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

[Audrey2Katrina]

First Wind Versus Water Case Heads To Court


The first of 3,000 "Wind vs Water" insurance trials began Monday in Federal Court in Gulfport. Hurricane Katrina caused $100,000 in damage to Paul and Julie Leonard's Pascagoula home. Their insurance company won't pay. Paul Leonard says, relying on his agent's word, he believed his policy would cover storm surge damage caused by Hurricane Katrina.

Every year when he renewed his homeowners insurance, Paul Leonard thought the hurricane coverage was all he needed. But just to be sure, he says he repeatedly asked his agent if he should buy a flood policy.

"I asked about flood insurance. His specific comment was I didn't need that stuff."

Leonard says relying on his agent's word, he believed his policy would cover storm surge damage caused by Hurricane Katrina. Leonard's attorney says the agent didn't want to be bothered with the extra paperwork required for flood insurance.

"Didn't want to deal with the paperwork. Because the premium and commission the agent received was so little, it wasn't worth the effort to do all the paperwork to get flood insurance. So he discouraged, actively discouraged his clients, Nationwide's clients, from getting flood insurance," says attorney Dickie Scruggs.

Leonard lives two blocks from the beach. Nationwide says his policy clearly spells out what it will not pay in losses, including flood.

"Flood water damage was not covered. We're sympathetic to the fact that they didn't have that coverage, but we have an obligation to live by the contract we agreed to. And to ask the judge to change the contract after the fact, that's not fair to Nationwide or to the thousands of people along the Gulf Coast that did purchase flood insurance," says Nationwide spokesperson Joe Case.

Case says the lawsuit is about "he said, she said."

"Mr. Fletcher adamantly says that he told his clients if they lived in a flood zone or their mortgage company required it, they would need flood insurance."

Leonard says he just wants his insurer to live up to the deal he thought they both agreed to.

"We're not looking for anything other than what we feel like we're owed - put our house back together, replace everything and put it like it was before Katrina."

The Leonards damage totals about $100,000. Paul Leonard testified Monday that so far Nationwide has paid him about $1,600, and that he estimates he has spent $30,000 out of pocket to repair his home so far.

The trial could go into next week.

[Audrey2Katrina]

Appearance Matters With Ocean Springs Buildings

Wlox.com 7/10/06

Ocean Springs has a reputation as a charming, artistic town - a place that cares about appearance.

"To Ocean Springs, it's very important," said business owner Larry Dryden, "We're a small town and we have that ambiance and we want to keep it that way."

Dryden says something as simple as flowers and green space can send a message of hospitality.

"I get a lot of compliments. A lot of people coming in because it looks welcoming, that type of thing," said the downtown florist.

A new design-review ordinance reaches beyond flower beds. It requires builders to achieve a minimum score on a variety of appearance categories.

Donovan Scruggs is the city planning director.

"It does look a lot at the facade of the building and the overall architectural design. This would include the roof and its formation, along with the elements on the side of the building, whether it be brick or a hardy plank material. Or metal in general," he explained.

"It's a good catch all ordinance. And we need it in place now because of the surge of new construction on Highway 90 in Ocean Springs. We just want it aesthetically pleasing," said alderman John Gill.

"The Oaks" is among the newest and some people would say, most attractive shopping centers along Highway 90 in Ocean Springs. But you might be surprised to learn that development would fall just short of the score required under the new ordinance.

Scruggs says the center could have made the grade by adding some decorative touches in the back and allowing a bit more green space.

The Southern Heart Center is among several existing buildings that would meet the new requirements.

"There's a lot of things in there to try and encourage the developers to think outside the box and come in with something that really does have some architectural noteworthiness," said Scruggs.

Matt McDonald was among two aldermen who voted against the new ordinance. McDonald told WLOX News he was concerned about the requirements, especially since a development like "The Oaks" would have failed to meet the standards.

By Steve Phillips

[Audrey2Katrina]

HARD EVIDENCE

Clerk of court's office climbing through the muck left by Katrina and controversial ex-clerk Kimberly Williamson Bultler


The new clerk of Criminal Court is digging out of chaos left by storm in the court's evidence rooms

Tuesday, July 11, 2006 TP/NOLA.com
By Brian Thevenot
Staff writer

In a dank hole of a room beneath the city's criminal courthouse, a huge pile of bullets lay scattered on the floor next to racks of rusty sawed-off shotguns that police pulled off the streets of New Orleans, evidence that prosecutors have yet to use in a court system stuck in slow motion.

Fourth Circuit Court of Appeal Judge Ed Lombard, the man appointed to sort through the mess in the flooded property and evidence rooms, strolled through the wreckage one day last week, surrounded by workers hired to painstakingly clean and salvage mountains of damaged documents and evidence.

"It's enough to arm Nicaragua," he cracked of the mountainous stacks of rusted weaponry.

Lombard, the former clerk of Orleans Criminal District Court appointed to the task by the state Supreme Court, couldn't say whether the firearms and other weapons -- in one case a brick, used in an assault by assailant "John Doe" -- belonged to open or closed cases. He estimated nearly half of the evidence may come from cases that have long ago been dropped.

Sorting through piles of disheveled evidence is just one of the monumental challenges facing a clerk's office struggling with sharply reduced staffing, cramped quarters and the transition from the administration of the widely derided ex-clerk, Kimberly Williamson Butler. Butler, who was thrown in jail for contempt of court in March before announcing her long-shot bid for mayor, is now under investigation by three agencies. (She dropped her re-election bid for clerk to run for mayor, and pulled in less than 1 percent of the vote).


Simply vanished


The newly elected clerk, former state Rep. Arthur Morrell, said Butler simply vanished during the transition, leaving him to sort through the complexities of serving a stumbling court system and prepping upcoming elections with a depleted staff and budget. Most of her top staff walked out without offering much guidance as well.

"There was no transition," Morrell said. "I asked some people to serve on a transition team, but when the time came, she (Butler) just left."

Now presiding over what once might have been considered a largely invisible backwater of city politics, Morrell must breathe life into what is a high-profile linchpin of the ailing criminal justice system.

Before and after the storm, Butler had raised the office's profile in less than desirable ways. In 2004, she botched the delivery of voting machines for an election. Then just before exiting the clerk's office, she engaged in a standoff with judges that earned her three days in jail for contempt. The dispute stemmed from the appointment of Lombard to take over the stalled FEMA application and property room cleanup that state Supreme Court judges stripped from Butler's purview.

While Butler spurned Lombard's help as an affront to her duly elected authority, Morrell welcomes it. And Lombard has made substantial progress. Outside the room with disheveled piles of guns, dope and other evidence, he showed off several others where evidence has been cleaned and filed away in waterproof plastic bags on shelves above the watermark on the walls. Butler had hired a Florida company, Biodefense America, to salvage the evidence at a cost of $8 million, a contract later canceled by Lombard. Now, a new contractor, Munters, a Chicago outfit, has nearly completed the work ahead of schedule for just $4 million.


Broken protocol


Meanwhile, state Attorney General Charles Foti is investigating Butler's letting of the first contract in an investigation spokeswoman Kris Wartelle called "very active." Butler earlier said she understood that investigators were looking into allegations of a "previous relationship" she had with the company. She denied any wrongdoing.

The attorney general is also looking into Butler's unsanctioned transfer of large amounts of cash evidence into bank accounts, an action she took without required court orders, Wartelle said. That matter also is being probed by District Attorney Eddie Jordan, according to a spokeswoman for his office, and by state Legislative Auditor Steve Theriot. Theriot, Wartelle and Jordan spokeswoman Leatrice Dupre all declined to provide further details on the investigations.

Butler could not be reached for comment. Her attorney, John Reed, said he believes his client has provided investigators all the documentation they need to dismiss the matter.

"I believe everything has been handled satisfactorily and will conclude happily," he said.

Criminal Court judges and others have expressed fear that Butler's depositing of the cash, which was taken off suspects, would nullify its evidence value in corresponding cases. Chief Judge Raymond Bigelow said Butler had no authority to move the cash for any reason without a court order. Reed asserts his client only deposited cash from closed cases in which the cash was no longer needed for evidence. She may have broken protocol, but no laws, he said.


Rusted pistols lie in a pile awaiting evidence remediation in a flood ravaged evidence room.

Staffing shortage

Looking forward, Morrell said his office is now muddling through with about three dozen employees, compared with previous staffing levels of more than 100. He has budgetary authority to hire about a dozen more, and hopes to have them working by July 17. But that will still leave him far short of the staffing he believes will ultimately be required to service the court system and organize upcoming elections on Sept. 30, Nov. 7 and Dec. 9.

