Samedi

New Ts from'da Dirty Coast!
~Looking for Summer Interns~ D.C. is currently seeking a team of summer interns to assist with the long-awaited launch of HumidBeings.com. Anyone who is interested can submit their resume through posting at WorkNola.com.

After HB780: What Happens Next~SaveCharityHospital.com

LSU Hospital Plan Oversight Bill Stumbles in Louisiana Senate
~Walter Gallas

Thanks, Ann you scuzzbucket
~Thanks, Katrina

SAfrican unveils guidebook for New Orleans crime survivors
~A South African woman, whose husband and mother-in-law were murdered five years ago in New Orleans, has unveiled a free handbook for other "survivors" of the city's nation-leading homicide rate. Gathered outside a cafe near the French Quarter Friday, an eclectic crowd of prosecutors in suits, uptown civic activists and left-leaning activists in more casual attire, applauded Rose Preston after she read a passage aloud from her book: "Crime Victims Guidebook: For Those Who Have Lost Their Loved Ones To Violence."
~Also~Laura Maggi, The Times-Picayune

FBI stats, Forbes article paint contrasting images of New Orleans~Louisiana Weekly

Bad~New Orleans Murder Blog

Levee precautions still in effect as Mississippi River continues steady fall~Sheila Grissett

Port Fourchon updates on recovery projects
~Katherine Schmidt

Schedule of flood anniversary events~Flood-related events in the Cedar Rapids and Iowa City areas this weekend

Assessment of post- hurricane forest damage using optical remote sensing
~Wanting Wang and John Qu
~A new algorithm enables rapid and accurate view from space of forest disturbance on a regional scale.
Figure 1. Severity of forest damage caused by hurricane Katrina. Each pixel represents 1km².

Slabberday

Funds may go to housing, barrier islands ~Michael Newsom

Permanence Eludes Some Survivors~Spencer S. Hsu

PadnObama declares Coal Ash Spills a National Security Threat too dangerous to reveal publicly --DHS Censors Senators' Debate!

~Just how bad has the coal ash situation gotten in the United States? So bad that the Department of Homeland Security has told Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) that her committee can't publicly disclose the location of coal ash dumps across the nation.
The pollution is so toxic, so dangerous, that an enemy of the United States -- or a storm or some other disrupting event -- could easily cause them to spill out and lay waste to any area nearby.

There are 44 sites deemed by the Environmental Protection Agency to be high hazard, but Boxer said she isn't allowed to talk about them other than to senators in the states affected.
"There is a huge muzzle on me and my staff," she said.
"Homeland Security and the Army Corps of Engineers (our heroes) have decided in the interests of national security they can't make these sites known," she said.

"There are several hundred coal ash piles across the nation, all of them unregulated. I'm not pleased that we cannot notify the people who live near these sites," said Boxer.
~Photographs of the TVA Coal Ash Spill which buried over 400 acres of Kingston TN. Special thanks, Dorothy Griffith

U.S. to withhold list of risky ash storage sites~LA Times
~Dozens of communities nationwide are at risk from a coal ash spill like the one that blanketed a Tennessee neighborhood last year, but the Obama administration has decided not to tell the public about it because of the danger of a terrorist attack.

Thank you, Tolu Onafowokan!
~Running 'Cause I Can't Fly

Finally, vampires that you can sink into your deepest fears,
Director Guillermo Del Toro
Is A Novelist, Too ~Guy Raz

Editilla T'n'T~ Citizen K, please click poster for site.

Meet the mascot behind the Creole Tomato Festival
~Chris Rose

Neville Brothers to give Clearwater Jazz Holiday a real kick ~Mike Brassfield

Brooklyn Jazz History
Comes Correct
~Hermenautic Circle Blog

~Special thanks~ New Orleans Daily Photo

Vendredi

Corps report: 2 years late, 8000 pages, $23 Million... offers array flood safety options--no set plan!
~Mark Schleifstein ~DIXCLAIMER!

