Dear Editilla, help Louisiana stop Senate Bill 553!

The vote Monday on the Senate floor will set the tone for the rest of the session! It's absolutely critical that we stop Senator Adley's bill SB 553.

SB 553 will halt the SLFPAE lawsuit if passed through process and not ruled unconstitutional in court.

We need your strong grass roots effort between now and Monday evening!

Please pick up the phone and call these four State Senators and ask the staffer to leave a message.

Sen Dale Erdey (225) 686-2881 
Sen David Heitmeir (504) 361-6356
Sen A.J. Crowe (985) 643-3600
Sen Conrad Appel (504) 838-5550

Tell the staffer this: I would like to leave a message for the Senator urging him to vote against SB 553 because it will dismantle the good government that citizens voted for after the levees broke.

It is critical that you make your phone call by 3 PM Monday April 14.

Want to do more? Please send a letter to your state senator urging him or her to vote against SB 553.

http://go.levees.org/SB-553

SB 553–filed by a northern senator–would restrict the ability of the new Flood Authority to hire qualified attorneys without the Governor's approval. Most importantly, it would undermine the Flood Authority's existing lawsuit already filed against Big Oil.

Thank you for your support of Levees.org.

With your help, we're winning.

Sandy Rosenthal
Founder, Levees.org

9th Ward Festival! Today, 11:00 am to 8:00 pm, 4219 Urquhart St.

Atlanta firefighter killed in New Orleans bike wreck ~Alexis Stevens, ajc.com

Fest season floods market with illegal short-term rentals ~Scott Satchfield, WVUE

Survey: New Orleanians like cops better ~John Simerman, New Orleans Advocate

Home & Garden Events calender for today 

We Won't Bow Down, Mardi Gras Indian Doc Explores Untold Stories Over 8 Years ~M.D. Dupuy, NOLA DEFENDER 

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Letter: Residents’ opposition to Holy Cross plans falls on deaf ears ~New Orleans Advocate

BP oil spill choked off important pelican nesting sites on Louisiana coast ~Bob Marshall, The Lens

City Council delays voting on Holy Cross proposal, Perez architects' petition contains forgeries ~New Orleans Advocate

Reward offered for information on bald eagle’s killing ~Advocate

Jackson Square artist permitting process criticized this French Quarter Festival

Four years after BP disaster, erosion quickens along Gulf shore

Mississippi River Is Ranked Third Most Endangered In The Country

Ponchatoula Strawberry Festival!!!

Shorter red snapper season ahead for Gulf Coast

City Council planned vote on Holy Cross development rescheduled ~WDSU
~Editilla Ho'tellas~ Notice how ReviveLower9, a paid PR group posing as a neighborhood org, has shifted framing their Butt Eye Condo Towers as Blight Fighting! Hahaha in'fucking'corrigible!

Holy Cross residents claim developer's petition has fake names, addresses ~WVUE

“PayLoo” and the Saints: A Model for Success ~Harahan WhoDat, Saints Tailgate

Conditions at Fair Grounds irk legislators; bill advances ~Michelle Millhollon, NO Advocate

Vance 'Pants' McAllister, R-Neaux Alibi, episode opens door to all kinds of political possibilities—but this could happen only in Louisiana ~Louisiana Voice

Landslide survivor: 'I was not letting that baby go' ~AP via WWLTV

On this day in 1864, the French Marquis de Lafayette arrived in Louisiana, setting the stage for French Quarter Fest ~NOLA Defender

9th Ward Festival, Saturday!

The 38 Essential New Orleans Restaurants ~Gwendolyn Knapp, Eater

Report: 'Oil is not gone; impacts to wildlife ongoing’ ~Amy Wold, The Advocate
~Dying dolphins, bluefin tuna embryos with heart defects and hundreds of dead sea turtles washing ashore are proof the BP oil spill is still hurting and killing wildlife four years after the disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, the National Wildlife Federation claims in a new report.
The report, “Four Years into the Gulf Oil Disaster: Still Waiting for Restoration,” includes a compilation of research so far about impacts of the oil disaster on 14 species around the Gulf of Mexico.

Prospect of oil/fracking well worries St. Tammany officials ~Faimon A. Roberts III
~The type of well Helis proposes would use hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, as a means of extracting the oil from the ground. In fracking, chemicals, water and sand are pumped into the ground to create fissures in the rock through which the oil or gas can be extracted. The process has been controversial as residents in some states have complained about effects on drinking water and other environmental impacts.
In this case, the well would puncture not just the top of the aquifer from which St. Tammany pulls its drinking water, but also the bottom, a fact that bothers Parish Councilman Jake Groby, in whose district the proposed drilling site lies.

Levee board lawyers offer to reduce fee to oil, gas defendants to settle lawsuit ~David Hammer, WWLTV

"The only conclusion by a trial judge in the state of Louisiana in the last 10 years, that I am aware of, that a lawsuit was frivolous was in LOGA's suit challenging the contract. It is nonsense for Senator Adley to use that line over and over that there's something illegal or untoward about those contracts." ~Gladstone Jones, lead attorney for the Southeast Louisiana Flood Protection Authority-East

Concerns raised as company considers drilling site in St. Tammany ~Ashley Rodrigue, WWLTV

Newcomb Blvd. fence to come down after commission vote ~Robert Morris, Uptown Messenger

Minister Chance said Republican Vince "Tongue" McAllister’s District Office manager leaked the video