The clerk's office used to have two or three employees serving each of the 13 sections of the criminal courts. Now it has one per section, Morrell said. That's not such a problem right now, because the judges are holding court only half as often because of a shortage of air-conditioned courtrooms.

"But if the judges said tomorrow they were opening all 13 courts, we'd be in real trouble," Morrell said.

The office's budget, once $2 million annually, has been cut nearly in half, Morrell said, although some of that gap will be filled by a one-time federal recovery grant for about $3 million. For ongoing expenses and additional staff, Morrell said he plans to seek more money from City Hall. Of course, he'll be waiting in a long line.

City Hall spokesman Terry Davis referred questions on the clerk's budget to Richard Ieyoub, the former attorney general recently appointed by Mayor Ray Nagin to serve as a liaison with the criminal justice system. Ieyoub could not be reached for comment Friday.

Even if the office had all the money it needed, it would still face the same difficulty in hiring faced by most large organizations in the post-Katrina era, particularly ones that pay poorly.


Replenishing the ranks


"It's hard to hire somebody at a low salary when Burger King and Popeyes are paying $10 an hour," Judge Bigelow said.

To prepare for elections, Morrell has hired back Teresa MacMurray, a longtime employee under Ed Lombard who was fired by Butler. Working as executive assistant to Morrell, whom she worked for during his runoff campaign, MacMurray is preparing a recruitment drive to replenish the depleted ranks of election commissioners.

During the recent mayoral race, Secretary of State Al Ater provided a substantial number of employees from clerks' offices statewide to help run the New Orleans elections. But the office can't count on that kind of help in upcoming statewide elections because other clerks' offices will be serving their own local voters.

The office needs a minimum of 250 new commissioners, MacMurray said. To find them, she plans to seek help from civic groups such as the Urban League and neighborhood associations around the city, as well as political science departments at local colleges.

Office space, too, remains in short supply. With its first-floor offices un-airconditioned and out of commission, Morrell's staff is crammed into a second- floor office, some working on tables instead of desks and all with large stacks of files surrounding them on the floor.

Criminal Court Judge Calvin Johnson, one of Butler's biggest critics on the bench, said he believes the clerk's office will ultimately get the money it needs, and has made substantial progress in a short time, given the state of disarray.

"We've accomplished a lot, much more than most said was possible," he said.

[Audrey2Katrina]

Corps' coastal report short on specifics

Protection will take billions, it warns

Tuesday, July 11, 2006 TP/NOLA.com
By Mark Schleifstein
Staff writer

Accompanied by a warning that protecting New Orleans and the Louisiana coast from major hurricanes would cost "double-digit billions of dollars" and take decades to accomplish, the Bush administration and the Army Corps of Engineers on Monday submitted to Congress an interim protection report that includes no recommendations for specific projects.

In a cover letter to Vice President Dick Cheney, who serves as president of the Senate, John Woodley Jr., the assistant secretary of the Army for civil works, warned that making the decision to proceed with greater hurricane protection could be daunting.

"Ultimately, decision makers will have to use their best judgments to make trade-offs as to which, if any, measures they deem practical," Woodley said. "There is no such thing as unlimited resources, and we must also not be indifferent to the consequences of proposals for levees and other storm-damage-reduction structures on the wetlands ecosystem."

The decision to leave individual projects out of the interim Louisiana Coastal Protection and Restoration report in favor of language on how future projects would be chosen, however, was immediately criticized by Gov. Kathleen Blanco and U.S. Sens. Mary Landrieu and David Vitter as not complying with the wishes of Congress.


Blanco's demands

Blanco demanded that the corps submit to Congress the five major projects recommended by the state for initial authorization:

-- Beginning design work on a barrier and gate plan to protect the New Orleans area from major hurricanes.

-- Closing the Mississippi River-Gulf Outlet to major ship traffic and beginning environmental restoration of the wetlands adjacent to it.

-- Design work on a plan for rebuilding eroded barrier islands and headlands and building new ones in the Barataria basin, which includes parts of Jefferson, Lafourche and Terrebonne parishes.

-- Authorizing the Morganza-to-Gulf hurricane levee project that stretches along much of the same area and has been awaiting congressional approval for several years.

-- Approval and financing for a variety of smaller restoration projects in southwestern Louisiana.

"These critical projects cannot wait another 18 months to be considered for action by Congress," Blanco said in a statement released Monday.

Blanco also criticized the report for reflecting "the administration's desire that the corps proceed under normal policy considerations," when Congress specifically ordered the agency to streamline its approval process for the hurricane protection and coastal restoration projects.

Irate senators

Landrieu immediately asked U.S. Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., the chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee's Subcommittee on Energy and Water, for a hearing to investigate why the administration changed the report that was being agreed to by local corps officials and the state.

"Levee and flood control is a life-or-death situation for the people of coastal Louisiana, and so, it is very disappointing that this report fails to do what Congress mandated: Give us all the facts and show us what it will take to protect coastal Louisiana," Landrieu said in a statement released by her office Monday evening.

"There are numerous differences between the final text and the report reviewed by the corps/state project delivery team, the corps' independent technical review team and the independent peer review," Landrieu said. "Of particular cause for concern is the appearance that the report may have been altered to eliminate important technical information and proposals. As a result, the modified report omits many recommendations that could have helped protect the people of Louisiana and the nation they serve."

Vitter also criticized the administration for altering the report after corps and state officials had agreed on language that would have allowed Congress to authorize the beginning of work on some projects.

"While these discussions seemed to be progressing well, the assistant secretary of the Army decided to gut the report and remove all substance from the report," Vitter said in a statement. "This lack of leadership and ineptitude has become the rule rather than the exception. Two weeks ago, I expressed frustration with the corps on their repeated failures to meet self-imposed deadlines and goals. This report is nothing more than another slap in the face of Louisiana."

Tom Waters, chief of planning and policy for the corps, defended the decision to strip individual projects from the interim report during a news conference announcing its release, saying it was too early in the process to be looking at individual projects.

He said that decision followed a "comprehensive technical review for both technical content and policy purposes" by senior officials, whom he refused to name. He said the review followed traditional corps procedures for major projects.

"That was the result of the review within the agency and within the administration that it's too early to recommend projects for authorization," he said.

No estimates forthcoming

Dan Hitchings, an official with the corps' Mississippi Valley Division office in Vicksburg, which oversees all work along the river from Louisiana to Minnesota, said it was too early to estimate the cost of any alternative hurricane protection plans, adding that the release of such numbers would be "irresponsible."

A May 15 draft version of the plan, written before changes were made by senior officials, did include estimates for the projects recommended for initial approval by the state, however. The barrier plan, which would include higher levees and gates east of the Mississippi River, was estimated at $23.5 billion, a figure used in early discussions during the interagency team review, and would need $90 million from Congress for initial planning and design.

The MR-GO modification proposal would require $3.5 million for preparing a report leading to the channel's deauthorization by Congress for larger ships and for planning wetlands restoration.

The Barataria shoreline restoration proposal would need $300 million, based on studies already completed by federal and state officials.

The Morganza-to-Gulf levee project already is estimated to cost $887 million.

And authorizing construction of smaller projects, largely in southwestern Louisiana, that already are being considered under the federal Breaux Act program, would cost $774 million, according to the earlier draft.

Al Naomi, a New Orleans district corps employee who has been leading the study, said a great deal of work has already been completed. Accompanying the release of the 78-page report were 13 appendices totaling several thousand pages.


Models of a monster

Naomi said corps investigators working on the study are already using a computerized version of the maximum hurricane believed able to hit the Louisiana coast to determine what protection is needed.

That storm has top winds of 165 mph when it goes ashore, which means it actually could be stronger in the Gulf. It could result in a storm surge as high as 40 feet, which would include still water and waves. The surge from Hurricane Katrina is believed to have been no higher than 25 feet along parts of Louisiana's coast, with some reports of surge and waves reaching 33 feet on the Mississippi coast.

The "decision matrix" recommended by the report for choosing projects would divide the state into geographic planning units and identify assets at risk in each unit. It would look at the types of storms that could affect each unit and their chances of recurring.

Then officials would develop a variety of structural measures, such as levees and gates; coastal restoration methods to reduce surge and wind effects, such as the restoration of wetlands, barrier islands and coastal forests; and nonstructural measures, such as better evacuation plans, stronger building codes and a ban on development in low-lying areas.

