Thursday, April 11, 2013

French Quarter Fest: Music line up, map, World's Largest Jazz Brunch, film schedule

French Quarter Fest prepares for heavy rain on Locals’ Lagniappe Day

Gentrifying the parade route ~Library Chronicles

New research indicates Mississippi River diversions could harm marshland ~Bob Marshall, The Lens~For decades, those leading the life-and-death struggle to keep southeast Louisiana from being swallowed by the Gulf of Mexico have had a battle cry: “Put the river back into the marsh.” The thinking is that the river should be allowed to build new land, just as it had done for millennia before flooding was controlled. But what if pollutants in the river’s fresh water will kill the marsh before those sediments can do good?
Dissenters who posed this question have been treated as outliers, if not obstructionists.
Now a pair of recently released reports gives that question new relevance.

Lee Zurik Investigation: Mineral Board approves time for AG's "Dirty Deeds" probe

Two Tremé homes collapse, injuring four


 
Treme neighbor of collapsed doubles sees pattern in housing nonprofit’s mismanagement ~Karen Gadbois, The Lens

Robert's to open grocery in Bywater

La. black bears recovering from near extinction
 
Dumpstaphunk Announces New Album Preview During Jazz Fest

Tuesday, April 9, 2013

Gentrification flap rooted in an older debate over New Orleans ‘exceptionalism’ ~C. W. Cannon
When Boatloads of Federal Money Attack ~Mike Church~In 1817, President James Madison vetoed(1) Henry Clay and John C Calhoun’s “Bonus Bill” which would have given the Federal Government funding and authority to begin building levees, canals and roads. In his veto Madison wrote “The legislative powers vested in Congress are specified and enumerated, and it does not appear that the power for constructing canals, and improving the navigation of water courses… is among the enumerated powers vested by the Constitution in the Government of the United States.”
If only Madison had been around in 1858 to stop Congress from siccing the Corps of Engineers on the levees of the Mississippi River(2), LSU would have a million more dollars and professor Ivor van Heerden might still be employed there. You see, after Katrina, van Heerden, as deputy director of LSU’s Hurricane Center looked into the levees that failed and concluded there was “catastrophic structural failure”, this after warning(3) in 2003 that the city was doomed if the right storm surge hit her.
Collapse of Jindal plan spawns unfunded schemes to phase out income tax ~Mark Moseley, The Lens

Poke a fork in his buns cause Jindal’s Done ~Dakinikat, Sky Dancing
Exxon Spills Chemicals in Louisiana While Cleaning Up Oil in Arkansas

As more bike paths are created, city of N.O. hosts Bike to Work Day

Federal City military charter school a step closer to permanent home costing $17 million

  
MS Jury finds State Farm committed fraud against federal government

Read more here: http://www.sunherald.com/2013/04/08/4579415/jury-finds-state-farm-committed.html#storylink=cpy
 
Chargrilled Oysters Recipe

Will Coviello on what's new at the 30th annual free music fest in the Vieux Carre
~ 2013 French Quarter Festival Traffic Advisory

Sunday, April 7, 2013

LSU spent a lot trying to quash academic freedom and befriend the Corps of Engineers ~James Gill~LSU comes out looking petty, vindictive and dishonest while taxpayers get a bill for $1 million. Will anyone get fired over this? Hell, no. That punishment is reserved for straight shooters. Ivor van Heerden must have been such a one, else the state would hardly have paid him $435,000 last month to settle his wrongful termination lawsuit. We now discover that LSU's futile resistance cost more than that in legal fees, which rather belies the notion that flagship universities attract top brainpower. If LSU had not been so keen to smear van Heerden, he might have been merely the professor who was right about Katrina. Instead, he was turned into a hero, the champion of academic freedom.
Jindal Republicans take aim at gutting solar power tax credit

Could the flood of 1983 happen again?

St. Claude Food Truck and Art Bazaar

Mule-Drawn Music