Corps is likely to get a flood of queries at Tammany meeting
~Christine Harvey

Terrebonne in line for $132 million in storm aid~Naomi King

TX officials press feds about differences in Ike vs Katrina recovery efforts
~Audrey M. Marks

Area’s ability to absorb affordable housing glut hinges on jobs~Tommy Santora

New Orleans day laborers want wage theft made a crime
~David Hammer

Louisiana Unemployment Insurance Claims Increase ~BBuzz

Insurer admits to shifting costs to NFIP in Katrina case
~Bob Graham

Gene Taylor Comments on Corban and Claims Dumping ~slabbed

RI Legislation closing loophole in hurricane insurance rules signed

Tumbleweed Tiny House Company: On Tour until June 13th
What are the benefits of
a house like this?
Lately, Shafer has been referring to small houses as “foreclosure busters.” And in high-risk geographies, the transportability of Shafer’s homes might yet be leveraged to fill a completely undersaturated market niche. After hurricane Katrina, displaced Mississippi resident Julie Martin collaborated with Shafer to develop a Gulf Coast Model. Needing only an electrical outlet and a garden hose, this model allows people to quickly evacuate coastal regions without abandoning their homes.


City of New Orleans Website
Leads Citizens to evacuteer.org

Expert: Prepare Elderly and Disabled for Any Disasters
~Carol Forsloff

N.O. hot-city for young workers

Dave Brubeck: 50 Years Strong


The Return Of Tony Clifton And His Katrina Kiss-My-A Orchestra

Baton Rouge eyes country 'superfest' for 2010

Obama White House to become Marsalis music academy for a day

Playboy Jazz Festival at Hollywood Bowl this weekend
~Stephen K. Peeples

Music in New Orleans for June 12-18 includes The Bingo Show and Galactic for free
~Keith Spera

Bump - John Scofield
~Jazzbo Notes

Our girl holds her own on Big City TeeVee!

Jeudi

New Orleans artist colony at Colton school to be displaced
~Darran Simon
~The Studio at Colton for several months has offered free space at the former Colton Middle School for dozens artists and groups, including one that developed a rooftop garden, in return for a commitment to teach their craft to children and adults. But the venture is ending because of the school district's long-range plan to use the St. Claude Avenue campus for elementary classes.
In a flurry of activity, the Studio opened in November in time for the Prospect. 1 New Orleans art exhibition to provide a new local art venue. Since then, the Studio has drawn hundreds of school children and adults for ceramics, sewing, dance, puppet theater and other art programs. "We really did get somewhere with the kids," said Angelamia Bachemin, a former professor at Berklee College of Music in Boston and current chair of the Studio's music and culture department, teaching the Jazz Hip-Hop Orchestra class for high school students.

The next step on House Bill 780
~SaveCharityHospital.com

Panel deadlocks on New Orleans master plan bill~Ed Anderson

Comments sought on coast report ~Robert Zullo
~Chris Macaluso, a spokesman for the Governor’s Office of Coastal Activities, said the report is largely unchanged from the 4,000-page version released in March.
State officials found it “disappointing,” Macaluso said, because it lacks specific recommendations.
“It’s a very general suite of options as to possible ways to make coastal Louisiana more sustainable,” Macaluso said, adding that the corps failed to live up to the mandate from Congress.
“We need firm project recommendations.”

Wet Bonnet Carre spillway brings work on East Jefferson levees to a halt~Sheila Grissett

Well I'll be... ~Cosmetique
~Editilla Motellas~ This obviously very cool and prescient site posted yer'oh'so'umbled Editilla's comments from a TP article regarding the Corps PR on "Safe Water Levels" from 3 days ago. Ha! Get Down! Get Back Up Again! ROCK in'da USA!
Y'all check out this swanky site and go follow the comments in the article as they do get a tad, ahem, spicey.
As Gentle'rillas well know, I hunt Corps Astro'turfer Ass'roots all up and down the Internets. PR Spin'Filtraitors, banal humorously retarted Gambit cartoonists, one Nameless corps engineer, seemingly witless journalists, even the innocent and honestly clueless will all face me whenever they stand with the Exquisite Corps or give those incompetent ho'dog punk murdererin'bastads the slightest shred of doubt --or curtain behind which to hide.
Hell, we rent veils for a living! Nobody's safe with the Corps.
You don't want to wake up on the wrong side of our failed levees with me... for I Am Beotchwolf. I eat bad levees for breakfast,
spread them out like pancake batter.