After sifting through the various proposals, alternate plans would be developed, along with cost estimates.

Waters said developing a comprehensive plan will take until the final report is required by Congress in December 2007. But he said some projects could be pushed out more quickly, as they are deemed ready for Congress to consider.

The decision matrix itself should be completed by October, he said. That's also when Louisiana officials say they plan to issue their own report that will include a variety of specific recommendations for levee and coastal restoration projects.

The federal and state efforts are using research conducted during the investigation of Hurricane Katrina conducted by the Defense Department's Interagency Performance Evaluation Task Force. The team also held three public meetings to gather recommendations on levee and restoration alternatives.

The preliminary report and other information on the plan is available on the Web at http://www.lacpr.usace.army.mil/.

[Audrey2Katrina]

Complete Text of the 2006 Louisiana Coastal Protection and Restoration

Preliminary Technical Report to the United States Congress:

http://www.nola.com/katrina/pdf/071106_LCPR_2006.pdf

[Audrey2Katrina]

Sheriff isn't backing down at all

NAACP pushes for federal investigation

Tuesday, July 11, 2006 TP/NOLA.com
By Paul Rioux
St. Tammany bureau

As a local NAACP branch called for a federal investigation into racial profiling allegations against him, St. Tammany Parish Sheriff Jack Strain remained defiant Monday, saying critics have distorted his words in an act of "shameful political grandstanding."

The Covington branch of the NAACP said Strain's statement after a recent quadruple murder that he intends to target people with two distinctive hairstyles commonly worn by African-Americans is unconstitutional.

"His announced intention to stop anyone with dreadlocks or a 'chee wee' hairstyle is a clear-cut case of racial profiling that violates residents' civil rights," branch President Annie Spell said.

The NAACP has sent letters to U.S. Attorney Jim Letten and Attorney General Alberto Gonzales asking them to investigate the allegations, said Spell, who called on Strain to retract his statements.

Strain said the NAACP and American Civil Liberties Union, which criticized his remarks last week, are trying to manufacture a controversy by ignoring that his statements were made in the context of a murder investigation.

"I didn't just wake up one day and say, 'I want to arrest a bunch of black people,' " he said. "I'm investigating the horrific murder of four people, but it's become apparent that individuals making these allegations don't want to be confused with the facts."

The dispute stems from a TV interview Strain gave after two adults and two teenagers were shot to death June 27, allegedly in a botched drug deal in which the two suspects were identified as young black men, one with dreadlocks and one with a "chee wee" hairstyle.

"If you're going to walk the streets of St. Tammany Parish with dreadlocks and chee wee hairstyles," Strain said in the interview, "then you can expect to be getting a visit from a sheriff's deputy."

Spell brushed aside Strain's claim that his statement has been taken out of context.

"I think his words speak for themselves," she said. "They amount to a formal program of racial profiling."

But Strain said it's basic police work to stop and question anyone who matches a description of murder suspects.

"I make no apologies for my statements. I retract nothing," he said. "I will not compromise an inch when it comes to protecting anyone in this parish, even if it means hurting the feelings of someone on the south shore."

Vague description

Danatus King, president of the New Orleans branch of the NAACP, said the description of the suspects is so vague as to be useless.

"It is so broad that it turns far too many people into suspects and has a chilling effect on the entire African-American community," he said. "If the suspect is a 5-foot-tall male with dreadlocks, that doesn't justify stopping a 6-foot-tall male with dreadlocks."

Spell said the NAACP plans to hold public hearings to gather testimony from St. Tammany residents who believe they have been victims of racial profiling in this case or others.

"The majority of the calls we're getting are from people who say, 'He's just saying out loud what has been going on for a long time,' " she said. "We need to document their experiences to see if this is endemic of how the Sheriff's Office operates."

Strain said the Sheriff's Office has never been found guilty of violating anyone's civil rights in his 10 years as sheriff.

He said he enacted a policy in June 2001 prohibiting his deputies and detectives from engaging in racial profiling. At the time, many other local law enforcement agencies adopted similar policies, which exempted them from a new state law requiring police to collect data on the race of drivers and pedestrians they stop.

Dreadlocked daughter

Strain said he's disturbed that the allegations of racial profiling have diverted attention from the deadliest crime in St. Tammany in decades.

"This is nothing more than shameful political grandstanding by a bunch of people who are trying to bolster their fund-raising efforts," he said. "Shame on them. I hope they go to bed with visions of murdered teenagers in their heads."

Asked whether his detectives investigating the quadruple killings have stopped anyone based on hairstyle, Strain said, "I'm sure they have.

"I bet they've even interviewed my daughter," he added as he reached for a framed family portrait on his desk showing his daughter in dreadlocks.

But Strain quickly added that he doesn't view the controversy as a laughing matter.

"What hurts me most is that I have seen the people of St. Tammany Parish open their hearts and pocketbooks to people affected by Hurricane Katrina all across southern Louisiana, regardless of race, class or anything else," he said. "Now for people to try to make it an us-versus-them, north shore-versus-south shore thing is very disappointing."

But Strain's critics say he is the one being divisive. The ACLU blasted Strain last week for seeming to equate "thugs and trash" from New Orleans with displaced residents from storm-damaged public housing developments.

Strain denied that he was speaking about Katrina evacuees in general, but he didn't back down from his previously stated belief that the four killings were likely the first major case of post-Katrina "spillover crime" from New Orleans and that he intended to warn residents about the possibility of that spillover.

"Every lead has led us outside of St. Tammany Parish," he said. "This is one of the most horrific crimes committed in St. Tammany Parish in living memory. Is it a coincidence that both the victims and the perpetrators appear to be from New Orleans?"

[Audrey2Katrina]

Water pressure dries up, again

Lunch-hour snag frustrates thousands

Tuesday, July 11, 2006 TP/NOLA.com
By Michelle Krupa
Staff writer

The steeping, brewing and percolating ground to a halt Monday about 11 a.m. at two Rue de la Course coffee shops in New Orleans, an increasingly frequent phenomenon due to low water pressure, this time caused by a stilled turbine at the Sewerage & Water Board's water purification plant near the Jefferson Parish line.

"When the water pressure gets low, the customers can't use the bathroom, we can't brew coffee, we can't use the espresso machine because it will break, we can't wash dishes," coffee shop owner Jerry Roppolo said. "So we're basically out of business until the water comes back on.

"Welcome to post-Katrina," he added.

Thousands of households and businesses, as well as public facilities from hospitals to the Audubon Zoo, felt the effects Monday from a short but widespread water pressure depletion that left faucets discharging little more than trickles in areas of Uptown and the Central Business District.

The pressure began falling after 11:50 a.m., when a turbine stopped working at the Carrollton Water Purification Plant, causing pumps that sustain water pressure to homes, businesses and fire hydrants to lose strength, said S&WB spokesman Robert Jackson. Water pressure was restored by 1 p.m., he said.

The engine went down due to a problem with electricity provided by the S&WB's power plant, which fuels the city's water distribution system, Jackson said. When employees identified the problem, they switched the turbine's power source to commercially provided electricity, Jackson said.

A recurring headache

Though the cause of Monday's difficulties was unusual, low water pressure has been a common headache in New Orleans since Hurricane Katrina left pipes fractured, despite crews' efforts to repair the damage.

An estimated 85 million gallons of drinking water have been leaking every day out of cracked pipes, broken fire hydrants and other infrastructure damaged as a result of the Aug. 29 storm. To repair the leaks, workers must reduce water pressure in those areas.

Though Jackson said he did not know how many customers were affected Monday, managers of businesses from Riverbend to the downtown medical district said their drinking water simply vanished before lunchtime.

At the zoo, too

"There were people in the middle of cleaning, and the water just disappeared," said Dan Maloney, general curator of the Audubon Zoo.

Maloney said that since Katrina, the tropical birdhouse has been shuttered some days when walkways could not be cleaned because of low water pressure. Other animals, including antelopes and rhinoceroses, have been given tubs of water to drink from in lieu of their regular automatic fountains.

Water levels in the zoo's lagoon and swamp also have fallen, Maloney said, and toilets sometimes have been shuttered because there's not enough pressure to flush them.

"We're really trying to determine if we really need some additional and some very expensive equipment to try to boost our pressure internally," he said. "We're hoping there's some way to call on the Sewerage & Water Board to boost our pressure for us."

