Samedi

American Zombies cited in Suicide Terrorist's Note!
~In the note, Stack said he longs for a big "body count" and expresses the hope that "American zombies...
wake up and revolt."
~Editilla slams tongue into a bloody pulp fiction~
Yes, this is America, where we have patriotic calls to Zombies! Rise Up! Buuuut, Naaaaahhh, they can't be talking about Our American Zombie.

Somebody has to say it all ~American Zombie

HUD: HANO would “halt” if consultants were phased out
~The Lens

Coastal restoration and hurricane protection projects to be discussed at meeting
~Mark Schleifstein

Levee director showcases fading coast~Nikki Buskey

Houston Chronicles its own ignorance~On Levee Failures and a Weather Event

Robert Morgan Is All Wet
~CENTRAL La. POLITICS

Feds take over hurricane barrier: Title handed Corps of Engineers

Coming up in Gambit: Post-Super Bowl Mardi Gras Election Edition

Speaking Of New Orleans:
Astral Project ~Rifftides

Speaking of Astro Projects...

*

Vendredi

HUD: Renewal of housing razed after Federal Flood in jeopardy
~Cain Burdeau
~Editilla Crow'tellas~ As part of our dogged efforts to keep the story straight in the media about the Civil Engineering Disaster of 8/29/05, we have found it necessary to began a boycott of AP Katrina Shorthand, especially as regularly spun by this particular writer cited above. "Nearly two years after the contentious bulldozing of large tracts of public housing in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, a federal report now says that the planned redevelopment of a large portion of that land is in jeopardy." But we do post when it hinges on subjects particularly close to the ground.

Friends, Charity Hospital Babies

"Uninformed Decision-Making"
~Hurricane Radio ~Special T'anks~YRHT

$800,000 to Zulu raises many questions~The Lens

St. Bernard Parish gets $200,000 federal grant to update coastal plan
~Bob Warren~Also~St. Bernard Parish breaks ground on new pump station near Delacroix

Alexander Calls for Immediate Attention to the Levee Certification Issue
~U.S. Rep. Rodney Alexander, R-Quitman, has launched an aggressive campaign to call crucial attention to the levee certification issue that has local and state officials, as well as residents, in a state of distress.

Levee repairs in Rapides Parish will cost about $4.3M
~Bret McCormick

River boosters hear updates of waterway ~John Prime
~People attending the Red River Valley Association's 85th annual convention in Bossier City got an earful Thursday on how recent stimulus money is being spent on the J. Bennett Johnston Waterway and other area lakes and streams.

Building Resilience Workshop -Feb 25-27
~The challenge of living with water is one shared by cities and communities around the world. Nowhere is this more true than in New Orleans and the Gulf Coast region, where people live with a daily awareness of the threat, and opportunity, of water.

New Orleans: Cock of the Walk? ~Kevin Allman, Gambit

Federal probe of NOPD apparently expanding ~Fox 8

Fake Reefer Madness: From Kansas To New Orleans, K2 Synthetic Marijuana Is a Hot Topic~Keegan Hamilton

So Ed Meese wants to talk “conservative values”.
Is drug running conservative?
Slabbed reports you decide.

Louisiana per-capita debt grows, nears ceiling~Melinda Deslatte

La. Universities to fight cuts
~Jordan Blum

State Pensions Plans Face
$1 TRILLION Shortfall
~Pew Center

New Book on the MS River
~Quinta Scott began photographing sites along the Mississippi just before the flood of 1993, and her images reflect the sweep of the river’s history, from the Pleistocene era to Katrina.
Wielding her large-format camera along the river’s entire stretch, she captures important sites—places like Bayou de View in the Arkansas “Big Woods,” where the Ivory-Billed Woodpecker was sited in 2004, and the Timablier Island, a barrier island and hurricane speed bump—that represent both what Americans has done to change the river and our current attempts to restore its damaged ecosystems. In this remarkable volume—the only book to focus on the topography of the whole river and its floodplain—she blends images and text to weave a comprehensive view of the riparian landscape as a living organism and of the effects of human intervention on its natural processes.
~Editilla UpData~ Mz Scott has congrooviently hipped us to a special 20% Discount Coupon online for this amazing and huge work of art! Gentle'rillas are of course not required to mention it, but what the hell, toll'em Editilla sent'yaz!

