Whiz Kidding, also, if there's time left over maybe they will buy a theater
~Library Chronicles

'Perfect Storm' Along MO River Puts Army Corps Policies in Cross Hairs
~As the engorged Missouri River swamps towns and threatens to burst a backup levee in Hamburg, Mo., lawmakers are calling for a review of the Army Corps of Engineers' flood-control plans.

Missouri River flood hits unprecedented flow rates
~Jeff Masters, Wunderblog

To bolster real estate market, New Orleans must add jobs, experts say

Goddamnit! Phillis Wheatley Elementary School Torn Down

Ray Nagin to appear Monday on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart
~Humid Beings

Major League Baseball to operate youth training academy in Gentilly

Kicking, smiling “Great Dane” is a Saints, Louisiana all-time star

Hundreds of Vespa scooter enthusiasts putt-putt through New Orleans

Release the Hounds!
~a Corps of Engineers whistleblower's letter to the President ~Hat Tip~Levees.org
~Recent levee ruptures in Iowa and Missouri may reflect larger failures of the United States Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) raised by whistleblower Maria Garzino. And there may be more tragedies on the horizon: in 2007, USACE released a list of 146 levees across America that are at risk of failing. In an article this week in Politico, Harry Shearer gave a curtain raiser to a letter Garzino sent to the Obama Administration earlier this year that fully exposes the degree of deception by USACE. The letter reveals not only a shockingly detailed portrait, but also the attempts of government officials to prevent Garzino from blowing the whistle at all.

The economics of flooding

Challenges of keeping MS River in check discussed at meeting of Louisiana coastal authority

Wait…didn’t he say there were no health claims?
~Disenfranchised Citizen
~Also~State Senate rejects ban on oil dispersants

GOP Seeks Bidders on Amtrak Rail Lines

Bourbon & Burlesque ~Gambit
~Lauren LaBorde on a fan-and-tassel fundraiser for the Contemporary Arts Center

New Crush~Blackened Out

Food Bloggers Get Up Close and Personal With Gulf Seafood

Monkeying with the Constitution ~Gambit ~Jeremy Alford on how our "small-government" pols in Baton Rouge want to add (and add and add) to the state Constitution

La. lawmakers scrap 'birther' bill

Larger ‘dead zone’ feared, Gulf phenomenon could set record
~Amy Wold

Tugboats free tanker that ran aground in lower Mississippi River on Monday

Evacuteer.org volunteers provide a service when it's most needed

7 blighted homes sold at sheriff's auction in New Orleans

Iron Rail Book Store – Anarchy has returned!~Invade Nola

Le Petite Theater Sale Hits Intermission ~Nola Defender

Slow Southern Street Style: Seen at Freret Market

Check, please! Umm, please?
~He Said/She Said NOLA

Winesday~Blackened Out

A rare but important victory
~American Zombie

Da Train! Da Train! City of New Orleans
~How We Rollas~
On another one of our "work trips" for Editilla's House of Piety (EHOP) we take the southern rails. 7am comes hard on our nerve, but soon the MS Delta is sliding by, shining like a... like a laser-plained, leveled, leveed, over-irrigated, precision- agriculture guitar. We've been riding this particular train since 1979. It leaves Memphis, exiting the bluff into the delta at the beginning of the Corps Levee, then quickly into the very center, en route to Greenwood to Yazoo City, MS, the bottom gum line of the delta. Just passed Marks (they used to just beat the Hell outta my Cleveland High Wildcat football team. I mean every time. Mean delta boys in Marks.) The fields are beautiful golden -fresh cut wheat- and green of new soybeans. The cotton is moving along, but there is still a Lot of water around. The corn to me seems late. These little towns are but slivers of a glory they never had in the first place. This is across the tracks from Faulkner's Delta, "Their Day" was taken along time ago, if not by the Corps of Engineers' flood strategy then whittled down and sold to feed China. But in the space of a crack in an old oiled wooden floor, art has remained embedded in the land of my yout and festered. Many of these towns have secretly taken in Nolafugees, like Water Valley where Waiting Room Gallery immigrated.

