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

[Audrey2Katrina]

Smaller but with familiar face at top, Jewish school to reopen in Metairie


By Barri Bronston
East Jefferson bureau

In a strange sort of way, Hurricane Katrina may have been a gift to the New Orleans Jewish Day School even though it badly damaged the 3½-year-old Metairie campus.

Like some other private schools in the metro area, the school was beginning to lose students to public magnet schools, especially at the middle-school level. With the school having suffered more than $1.5 million in flood damage, closing it for the rest of the 2005-06 academic year, the school’s board of directors decided to eliminate middle school altogether and put its resources into reestablishing a quality elementary school.

“Logistically, it would have been hard to do,” Chuck Stern, president of the board of directors, said of maintaining the middle school. “It is much more complicated and expensive to run a middle school in terms of curricula and personnel, and we were already losing kids who wanted to get into a gifted magnet track somewhere else.”

And when the school’s new principal, Nancy Kossover, decided not to return to her position after Katrina, the board was able to woo back the popular Gwynne Bowman, who had retired just a few months earlier.


“She knows the school and knows what she’s doing,” Stern said. “She wants the school to make it, and when she saw that the school was in trouble, she wanted to do whatever she could to help.”

When the New Orleans Jewish Day School reopens on Aug. 14 for the first time since Katrina, Bowman will have an enrollment of 22 students, down from a high of 93 at the end of the 2004-05 year and 68 at the beginning of the Katrina-curtailed 2005-06 session. It will have four grades, kindergarten through third, with plans to go up to fifth grade over the next two years.

“The potential for restarting the school was exciting for me,” said Bowman, who spent much of her professional career as principal of the public Harold Keller Elementary in Metairie before taking over as head of New Orleans Jewish Day School in 2001. She retired there after the graduation of its first — and what would end up being only — eighth-grade class.

“My goal when I came here was to graduate a (middle school) class and lay the groundwork for the school’s future success,” she said. “Now we have a different vision. It’s to build a quality elementary school with a dual curriculum that challenges children academically and provides them with a strong Jewish identity.”

The school, an affiliate of the Jewish Federation of Greater New Orleans, is one of two Jewish schools in the metro area, drawing children from the Reform, Conservative and Orthodox movements. Torah Academy, also located in Metairie, is an ultra-Orthodox school affiliated with the Chabad-Lubavitch movement but which also accepts children of all affiliations. It too suffered major damage during Hurricane Katrina but reopened in January.

Roselle Ungar, interim executive director of the Jewish Federation, said it would have been impossible to reopen New Orleans Jewish Day School in January because of the extent of damage at the Goldring-Woldenberg Jewish Community Campus, which houses the school, Metairie Jewish Community Center and Jewish Federation offices. The entire first floor, which includes the cafeteria, gymnasium, offices and elementary classrooms, was flooded. So was the second floor of the gym where the Jewish Community Center runs its fitness program.

“We had it 90 percent ready in March to be able to open the JCC, but it would have been a great challenge to get the kids back for January,” Ungar said. “As of now, everything is almost completely done.”

Bowman said she is ready for the start of school, having hired her faculty, ordered supplies and materials and met with families, some of whom will be new to the school, others who are returning after having attended school in other cities.

She concedes that her greatest challenge will be recruiting students, especially with the metro area’s Jewish population down an estimated third of its pre-Katrina numbers of 9,500. But she thinks the school will be able to sell itself on its faculty, small class sizes and Judaic and secular curriculum.

Having received financial help from Jewish organizations around the country, the school is also halving tuition, charging $4,000 instead of $8,000.

The school will open with an average of fewer than 6 students per class, though kindergarten and first grade will be combined as will second and third. Stern said his goal is to grow to at least 10 per class.

“The challenge is to get the numbers up,” he said. “Generally, I’m optimistic. We’re an asset to the Jewish community. There are a lot of people who won’t even consider moving to New Orleans without a Jewish day school.”

Barri Bronston may be reached at bbronston@timespicayune.com or (504) 826-3448.

[Audrey2Katrina]

Two West Nile cases reported

By John Pope
Staff writer

The first two West Nile virus infections this year have been reported in St. Tammany and Tangipahoa parishes, the state health department announced Monday.

Although no identifying details about the two people were released, spokeswoman Kristen Meyer said both are recovering after being infected in late June.

The St. Tammany Parish person has West Nile fever, which has flu-like symptoms, and the Tangipahoa Parish person had suffered from neurological complications from the mosquito-borne virus, Meyer said.

Because West Nile virus is potentially deadly, the state Department of Health and Hospitals is urging people to take precautions against mosquito bites, including covering arms and legs when they go outside; staying indoors around sunrise and dusk, when mosquitoes are more likely to swarm; getting rid of standing water, where the insects breed; and using insecticide with DEET.

[Audrey2Katrina]

Despite suspension, former official seeks back pay from Kenner

By Mary Swerczek
Kenner bureau

Saying he was unfairly kept off the job, Kenner's former chief administrative officer, Cedric Floyd, is seeking at least $63,000 in back pay for the nine months he didn't work after being suspended amid an investigation into the hoarding of hurricane relief supplies.

"You can't suspend somebody just because they've been arrested," said Bill Wessell, Floyd's attorney. "They're entitled to their continuing wages until they are terminated."

Floyd was booked Sept. 23 with malfeasance in office. He was suspended without pay two days earlier after Kenner police searched his home and carted off truckloads of Hurricane Katrina relief supplies including clothes, food, tools and medicine. The Jefferson Parish district attorney's office has not decided whether to accept the charge, First Assistant Steve Wimberly said today.


Then-Mayor Phil Capitano had appointed Floyd to head Kenner's donation distribution effort. Floyd has said he stored items at his home with plans to hand them over later to the pastor of the New Hope Community Church.

Wessell wrote Capitano a letter demanding Floyd's back pay on May 8, nine days after Ed Muniz defeated Capitano for mayor. In that letter and another dated June 14, Wessell said state law deems that a public employee may be suspended without pay only if the worker has been convicted of a felony. The June 14 letter requests $63,319 in back pay.

Capitano's term ended June 30 without his administration acting on the request. Muniz's administration is now considering it.

