Tuesday, December 15, 2015

Saturday, December 5, 2015

The Startup That's Restoring Louisiana's Coast ~Craig Guillot, The Atlantic City Lab
~Two scientists believe their method of planting cypress and tupelo trees—in special rodent-resistant pods—can revive the region’s disappearing marshes.

Monday, November 30, 2015

Thursday, November 19, 2015

Air BNB ad ~Karen Gadbois
~Are you tired of Airbnb rental prices driving up rent in your neighborhood? Is the lip service your city pays to reigning in short-term rentals leaving a bad taste in your mouth (or on your lips)? If so, become part of the NEW OFFENSIVE and pledge to STEAL INDISCRIMINATELY from New Orleans Air BnBs.
BREAKING: Louisiana put on high alert, warned of man attempting to regain entry into state ~Neutral Ground News

Monday, November 16, 2015

Tuesday, November 3, 2015

Louisiana’s Most Well-Known Conservative Blogger Has Long History of Scamming Readers ~CenLamar~According to dozens of comments published on numerous websites and sports-related online forums between 2004 and 2009, Scott McKay, the owner and publisher of The Hayride, allegedly has an extensive track record of defrauding and scamming numerous readers, dating back to his first publication, the now-defunct Purple and Gold.
Raintree Helps Foster Children Feel Like Normal Children ~Eve Abrams, WWNO

Thursday, September 10, 2015

Monday, August 31, 2015

Crucifixion Road
by Karl Demolay

This is for the city that care forgot...
the city that forgot to care.
This city, carelessly forgotten,
our party time's behind us now, sensual drums in the dank and virile heat. City of culinary delights, musical giants, simple pleasures, squalid splendors.
A city of dust, now shrouded in mold, forever succumbing to entropic bliss on pause.
This city of history, a living archive of revelry and regret. The past and the future collide in slow motion. This is the city that must be remembered and rebuilt, this bastion of visceral pleasures and historic decadence. All to our collective delight and nagging melancholia.

This is for the ones that evacuated...
the people who left it all behind. The ones that lost almost everything, or maybe just the one thing they cared about most of all. The ones marooned on highways for far too long, no way home, even as the storm unleashed its initial fury. Those left deserted, no place to rest their heads, thoughts still heavy with guilt or fear or resignation.
This is for the people that won't go back, can't go back, afraid of possibility and all of its attendant pitfalls.
This is for those that have nothing to return to at all, not one single thing.
This is for the ones that relocated, expatriates forced into strange lands with odd customs.
This is for the terminally restless,
the suddenly homeless,
the penniless brave.

This is for the ones that stayed...
the insane, the stranded, the curious tribes, erstwhile survivors and civic warriors alike.
Those souls who stayed calm and true despite the chaos, or lost their minds to apocalyptic fancy.
Battened down and hunkered low, sipping bottled water with hushed first glances, suspicious demeanors and flashlights at the ready.
Proud and defiant holders of the line, sometimes criminal in intent, quick movement on the perimeters, shoot to kill orders...
For all those who were trapped in makeshift shelters, replete with suicides, murders, and rapes: victimization rank and feral.
For the bitter end of salvation, acrid tastes on parched tongues dry, even as bids for escape were made.

This is for the politicians...
Federal, State and Local, at once inept and indispensable, some more than others, caught unprepared, unconcerned, unshaven---Playing cat and mouse in a city of smoldering ruins, screams from the darkness of urgent plight, atavism gone awry. Ignorance and obviousness, the slow motion train wreck broadcast for all to see and discuss, obfuscate and ignore. Declarations of me and mine, you and yours, pitted squarely against they and them. This is for too little, too late, the same old song played at precisely the wrong time, over and over. Nagin, Blanco, Brown, Bush, please report center stage to assume the mantle of scorn and blame, everyone gets their turn.
This is for the ones that try to rewrite history or deny it outright, we wish we could deny it all so easily.

