On this day in New Orleans, snowballs were still a Really Big Deal

Big Victory In Effort To Curb Libel Tourism ~Eric Goldman, Forbes
~New Orleans Ladder pal and defender Doug Handshoe, of Slabbed, is a Mississippi blogger/griper. He repeatedly criticized a Louisiana public official, and that evolved into criticisms of the plaintiffs, Nova Scotia residents who Handshoe asserted were business partners of the initial target. The plaintiffs sued Handshoe in a Nova Scotia court for defamation. Handshoe did not fight that lawsuit, so the Nova Scotia court issued a default judgment against him and awarded the plaintiffs injunctive relief plus hundreds of thousands of dollars in damages.
Armed with this Nova Scotia court victory, the plaintiffs asked a Mississippi court to enforce it, which Handshoe contested. The federal Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals confirmed that the SPEECH Act precluded enforcement of the Nova Scotia defamation judgment. The court held that Nova Scotia’s defamation laws do not protect defendants as much as U.S. law does because defamation plaintiffs don’t have to prove that the defendant’s statements are actually false (in Canada, a defendant must show the truth of its statements). The court also held that the plaintiffs’ allegations in Canada would not have established defamation if asserted in a United States courts.

DuBos: Levee board heads deserve to be reappointed

Hazard mitigation program ending, missed out on helping thousands more ~David Hammer, WWLTV

Homeowners file suit against city over fines levied on non-existent house ~Holland Phillips, The Louisiana Record

Filing gives peek into evidence prosecutors may present at Ray Nagin trial ~Gordon Russell, New Orleans Advocate

Susan Larson - THE BOOKLOVER'S GUIDE TO NEW ORLEANS

Gordon Parks: The Making of an Argument, New Orleans Museum of Art ~Elizabeth Avedon