Vendredi

Seismic testing of levees approved ~Sheila Grissett
~Regional levee commissioners agreed Thursday to use $30,000 worth of seismic testing to investigate potential trouble spots.
The work, which involves dropping weights on a levee section and timing the arrival of reverberations at various points, will start on a small patch of Metairie levee several hundred feet east of the Suburban Pump Station. Corps officials have been investigating that area, which periodically gets wet when it should remain dry.
The testing will be done by Juan Lorenzo, an LSU associate professor of geology and geophysics, who has adapted long-accepted technology used in energy exploration to solving levee-related problems, said Southeast Louisiana Flood Protection Authority-East Commissioner George Losonsky.

Bohemia Spillway bill OK'd by panel~Robert Travis Scott

Landrieu urges disaster dollars formula~Jonathan Tilove
~With hurricane season on the horizon, Landrieu said local officials are no better off than they were before Katrina in knowing what recovery help they can count on from Washington during another catastrophe, and are left to wonder, "if my city is destroyed, what is it that I can expect? Right now, no one knows. It shouldn't be that way."

Provocative New Collection of Testimonies on Flood of '05
“Katrina: Eyes Have Not Seen, Ears Have Not Heard: The Story of How an American City was taken Under Siege by powerful forces in Government”
~Gavin Richard challenges readers to question the events surrounding Katrina - the role of racism, capitalism and politics - by chronicling the events that occurred before, after and during this tragic event.
“This book will appeal to readers because the images of the water and the people on their rooftops still ring in our heads,” writes Richard.
“People sat there in shock when the levees broke and couldn’t believe what they were seeing. They never would have thought that this could have happened to American citizens. ‘Katrina: Eyes Have Not Seen, Ears Have Not Heard’ helps provide some type of closure for those that are from the Gulf Coast and others who still have questions on their minds as to what happened.”

Over 4,000 Petition signatures supporting Ivor van Heerden sent to LSU Chancellor
Last month, in response to public outrage over Louisiana State University's decision to terminate Dr. Ivor van Heerden, Levees.org posted a petition on its website.
This morning, Levees.org sent an excel sheet listing over 4,000 petition signatures to LSU Chancellor Mike Martin in support of Dr. van Heerden.

The handing over of the signatures comes on the heels of a meeting between Dr. van Heerden and a representative of the Governor Bobby Jindal's office. Dr. van Heerden says he discussed the potential of his collaborating with the Governor's Office of Coastal Activities in the future.

In 2005, Dr. van Heerden led a team of independent geotechnical engineers who investigated the levee failures in metro New Orleans after Katrina. Van Heerden was openly critical about the design and construction mistakes by the US Army Corps of Engineers. Observers believe that has caused LSU officials to worry that federal funding might be put in jeopardy.

In addition to the petition, Levees.org had launched a letter campaign to Governor Jindal who received over 1,000 letters from Louisiana constituents urging him to talk to the Chancellor and ask him to reconsider.
Levees.org also held a rally at LSU Health Science Center in New Orleans that drew dozens of chanting protesters.

Next week, Levees.org director Sandy Rosenthal and research director HJ Bosworth Jr. will travel to the Netherlands with Senator Mary Landrieu on a congressional delegation visit to see the Dutch world-class integrated water management system.
Look for the story tonight on Fox 8 evening news.

Lawsuit Aims to Prevent Razing of New Orleans Historic District
~Shawn Kennedy

New Orleans May Get Major Green Space In Middle Of City ~BBuzz

Why is this man smiling? ~slabbed
~"He looks more like an everyday smiler to me, a generally pleasant person, not one who saves smiles for special occasions. I hope so as he is none other than L.T. Senter, Judge for the Federal Court, Southern District of Mississippi – and king of Katrina litigation on the Coast."

Witness Says State Farm Didn’t Thoroughly Investigate Katrina Claims

MS Gov. Barbour urges increase in recovery aid, was for it before he was against it before he was for it again?

Economist predicts rapidly hardening Insurance market
~Steven Weisbart, chief economist for the Insurance Information Institute, speaking on a webinar hosted by Advisen, a New York-based research firm, likened the potential impact for the insurance market from proposed reforms in financial regulation to the steep hard-market price push following rating agencies’ changes adopted after Hurricane Katrina.

Five boaters in Dularge wreck identified~Daily Comet

Darrell Bourque reappointed as Louisiana's Poet Laureate
~Susan Larson

Cajun Heartland State Fair: Filled with fun~Cody Daigle

Tipitina's set to host 'Musicians Bringing Musicians Home V'

Bayou Boogaloo and music galore keep us attuned
and in tune~Geraldine Wyckoff

Jeudi

Rumsfeld ripped on Katrina
~Gerard Sheilds~Former Gov. Kathleen Blanco on Wednesday called for a congressional investigation in response to a news account contending that former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld prevented federal troops from responding to Hurricane Katrina for five days.
Blanco said she asked for federal troops from the outset of the storm’s landfall. Marines and Army infantry didn’t arrive until the weekend after New Orleans flooded, she said.
“I thought something was going to happen and it never did,” Blanco said. “It was like we were being blocked out.”