Low levees get boost from corps
~Nikki Buskey~Houma~ The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is raising a floodwall at the Golden Meadow pump station from 11.5 feet to just under 14 feet, said Joey Wagner, corps manager for the Larose-to-Golden Meadow levee project. The corps will also improve protection at the Louisiana Offshore Oil Port deepwater facility and low-lying floodwalls along the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway in Larose.

As if we had to be told, I mean... Goddamnit!

Lawmaker wants BP Oil Spill medical cases monitored

30 more bays closed at Bonnet Carre Spillway

Have You Seen This? ~GRN

Follow the Money~Indie Film Guru

Postcards of the Hanging
~Tara Jill Ciccarone

Vinterview~Blackened Out

I’ll Have What He’s Having. Not!
~He Said/She Said NOLA

Two Missouri River Levees Fail
~The rising Missouri River has ruptured two levees in northwest Missouri, sending torrents of floodwater over rural farmland toward the Iowa town of Hamburg and the Missouri state park and resort of Big Lake. The levee failures both happened Monday morning.Authorities said a levee near Hamburg now has a 50-foot-wide hole in it. This is the same place in Atchison County, Mo., where a repair was done last week.The emergency manager said while the levee has been deemed irreparable, there are no plans to evacuate anyone.

More trouble ahead for New Orleans? ~Harry Shearer, Politico
~“The (Army Corps) is guilty of engaging in deceptive and fraudulent acts in order to hide the known inadequacies of the hydraulic pumping equipment and the (Corps’) own wrongdoing from the public and other responsible government agencies.” ~Maria Garzino, Civil Engineer USACE
~At right: Maria Garzino, Danielle Bryan, and Harry Shearer in March, at the AFI Silver Theater premier of The Big Uneasy, in Silver Spring, Maryland.
Your Ho Ho Homble Editilla was in that audience. After the Q&A we saddled up and presented Mz Garzino with a pair of big shiny Brass Balls!
Yesm, we sure the hell did!
She is the 1st recipient of the Editilla's Civil Engineering Brass Balls Award for standing up to the Corps of Engineers. We shall hang this award for Real Engineers who Defend NOLA. While it is fitting for Matt McBride to be the first, we would be remiss to ignore the contributions of Maria Garzino, the Corps engineer who blew the whistle on our Bad Outfall Canal Pumps. The Lady's Got OVA.
So we Award them both Brass Balls for Testicular Fortitude and Engineering Acumen. One of the biggest problems for me regarding the worst civil engineering failure in the history of our country, the Flood of New Orleans by the Corps of Engineers, is the incredulously small number of real engineers who have stepped into the face of industry intimidation to refute the Corps Lies. These brave engineers stand to loose much given the Exquisite Corps of Engineers' contracting reach. But rest easy, Gentle'rillas, to quote Sandy Rosenthal, founder of Levees.org: "We Are Winning!" Yes, we mfkn are! And this coming sixth Flood Anniversary I will have more Brass Balls for more Herolero Engineers.

Whole Lotta Love during Loyola Avenue streetcar line groundbreaking

Ignatius on Magazine, Walgreens on Carrollton, and proposals for coffee shop and fresh market Uptown all seeking city approval
~Uptown Messenger

Anti-blight program Lot Next Door reaches 1,000 purchase agreements

UMC a "Done Deal"? Not After Today ~SaveCharityHospital.com

Clancy DuBos makes some wishes for Gov. Bobby Jindal's birthday ... then blows out his candles

Gov. Bobby Jindal -- They love him in Ohio ~Stephanie Grace

Louisiana drivers don't know the rules of the road ~WWL

Mapping shoreline activity in Louisiana ~Jeremy Alford, Gambit

New Louisiana oil spill highlights industry's chronic pollution problem
~Facing South

Doing the Math on Louisiana’s 2011 Shrimp Season

Louisiana's largest inshore artificial reef completed northeast of Grand Isle

~The Louisiana Charter Boat Association, Bridgeside Marina (Grand Isle), The Louisiana Seafood and Promotion Board along with www.visitlouisianacoast.com present the Inaugural Saints Alumni Fishing Rodeo on Grand Isle June 17th and 18th at the Bridgeside Marina.
Your Favorite Saints Players of Yesteryear will decent on Grand Isle and will be public Friday evening for a Captain's Party and get together.
Food will be provided by the Louisiana Saefood and Promotion Board so you know that you will be treated to some good ole Louisiana Saefood. The former Saints Players will be on hand to sign autographs and mix it up with the crowd. There will be auction items and as much memorabilia as we can amass. Have a football item that you want autographed - bring it, these guys are great and want to sign it for you.