No problems

At Tulane University Hospital, Monday's water pressure deficiency was appreciable but did not affect patient care, spokeswoman Libby Wunsch said.

"They were operating normally," she said.

New Orleans Fire Department spokeswoman Carlene Barthé said the department notified S&WB officials of the low water pressure Monday morning after firefighters conducted daily pressure tests.

"But we had no structure fires, so it wasn't a problem for us," Barthé said.

Because low water pressure has caused trouble for months, the Fire Department has reinforced its regular resources with tankers, water-toting helicopters and engines that can carry 500 gallons of water, she said.

With water pressure plummeting Monday around lunchtime, signs popped up in the windows of eateries across town advising patrons that dry spigots had overruled midday food service.

But the problem had little affect at Cooter Brown's Tavern, Grill & Oyster Bar on South Carrollton Avenue. The typical July lull at the restaurant, which is popular with college students, meant that business was not bustling around noon, bartender Sam Winn said.

"Summertime, we're a little bit more quiet," she said. "My lunch crowd, luckily enough, was drinking iced tea and root beer, which comes in a bottle."

[Audrey2Katrina]

St. Tammany Public library seeks higher property tax

$152 million would help build 11 branches and renovate two

Tuesday, July 11, 2006 TP/NOLA.com
By Jenny Hurwitz
St. Tammany bureau

In an effort to jump-start the most comprehensive and costly overhaul of St. Tammany Parish's public library system to date, the parish government is asking voters to approve a property tax increase Saturday that is expected to generate about $152 million in additional money over the next 20 years.

In a sweeping restructuring of library resources, officials plan to use the money to renovate existing branches in Covington and Slidell and build 11 new branches around the parish, thus increasing the existing system to more than five times its current size.

Library officials cite a pressing need for the additional 7.5 mills, saying the current 5.24 millage generates only $4 million a year, providing just enough money for maintenance and operation costs.

If the millage passes Saturday, the library board could collect about $6.7 million more this year, according to the parish's chief deputy assessor, George Klumpp.

Parish leaders say the capital plan will benefit the whole community by improving library services, which include access to information and computers as well as cooking classes and book groups.

"They're a key component of our society and our parish, a place to go to stimulate the mind," said Parish President Kevin Davis, who along with the Parish Council has thrown his support behind the measure. "There are always going to be those questions (about higher taxes), but we always need to be thinking about the future and moving forward."


'Only so much money'


As the election approaches, questions remain among some residents who think the tax would come as parish residents are still struggling to regain their financial footing after Hurricane Katrina and last year's property reassessment.

"There's only so much money in St. Tammany Parish," Mandeville City Councilman Denis Bechac said, citing a general sense of opposition among his constituents to the millage increase. "The next thing you know we're going to be taxed out of our homes."

Voters last approved a capital program for the library system in 1983, financing construction for seven new libraries for $6 million.

This millage would cost the owner of a $200,000 home $94 a year, if covered by the homestead exemption, and $150 a year without the exemption, while the owner of a $150,000 home would pay $56 with the homestead exemption and $112 without it.

Though the library board can expect to collect another $6.7 million this year if the voters approve the millage, its annual take will fluctuate as property values change over the next two decades, Klumpp said.

On average, the parish's property taxes increase about 5 percent each year, he said.

But in a reassessment year, such as 2008, the numbers could jump by as much as 10 percent before resuming a steady 5 percent increase thereafter, he said.

Bob Wilson, who oversees special projects for the library system, said the library board likely will roll back their millage during reassessment years to offset potential windfalls from higher property values.

The board was one of only two public bodies to roll back its millage during both of the past two reassessments, he said.


Land acquisition tops list


To pay for the capital program, the library board has crafted a detailed preliminary budget, using estimates supplied by a library architect and bond attorney, that projects expenses for each library and maps out construction through 2025.

Land acquisition tops the list of priorities and likely will make up the board's earliest expenditures, Wilson said.

The board has set aside about $5 million to procure about 48 acres, he said.

In response to concerns about the possibility of relocating existing branches, Wilson said the site of each current library will be evaluated in the coming months to determine whether it can accommodate a new building.

If the current site cannot be used, the new branch will be placed as nearby as possible, and local residents will be involved in the selection process, he said.

After buying land, library officials will focus their efforts in the first five years toward rebuilding branches in Madisonville and along Pontchartrain Boulevard in Slidell, both of which were heavily damaged by the hurricane. They say those buildings will cost about $8 million each, according to the preliminary budget.

As part of the first phase, the board also expects to start building one of the two anchor branches, to be located in eastern or western St. Tammany.

Though officials have not determined which branch will come first, each one will cost about $28 million, according to the preliminary budget.

The other nine branches have projected costs that range between $7 million and $12 million each, while renovations to existing branches may cost between $4 million and $5 million, the budget shows.

As of July, officials had not yet determined the order of construction, a decision that will hinge on land availability, Wilson said.


A 'lifeline' in Katrina


He cautioned that the preliminary budget presents the worst-case scenarios for projected costs, and that adjustments could be made, depending on how property values fluctuate in the coming years.

Though Wilson acknowledged a tendency by the public to oppose tax increases, particularly post-Katrina, he noted that libraries proved their importance during the days and weeks after the storm, allowing residents to use computers to reach relatives, file insurance claims or contact employers.

"We were literally a lifeline of communications for citizens," he said.

He also noted that, out of respect for current economic hardships, the board scaled back its initial 9.5-mill increase request, which was proposed last year.

For some taxpayers, such as William Allen of Covington, the millage increase is a hard sell, particularly in light of last year's property reassessment, which left many homeowners reeling.

"My taxes have already gone up over 500 percent since last year," he said as he walked into the Covington branch Monday. "I would probably not be voting for the millage."

But for Rebecca Ducoing, 36, of Covington, the benefits of the library system -- which she uses to access books, movies and the Internet -- are well worth it.

"We love the library," she said outside Covington's branch Monday. "I hope it passes."

[Audrey2Katrina]

Golf course bills state for $444,600 subsidy

Players Club seeks extension of contract

Tuesday, July 11, 2006 TP/NOLA.com
By Robert Travis Scott
Capital bureau

BATON ROUGE -- A privately owned golf course in west Jefferson Parish has submitted a $444,600 invoice to the state in keeping with an annual taxpayer subsidy agreement and is asking to extend its five-year state contract by almost an extra year.

The Tournament Players Club of Louisiana recently provided a bill and a financial document to the state's division of administration that shows the course was a money-losing operation in the four months before Hurricane Katrina damaged the course and shut it down. It is expected to reopen Saturday.

Meanwhile, Gov. Kathleen Blanco as of Monday had not said whether she would sign House Bill 1281 creating a new state sales tax district in the area to give the Avondale course an annual financial boost. Last week the governor's office said it was awaiting a tax impact report from the Legislative Fiscal Office before making a decision. That report was delivered July 6 and warned of the potential financial impact of the sales tax dedication on the state budget.

Owned by the private golf company PGA Tour and local developers, the $24 million Tournament Players Club opened in 2004 supported by a $12 million state subsidy. The state also is obligated by a five-year contract to guarantee golf rounds booked through local hotels.

The club was built to provide a quality, public golf course to host an annual professional tournament. The Zurich Classic moved from English Turn to the Players Club in 2005 and then back to English Turn this past spring because of hurricane damage. The event plans to return to the Players Club next year.

The annual state subsidy is calculated on the golf club's financial performance in the 12-month period from May through April each year until 2009.

Although the course did a brisk business in its first year of operation, the state still had to pay nearly $1 million to the club because so few golf rounds were booked through local hotels. The payment stirred controversy about the contract, which was signed during Gov. Mike Foster's last term.

State officials and the Greater New Orleans Hotel & Lodging Association, which until then was unaware of the agreement, scrambled in April of last year to address the shortfall of hotel bookings, but apparently with little success.

During the most recent period, the state contract had guaranteed 12,000 rounds booked through hotels, but the course was closed for eight months because of Katrina, according to a June 26 letter to the state from Steven Winsor, the club's vice president of finance. During May to August 2005 when the course was open, only 580 rounds were booked through hotels.

Pro-rated over the months the golf course was open, the state is on the hook for 3,420 rounds at a cost of $130 per round, or $444,600. Hotels booked 430 rounds at the course in May 2005, just under 70 rounds in June and July and only 16 rounds in August.