Industrial Canal job to be late, corps says~Sheila Grissett
~Interim storm surge protection for '09 in the Industrial Canal won't be finished as planned by the peak of hurricane season late this summer, Army Corps of Engineers official PR confirmed.

Coastal chief eases concerns
~Mark Schleifstein
~More than 400 New Orleans residents veto Army Corps of Engineers pump plan

Two reps from Levees.org to accompany Senator Mary Landrieu to the Netherlands

U.S. Coast Guard stresses hurricane awareness

Gulf of Mexico low growing more organized~Jeff Masters

New Orleans moves to sell bonds to fund rebuilding~Alan Sayre

Federal indictments handed down today in New Orleans area
~Arlene Culpepper

"Welcome to New Orleans", said the black hooker shoe.
~Von Trapper Keeper

What Would Cheezus Do? ~slabbed

Slave recalls her time spent in Louisiana~Bill Ellzy

Garage sale Saturday to benefit St. Francis Animal Sanctuary
~Sheila Stroup

Lazy Magnolia Brewing Company
~The Dieline

Welcome to the New Orleans Wine & Food Experience

New York Loses Its Jazz Festival ~Ben Sisario

Vagabond Opera: The Zeitgeist Beckons~Here Comes the Flood

Queensryche and more music in New Orleans tonight!
~Keith Spera

Midnite Disturbers
~Trevor C. Jones

Help Madd Wikkid Further The NOLA Sound!
~The New Orleans Bingo! Show

Mercredi

Neighbor takes care of Bayou Terrebonne ~Naomi King
~A self-described jack-of-all-trades,
Ed Jackson has made special tools to help him fish ice chests, doors, tires, tree limbs and grass out of Bayou Terrebonne.

Massive Corps Project To Address West Bank Flooding ~WDSU

Halliburton Whistleblower Gagged by US Army Corps of Engineers after Testifying in Congress
~Bunnatine H. Greenhouse

LEAP scores released today show marked improvement for New Orleans public schools
~Sarah Carr

EPA finds suspect materials in foreign drywall~Cain Burdeaux

Hope Yet For Flood Safety

Dear Editilla,
Last month, Dr. Ivor van Heerden, the coastal scientist who led the state's independent Team Louisiana investigation into the levee failures after Katrina, was given notice by Louisiana State University that he would be dismissed in one year.

But today there is encouraging news. Dr. van Heerden has met with a member of the Governor's office who inquired about his issues at Louisiana State University and discussed the potential of Dr. van Heerden's collaborating with the Governor's Office on Coastal Activities in the future.

Your efforts made a difference!
But this is not a "done deal," so if you haven't yet, please take action for your safety!
There are two things you can do!

1. Sign a petition <-Click here to urge the LSU Chancellor to reconsider his decisions.
2. Send a letter to Governor Jindal <-Click here and ask him to urge the LSU Chancellor to reconsider.

DEADLINE IS MIDNIGHT THURSDAY MAY 21.
On Friday morning we shall present the petition signatures to the Chancellor of LSU.

Click here for more on Ivor van Heerden's firing from LSU.

Thank you for your help in making sure the citizens of south LA are safe!

Sandy Rosenthal
Founder, Levees.org
New Orleans Headquarters
www.levees.org

California Chapter~kc.costa@levees.org
Florida Chapter~DrLevine@levees.org
Illinois Chapter~derbes@levees.org
~Follow us on Twitter!

Louisiana Governor Jindal and Legislatures: See No Evil,
Tell No Evil
~Stephen Sabludowsky

Hump'Day Dump'dee ~Slabbed

There's more than one queen of mean in this deck~Moldy City

New Orleans Public Schools: Still Under Water?~David Parker Jr.

Nicolas Cage Cuts Price On New Orleans Estate

New Orleans~Solar

Old New Orleans star shines bright again~Don Ames

Mardi

New Orleans Lands Superbowl! For 2013~BBuzz

A Katrina mystery explained
~Paul Krugman
~Editilla Notellas~ As it rolls and bowls, we will try to carry just a bit more the different takes on this story of who left us to die in New Orleans. Out of that entire GQ article about current history's Biggest Fuctard, the reality of 8/29/05 is rising to the top as one of the 3 major points of discussion.
Hence, we enjoy the way the comments section here at the NYT comes from all over. It is gratifying to see how so many other Americans still wonder the same thing: Who made that Call on 8/29? Everyone in the country saw that. Everyone saw the Bush Administration leave 1000s of our citizens to die.

100-Year Flood Protection Near, But Is It Enough?~WDSU
~"There is a couple of areas where they are slipping a bit. But by in large I think we're in pretty good shape," said Billy Marchal, an engineer with the Flood Protection Alliance.

