Thanks, Katrina

St. Tammany Parish Deputy Howard McCrea, THE wildlife specialist with the parish, has seen his share of alligators in the past 20+ years. He's spent his entire life tracking and wrangling alligators, said that while he spends most of his time in the Slidell area rounding up the creatures, the incident that occurred this week is the first actual attack.

“The last incident I can recall is a guy getting his finger bitten off when he was feeding a gator,” said McCrea. “These are very territorial animals, and as we move more and more into their territory, the greater the risks of something like this happening.”

McCrea noted that the area’s alligator population has experienced a huge surge in the last three years........since Katrina.

~~~~~~~

The little boy who was attacked by the eleven foot gator, Devin Funck of Slidell, is still in intensive care but has been taken off a ventilator and has been able to speak with with his parents, said Dr. Leron Finger, medical director of Ochsner Flightcare and a pediatric intensivist. Though attempts to reattached Funck's arm were not successful, he is otherwise expected to make a full recovery in the coming months, Finger said.

"Devin and his family's courage during this difficult time has been an inspiration to the entire Ochsner staff," he said.

What should also be noted is the incredible efforts by two St. Tammany Parish Deputies who responded to the attack.

Detectives Ben Godwin and Gordon Summerlin had to be hospitalized for heat exhaustion after the alligator was captured and shot.

As St. Tammany Parish Sheriff’s Detective Ben Godwin recalls:

“I was in the subdivision doing an extra patrol in the area for drug-related activities when I overheard the dispatcher telling patrol units about a 911 call regarding a kid who got his arm bitten of by an alligator. It was a kid. We had to go,” Godwin said.

Godwin and his partner, Detective Gordon Summerlin, headed toward the pond and were flagged down by a New Orleans Police Department officer who lives in the subdivision. He told them they would have to take the levee to get to the pond.

“But when we got there, we got there blocked by a chain link fence and the kid was about a mile and a half in,” said Godwin. “All we could do was run. I grabbed a towel I had in my unit, and me and Gordon took off running. I made it to the kid first. He was out by the pond where the alligator attacked.

“I pulled him to the top of the levee. He had bad lacerations on his neck, and his arm was just gone. I wrapped him in the towel and ran back with him.”

The child, Devin Funck, was remarkably calm, said Godwin. The detectives worked to keep him that way, and to keep him alive.

“I kept the towel over him,” said Godwin. “I didn’t want him to see his arm. He talked about paint ball. And he said he was thirsty. I told him I had a Mountain Dew back in the unit, but he couldn’t have all of it because I needed some, too.”

Godwin kept running through the heat of the afternoon. Funck started to turn pale.

“I kept him talking,” said Godwin. “If he’s talking he’s breathing. And he was thinking. He was making sense.”

When they were part way back from the pond, some help arrived.

“A civilian on a mule, a four-wheeler, was coming toward us as I was running back,” said Godwin. “He picked us up and drove us the rest of the way to where the fire department and medical personnel were.

“When we made it back, medical personnel took the kid, and the next thing I knew I woke up in the emergency room.”

The detective suffered a heat stroke. His partner ended up in the emergency room as well. Summerlin was dehydrated.

As tragic as this story is, it tells of what 99% of all law enforcement officers face on a daily basis and of their dedication to their duties.

Many thanks to Officers Godwin and Summerlin. Y'all rock.

Keep going, Lee

Nagin is such a son of a bitch.

I hope this is the beginning of the end for him

NOAH inverview with Lee Zurik.

Scuzzbucket of the Week

It's like a bad comedy. The sad part is it's true.

Wayward Jefferson Parish Senator (who voted for this idiot?) Shepherd has been in trouble for some time now. The latest is his arrest for what appears to be his slow descent into insanity.

Shepherd was released early Sunday morning after being arrested Saturday night, accused of punching his ex-girlfriend and stealing her cellular phone and $100, the Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office reported.

Shepherd, D-Marrero, was arrested around 6:45 p.m. Saturday and booked with unauthorized entry of an inhabited dwelling, simple battery and theft over $500.

Shepherd was arrested at his residence in Stonebridge. The sheriff's office said there were two women in the house, one of whom appeared to be performing a lap dance on Shepherd, who was on a sofa.

At a press conference Sunday afternoon, Sheriff Newell Normand reported that deputies responded to a call of aggravated burglary at the home of Thaise Ashford, 29, early Saturday.


Deputies later learned that Ashford and Shepherd had a romantic relationship that ended in 2005.



All that changed on July 30th:

During Tuesday's three-hour hearing, Thaise Ashford recanted domestic abuse claims she filed with the Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office on Saturday. She initially told police that Shepherd, whom she described as a jilted lover, bashed in her door while she was sleeping, became violent, left her with bruised arms and stomach, and stole her $589 Blackberry Pearl and a $100 bill.

In court, Ashford said she and Shepherd are still intimately involved. She said she manufactured the story for police out of frustration that Shepherd paid her a visit after 3 a.m. instead of at 10 the previous night as they had planned.

