This can't be good....

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Unscientific Poll

Latest from New Orleans CityBusiness Poll:
Q: Three years after Katrina, why is the New Orleans area not fully recovered?


responses here

We Are Not Okay - 3 years later

from the New Orleans Photoblog


there are miles of neighborhoods that are abandoned 3 years later. No stores, no gas, no life. homes in good neighborhoods all empty and full of mud. X’s still on the buildings to represent finding dead or not. It is so sad to see this, and to feel like the rest of the world has moved on and just left this vast beautiful city to fade into what once was, instead of a strong city that was able to come back… because the world helped and believed it could. .. the reality that the world is so immersed in itself, is sad and I do not blame the people here for thinking the rest of the world sucks. it does… where is all the promises of help to rebuild? where is all that money and materials donated by other countries and people? why has New Orleans become a game for insurance companies and the government to toss back and forth and why are we the people not standing up and demanding that our next “president to be”, address the crisis of New Orleans, so that the once great port city can rebuild and grow again? as a nation, we have abandoned one of the greatest cities of our country. We should be ashamed.

Katrina Survival Story

When I read about this item in todays Times Picayune in Charlotte's blog all I could think was "wow".

Here's Jennifer Zdon's take on it

The Diary of Tommie Elton Mabry

from Charlotte's blog

It’s a fascinating account of Elton Mabry’s solitary days of survival during and for eight weeks after Katrina in an apartment in the B.W. Cooper public housing development. Mr. Mabry documented his days by writing a diary on the walls of the apartment with a pack of sharpies he found while scrounging for food.

What I like about this story is it tells the story of how an average New Orleanian survived in a broken and isolated city in the aftermath of a governmental disaster: the failure of the levee system AFTER a major hurricane blew through.


Check out the whole story at the TP's web page link above.

Another Scuzzbucket

From NOLA Rising

Please take a look at the sketch below. If you know the person, or think it resembles someone you might know, contact the police at the numbers on the poster. The man in the picture is wanted for questioning in the unfortunate murder of Jessica Hawk. This does not necessarily mean the person in the picture is guilty, but may have pertinent information vital to the police investigation. If you don't feel comfortable calling, you can leave an anonymous tip at Crimestoppers. Don't let this New Orleans tragedy go unsolved!

Criminals is Stupid

this pea brained fool was caught on camera climbing a ladder to disable the crime camera.


It's just too funny how stupid some folks can be.

Thanks to Prytania Waterline for the heads up on this laugh of the day.

On the Excellence in Recovery Award

Chris Rose gives this subject some badly needed levity

The New Orleans 100

"The New Orleans 100" is a worldwide initiative that will highlight and encourage discussion among millions about 100 of the most innovative and world-changing ideas to take root in the city since Katrina.

The list will be released on Monday, August 25th - the week of the Hurricane Katrina anniversary. Our goal is to reach 1,000,000 pageviews by 8/29/08. We encourage everyone to spread the word by emailing the list, blogging it, digging it, stumbling it, and yelling it out their windows.

You can sign up to receive the New Orleans 100 list via email at the title above.

Thanks to Mosquito Coast for the heads up.

Nagin's Seven Sins

Varg over at the Chicory has compiled a list of WHY Ray Nagin should never, ever be considered for any award related to Katrina recovery. You can read them here, along with links to back up the claims .

Here's a copy of the handout Varg has created

Bayou Sauvage Boardwalk

Last week I posted about the reopening of the Bayou Sauvage Refuge on Highway 90 in "da east".

Jennifer Zdon on the Times Pic has put together a nice little multi media
slideshow of the new boardwalk here.

Enjoy!

Still Making it Right

From today's Times Pic The Brad Pitt's "Make it Right Foundation" is quietly doing the work that they said they would just 8 months ago. New homes are being constructed in the Katrina-devastated Ninth Ward.

Click here to see some photos.

From the aforementioned TP article:
While complaints of bureaucratic sloth persist, Pitt's foundation instead provides a striking example of a private entity taking the simplest of plans -- build houses where the flood knocked them all down -- from idea to execution in a relatively short time. As of today, Make It Right has raised enough money to build at least 84 houses, with an ultimate goal of financing at least 150 houses in the Lower 9th Ward, said Tom Darden, the foundation's executive director.