Disaster recovery flawed
~Todd Dorman
~Will it be the oatmeal box heard ’round the world?
I’m referring to media kits sent recently to the nation’s major news outlets with hopes of drumming up interest in Cedar Rapids’ continued struggle to recover from the flood of 2008.
Inside a familiar cylindrical Quaker oatmeal box with a Cedar Rapids Flood Story label, local public relations pros stuffed a book filled with story ideas, brochures, a small USB computer flash drive with flood videos, a Quaker snack bar and a box of soy milk to wash it down. Just think what those oats might do.
There’s no good reason why struggling Americans in one part of the country should be forced to compete against hurting Americans in another region for federal resources. Stricken communities should not feel the need to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars to hire lobbyists just to plead their cases. Instead of an efficient, responsive system, we get an ill-fitting, politicized bureaucratic hodgepodge. We’re not crying for a handout or a bailout. We simply want promises made to be promises swiftly kept. The fact that it’s not fixed years after Katrina is hard to swallow. Even with soy milk.

Donelon works with FEMA to secure insurance waivers for government, nonprofits
~Rebecca Mowbray

First Invest of the year peters out; Florida gets soaked
~Jeff Masters

New Orleans Rep. Abramson Talks Louisiana Ethics, Budget ~BBuzz

Kathy Reidlinger, NOLA Charter Schools' Top Scammer
~Schools Matter

Interrupted Frequencies
~New Orleans Murder Blog

Interview with New Orleans Chef John Besh~Seattle Tall Poppy

Andre Williams And The New Orleans Hellhounds - Can You Deal With It? ~Steady Bloggin

New Orleans Indie Rock Collective presents Park the Van showcase June 12th
~Static Television

Anders Osborne, Lucky One
~Captain's Dead

Lundi

Obama to New Orleans:
Drop Dead?~Harry Shearer

Measuring delta health on a global scale~Lacoastpost
~I wonder if the change from a “smoother” coastline to the more “birdsfoot” river-dominated morphology has mostly to do with the land use changes? That is,
a more restricted river course would preclude frequent avulsions and construction of the distributive dispersal pattern.
A more restricted river course would result in more spatially focused growth. I don’t know … just thinking out loud.

Army Corps PR belies safe water levels in canals
~Sheila Grissett

Landrieu Leads Second CODEL To Netherlands to Study Dutch Flood Protection ~Levees.org

Comment period for "Big Straw" extended until July 27
~hummingbirdminds

Gathering extratropical storm set to drench Florida, Cuba, and the Bahamas~Dr. Jeff Masters

Report on Interim LSU Public Hospital says costs too high, efficiency too low~Jan Moller

LSU System to cut 300 jobs at New Orleans public hospital

New Orleans to Promote City’s Bio-Boom

Disaster Capitalism Paying Off Big for Charter School CEOs in New Orleans~Schools Matter

Monday Revival~slabbed

They laugh alike, they walk alike, At times they even talk alike
~Firedoglake ~Editilla can't help it... nice to know we scooped one of our Big Fav Blogs yesterday morning. Sure did.

Rumsfeld threw truck-size obstacles in the way of deploying troops to New Orleans in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Claiming that there’d be problems with “unity of command,” Rumsfeld was adamant that only the National Guard be sent out—but they were slow in arriving and did little to stem the chaos. Bush snapped at him for the disorder in a meeting about the situation: “Rumsfeld, what the hell is going on there? Are you watching what’s on television? Is that the United States of America or some Third World nation I’m watching? What the hell are you doing?” Five days after the hurricane hit, Bush told Rumsfeld he had to deploy troops. “If we had put those troops in on Thursday, the narrative of Katrina would be a very different one,” one senior official said. ~Daily Dish

Michael Dell ordered to testify in New Orleans case

Making Butter at Home
~Serious Eats

Artist Jonathan Blum restores rabbi mural on St. Roch Avenue
~Doug MacCash

NolaFunk Lagniappe

Swing Territory, Part II
~3quarksdaily

Dimanche

ObamaBush, Obushama...
--The Can'churian Candidate--
(Hell, we no longer know what to call this... Promise Breaker) EPA "fixes" 42 of 48 new tortuous mountaintop removal mining permits!~Ken Ward Jr.
~The Obushama administration has cleared more than three dozen new mountaintop removal permits for issuance by the Corps of Engineers, drawing quick criticism from environmental groups who had hoped the new president would halt the controversial practice. ~More rape scene photos here.
~Editilla gotta ax~What Is Wrong With This Picture?
At least 2000 acres of stripped mountain top in the photo above, at least. So the Promise Breaker has now approved the stripping of well over 85,000 ACRES of NEW STRIP MINES? HELLO?
Judas fuck me with a broom! How is this "Clean Coal"?
Looks like a goddamn heinously stupid tar baby pit to me!
We voted with such Hope ---but we get nothing but DOPE!!!
Editilla would apologize for my foul language here. But I cannot, having voted for this Promise Breaker. I thought I voted for more than simply an end to the Bush Status Que (BSQ).
The last thing I expected this administration to do would be to Expand Strip Mining! However, it appears that our great Hope offers nothing more than another Rope from which the fossil fuels industry can hang us again and again. Great. Just Fucking Great. Oh well... whoever said anything about Peace, Love and Understanding probably did not understand the difference between Politics and Governance, unlike Presidente Bush --who, it should be noted, never said anything as stupidly can-can Bourgeois Naivety as the "Audacity of Hope"--and not once misunderestimated the Power of Moloch to Change the World.