Explaining the missing phone, she said she and Shepherd were "fussing" with each other over trust issues and agreed to exchange cell phones to demonstrate that neither was being unfaithful. She explained away the broken door frame by saying it was previously damaged.

Ashford, 29, the transportation coordinator for the New Orleans Recovery School District, according to a state Department of Education Web site, testified that she yanked Shepherd's shirt at one point, igniting a scuffle inside and outside the house. When he eventually drove away, she threw a rock at his car window and called 911 to report that he had stopped by unannounced and hit her.

"I was angry, and before I even thought about it I did it, " she said.

Attorney John Reed, who called Ashford as a defense witness, asked her directly several times whether Shepherd had attacked her.

"Did Derrick Shepherd punch you?" Reed asked.

"No, he did not, " she said.

"Did he hit you?" he repeated.

"No, he did not, " she said.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Magner suggested that Ashford was bowing under great pressure by Shepherd, with the lawmaker going so far as to arrange for Gretna lawyer Bruce Netterville on Monday to draw up an affidavit recanting her report to deputies. He said Shepherd violated a state judge's earlier order to stay away from Ashford by putting her in touch with Netterville, and in turn violated his federal bond requiring him to abide by all federal, state and local laws.




U.S. District Judge Carl Barbier called state Sen. Derrick Shepherd's weekend domestic violence arrest "very troubling," but agreed with a magistrate judge's decision to allow him to await trial under house arrest.

"I've got to say, Mr. Shepherd, this is very disturbing, your behavior," he said. "I don't know what you're thinking."

The senator told Barbier that he had elected to have his mother's house on Blueberry Court in Marrero wired with a monitoring device,



saying his Stonebridge house in Gretna was merely an investment property that he plans to flip.


He uses a third address on Garden Road in Marrero for official documents, but a neighbor said a tenant has rented the house from Shepherd for at least a year.



When asked to state his legal residence, Shepherd told the judge that he "lives and sleeps" at all three houses, dodging accusations that he doesn't reside in his 3rd Senate District.

Ahh...summer vacation

We spent four days last week (the middle of July, mind you) on the shores of beautiful Lake Pontchartrain in Mandeville Louisiana. It truely is beautiful, but I believe I'd enjoy it much better in November. It was ungodly hot!!!


I'd say it was a bargain at $90/night.....a lot cheaper than some stinky hotel rooms in some unknown city between here and Maine (where we were supposed to go before the demons that run the oil business got super greedy). So without further ado, here are pictures of those very comfy cabins and our experiences:

click on photos for full-sized versions



We stayed in Cabin #9 of 12 cabins


The cabins are staggered, so that your views are varied but not obstructed by other cabins


The kitchen accomodates people who enjoy cooking - with more room than my own kitchen.


Nice dining room furniture for those who use it......we usually end up using ours as a place to drop our stuff. The floors are stamped concrete which are nice an cool underfoot.


The living room is very comfortable, with a fold out sofa and a love seat and a great tv.....BUT, for those of you with kids and particular TV watching habits....they only have direct tv basic...(no food TV, sniff)


Very comfy master bedroom. I'm sad that it was too warm to not have the windows open to hear the surf,


The guest room can sleep four kids or more...there are four bunkbeds.


Both bedrooms were connected by a screened-in porch with two rockers. Here's a shot I took when I mistakenly locked myself on the porch and knocked for five or so minutes, hoping to alert hubby or my daughter.



The four days we spent there were very calming for us. We lazed around, canoed, rode bikes and watch "the deadliest catch" forever (the only thing we got that interested us, lol.)

It was good to be away. The last morning we were there, I looked outside to see a beautiful rainbow on the lake.



And if nothing else, our trip there allowed my beautiful husband, with a heart for nature to capture this fantastic picture of a "cayenne dragon fly". The first he's seen in his life. It was truely a beautiful afternoon.



So if OPEC steals your vacation this year, push back at those fucktards and take a local vacation. There's a lot of beauty around us which we need to focus on. Katrina has taught me that much.

This sucks for everybody

Just when we think that it's okay to go back into the water again
this happens

From the Institute for
Southern Studies comes this article regarding the oil spill that took place in the Mississippi River on July 24th.

booms that have been placed along the Mississippi's banks to keep the oil away are in many cases trapping the pollution against the shore.... The smell of petroleum hangs heavy over the entire river, the banks of which are coated with tarry oil, as seen in this LEAN photograph taken on the border of Orleans and St. Bernard parishes:



according to a recent report from newsinferno dot com

The Mississippi River oil spill occurred when a 600-foot tanker and a barge loaded with fuel collided. The spill occurred about 1:30 a.m. central time last Wednesday near the Crescent City Connection, a pair of New Orleans bridges. The barge split in half, spilling more than 419,000 gallons of tar-like oil into the river. The barge’s owner, American Commercial Lines, immediately took responsibility for the oil spill.

The ill-fated barge was being pushed by the tugboat the Mel Oliver. Last week, the US Coast Guard determined that no one on the Mel Oliver had the proper licensing for piloting a tugboat. The operator on the Mel Oliver at the time of the collision had only an apprentice mate’s license, and no one else on the barge had a license. To legally pilot a tugboat, an operator is required to have a master’s license.

