would have been frivolous. We had a campaign plan, and it was implemented.”

Whether Landrieu would have won had he spent the remaining money will forever remain fodder for political speculation. Overall, Landrieu spent $3.9 million on the election; or about $72 for every one of the 54,131 votes he received. Simple arithmetic suggest that had he spent the last $505,000 to similar effect, Landrieu would have gotten another 6,974 votes, enough to carry him to victory by a narrow margin.

Observers have long noted, however, that such a direct link between campaign spending and voting doesn’t exist; and with well-funded campaigns like Landrieu’s, there tends to be a law of diminishing returns.

The final reports also seemed to confirm something Nagin often complained of in debates: that he was basically cast aside in the fund-raising scrum this spring, as a host of well-known competitors decided to challenge him.

Nagin raised over $858,000 since Jan. 1, while his four top opponents raked in $7.6 million in the same period, the reports show.

Nonetheless, Nagin was able to compete in the same league as his better-funded challengers thanks to a reasonably deep well of money raised before Katrina, when he seemed a lock for re-election. Over the course of the last four years, Nagin raised and spent about $3 million on his campaign, putting him even closer to Landrieu in terms of monetary heft. In the end, the mayor spent about $2.1 million after Jan. 1, a little over half as much as Landrieu, according to the reports.

Though he complained often of the money gap, Nagin still managed to finish the campaign in the black, without taking out any new loans. According to his most recent report, he had $62,724 in the bank as of a month ago.

David White, Nagin’s treasurer, said that Nagin still has a few campaign-related bills coming in, and he would like to pay off loans totaling $34,294 to himself and White.

That’s one reason Nagin is holding a fund-raiser Wednesday at the W Hotel in the Central Business District, where couples will be expected to pony up $2,500 apiece, White said.

Asked why the mayor, who by law cannot seek a third term, is continuing to raise campaign money, White said: “I don’t want to be in a position where I don’t have funds.”

Having money in the warchest will also keep Nagin’s political options open, White said. “You never know what this guy might do. He wants to try to get some money back in his coffers, and people offered to help.”

Campaign reporting laws require candidates to state which office they seek, although there is some wiggle room.

White noted that former Mayor Marc Morial hosted a fund-raiser shortly after winning a second term, and listed “a major office” as his aim. Nagin plans to follow his lead.

Might Nagin attempt to change the charter to seek a third term, as Morial did unsucesfully?

White says he doesn’t know. “He hasn’t said anything to me about that,” he said.

Chicago blues

Finally, the latest reports put to rest a lingering mystery of the campaign — how much money did Nagin raise at a well-publicized May 8 fundraiser in Chicago? The answer, according to the reports: $5,950.

That’s about 1 percent of what organizers told the Chicago Sun-Times that the event netted. In a story about the event, the newspaper quoted Nagin’s hosts as saying that the mayor had brought in $500,000. Roughly 200 people attended, some paying as much as $1,000 apiece, the story said.

Days after that story was published, Nagin said it was inaccurate and blew the size of the fund-raiser out of proportion, but declined to say how much he raised. On the day of his inauguration, which featured Chicago residents the Rev. Jesse Jackson and Dorothy Brown as speakers, Nagin told reporters that the event had brought in about half as much as media reports indicated, or $250,000.

In the end, Nagin listed only 17 contributions from people living in Illinois, some of whom gave as little as $50 apiece.

David White, Nagin’s treasurer, noted that it’s possible some people gave at the Chicago fund-raiser but didn’t list Illinois addresses. But White, who said he was not involved in the Chicago event, could not say how many contributions, if any, fell into that category.

[Audrey2Katrina]

Katrina devastated termites too

By Lynne Jensen
Staff writer

Post-Katrina stress is zapping billions of New Orleans residents, if you include the city’s heavily populated underground, where apparently flood-ravaged Formosan termites are suffering along with their human counterparts.

But don’t declare victory just yet: The destructive insects are “coming back” just like the two-legged criminals that residents rebuilding homes across the city also wish they could keep at bay.

The number of swarming reproductive termites, known as an alates, plucked from light traps this spring and summer add up to a 22 percent increase in the Formosan population in the unflooded French Quarter, but a 75 percent decrease in the population outside of the French Quarter, which includes all of the flooded areas, Louisiana State University entomologist Gregg Henderson said Tuesday.

Overall, there was a 70 percent decrease citywide in alate numbers between 2005 and 2006, Henderson said.

On the surface the overall decrease seems dramatic, but it doesn’t mean that the termites won’t re-establish their colonies, he said.
A similar decrease occurring from 2000 to 2001 appears to be related to a drought that stressed Formosan termite colonies to the point that they could not produce alates, Henderson said. It takes a full year from the last flight for alates to form, he said.

A drought that began in 2006 after Hurricane Rita could be one reason for this year’s decrease, Henderson said. Multiple “termite colony drowning events” resulting from breached levees that followed Hurricane Katrina may also be contributing to the 2006 results, he said.

It will take a year to find out if the colonies were destroyed or if they are under stress and will return, Henderson said.

But Henderson predicts “a fairly quick rebound as in 2002.”

If there is not a quick rebound next year, Henderson said he will “think that the floods may have killed many of the colonies.”

“I’ve seen a lot of drowned termite colonies and I found dead termites throughout the levee system,” Henderson said.

Dead colonies would mean a slower rebound, since it takes seven years for new colonies to produce alates, he said.

It’s also important to remember that Formosan termites have developed an “evolutionary strategy” to survive floods by building above-ground nests in trees and buildings where a water source is present, Henderson said.

Henderson said that French Quarter residents should not be alarmed by the 22-percent increase in termite activity in their neighborhood, which did not flood after Katrina. The increase is “still low” and the number of termites in the Quarter is “at low levels,” he said.

Formosan termites have been kept at low numbers in the French Quarter due to Operation Full Stop, a 7-year-old federally-funded program that provided termite treatment for about a 30-block area of the city’s oldest neighborhood.

The 70 percent citywide decline in termites does not mean that residents can let their guard down, Henderson said. Residents rebuilding after flooding should install new termite barriers around their property, and all builders should use treated lumber and install rust-proof metal termite shields on top of cinder-block piers that are used as foundation, he said.

Metal shields create a seal that prevents termites from climbing into the house from inside the piers, where homeowners can not see them, Henderson said.

The annual light-trapping of termites, which began in 1989, would be impossible without help from volunteers living throughout the city, Henderson said. To volunteer for next year’s trapping, call the LSU Agricultural Center at 225-578-1830.

[Audrey2Katrina]

Corps begins to clear hundreds of trees near levees


The Army Corps cuts down trees along Lake Pontchartrain, saying they threaten levee integrity.

By Sheila Grissett
East Jefferson bureau

The roar of chainsaws early Tuesday signaled the beginning of the end for trees on the East Jefferson lakefront with the kick off of a sweeping new federal initiative to remove hundreds of trees in Jefferson and Orleans parishes – including some planted under a federal beautification contract and others with levee district approval.

Army Corps of Engineers officials say the targeted trees pose a potential threat to the stability of the levee system and must be removed to help protect against a replay of Hurricane Katrina’s catastrophic flooding.

Large trees were uprooted at the site of at least two floodwall breaches during Katrina, and forensic investigators believe the upheaval of those root systems may have contributed to the failures.