Crews are hard at work on six homes, two of them modular designs, with hopes of finishing at least one by Aug. 29 and having the others near completion by that date, Darden said. The six houses will go to the first six families who closed on the foundation's forgivable loans; 20 other families have submitted applications, he said.

Have you made a donation? I have.

Scuzzbucket of the Week

Early in the week for this one, but around here the scuzzbuckets seem to just pop out of the soil as fast as the weeds after a good rain.



Veronica White is the head of the New Orleans Sanitation Department which supposedly oversees city-authorized teardowns.

Over the weekend, Mizz White's department totally screwed up, according to newspaper report .


The pile of rubble that a city-hired wrecking crew left at 5132 Kendall Drive in Gentilly Woods on Saturday was supposed to be the DeJan family's new home.

Erica DeJan and her husband, Brian, bought the two-story structure just around the corner from their current home in June and jumped right into rehabbing it.
So it came as a surprise Friday when Erica DeJan, who is nearly eight months pregnant with her fourth child, found a sticker on the house stating that Mayor Ray Nagin's administration had declared it a public health threat and planned to tear it down.

DeJan does not dispute that before she and her husband bought it, the property was a nuisance. "It hadn't been touched since Katrina," she said. "It had just been sitting."

The DeJans, though, had already gutted the house and replaced termite-damaged wood, she said. While the couple had enough money to remodel the existing structure, they cannot afford to rebuild from scratch. She laid blame for the improper demolition on a City Hall system ill-equipped to honor last-minute reprieves.

A spokeswoman for the company that tore down the house, Beck Disaster Recovery of Orlando, Fla., said the firm was notified that Saturday's demolition had been canceled.

DeJan said a city employee should have confirmed directly with the wrecking crew that her property had been crossed off Saturday's work order.

"It's just a lack of communication," DeJan said. "It's not being on the same wavelength."

This is not the first time old Ronnie's department has shown ineptitude. check out this from Squandered Heritage .

Excellence in Recovery List

It's been a rainy weekend, so in between rearranging my living room and trying to stay off my swollen ankle I decided to go thru the list of people who think that Ray Nagin deserves any kind of a reward in the Katrina recovery and see who they were. I left out the people that Howie has identified on his website.

For an up to date status of this fiasco, check up with Kevin Alleman here at Gambit.

And the "Excellence in Recovery" Committee Members are......

Juli Juneau Glass Artist (go to page 8 of link)

Donald G. Lambert Louisiana Licensing Board for Contractors (see page five of this link)

Richard Fiske - , owner, Bombay Club

William Goldring - Magnolia Marketing Co., one of the largest independently owned wine and spirits distributors in the country.

Father Michael Jacques - Pastor, St. Peter Claver Church

Coleman Adler II - president, Adler Jewelers

Joe Maselli - developer of the internationally famous Piazza d’Italia with the City of New Orleans

Wanda Davis - Director, Alexandria Housing Authority ???

Barbara Major - community organizer and trainer with over twenty years experience in many local, national, and international community development efforts.

Rabbi Edward P. Cohn - Temple Siani, New Orleans

Mel Lagarde - President & CEO of the head of the Delta region for the hospital company Hospital Corporation of America

Ashlyn Graves - Evans-Graves Engineers, Metairie

Arnold Baker - President and CEO of Baker Ready Mix Building Materials

Ethel Kidd - French Quarter Real Estate

Terry Williams - Managing Partner of Airware Consulting

Al Groos - New Orleans Metro Convention & Visitors Bureau Chairman

Ed Minyard - Unisys Emergency Management Practice for North America.

Effie S. Naghi - Jeweler

Reverend Cornelius Tilton - co-leader of strategic planning for the Greater New Orleans Pastor’s Coalition

William Sizeler - Sizeler Architects

Blaine Kern Sr. - Mr. Mardi Gras

Joseph Jaeger Jr. - President & CEO, MCC Group

Reverend John C. Raphael - Pastor, New Hope Baptist Church

Keil Moss - French Market Corporation

Dawn Leslie - Real Estate

Ralph Fontcuberta - BFM Corporation-Land Surveyors

Reverend Fred Luter, Jr. - recognized nationally as one of this city’s powerful man of the cloth.