"If he gets all that money, I say it's a 10-month vacation," Muniz said.

City Attorney James Cannella said he spoke last week with Wessell, who agreed to give Kenner another 30 days to determine whether Floyd should be paid. That 30-day period would end about Aug. 11. He said the Finance Department is determining how much money Floyd would be owed.

Floyd resigned on Capitano's last day in office. In the resignation letter, Floyd refers to a June 28 meeting attended by him, Capitano and Michael Gaffney, special counsel to Capitano. His letter said that Gaffney wrote an opinion agreeing with Wessell that "the city owes me back pay and benefits because I was unjustifiably suspended without pay."

"I am owed back pay, phone allocation, vacation-annual, and sick leave based on the city's executive and personnel policies," Floyd wrote.

[Audrey2Katrina]

Missing Norco woman found in N.O.

A mentally ill Norco woman who had been missing since July 8 has been found safe at Touro Infirmary in New Orleans, according to the St. Charles Parish Sheriff’s Office.

The woman, Linda Kay Costanza, was found wandering the streets of New Orleans on July 10, and brought to the hospital by ambulance, where she was placed in the hospital’s mental ward.

After the Sheriff’s Office publicized the woman’s disappearance on Thursday, someone notified the department about her whereabouts. Family members picked her up on Friday.

Family members say Costanza is doing well.

[Audrey2Katrina]

Turnout low, but hospital measures when passage in St. Charles

By Matt Scallan
River Parishes bureau

Only 5 percent of St. Charles Parish voters cast ballots in Saturday's referendum on two issues related to the parish's hospital, but those who did supported both by comfortable margins.

Only 1,723 of the parish's 32,000 voters cast ballots in the low-temperature referendum that authorized the hospital to borrow $5.5 million to generate additional money for a new wing, and to extend St. Charles Parish Hospital's property tax for maintenance and operations from 2011 through 2015.

Both measures passed with 65 percent of the vote.

"We're very gratified for the support," hospital spokesperson Pam Norfleet said Monday.


The referendum, which received the support of the St. Charles Economic Development Council, generated little public debate.

"One person told me that he had no idea that there was an election on Saturday, even though there were stories on the front page of the papers," said parish Chief Administrative Officer Tim Vial, who sits on the hospital board.

Approval of the borrowing measure allows the hospital to quickly re-advertise for bids for a 51,000 square-foot addition that will house new surgical procedure suites, an outpatient oncology clinic and the hospital's dialysis center.

The extra money was needed because initial bids for the project came in at $13 million, $4 million more than the hospital had originally budgeted. The hospital's board of directors rejected the bids in April, and decided to seek more money for the project, which originally got voter approval in 2003 as part of an $18.5 million improvement package.

The hospital plans to use part of the money to purchase up to 10 acres of land for future use as an assisted living center, a need that was identified in the hospital's SCOPE plan that outlined the parish's medical needs.

The property tax proposition reduces the maximum amount of millage that can be levied by the board from 2.53 mills to 2.48 mills. The tax revenue can be used for any hospital-related purpose.

[Audrey2Katrina]

Feud may privide a glimpse of West Bank's political future

By Meghan Gordon
West Bank bureau

The dogfight between Sen. Derrick Shepherd and Jefferson Parish Councilman Chris Roberts ended quietly last week with the stroke of Gov. Kathleen Blanco’s pen giving the legislator $200,000 for his pet project out of the state budget.

But their dispute was about more than a community center and a surplus of parish money that Shepherd sought to wrestle from the council. Some observers saw the row as a possible prelude to this fall’s 2nd District Congressional race. But more obvious, others say, is that it’s an example of how the younger political generation is more likely to slug it out in public unlike the old guard style of taking care of business in private.

Roberts has backed off a shot at Rep. William Jefferson’s seat for health reasons and the post-hurricane demographics haven’t shifted as much as he predicted. On the other hand, Shepherd appears a likely Congressional candidate, wanting to stage a repeat of his state Senate race, when he won a largely New Orleans district with what colleagues described as the same stubbornness that kept him locked in a shouting match over the YMCA.

Despite their recent clashes, observers note the two have much in common.

“He’s like Chris,” former Councilman Lloyd Giardina said of Shepherd. “He’s looking after his district. He sees things that he would like to control, and he goes after it. But it’s for the benefit of the constituency. That’s the name of the political game.”

Cocie Rathborne, chairman of the Jefferson Business Council, said Roberts will “stand up and won’t get pushed around.”
Acid tongues

The dispute between Shepherd, D-Marrero, and the Parish Council had its roots in the 2005 legislative session, when he tried to name an unregistered nonprofit as a recipient on the law that doled out Boomtown Casino taxes. He renewed the effort this year, and the Parish Council passed a resolution opposing use of the money for anything other than flood control or hurricane protection.

The disagreement started civily. But they eventually brokered a deal in which the three West Bank council members each gave Shepherd $200,000 of their district’s Community Development Block Grants in return for the senator dropping the legislation.

The peace lasted about a month. Then Shepherd announced, he would block a separate bill that the parish considered a formality, but a necessary one, in using riverboat fees for an emergency operations center in Gretna.

While the council attempted to break the stalemate, Roberts gave Shepherd a public tongue-lashing in the media that got even fiercer when Shepherd told three other councilmen on the Senate floor that he would lift his objection in exchange for $600,000 of the riverboat money. Shepherd said the councilmen invented the conversation.

That’s when Roberts called Shepherd “untrustworthy.” The councilman assailed the senator’s request for $600,000 as “public extortion.”

“I sure the hell hope he can sleep at night knowing that our 911 operators won’t be in a Category 5 building,” Roberts said at the time. “It’s really easy for him to hop in a car and evacuate when a storm’s coming.”

Shepherd fired back. He said the council’s desire to use the money for an emergency center was “hypocrisy” after they had chastised him earlier. He called the group “media freaks” for hashing out the dispute in public and declared them inexperienced politicians for not engaging colleagues in the give-and-take of legislating.

“That’s why I’ve been successful in getting legislation passed,” Shepherd said. “Because I don’t look at people and try to run over them. ... When this council is told, ‘No,’ to many things, it seems to be the first thing they want to do is cry and run and suggest that people have agendas different than theirs.”