Rather than writing off the time the course was closed, the letter asks the state to add those eight months "to the back end of our five-year agreement." Also, the letter asks the state to consider shifting the 12-month periods to begin in mid-July or Aug. 1 instead of May 1, which would represent a change in the contract that appears to extend the state's obligation further.

Division of administration spokesman Jim Baronet had no comment. Officials with PGA Tour and the hotel association did not return calls Monday.

House Bill 1281 by Rep. Yvonne Dorsey, D-Baton Rouge, is related to tax increment financing districts. It was changed in a conference committee on the last day of the legislative session by Rep. John Alario, D-Westwego, to create a special zone in the Avondale area to steer state sales tax revenue to the Players Club.

A newly created board would use increases in state sales tax collections within the district to pay off the state obligation and for other investments or support for the golf course. Alario said the club's letter to the state makes a "reasonable request. Things have changed a lot because of the hurricane."

The governor's office would rather have a better contract and this might be an opportunity to negotiate a new one, Alario said.

"The whole purpose of the course was to have a world-class facility to host the Zurich Classic," Alario said. "That's an economic benefit. We want that to go on."

Alario's legislation would steer the tax dollars to the course in perpetuity. But he said Monday he wants to change the law in the next session so that when the state contract with the course runs out, the money would then go toward developing a technology park. Economic developers have been planning a technology park near the golf course, he said.

A Players Club financial statement says that from May through August 2005, the club had revenue of $1.4 million but direct expenses and overhead of $1.9 million. Its net loss before taxes for the period was $735,284, and its total cash flow was a negative $573,225.

The state's subsidy to the course can be no more than its negative cash flow. So if the course begins to show a positive cash flow, the state will not owe money, even if the number of golf rounds booked through hotels falls short.

[Audrey2Katrina]

Corps felling trees along levees

By Sheila Grissett TP/NOLA.com 7/11/06
East Jefferson bureau

The Army Corps of Engineers began cutting down hundreds of trees along Lake Pontchartrain in Metairie this morning, part of a project to ensure the safety of the lake levee in the event of a hurricane.

Corps contractors were felling trees on the batture just west of Causeway Boulevard and working their way west. They plan to cut almost 370 trees on the Metairie and Kenner lakefront, five more along the West Return Canal levee in Kenner, three on the Bucktown side of the 17th Street Canal and more along levees in New Orleans.

The project is designed to reduce the chances that high winds can topple the trees. That could uproot them, leaving weak spots in the soil and letting storm surge erode the levee.

Initially the workers are leaving stumps about 4 1/2 feet tall. Once the 2006 hurricane season ends Nov. 30, the stumps will be removed and the holes filled before next year’s storm season.

More than two thirds of the trees to be cut along the East Jefferson lakefront, a designated bird sanctuary, are hackberries, a major source of food and shelter for birds and a host of beneficial insects. But hackberries are often dismissed as “trash trees”, and their wood is so weak that they fail relatively easily in a storm, corps landscape architect Stephen Finnegan said last week.

Others targeted for removal, including two dozen or so trees along the main lake levee in New Orleans south of Lakeshore Drive, are live oaks and pines.

But whatever other purpose a tree may serve, corps officials say Hurricane Katrina showed that any tree growing in the wrong place poses a potential threat to the region’s hurricane protection system of levees and floodwalls. In at least two cases, forensic investigators have suggested that trees uprooted during Katrina contributed to floodwall breaches that triggered catastrophic flooding in the area.

Most of the trees initially being cut are located on public property near the edge of the lake, ground that is part of the wave berm extending about 130 feet from the crown of the levee to Lake Pontchartrain. The berm’s low-angle slope is designed to slow storm surges and reduce their ability to damage or destroy the earthen levee, corps engineers said.

Michael Stout, manager for tree removal project, called the berm “an integral part of the levee” that must remain in tact.

The corps awarded two tree-cutting contracts on Friday. They total about $217,000.

A third contract will be awarded in the next few weeks to remove about 25 trees along the New Orleans lakefront between the 17th Street Canal and the Seabrook Bridge, engineers said. Trees there are growing on the levee slopes on both the water and land sides.

[Audrey2Katrina]

Tenet aims to unload sick hospitals, buff the rest

7/11/2006, 11:35 a.m. CT TP/NOLA.com
By DAVID KOENIG
The Associated Press

FRISCO, Texas (AP) — Patients who enter Centennial Medical Center might wonder if they've stumbled into the wrong building after seeing the flagstone walls and Starbucks kiosk in the hospital lobby and a stone fireplace in the dining hall.

The gleaming, $130 million hospital opened last year along a new toll road in one of the nation's fastest-growing cities. It has 118 beds, a large and well-equipped emergency room and the latest in expensive CT-scan technology.

"We don't do major brain surgery or transplants here, but it's a nice, comprehensive, suburban hospital," says emergency room chief Dr. David Arai.

It is the kind of hospital for which owner Tenet Healthcare Corp. would like to be known.

But if the average person has heard of Dallas-based Tenet, it's more likely because more than 40 bodies were found at one of its hospitals in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. Or because Tenet agreed last week to a $900 million settlement of charges that it bilked Medicare.

Tenet is in critical condition. It has lost nearly $5 billion in the past three years. Admissions and outpatient visits have been slumping. Bad debt — unpaid bills from uninsured patients — has been rising.

Company executives say all hospital companies are struggling to keep beds full. Explanations range from a mild flu season to the advent of drug-coated stents in heart surgery.

Analysts say many of Tenet's wounds are self-inflicted.

The company has endured years of bad publicity, including the bodies found at flooded Memorial Medical Center in New Orleans, unnecessary open-heart surgeries at a California hospital, and the government investigations.

Many Tenet hospitals are in competitive urban markets, and doctors are sending many of their patients to other providers.

"Doctors are image-conscious," said Robert Mains, an analyst with Ryan Beck & Co. "They don't want to send their patients to a hospital that's been on the NBC Nightly News."

Tenet executives last week agreed to pay $725 million and give up another $175 million they were trying to collect to settle several federal investigations into accusations that the company bilked Medicare. And they promised to spend more to upgrade medical equipment at their hospitals.

Tenet had cut investments in its hospitals to save cash for a Medicare settlement while also asking regulators to cut their demands.

Chief Executive Trevor Fetter said regulators believe Tenet should have paid "substantially" more — including triple damages for fraud — but decided they would never collect.

"They could have brought a lawsuit to seek (triple) damages that clearly would have been enough to put the company under," he said. Fetter added that Tenet's practices were wrong but not necessarily illegal, and that other hospitals did the same thing.

Tenet can fund the settlement out of its $1.4 billion in cash. With the threat of Medicare charges gone, it can afford to spend more to upgrade its hospitals, Fetter said.

Fetter said Tenet will commit to spend $800 million this year, up from a planned $550 million to $650 million, speeding the purchase of equipment that doctors want.

At Lake Pointe Medical Center in Rowlett, another Dallas suburb, Tenet has spent $40 million to refurbish surgery rooms, add an expensive CT scanner and magnetic-resonance-imaging machine, replace beds and expand a sleep disorders center.

Hospital officials also made recruiting visits to local doctors, resulting, they said, in the addition of 79 doctors with practicing rights — a one-third increase.

"Doctors need to be treated like customers. If you do that, you have a very good shot at them bringing their patients to you," said John Harris, Lake Pointe's longtime chief executive, who just left to start a new Tenet hospital in El Paso, Texas.

While upgrading some hospitals, Tenet will cut its losses at others.

On the same day they announced the Medicare settlement, executives said they would sell at least 11 hospitals, continuing to unravel an aggressive streak of acquisitions in the late 1990s.

For sale is a hospital in San Diego, where Tenet settled charges of making illegal kickbacks to doctors, as well as Memorial in New Orleans, where a spokeswoman said the Louisiana attorney general expects to release findings by early August into last summer's deaths.

Tenet expects to raise $250 million to $275 million from the sales. It will shed some of its weakest performers — hospitals that had lower patient volume and more bad debt than the chain average.

In the first three months of this year, the latest period for which figures are available, admissions at hospitals that Tenet still owns fell 3.3 percent. Outpatient visits dropped 7.8 percent.

"They're getting rid of 11 underperforming hospitals," said Erik Chiprich, an analyst with BMO Capital Markets. "They still have to turn around 57 remaining hospitals."

The low-cost South is the most profitable region, but physician resistance has been especially strong there.

In California, where Tenet makes about a fourth of its revenue, union nurses command higher pay and regulation is stricter, but hospitals can charge higher prices.