This is for the ones that died...
for the loved ones, the foolish ones, the forgotten and cumbersome alike. For the elderly, the infirmed, Vera in her cobblestone grave, the unidentified ones that received no such memorials.
And our beloved household pets, loyal until the end.
The parks and neighborhood greens, flora and fauna turned to a sepia-tone static gray. The houses, once renowned for their architecture, are reborn as new testaments to the destructive coupling of Mother nature and Human Folly. To the spray-painted X's, harsh and unrelenting, omnipresent in their emergency orange hue: 1 dog dead, 1 person saved.
This is for the newest necropolis to rise, our once proud city, our interrupted way of life, breaks in the line of comfortable static. For the evidence of our empire, washed away in the eye of the storm and the turgid, toxic waters that followed.

This is for the ones that rescued...
the Firefighters, EMT's, Police Officers, National Guard. For the people from far and near that just appeared out of nowhere, just wanting to help any way they could, using anything waterborne. And for the locals brave and true, risking life and limb to save just one more person, over and over and over. For all of the endless, tireless, selfless sacrifices and tear jerking humanity. For their shining light of salvation into the boundless dark, onto rooftops, inside of hacked-out attics, out of harms way to higher ground. For beaming from all directions, these beacons of hope, springing eternal and true.
This is for all those who lent a hand, however small or large. Our gratitude, more than could ever be conveyed, is all we have to offer in return.

This is for the media...
the good, the bad, the ugly, for the rescuers and the soothsayers, the shelterers and the kind words, for the dispassionate, the doubters, the cynical and the apathetic.
The pundits and pontificators, their talking points and bad haircuts, feigning interest at all the scripted moments. For the smiles as the makeup is applied, the vacant suppression of harsh, unforgiving reality in plentiful evidence. The ones that control the present controlling the past controlled the future; as always, blissfully unaware of the consequences...
For the sidebars and scrutiny, the breaking news and tight focus close-ups, hands and mouths reacting in opposite directions, in equal amounts, all from the outside looking in. This is for updates at every quarter of the hour.

This is for the hospitals...
the nursing homes and hospices unprotected and ignored. Piling the dead or leaving them where they lay, morgues and freezers packed tight. This is for the generators that failed too quickly. No sleep or food or water or sanity or safety or hope. For our doctors and nurses, in hellish conditions, against impossible odds, this is for the ultimate and undying respect they deserve. This is for the thugs storming the gates for drugs and evil kicks on top of everything else happening, brash and ignorant of their crime...
For the hotels and hostels, kicking guest out to fend for themselves in our city gone mad. Inundation and tragedy, fragility and breakdown, the worst vacation, convention, honeymoon ever.

This is for the looters...
for the desperate, the prescient, the survivalist hordes. Scavenging and pilfering, salvaging and hoarding anything and everything of use in seemingly useless times.
This is for the business owners, opening their doors wide to allow retrieval of water, food, diapers and formula, keeping their cool and doing the right thing. And for the pharmacies, their good intentions torn asunder by destructive addicts and wasteful ignorance like so many store display shelves.
This is for the home invasions, the armed intrusions, for making a bad situation worse, for spreading the fear...
This is for the ones that made it easier even while others made it ever harder by the minute.

This is for the children...
the lost or outright abandoned, the marginalized or used, for the separation anxiety, trauma and tears on long hot nights that just got worse and worse.
The unfamiliar and the dangerous, the abusive and profane, forsaking even common sense, for the lack of decency, for the bad examples and poor supervision. This is for the countless orphaned souls, forced to bear an adults pain with no advance warning, no preparation or guidance...
This is for the countless smiles, the innocence and playfulness, the ability to make it all disappear, if only for a moment at a time. And for their will, unbreakable and resolute in its purest form and function. This is for what we owe them, first and foremost; their satisfaction will be our compensation over time.

This is for the survivors...
all of us, if any of us, also still, the huge debt owed to those who didn't. This is for all of us in our sad, sad group, no matter where we are at the moment, home or abroad. For the hopes and dreams, reborn from the ashes of the ones previous, for our Phoenix on the bayou. For the nightmares and shock and ennui, the blank stares and paranoia deep into the night. And the helplessness, constricting, paralyzing, numbing...
This is for finding a way to get out of bed in the morning to go to work, gut your houses and reassemble your lives. This is for those that mourn their dead, their missing, their damaged. This is for all of us that are left to find their way back to some semblance of normalcy and well being in these dark times.