Almost 370 trees, many hackberries, will be cut down in East Jefferson under two contracts issued Friday, before work shifts next to the Orleans lakefront, where a tentative plan starts with the removal of about 25 trees – most of them live oaks and pines – on the south side of Lakeshore Drive.
Longtime beautification activist Beulah Oswald, the founding president of Jefferson Beautification Inc., said Tuesday that she is confused by the corps’ decision to cut some of the very trees that it planted over the years, as well as others planted by volunteers with East Jefferson Levee District approval.

About 130 trees on the protected side of the West Return Canal floodwall in Kenner were planted as part of a corps beautification project in the early 1990s. And on the lakefront, numerous trees were planted by individuals eager to create more shade and oases of green – all of which required the Levee District’s blessings, Oswald said.

“I don’t understand. What is it that they know now that they didn’t know for all these years?” she said.

The answer to that question is both simple and profound, corps spokesman John Hall said.

“Katrina is the answer. Lesson learned is the answer. We’ve got to be a lot more careful than ever before,” he said.

“With 20-20 hindsight, we’d have been better off not doing that, but there’s no reason not to go ahead now and do what we need to do,” Hall said.

Although corps officials have wrestled internally with details of the tree-cutting effort for weeks, the agency didn’t announce its plan until Friday evening, and the cutting began early Tuesday.

Only five trees located within 15 feet of the West Return Canal floodwall at Kenner’s border with St. Charles Parish, as well as three on the west side of 17th Street Canal, are scheduled for removal during this early phase of work.

The other 360 trees will come down on the East Jefferson lakefront, where no tree between the water’s edge and the levee crown will be spared – including those planted to shade small parks created and tended over the years by volunteers who live near the levee.

But even as the cutting began Tuesday, there was confusion over exactly what was being done and whether it was necessary to completely denude the lakefront.

“I use the Linear Park (bike path) a lot, and I don’t like it. I wish it didn’t have to be done, and I don’t know that all of the trees need to be removed,” said East Jefferson Levee District President Alan Alario. “But I’m not an engineer, and the corps wants it done. They’ve fast-tracked it. It’s out of my hands.”

New Levee District commissioner Debbie Settoon, an engineer, said she understood that the corps was only removing trees on the landside of the bike path – and that’s a plan she whole-heartedly endorses for levee safety.

“I don’t know that it’s necessary to take out trees on the water side of the path, if that’s what is being done,” she said.

And that is what’s being done.

Corps officials say that the 130 or so feet of land between the water’s edge and the levee itself is a wave berm that protects the earthen levee by slowing incoming surge and lessening its impact on the levee itself.

In other words, the levee protects Kenner and Metairie, while the wave berm protects the levee. If trees on the berm were toppled during a storm, it would expose a hole that would be further eroded by wave action.

“Any tree on the berm is considered a tree on the levee, and it cannot be allowed,” Hall said.

A second corps contractor will begin cutting trees east of Causeway today, he said.

Workers are cutting the trees down to a height of about 4 ½ feet to reduce the likelihood of being toppled during a storm. But in an abundance of caution, the roots won’t be dug up until after this storm season. The holes will be filled by the June 1 start of next hurricane season.

During a future phase of work, corps officials will tackle removing trees on private property – including those trees growing into the levees along the London Avenue, Orleans Avenue and 17th Street Canal.

[Audrey2Katrina]

HUD announces $5.2 billion for hurricane affected housing

7/11/2006, 12:58 p.m. CT
By BRETT MARTEL
The Associated Press

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Federal housing officials have agreed to provide $4.2 billion to fully pay for a more than $9 billion program aimed at providing Louisiana residents up to $150,000 to rebuild or sell houses severely damaged by hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

The Department of Housing and Urban Development also announced that it would disburse $1 billion for hurricane-related housing needs to Mississippi, Texas, Alabama and Florida, and called on those states to apply for that additional money.

Deputy secretary Roy A. Bernardi scheduled a Tuesday afternoon briefing with Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco in New Orleans to announce the grants.

"It was clear to me that Louisiana desperately needs this additional funding to implement its plans to bring its citizens back home," Bernardi said in a joint federal and state press release obtained prior to the announcement by The Associated Press. "HUD will work very closely with Gov. Blanco and the Louisiana Recovery Authority to help pave the road home for thousands of residents desperate to rebuild their own lives."

Louisiana's "Road Home" plan provides grants to cover repair costs above what was covered by insurance policies and FEMA grants.

There are about 123,000 home owners eligible for the program, state officials have said. Owners of about 80,000 apartments also could be eligible for grants to help restore south Louisiana's decimated rental market.

A registry for homeowners who may qualify is already set up, and so far about 90,000 homeowners have signed up. Blanco has said that the Louisiana Recovery Authority, which oversees the program, expects eligible homeowners to begin getting checks by late summer.

"Never before in American history has any state been forced to rebuild so many homes so quickly," Blanco said. "This $4.2 billion means homeowners have real options — options to repair, rebuild or sell their homes. Rental housing is equally important. We will work to help restore affordable quality apartments and duplexes for our families to come home to."

Apartment shortages, combined with increasing insurance premiums for those who own buildings in areas hard-hit by Hurricane Katrina on Aug. 29 or Rita on Sept. 24, have caused rents on units that survived last hurricane season to increase 20 percent or more in many cases.

While some homeowners may use the money to rebuild, others may choose government buyouts. For those who sell their property, but who also can demonstrate continued permanent residence in the state, the grants cover the amount by which a home's pre-storm value exceeded insurance settlements and FEMA grants, unless the difference is more than the $150,000 cap.

The program includes incentives for people to remain in the state. Those who take the "sell" option and have relocated out of state can only get 60 percent of their home's pre-storm value. So if insurance payments or FEMA grants already meet that threshold, they get no additional money.

Louisiana already had about $5 billion in hand for the program, but had pressed for approval of full funding so it would not have to lower grants. The amount of federal relief money provided to Mississippi, which had tens of thousands fewer residents affected by storm damage, allowed for up to $150,000 for certain homeowners, the same figure called for in Louisiana's plan.

The state has hired Virginia-based ICF Consultants to run the program, which requires grant applicants to certify the dollar amount of storm damages as well as the pre-storm market values of their homes.

[Audrey2Katrina]

Suit against last-resort plan becomes class action

7/12/2006, 10:12 a.m. CT
The Associated Press

GRETNA, La. (AP) — A lawsuit alleging that Louisiana's insurance plan of last resort failed to pay homeowner claims following hurricanes Katrina and Rita has been granted class-action status.

State District Judge Henry Sullivan took the action Tuesday on the suit, which alleges that Louisiana Citizens Fair Plan failed to comply with state law requiring the claims adjustment process to begin within 30 days of a catastrophic loss — and that documented losses be paid within another 30 days.

Plaintiff attorney Madro Bandaries said there are five pending class-action suits and at least 30 individual lawsuits that could be consolidated into the suit. Attorneys have estimated that the suit could cover all 65,000 Citizens policyholders at the time of the two storms.

The case was filed last year, but has been transferred to several judges because one judge had an interim appointment that ended and another recused herself because she held a Citizens policy.

The Citizens plan was established by the Legislature to cover homeowners who could not obtain insurance in the commercial market.

