Saturday, March 15, 2014

Friday, March 14, 2014

New Orleans ~Moria Donegan, n+1
~When I pulled off of I-10 the day that I first arrived in town, a soldier in desert-colored fatigues stood beneath a blackened traffic light, directing cars with his stiff palms. On the road behind him felled oak branches lay downturned on the asphalt like hands. I had to steer around them. This was August 30, 2012, and my timing could have been better. Hurricane Isaac had made landfall two days earlier, the first major storm to hit New Orleans since Katrina. Power was out in much of the city, and further downriver, in swampy Plaquemines Parish, two bodies had been found floating face down in a flooded kitchen. Isaac was the first real test of the new, $4 billion levee system that the government had built after 2005, and a lot of people had expected the levees to fail. Almost all of the friends I knew in New Orleans had evacuated to Austin, Memphis, or Baton Rouge; they sent me pictures of the traffic backed up on the outbound side of the highway. “I really don’t know what’s going to happen,” one friend had told me a few days earlier, over the phone. “But I don’t want to be here when we find out.” Before the storm reached land the Army Corps of Engineers had been called in, “to provide assistance and keep order.” But the levees held, and while a lot of people lost power, the damage wasn’t nearly as bad as what had been feared. By the time I reached town there were soldiers standing in clusters at the major intersections along Claiborne Avenue, looking bored. The French Quarter even had its lights back on, and businesses were open in the tourist district. On Rampart Street as I made my way to my apartment, I saw an Army Humvee stop to let a gaggle of drag queens cross the street. I watched them disappear into a bar.

A Kale of Two Cities: the magical New Orleans and the Americanist version ~C.W. Cannon, The Lens

Sunday: Single Men's second line parade ~Big Red Cotton, Gambit
Backers of coastal-erosion lawsuit launch new website ~Jeff Adelson, New OrleansAdvocate

Is Rep. Robideaux LOGA's 'waterboy'? ~Patrick Flanagan

Study: In some cases, pipelines can rebuild wetlands more cheaply than diversions ~Bob Marshall, The Lens

After clearing Senate, Flood Bill sent to Obama's desk ~Mark Ballard

Intel on Jairus Byrd from Buffalo Bills columnist @ChrisTrapasso ~Andrew Juge, Saints Nation

New Orleans to begin replenishing oak trees on section of Esplanade Avenue ~AP, Greenfield Daily Reporter

Monday, March 10, 2014

Judge upholds AG Buddy Caldwell's approval of levee authority's vote in wetlands damage suit ~Mark Schleifstein~Attorney General Buddy Caldwell acted appropriately in approving the east bank levee authority's vote to hire a law firm for a wetlands damage suit against 97 oil, gas and pipeline companies, a Baton Rouge judge ruled Monday. The judge also ruled that the Louisiana Oil & Gas Association's lawsuit attempting to overturn Caldwell's approval was frivolous.
Saints free-agent wish list: Wide receiver ~Mike Triplett

Daily Who Dat Dish

It's Monday. Somebody call Da NOLA DEFENDER

The Wisner Trust: Horse trading in Louisiana's wild, wild justice system ~American Zombie

Battles over BP settlement could be nearing an end ~Richard Thompson, The Advocate

Reflecting on a show: Ani Difranco ~Disenfranchised Citizen