Aggressive lawmaker

While none of his colleagues disagree that he is unusually outspoken for a young legislator, some said he takes it too far.

Sen. Ken Hollis, R-Metairie, remembered Shepherd, 37, taking the microphone on the Senate floor during the YMCA flap in 2005, asking his colleagues to vote for a measure that he said the Jefferson Parish Council unanimously supported.

“And I just talked to them and they had a resolution six-to-nothing saying they were against what he said they were all in favor of,” Hollis said. “He’s very, very bold. And he’s very, very aggressive.”

Allies said those traits pay off for Shepherd during campaign season, when he has no trepidation about asking influential people for their support.

Rathborne remembers one of those calls. Shepherd’s military service impressed Rathborne, a former Marine, as did his frankness and apparent concern for the community. Rathborne said he has supported him ever since and would continue to do so.

Councilman Byron Lee, another ally, said the West Bank has benefited from Shepherd’s coup snagging the state Senate district after only 1½ years in the House. Lee chalked it up to his unwillingness to budge.

“It doesn’t mean he’s always right, but he has his convictions and he stands behind his convictions,” Lee said.

Fighting for his people

Roberts also recently stuck out his neck in support of a controversial effort to fold the two levee districts into Jefferson Parish government, a move fiercely advocated by West Jefferson Levee Board President Chip Cahill, Lafitte Mayor Tim Kerner and other leaders in Roberts’ district. Meanwhile, no other council member has publicly embraced the idea.

Roberts had floated the idea of running against the embattled Jefferson. But he’s rethought that ambition since his April diagnosis of blood cancer.

“Congress, I would say, is not something on my radar,” he said in June. “Although, maybe six months ago, it would have been something I may have entertained.”

Despite the diagnosis, Roberts hasn’t missed a council meeting or stopped keeping close tabs on his sprawling district that stretches from Gretna to Grand Isle. He answered e-mails during chemotherapy, and the weekly treatments didn’t zap his penchant for rants at Waste Management or the Army Corps of Engineers from behind the council dais.

Observers and allies said the 29-year-old, already in his eighth year in politics, has plenty of time and potential to make use of his ambition. His first elected office was on the Jefferson Parish School Board, where he served five years before running for 1st District council seat.

“He can go as far as he wants to,” Rathborne said. “He certainly knows his constituents and what their desires are.”

Duking it out

Roberts bristled at the notion that his recent spat with Shepherd was about anything other than the emergency operations center and the parish’s control over the riverboat money. Fellow councilman Lee agreed, saying they’re both headstrong politicians who want their philosophies to prevail.

Giardina said it’s just part of the game.

“I call it turf wars. That’s all I see it as,” he said. “You just never forget and try to get even.”

But Sen. Francis Heitmeier, D-Algiers, said it’s a different style of the political game. Not speaking specifically about the Shepherd-Roberts row, Heitmeier said he’s watched younger colleagues stray from the trend he and senior colleagues had of keeping heated battles on topic and between themselves.

Heitmeier recalled a shouting match with the late Sen. John Hainkel that prompted the sergeant-at-arms on the chamber floor to step between them and asked them to cool down. They apologized to one another and moved on to another topic. Later that night, Heitmeier invited Hainkel to dinner.

“I said, ‘He’s my friend. It’s a political issue. It’s over. We’re still friends. It’s not personal,’ ” Heitmeier said. “That’s the way you’d like to see it. You debate the issue, you try to get your point across ... and hopefully we can do something good for the people that elected us.”

[Audrey2Katrina]

Nagin's chief technology officer resigns

By Frank Donze
Staff writer

Greg Meffert, the brash computer whiz recruited by New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin in 2002 to bring digital technology to a horse-and-buggy city government, has resigned, becoming the last original member of Nagin’s inner circle to leave the administration.

Meffert, who as chief technology officer was considered one of Nagin’s most trusted advisers, submitted his resignation on Friday, according to a joint statement released Monday night by Meffert and Nagin. The statement said Meffert will return to the private sector, though it did not give details, and said Nagin appointment Mark Kurt to replace Meffert effective immediately.

"We sincerely regret the loss of Greg Meffert to this administration and are now challenged with the task of recruiting a qualified individual to fill his shoes as we continue to rebuild our City," Nagin said in the statement. "Greg has been instrumental in our recovery and revitalization efforts and will truly be missed."

"This is a very positive thing and was a purely personal decision for me to re-enter the private sector. It has been an intense and challenging position, but also immensely rewarding four years," Meffert said in the statement.

Meffert methodically expanded his realm of responsibilities over the past four years to include oversight of planning, permitting and historic preservation.

After making it clear during the recently completed mayoral campaign that he would step down if his boss won a second term, Meffert had a change of heart following Nagin’s victory in May. In fact, he had recently been rumored as a potential candidate to fill a powerful new job that Nagin is contemplating to oversee major aspects of the city’s recovery from Hurricane Katrina.
Meffert’s departure surprised some of his colleagues and City Hall observers, who privately noted Monday that he had attended meetings all last week without mentioning a possible exit. During a wide-ranging, two-hour interview with The Times-Picayune on Thursday, Meffert gave no indication that he was on the verge of leaving.

As recently as Friday, Nagin himself implied that Meffert would continue to be an integral part of his team. In an e-mail Friday, Nagin said Meffert was not under consideration for the so-called “recovery czar’’ post he intends to create, but that he expected Meffert to play a major role in his plan to fill the post.

The mayor also wrote on Friday that Meffert and City Attorney Penya Moses-Fields “are taking the lead on how to set up a Recovery Department,’’ a task that Nagin said would include a national search “for the right person.’’

An Internet entrepreneur largely unknown in political circles, Meffert was drafted by Nagin at the outset of the administration to bring City Hall into the modern computer age. Nagin, a former cable television executive who placed an emphasis on technology during his 2002 mayoral campaign, often joked that compared to many cities, New Orleans was primitive.

“I don’t know how to give you an analogy that makes sense,’’ Nagin said as he announced Meffert’s appointment. “I was accustomed to George Jetson, and now I’m in Fred Flintstone’s world.’’