In court, the head of Citizens, Terry Lisotta, has said that claims forms mailed out to its policyholders were returned because the customers have moved. He also has said that policyholders had a difficult time contacting Citizens at first because of a massive telecommunications failure and that other delays in settling claims resulted from a change of administrators.

During a May court hearing, Lisotta said that 92 percent of Citizens' claims had been paid.

[Audrey2Katrina]

Ponchatoula man died in shipyard accident

7/12/2006, 9:57 a.m. CT
The Associated Press

AVONDAOLE, La. (AP) — A veteran employee of Northrop Grumman Corp.'s New Orleans-area shipyard was killed when a mast fell from a crane lift, the company said.

Leroy Pinion, 57, of Ponchatoula, was pronounced dead at the scene of Monday's accident, Northrop Grumman said in a new release. Another employee, whose name was not disclosed, was treated for injuries at a hospital and released, Northrop Grumman said.

Earlier Monday, Celestino Martinez, 50, who had worked at the shipyard since 1967, was found unconscious about 8 a.m. aboard a ship under construction, the company said. He was pronounced dead at a hospital. Martinez, a Honduras native, had been employed

Emergency responders took Martinez, an insulator, to West Jefferson Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead. The Honduras native had been with the shipyard since February 2005, the company said.

A cause of death had not been determined.

The deaths were being investigated by the company and the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration.

[Audrey2Katrina]

Entergy buying Michigan nuclear generator

7/12/2006, 8:42 a.m. CT
By ALAN SAYRE
The Associated Press

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Utility holding company Entergy Corp. said Wednesday that it will buy the 798-megawatt Palisades Nuclear Plant near South Haven, Mich. from Consumers Energy for $380 million.

Entergy currently owns 10 nuclear generating plants and manages another.

Consumers Energy, the principal subsidiary of Jackson, Mich.-based CMS Energy Corp., will buy all of the plant's power output for 15 years, Entergy said.

Entergy said the price tag includes $242 million for the physical plant, $83 million in nuclear fuel based on current market prices and $55 million in related assets.

As part of the deal, Entergy also said it will assume responsibility for the eventual decommissioning of the plant with Consumers Energy retaining $200 million of the $555 million set aside for the plant's shutdown.

Consumers Energy also will pay Entergy $30 million to accept responsibility for the spent fuel at the decommissioned Big Rock Point nuclear plant near Charlevoix, Mich.

Entergy also said it would issue 18-month employment offers to the plant's 500 workers at their current salaries, and would continue to maintain their benefits for 36 months.

Entergy said it hoped to close the deal during the first quarter of 2007. The sale must be reviewed by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the Michigan Public Service Commission.

Plans call for the plant to be operated by Entergy Nuclear, the Jackson, Miss.-based unit of Entergy that handles the company's nuclear properties. New Orleans-based Entergy also has regulated power sales to 2.7 million customers in Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas.

[Audrey2Katrina]

Some arrestees' DNA profiles put in database

7/12/2006, 6:56 a.m. CT
The Associated Press

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Louisiana residents arrested in such cases as stalking, hiring a prostitute and fighting with school referees will find their DNA in a national FBI database — even if they are not convicted.

The first batch of genetic profiles from 45,000 people arrested, but not convicted of felonies and certain misdemeanors was sent Tuesday to the National DNA Index System.

"Obviously, the more information in the database, the more productive it will be in helping to solve crimes, and the types of crimes in the database are violent crimes typically," said Ann Todd, a spokeswoman for the FBI laboratory in Quantico, Va.

The state began taking DNA samples from those convicted of felonies in 1999, but in 2003 expanded its collection to include those arrested. Six other states — Virginia, Minnesota, Texas, California, New Mexico and Kansas — have similar laws. DNA also can be taken from people arrested for federal crimes.

An average of 1,500 to 2,500 additional samples are expected to be provided each week, said Tammy Pruet Northrup, DNA manager for the state police crime lab.

"There's been a lot of success with this particularly on cases that are cold," Northrup said. "Even if it doesn't necessarily solve the case, DNA can lead investigators to witnesses who didn't come forward that might result in important investigative leads."

Col. Greg Phares, chief criminal deputy for the East Baton Rouge Parish sheriff, said having more samples in the database is "potentially advantageous for law enforcement."

"I realize many people have legitimate concerns about having their DNA in a database, but if the use of the database is confined to solving serious crimes, then I think its a good thing," Phares said.

But defense attorney Thomas Damico questioned whether DNA evidence will replace "a good old-fashioned shoe-leather investigation, and the wrong person in the wrong place at the wrong time without an alibi will be in trouble."

"I quite frankly don't think this is good for anybody," Damico said. "There's too much potential for abuse. The one thing people should realize by now is they cant trust their government."

[Audrey2Katrina]

Inmates in training program do work on judge's house

Program is to teach construction skills

Wednesday, July 12, 2006 TP/NOLA.com
By Leslie Williams
Staff writer

Two Orleans Parish Prison inmates participating in a government-financed program to learn construction skills were put to work Monday and Tuesday at the Octavia Street home of 1st City Court Judge Angelique Reed.

The assignment, though, didn't come directly from the Opportunities Industrialization Center of Greater New Orleans Inc., which operates the training program, the head of the nonprofit said.

Philip Baptiste, the center's executive director, said he "loaned" the workers to the judge's uncle, David Reed, an OIC contractor who owns a private company overseeing construction of an addition to his niece's home. But Baptiste said he did not know Reed intended to dispatch the inmates to the judge's home. It's "improper involvement," Baptiste said after he was asked about the inmates who, under the supervision of a criminal sheriff's deputy, were seen standing next to Reed's pool Tuesday morning.

Baptiste said OIC's program, which does not pay the inmates an hourly wage, is designed to give them skills to help prevent them from returning to criminal activity once they're released. The program is not to benefit any politician or public official, he said.

Angelique Reed could not be reached for comment Tuesday.

David Reed said he asked Baptiste if it was OK to take a couple of inmates to one of the job sites managed by his private construction company.

David Reed said Baptiste said yes. But, "he didn't know where I was taking them," Reed said. "I thought I was doing good."

The inmates were sitting around the jail doing nothing, David Reed said. This was an opportunity to get more hands-on training, which is what the OIC construction program is about, he said.

On Tuesday, David Reed said he had the inmates "doing exploratory digging for the footing for the addition," near the pool.

After a visit to the judge's home by The Times-Picayune and the Metropolitan Crime Commission on Tuesday, Baptiste said he ordered the inmates off the site.

"They'll attend classes," he said.

Anthony "Tony" Radosti, vice president of the Metropolitan Crime Commission, said his organization is investigating the matter.

"We received complaints (from the public) Monday and Tuesday," Radosti said.

In past years, the OIC has received about $300,000 from the Louisiana Legislature and $450,000 from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development for its building program, Baptiste said.

In a report to the U.S. Treasury Department, OIC describes the program as "development of viable urban communities, decent housing, suitable living environments and (a program to) expand economic opportunities principally for persons of low to moderate income."

Inmates for the program are provided by Criminal Sheriff Marlin Gusman's office, which screens them based on their suitability for what Baptiste called a "second-chance" program.