Study: Ports should target Latin American trade~Alan Sayer

CA Levee plan gets bigger, more costly ~Nearly the whole of the levee along the Feather River's west bank from Yuba City north needs rehabilitation, according to a report the Sutter Butte Flood Control Agency reviewed Wednesday. The work could add to the complexity and cost of an overhaul the agency says will need new taxpayer support to fund.

Obama plan targets fallout from mountaintop mining
~Dina Cappiello

Appalachia Says 'Not Good Enough' to Obama Mountaintop Mining Plan~Stacy Morford

Amendment to ‘clarify’ Freedom of Religion in La. Constitution moves ~Sarah Chacko
~Louisiana voters could be allowed to change the constitutionally protected freedom of religion under legislation that narrowly passed the state Senate Wednesday. “Right now with existing law, there is no argument. I think with this bill, you create the argument,” said Sen. J.P. Morrell, D-New Orleans.
HB340 also would allow for health-care workers to refuse treatment based on their religious objections.


ACLU wants La. to ban creationism in public schools

TX Ike grants now over $1 billion

New $30 million aid program to assist commercial fishers hurt by 2008 hurricanes~Mark Waller

Still Time to Join Volunteers to Help 'Build Up' New Orleans
~Jewish Times

Cajun-zydeco and seafood festivals find a perfect partner in Creole tomatoes ~Molly Reid

Students test recipes to change their own lunch menu, in a fresh local direction~Judy Walker

What's your kick-back-and-enjoy summer cocktail of choice? And where were you when you last enjoyed it?~Julia Reed



Music!
Insanity!!
Exploding brains!!!
~Dr. Milo T. Pinkerton III

The Band fans love Levon's new band ~Jon Bream

Mercredi

Snake Doctor sayz Live for Today
~New Orleans Daily Photo

Corps Million Dollar PR firm, the Girls of OPP, releases slick, soft- pr'n re-branding charity video!
~Editilla's hair stands on end great googli'mooglies!

<-Coho Boss Lady Janice Roper-Graham (Scene 1: "We Do It All")
~In its current effort to distract public attention away from their role of Branding Agency for the Corps, Outreach Process Partners has put together this little ditty to show every- one how they give 5% of their earnings ($250,000 of their $5,000,000 Corps Contract?) to charity. Halalalala, the oldest trick in the game of PR Monte... tears,
to wit: when caught doing spin for mobsters...
--Roll-Out da'Charity Work Angels! Isn't that niiiiice.
But this video talks more about what OPP does as a Marketing Firm, yet on their page about how "Giving Back Feels So Good."
This is called ReBranding, or Reinforcing Brand Positives.
Since we caught them manipulating the local and national media regarding the Corps role in Flooding New Orleans, they now have to ReBrand themselves as cutesy charity women?
This is one of the newer pages they've put up to in place of all those Corps Pages of Marketing Boo'rah Data they pulled too late.
Ha this dog ain't gonna hunt either! Hahahahaha...
As we've said before, these are the people you would hire to do the invitations to Satan's Bachelor Partay. Plilanthrozillaz!
Apparently, When WWL initially called the Corps to investigate this miscarriage of Flood Funding, they were greatly confused when the Corps referred them to Stacey Mendoza, local political connectrix (scene- 8: "My name on the Product sayz it best!") --who did not tell WWL that she was not a Corps employee but a tax-paid Public Relations operative.

So, when our local News Media calls the Corps of Engineers for answers now, the Corps sends them to an employee of OPP who does not readily acknowledge that she is not a Corps employee?
Rut'Row! Bad move that. Yeah, we heah ya'mouf talkin'!
This would explain why the Corps own, actual, "Public Affairs Director Ken Holder" was caught clueless with his pants down when confronted with hard evidence --and still has yet to tell us what is going on with his Marketing Team.
Poor Ken'Doll obviously hopes that this is all going to go away.
Buuuut Editilla begs to diffa on dat'score, Gimpy Ken'Doll.
Email enquiries about this cohoz'de'do'oh can be sent to OPP operative Cheryn Robles (scene 2- "The Writer Makes a Diff"): cheryn.robles@usace.army.mil
I mean...now who ya'gonna call??? Corps Busters! hehehe..
But we have something better I call: The Landrieu Doctrine.