Nagin set Meffert’s salary at $150,000, placing the chief technology officer on the same footing as the chief administrative officer, traditionally the top appointed job in city government.

As he signed on to Nagin’s team Meffert offered a glimpse of his glib — some called it arrogant — style by reminding the public that he was taking a pay cut to come aboard. While declining to discuss his private sector salary with illumine Inc., a New Orleans software company, Meffert said when stock options and other perks were factored in, accepting the job with the Nagin administration likely would cost him $1 million or more over the next few years.

At times, Meffert showed little patience for the slow pace of city government. In his drive to make drastic changes in how business is done at City Hall, he sometimes ruffled the feathers of elected officials.

City Council members and Orleans Parish assessors claimed they were left out of the loop when Meffert took the unprecedented step of posting the tax rolls on the Internet, a move that helped foster spirited public debate about the inequity of the city's assessment practices.

Since Katrina, as media hordes from around the world have descended on New Orleans, Meffert has often acted as a spokesman for the administration, appearing on cameras during an episode of “60 Minutes’’ and being referred in newspaper articles as “deputy mayor,’’ a position that does not exist.

Despite his critics, Meffert delivered in many ways on his promise to improve technology and make New Orleans’ government more efficient. Under his watch, the city's Web was overhauled so citizens can now apply online for building permits and pay parking tickets and property tax bills.

[Audrey2Katrina]

Coastal restoration part of bill before Senate

By Bruce Alpert
Washington bureau

WASHINGTON - A water resources bill to be debated on the Senate floor Tuesday would authorize the first five projects in a massive effort to reverse the loss of coastline and wetlands that make south Louisiana more susceptible to flooding, while setting up a streamlined process to approve priority hurricane protection projects.

Under new language added to the Water Resources Development Act, projects recommended by the Army Corps of Engineers and a new Louisiana Water Resources Council for flood protection wouldn't need to be authorized by votes of the full House and Senate. Instead, the projects could get the required authorization by votes of the two committees with jurisdiction over the corps: the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure.

In the view of committee members, including Sen. David Vitter, R-La., that process would speed work on projects desperately needed to provide flood protection to communities that nearly a year ago were devastated by a levee system that failed to provide the anticipated protection during Hurricane Katrina.

The legislation would establish the Louisiana Water Resources Council, made up of people with expertise in geology and engineering related to hurricane and flood protection as well as in "restoration of coastal ecosystems" to insure that "our hurricane, flood and coastal protection projects are done right," Vitter said. He has been highly critical of the Corps of Engineers' efforts before and after Katrina.


Steve Ellis, vice president of Taxpayers for Common Sense, expressed concern
Monday that a process allowing congressional committees to authorize "multibillion-dollar projects means even less oversight than we're getting now."

"If anything, given the failed corps levee projects during Katrina, we need more, not less oversight," Ellis said.

But aides to Vitter said that the state can't afford long delays in building projects that are imperative for the kind of hurricane protection that will ensure the safety of Louisiana residents and help reassure businesses and residents that it's safe to return to Louisiana.

In another change reflecting the post-Katrina reality in Louisiana, the water bill proposed by Senate Environment and Public Works Committee Chairman James Inhofe, R-Okla., will remove an $828 million cap included in a House-passed bill as the federal share for five Louisiana coastal restoration projects approved by the corps. The cap no longer is realistic, according to the Vitter aides, because of the substantial losses of coastline and wetlands in the aftermath of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., said he hopes that passage of the water resources bill can come quickly. If the bill does pass it will have to be reconciled with the version that passed the House.

One potential stumbling block continues to be the major disagreement over what kind of oversight to provide the corps.

Sens. John McCain, R-Ariz., and Russ Feingold, D-Wis., have proposed two amendments. One would require a Cabinet-level coordinating committee to work with the corps to establish a yearly list of priorities. With a $58 billion backlog of projects, the two senators said, the corps should be focusing on the most crucial projects.

In addition, the McCain-Feingold amendments would establish an independent peer review process for all projects costing $40 million or more, or when requested by the governor of a state affected by a project, even if costs less than $40 million.

The failed levees during Hurricane Katrina show the need for strong oversight, said Chelsea Maxwell, legislative director of the National Wildlife Federation.

"We've been focusing on this issue well before Katrina hit, but the failure of the levees to provide the protection they were supposed to provide shows a clear need for more independent oversight of the corps," Maxwell said.

Inhofe and Sen. Kit Bond, R-Mo., have proposed an alternative process, requiring oversight for projects that cost more than $100 million and setting a list of priorities based on potential lives saved and economic benefits. Maxwell and representatives of other environmental groups said the proposal doesn't provide meaningful oversight.

But an aide to Inhofe said the senator will argue on the Senate floor today that the $100 million threshold will require independent review for 40 percent of the 44 corps projects authorized in the bill. The aide also said that Inhofe doesn't see a single objective way to determine which projects are most important, and therefore favors establishing a list of priorities, and then letting elected officials decide what projects should move first.

Among the coastal restoration projects authorized in the Senate bill are restoration of the Mississippi River Gulf Outlet, which Louisiana lawmakers are seeking to close; restoration of freshwater and sediment floors to the Maurepas Swamp by a small diversion of the Hope Canal; and restoration of the Barataria Basin Barrier Shoreline.

One proposal has been eliminated from the bill - a measure by Vitter that would have removed the corps' authority to regulate flood hazards and threats to conservation and wildlife on private property.

The senator said he was attempting to give homeowners protection from overzealous regulators who might object to installation of something as simple as a backyard swing set. But environmentalists said it would have allowed the cutting of cypress trees that are critical to wetlands and the state's coastal areas. A spokesman for Sen. James Jeffords, I-Vt., the ranking member of the Environment and Public Works Committee, said that the provision was removed from the bill at Jeffords' insistence.

[Audrey2Katrina]

3 arrested in New Orleans hospital deaths


One doctor and two nurses from Memorial Hospital have been arrested for Katrina mercy killings.


7/18/2006, 11:39 a.m. CT
By RUKMINI CALLIMACHI
The Associated Press

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — A doctor and two nurses arrested in the deaths of patients at a New Orleans hospital are accused of giving four patients lethal doses of morphine and a sedative known as Versed in the chaotic days after Hurricane Katrina.