Iconic Bucktown seafood joint Sid-Mar's finds a new home in Metairie~Brett Anderson
~Since reopening Sid-Mar's in mid-January, Burgess has been the recipient of what once was as common as Gulf shrimp around New Orleans: an abundance of post-Katrina diner gratitude. The phenomenon permeated local restaurants in the first couple of years following the levee breaches, as locals thankful to see the city's dining institutions return filled them with emotion. The euphoria had died down, at least until Sid-Mar's reawakened it.
~Editilla Cherry'Ollas~
Yay Brett! Double Cherry'Os! Thank you for Kicking the Katrina Shorthand Jive!
Thank You for telling it like it was!

The more things change~Jan V. Ramsey, offBEAT

Spencer Bohren, Big Sandy, a Los Hombres Calientes reunion and more ~Keith Spera

RIP Dale Hawkins
~Alex Woodward, Gambit

Jeudi

Friends & Charity Hospital Babies

Last week, we celebrated the many reasons to be proud and hopeful for our city -- the election of a new mayor, the Saints winning the Superbowl, Mardi Gras.
Now, we have an opportunity to ensure good decisions get made to lead us to that bright future.

The City Planning Commission has called its first public hearing on the hospital controversy for this Tuesday, February 23rd, at 1:30 p.m.
It will be considering a request by the administration of Mayor Ray Nagin to close 16 blocks of city streets in the proposed Lower Mid-City site for the Veteran Affairs hospital:

~This is our first chance to be on the public record and have a public hearing in front of the City Planning Commission. Tuesday will mark the first time that the commission has ever held public hearings on any aspect of the hospital controversy.
~Without approval of the street closings, the hospitals cannot be built as planned on the Lower Mid-City site.
We will have an opportunity to present testimony and comments to the CPC about the current destructive proposal.
~Please join us at this meeting. E-mail us to let us know you are coming. We know that 1:30pm on a Tuesday is a horrible time for a public hearing, but we're hoping you can join us. If you can attend, e-mail us so we can give you more information.

~~There are a number of reasons the City Planning Commission should deny Mayor Nagin's request to close these streets. The process has been flawed from the start, has not included the hospitals in the Master Plan, and the current proposal would destroy the Lower Mid-City neighborhood and negatively effect the city for decades to come.
~~The street question will gives interested members of the public an opportunity to comment on the economic impact of the hospital, its effect on drainage and traffic flow, the demolition of historic buildings, the relocation of the hospitals from the Central Business District and other matters.
~~One of the lessons we've learned in the past four years since Hurricane Katrina is that we -- as citizens of New Orleans -- must be involved in the planning process for our city. When we abdicate our responsibility as citizens, when we fail to participate in the decisions that shape our home, the whole city suffers.

Help us get the word out.
Forward this E-mail to friends and colleagues.

We hope to see you there.
Yours sincerely,
SaveCharityHospital.com

Nagin uses his "Impress'er" Ruler “There’s been a concerted effort to minimize (de'size) my accomplishments”
~Kevin Allman, Gambit
~Editilla Clarifellas~ Y'all know, the Impress'er Ruler: where it has 12 inches marked, but is only 6 inches long?
As in, “Look! See, Honey? I told you it was 12 inches!”