Legislators stall negotiations stall on issue of giving them to relatives ~WDSU

The 38 Essential New Orleans Restaurants ~Gwendolyn Knapp, Eater

Crescent City Homebrewer's Flea Market and Pig Roast ~Beer Buddha

French Quarter Feast ~NOLA DEFENDER

Residents settle for $48 million in one Texas Brine Sinkhole lawsuit ~David J. Mitchell, The Advocate

Battle Brewing In Holy Cross Over Proposed Riverfront Highrise Condos ~Karen Gadois, The Lens via WWNO

~“When it became clear to them that they were not going to be getting community support , they needed to create something that would allow them to manufacture the illusion of community support,” Lower 9 resident Sarah DeBacher said.
The illusion of community support included a website created by the developer called “Revive Lower 9”. At first glance, it seems to be a general interest site dedicated to the revival of the neighborhood.  But it’s actually part of the developer’s PR campaign devised to generate support for the condos.
Oddly, a news article promoting the project appeared in a student newspaper in Massachussetts and was later retracted because of a conflict of interest. It turns out, the author of the article works for the PR company [Velocity Agency] that Angela O’Byrne, president of Perez APC, hired to run the PR campaign. Petitions in support of the project included properties with falsified information.

~Special thanks to Lower 9 Vision Coalition for this fine poster!

Holy Cross "residents" say PR campaign is ginning up support for riverfront development ~Karen Gadbois, The Lens

****This comes up before the City Council on Thursday.
Please urge council members to VOTE NO, AGAINST RIVERFRONT CONDO TOWERS  IN HOLY CROSS!

		President Jacquelyn Brechtel Clarkson City Hall, Room 2W50 1300 Perdido Street New Orleans, LA 70112 Phone: (504) 658-1070 Fax: (504) 658-1077 jbclarkson@nola.gov				Vice President Stacy Head City Hall, Room 2W40 1300 Perdido Street New Orleans, LA 70112 Phone: (504) 658-1060 Fax: (504) 658-1068 shead@nola.gov
		District "A" Susan G. Guidry City Hall, Room 2W80 1300 Perdido Street New Orleans, LA 70112 Phone: (504) 658-1010 Fax: (504) 658-1016 sgguidry@nola.gov				District "B" LaToya Cantrell City Hall, Room 2W10 1300 Perdido Street New Orleans, LA 70112 Phone: (504) 658-1020 Fax: (504) 658-1025 lcantrell@nola.gov
		District "C" Kristin Gisleson Palmer City Hall, Room 2W70 1300 Perdido Street New Orleans, LA 70112 Phone: (504) 658-1030 Fax: (504) 658-1037 kgpalmer@nola.gov				District "D" Cynthia Hedge-Morrell City Hall, Room 2W20 1300 Perdido Street New Orleans, Louisiana 70112 Phone: (504) 658-1040 Fax: (504) 658-1048 chmorrell@nola.gov
		District "E" James Austin Gray II City Hall, Room 2W60 1300 Perdido Street New Orleans, LA 70112 Phone: (504) 658-1050 Fax: (504) 658-1058 jagray@nola.gov

Sen. Mary Landrieu treading oil and water in debate over levee board lawsuit ~Melinda Deslatte, AP via Shreveport Times

Damning Photos Reveal Wetlands Loss Due To Oil and Gas Pipelines ~Jonathan Henderson, Gulf Restoration Network

Oil, gas lawsuit asking industry to fix pipeline damage to Louisiana coast as promised: John Barry~There's a lot of misinformation that has been spread about the lawsuit the Southeast Louisiana Flood Protection Authority-East filed against 97 oil, gas and pipeline companies to make them restore the part of the coast they damaged. Here's the truth: Far from being radical, the lawsuit represents the most conservative values in America. It asks the industry to do what parents are supposed to teach their kids: Keep your word, obey the law and take responsibility for your actions.
The industry has done none of those things.

Oil and gas interests have no better friend in Baton Rouge than the combative Sen. Adley ~Tyler Bridges, The Lens

Court ruling may lead to higher taxes for salt caverns ~David J. Mitchell, The Advocate

Steep Flood Insurance Rate Hikes has Roots in Corps’ Levee Mistakes ~Levees.org

New Orleans Musicians’ Clinic hosts series of hearing-loss prevention events to keep the city listening ~Jessica Taylor, Uptown Messenger

Groups Working To Connect 9th Ward Split By Industrial Canal ~Eileen Flemming, WWNO

Celebrate Earth Day 2014 at Louis Armstrong Park on Sat, April 19th, 10 am to 7:30 pm!

If Legislature forbids levee lawsuits, Louisiana taxpayers will pay the price of coastal repairs: Mark Davis

Live blog: Committee sends new nominee to governor for east bank levee board ~Bob Marshall, The Lens

South Atlantic Council Overturns Gulf Council’s Mackerel Fishing Dates ~Gulf Seafood Institute

Entrepreneurship is Not a Resilience Strategy ~Nathan C. Martin, Next City

New Orleans to be home to nation’s first all-charter school district ~Aljazeera

Six months of talks on WTC building have produced no agreement ~Jaquetta White, New Orleans Advocate

Newcomb Blvd: wealthy residents continue fight for street closure ~Robert Morris, Uptown Messenger

New Charges in Film Tax Credit Case Involving Esplanade Ave. Mansion ~Steven Babcock, NOLA DEFENDER

Terrebonne fights plan for oilfield wastewater well ~WWL

A festival for making things hopes to launch a movement in New Orleans ~Mark Waller

Spring Garden Show attracts experts and newbies alike ~Della Hasselle

Second line Sunday: Old & Nu Style second line parade ~Big Red Cotton, Gambit