The three were arrested late Monday on charges of being "principals to second-degree murder."

"We're not calling this euthanasia. We're not calling this mercy killings. This is second-degree murder," said Kris Wartelle, a spokeswoman for Attorney General Charles C. Foti.

The arrest warrants say the three intentionally killed four patients at Memorial Medical Center "by administering or causing to be administered lethal doses of morphine sulphate (morphine) and midazolam (Versed)."

The three were booked on four counts each after their arrests late Monday but not yet formally charged, officials said.

Foti had subpoenaed more than 70 people last fall in an investigation into rumors that medical personnel at Memorial Medical Center had euthanized patients who were in pain after the hurricane as they waited in miserable conditions for rescue.

The mother of Dr. Anna Pou, who was among the three arrested, said Tuesday she was distressed by the treatment of her daughter.

"Medicine was the most important thing in her life and I know she never ever did anything deliberately to hurt anyone," Jeanette Pou said in a telephone interview.

Dr. Pou's lawyer, Rick Simmons, said his client was arrested and handcuffed at her house late Monday night.

"I told them that she is not a flight risk. I told them that she would surrender herself. Instead, they chose to arrest her in her scrubs so that they could present her scalp to the media," Simmons said.

Memorial Medical Center had been cut off by flooding after the Aug. 29 hurricane swamped New Orleans. Power was out in the 317-bed hospital and the temperatures inside rose over 100 degrees as the staff tried to tend to patients who waited four days to be evacuated.

At least 34 patients died there during that period, 10 of them patients of the hospital's owner Dallas-based Tenet Healthcare Corp. and 24 patients in a facility run by LifeCare Holdings Inc., a separate company.

After the bodies were recovered, Orleans Parish coroner Frank Minyard said they were so decomposed the deaths could only be listed as "Katrina-related."

He later said samples had been taken from dozens of patients who died at various hospitals and nursing homes to test for potentially lethal doses of drugs such as morphine.

In a December interview, Dr. Pou told Baton Rouge television station WBRZ: "There were some patients there who were critically ill who, regardless of the storm, had the orders of do not resuscitate. In other words, if they died, to allow them to die naturally, and to not use heroic methods to resuscitate them."

"We all did everything in our power to give the best treatment that we could to the patients in the hospital to make them comfortable," Pou said then.

Harry Anderson, a spokesman for Dallas-based Tenet Healthcare Corp., said the arrests and allegations against the medical care workers, if proven true, were disturbing.

"Euthanasia is repugnant to everything we believe as ethical health care providers, and it violates every precept of ethical behavior and the law. It is never permissible under any circumstances," Anderson said.

In addition to Pou, nurses Cheri Landry and Lori Budo were arrested and later released on personal recognizance bonds, officials said. Orleans Parish Sheriff's Chief William Hunter said each was booked on four counts of "principal to second-degree murder."

It wasn't immediately clear if Landry and Budo had attorneys who could comment. Pou did not answer the door at her Baton Rouge home.

Angela McManus' 70-year-old mother was among the patients who died at Memorial. McManus said she had been recovering from a blood infection but seemed fine and was still able to speak when police demanded relatives of the ill evacuate. She died later that day, McManus said.

"At least now I'll be able to get some answers," McManus said. "For months, I haven't known what happened to my mom. I need some answers just to be able to function."

Tenet said Tuesday it is selling the now-closed Memorial Medical Center and two other area hospitals to Ochsner Health System, a sale expected to be completed by Aug. 31.

[Audrey2Katrina]

Ochsner buying three Tenet hospitals

NOLA.com 7/18/06

Ochsner Health System said today it is buying three Tenet Healthcare Corp. hospitals: Kenner Regional Medical Center, Meadowcrest Hospital in Gretna and Memorial Medical Center in New Orleans. It also is buying Tenet's New Orleans Surgery and Heart Institute, which is to open this fall on Memorial's campus.

Meadowcrest and Kenner Regional will remain open as acute-care facilities, Ochsner said.

"Our region has experienced unprecedented challenges over the past year. Our goal with this acquisition is to focus our collective strengths and talents to support a better future for our community," says Dr. Patrick Quinlan, Ochsner's chief executive officer. "We want to assure that these facilities will be a great place to get and give care. This new direction will require that we work together with open minds and high hopes. Together we can support the open staff model and plan for improved and expanded services."

Health care in the New Orleans area faces major challenges almost one year after Hurricane Katrina struck.

"Despite the challenges Ochsner faced, we recognized the importance of rebuilding the city's healthcare infrastructure. We began discussions with Tenet in late 2005 regarding a partnership or other affiliation, and subsequently came to a mutual decision for Ochsner to purchase these hospitals from Tenet and operate them within our system," explains Warner Thomas, president and chief operating officer of Ochsner.

Said Quinlan: "Following the acquisition, our focus will be on the future, what we can do now to meet the long-term healthcare needs of our community. This partnership will benefit the community by providing accessible, convenient, quality care for patients and attracting new physicians to the area with expanded academic medical education programs and ongoing clinical research. We will preserve continuity of care and patient-physician relationships by maintaining the current open-staff model and expanding medical services at these facilities."

Ochsner said it will work to increase available beds at Kenner Regional and Meadowcrest hospitals as the need arises and additional staff are recruited. "By collaborating with local physicians, combining our resources, and investing in additional technology and equipment at these hospitals, medical services will be more accessible to patients in the regions served by these facilities," Thomas said. "Although Ochsner continues to face reimbursement challenges, with this acquisition we will be well positioned to further support the repopulation of the city and we are confident that reimbursements for medical services for all patients will continue to be made available."

Quinlan said: "We have great respect for all of the healthcare facilities in this region, as we all have faced challenges far beyond our worst fears. While we feel Ochsner can contribute to the community through this partnership, we know that it will require the combined efforts of the entire medical community to stabilize healthcare in the region. We look forward to working collaboratively with all other hospitals and physicians toward that goal."

Kenner Regional is a 203-bed acute care hospital built almost 20 years ago. Its services include an emergency room, surgery department, hyperbaric medicine and wound care, oncology services, cardiology program and advanced orthopedic services.