Water project draws ire in Donaldsonville
~Lloyd J. Nelson III

Arcadis wins $6M contract for Mississippi Valley work

Four KY Levees Deemed Unacceptable

Vieux Carre Commission opposes plans for cold storage site near French Quarter~Bruce Eggler
~The Vieux Carre Commission voted 6-0 Tuesday to oppose construction of a $40 million cold-storage warehouse on Mississippi River wharves alongside the French Market.
The commission held a public hearing May 6 at which dozens of speakers voiced opposition to the project.
They warned that vibrations from dozens of 18-wheelers carrying produce to the site each day would damage buildings in the city's most historic neighborhoods, that a leak of the thousands of pounds of anhydrous ammonia to be used as a refrigerant could threaten hundreds of lives and the city's vital tourist industry, and that the site is highly susceptible to crashes by runaway ships and barges.

A new look at a New Riverfront for New Orleans~WWL

Funding Approved For N.O. Crime Coalition~WDSU

Hump'day Hurricakes ~Slabbed

Archdiocese attempts to explain its decisions to Steal FEMA cash from poor Peter's parish to pay suburban Paul Malls
~Bruce Nolan

Juneteenth is the oldest nationally celebrated commemoration of the ending of slavery in the United States. ~Editilla T'n'T~ Bayou Buzz

Should Wilderness Society Strip US Rep. Nick Rahall of the Ansel Adams Award?~Jeff Biggers

Turbines in Mississippi River potential alternative energy source ~Breakbulk

Southcoast USA

Cuba and Change We Can Believe In~Philip Fornaci

Dave Eggers Completes Nonfiction Book about Hurricane Katrina
~Dave Eggers made literary headlines once again, breaking the news that his new nonfiction book, "Zeitoun," will come out next month--a story about how one Muslim-American family experienced Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans.

Park the Van showcase at Marigny Theatre, 6.12
~Captains Dead

Allen Toussaint reinvents Dixieland ~Jan Dennis

Mardi

New Orleans blues singer Marva Wright hospitalized after stroke ~Keith Spera

N. Gretna fireworks stand test fires rocket
~The New Orleans Levee
~In the latest volley in regional arms proliferation race, The House of Boom in Gretna is suspected of test firing short-range rockets and stockpiling spark-throwing and exploding M-85 Tanks, above, and other items in advance of the Fourth of July.

Fla. Fisherman Hooks Test Missile ~WDSU

CityBusiness poll: N.O. residents undeterred by hurricanes

Survey Says? 18 percent of New Orleans area employers plan to hire during the third quarter
~Times-Picayune

China: Please Keep Nagin In Quarantine To Cure New Orleans
~Jeff Crouere ~After having infected the people of New Orleans for the past seven years with the Nagin Flu, it is quite ironic that the Mayor of New Orleans may have been exposed to the Swine Flu on a flight to China.

James Gill: Mayor Ray Nagin goes global

Time for a new approach to crime in New Orleans
~Jermaine Smith

New Orleans Murder Blog

Judge tosses much of the case against Pierce O'Donnell
~Amanda Bronstad

Army Corps orders thousands of trees chopped down
~Cain Burdeau~The Army Corps of Engineers is on a mission to chop down every tree in the country that grows within 15 feet of a levee - including oaks and sycamores in Louisiana, willows in Oklahoma and cottonwoods in California.

Snowball Fight in New Orleans!
~Gwen Filosa

American Sector: old name revived in New Orleans

Homeless Advocate Goes High Tech ~Pam Fessler

June 2009 photo contest: 'Sunrises and Sunsets'

David Simon talks 'Treme' at the National Press Club
~Dave Walker

The Soulful Sounds of Suave
~Minority Weirdoes

July 17: Best Dance in Town: Rockabilly Ponderosa Stomp @ Lincoln Center (on loan from New Orleans)~NolaFunk NYC

D.C. gets a taste of New Orleans finest Jazz

Circus Musician Sxip Shirey Chats About Music & More ~Corn Mo

Lundi

Levees.org founder wants Dutch- style flood protection
~Lee Zurik, WWL

Corps of Engineers weighs "safe water levels" in London and Orleans avenue canals as new studies are delivered late and have yet to be analyzed.
~Sheila Grissett

Malicious threat or empty rhetoric?
~SaveCharityHospital.com
~One of the most potent points for those who favor proceeding with the proposed LSU/VA medical complex has been the fear that, should LSU be forced to make compromise in any way, they will simply abandon the City of New Orleans and build their flagship teaching hospital in Baton Rouge.