Dallas, where Tenet has five hospitals, is among the most competitive urban areas in the country. Centennial competes with three hospitals in neighboring Plano, including one that opened last year.

Mains, the analyst, said health-savings accounts and other new high-deductible insurance plans will force hospitals to cut prices because consumers will be paying more bills directly. Those who can't pay will add to Tenet's bad-debt problem, he said.

Dr. Les Sandknop, who has practiced at Lake Pointe since it was built in the 1980s, used to refer many of his patients to other Dallas-area hospitals. Now he is pleased with the hospital's imaging equipment and other upgrades.

"If they keep my patients happy, it's real easy for us to do our work," Sandknop said.

[Audrey2Katrina]

Law determining retardation in capital cases reinstated

7/11/2006, 11:34 a.m. CT
By ALAN SAYRE
The Associated Press

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — The Louisiana Supreme Court has reinstated a law designed to determine whether first-degree murder defendants are mentally retarded — and therefore exempt automatically from the death penalty.

Acting on a case from Sabine Parish, the high court, on a 6-1 vote, reversed State District Judge Stephen Beasley, who ruled in August 2005 that the law creates an "intolerable risk" that mentally retarded defendants could be executed in violation of a landmark U.S. Supreme Court ruling.

Under the law passed in 2003, shortly after the national court ruling, a determination of retardation can be made either by a judge before a trial — as long as prosecutors and defense attorneys agree — or by the jury in the punishment phase if the defendant is convicted.

Beasley said the law violated the federal ruling by allowing jury involvement. He said a determination should be made solely by a judge, just as judges made the determination whether a defendant is competent to stand trial.

But the state Supreme Court majority, with Justice Jeanette Knoll writing, disagreed and reinstated the law, saying that while the "interests of judicial economy" would be better served by a judge-only determination, "we cannot say the Legislature's choice of permitting this issue to be submitted to the jury offends constitutional guarantees."

Justice Bernette Johnson was the lone dissenter and said she would provide her reasons later.

The rulings came in the case of Jimmy Turner, 27, one of four people charged in the 2003 armed robbery and killings of a couple who were gunned down as they counted receipts in their feed store in Pleasant Hill.

Turner's lawyers say he has an IQ of about 64. An IQ below 70 can be a sign of mental retardation.

The first high-profile case in which the 2003 law was used was the first-degree murder trial of suspected serial killer Derrick Todd Lee, who was sentenced to death for the killing of a Baton Rouge woman after his jury rejected defense contentions that he was retarded.

[Audrey2Katrina]

Two die at Northrop Grumman shipyard

7/11/2006, 7:40 a.m. CT
The Associated Press

AVONDALE, La. (AP) — Two employees of Northrop Grumman Ship Systems were killed in separate cases at the company's New Orleans-area yard, authorities said.

About 1 p.m. Monday, a piece of equipment fell on an employee, crushing him to death, said Col. John Fortunato, a spokesman for the Jefferson Parish sheriff. The man was pronounced dead on arrival at a hospital.

About 10 a.m., a 50-year-old employee in the company's insulation department was found unconscious aboard a ship, according to a statement released by the company. He also was pronounced dead on arrival at a hospital.

The earlier death had not been classified, Fortunato said.

Northrop Grumman said both deaths were being investigated.

[Audrey2Katrina]

GCN Recovery News Report

This report will constantly be updated as information becomes available
Updated 7/11/06 9:25 AM

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...Some puppies born in Biloxi during Katrina have been adopted by White House staff members...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 will be 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 temporarily in 37,745 FEMA-provided trailers nearly ten months after Katrina. The Coast is still in relief mode not recovery more than ten months after Hurricane Katrina. 7/11/06 9:09 AM


Mississippi Power says it will raise electrical rates slightly to offset repair costs from Hurricane Katrina. The company is receiving millions of dollars in federal aid for repairs but the company says the full losses are not covered in the amount, but will offset what the company would have had to pass on to customers. Consumer advocacy groups say low income residents can't afford any rate increase right now. Mississippi Power reportedly says the rate increase on a $100 electric bill would rise around $4 dollars, but the specific amount of the raise has not yet been set.



Plans for a a huge 8,000 unit subdivision in north Harrison County north of Biloxi are moving forward. Developers have been meeting with officials from the county as well as Biloxi and D'Iberville over how to handle the water treatment needs of the project, which is a major problem as costs are high. The development is northeast of the Woolmarket community and straddles Highway 67. GCN has been hearing some talk that the City of Biloxi may be quietly considering annexing the area.

The first checks from the state's Homeowner Grant Program will be sent out this week, according to the Mississippi Development Authority. The checks will be distributed during closing meetings with the property holders and will not be mailed out, according to MDA spokesman Scott Hamilton. GCN spoke with Hamilton about the program this morning. Property owners will be notified by mail and the appointments for the closing meetings made. The grant program will provide up to $150,000 to homeowners outside of the federal flood zones who lost their homes to Hurricane Katrina's flood surge.

Almost 158,000 houses between Pearlington and Pascagoula were damaged or destroyed by Hurricane Katrina. About 16,000 homeowners are waiting to find out whether they will receive an estimated $3 billion in federal grants to rebuild their homes.

The Mississippi Development Authority is also asking for applications for phase II of the grant program. This program will provide grants for homeowners inside the flood zones, or anyone who suffered flooding from Katrina who meet the income qualifications. Governor Haley Barbour is urging low-and moderate-income homeowners whose homes sustained flood damage and who were not previously eligible for the program to register. Call 1-866-369-6302 to make an appointment at one of the service centers located in Bay St. Louis, Gulfport, Gautier and Jackson. The centers will be open through July 14 for this registration process.

Debris pickup in Hancock County was halted late last week. The Sea Coast Echo reports that the contractor was told by a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers official that they did not have the money at this time to pay for the work.

An MDOT official says the agency plans to move more quickly to better synchronize traffic signals on U.S. 90 as motorists are now more frequently using the beach highway and traffic is substantially higher. The signals on the roadway currently operate independently and often tie-up traffic. MDOT also is still considering using ferries to move some traffic to U.S. 90 across the Bay St. Louis and Biloxi bays while bridges destroyed by Katrina are under replacement. However, the costs and benefits of using ferries makes it unlikely that system will be used.

Thieves are increasingly stealing copper and other metals around the Coast as metal prices increase. Some area homeowners have seen all of their copper wiring and pipes stolen from the homes that are being rebuilt. Police say the thefts are becoming common. The scavengers are also targeting power company and phone company wire. The recent theft of Biloxi's alloy-clad Golden Fisherman was one example. Another theft of wire along the Popps Ferry Causeway several months ago severed the fiber-optic line used by CableOne, cutting TV and Internet service from Gulfport to Pascagoula.

Damages to the Coast's barrier islands were substantial from Hurricane Katrina. East Ship Island was especially devastated. The hurricane washed away sand, trees and the wildlife and experts say continued erosion could result in East Ship Island disappearing.

Gulfport's mayor Brent Warr is again at odds with his City Council. During a meeting Friday, Warr told the councilmembers that the city was overdue on a bill for $108,000 to a planning specialist that had helped the city with its charrette plans. Warr had told the council at an earlier meeting that an anonymous donor would pay for the work, but that money had not come through. While two of the city councilmembers chose to wait for the donor to pay, the remainder of the council decided to pay the bill.

Author John Grisham's Rebuilding the Coast fund has ended and is out of money after distributing $8.8 million to help Katrina survivors on the Coast. Since last September, the Rebuild the Coast Fund has given away $8.8 million to 635 individuals whose lives were devastated by Katrina. The Clarion Ledger reports that the best selling author and his wife Renee donated $5 million. Businessman Warren Hood of Hattiesburg gave $3 million. Another $800,000 was collected in bunches ($100,000 from one Mississippi corporation) and bits (a few children raided their piggy banks to give $5 each). Most of the gifts to individuals ranged from $1,000 to $25,000 depending on the needs of the individuals.

Gulfport Mayor Brent Warr says the city will soon begin renovating Jones Park. The plan has come from months of public discussions and planning sessions with city leaders. Warr expects the final price tag on the grand vision, which includes new boat ramps, an amphitheater and ample new fishing space, will be between $3 million and $5 million.

Coast area schools and cities are finding out the hard way that insurance coverage after Katrina is part of the latest legacy of the hurricane. Officials are reporting that insurance costs are extraordinarily high, ranging from $500,000 to $700,000 more than prior to the storm. Local municipalities are also finding insurance costs sharply higher, and for some of the smaller communities, insurance costs may be too costly.