Meadowcrest is a 207-bed general medical and surgical acute care facility that opened in 1984. The hospital offers comprehensive medical services, including cardiac catheterization, cardiovascular surgery, labor and delivery, outpatient services and women's services with a coronary intensive care unit, digestive care center and a Level III neonatal intensive care unit

Memorial, now closed, was a 317-bed tertiary care center formerly known as Southern Baptist Hospital. It opened in 1926. Although the main hospital remains closed since Katrina, New Orleans Surgical & Heart Institute, a component of the Memorial campus, will open in the fall.

Ochsner said Citigroup Corporate and Investment Banking served as its legal and mergers and acquisition advisers. Other advisers included the law firm of Jones, Walker, Waechter, Poitevent, Carrère & Denègre and the accounting and consulting firm of PricewaterhouseCoopers.

Ochsner Health System (http://www.ochsner.org) is a non-profit, academic, multi-specialty, healthcare delivery system dedicated to patient care, research and education. The system includes three acute care hospitals, a sub-acute facility, and 25 clinics located throughout southeast Louisiana. Ochsner employs mroe than 7,000 employees, 600 physicians in 80 medical specialties and subspecialties and conducts over 750 ongoing clinical research trials annually.

[Audrey2Katrina]

St. Bernard Parish to get Road Home assistance center

NOLA.com 7/18/06

St. Bernard Parish will be a site for one of the 10 assistance centers where applicants will meet with counselors in the state’s Road Home assistance program to discuss their options, a parish news release says.

The center is expected to open by late August. The release did not say where the center would be located.

Homeowners who apply for assistance through the Road Home program will be contacted for an appointment to meet with a counselor after registering in the Road Home registry. They can register by calling 1-888-ROAD–2-LA (1-888-762-3252) or going online at http://www.louisianarebuilds.info.

Applicants should prepare to bring with them to the meeting numerous records, including including a copy of the property deed and evidence of insurance damage payments to date, as well as a photo I.D., FEMA assistance documents, records of repair or mitigation costs, copies of insurance policies, proof of loss statements from an insurer, information about the mortgage and any liens on the home and information about Small Business Administration loans.

More than $9 billion will be available through the Louisiana Recovery Authority.
Homeowners are eligible for up to $150,000, minus money received from insurance.

More than 13,000 homeowners in St. Bernard Parish have applied to start the process.

[Audrey2Katrina]

St. Bernard Parish clerk seeks election workers

NOLA.com 7/18/06

St. Bernard Parish Clerk of Court Lena Torres is seeking commissioners to work the polling precincts for the Sept. 30 election in the parish, a parish news release says.

Commissioners are paid for their work, which generally requires being at a polling place from before 6 a.m., when polls open, until after the polls close at 8 p.m.

Anyone interested in serving as a commissioner for the first time should call the clerk’s office at (504) 271-3434 for information regarding commissioner school or visit the clerk’s office in the parish Courthouse on West St. Bernard Highway in Chalmette.

Anyone who has served as a commissioner in the past is also urged to get in touch with the clerk’s office about working the next election.

A number of items are on the Sept. 30 ballot in St. Bernard, including an election for School Board members, Ward A justice of the peace, Ward H constable, state secretary of state and state insurance commissioner

[Audrey2Katrina]

Mississippi murder suspect nabbed in abandoned house in New Orleans

NOLA.com 7/18/06

A murder suspect wanted in Jackson, Mississippi was apprehended Monday in an abandoned house in New Orleans.

The Eastern District of Louisiana’s U.S. Marshals Crescent Star Fugitive Task Force nabbed Glentez Brown, 23, at an abandoned house in the 8800 block of Jeannette St. in the Hollygrove area where he was staying with multiple malnourished pit bulls, said Roxanna Irwin, a spokeswoman for the task force.

Brown was wanted by police in Jackson for the July 7 shooting of two people. Vincent McCallister was killed at the scene while Jessie Bullock, who was shot in the abdomen and face, survived the attack, police said.

The task force had information that Brown might be in the New Orleans area with his girlfriend and their young child.

The task force includes officers from the New Orleans Police Department, Orleans Parish Criminal Sheriff’s Office, St. Charles Parish Sheriff’s Office, U.S. Coast Guard Investigative Services, and Louisiana Probation and Parole.

[Audrey2Katrina]

Arrests made in Memorial Medical Center deaths

Follow-up NOLA.com 7/18/06

By John Pope
Staff writer

A doctor and two nurses who were at Memorial Medical Center in the chaotic days after Hurricane Katrina struck last August have been booked with second-degree murder of patients who, according to allegations, were euthanized.
The arrests Monday night followed an intensive investigation by state Attorney General Charles Foti’s office for which 73 people were subpoenaed.
Arrested were Dr. Anna Pou, an ear, nose and throat specialist, and nurses Lori L. Budo and Cheri Landry. They were released, according to the Orleans Parish Criminal Sheriff’s Office.
Foti is scheduled to hold a news conference this afternoon in Baton Rouge. His spokeswoman, Kris Wartelle, declined to comment on the case beforehand.
Coincidentally, it was announced this morning that Memorial Medical Center is one of three Tenet Healthcare Corp. hospitals being sold to Ochsner Health System for an undisclosed amount. Also to be sold are Kenner Regional Medical Center and Meadowcrest Hosiptal in Gretna.
Another Tenet hospital, Lindy Boggs Medical Center, which, like Memorial, has been closed since Katrina struck, was not included in the sale.

[Audrey2Katrina]

Two found murdered in Marrero home today

NOLA.com 7/18/06

Two teens found shot to death in a Marrero house on Tuesday morning became the 28th and 29th murder victims in Jefferson Parish this year, authorities said.

Police were called to a house in the 6600 block of Benedict Drive around 9:30 a.m., where they found Dishante Hensley, 18, a resident of the house and Marlon Vedeau, 19, who was visiting the home.

The Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office is investigating the crime.

A reward is available for information leading to an indictment. Call Crimestoppers at 822-1111 or toll free at 1-877-903-7867.

