All the FRILLS upon it: New Orleans Easter parades ~Angela Carll, The Advocate

A day in the life of Trout Point Lodgers Chuck and Vaughn ~Slabbed

Lobbyists push Congress for Morganza-to-the-Gulf project ~Daily Comet

History Behind the Walls on Chartres Street ~Go NOLA

Fair Grounds' Black Gold~Infield Festival: Seventeen Food Trucks, Pop-Ups Confirmed; Offisite Parking at Former JFK School~The first post of Saturday’s 13-race card is at 1 p.m. with the Louisiana Derby scheduled to go off at 5:45 p.m. Both the Louisiana Derby and Florida Derby will be televised on the NBC Sports Network as part of its “Road to the Kentucky Derby” series.

Help Bring Back the Legendary Jimmy’s Music Club at Benefit Mini-Fest April 4 – 6 ~offBeat

Louisiana sinkhole now as large as the Louisiana Superdome ~Stuart Smith

100th Louisiana Derby draws full field for first time in 50 years ~Advocate 

~New Orleans Handicap features rematch of Graydar, Bourbon Courage

Mayor, sheriff spar over consent decree cost ~Danny Monteverde, Advocate

Active hurricane season forecast

Teen volunteers come to New Orleans from storm-impacted area  

Bayou Chauvin project aims to ease drainage ~Chance Ryan, Daily Comet

Cold snap means fewer crawfish, higher prices ahead of Easter

Berl'in! ~Shoot. Eat. Repeat

Big Easy Theater Awards winners announced ~Will Coviello, Gambit

French Quarter Fest: A free blast of New Orleans music ~Edna Gundersen, USA TODAY

Gusman slams mayor's "last-ditch attempt" to get out of OPP consent decree ~Charles Maldonado, Gambit

Natural river diversion at ‘Mardi Gras Pass’ gains support from political, commercial interests ~Bob Marshall, The Lens

Katrina's winds too weak to destroy Biloxi houses, State Farm claims manager says  ~Anita Lee, SunHerald.com

Read more here: http://www.sunherald.com/2013/03/27/4555678/katrinas-winds-too-weak-to-destroy.html#storylink=cpy

Corps of Engineers Excels at Wasting Money ~Ryan Alexander

~Editilla Co'tellas~Setting aside the Exquisite Corps' current extortion of New Orleans with their never-finished Hurricane and Storm Damage Risk Reduction System in Name Only  (HSDRRSNO), take for example: The M/V Mississippi is (according to Corps PR) a "working" towboat for the USACE Memphis District. Ninety percent of the time it is moving barges, equipment and supplies in support of mat sinking operations. (Not only is this a bald-faced lie, but look at that titanic mother-of-all-fuckers in the pic above! I did a simple Google search, do youses see this bad boy anywhere? Also, even the Exquisite Corps doesn't lay concrete shore mats with 3 Caterpillar 3408 diesels. The Corps is whistling bullshit.)
It also serves as an inspection boat for the Mississippi River Commission (MRC) during a high- and low-water inspection trip each year. (Except for the fact it can't navigate on the MS River above Memphis during low-flow conditions --too fucking big) Commissioners hold meetings (fluff sessions) at river towns in the boat's hearing room, which can seat 115 people. Its dining room (with executive chef) has a capacity of 85 people. The boat has 22 staterooms and can handle 150 passengers (of all, ahem, occupations).
The Corps also uses it as a "giant floating ambassador".(BWAHAHAHAHA)
During the Hurricane Katrina crisis, the Mississippi was moved to Vicksburg, Mississippi and used as a floating command center. (That would be when the Corps cut and ran from their criminally negligent engineering that flooded their own New Orleans District 8-29-05)

Big Oil lobby backs tax plan, La. business leaning against ~Jeremy Alford

Lee Zurik Investigation: Police chief says Body of Evidence makes him sick ~WVUE

Out of the Way Eats in the F.Q ~Where Y'at

2013 French Quarter Festival Schedule!

Good Fryday at the Musician's Village ~NOLA DEFENDER

Decorative lights to shine on Crescent City Connection again ~The N.O. Advocate

Corps of Engineers prepares for Uptown canal construction

St. Charles residents would see huge rate hikes in new FEMA flood maps

New Orleans Officials Helping Locals Get Work At Two New Big Box Stores ~WWNO

Better coastal flooding warnings in works, officials say ~Amy Wold

Cargo question clouded by logistics, rules ~Daily Comet

Vicksburg officials watching river walls during rainy weather ~Mississippi Business Journal

Lessons From New Orleans: Creating A Sustainable Business Culture ~Forbes

New in NOLA!

~Travel the World -and never leave Julia St.- all in one afternoon at the Louisiana Children’s Museum’s Children’s World’s Fair!

Review: Mold ~Dalt Wonk, Gambit

John Besh expresses interest in buying Tujague's restaurant ~Susan Langenhennig
~Eiditilla Ho'tellas~ Dear @Tugagues, Jus'sayin...