This is for the rest of the country...
witnesses to our plight, shelters in the storm, final arbiters of our collective destiny. This is for all of the numerous benefits and donations, the concerns and the heartfelt sorrow. The letters and emails, the long talks on the phone into those September nights and beyond, the shoulders to cry on and beds to sleep in. As well as the showers and food, simple things like ice and clean clothes. For the religious intolerance, the thought that somehow, we deserved this,
that this was God's doing...
This is for the stupidity and hypocrisy, for throwing the first stone when we were down and out. This is for their fatigue, their need to move on, not towards a better understanding, but only to the next sad refrain. For helping us stand, then forcing us to walk away stronger and more assured. This is for those that are rebuilding with us, as well as for the ones that make us want to now more than ever.

This is for the world...
the governments and their citizens, for the superpowers and third-world nations alike.
For their offers and advice, their engineers and city planners, the visits of rebuilding and improved protection. This is for the feeling that we weren't alone, that this has happened before elsewhere, only much worse, that it does get better with hard work and cooperation. For the lessons learned and experience shared; the first real promises of something good in uncertain times. This is for the most that we can share, our lessons, our triumphs and defeats, our heartbreaks and celebrations. This is for an open welcome to the grand rebuilding, our glorious comeback and their involvement in all that promises.

This is for the past...
and how not to repeat it. This is for shoddy levees and interrupted communications, driverless buses and improper shelters. For the wild ride to here, the respite in its warming memories, stories and legends yet to be told.
The anecdotes and folktales, the ghost stories and the pirates' songs, for history and the curious wisdom it imparts. For the good times, the bad times, the in-between times, we all had them here in this place we called home, no matter if you're local or not. This is for why we still call it home today, even if we won't, or can't be here now. This is for the sacrifices, the sweat and blood, the personal tales of reward and loss. This is for the chance to finally get it right, to learn form our mistakes one more time, to teach others the same as well; it's that precious and rare.

This is for the future...
and the promise that it holds.
For the chances in abundance, the endless, limitless boundaries presented. This is for the process of starting over, no matter how long or tough it turns out to be.
For the ways to see beauty in the ugliness, to fashion something new and exciting out of something broken and in a state of disrepair.
This is for our city, its legacy, our neighborhoods and families, friends and foes alike.
For our scenes and cliques, parishes and wards, businesses and hangouts, for the determination to rebuild them all, damn the engines.
Our wishes for a better way are here and now, ready and waiting, the concept of building better, stronger, and more secure. All we have to do is make it happen.
This is for the here and the here from now on.

So this is for you, in your own private way. For peace, contentment, steadfast resolve in trying times. For dignity and patience, reassuring calm after the storm. This is for the knowledge that you are not alone, no matter how lonely it may seem right now. For your hopeful return to the place we call home, if not now,
then in due time...
For the knowledge that she will wait for you, she always has,
she always will...
This is for our fair lady,
our New Orleans,
Past, Present and Future...
New Nola Blog: Waking Crescent City!
Louisiana Is Falling off the Map ~Jesse Hardeman, TakePart.com

Wednesday, August 26, 2015

Levees.org historical marker commemorates flooding of Lower 9th Ward ~Cain Burdeau, Fort Wayne Journal
~Sandy Rosenthal, president of Levees.org, said her group wants to make sure Katrina is properly remembered. The group has long pushed to, as members have put it, "bust the myths of the flooding during Katrina." The group has sought to expose the engineering failures by the Army Corps of Engineers that led to the flooding of more than 80 percent of New Orleans.
Rosenthal said the new plaque is "both a commemoration of a pivotal moment in history and a memorial to those lost. For the past 10 years there's been nothing at the breach site to teach visitors," she said. "It's a plaque that will last more than 100 years."