Steve Dwyer - Lawyer, Dwyer & Cambre, Metairie

Lisa Roth - Architect

Raoul Chauvin - Engieering Consultants, Infinity

Reverend Willie Gable - Progressive Baptist Church

Henry DiFranco - Not sure if this is the man or not, but this Henry DiFranco is in the "recovery" bid-ness.

Angela O'Byrne - President, Perez Architecture Firm

Frank Nicoladis - N-Y Associates, Architects

Reverend Sam Johnson - New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary

Joseph Parrino - Fleur de Paris hat shop

John Schackai III - Independent Architectect

Reverend Richard Bellizan Sr. - another man of the cloth who loves Ray Ray

Prisca Weems - Environmental designer

Hans Wandfluh - General Manager of the Royal Sonesta Hotel

Reverend Reginald Nicholas Sr. - Pastor, Olive Branch Baptist Church

Ray Liuzza - Part owner Doubletree Hotel

American Zombie blogs about Bernardo , Nagin's personal "photographer" and apparent organizer to the event and his lurid past peddling cocaine to performers at House of Blues and sexually harassing the staff there.


Bernardo's the sleazy looking dude on the right

Clancy DuBos opines Nagin will never be remembered for being the beast that (Idi) Amin was, but he’s about as delusional if he thinks anybody beyond his small circle of sycophants actually deems him worthy of an award for “courage and leadership” after Katrina.
AMEN.

Is this for real?

From the TP
Mayor Ray Nagin takes his fair share of shots from New Orleanians who are less than thrilled with his leadership in restoring their beloved city. But a group of about 50 civic worthies apparently couldn't be happier with him.



The group plans to have retired U.S. Army Lt. Gen. Russel Honore, credited with restoring order after the storm, hand Nagin the newly minted "Award of Distinction for Recovery, Courage and Leadership" next week as part of a ceremony marking Hurricane Katrina's third anniversary.

I'm gonna puke.

Here's a list of the assholes sponsoring this.


Howie Luvz Us has done the work I was going to do by providing links to info for the "supporters" on that list . Thanks, Howie.
REACTIONS across the blogsphere

Schroeder has an excellent entry and suggests an "Excellence in Recovery Chutzpah Award" for Nagin and his ilk

Humid City

Gambit

Library Chronicles

Oyster

Ghosts of Katrina

Times Picayune photographer extrodinaire John McCusker has assembled a slideshow from his former neighborhood nearly three years post Katrina.

bring a kleenex

Scuzzbucket of the Week #3

It's been a busy week for scummy people.

Thursday's nomination for "shit of the day" goes to United Airlines their lowlife idea
From the Washington Times:

American Airlines is charging troops for their extra baggage, a practice that forces soldiers heading for a war zone in Iraq to try to get reimbursement from the military. One of the country's largest veterans groups is asking the aviation industry to drop the practice immediately.

American, which recently charged two soldiers from Texas $100 and $300 for their extra duffel bags, said it gives the military a break on the cost for excess luggage and that the soldiers who incur the fees are reimbursed.

"Because the soldiers don't pay a dime, our waiver of the fees amounts to a discount to the military, not a discount to soldiers," said Tim Wagner, spokesman for American Airlines. "Soldiers should not have to pay a penny of it."

I never understood charging men and women who are putting their lives on the line. I used to send boxes of goods to soldiers in Iraq but had to stop when it was costing me over $100 in postage for two boxes. It sickens me.

Scuzzbucket Twins

From the "lovely lah-dee-dah" metropolis of Mandeville, Louisiana come the mayor-with-a-drinking-problem Eddie Price and his sidekick Police Chief Tom Buell.



Not only is it unsavory enough that the mayor would not go to jail several instances of drunk driving. Last month four Causeway police officers, including Chief Felix Loicano, lost their jobs after an outside review recommended that they be fired or resign for treating Price leniently after he crashed through a tollbooth barrier on the bridge April 22.