[Audrey2Katrina]

Tenet to sell three New Orleans hospitals to Ochsner

NOLA.com -follow-up: 7/18/06

DALLAS - Tenet Healthcare Corporation announced today that company subsidiaries have signed a definitive agreement to sell three acute care hospitals to the Ochsner Health System of New Orleans. The hospitals are:

• Kenner Regional Medical Center, Kenner, La. 203 beds.
• Meadowcrest Hospital, Gretna, La. 207 beds.
• Memorial Medical Center, New Orleans, La. 317 beds.

Not included in the deal is Lindy Boggs Medical Center, also in New Orleans.


Tenet will not disclose the estimated sale proceeds until the transaction is complete because certain aspects of the contemplated transaction structure are confidential. Tenet expects to use the proceeds for general corporate purposes.

Tenet said it believes that selling the three hospitals to a local New Orleans operator with a long history of providing care to the area would be in the best interests of the community and would help speed the return of services. Several area hospitals have been closed since Hurricane Katrina, including Memorial Medical Center. Political and community leaders in Louisiana have asked health care providers to work together to develop solutions to meet the future needs of the area. As part of the agreement with Ochsner, the renovation of the New Orleans Surgical Heart Institute facility on the Memorial campus is continuing and is expected to open as a surgical hospital this fall.

Under the agreement, Ochsner has committed to offer employment to substantially all current employees who are in good standing at the three hospitals. The sale is expected to be completed by August 31, 2006, and is subject to customary regulatory approvals.

Ochsner Health System (http://www.ochsner.org) is a non-profit, academic, multi-specialty, healthcare delivery system dedicated to patient care, research and education. The system includes three acute care hospitals, a sub-acute facility, and 25 clinics located throughout Southeast Louisiana. Ochsner employs over 7,000 employees, 600 physicians in 80 medical specialties and subspecialties and conducts over 750 ongoing clinical research trials annually. Ochsner was ranked the top Best Place to Work in the city by New Orleans' CityBusiness Magazine in 2005.

Tenet disclosed on June 29 that these three hospitals were among 11 hospitals identified for sale as part of a strategy to enhance the company’s future profitability, expand capital investments in its remaining 57 hospitals and help fund the company’s broad settlement with the federal government. This is the first sale agreement announcement that is part of that initiative.

Tenet Healthcare Corporation, through its subsidiaries, owns and operates acute care hospitals and related health care services. Tenet’s hospitals aim to provide the best possible care to every patient who comes through their doors, with a clear focus on quality and service.

[Audrey2Katrina]

Tenet calls euthanasia allegations "disturbing''

NOLA.com 7/18/06- Follow-up

By John Pope
Staff writer

The allegations against a Memorial Medical Center doctor and two nurses are “very disturbing,” Tenet Healthcare Corp. said today in a statement, because euthanasia is “repugnant to everything we believe” and violates every precept of ethical behavior and the law.”
Dr. Anna Pou and two nurses, Lori Budo and Cheri Landry, have each been booked with four counts of second-degree murder and released, according to the Orleans Parish Criminal Sheriff’s Office.
According to the arrest warrants, lethal doses of morphine and Versed, a sedative, were administered to the patients in the Napoleon Avenue hospital in the chaotic days after Hurricane Katrina.
“If proven true, these allegations are very disturbing,” the Tenet statement said. “Euthanasia is repugnant to everything we believe as ethical health-care providers, and it violates every precept of ethical behavior and the law. It is never permissible under any circumstances.”
However, the statement said, the judicial process must run its course before any judgments can be made “about what did or did not happen” in the hospital.
State Attorney General Charles Foti, whose office spent months investigating the allegations of mercy killing, is scheduled to hold a news conference on the case this afternoon in Baton Rouge.

[Audrey2Katrina]

Two found murdered in Marrero home today

NOLA.com 7/18/06

Two teens found shot to death in a Marrero house on Tuesday morning became the 28th and 29th murder victims in Jefferson Parish this year, authorities said.

Police were called to a house in the 6600 block of Benedict Drive around 9:30 a.m., where they found Dishante Hensley, 18, a resident of the house and Marlon Vedeau, 19, who was visiting the home.

The Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office is investigating the crime.

A reward is available for information leading to an indictment. Call Crimestoppers at 822-1111 or toll free at 1-877-903-7867.

Update: The murders occured in the Lincolnshire subdvision of the Westbank community of Jefferson.

[Audrey2Katrina]

Chertoff cites gaps in storm preparation

He lists them, tells Blanco to plug them

Tuesday, July 18, 2006 TP/Nola.com
By Bill Walsh
Washington bureau

WASHINGTON -- There still are serious gaps in Louisiana's hurricane preparations, according to the Bush administration's top homeland security official, who Monday urged Gov. Kathleen Blanco to plug them -- and do it fast -- as the busiest part of storm season approaches.

Secretary Michael Chertoff praised Louisiana for its 2006 hurricane preparations, especially given ongoing recovery operations from the devastation of last year. But in a nine-page letter that reads in part like a to-do list and in part like a business contract, Chertoff reminded Blanco that federal help would be contingent on the state taking additional critical steps in preparing for evacuations, sheltering victims, emergency communications, transportation and law enforcement.

He urged her to get the job done in 10 days.


Pre-emptive move

The letter appeared to be an effort to pre-empt the kinds of squabbles that occurred after Hurricane Katrina between state and federal authorities over who was in charge and, ultimately, who was responsible for the poor preparations that various investigations concluded contributed to the storm's death toll.

"The secretary wanted to make certain that there are very clear roles and responsibilities outlined, expectations are understood and ultimately leaving no doubt in anyone's mind what the capabilities are at every level," said Russ Knocke, a spokesman for the Department of Homeland Security.

Col. Jeff Smith, the governor's director of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparation, defended the state's preparation for this hurricane season. "There's no question that plans can always be improved upon and coordinated," Smith said. "This letter is just another step along that journey."

In the parlance of hurricane preparedness, Chertoff made clear in the letter that the federal government is "leaning forward" to assist Louisiana this hurricane season, something it was accused of failing to do last year. He said the federal government has prestaged an unprecedented amount of emergency supplies throughout the region, has mobile homes ready to go, a registry of more than 250 debris-removal contractors and mobile communications units standing by.