"GOODBY JOE" J'AI POUR ALLEZ, MI-O-MA-Y-O
J'AI POUR ALLEZ MOI TOUT SEUL
SUR LE BAYOU
MA YVONNE, LA PLUS JOLIE
SUR LE BAYOU
TONNERRE M'ECRASE
UN VA AVOIR UN BON TEMP
SUR LE BAYOU
----refrain----------
JAMBALAYA, DES TARTES D'ECREUVISSE, FILE GOMBO
PAR A SOIR MOI J'VA ALLEZ VOIR
MA CHERE AMI-O
JOUER L'GUITAR, BOIRE DE LA JOGUE(cruche)
ET FAIR DE LA MUSIQUE
TOMNNERRE M'ECRASE
UN VA AVOIR UN BON TEMP
DE SUR LE BAYOU
THIBODEAUX, FONTENOT, LA PLACE APRE SONNER
CA VIEN "EN TAS" POUR VOIR YVONNE
PAR LES DOUZAINES
FAIR BIEN L'AMOUR, ET FAIR LE FOU, FAIR LA MUSIQUE
TONNERRE M'ECRASE
UN VA AVOIR UN BON TEMP

Okra and Tomatoes~NOLAFemmes

The Fried Shrimp Po-Boy
~Blackened Out

"Pause for Dinner" Thursday night to benefit LA/SPCA ~Gambit

Sugar Park ~Hat Tweet @BywaterNeigh

The Ultimate Fully Loaded Bloody Mary ~Serious Eats

Susan Cowsill takes 'Treme' viewers to Carrollton Station

200lb log debris found in West Bank levees, Corps of Engineers plays dumb
~This piece of wood, about 3 feet by 2 feet, was removed from the levee under construction between the new Westwego Pumping Station and Orleans Village.

“If they’ve got a 200-pound log buried in that levee, it makes you wonder what else is buried there,” said Giuseppe Miserendino, the levee authority’s regional director. “How does your quality-control person miss something that big? What else didn’t they catch?”

Debris Part 5~Fix the Pumps
~Also this from Slabbed~There is a Heebe in the levee pile!

Michael "Brownie" Brown to sign Deadly Indifference in NOLA
~Kevin Allman, Gambit
~Hat Tweet @Editilla the Pun~@The_Gambit This is an Excellent idea for a Pie Throwing Party! Bring Pies lotta Pies! Chocolate Brownie Pies! Mud Pies! #nola #TheBigUneasy

Housing fight prompts racists to speak ~Jarvis DeBerry

In this episode of Magnum J.D.: Baldie amends the suit against Bull Durham, adds Magnum plus Gauthier Houghtaling and Williams ~Slabbed

NASA software gives Lusher Charter School students all the right stuff

Corps closes 30 bays at Bonnet Carre

High Mississippi River and Algiers Point levee make for good fishing

River flood builds land, but will it help locally? ~Nikki Buskey~“The real tragedy of this flood is that it isn't getting sediment to some of these areas that sorely need it,” said Phillip Turnipseed, director of the U.S. Geological Survey's National Wetlands Research Center, which published the satellite photos of the flood. “Terrebonne, Lafourche, Barataria, the Breton Sound — you're all being left out.”

The Nature Conservancy buys land for State of Louisiana

Missouri River levees in Iowa face historic test~Des Moines Register

Economy versus environment…the oil spill fine~Disenfranchised Citizen

While you were sleeping
~Judyb54, NOLAFemmes

The Green Goddess' Omivourous Outré
~Kat Stromquist, NOLA Defender

Tab Benoit in Memphis Tonight at the Levitt Shell
~Editilla Ruminellas~5 blocks from my house, this is an WPA-built outdoor amphitheater that we saved from demolition back in the '90s. I directed 8 Earth Day Festivals here in the heart of Memphis. It is the prettiest place in the city, a sacred space where I laid my heart for safe keeping.