All on a Mardi Gras Day
~American Zombie

Land of the lost
~Your Right hand Thief

Erroll Williams To Be Sole New Orleans Assessor After Maubarret Withdraws

Lake Pontchartrain shoreline protection in Tangipahoa Parish gets $700,000 design grant
~Mark Schleifstein
~Also~Corps of Engineers approves levee clay borrow sites in Plaquemines, St. Charles and Ascension
~Army Corps of Engineers to discuss coastal restoration, levee plans at Thursday meeting in Gretna
~Dirt mixed with debris in East Jefferson levee will be dug up and replaced
~St. Charles Parish applies for permit for second phase of west bank hurricane levee
~Bayou Segnette navigation channel floodgate contract

Streetcar grant to pay full cost of new line along Loyola Avenue
~Frank Donz

Streetcar expansion earned through public cooperation
~Eli Ackerman, The Lens

Landrieu Welcomes $1.5 Billion in Disaster Relief Fund in Obama’s Supplemental Appropriations Request

HUD issues scathing assessment of HANO~Katy Reckdahl

DHS officers lost guns in restrooms, bowling alleys, cars

La. man gets 309-year sentence
~A Zachary man who admitted organizing the theft of approximately $100,000 while in jail was sentenced in Baton Rouge federal court Wednesday to a prison term of 309 years.

Slabbed takes the regulatory challenge part 1: Lets rap.

Vitter calls for ‘no-cost stimulus’ ????????????~Debra Lemoine
~Criticizing the stimulus legislation passed last year as raising the federal deficit while creating few permanent jobs, Vitter said that Congress should look into a “no-cost stimulus” plan by opening up more opportunities for domestic oil and gas production.
~Editilla Gotta Ax Vitty'cent da' Diaper Gent~
Why not just have "No-Cost Elections?" Mo'cheapa? Mo'Public, Mo'betta?
Then maybe Diaper Dave wouldn't be wetting his pants to hand off our real estate to his contributors in the Oil and Gas Industry who disappeared our coasts?
Suuuurrrrrre it's a No-Cost-Mo'Brainah!

Galveston fears post-Ike Census means lost funds~Juan Lozano

The Control of Nature
~For some years, John McPhee had been planning a book about places in the world where people have been engaged in all-out battles with nature, about (in the words of the book itself) "any struggle against natural forces--heroic or venal, rash or well advised--when human beings conscript themselves to fight against the earth, to take what is not given, to rout the destroying enemy, to surround the base of Mt. Olympus demanding and expecting the surrender of the gods." His interest had first been sparked when he went into the Atchafalaya--the largest river swamp in North America--and had learned that virtually all of its waters were metered and rationed by a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' project called Old River Control.

Arkansas Literary Festival announces authors

No Cats- 1 Dead in Attic
~Riverside

At New Iberia’s Lagniappe Too Café, the company is as warm as the food~Cheré Coen

Beard Award semifinalists ~Restaurant News

New Orleans Vietnamese community celebrates new year with a three-day festival of music
~Molly Reid

‘Nawlins meets Native
~Cherokee one feather
~"I’m a member of the United Houma Nation. So, a lot of my tribal history and culture comes out in the songs. I’m also the head singer of a traditional drum group called Southern Connection, so that’s where the powwow influences come from. What we try to do is combine elements of powwow, traditional music, Native history and culture and blend it with our New Orleans rhythm and blues roots. It’s like a musical ‘gumbo’!"~Cocoa Creppel

Love Song to New Orleans
~Alex Rawls, offBEAT
~It feels cold to critique a love letter, but a more effective, bolstering effort would suggest that the songwriters have been here and know who we are. It would also have the things that make any gift effective: personality, idiosyncrasy and the sense that the recipient was thought about in a genuine way. Oddly, it seems like the artists collected for Love Song to New Orleans don’t know us at all, or if they do, they’re unable to reflect that knowledge in their songs.

Clap Your Hands Say Yeah's
Alec Ounsworth goes solo
~Wendy Cale
~Alec Ounsworth likes to push the boundaries of his music, so the leader of indie-rock buzz band Clap Your Hands Say Yeah traveled to New Orleans to make his debut solo record.
It wasn't long before Ounsworth and some of New Orleans' favorite sons got busy creating Mo Beauty.
The record features Galactic drummer Stanton Moore, bassist George Porter Jr. of the Meters, and former Boulderite Washboard Chaz Leary, who now calls New Orleans home.