Drove my Chevy to the Katrina Canal Breaches Consolidated Litigation (part 1) ~slabbed
~Today is the day we start the mind-boggling task of looking at the Katrina Canal Breaches Consolidated Litigation.
Inclusive of Robinson v US Army Corps of Engineers, MRGO, we begin with an examination of the impressive infrastructure of the case established in Case Management Order Number 1:
Protocol for Case Management. Please click pic to enlarge.

New study has found that 67% of the fatalities in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina hit resulted from direct impacts of the flooding that occurred when the levees collapsed.
~Mortality rates were highest in areas near levee breaches, particularly the severe breaches in the Lower 9th Ward where flooding occurred extremely rapidly and the velocity of the water caused drowning and collapsed buildings.
In all, 518 out of the analyzed 771 deaths in New Orleans resulted from direct exposure to the flooding, according to the results of the study “Loss of Life Caused by the Flooding of New Orleans After Hurricane Katrina: Analysis of the Relationship Between Flood Characteristics and Mortality,” which is reported in the May issue of the peer-reviewed journal Risk Analysis, published by the Society for Risk Analysis.

Terrebonne Parish releases draft of emergency plan~Naomi King

AND HE SHALL BE JUDGED
~Robert Draper
~Former defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld has always answered his detractors by claiming that history will one day judge him kindly. But as he waits for that day, a new group of critics—his administration peers—are suddenly speaking out for the first time. What they’re saying? It isn’t pretty.

“What Rumsfeld was most effective in doing,” says a former senior White House official, “was not so much undermining a decision that had yet to be made as finding every way possible to delay the implementation of a decision that had been made and that he didn’t like.”
A final story of Rumsfeld’s intransigence begins on Wednesday, August 31, 2005.
Two days after Hurricane Katrina made landfall in New Orleans—and the same day that Bush viewed the damage on a flyover from his Crawford, Texas, retreat back to Washington—a White House advance team toured the devastation in an Air Force helicopter. Noticing that their chopper was outfitted with a search-and-rescue lift, one of the advance men said to the pilot, “We’re not taking you away from grabbing people off of rooftops, are we?” “No, sir,” said the pilot. He explained that he was from Florida’s Hurlburt Field Air Force base—roughly 200 miles from New Orleans—which contained an entire fleet of search-and-rescue helicopters. “I’m just here because you’re here,” the pilot added. “My whole unit’s sitting back at Hurlburt, wondering why we’re not being used.”
The search-and-rescue helicopters were not being used because Donald Rumsfeld had not yet approved their deployment—even though, as Lieutenant General Russ Honoré, the cigar-chomping commander of Joint Task Force Katrina, would later tell me, “that Wednesday, we needed to evacuate people. The few helicopters we had in there were busy, and we were trying to deploy more.

Sunday Funnies~Citizen K

Joe Longo's "warning to us all"
~Library Chronicles~Longo's main trick is to compare Stacy Head's widely-discussed "Wal-Mart" email with a Salon.com blog entry by local art gallery employee Leeandra Nolting elegantly entitled, A Guide to the Douchebags Who Come Into My Gallery. That's right. We're reading someone start with the ridiculous assumption that the statements of a public official are weighted equally with those of some art-chick's blog entries and then run with that.

James Carville has returned to Louisiana~Allan M. Johnson Jr.

Planting a perennial border in New Orleans~Colleen Smith

Sidewalks~Squandered Heritage

Pittsburgh's GTECH Strategies helps to remake New Orleans
~Bill Toland

Swiss Roll With a Simple Raspberry Filling~Tung in Cheek

Savory, Spicy Yams
~In Gillette's Kitchen


Louisiana Gets Crafty
~MissMalaprop

Day at Arthur Roger,
McGarrell at Heriard-Cimino
~Inside Art New Orleans

Gibsland aims for success with Bonnie and Clyde Fest
~Cynthia V. Campbell

Buddy Montgomery Is Gone
~Rifftides

Samedi

MRGO trial ends quietly:
is this a harbinger of journalism cutbacks? ~Lacoastpost


New Orleans may relax Inspector General prerequisites
~Michelle Krupa
~Interim Inspector General Len Odom and his predecessor,
Bob Cerasoli, the first person to hold the post, also objected this week to a concurrent move to give political appointees on the Ethics Review Board authority to amend the inspector general's annual budget, which now is reviewed by the City Council.
The move, they said, would chip away at the inspector general's autonomy. Even though one of the proposed changes would allow him to seek his post permanently, Odom opposes it so strongly he said he'd quit if it becomes law.
"I will not work in an environment that is different than what the people approved, " he said. "I don't want there to be any claim that I was looking out for my self-interest."