The Broken Promise of the Levees That Failed New Orleans ~Douglas Brinkley, Smithsonian.com

10 Years After Federal Flood, Will California’s Capital Be The Next New Orleans? ~Josh Israel, Thin Progress

The New Broad Way, NOLA ~Rien Fertel, The Local Palate

Sunday, August 16, 2015

'Bringing Back The Home': Jon Cleary Celebrates The Soul Of New Orleans ~NPR
‘We’re forgotten’: Outside New Orleans, Gulf eats away at entire coastal towns, residents’ livelihoods  ~Cain Burdeau, AP
DELACROIX (AP) — Rocky Morales is watching his small Louisiana town of Delacroix slowly melt into the water. The woods where he played hide-and-seek as a boy are gone. It’s all water and mud back there now. So, too, is the nearby marsh where townsfolk once trapped for muskrat, otter and mink.
Many of the fishermen who once lived here — his friends and relatives — have disappeared as well, fleeing behind the intricate levee system protecting New Orleans out of fear that one more hurricane will be all it takes to send the rest of Delacroix into the sea.

Thursday, August 13, 2015

Monday, August 10, 2015

Tuesday, June 23, 2015

http://levees.org/
Dear Editilla,
This Saturday, we will plant the beautiful native flowers and plants in the rain garden of the Open Air Levee Exhibition and Garden!

We need volunteers!

WHEN: Saturday, June 27 from 8:30 am-noon
WHERE: 5000 Warrington Drive, east breach of London Avenue Canal


We recommend bringing gloves, shovels, pitch forks and folding chairs.

http://levees.org/

We will provide water, ice and shade. A nice neighbor is also providing her bathroom for your comfort!

Please RSVP by replying to this email so we know how much supplies to bring.
Don't do "dirt and worms?" Please consider a financial contribution to help build and maintain the exhibit and garden. Click here.


The Open-air Levee Exhibition and Garden will educate visitors about the New Orleans Flood. It will be a memorial to the souls who were lost, a commemoration of a pivotal moment in American history and a symbol of the residents’ resilience and determination to return home.

The rain garden is designed to hold rain water to nourish native plants and prevent rainwater from entering the city's drainage system. The Peggy Martin/Katrina rose bush will be the focal point of the rain garden along with Louisiana Irises.

Sandy Rosenthal
Founder, Levees.org
From Piyush to Bobbly: How does Louisiana Governorcist Jindal feel about his family’s past? ~

Pho Festival comes to Gretna ~Helen Williams

Friday, June 19, 2015

LPBF Assesses Upgraded Hurricane Protection System for Greater New Orleans Eastbank~Dr. Ezra Boyd, Restore Mississippi Delta

National Flood Insurance Program rate-setting should be overhauled, National Research Council says ~Mark Schleifstein
LPBF Assesses Upgraded Hurricane Protection System for Greater New Orleans Eastbank - See more at: http://www.mississippiriverdelta.org/blog/2015/06/18/lpbf-assesses-upgraded-hurricane-protection-system-for-greater-new-orleans-eastbank/#sthash.Qm021BkB.UihzV6UK.dpuf
LPBF Assesses Upgraded Hurricane Protection System for Greater New Orleans Eastbank - See more at: http://www.mississippiriverdelta.org/blog/2015/06/18/lpbf-assesses-upgraded-hurricane-protection-system-for-greater-new-orleans-eastbank/#sthash.Qm021BkB.UihzV6UK.dpuf

Thursday, June 18, 2015

Friday, June 12, 2015

Monday, June 1, 2015

Large sections of New Orleans’ new Corps of Engineers levee system sinking ~Tom Hall
~Large sections of the $14.5 billion levee system constructed around the New Orleans area after Hurricane Katrina in 2005 are sinking and will have to be raised by 2025 in order to keep the areas inside the levees qualified for federal flood insurance, according to a report published May 20 by The Lens, a local investigative journalism outfit.
The poor design of the pre-Katrina levee system, installed piecemeal over the course of many decades, led to their breach in 2005, resulting in catastrophic flooding in over 80 percent of the city.

Welcome to 2015 Hurricane Season! Heavy rains flood businesses and strand drivers across New Orleans ~WWLTV

The flip side of years of no hurricanes: Good luck runs out ~Seth Borenstein, AP via WVUE

St Tammany building best hurricane communication system in the state ~Curt Sprang, WGNO