~Parties in a lawsuit brought against the Army Corps of Engineers by residents who live along the 17th Street Canal are scheduled to appear at Civil District Court this morning. Much of the land to be cleared is in residential back yards along the 17th Street Canal, just as it was along the heavily populated London Avenue Canal. Once cleared, the property must be maintained as green space and cannot be fenced or improved by the owners, who will still be required to pay property taxes on the land.
FEMA requires certification of Great Falls, Vaughn levees, Westside resident doubts soundness of levee
~In order to get the levees certified, owners can either hire professional engineers or try to talk the state's congressional delegation into persuading the Corps of Engineers to do the certification(???), which would be good for five to 10 years, according to Nancy Steinberger, regional hydraulic engineer for the Federal Emergency Management Agency office in Denver.
Steinberger told board members that only a small number of engineering firms nationwide are certifying levees because of the fear of getting sued if a dike breaks. She said there is no provision yet for an extension of the two-year limit to get certified, despite the shortage of firms doing the work.
A deluge waiting to happen
~Katharine Mieszkowski
~“The Army Corps of Engineers certifies its own projects. It’s kind of like children giving themselves their own grades,” says Robert Criss, professor of geology at Washington University in St. Louis. “There’s a definite conflict of interest there.” says Nicholas Pinter, a geologist at Southern Illinois University Carbondale.
Hat Tip on Conflict of Interests-Loki~Tim Ruppert?
Loki:"Be silent, Odin! Not justly thou settest The fate of the fight among men; Oft gavst thou to him who deserved not the gift, To the baser, the battle's prize."Engineering New Orleans, post-Katrina
Odin:"Though I gave to him who deserved not the gift, To the baser, the battle's prize; Winters eight wast thou under the earth, Milking the cows as a maid, Ay, and babes didst thou bear; Unmanly thy soul must seem."
KHOW guest co-host McInnis repeated misleading and false talking points on domestic oil drilling
~Discussing energy issues on the June 30 broadcast of 630 KHOW-AM's The Caplis & Silverman Show, guest co-host and former Republican U.S. Rep. Scott McInnis -- who has worked as an energy industry lobbyist -- falsely asserted that "on offshore drilling, we have not had an accident in offshore. I think they had one spill in '47, 1947." McInnis also claimed that "through all the [Hurricane] Katrina disaster, not one episode" of an offshore oil spill occurred -- a statement echoing that of Fox News contributor and former Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee, who asserted on the June 27 broadcast of Fox & Friends, "When Katrina, a Cat[egory]-5 hurricane, hit the Gulf Coast, not one drop of oil was spilled off of those rigs out in the Gulf of Mexico." As Media Matters for America has pointed out, according to a 2007 report prepared for the MMS by the international consulting firm Det Norske Veritas, damage related to Hurricane Katrina resulted in 70 spills from outer Continental Shelf structures with a total volume of approximately 11,104 barrels of oil and petroleum products, including damage to 27 platforms and rigs that resulted in the spilling of approximately 3,433 barrels of petroleum products and 2,252 barrels of crude oil and compensate. Approximately 5,419 barrels of oil and petroleum products spilled due to damage to 43 pipelines, the report stated.
The NBA's David Stern Does Doo-Doo Diligence
~Harry Shearer
Homeland Security Bills in House ~Fire Chief
Flood aid announced for 14 Illinois counties
Petition may finish what flood began
PRO-CON: Are levee upgrades the best solution for Midwest flooding? YES
Katrina the very short “Cat” ~slabbed
The Shame of Mississippi
CDC tests ID sources of fumes in FEMA trailers
~Toxicity in FEMA Trailers Blamed on Cheap Materials, Low Construction Standards
Will Midwest Floods Be as Toxic as New Orleans?
UI Flood Recovery Information Web site launched
Notes from New Orleans:
St. Francis de Sales Church
~Walter Gallas
Dispatch from New Orleans: Second-guessing myself
~Ariane Wiltse
Ian McNulty’s "Season of Night" Book Release~Laureen Lentz
Fouth of July book recommendation
~Library Chronicles
Thrifting in Oblivion
~Editilla gotta tol'yaz~The Scout is helpful, courteous, kind, obedient, cheerful, Thrifty, brave, clean and reverent.
~And always prepared!
A Few Beads More!
~Ms. Judy's Possibilities
Champion Jack Dupree of New Orleans~Blues Town
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