HEAD ON COLLISION~Adrastos

Missed the Easter Bunny?
Find what State Farm wants to keep hidden, win chocolate egg ~slabbed

Miss. AG: Keep State Farm settlement deal sealed

Coastal money survives debate ~Jeremy Alford

Big Money Spent On Temporary Sewage Pumps~WDSU

FEMA Works To Avoid Formaldehyde In New Units
~Brian Naylor

Swine flu confirmed in Terrebonne ~Nikki Buskey

Singular New Orleans Double Eagle Headlines Heritage Long Beach Coin Auction

NOMA Presents The Art of Caring: A Look at Life Through Photography~Artdaily.org

Call for Graduate Student Fellow
Imagining America: Artists and Scholars in Public Life
Tenth Annual National Conference: Culture, Crisis, and Recovery

Yard sale to benefit N.O. trip

What's a Whiter Shade of Pale? Interview: Lyricist Keith Reid
~Karen Dalton-Beninato

Instruments A Comin' | 04.27 | New Orleans~NolaFunk NYC

Vendredi

"Why Are You So Afraid of Us?" After Years in Isolation, Burmese Dissident Still Torments Her Tormentors~NYT
“Why are you so afraid of us?” Daw Aung San Suu Kyi called out, taunting the military government of Burma as thousands of rapturous supporters listened in the rain, whistling and cheering from under a sea of black umbrellas.

That was 13 years ago, during a temporary period of freedom from house arrest, and Mrs. Aung San Suu Kyi was putting into words the dynamic that has kept her under detention for most of the past two decades. The seemingly all-powerful junta, which jails its opponents and crushes popular uprisings by force,
is afraid of Mrs. Aung San Suu Kyi, 63, the country’s pro-democracy opposition leader, and of the continuing undercurrent of support she commands among the people.
~Was Yettawa Pawn of Burma’s Generals?


Gen. Russel Honore says Louisiana should drop appeal and pay for new hospital itself
~Jonathan Tilove

Comments on Proposed VA Medical Center Designs
~PreservationNation

MRGO flooding trial ends!
Verdict now in judge's hands
~Mark Schleifstein

Going, going, MR-Go is gone
(for now)~slabbed ~Worry not if you’re feeling hopelessly lost trying to understand MRGO and the rest of the Canal Breaches litigation. Starting this weekend, SLABBED will be publishing a series of post that put MRGO in the context of the Consolidated Litigation.

Trial Against Corps of Engineers for Katrina Flooding Goes to Judge~Courthouse News Service
~Editilla Notellas~ We will post different articles on MRGO as we find them around the nets, apart from the AP media shotgun that most outlets simply repost <--which in this case unfortunately quotes the wrong, misleading and uninformed ASCECORPS mouthpiece. We also shall leave the wayward journalist nameless, since Editilla has decided to lay off journalists who can't seem to do their homework. Hell, what's the point anymore as ASCECORPS seems to have most journalists charmed like bugs on truck grill anyway.

Landrieu Leads Second CODEL To Netherlands to Study Dutch World-Class Flood Protection
Senator Mary Landrieu, D-La., will this month lead the second Congressional Delegation to the Netherlands to study the Dutch integrated water management system. Louisiana and administration officials, including EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson, will join Sen. Landrieu to study the world-class water management and flood protection system in the Netherlands, which shares many of Louisiana’s challenges in protecting populations and economic infrastructure below sea level.

In early 2006, Sen. Landrieu along with the Royal Netherlands Embassy led an initial Codel to the Netherlands. Since 2006, Louisiana has made progress in protecting coastal communities, including 100-year flood protection for the New Orleans region to be completed by 2011, but this trip will help the state assess remaining challenges. Sen. Landrieu will also explore policies, which may include innovative Dutch technologies and practices, that can reduce the persistent delays and cost overruns of Army Corps of Engineers projects.
Also joining the CODEL:
New Orleans City Council President Jackie Clarkson;
Southeast Louisiana Flood Protection Authority East Regional Director Bob Turner; Terrebonne Parish President Michel Claudet; U.S. Army Corps of Engineers representatives from Corps headquarters and the Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Army; Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works Staff Director Bettina Poirier; New Orleans Director of Disaster Mitigation Dr. Earthea Nance; American Planning Association Executive Director/CEO Paul Farmer; Levees.Org Executive Director Sandy Rosenthal; American Society of Civil Engineers President Wayne Klotz; Center for Planning Excellence, Camille Manning-Broome; Louisiana Speaks, Lee Einsweiler; LSU Hurricane Center Interim Director Joseph Suhayda.
CODEL SCHEDULE:
Tuesday, May 26: AMSTERDAM
Site visit and briefings include: Amsterdam WaterNet, the city water management and supply agency, on living with water: flood control, ground and surface water levels, water quality and ecosystem health; Amsterdam City Architect Ton Schaap briefing and tour of the Eastern Docks and Ijburg: discussion of successful redevelopment projects, as well as water management, flood safety and economic vitality working in tandem.
Wednesday, May 27: THE HAGUE
Briefings include: Association of Dutch Water Boards; Netherlands Parliament, Committee on Water Management; Cees Veerman, Chairman of the Delta Committee; Tineke Huizinga,Vice Minister of Transport, Public Works and Water Management.
Thursday, May 28, 2009: ROTTERDAM and DELFT
Site visit and briefings include: Rotterdam city architects on Rotterdam Waterplan and the city’s climate-proof initiatives; Delft Technical University briefing on Delta Urbanism; Deltares, the leading research/scientific organization on water, soil, modeling, climate change.
Friday, May 29: KAMPEN
Site visit and briefings include: Officials from Kampen on projects under construction, river diversion for flood safety, flood safety created by dredged material, ecosystem restoration and urban flood risk mitigation efforts.

