Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Mercredi~ We passed 100,000 hits today!

Alexander Launches the Congressional Levee Caucus
~Inside Louisiana News

~U.S. Rep. Rodney Alexander, R-Quitman, today launched the Congressional Levee Caucus as part of his ongoing crusade to bring critical attention to the levee certification issue.
~Editilla Hot Damn Crowtella!~ Now this is what we call a Levees Legislative Liaison! We need all the Congressional help we can get --since no one seems to know what is going on with getting the 8/29 Review of our Failed levees in New Orleans.
At least, from Editilla's own very informal yet thorough, yearly Legislative Survey of the Louisiana delegation as well as relevant House/Senate committees in January, I don't "see" the 8/29 Review on any tables, let alone in anyone's drawers.
Ahem, of the elected representatives whom I queried, the very few who did know what I was asking about offered this prevailing response along the lines of: "Haven't there already been 2 'Independent' Investigations already?" or "The new 'Levee Inspections Safety Program' (instituted this time last year) from the Corps of Engineers covers those bases, is funded and is on the ground now." Sooo, again, why an 8/29 Review?

Water Resources Development Act Requests~Rep. Anh “Joseph” Cao submitted the following projects for inclusion in the 2010 Water Resources Development Act (WRDA). If these projects are authorized under WRDA, they would then become eligible for federal support
~Editilla sayz Geaux Joe! And btw, the honorable Joseph Cao was one of the ones who knew of the 8/29 Review, yet had not gotten any details about it from any so called Legislative Liaison. Yet, he still rocks and rolls because Congress actually doesn't sit still. Like all of us he has work to do and so here we have it. Thanks again Mr. Cao and again Geaux Joe!

Missouri River management discussion exposes rival priorities~Mark Schleifstein







~Photograph: Cowpen Bayou, by Quinta Scott

What's The Source Of Mississippi River Pollution?~WDSU

An example of the type of PR Bullshit the Corps of Engineers can put out before the coming Spring flood and their next engineering failures

Levee repair plan is dropped for debris-filled Levees in Jeff Parish

Lafourche to get $19 million for flood protection~Jennifer Hale

Houston group seeks support for flood-protection efforts
~Bradley Olson


Uuhhmmm...Rut'Row Astro!
~Lyndon LaRouche issued an urgent call for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (?!?) to work with the Haitian government to help relocate up to a million Haitians, now homeless and living amid the rubble of shattered Port-au-Prince in the aftermath of the Jan. 12 earthquake that killed some 300,000 Haitians.
~Editilla Venturellas~ Let me just guess where in the continental US would they might see the most unused open space the closest to Haiti? Hey, I say Bring'em Home to New Orleans!

Big Business to Little Guy in Lower Mid-City: Drop Dead!
~SaveCharityHospital.com

~Yesterday, several big business organizations, some of which stand to make money off of the destruction of Lower Mid-City and the construction of an expensive but still unfunded LSU/VA medical center, called for the withdrawal of a lawsuit filed on behalf of residents fighting to save their homes and community. The website of New Orleans City Business, whose publisher has consistently failed to disclose his own conflict of interest as a board member on the LSU Health Sciences Center Foundation, reported on the big business press release.

Business groups urge Child-Gov. Bobby Jindal, others to fast-track hospital construction
~Bill Barrow
~A coalition of 10 business groups from across the New Orleans region came together today to urge Gov. Bobby Jindal to make his appointments to the governing board for a teaching hospital slated for Mid-City and to ask that plaintiffs drop pending lawsuits challenging the state project and adjacent federal hospital plan.
Jack Davis, a New Orleans residents named as a plaintiff in the federal suit, added, “If governments wouldn’t break the law, we wouldn’t have to file lawsuits.”

If not for a conflict of interest, some would have no interest at all~Slabbed updates Riverbirch, Jefferson Parish curatorships and welcomes state Rep. Rick Gallot.

The Lens: Donation boosts Web site and city staff, not citizen-participation efforts

La. aquaculture firms receive stimulus money~Amy Wold

Speaking of climbing Ladders
~VENTURA COUNTY, Calif. - Eight years after about $1 million was spent on a Santa Paula Creek fish ladder for steelhead trout, the federal government is looking to spend $7.5 million in stimulus money to build a new one because the old was deemed useless when the fish most need it.
The Exquisite Corps of Engineers is working feverishly to get the new fish ladder approved by various regulatory agencies and out to bid by Sept. 30, or the $7.5 million in funding, which is part of the federal economic stimulus bill, could vanish.

Stimulus funds have been committed to 12,000 infrastructure projects

Uptown fire~YRHT

New Orleans public housing complex gets new life as Harmony Oaks~Katy Reckdahl

My head is spinning, chere... --just like an electron
~American Zombie


Uh oh...Monorail!
~Library Chronicles


Google fiber in New Orleans? It's so obvious if you look at it right.
~Ernie the Attorney


Autotuning Drew Brees and Bobby Jindal ~CenLamar

Louisiana Gov. Jindal Needs a Game Plan for Higher Education
~John Maginnis


Search for New Orleans' historic population centers
~Doug MacCash

~I love the word centroid — it sounds so “Star Trek.” I’d never encountered the term until August when I read a guest op-ed column in the Times-Picayune written by Richard Campanella, an assistant research professor at Tulane University. In it, the respected geographer explained that a population centroid is “the theoretical center of balance around which residents are evenly distributed.”

Holding law schools accountable
~Karen Sloan, Nat Law Journal


America slow to assist South Dakota tribe ~indianz.com
~H/T~Lone, Comments

‘See For Yourself' mission to National Biodiesel Conference
~Farm & Ranch Guide


My other car is a Zamboni
~Lipraps Lament - The Line


Death of a Local Salesman
~Chris Rose, Gambit


Cardi Gratinati~Serious Eats

NOLA Eats To Exhibit At Alternative Media Expo 2010

How to Volunteer at New Orleans' Tennessee Williams Literary Fest

New Voices Young Writers Conference, March 6th
~Know any young writers between ages 11-18 (6-12 grades)?
Do they live in or around NEW ORLEANS?

Pulitzer Prize-winning poet laureate Rita Dove to read at Tulane University

Human mother beasts

Harnessing that raw energy
~Mountain Xpress
~Filmmaker and artist Chris Bower on taking his film to Slamdance, documenting the Mardi Gras Indians and why you've got to have a deep bench.

French Quarter Fest has New Name, New Stage and More
~offBEAT

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