Ash Mercredi

Award winning short film ‘home’ can now be viewed on TV or purchased!
~Matt Faust’s award-winning short film ‘home’ can now be viewed on TV or purchased so you can enjoy anytime!


‘home‘, a magical 6-minute movie, artfully captures the spirit of families’ personal loss when the levees failed in August 2005.

More Blogs Carry Miscarriage of Dr Ivor van Heerden Dissmisal
~Editilla Crowtellas~ New blog find! Yay!
This also illustrates how this crime by the substrates of the ingrates who violates da'freedoms of study reverberates, to wit:
Afarensis: Anthropology, Evolution and Science
Also~Sue Sturgis @ ISS, Facing South

Contract procurement workshop

Corps of Engineers commander signs off on final portion of Chalmette Loop levee system in St. Bernard Parish
~Chris Kirkham

They Talkin'bout Us In Philly!
~"...Some things aren't easily forgiven or forgotten:
"Hold the Corps Accountable" placards are still pressed in windows, a reference to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which said the levees would hold...."

Alaska Governor “outraged” by Corps of Engineers’ decision

New Orleans awarded $45 million federal stimulus grant for new streetcar service
~Bruce Alpert

Reading and Rights – literacy and the “affirmative duty to read a contract of insurance”~slabbed

Making the Mississippi River sustainable in the 21st century

The U.S. Has Been Torturing. Case Closed -- Literally
~Harry Shearer

"The mischief of the city is alive and wide awake in active operation"
~Your Right Hand Thief

Ash Wed in East New Orleans ~Black Cat Bone

"Ashes The Rain And I"

*

Lundi Gras

We may know the sound of unbroken belief
with a bucket of seed and the pigeons beside us.
And we slide down the wet stones of the street
to a little cafe named for the goddess of flowers.
There the 8 Ball lines up with the Lucky 13
and Snake Eyes and Diamonds and Demons in Chains,
and the Angel waits for St Ann to begin
with her masque made of sorrow and her laugh made of sin.
So when I die...
please think of me down Royal Street
with a Brass Band and the 2nd Line beat
through the courtyards in the Marigny
and lay me down my soul to sleep.

Dimanche

Superdome-shaped cloud appears over Carnival
~As if the heavens agreed this is indeed Lombardi Gras, a cloud that looks remarkably like the Superdome hovers over the Thoth parade as it makes its way down Henry Clay Avenue on Sunday, February 14, 2010. Several parade-goers stopped catching beads to marvel at and take pictures of the cloud.
~Michael DeMocker / The Times-Picayune

Good Parade Weather Today!
~Routes and Grandstands

Saint Brees may reign over the biggest Bacchus ever
~Keith Spera

A Valentine for Ivor van Heerden ~slabbed

Harry Shearer Le Show today interviews Michael Grunwald on Corps of Engineers

~Editilla just likes reading this:
Sen. Landrieu said she and her brother share a lot of the same views: a belief that the city needs "world-class levees, water management and flood control."

Ferry caper may cost politicians the crossover vote ~James Gill

Brian Bordainick, New Orleans Teacher, Working To Build 'Field Of Dreams' In Ninth Ward

Wait a Minute--If It's a War, Aren't You Supposed to Kill Them?~Harry Shearer

Old State Capitol in new book

A gathering of words:
Ernest Gaines~Greg Langly

To the moon and beyond
~Ben Bova

Wow! Bansky has a Website and Movie coming out... or not

Black Hearts Masquerade Ball
Appropriate Attire Suggested, Suggestive Attire Always Appropriate.

Festival Brasileiro~Will Coviello

Alligator Records Signs artist Anders Osborne

Harry Mayronne, Anais St. John to perform at Carousel Bar

Mardi Gras Indian Variations
~Home of the Groove