Colosium Conflict: Racial tensions surround the demise of a N.O. business
~Richard A. Webster
The small neighborhood wrapped around the intersection of Magazine and Melpomene streets is dominated by a small group of racists bent on gentrification.
That’s the viewpoint of Milton and Jocelyn Griffith, who claim this bigoted group burned down their body shop as part of an ongoing campaign of harassment designed to drive them out of business and ultimately out of the neighborhood.

Federal grants may help New Orleans streetcars expand to new lines~Lolis Eric Elie

Not so 'green' nanotechnology manufacturing~nanowerk

Mystic Church On A Mission ~Chonel Laporte

Creole Creamery, New Orleans Ice Cream at its Best!
~Editilla wanna toll'ya~Creole Creamery is That Good!

A triumphant 'Black, Brown and Beige'~Howard Reich

Mos Def is most thoughtful as he focuses on myriad projects
~Edna Gundersen

Dimanche

"We're no longer going to beg people to keep the people I represent safe."
~US Senator Mary Landrieu
~Ediditlla Consuellas~ We have decided to call this valiant action by our brave Senator: The Landrieu Doctrine.
That's right, ya'hoird it here foist!
We agree that our Safety and Survival with Water necessitates Real Reform and Re-Tasking of the Exquisite Corps of Engineers.
This opens the door again for active legislation like
The 8/29 Investigation into the Corps' Failures here.
We must and will do better.
As well, such a top to bottom house clearing will make the disbursement of our Flood Funding of these projects more transparent, thus providing truer and more accurate Costs Estimates <--costs which the Corps regularly tends to Double, after congressional authorization, usually right at the start of Hurricane Season to scare us into giving them even more money.
The Landrieu Doctrine would free-up of Billions of Dollars to the other states to hire outside engineering for their own Flood Safety. I suspect we will find these projects costing less and working better than the Exquisite Corps' Engineering...
--as taxpayers are discovering in the coastal parishes.

Corps writes predator control plan for rare birds???

Many still unprepared for hurricanes~Keith Magill

Officials' excuses ready for hurricane season
~Cha Cha Pitulous
~The military's infamous MREs, or Meals Ready to Eat, have been repackaged and renamed ERMs, or Excuses Ready to Make, in anticipation of hurricane season 2009.

Flood fears in South Florida: Huge levee needs repairs; insurance costs may rise
~Andy Reid

Flood insurance will cost you less this year~Nikki Buskey

Sunday Slabbed

River turbine plan makes some shippers wary
~Rebecca Mowbray

New Orleans Catholics keep vigil alive for closed parishes
~Bruce Nolan~Five months after some of them were forcibly evicted, scores of Catholic families still cultivate some sense of community and gather weekly to pray on the steps of their closed Uptown churches.
Yet, as for the low income churches, the archdiocese wants to use federal funds earmarked for these churches and apply them to construction projects at these suburban parishes.

Coast Vietnamese have become a culture dispersed~Sun Herald

Cajun humor alive and well

New Orleans chef shares recipes in 'Real Cajun'
~Monroe News Star
~Award-winning New Orleans chef Donald Link celebrates all things Cajun, from his childhood home in Sulphur to his camp at Toledo Bend in his new cookbook, "Real Cajun: Rustic Home Cooking from Donald Link's Louisiana"

New Orleans author details life as a ranger in next novel
~Cheré Coen

24th Annual Tennessee Williams New Orleans Literary Festival ~Random Thoughts from a Random Aunt

From Derry with love:
Pinkerton helps New Orleans
~New Hampshire Union Leader

Ladies sing the blues
~Ginger Schmidt, Picayune Item

From The Desk Of Holsapple & Stamey: New Orleans Musicians Relief Fund

Download: Lots of Live Jazzfest Recordings~NolaFunk NYC