[Audrey2Katrina]

5 men arrested as police raid Algiers complex

Bust turns up drugs, powerful assault rifle

Wednesday, July 12, 2006 TP/NOLA.com
By Trymaine Lee

Acting on a tip, a New Orleans police SWAT team trapped an attempted murder suspect in Algiers' Fischer public housing complex and ran into one of the most dangerous weapons on the streets: the Chinese- and Russian-made SKS rifle.

Police arrested Anthony Thomas, 18, who is suspected of gunning down a man in April, as he was hanging out with a group in which another man was carrying the SKS.

Equipped with a folding bayonet and armor-piercing rounds, the rifle is a cheap and highly effective weapon -- the predecessor of the AK-47 -- that can blast through engine blocks as easily as it can bones, said Louis Faust, one of nearly 20 NOPD tactical officers who arrested five people, including Thomas.


Police got a tip from an informant about 1 p.m. that Thomas, suspected in an April shooting in the 2300 block of Murl Street in Algiers, was seen with a group of men at Fischer.

The SWAT team crept into a courtyard at the complex in the 2000 block of Leboeuf Street and the men loitering, one brazenly holding the SKS, NOPD Lt. Dwayne Scheuremann said.

The team set upon the group of five, who took off running. Soon, the man with the rifle tossed it along with a stash of crack cocaine, Scheuremann said. Another man in the group ditched a .45 caliber pistol and two bundles of heroin, he said.

All five men were arrested. Thomas, who had a pending warrant, was booked Monday with two counts of illegally carrying a weapon, possession of obliterated serial number, drug possession and resisting an officer.

NOPD did not release the charges for the other four men.

Scheuremann said drug dealers and a weapon like an SKS are a dangerous mix.

The SKS sells for as little as $100 in the streets and is highly accurate, Faust said. And the high-caliber ammunition it uses is meant for maximum bodily damage.

Faust said the steel core bullets used in an SKS strike the body then follow bone, so a bullet can "enter your shoulder and come out of your toe."

"You can see what these officers face every day," Deputy Chief John Bryson said, standing over the guns and drugs seized during Tuesday's arrests.

Scheuremann said many drug dealers have returned to the Fischer complex to sell heroin, which he says has emerged as the most popular drug in that section of the city.

In a Fischer courtyard, police said the ground is littered with bullets where people either were exchanging gunfire or shooting up an abandoned car they found pocked with bullet holes.

"What you see here is not just in the Fischer," Scheurmann said, pointing to the SKS. "The shame of it is there are a lot of good people out there who see people with weapons like this, and they're scared. With drug dealers out with these, what can they do?"

[Audrey2Katrina]

Swimming advisory lifted

From Al.com 7/12/06

The Alabama Department of Public Health today lifted the swimming advisory issued on Friday for the waters of Mobile Bay at the Fairhope Public Beach. Based on a water sample obtained Monday, swimming water quality at the site is again good, with enterococci levels below the EPA threshold of 104 colonies per 100 milliliters.
The Alabama Department of Public Health and the Alabama Department of Environmental Management operate the bacteriological water quality monitoring and notification program under a grant from the EPA’s BEACH Act Program. Currently, there are no swimming advisories in effect.
Baldwin County Health Department, posted at 3:50 p.m

[Audrey2Katrina]

Family calls on NAACP to address concerns over Mobile man's death

7/12/2006, 9:08 a.m. CT
The Associated Press

MOBILE, Ala. (AP) — Leaders with the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People have scheduled a Friday news conference to discuss the circumstances surrounding the death of a black man who was found hanging from a balcony.

Investigators say evidence suggests that 29-year-old Tanaka Latra Moore hanged himself with a bed sheet Friday outside the apartment where he had been staying.

But Moore's family believes he was murdered in a racial attack and has called upon members of the NAACP to address their concerns to law enforcement officials.

Civil rights spokesman Melvin E. Whitehurst, the Baldwin NAACP chairman, said suspicions about the death arose because Moore "had no reason to take his life" and left no suicide note.

Baldwin County District Attorney Judy Newcomb said the lack of a suicide note was not unusual.

Newcomb said anyone with additional information that would indicate anything other than a suicide should contact the sheriff's department.

[Audrey2Katrina]

Man charged with capital murder in shooting at Mobile restaurant

7/11/2006, 3:32 p.m. CT
The Associated Press

MOBILE, Ala. (AP) — A man surrendered to police Tuesday and was charged with capital murder in the slaying of his former girlfriend, who was shot to death while leaving work at a Subway restaurant on Monday.

Garrett Dotch, 24, of Mobile was held without bond in the killing of Timarla Taldon, 24.

Taldon was fatally wounded while sitting in her car in a parking lot outside the restaurant. Fellow employees brought her inside and tried to resuscitate her, but the woman died at the scene.

Police spokesman Eric Gallichant said the couple had a history of domestic violence and had broken up.

[Audrey2Katrina]

Gulf Coast News UPDATE:

GCN 7/12/06 from gulfcoastnews.com

Billions of dollars for Katrina recovery will soon be hitting the ground, says Sen. Trent Lott. Money that will transform the Coast for the 21st century...Mississippi has yet to receive federal help to help repair the Katrina-damaged state port in Gulfport...Chevron contributing millions of dollars to help rebuild Katrina-damaged schools...A huge new subdivision planned for Harrison County is moving forward, but sewerage issues must be resolved. The U.S. Dept. of Housing and Urban Development has release the $3-Billion for the state's Homeowner Grant Program. The first notifications of homeowner closing meetings for the state's Homeowner Grant Program are being sent out this week by the Mississippi Development Authority. At scheduled closing meetings, homeowners will told when their checks will be provided to help them to rebuild their homes destroyed by Katrina's storm surge. The MDA is still asking for people to sign up for phase II of the program, which will include moderate income homeowners who suffered flooding even in the flood zones... Despite recent rains burn bans are still in effect along the Coast as the Coast is in a extreme drought. FEMA reports that more than 101,900 people are housed in 37,745 FEMA-provided trailers...The Coast is on the cusp of recovery nearly 11 months after Hurricane Katrina. 7/12/06 8:43 AM

[Audrey2Katrina]

Senator
Trent Lott
Rock Steady Part 2

Out of Katrina, The Solutions to Recovery:

Lott Sees Momentum Building For Prosperity Envisioned Many Years Ago.

By Perry Hicks- Special to GulfCoastNews.com and Keith Burton 7/12/06



Senator Trent Lott is happiest when he is can slip away from Washington and be home in Mississippi. He is more relaxed and accessible and he is better able to touch base with the family, friends, and constituents whose votes have sent him to Congress.

What those family, friends and constituents are telling him is how frustrated they are with the slow pace of recovery. All they see as they drive down the broken and battered Highway 90 is nearly 70 miles of utter destruction. While the bulk of debris may have been removed, but so far, little has been rebuilt along the beach highway since Katrina roared ashore over 10 months ago. If coming at all, recovery seems to be moving at a glacial pace.

The problem here is the expectation of recovery. The misconception many have is that the Coast can and will be restored to what it was before the storm. Another take of that drive down 90 is the number of new condominium constructions. Biloxi alone has nearly 21 high-rise condos about to come out of the ground.

The truth is, the shoreline will no longer be a setting of cozy little cottages nestled along narrow lanes shaded by live oak trees. That is gone forever.