While the Coast has received some badly rain this past week, the area remains under a burn ban.

Jackson County officials are relieved that property tax loses from Katrina and destroyed homes is not severe. Thanks to new construction county officials say the losses were limited to just around 2 percent of the county's income. While normally there would be a substantial growth, county officials say they will not have to make sharp cuts in spending for county services. While Jackson County, is seeing recovery moving well, there are still high concerns regarding tax losses in Harrison and especially Hancock counties. Hancock County officials may borrow $15 million and refinance county debt to keep going as the county is rapidly running out of money.

Wages at the Coast's casinos are higher than before Hurricane Katrina. Wages for dealers and other workers at the Coast's five reopened casinos are up 30 to 40 percent. Jobs that paid $8 dollars before the storm are now paying $12 or more. Casino officials say the increase in wages and salaries is because there are more jobs to fill than people to fill them. The cost of living is also higher as many people rebuild or find housing to rent. The higher salaries and wages are an incentive for people to return to work on the Coast.

[Audrey2Katrina]

Bay-Waveland merger may be best

By RYAN LaFONTAINE
sunherald.com 7/11/06

HANCOCK COUNTY - A takeover of county land by two Katrina-stressed cities here could affect the outcome of a study to determine whether the neighboring governments should become one.

"The territory has changed, which could affect the study," said Marty Wiseman, director of the Stennis Institute of Government, which has been studying whether consolidating resources or an all-out merger between Bay St. Louis and Waveland would be more cost-effective.

Both cities approved the study last year shortly after Katrina washed away most of their taxable incomes and operating budgets.

Earlier this month, lawyers from the two cities settled a 4-year-old legal dispute over annexing a stretch of county land near Mississippi 603. The deal gives Bay St. Louis a large part of the coveted property east of the highway and Waveland takes a slice of land to the west.

The financially strapped governments will soon have to provide services - including water, sewer, police and fire coverage - to their new territories.

"The cities have a long way to go in recovering from the storm," Wiseman said. "Right now, I think the focus is on extending services to areas where they were not previously providing them."

Researchers from the institute spent much of last week gathering data in the cities and Wiseman said officials in both towns seem eager to "look at all their options."

Financially, early indications point to an all-out merger as the best way to thwart long-term budget struggles in the small towns. Waveland seems to have a stronger sales-tax income, while the Bay could generate more property tax.

However, there are dozens of other factors playing into the study. Wiseman said talk of a merger is not taken lightly, since it means stripping two towns of one of their few remaining treasures - their identities.

"When you start messing with old towns like Waveland and Bay St. Louis, you're asking those people to give up their identities," he said. "Even if a merger were to make more sense, there's been a lot of hurt there already and a merger may be best saved for another day."

Wiseman said experts from the institute plan to meet with bookkeepers from the towns this month to crunch budget numbers. Results from the study should be finalized sometime in September.

[Audrey2Katrina]

Insurance commission extends deadline to challenge insurance settlements

By Rebecca Mowbray TP/NOLA.com 7/11/06
Business writer

BATON ROUGE — Louisiana Insurance Commissioner Jim Donelon ordered property insurance providers Tuesday to give home owners and business owners two years to file lawsuits against them.

If insurers don’t comply by Aug. 1, Donelon said he will use all means necessary as the state’s chief insurance regulator to force them to do it, including possible fines and revocation of the insurance companies’ certificates of authority to operate in Louisiana. The action comes a month after Donelon asked the companies to extend the deadlines voluntarily. Only a few companies did so.

Insurance companies had little time to react to the afternoon announcement.

State Farm, the state’s largest homeowners insurer, did not return phone calls seeking comment. Allstate Insurance Co., the state’s second largest property insurer, said it would “consider any requests made by the Department of Insurance.”

Farm Bureau of Louisiana, the state’s fifth largest insurer, said it would comply with the request, but it didn’t think lawsuit issue was relevant to Farm Bureau customers because most of the company’s claims are settled. St. Paul Travelers said it had not yet made a decision.
Unlike other Gulf Coast states, which allow people as long as six years to file lawsuits over insurance claims, Louisiana only gives its citizens one year to file in court to resolve disputes. Trial lawyers and the Louisiana Department of Insurance say they believe that Louisiana’s statute of limitations is the shortest in the country.“I think this is reasonable, and under the circumstances, it is justified,” Donelon said. “I’m sure the industry will not be happy with my order, but I think consumers in our state are deserving of this protection.”

Many property owners were kept from their homes and businesses by flooding and the mandatory evacuation order after Hurricane Katrina, and overwhelmed insurance companies were delayed in starting the adjustment process. As a result, many homeowners are still too early in the repair process to know whether the settlements they have received from their insurance carriers are adequate to repair damage to their homes.

Policyholders can pursue their claims after the one-year anniversary of the storm, but not in court. Consumer advocates say the end of the statute of limitations effectively ends insurance company payouts because the companies know consumers have no recourse. Insurance industry groups have said carriers will continue to work in good faith with their policyholders, but acknowledged that the deadline is significant.

Donelon’s directive could sidestep the constitutional questions that have arisen over two bills that passed the Louisiana Legislature last month and were signed into law by Gov. Kathleen Blanco.

House Bill 1302, sponsored by Rep Tim Burns, R-Mandeville, and House Bill 1289, sponsored by Rep. Arthur Morrell, D-New Orleans, would allow property owners two years to file a lawsuit over property damage claims as a result of Hurricanes Katrina or Rita. But because the bills would be retroactive, and thus possibly unconstitutional, the bills instructed Attorney General Charles Foti to get a Supreme Court ruling on the new laws before the Aug. 29 anniversary of Hurricane Katrina.

Foti filed a petition for declaratory judgment Monday in the 19th Judicial District Court in Baton Rouge.

But Donelon was afraid the bills wouldn’t make it through the court system in time and so on Tuesday he directed insurance companies to voluntarily extending their statutes of limitations

“I’m ordering them to do it,” Donelon said. “That is the only secure and definite way that consumers can be protected.”

Because the insurance companies would be voluntarily changing their own contracts with the people and businesses they insure, Donelon believes his directive will avoid the constitutionality questions.

In May, the American Insurance Association bristled at the legislative interference and said it preferred to let insurance companies provide extensions to policyholders voluntarily.

On June 5, Donelon asked insurance companies do just that, and voluntarily extend the lawsuit deadline to two years. Of the more than 100 companies that write property insurance in the state, Donelon had few takers.

The Louisiana Citizens Property Insurance Corp., the state-sponsored insurer of last resort and the state’s third largest homeowners insurance carrier, had previously extended its deadline to two years for hurricane claims. On Tuesday, four other companies — Fidelity National Insurance Co., the American Modern Insurance Group, the Assurant Group and the Balboa Insurance Group — announced they would follow suit.

Donelon said he was “disappointed” with the response, but insurers told him they were leery of setting a precedent that they would change their terms with their policyholders.

While Donelon says he has had no official word from major insurers , he is optimistic that it is in companies’ best interests to comply with an order from the state’s chief insurance regulator.

“I expect that most insurers will comply,” Donelon said.

Donelon said consumers should monitor the Insurance Department’s Web site, http://www.ldi.state.la.us, for a list of insurance companies that have agreed to extend the deadline, or call 1-800-259-5300, for updates. If consumers don’t find their insurance carrier on the Web site by Aug. 1, Donelon said it’s time to hire an attorney.

“To the extent that they don’t come by Aug. 1, my advice will be, if you’re insured by ABC insurance co., go get a lawyer,” Donelon said.

Robert E. Kleinpeter, president of the Louisiana Trial Lawyers Association, said because insurers posted record profits in 2005, and because the insurance department cut them some slack in adjusting claims timely because they had trouble mobilizing adjusters and accessing properties, it’s only fair that they offer the same consideration to their customers.

“If they needed more time, then their policyholders need more time,” said Kleinpeter, adding that extending the deadline will actually deter lawsuits because it will give people more time to make repairs and settle their claims without having to file suit to preserve their rights. “This is a big issue.”

[Audrey2Katrina]

Shooting hoops could bring a fine, jail time in St. Charles

By Matt Scallan TP/NOLA.com
River Parishes bureau

Playing basketball on the street will become a misdemeanor crime if the goal is placed on a public street, sidewalk or right of way, under an ordinance approved by the St. Charles Parish Council on Monday.