Now Eddie and Tom are in deep shit after publication of a Legislative Audit
that claims these two theives have been stealing money from the city, from charity to benefit themselves and other cronies.
touched a responsive chord.

From 2002 to 2007, the Mandeville Police Department's Citizen's Service Fund received donations totaling $217,938. But according to a Louisiana Legislative Auditor's report, only $16,492 of that money was used to buy Christmas presents for needy children -- less than the $26,055 that was spent on materials to solicit donations.

The report states $15,775 were used to purchase Wal-Mart gift cards for residents and city employees including Price who, over the five-year period, received $1,300 in gift cards. The report also states Price was given additional gifts, including a gun cabinet and a crossbow, that totaled $1,607.

Yesterday Price called for revised procedures from his office for better documentation of monies spent. What gall.

And now the Louisiana State Attorney General is investigating these scumbags.

Stay tuned.

Scuzzbucket of the Week

Actually, this scum has been a scuzzbucket for a loooooong time.




David Duke former Ku Klux Klan leader believes that an Obama victory be a "visual aid" for his "cause". His election, he says, would trigger a backlash - whites rising up, a revolution of sorts - that he and his ilk think is long overdue.

Rot in hell, scum.

Courtesy 2 Millionth Weblog

To the French Relay Swim Team

Check out the Recovery

View Larger Map

Street view via google will let you look at different neighborhoods in NOLA to see how the recovery is progressing.

Where I'd rather be

>

Shenandoah Mountains in August.

The Worst Month

August, yuck. It's stuffy, it's more than hot, and I would skip it if I could.


Mosquito Coast talks of what August is all about on the Gulf Coast and she nails it!!

Scuzzbucket of the Week

Scuzzbucket of the Week

Miss Stacey Jackson, a money grubbing bitch who probably thinks she's a glamourous house flipper.
At the expense of New Orleans' poor and elderly citizens, Mizz Jackson has been grabbing up property that has been designated as "blighted" under the auspicies of a company she and her sister controlled.

I've been looking thru everything this group of crazy bandits have been doing for the past few years and it's astounding how intertwined everything is.

Here's the whole story from WWL TV.

Refuge Boardwalk Reopens

from the Times Pic, it took almost three years, but here's news of the reopening of a wonderful little known wildlife boardwalk on Hwy 90 in New Orleans East.



The boardwalk at Bayou Sauvage National Wildlife Refuge reopened this week, offering promise and a glimpse of what has yet to return after Hurricane Katrina. Three years after deadly winds and saltwater invasion, scores of trees and thousands of migratory birds are missing, along with hundreds of acres of marsh that made up the 23,000-acre site.



Joe Madere, a retired resident of New Orleans East gives us a little history lesson about the beginnings of this beautiful refuge:

On June 29, 1980 I retired from the New Orleans Police Department and went to work for the New Orleans East Corporation who was developing the eastern section of New Orleans. I worked for them for five years. In 1985, they went bankrupt and Merrill Lynch took over 23,457 acres, and asked me to work for them as land manager. While working for Merrill Lynch, I worked on a project to turn 19,0000 acres to the national government as a wildlife refuge. We worked on this for 5 years, and in 1990 the final papers were signed, making the 19,000 acre Bayou Sauvage Wildlife Refuge.

I got to name the refuge, Bayou Sauvage, because of the bayou, which runs right through the middle of it, that at one time was part of the Mississippi river. This bayou was formed about 600 BC and was a tributary of the Mississippi for about 1000 years, but was sealed off as the river moved further south. Today, Bayou Sauvage is a small body of water about 2 miles long, but it is in its natural state.




"I'm happy to be able to invite people back," Fortier said in spite of the stark surroundings. Few large trees remain to shade the trail, a 2/3-mile loop of raised, wooden boards just east of the Maxent Canal. But along the way strollers can catch glimpses of magnificent insects and flowers and cypress stumps poking from a pond that shimmers in the sun, catching the reflection of snowy egrets flying gracefully overhead.

The boardwalk entrance off Chef Menteur Highway is open daily from sunrise to sunset. Parking is available inside the sliding metal gate, along with new restrooms and cold-water fountains and a pavilion that weathered the storm. Fortier said he hopes to gather students there in the fall for environmental education programs, just as before Katrina.