Neither will recovery come by a single all encompassing federal program that will fund every reconstruction project both private and public. Recovery, or perhaps more correctly, the solutions to recovery, will come from a myriad number of sources in a myriad number of forms.

This is Lott’s motivation for serving one final term in the U.S. Senate: Navigating the federal reconstruction support and the cost of those solutions through congress. Getting this job done will take considerable skill.

Said Lott,“The situation may not look good now, but think of this: The return of gaming revenue, about $50 billion over the next 3 years in federal money coming into the 6 southern counties, plus the coming construction boom- you can’t have that much money come into an economy without having a major impact.”

All told, that influx of capital from all sources could be as much as $120 billion; possibly enough money to power the state to new levels of prosperity and out of its perennially last place in state comparisons. These numbers represent the investment of the entire nation and is nearly unprecedented.

Mosaic of Recovery

A good analogy might be Biloxi’s Hurricane Katrina Memorial. Part of the memorial is a mosaic: Up close, one can be lost in the details of each colored tile; pull back and the effect of the whole and the importance of each tile and its relationship toward one another is readily discerned. On the memorial, the tiles resolve into a wave.



One may ask, if we step back far enough, what image of the Coast would recovery reveal?

“That is a good question,” Lott said pausing thoughtfully, “Governor Barbour had created the Charrettes to help with this vision but what we will end up with will have to be worked out over time. In a few years, we will look back and marvel at where we have come.”

The name “Charrette” may ultimately be an unfortunate choice. While the word is French for a farmer’s tip-cart; it is the very kind of cart used to carry condemned aristocrats to the guillotine.

When questioned if he thinks Katrina recovery will elevate Mississippi’s economic standing as compared to the other 50 states, Lott points out, “Mississippi has seen great economic progress over the last 15 years so we aren’t last anymore- we’re something like 46 or 47th- and while that is an improvement, we still have a long way to go.”

Depending on how one wants to make the measure, Lott is correct in claiming Mississippi no longer languishes in last place.

When personal income is considered, Mississippi has moved from 50th in 2004 to 49th place in 2005.
If the measure is the rate of per capita income growth, then Mississippi is 47th.
If compared by Gross State Product, Mississippi is actually 35th.
“I had come to the conclusion many years ago that what Mississippi needed was not welfare, but jobs- and not the low wage, entry-level kind, but high-end jobs. In order to get those jobs, we needed to improve the transportation infrastructure- airports, highways, and rail services- and we needed to create higher educational programs- not soft, not liberal arts- but the kind of programs that prepare people for hard-skill jobs. That is what I have been working to do,” Lott added.

· In late 2000, Lott announced Nissan’s choice of Canton, Mississippi for its $950 million SUV assembly plant. By its opening in 2003, its cost had risen to $1.4 billion and suppliers brought another $200 million in investments. At full production capacity, Canton Assembly alone can employ 5700 workers and suppliers thousands more.

· 2004, Lott announces Delta Airlines was upgrading its service between the Coast and Atlanta.

· 2005, Rolls Royce expanded and upgraded its Marine Foundry operation in Pascagoula.

· 2005, Airbus names Mobile, Alabama, as the site for a plant to build military refueling tankers. While Mississippi had vied unsuccessfully for the plant, the location in adjacent Mobile would potentially provide Mississippians jobs as well as create some synergy for attracting other aerospace companies.

· 2006, Rolls Royce breaks ground for its new jet engine testing facility at the John C. Stennis Space Center. The Rolls operation will test engines for the European Airbus A380 and the Boeing Dreamliner.

· 2006, Lott announces American Eurocopter, a subsidiary of EADS (European Aeronautic Defense & Space) has been awarded a $2.2 billion contract to produce the next generation of light utility helicopters for the U.S. Army. The contract will expand the AE’s existing Columbus plant creating 150 new jobs. EADS is also the parent of Airbus.

· 2006, Trent Lott and Representative Gene Taylor were joined by Secretary of Transportation Norman Mineta, and Federal Aviation Administrator Marion Blakey in announcing a $44 million federal grant to repair the Gulfport/Biloxi International Airport (GBIA), heavily damaged by Hurricane Katrina.

“Regardless of economic rankings between us and other states, I wouldn’t trade the quality of life in Mississippi over anywhere else,” Lott said emphatically.



Frustration Shared

The slow progress in the recovery as the Coast nears 11 months since the storm is shared by Lott, who is also a Katrina survivor. His home on the beach in Pascagoula was leveled by the hurricane. The insurance claim on Lott’s Pascagoula house is being litigated because his wind carrier, State Farm Insurance Company, ruled the 150 year old home was destroyed exclusively by flood.

[img]http://www.gulfcoastnews.com/Katrina/Lott's%20Home.jpg[/img]
Photo-Lott's home days after Katrina hit, the storm cleared the site of debris

“I actually had flood insurance on that property,” Lott told GCN, “But even though my house was taking the brunt of the winds ahead of the surge for something like 10 hours- winds with gusts up to 160 mph- they wanted to blame the entire loss on surge.”

Fortunately, Lott and his wife Tricia had a second home near Jackson to retreat to after Katrina. They bought that home so that they could be near their daughter and grandchildren. The home is in Pocahontas, located about 14 miles north of Jackson, not far from the Natchez Trace on Highway 49. It is now their primary residence.

However comforting it may be to have a second home also built before the civil war and the confidence that the former one will someday be rebuilt; nothing can assuage the sense of loss for those things that can never be replaced.

Lott told GCN, “While I was home (last December,) I had talked to friends- supporters and my family, and they kept asking me, “You are going to rebuild, aren’t you? And I will, but this time it won’t be filled with antiques and memorabilia.”

In many places, if homes can be rebuilt at all, construction may have to meet new FEMA height requirements. For some, this may mean houses perched on stilts high up in the air.

“We will be rebuilding the Pascagoula house higher (relative to sea level,”) Lott had told GCN, “But we will do it by raising the ground level.”

CSX Railroad

Mississippi’s railroad lines had located largely back in the late 1800s for the ease of laying track. Once thriving towns withered as the population shifted to the new settlements springing up around locomotive coal and watering stops.

In those days before national highways and airline service, rail was the only practical way to travel between cities and move farm products to market. As such, it made sense that rail lines would go right into the center of every town. However, in the day of the truck, automobile, and air travel, these same rail lines bisect towns making it difficult and even dangerous to cross from one side to another.

Lott addressed this problem saying:

“Ten years ago, I started looking at ways of getting the railroads out of the middle of towns because they are an impediment to local travel and of course the safety issues. The line running through the Coast has something like 143 crossings. I have known people who have died at some of those crossings.

“My idea was to move the line north and run it down the I 10 median strip. I got six million for the Mississippi Highway department to study it but they contracted with a New Orleans firm that just kept coming up with these grandiose plans so nothing happened.

“Then Katrina happened and the governor formed the Charrettes to study how to rebuild the Coast and what do you think was their number one recommendations? Move the railroad. The old rail route could then be used for another east-west highway.

Did you know that the rail bridges have had to be rebuilt twice in 35 years? Moving the line just makes tons of sense, but,” Lott paused for a moment, “It will cost $750 million dollars.”