Rally For Coastal Restoration
June 1st
~Caffin @ Florida, on the water - Lower 9th Ward
June 1 - Rally for Restoration
Noon - 1pm
Bayou Bienvenue Wetlands Platform, Lower Ninth Ward
~Despite congressional mandates, the Army Corps is years behind deadline to restore the decimated wetlands along the MRGO. Join your neighbors to ask the Corps to make the protection of our communities a priority! View Flyer [pdf]

Corps of Engineers or SHINOLA? Re-Branding, Re-Marketing
the Re-Branding Re-Marketing
of the Corps~WWL
~Stacy Mendoza, employee of Outreach Process Partners, said the polling graph, showing what she calls a "case study," <-(Oh My! How bloody rich!) was "misguided,” "too boastful" and "a mistake."
“I understand the confusion we've created over our role, which is a support role to the Army Corps and I'm sorry that there is that confusion,” said Mendoza.
~Editilla Rotellas~Like a self-cleaning outhouse,
da'Corps' $5 Million PR Firm OPP says its own PR is Aaaaalllll just a Big Misunderstanding! A Mistake! Yeah, that's the Ticket!
Sniffle... those poor poor Girls of OPPsee. But, they are sorry!
But...BUT, are they smoking Crack? Strung out on Xanex?
Are they Out of their ad-addled, idiot'wind blown minds?
Genteel'rillas are crying to know. Who's on First?
We are paying this Band of Miss'Fits to fork us around like this?
These are 7 women working for this increasingly hysterical Miscommunications Company, fey Piraterixes of the Word.
Now, we gotta figure the Corps buys the Ads, rents the meeting spaces, pays for all the supplies and sundry fetishes these ghastly haints must have to weave their haintly spells --even down to the Dixie Cups into which they pour their red Happy Corps Cool Aid.
Soooo one wonders how this $5 Million take is split amongst the Malevolent 7... Mrs. Mendoza... I really feel your pain.
Really, heavy sigh... poor misguided marketeers...
Hence I will post this as often as it takes so you know we know
You Know that We Hear Your Mouf'Talkin:

OPP provides media support for print, broadcast and Internet media on local, national and international levels including outlets such as the Times-Picayune, WWL-TV CBS New Orleans, Associated Press, USA Today, The Weather Channel, The Today Show, French TV Channel 5, and Engineering News Record on issues such as Hurricane Gustav, “paper in the floodwalls” and other investigative responses, seepage, peer review and the state of the hurricane and storm damage risk reduction system.
As part of this cause <-(W'everTF that means?), OPP fosters strategic relationships with media outlets that result in more accurate and balanced stories.
Results: OPP's media support has been a fundamental part of the transition from typically negative news coverage to more neutral and positive news coverage.

That looks pretty clear does it not, Gentle'rillas?
Does the above marketing assessment sound like it comes from a company who is in the business of mistaking communications? Pretty goddamn expensive Mistakes if you ask dumb'ol Editilla. What is not so clear is OPP's other, lucrative, neoconcon'ethical
cross-lobbying, inter-agency "Strategic Partnerships".
And just to make sure y'all don't miss this salient information:
[Curiously, I missed one job Janice held in-between GSIPT and OPP; that of VP Marketing for eTelemetry, a company that can “Find the person behind an IP in real time and historically. Track VoIP phones automatically. Monitor bandwidth usage, sites surfed, and chat times by person and department. Know how your network is being used.” Sounds like they’d be perfect for teaching people how to fake blog posts, eh?] Rut'Row, Astro!
The Corps own spokesman is just a few weeks on the Job, the latest Instant Press Officer Perp (IPOP) and doesn't seem to know the difference between a Contract and a Contract.
He will not be missed. Y'all remember PO Cephus?
Your New Orleans Ladder was first on these Ho's on May 5th.
Here is that entire week as Levees.org took the story national.
Editilla recommends y'all go to the bottom of the week, scroll'up.

Budget votes
~Michelle Millhollon
~Coastal Restoration Funds Survive

Assessor sues oil company for millions in taxes~Robert Zullo

Tidewater seeks compensation for seized assets
~Stephen Maloney

Sandra Bullock To Be Honored By New Orleans School ~WDSU

Small-batch beers take center stage this week in New Orleans
~Todd A. Price

New Orleans Food and Wine Experience: It's wines. It's food. It's an education~Lolis Eric Elie

New Orleans Modern Jazz Pioneer Mike Serpas Dies at 77
~all about Jazz

ALAMAAILMAN VASARAT:
Vasaraasia~Prog Archives
~"It is almost inconceivable to me than anyone wouldn't love this band. Imagine a Bar Mitzvah played by Apocalyptica...or Finntroll with 60% less Black Metal and 80% more authentic instruments...or even John Zorn with a Gypsy fetish. How about Tom Waits' backing band doing Univers Zero cover tunes?
What's not to love?"