The measure, proposed by Councilwoman April Black, passed by a 7-1 vote, makes it unlawful for anyone to “unlawfully” obstruct a sidewalk, street or public servitude with a basketball goal.

“There have been quite a few problems with basketball goals in my district,” Black said. “Residents call the sheriff’s department and there is not a specific ordinance dealing with basketball goals.”

The penalty for breaking the law carries a maximum fine of $500 and six months in jail.
Black said she was particularly concerned about moveable goals that block sidewalks and are left there when no one is playing.

Councilman Ganesier “Ram” Ramchandran said the current law against obstructing public property already covers basketball goals. He cast the only no vote against the measure. Councilman Richard Duhe was absent.

“Next time, you could change it to ban cooking utensils in front of the house,” he said.

But Black said sheriff’s deputies have told her that the law isn’t specific enough to write citations for having the goals on the sidewalk.

“When the police go out, (the law) does not say basketball goals,” she said.

Sheriff Greg Champagne’s office did not respond Tuesday to requests for comment on the ordinance or how it would enforced.Councilman Lance Marino said he thinks the law is a good idea because he gotten a lot of complaints about games in the street.

“When the game’s over and the goal is sitting on the servitude, this will give an officer the opportunity to knock on the door and say if you leave this out here, you will get a citation,” he said.

Councilman Desmond Hiliare asked parish attorney Bobby Raymond for his opinion on the ordinance.

“Are we doing the right thing from a legal standpoint?” he asked.

“I can’t tell you whether it’s right or wrong.” Raymond replied. “That’s for you to decide. That’s why you got elected.”

Residents in Black’s council district contacted Tuesday had differing opinions about the idea.

St. Rose resident Elmira Blanks’ said family members often use the basketball goal in front of her home on Mockingbird Lane.

“I have an 11-year-old great grandson who goes out there,” she said. “I would rather see him playing out in front of the house than off where I can’t watch him.”

A few doors down, resident Sandra Royal has a different idea.

“It’s a real problem,” she said. “The kids just won’t get out of the way so you can drive down the street.”

Royal who said she has called in complaints about the games on numerous occasions, said that part of the problem is that there is nowhere to play basketball nearby.

“You can go to the bridge park, it’s a long way to go if you don’t have a car,” she said.

Those who play basketball think the ordinance stinks.

“Nobody here has a yard where they can play basketball. We have to play on the street,“ said Elisha Guarino, who lives on Carolyn Drive in Destrehan.

“They need to go after the people around here that are selling drugs, not us,“ said Kimberly Trahan, 18.

Neighbor Wayne Mizell said he doesn’t mind driving around the numerous street games.

“I worry about somebody getting hurt, but where else are they going to go? There aren’t any playgrounds around here,“ he said.

[Audrey2Katrina]

Third suspect sought in robbery at busy corner in Metairie

East Jefferson bureau

Sheriff’s deputies searched today for the third of three men who robbed a motorist at gunpoint at one of Metairie’s busiest intersections.

Two New Orleans men were arrested shortly after the holdup, the Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office said: Alvin Ball Jr., 22, of 2343 Desire St. and Rickey Little, 22, of 1638 Bartholomew St. Each was booked with two counts of armed robbery, said Sheriff’s Office spokesman Col. Robert Garner.

The robbery occurred Monday about 9:40 p.m. at the Shell gasoline station at Causeway and Veterans boulevards, where Deputy Anthony Bennett happened to pull in after completing his shift, a Sheriff’s Office news release said. Several people ran to his patrol car to say there had just been an armed robbery. Investigators later determined that three men had robbed two men inside the station’s convenience store, Garner said.

Bennett saw three men, one holding a dark semi-automatic pistol, running from the rear of the store south toward the Interstate 10 service road, according to the release.

He caught Ball. With the help of a Sheriff’s Office dog named Max, Little was discovered hiding in bushes at a business in the 3200 block of 28th Street, the release said. He was taken to Ochsner Medical Center for treatment for a dog bite.

Deputies were searching for the third robber, who was last seen wearing a white T-shirt, khaki shorts and white sneakers, the release said. At the gasoline station, they found money they think was taken in the robbery.

Deputy Stephanie Duplantis, who was responding to the robbery call, was involved in a wreck at Veterans and Cleary Avenue. She was being treated at East Jefferson General Hospital for injuries that did not appear to be life-threatening, Garner said today.

Anyone with information on the third robber may call detectives Sgt. Larry Dyess or Dax Russo at (504) 364-5300 or Crimestoppers at (504) 822-1111 or (877) 903-7867. Callers to Crimestoppers do not have to give their names or testify to earn up to $2,500 for tips that lead to an indictment.

[Audrey2Katrina]

Burn ban lifted in St. Tammany

St. Tammany bureau

Noting recent rains, St. Tammany Parish President Kevin Davis on Tuesday lifted an outdoor burning ban for most of the parish.

The ban, which took effect June 15, was the fourth imposed in St. Tammany since Katrina because of dry conditions that triggered outbreaks of large woods and brush fires. Davis lifted the ban after consulting with local fire officials, but said residents must follow parish regulations on outdoor debris burns.

The regulations limit fires to 8 feet in diameter and 4 feet in height. Fires must
be attended by someone with a working water hose and can only occur between sunrise and sunset.

Public safety is our first priority, Davis said, and we must continue to monitor conditions and burn only when safe for ourselves and our neighbors. Even though the ban is lifted, I encourage everyone to think of safety first.

The lifting of the ban applies to the incorporated areas of St. Tammany plus Folsom, Pearl River, Abita Springs, Sun and Madisonville, which follow parish directives on outdoor burning.

Slidell, Mandeville and Covington prohibit outdoor burning at all times.

[Audrey2Katrina]

St. Tammany officials say governor has promised to help ease growing pains

By Charlie Chapple
St. Tammany bureau

During a helicopter ride from Baton Rouge to New Orleans Tuesday, Gov. Kathleen Blanco made a sincere and unsolicited commitment to St. Tammany, Parish President Kevin Davis said.

“She said 'I’m going to do everything I can you to help you,' ” said Davis, who rode with the governor to a press conference where federal officials announced another $4.2 billion in housing assistance for victims of hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

Prior to that event, Blanco and representatives of several state agencies met for more than two hours at the Governor’s Mansion with Davis, Sheriff Jack Strain and most of St. Tammany’s mayors, answering questions from the local officials and listening to their concerns about recovery efforts in St. Tammany.

Davis said Blanco’s comment reassured him that the governor was listening, and that the session was worthwhile.
“Did we get everything we asked answered 100 percent? No,” said Davis, who requested the meeting with the governor and members of her staff several weeks ago. “But we did get answers or directions on a number of issues.”

Davis said state officials also got a better picture of ongoing recovery efforts throughout St. Tammany and the need for state help in those efforts.

“We wanted them to hear what we’re experiencing in St. Tammany,” Davis said. “We have schools that have been destroyed. We have one municipality (Slidell) working out of trailers.”

In addition to the recovery, Davis said the parish is experiencing
booming growth, because of displaced hurricane victims, and that’s straining law enforcement, hospitals, local government services, infrastructure and roads.

Specifically, local officials during the meeting got better guidelines on what they need to do to get federal recovery dollars through the state for various projects, Davis said, and what projects will or won’t qualify for those dollars.

“It was a worthwhile meeting,” Covington Mayor Candace Watkins said. Watkins said she had previously met and asked questions concerning city recovery efforts with several of the state officials at Tuesday’s meeting.

“Been there, done that,” Watkins said. But “I thought it was a worthwhile meeting,” she added, “because it was good to be there as a group and to voice our concerns as a group . . . and to show a unified front.”

“It was an very informative meeting,” said Mandeville Mayor Eddie Price. “We discussed a wide range of issues. We got an update on just about every issue” ranging from emergency communications to debris removal to health care to law enforcement.

Price said one of the major points made by local officials is “we want to be kept in the loop” about state recovery efforts so local officials can offer input.

John Smith of Slidell, who represents St. Tammany on the Louisiana Recovery Authority, said “the state is saying grace over at lot of tables” and sometimes doesn’t inform or notify local officials in a timely manner of meetings or actions being done by the state on recovery.

The meeting Tuesday, Smith said, opened a clearer line of communications between St. Tammany and Baton Rouge.

“It was a very good session,” Folsom Mayor Marshell Brumfield said. “The governor was very cordial and responsive to our various concerns.”