Not only has the railroad tracks had to be rebuilt, but also several bridges of the Coast's key highways. The loss of which after Katrina is still being felt. Losing so much of the Coast's transportation infrastructure at once is a major reason moving the CSX tracks is being pursued.

Photo - CSX Railroad bridge over Bay St. Louis after Katrina

Senator Thad Cochran is the point man for navigating this legislation through Congress. But it is Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour and his lobbying skills that will be the primary tool to get the funding to move the railroad. An effort to fund the CSX project nearly derailed money for Katrina recovery in Washington when it was included as part of the funding package. President Bush had threatened to Veto the package if it remained after some House members incorrectly targeted the funding as waste since CSX had spent their own money to repair the bridges to the tracks.

GCN contacted Cochran's office about the CSX issue. Jenny Manley, communication's director for Cochran responded by email:

"Sen. Cochran was supportive of the Governor’s request to reroute the CSX rail line and move it to a less densely populated region. The funding was included in the Senate version of the latest supplemental spending measure, but the House of Representative refused to go along with the project. Sen. Cochran has spoken with Governor Barbour about the issue, and the Senator is confident that if the Governor remains committed to this project, he will use existing funding to finance it."

FEMA

In the aftermath of Katrina, experts with the Federal Emergency Management Agency are encouraging coastal communities to raise building heights with the flooding levels of Hurricane Katrina as the standard. While the FEMA height requirements have yet to formalized, local communities are already protesting as the proposed heights make rebuilding for most people too expensive and ridiculous. But FEMA is warning that if the communities don't eventually adopt their requirements, then federal flood insurance will not be made available.

“FEMA has been such a disappointment. These building heights they want will just have to be modified or people will ignore them. The Pascagoula house was elevated and it is totally gone, swept away. But, when we rebuild, we will be raising the height but we will do it by raising the ground level.” Lott said.

He continued addressing the problems with FEMA saying, “Some of the problem with FEMA can be laid right at the feet of Congress. We created this behemoth department called Homeland Security and put FEMA under it which we can see now makes no sense at all. They (FEMA) are undermanned and under funded for the job we expect them to do. It also makes no sense for the (Army) Corps of Engineers to be under them if they are responsible for debris removal.”

Congress is moving make changes to FEMA. Expectations are that the agency will be separated from the Department of Homeland Security, renamed, and reorganized.

Foreign Trade

Note that outside of the airport and airline announcements outlined earlier, all of the companies expanding or creating new operations are foreign. This could be seen as a powerful statement about the decline of American industrial power. Where are the U.S. companies? Why are foreign companies investing here?

This realization is not as benign as some free traders would want you to believe. It was American industrial might that literally out produced the Axis Powers during World War II, fed and clothed a destroyed Europe, and not only stopped the expansion of communism, but ultimately defeated it.

Besides meeting the needs for making war, industrial capacity fills another critical role: creating wealth. A nation simply cannot service its way to prosperity. These concerns are not missed by many conservatives.

Coupled with the apparent intransigence toward securing the nation’s borders, the conservative base has withdrawn considerable support for the Bush administration over its globalist outlook. People are clearly sensing that what the U.S. is shipping to China are jobs, not just the product of America’s factories.

Bush has not been the only recent president to give away the candy store.

“No one has been willing to do it, insist China, Europe, and other places open their markets up. Not Reagan, or Ford before him, not Clinton, not Bush senior. So, our present president is not an exception,” Lott said. Lott seemed to be defending the president though his tone of voice perhaps harboring a bit of dissatisfaction.

“But, at the same time, Mississippi has benefited from foreign investment from Nissan, Airbus, Eurocopter, and Rolls Royce,” Lott added.

Why have these administrations refused to demand fair trade, refused to stop illegal immigration at the border?

“Well,” Lott paused at the difficulty of answering such a question, “I don’t know. Clinton went to Oxford so he was educated in a global atmosphere and sold on the idea that this is the way to go. Then when you get in office you are just hammered with people with credentials and expertise also telling you that everyone benefits from free trade.

“The problem is not with the theory but the execution. China, for example, has put many obstacles in place to (the importation of) our products,” Lott said.

Historically, trade with China has been problematic. Companies doing business there have long complained that patents are not honored and proprietary information, even complete designs, are quickly stolen.

If a product is shown to be popular, the Chinese will not endeavor to compete for the market, but may actually close it off to only domestic producers.

Lott gave an example of this last point showing that even seemingly insignificant products were subject to Chinese usurpation saying, “They hurt the (American) western apple growers by keeping the (Chinese) domestic apple cider market for themselves.”

As to George W. Bush, Lott answered my probes as to the president’s character by saying, “He told you what he is: He said he is a compassionate conservative. Do you know what that means? He is willing to spend the money to do the things he thinks needs to get done.”

Immigration

Lott did not view his inability to stop the recent Senate immigration bill a failure. The bill passed by the Senate is so soft on immigration that is unlikely to be reconciled with the House version. In Washington, he quite candidly predicted that the bill as it stood would never pass the House.

“We got over a third of the senate to oppose it which is more than I thought we would get,” Lott said.

“On the matter of border security, if we can’t step up to the plate and fix this problem, I think we would have to question just why we (Congress) are here.”

Lott continued, “I thought we might be able to smooth the bill but in the end we couldn’t. I offered to help but they weren’t listening. When this bill fails, and it will, I figure by the Fall they will be calling.”

Lott went on to enumerate some points he thought should be in a successful bill such as the creation of a guest worker status, improved border control, and a path to citizenship that would not be fast-tracked.

“Notice I didn’t say anything about illegals. That is because there is nothing that can be done about it. Right now there is something like 11 or 12 million illegals in the country. All we can do is catch them when we can and send them back and punish employers for hiring them. But we have to act now before it becomes a 29 million illegal problem,” Lott said.

Reelection

Trent Lott is so popular in Mississippi and swings such power as the chairman of the Senate Committee on Rules and Administration as well as sitting on the Senate Finance, and the Intelligence, Commerce, Science, and Transportation committees, his final election bid will have no credible opposition. However, considering his previous desire to retire (as referenced in part 1), the question begs to be answered: Will he stay for the full term?

“When I could have resigned (during the Strom Thurmond affair) I didn’t. The people sent me here to do a job and I stayed then so there should be no expectation that I would seek reelection without intending to stay the full term,” Lott said before adding, “But considering my personal situation, the least is this lawsuit against my insurance company, there is no way to predict what might happen in 2 or 3 years.”

[Audrey2Katrina]

Witnesses: We trusted agent

Nationwide Insurance discouraged purchase of flood policy, five testify

By QUINCY COLLINS SMITH 7/12/06
sunherald.com


Paul Leonard's Washington Avenue home in Pascagoula was flooded with five feet of water during Hurricane Katrina. Leonard didn't have flood insurance because he claims his Nationwide Insurance agent said he didn't need it. His lawsuit against Nationwide for denying his damage claims continues in Federal Court in Gulfport. Leonard is represented by attorney Richard Scruggs
(Photo by Drew Tarter)

GULFPORT - With a check in his hand, Munson Hinman, a Pascagoula chiropractor, walked into local Nationwide agent Jay Fletcher's office in June 2005 to buy flood insurance.

But Hinman left the office with his check after Fletcher told Hinman he did not need flood insurance for his Northwood home because it was not in a flood zone.