Better Than Ezra new album out! "Paper Empire" Tour starts 29th at House of Blues, New Orleans

Jeudi

FEMA Denial Renews Charity Hospital Debate~WDSU

Congressman Cao expresses his concerns over Charity appeals process~Gerard Shields

Rep. Peterson working to steer millions to GNOBEDD
~Save Charity Hospital.com
~Remember GNOBEDD? It stands for the Greater New Orleans Biosciences Economic Development District and it represents a state-empowered special tax district comprised of a host of public and private partners including the Downtown Development District and the Regional Planning Commission.
It was officially created by the State of Louisiana in 2005 to help attract businesses associated with the biomedical industry.

City of sickness~The Economist

Spillway meeting shows diversity, says PR Firm OPP
~DIXCLAIMER! WARNING! BAT SIGNAL!~

Funding sought to keep highway dry to Port Fourchon
~Allen M. Johnson Jr.

Barack Obama on Multiperil Insurance: I was for it before I was against it... ~slabbed

Release and Conceal:
The Mirror-World Edition
~Harry Shearer
~So, to review, Cheney wants more stuff made public and Obama wants less stuff made public. Will Cheney soon come out, so to speak, in favor of gay marriage? Will Obama soon support prayer in public schools? All we can do is stay tuned. Or tune out.

Don’t let the door hit'ya....
~C.B. Forgotston

Email-gate rules the planet
~Garland Robinette

New Orleans Nagin, Activists:
Off Head of Stacy Head
~Jeff Crouere

Jim Letten's true nature to be revealed?~NOLA-dishu

Organization Critical of
New Orleans Subsidized Housing Rebound ~BBuzz
~According to the Bureau of Government Research in a report released Wednesday, “In the aftermath of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, the federal government made available significant funding for rebuilding low- and moderate-income housing. As a result of these programs, the number of subsidized rental units in the city has already rebounded past pre- Katrina levels, and is expected to far surpass those levels by 2012.

Some Find They're 'Not Homeless Enough' For Help ~WDSU

Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts Train to Fight Terrorists, and More
~Jennifer Steinhauer
~Not to be confused with adolescents between the ages of 14 and 18, who have joined up "voluntarily" to survive in war-torn regions or to avenge violence inflicted on their family?

New Orleans delegation will travel to 2009 Bio International Convention in Atlanta

Green Crawl - green building resources party!!
~Alliance for Affordable Energy

First annual Veggie Fest wants to appeal to all types of eaters
~Judy Walker ~Attention, carnivores: You are specifically invited to the New Orleans Veggie Fest!

Jeff Buckley: 'Grace' Anniversary edition on the way
~Burn the Bowery

High-spirited Zydepunks share spice of Big Easy life
~Tony Sauro

Partisan or Parasite? Daniel Kahn and the New Jewish Questions~Rokhl Kafrissen

Tsunami Dance hopes to spark a renaissance of ballet ~Molly Reid

Mercredi

FEMA won't pay to replace Charity hospital ~Becky Bohrer

FEMA trailer residents face final evictions~Desiree Evans
~More than 5,000 people in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama were living in temporary Federal Emergency Management Agency trailers and in hotels financed by the agency as of May 1. Now FEMA says its housing program has officially come to an end, and the agency plans on evicting all residents by the end of the month. But many residents say they have nowhere to go.

Policies that Make People Disappear~Kate Scott

Power of Word~slabbed
I think that I shall never see
all that change you promise me.
But maybe I misunderstood
and what you meant was making change-
like giving our people a two-bit change at FEMA
and expecting folks to act like it’s worth a dollar.

Coming Home provides more Katrina relief~Anita Lee

Artificial reefs may help restore a diversity of fish species to Lake Ponchartrain~Chris Kirkham
~The Lake Ponchartrain Basin Foundation along with the LSU Sea Grant and other organizations Tuesday deployed four new artificial reefs in Lake Pontchartrain designed to increase fishing opportunities for anglers.
Photo: Eliot Kamenitz / TP

Implications of proposed 2010 Corps budget~Lacoastpost

Local senator chosen for top levee position~Nikki Buskey

NOAH Meeting Tonight
~The New Orleans City Council will be holding an after-hours meeting, 6 p.m.-8 p.m., to discuss the planned closing of the New Orleans Adolescent Hospital (NOAH). The Council decided to hold the NOAH meeting during the evening in order to allow concerned citizens, who might not otherwise be able, to attend.