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Katrina whistle-blower case starts in federal court in Mississippi ~Anita Lee, Sun Herald

Read more here: http://www.sunherald.com/2013/03/25/4551768/katrina-whistle-blower-case-starts.html#storylink=cpy

Future of historic New Orleans restaurant Tujagues unclear after death ~The Advocate

Digital subscriptions coming to Houma Courier
~Hat Tweet @UptownMessenger

Bollinger delivers fifth cutter to Coast Guard ~N.O. City Business

~Each fast response cutter is named for an enlisted Coast Guard hero who distinguished him or herself in the line of duty. This vessel is named after Margret Norvell, who served 41 years with the U.S. Lighthouse Service in Louisiana from 1891 to 1932. She served as keeper of both the Port Pontchartrain Light and the West End Light.

CBS seeks tax credit for going live from French Quarter during recent Super Bowl ~The Lens

Songs For Junior Rangers
~The 20-song CD includes a poster map with a special Junior Ranger game, and a booklet with the lyrics to each song, so kids can sing along. Proceeds from the sales of Songs for Junior Rangers support educational and interpretive programs in national parks. Along with Ranger Jeff Wolin, Rangers Matt Hampsey and Bruce Barnes from New Orleans Jazz National Historical Park appear on the album, as well as many talented New Orleans musicians. The songs cover a variety of subjects, including elk in “Wapiti Hoppity,” caving in “Spelunka Funka,” glaciers in “Frozen Bulldozin’,” and Mount Rushmore in “Four Presidents.” Musical elements include hip hop, reggae, blues, jazz, rock, zydeco, funk, and even polka. The CD was made possible through a grant from the National Park Foundation and is distributed and marketed by Eastern National.


Video: A Day in the Life of a WWNO Producer

Fair Grounds Getting Ready For Derby Festival and Jazz Fest

Barge Gate issues loom, engineering system failures worry La. flood official ~Bob Marshall

~“It’s an incredibly complicated design that will take nine hours to close effectively — and that the corps still can’t operate successfully after repeated tries. I keep seeing us trying to close that hole in the wall with a storm coming — and having nothing but problems.’’ -Bob Turner, Civil Engineer, regional director of the South Louisiana Flood Protection Authority - East.
The story of the barge gate goes back to the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Admitting that its own catastrophic engineering failures caused more than 50 ruptures in its levees and floodwalls, killing more than 1500 people and drowning 80 percent of the city in up to 15 feet of water, the corps promised amends. The answer was the $14 billion Hurricane Storm and Damage Risk Reduction System, which was to have been finished ahead of the hurricane season two years ago. The “barge gate” gets its name from its main element: a mammoth, concrete barge 190 feet long, 70 feet wide and 44 feet deep. It is not so much a gate as an emergency dam to be used on a temporary basis during storms. On paper, the design calls for the huge barge to be swung into a 190-foot gap in the Lake Borgne Surge Barrier at its junction with the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway. Once in place, the barge is filled with water and sunk to prevent storm surge from pouring through the city’s eastern defenses. Even as a temporary fix during Hurricane Isaac helped that barge gate plug the hole, members of the flood authority spent anxious days worrying that it might fail.
~Illustration at right curtsey of Da'Masqued E'vinga: Corps officials say there is nothing to worry about; all gates have bugs, and they’re working them out. Hehehehe...

Emergency management officials gather in New Orleans Monday for the 13th annual National Hurricane Conference

Hurricanes offer lessons for builders

Ben Franklin leaders worry about future reserves, discuss possible enrollment caps ~Chenault Taylor, The Lens

Richard Florida Concedes the Limits of the Creative Class ~Joel Kotkin, The Daily Beast
~Creatives may espouse politically correct views, but the effect of Florida’s policy approach, notes Tulane sociologist Richard Campanella, often undermine ethnic communities. As they enter the city, creatives push up rents, displacing local stores and residents. In his own neighborhood of Bywater, in New Orleans, the black population declined by 64 percent between 2000 and 2010, while the white population increased by 22 percent. In the process, Campanella notes, much of what made the neighborhood unique has been lost as the creatives replace the local culture with the increasingly predictable, and portable, “hip cool” trendy restaurants, offering beet-filled ravioli instead of fried okra, and organic markets. The “unique” amenities you find now, even in New Orleans, he reports, are much what you’d expect in any other hipster paradise, be it Portland, Seattle, Burlington, Vermont or Williamsburg.

These birds don’t need to fly South — help keep New Orleans “duck boat tour” free! ~Lunanola, NOLAFemmes

Exotic Romancing ~Odd Bits of Life in New Orleans

La. National Guard practices storm response

Letter to the Editor: ABO Hearing on St. Roch Tavern ~NOLA DEFENDER

Local landowners can get help restoring private wetlands 

Film industry workers nervous about proposed changes to tax credits

 

Wardell Quezergue Mass 4 pm Today ~WWOZ