During testimony in federal court Tuesday, Hinman said he confronted Fletcher at his office after Hurricane Katrina. His home, less than a mile north of the beach, suffered mostly water damage during the hurricane.

"He denied that he discouraged me. I was upset when he denied it because I felt he wasn't being honest with me," said Hinman, who settled an error of omission complaint against Fletcher with Nationwide. "If he would have been neutral, I would have walked out of his door with a policy."

Hinman testified on the second day of Pascagoula police officer Paul Leonard's federal suit against Nationwide Mutual Insurance Co. The trial is the first of hundreds of Hurricane Katrina wind versus water lawsuits that have been filed against Nationwide.

The expedited bench trial, which is expected to last through the week, will continue today with expert testimony in Judge L.T. Senter Jr.'s courtroom. Defense testimony for Nationwide is expected to start late this afternoon or Thursday.

The Leonards claim that Nationwide, through Fletcher, misrepresented its coverage to include damage caused by a hurricane and that Nationwide failed to honor its policy for their Washington Avenue home.

Attorneys for Nationwide have argued that the evidence will show that Nationwide and its representatives acted appropriately in settling the Leonards' claim based on the facts of the Leonards' policy.

Hinman was one of five witnesses who testified Tuesday that they trusted Fletcher to provide them coverage for a hurricane, but they were discouraged or talked out of buying flood insurance.

Three other witnesses who watched Hurricane Katrina come ashore near the Pascagoula beach testified they experienced intense winds before the water rose.

Glenda Foster, a small-business owner in Pascagoula, testified that she and her husband purchased coverage for their business and rental insurance for their residence on Beach Boulevard.

She testified that Fletcher assured her that she had "all the bells and whistles" when she repeatedly asked Fletcher about coverage before Hurricane Katrina. But when an adjuster inspected damage to her business and told her she had no coverage, she was shocked, Foster testified.

When she went to Fletcher's office with the adjuster to clarify the matter, Fletcher laughed a little and told her she did not have flood coverage, she testified.

"He said, 'I told you to let her blow, not let her flow,'

" Foster testified.

Richard Scruggs, attorney for the Leonards, said local Nationwide agents did not often write policies for the Leonards and others like them because the commissions on flood insurance policies are low.

During cross-examination, the witnesses, including several who have filed suit against Nationwide regarding their policies, testified that they had no knowledge of the Leonards homeowners' policy or the damage to the Leonards' home.

Joe Case, a Nationwide spokesman, said testimony showed the witnesses did not have a clear understanding of their policies and Fletcher did not have the power to change standard homeowners policies.

[Audrey2Katrina]

Jefferson will try to get Fat City in better shape

Decaying district by mall seen as prime real estate


Officials say Metairie's Fat City is prime real estate and that they are looking to redevelop the entire area.


Thursday, July 13, 2006 TP/NOLA.com
By Mark Waller

Since it fell into decline in the 1980s, the Fat City section of Metairie has repeatedly resisted efforts to revitalize it. Now a fresh attempt is under way as Jefferson Parish seeks experts to study ways of spurring development in the faded entertainment district.

The parish government begins advertising today for consultants who Councilwoman Jennifer Sneed hopes can determine whether tax breaks, formation of a special security district, creation of public-private partnerships or other incentives will lure more office and retail businesses to the area.

"From a geographical standpoint, it's really the most promising piece of real estate on the east bank of Jefferson Parish," said Sneed, whose district includes Fat City. "It defies common sense to see that key, core area of the east bank continue to deteriorate."

Roughly bounded by Veterans Memorial Boulevard, Division Street, West Esplanade Avenue and Severn Avenue, Fat City was a hot spot for nightclubs, bars and live music in the 1970s. Restaurants, clubs and bars are still there, but its peak partying days passed long ago, leaving behind a reputation for strip clubs, clutter and attempts by officials to play down its decadent nickname.

Sneed said Fat City struggled with drainage, density and infrastructure problems well before Hurricane Katrina hit Aug. 29, but its condition has deteriorated since then. She said the area suffered looting, flooding and wind damage in the storm. Some storefronts remain empty. Buildings are decaying. Debris piles continue to appear.

"Right now it's a hodgepodge," Sneed said. "Not enough parking, not enough green space. There are no sidewalks."

Fat City's condition has long puzzled parish and business leaders who wonder why more isn't made of its location: beside the popular Lakeside Shopping Center, along busy Veterans Memorial Boulevard and near the south end of the Lake Pontchartrain Causeway. Parish officials have studied what to do with it several times before, producing glossy plans for improvement, but so far little progress has been made.

Sneed said she thinks the key is to let the private sector remake the area. She said she wants to see more upscale retail outlets, offices and high-rise housing and less emphasis on the nightlife that flourished in the past. Still, she said she doesn't want to discourage restaurants and some of the other businesses already there.

"The market is going to drive it," Sneed said. "Private business, private industry is going to drive it."

Some business leaders see the area as prime real estate and a potential economic engine for the parish, and they applaud the latest effort to improve it.

"There's got to be a way to put the land in Fat City to higher and better use, increase the tax base and everything else," said Cocie Rathborne, chairman of the Jefferson Business Council. "Anything we can do to rejuvenate the place is to the benefit of all the citizens of Jefferson Parish."

The group's executive director, Tim Coulon, a former parish president, recalled the many efforts to change the area and said the work can be complicated because there are multiple business owners in the district. Some of them are prospering under current conditions. But he said Katrina, and the resulting federal tax incentives for businesses to invest in hurricane-stricken areas, could finally help spark redevelopment.

Finding a firm to study ways to attract more businesses will take several weeks, Sneed said.

The work to rethink Fat City coincides with an effort to establish new rules for building high-rise condominiums in Jefferson Parish. The Parish Council is poised next week to vote on the codes, which could give developers more flexibility on erecting tall buildings in Fat City than in other parts of the parish. As the proposal is now written, Fat City, with its narrow streets, is exempt from a requirement that condo towers front major roads.

Coulon and Rathborne say high-end condos offer economic benefits, attracting affluent residents who could help redefine Fat City.

[Audrey2Katrina]

FEMA trailer inquiry broadens

Homeland Security examines contracts

Thursday, July 13, 2006 TP/NOLA.com
By James Varney
Staff writer

The inspector general of the Department of Homeland Security has agreed to look into a host of questions U.S. senators have raised about the controversial rebidding of FEMA trailer contracts along the devastated Gulf Coast, according to documents.

Details were not available about the inspector general's review, which centers on 36 contracts of up to $100 million each to maintain and ultimately deactivate the trailers in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Texas. Neither Matt Jadacki, the department's special inspector general for Gulf Coast hurricane recovery, whom inspector general Richard Skinner identified as his point man on the issue, nor the office's spokeswoman could be reached for comment late Wednesday.

In a letter dated June 16 and released Wednesday by Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., Skinner wrote, "We will review the allegations, and once we complete our review, we will follow-up with you and the Democratic Policy Committee."

Dorgan and Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., are members of that committee, and held a May hearing on the trailer contracts in Washington that prompted their questions of Skinner.

The inspector general's step is the second taken by a federal agency in response to protests from dozens of unsuccessful bidders on the $3.6 billion contract bonanza, the lion's share of which involves Louisiana work. Earlier, the Government Accountability Office had announced it was investigating the matter, a process launched in April that must be completed within 100 days.