Touted as the largest urban national wildlife refuge in the United States, Bayou Savage is roughly bounded by the Maxent Levee on the west, Lake Pontchartrain on the north, Lake Borgne on the south and Chef Pass and Lake Pontchartrain on the east.

It has taken many months to clean the area around the boardwalk and rebuild it, Fortier said. A contractor is ready to grind dead trees and brush into mulch in preparation of the massive planting of indigenous trees along the walkway come winter, he said.

Plantings will include live and water oaks, cypress, hackberry, green ash and red maple, Fortier said. The removal of invasive Chinese tallow trees will continue.

With reforestation of the refuge's forest area will come the return of neo-tropical migratory song birds and other wildlife, he said. Also anticipated is the purchase of about 1,500 acres that make up a portion of nearby land and marsh called Brazilier Island, Fortier said.

For information about the refuge and boardwalk, call (985) 882-2000.

Of gators and misconceptions

As a child growing up in New England, I always had this image of Louisiana similar to the ones seen in movies: all swamp and alligators everywhere. When I moved down here over 30 years ago, my ill informed image was put to rest. Louisiana, like every other state in the union, has much of the sameness as other states (walmarts, interstates, jails, etc)and it has sooo much that is awesomely unique.

With the help of NOLA columnist Ron Thibodeaux (tib-a-doe) let's explore some of the misconceptions.Here's the link and here's an exerpt:


When you live in a place as gloriously unique as South Louisiana, it's inevitable to come across some glaring misconceptions from outsiders.

We've all heard them, from the nominally misguided to the patently absurd. As we revel in what makes our home unique, it becomes our duty to set the record straight.

No, just dousing a piece of meat or some other dish with pepper doesn't qualify it as Cajun.



Yes, there is more to Mardi Gras than women showing off their, um, attributes to get beads.



And no, we don't have to fend off alligators as we go about our everyday lives down here.



Over the years we have come to embrace the alligator, figuratively at least, as a state mascot of sorts, an indigenous creature possessed of a mystique that leaves visitors agape.

They can appear ferocious, but many who come in contact with them in the wilds of the Louisiana swamps and bayous know that, unlike their more aggressive cousin the crocodile, most alligators tend to be more skittish of us than we are of them.



The bloodthirsty feeding frenzy by the world's press after Katrina helped plant yet more misconceptions about S.E. Louisiana to the world. True to their colors, the press went after the dirty, gory sensational stories because that's the stuff that sells. They ignored the thousands of people who were just trying to survive while Kathleen Blanco bumbled along and Ray Nagin slowly lost his mind (he's STILL got a slow leak up there somewhere......)

But I digresss.

From yet another article in the T.P. following the gator attack in Slidell last week, some stats:
When an alligator turns up in St. Tammany Parish, sheriff's Deputy Howard McCrea, 61, is the man who gets the call.

He's been doing it for years, pulling gators out of waterways all across the parish. But he had never seen anything like Wednesday's attack on Devin Funck

A national study found in 2005 that only two attacks on people had occurred in Louisiana between 1948 and 2004, compared with 334 attacks and 14 fatalities in Florida. The report stated that numbers might be skewed because of poor documentation.

In 2005, a 12-year-old girl in Venice lost several fingers from a gator bite. In 2007 a 30-year-old woman swimming in Lake Charles was bitten on her buttocks, state Wildlife and Fisheries officials said.

After being hunted nearly to extinction, alligators were listed as an endangered species in 1973. Since then, the population has rebounded along the Gulf Coast, coinciding with suburban sprawl that has placed homes closer to alligator habitats.

McCrea said he enjoys the showmanship of his trade. Sporting camouflage fatigues complete with a glow-in-the-dark alligator logo, he visits classrooms and hands out laminated business cards embedded with pieces of alligator scale.