Survey: Just half of business in metro area have reopened since Katrina~Dominic Massa, WWL

Appeals panel clears the way for Tracie Washington to post City Council e-mails on the Internet ~Frank Donze

USS New Orleans back at sea~The vessel was "fully mission capable" on Tuesday night after repairs were made to its damaged hull, ruptured fuel tank and ballast tanks as result of a collision with USS Hartford in March in the Strait of Hormuz, the fleet said in a statement.
"While underway in the US Fifth Fleet area of responsibility,
New Orleans is scheduled to conduct maritime security operations," it added. {Pirate Huntin!}

SIGGRAPH 2009
Computer Animation Festival

Broadmoor Neighborhood Festival features Manmade Disaster, Sunpie and the Louisiana Sunspots and Vivaz!

Celebrate St. Bernard Kickoff Party, May 14th

New Zombie Thriller Necravin

Local trumpeter Shamarr Allen to tour with Willie Nelson and Bob Dylan~Keith Spera

Mardi

$1.2 billion for soup and salad? ~Save Charity Hospital.com

Terrebonne council approves $122 million hurricane-recovery

House panel OKs bill to protect bicyclists~Will Sentell
~H/T'n'T~CENTRAL La. POLITICS

Jindal travels to Louisiana
~The New Orleans Levee

LA-Sen: Making Sinning Senator Vitter (R-Perp) Pay For Playing Politics~Daily Kingfish

Senator Vitter (R-Pamp), looking for more Cha Ching
~Uppity Woman

Stick A Fork In It~slabbed

5 states agree to take La. storm evacuees

New designs hope to avoid past problems in public housing complexes~Katy Reckdahl

Damaged roots in the fight for public housing?~Anita Sinha

Hope for homeless
in New Orleans~Walt Wiltschek

Texas students get taste of history and culture in
New Orleans archives
~Adam Duvernay

Church of Burns~Steve Bowman

Reason #1037 Why I Don't Go To Church Any More ~Citizen K

Fitzmorris: N.O. area hits record number of restaurants: 1000!
~Deon Roberts, City Business

Marcus Roberts: Has A Lot More To Do~Tod Smith

Lundi

New Orleans Musicians Voice Support For Charity Hospital

For parents of mentally ill children, no price can be put on New Orleans Adolescent Hospital~Sheila Stroup

Fewer with flood insurance as hurricane season approaches

FEMA directs $10 million to elevating New Orleans' sewage pumping stations
~David Hammer

Judge says water war among Alabama, Florida, Georgia conducted in "never-never land"

OMFGoddess! What if the charge had been ...Littering?

Parkway Partners needs volunteer tree tenders
~Sheila Stroup

New Orleans Wine & Food Experience

New Orleans park pushes for Web votes to win funds

Stallone starts shooting stars in New Orleans~Don Ames, WWL

New Orleans' Patricia Clarkson joins Justin Timberlake and Andy Samberg for a little "Motherlovin"

Icons Among Us: Jazz in the Present Tense - Episode Four: Everything Everywhere
~all about Jazz

In Pursuit Of Bo-Consciousness - Part 3 ~Home of the Groove

Dimanche

Survival tips, from a man who knows ~Rosalind Bentley
~Lt. Gen. Russel Honore, now retired, was lauded as the “John Wayne dude,” the face of competence and voice of clarity during the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.
Last week Honore’s book “Survival” (written with former AJC military affairs reporter Ron Martz) hit the stands.
Part memoir, part doomsday checklist, the general puts forward a plan to make the nation more prepared to face disaster, natural or otherwise. Here he talks about pandemics, waterboarding and why chivalry still has its place.

Critics fear LSU Hospital site could end up half-empty
~Bill Barrow

Corps of Engineers prepares to fortify local pump stations,
says Corps PR firm OPP
~Sheila Grissett, Michelle Krupa
~DIXCLAIMER! WARNING! BAT SIGNAL!~
~Editilla Crow'tellas~If the Exquisite Corps tells'ya yo'mamma loves'ya, then ya'betta take it up wit'da OPP!

‘Shovel ready’ stimulus money goes to studies, not shovels
~Nikki Buskey~The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will receive $162 million in federal economic-stimulus money for so-called “shovel ready projects in Louisiana,” the agency announced this week.
However, only $35 million will go to actual construction of projects, and $9.3 million committed to levees in Terrebonne and Lafourche will go to pay for continuing studies on those projects.

Water and Storm Management in New Orleans, A Selection of Historical Documents
~Bill Thayer

N.O. residents band together to grow post-Katrina~Molly Reid
~Dubbed the Capacity College and organized by the nonprofit Neighborhoods Partnership Network, the program consists of two peer-led classes each week, for 78 representatives of 20 neighborhood organizations and nonprofit groups.

Making History More Palatable: Slave Auctions In New Orleans
~Socialogical Images

What I learned in New Orleans
~Eastside Eye

Work by traveling artist William Aiken Walker finds a home in New Orleans~Jill Anding

Delfeayo Marsalis Brings New Quintet to the Dakota, Minneapolis May 12-13
~Andrea Canter, Jazz Police

Dave Matthews talks about recording in New Orleans and his Jazz Fest show
~Keith Spera