The rebiddings marked an attempt by FEMA to move major hurricane reconstruction work away from four giant companies that had gotten it through no-bid contracts in the storm's chaotic aftermath, and instead bring in smaller, local companies, agency officials said.

But the rebidding process has been checkered with complaints that much of the work went to out-of-state companies, that the prices bid could not be squared with the scope of work requested, and that, in four separate contracts in Louisiana and Mississippi, one of the original big four companies, Fluor, was still getting the work through a wholly owned subsidiary.

Those charges made up the brunt of a letter Dorgan and Landrieu wrote to Skinner on May 26, a copy of which was also made public Wednesday. In it, the senators cited "intense debate and numerous bid protests," while asking Skinner to take a look. In particular, they called his attention to six points, which, in addition to the $400 million in contracts landed by a Fluor subsidiary, Del-Jen Industries, include:

-- "Apparently inconsistent information provided to bidders with regard to the contract's requirements"

-- "The wide range of cost estimates between winning bidders"

-- "Allegations that several winning bidders lacked stated qualifications"

-- "FEMA's failure to make winning bids publicly available, or to hold post-award meetings for losing bidders"

-- "(And) early indications that the winning bidders may provide inadequate services to trailer residents."


Documents unavailable

On the question of materials FEMA made available, the senators were particularly scathing. Their ire was raised by Kenny Edmonds, owner of River Parish RVs in LaPlace, who unsuccessfully bid for a travel trailer contract and was then informed by the agency in a May 17 letter that if he wanted his documents returned he had to phone a Washington number by May 29. Edmonds said he could never get through on the number; Dorgan's staff said it discovered the number was no longer working.

The issue was particularly touchy because the unsuccessful vendors have sought in vain to have FEMA release the winning bids so they could be scrutinized and compared to the bid specifications, a process they insist is normal business but which the agency has resisted.

"Representatives from FEMA have explained that they cannot discuss this matter at this time, because of the many bid protests related to this award," Dorgan and Landrieu wrote. "We were therefore surprised to learn that FEMA has informed losing bidders that their bid materials will be destroyed by May 29, 2006, unless they call to request that the materials be returned by mail.

"Unfortunately, those who call to receive a copy of their bid materials may be in for a rude surprise: The number listed on FEMA's own letter has been disconnected." FEMA acknowledged the phone number was not working but said it was out only a couple of days.

The allegation that FEMA might be destroying documents set off a flurry of activity in Washington on Wednesday. FEMA spokesman Aaron Walker said any such action was, "within GSA guidelines," and not that uncommon for federal agencies. "There's certainly not an effort to destroy any sort of evidence," he said.

Later, Walker said he had spoken with Dorgan's staff and he released a letter, dated June 26, that Patricia English, FEMA's head of contracting, sent to Dorgan and that the senator's staff said they received Wednesday.

In it, English argued FEMA followed the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR), that notes, "any excess proposal material, such as duplicate copies of proposals, is considered unneeded and the disposal of these materials is necessitated to minimize storage costs."

[Audrey2Katrina]

Follow the Money: Charity Distributions in Louisiana

Graph courtesy TP/NOLA.com 7/13/06

[Audrey2Katrina]

Private money steered to storm victims

Many opened hearts, wallets after Katrina

Thursday, July 13, 2006 TP/NOLA.com
By Bruce Nolan
Staff writer

A private agency Gov. Kathleen Blanco created last year to disburse millions of unsolicited dollars that Americans sent directly to Baton Rouge for hurricane relief has begun distributing part of about $40 million to nonprofit groups for housing, legal aid and other services to residents affected by Katrina or Rita.

The Louisiana Disaster Recovery Foundation was created by the state but now runs under an independent board of directors, said Sherece West, its chief executive.

The group has awarded about $8 million so far, giving to mainstream organizations like the Greater New Orleans Foundation as well as to smaller groups like ACORN, an advocacy group for the poor.

"We have nothing to do with the governor. Zip. Nothing. She doesn't call over here. She doesn't make grants. She doesn't interfere, and that's to protect her and us," West said.

In the torrent of giving in the first days after the storm, with television news beaming pictures of misery out of New Orleans, Americans poured money into the Red Cross, Salvation Army and other major private organizations.

But many also sent donations directly to the state, officials said. An envelope with $1,000 in cash arrived from Japan; bowling leagues mailed donations; schoolchildren took up collections and mailed them to Blanco wrapped in handwritten letters, West said.

Rather than fold the contributions into the state budget, Blanco created the foundation and gave it the money. She instructed its directors to raise more and disburse it to nonprofit groups doing Rita- and Katrina-related storm relief work all across south Louisiana.


About $40 million

Since then, the foundation received a gift of $24 million from the Bush-Clinton Katrina Fund, its largest donation to date. That money, which raised the foundation's total take to about $40 million, must be spent on housing relief and job creation, said James A. Joseph, chairman of the foundation's board of directors.

An Opelousas native who served as ambassador to South Africa in the Clinton administration, Joseph has wide experience in the world of foundations. He served for 14 years as president and chief executive officer of the Council on Foundations, an international association of foundations and corporate giving programs.

Joseph replaced Xavier University President Norman Francis, whom Blanco first appointed to head the foundation. Francis now heads the Louisiana Recovery Authority, the state agency that is planning and coordinating the state's rebuilding strategies.

Other board members include Brenda Birkett, dean of the business school at McNeese State University in Lake Charles; E. Renae Conley, chief executive officer of Entergy Louisiana; the Rev. Hampton Davis, a faculty member at Notre Dame Seminary in New Orleans; Berwick Duval II, a Houma lawyer; Linetta Gilbert, program officer of the Ford Foundation of New York City; Sibal Holt of Baton Rouge, retired president of the state AFL-CIO; R. King Milling, president of Whitney Bank; and John Redd III, an accountant from Lafayette.

In the agency's early days, Joseph said he solicited other foundations for about $3 million that the agency will use to finance its operating costs, ensuring that all other gifts will go straight into relief work.


Help for families

Since then the board has begun making grants, including gifts of $3.75 million to the Louisiana Family Recovery Corps, another Blanco-created private agency that provides direct assistance to families affected by Katrina or Rita. A grant of $1.25 million went to the Southern Mutual Help Association, a private nonprofit group that works with depressed areas of rural south Louisiana, West said.

The foundation also sent money indirectly into New Orleans by way of grants to the state bar foundation to subsidize legal aid, and to local advocacy groups like All Congregations Together, the Jeremiah Group and Trinity Episcopal Church.

The foundation donated $500,000 directly to the Greater New Orleans Foundation with instructions for disbursement to about 30 groups doing relief work in the city, West said.

The arrangement is not unusual, said Ben Johnson of the Greater New Orleans Foundation. Typically, the local foundation will collect a 1 percent fee to determine that the recipient of a donor's gift is in good standing and able to do the work the donor wants to finance. In addition, it creates the paper trail auditors require, he said.

For the moment, the disaster recovery foundation is not doing much active fund raising, but that may change in September, right after the Katrina anniversary date.

"We'll have a track record and will be able to show grants and results," Joseph said. "At that time, we'll have a story to tell."