Now it turns out that the pilot of the Ruby E., another DRD tugboat that sank on the Mississippi River on July 18th just four miles from last week’s collision was also being piloted by an apprentice mate. Three days ago, the Coast Guard had said that the Ruby E.’s crew was properly licensed, but has since issued a correction.

So far, the Coast Guard has refused to release further details about its investigation the Ruby E. sinking, or the oil spill. Officials from DRD have also not returned the Times-Picayune’s calls requesting comment.



Now we're entering the height of hurricane season with this insanity in the river. Seems like things just get crazier and more unbelievable every day around this earth.

Lee Zurik

Local reporter is DEFINITELY getting under Nagin's skin.


Check this out and follow the links

Lee Zurik, an investigative reporter is doing his job and doing it well.

Hope they make him King of Endymion.

And if that happens, then of course Karen Gabdois deserves to be on the same float for her endless work keeping her nose in New Orleans' Katrina recovery.

As usual Schroeder covers this subject in his unique way.

vacation

Taking a few days off to do absolutely NOTHING. We're having a "staycation", staying close to home; we look forward to seeing manatees and other assorted vacation-type activities

Ticking Time Bomb

This NOPD officer - hopefully soon to be former NOPD officer - appears to have anger issues.

According to WWL TV dot com, Ashley Terry came unglued while waiting in line
at a Treme Summer Day Camp pickup line.

From NOLA dot com:

On Tuesday afternoon, dozens of children at a community center in Treme ran inside screaming that a lady outside had a gun.

The woman - who according to several witnesses announced that she was a New Orleans police officer - had come to the Treme Community Center to pick up a 7-year-old nephew and, for reasons unknown, became enraged at the driver of the car in front of her in the pickup line, witnesses said.

Numerous witnesses said the woman relentlessly honked her car horn. As the situation escalated, she yelled expletives at the other driver and got halfway out of her car and brandished a gun, they said. At that point one of the witnesses called 911, but several people said the responding officer spoke privately with the angry woman, then said loudly as the two walked together that she should've shot a man who told her to put her gun down because children were present, witnesses said.

On a radio talk show yesterday, the widow of an NOPD officer murdered by his partner, Antoinette Frank said that Ashley Terry's behaviour reminded her of Antoinette Frank as far as the crazed bully-like personality. Frank is on deathrow for the murders of Officer Ronald Williams and a Vietnamese family in 1995.

NOPD needs a real leader.

Scuzzbucket of the Week Part Deux

Slidell Police arrested one of their own after an internal investigation determined the officer stole from several Hispanic motorists during traffic stops, authorities said.
Officer Jonathan M. Lutman, 25, resigned Friday after two years on the force. He was booked with one count of theft over $500, eight counts of theft under $300 and four counts of malfeasance in office, Police Chief Freddy Drennan said at a news conference

Police believe Lutman targeted Hispanics because he believed the language barrier would prevent them from reporting the thefts, Drennan said. Most of his victims spoke English poorly or not at all, he said.
If convicted on all charges Lutman could face up to 74 year in prison at hard labor and up to a fine of $59,000 or both.

Domestic Tragedy

This was published six months ago, but I feel compelled to blog about it.

From the Institute for Southern Studies,
a publication which discusses the hypocracy of the current "leaders" of our country. It's entitled

A Global Human Rights Perspective on a National Disaster
you can read the report here (pdf file).

Hurricane Katrina was not only a domestic tragedy: The U.S. government's insufficient efforts to prevent families from being uprooted, its inadequate emergency response, and the still-lagging recovery are at odds with internationally-recognized human rights principles -- standards that the Bush administration has promoted in other countries.

The report is the first in-depth look at how closely U.S. officials have abided by the U.N. Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement in the wake of Katrina. The United Nations adopted the Principles in 1998 to protect the rights of people uprooted by war, storms and other calamities.

Leaders in Washington have embraced the U.N. Guiding Principles for helping disaster victims abroad, said Chris Kromm, co-author of the study and Institute director. "But there's serious concern that the Principles continue to be ignored at home in the Gulf Coast."

Scuzzbucket of the Week

Don't know this person's name, but stumbled across his blog via Google alerts for "gulf coast".
It's people who think like this that make the expression Sinn Fein more appropriate for
people affected by Katrina.

This mook, probably a frustrated yankee living in BFE in Wyoming, which is why he sounds so bitter, can't let it go when it comes to writing hurtful things about Katrina's legacy


The Gulf Coast is America's back 40. It's the ghetto, the slum, the sewer outfall. Nobody really knows what's going on down there, or cares, so all kinds of stories can be made up about it, and who's gonna argue?
And I'm thinking they're right. The Gulf Coast is the dark underbelly of flyover country. Say what you want about it, because nobody's gonna check up on you. We eat the fish and shrimp from it, burn the oil and gas from it, buy the products from the refineries along it, and no one protests drilling in it, so why should we pay attention to it?

nice guy, eh?