Mr. McCrea lives in my neighborhood in Slidell. Ten years ago he ran a rescue refuge on his property where he took in gators who had been abused by teenagers and rednecks: gators whose eyes had been shot out, on leg cut off, etc. He also
housed other abused wild animals there. On Sundays he would offer tours to the public of his refuge where a well trained racoon would entertain the crowd. It was very touching, actually to see this ex Marine tough guy (who wouldn't let the high school kids who rode on his school bus to talk in transit) taking care of these huge, potentially life threatening creatures with such tender care but with his years of experience and gator knowledge always in the forefront. The refuge has since closed to the public, but I'll never forget how impressed I was with someone who - until then - I thought was just a big old macho ex marine.

Take this if you have to evacuate

a truely beautiful post
from a truely beautiful Maitri with quotes from a BigEZBear

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?

STILL not okay

Pascagoula, Mississippi is still struggling to recover from Katrina nearly three years after the storm.

Months of wrangling over proposals to bring a limited number of "Katrina cottages" to the city on a permanent basis ended Tuesday night when city leaders unanimously approved the measures.
Before the votes, Dorothy Shaw, director of state and local affairs with Northrop Grumman Shipbuilding, told the council that the shipyard could hire 1,000 workers today if there were somewhere for them to live. Representatives from Chevron Refinery Pascagoula, the Federal Emergency Management Agency and others were there in support of the project.


We were 95 percent underwater. So we have a lot of people that have not rebuilt, don't have a place to live. Couple that with our industry that's having trouble finding employees and Pascagoula depends on that," said Pascagoula City Manager, Kay Kell.

Up to 16 cottages will be donated by the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency to the city will be lived in for two years by people still in need of assistance, Kell said.
People who are in the process of rebuilding and don't have anywhere to go or don't have room on their lot for the cottage while rebuilding will reside in the cottages.
After the two-year deadline, the city-owned property and cottages will become a retail area, Kell said.

Besh at the Market

This past Saturday, those who ventured out to the Slidell Camellia City Farmers' Market were treated to a cooking demo by Slidell native John Besh. There were alot of older ladies there, one even demanding that my daughter and I move our chairs (which we'd been sitting in for 30 minutes before the demo began) so that she didn't have to sit in the sun. Sorry, Grandma! Don't get me wrong, I'm not hateful towards elderly people, just rude elderly people!

In this pic, Besh is being greeted by Mary Dubuisson, founder of the Market


The man has a fantastic personality. Several old ladies yelled out that Besh should've won Iron Chef America and Besh agreed.


Here Besh is prepping for his bruschetta with heirloom tomatoes. He has four sons and three of them were there that day, serving samples of the bruschetta to the crowd.


It was super hot and humid that day and Besh and his chef Mike were sweating bullets, but neither one missed a beat in grilling the bread and warming the
tomato mixture.


At the end of the demo, people lined up to get his autograph or to ask questions.

Here my daughter is telling him that she's a culinary student AND that she's going to
La Provence next month. It's great when your kid looks up to the likes of Besh rather than something like Paris Hilton (shudder).

Yeah, we're looking forward to eating at La Provence. The restaurant is beautiful and the waitstaff attentive but not overbearing and food mouthwatering.



From An old article in the NY Times

He is the anti-Emeril, a polite, bona fide hometown boy who is less bam! and more bayou. That he looks good on television hasn’t hurt.

Spend some time with Mr. Besh, and it becomes clear that he knows how to work his assets, which include an addictive laugh, deep blue eyes and hair that always looks a few days away from really needing a cut.

He is a practiced bad boy. His idea of a joke is to send his Israeli-born chef at the Besh Steakhouse at Harrah’s on a nine-hour drive with a car full of Berkshire pork to a Tennessee smokehouse for what Mr. Besh calls “ham camp.”

check out this link to watch the chef (who calls himself a "cook")create
a classic southern breakfast of pork grillades and grits

NOLA Rising

Michael "ReX" Dingler and others commenting on the past year.

Here's a comment gleaned from NOLArisign.com about the group's efforts:


"...Rex had the unassuming belief that if he offered public words of encouragement to those souls striving to eke out a life in post-Katrina New Orleans, that perhaps he could buoy his community and help everyone work towards a happier, and decidedly healthier future."

"...because of Rex's efforts to preserve that uniqueness that all Americans hold dear, regardless of where our legal addresses keep us anchored. Rex is nothing less than an ambassador and he has the global support to back up this notion."

posted by SINA of Tucson