Evacuation needs

Estimating than 96,000 people wouldn't be able to evacuate from South Louisiana on their own, he said the federal government has inked contracts to get up to 80,000 out by bus, 46,000 by air and 15,000 by passenger rail.

He warned, though, that it is up to state and local officials to get evacuees to pickup points where federal transportation will have their engines running. He urged Blanco, along with the 11 parish presidents and New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin who were sent copies of the letter, to provide a list of pickup spots by July 26.

He likewise gave the state until July 26 to identify 75,000 shelter beds within Louisiana.

"We have taken extraordinary steps to make arrangements with other states on your behalf to shelter those individuals," Chertoff wrote. "However, we cannot fairly ask other states to assume sheltering Louisiana evacuees until Louisiana itself has exhausted its internal resources."

In the next 10 days, he said, the state should come up with a list of special-needs medical patients who will need to be evacuated and sheltered in a hurricane. He said the state "must use its legal authority" to assess whether hospitals can shelter patients in a hurricane, review evacuation plans for nursing homes and make sure enough ambulances will be standing by.


Deputization plan

To avoid any confusion over law enforcement, Chertoff urged Blanco to work with his hand-picked federal coordinating officer, Gil Jamieson, to develop a deputization plan for federal officials who would be deployed to Louisiana to keep order after a storm.

Blanco has already told the federal government that she will need a hand in evacuating people if another major storm should hit. Chertoff said he is ready, but state and local officials have to order evacuations quickly to give the feds enough time to step in. He suggested a series of meetings leading up to a major storm to coordinate evacuation strategies.

"We are prepared to provide that support," he said. "But we cannot do so effectively without your close cooperation and assistance."

[Audrey2Katrina]

La. coast plans face review today

Senators are divided over corps oversight

Tuesday, July 18, 2006 TP/NOLA.com
By Bruce Alpert
Washington bureau

WASHINGTON -- A water resources bill to be debated on the Senate floor today would authorize the first five projects in a massive effort to reverse the loss of coastline and wetlands that make south Louisiana more susceptible to flooding, while setting up a streamlined process to approve priority hurricane protection projects.

Under new language added to the Water Resources Development Act, projects recommended by the Army Corps of Engineers and a new Louisiana Water Resources Council for flood protection wouldn't need to be authorized by votes of the full House and Senate. Instead, the projects could get the required authorization by votes of the two committees with jurisdiction over the corps: the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee and the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure.

In the view of committee members, including Sen. David Vitter, R-La., that process would speed work on projects desperately needed to provide flood protection to communities that nearly a year ago were devastated by a levee system that failed to provide the anticipated protection during Hurricane Katrina.

The legislation would establish the Louisiana Water Resources Council, made up of people with expertise in geology and engineering related to hurricane and flood protection as well as in "restoration of coastal ecosystems" to ensure that "our hurricane, flood and coastal protection projects are done right," Vitter said. He has been highly critical of the Corps of Engineers' efforts before and after Katrina.

Steve Ellis, vice president of Taxpayers for Common Sense, expressed concern Monday that a process allowing congressional committees to authorize "multibillion-dollar projects means even less oversight than we're getting now."

"If anything, given the failed corps levee projects during Katrina, we need more, not less, oversight," Ellis said.

But aides to Vitter said the state can't afford long delays in building projects that are imperative for the kind of hurricane protection that will ensure the safety of Louisiana residents and help reassure businesses and residents that it's safe to return to Louisiana.


$828 million cap removed

In another change reflecting the post-Katrina reality in Louisiana, the water bill proposed by Senate Environment and Public Works Committee Chairman James Inhofe, R-Okla., will remove an $828 million cap included in a House-passed bill as the federal share for five Louisiana coastal restoration projects approved by the corps. The cap no longer is realistic, according to the Vitter aides, because of the substantial losses of coastline and wetlands in the aftermath of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., said he hopes that passage of the water resources bill can come quickly. If the bill does pass, it will have to be reconciled with the version that passed the House.

One potential stumbling block continues to be the major disagreement over what kind of oversight to provide the corps.

Sens. John McCain, R-Ariz., and Russ Feingold, D-Wis., have proposed two amendments. One would require a Cabinet-level coordinating committee to work with the corps to establish a yearly list of priorities. With a $58 billion backlog of projects, the two senators said, the corps should be focusing on the most crucial projects.


Independent peer review

In addition, the McCain-Feingold amendments would establish an independent peer review process for all projects costing $40 million or more, or when requested by the governor of a state affected by a project, even if it costs less than $40 million.

The failed levees during Hurricane Katrina show the need for strong oversight, said Chelsea Maxwell, legislative director of the National Wildlife Federation.

"We've been focusing on this issue well before Katrina hit, but the failure of the levees to provide the protection they were supposed to provide shows a clear need for more independent oversight of the corps," Maxwell said.

Inhofe and Sen. Kit Bond, R-Mo., have proposed an alternative process, requiring oversight for projects that cost more than $100 million and setting a list of priorities based on potential lives saved and economic benefits. Maxwell and representatives of other environmental groups said the proposal doesn't provide meaningful oversight.

But an aide to Inhofe said the senator will argue on the Senate floor today that the $100 million threshold will require independent review for 40 percent of the 44 corps projects authorized in the bill.

Among the coastal restoration projects authorized in the Senate bill are restoration of the Mississippi River Gulf Outlet, which Louisiana lawmakers are seeking to close; restoration of freshwater and sediment floors to the Maurepas Swamp by a small diversion of the Hope Canal; and restoration of the Barataria Basin barrier shoreline.

One proposal has been eliminated from the bill: a measure by Vitter that would have removed the corps' authority to regulate flood hazards and threats to conservation and wildlife on private property.

The senator said he was attempting to give homeowners protection from overzealous regulators who might object to installation of something as simple as a backyard swing set. But environmentalists said it would have allowed the cutting of cypress trees that are critical to wetlands and the state's coastal areas. A spokesman for Sen. James Jeffords, I-Vt., the ranking member of the Environment and Public Works Committee, said the provision was removed from the bill at Jeffords' insistence.