Monday, August 31, 2009
Levees.Org
Levees.Org: "Saying Katrina destroyed New Orleans is like saying traffic destroyed the Minneapolis bridge
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
Sandy Rosenthal
For the third time this season, Becky Bohrer, reporter for the Associated Press has used lazy shorthand when describing the federal levee failures in metro New Orleans that devastated the region.
Yesterday, Bohrer wrote that Southern University in New Orleans was “virtually wiped out by Hurricane Katrina nearly four years ago.”
To say Katrina wiped out Southern U is like saying traffic wiped out the Minneapolis bridge.
Both Katrina and the traffic precipitated structural failures and exposed blatant civil engineering incompetence.
I am not alone in my condemnation of using “Katrina” as shorthand for federal levee failures. John McQuaid, noted author and journalist specializing in science, environment, and various forms of government dysfunction agrees with me.
19 comments"
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
Sandy Rosenthal
For the third time this season, Becky Bohrer, reporter for the Associated Press has used lazy shorthand when describing the federal levee failures in metro New Orleans that devastated the region.
Yesterday, Bohrer wrote that Southern University in New Orleans was “virtually wiped out by Hurricane Katrina nearly four years ago.”
To say Katrina wiped out Southern U is like saying traffic wiped out the Minneapolis bridge.
Both Katrina and the traffic precipitated structural failures and exposed blatant civil engineering incompetence.
I am not alone in my condemnation of using “Katrina” as shorthand for federal levee failures. John McQuaid, noted author and journalist specializing in science, environment, and various forms of government dysfunction agrees with me.
19 comments"
Friday, August 28, 2009
Neal Boortz: If New Orleans is rebuilt, the ‘debris that Katrina chased out’ will return.
As the fourth anniversary of the Hurricane Katrina disaster approaches, hate-radio talk show host Neal Boortz mocked President Obama’s pledge to rebuild New Orleans, calling the victims human “debris.” This weekend, President Barack Obama told the New Orleans Times-Picayune that he “remains focused on rebuilding New Orleans and the Gulf Coast,” and anything less “would be a betrayal of who we are as a country.” Boortz responded on Twitter by attacking the “debris that Katrina chased out”
Video of Ed Schultz show covers the story
As the fourth anniversary of the Hurricane Katrina disaster approaches, hate-radio talk show host Neal Boortz mocked President Obama’s pledge to rebuild New Orleans, calling the victims human “debris.” This weekend, President Barack Obama told the New Orleans Times-Picayune that he “remains focused on rebuilding New Orleans and the Gulf Coast,” and anything less “would be a betrayal of who we are as a country.” Boortz responded on Twitter by attacking the “debris that Katrina chased out”
Video of Ed Schultz show covers the story
Thursday, August 27, 2009
Sunday, August 9, 2009
Saturday, August 8, 2009
NOPD Investigated In Post-Katrina Civil Rights Cases - New Orleans News Story - WDSU New Orleans
NOPD Investigated In Post-Katrina Civil Rights Cases - New Orleans News Story - WDSU New Orleans:NEW ORLEANS -- A federal investigation is being conducted into the New Orleans Police Department to determine if New Orleans police violated the civil rights of people killed and injured in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.
FBI agents raided NOPD headquarters this week in connection with the infamous Danziger Bridge shooting, but that case may just be the beginning of bigger investigation.
WDSU was told that the search warrant on police headquarters happened just a couple days ago, but this type of investigation had been years in the making and the probe into the police department is broader than the events that happened on the Danziger Bridge that left two dead and four wounded.
Files and computer hard drives are what sources said federal investigators were after when they raided police head quarters this week.
In a statement, the special agent in charge said, "The FBI executed a search warrant as it relates to the ongoing civil rights investigation into the Danziger Bridge shootings post-Katrina. The affidavit remains under seal."
"That is usually done after the internal investigation and after the local law enforcement authorities decide not to pursue any charges, and that's what has occurred here," said former U.S. Attorney Harry Rosenberg.
The search warrant was executed for files in the homicide division -- a move Rosenberg said is rare.
"It's done when the FBI believes evidence may be destroyed if officers or other individuals become aware of a criminal investigation and are likely to dispose of electronic data or paper evidence that might assist the FBI in it's investigation," Rosenberg said.
"Beyond the Danziger Bridge, sources familiar with the investigation said the FBI is looking into the police-involved shooting of Adolph Grimes on New Year's Eve and the death of Henry Glover, whose body was found in a burned out car in the days after Hurricane Katrina."
more.....
FBI agents raided NOPD headquarters this week in connection with the infamous Danziger Bridge shooting, but that case may just be the beginning of bigger investigation.
WDSU was told that the search warrant on police headquarters happened just a couple days ago, but this type of investigation had been years in the making and the probe into the police department is broader than the events that happened on the Danziger Bridge that left two dead and four wounded.
Files and computer hard drives are what sources said federal investigators were after when they raided police head quarters this week.
In a statement, the special agent in charge said, "The FBI executed a search warrant as it relates to the ongoing civil rights investigation into the Danziger Bridge shootings post-Katrina. The affidavit remains under seal."
"That is usually done after the internal investigation and after the local law enforcement authorities decide not to pursue any charges, and that's what has occurred here," said former U.S. Attorney Harry Rosenberg.
The search warrant was executed for files in the homicide division -- a move Rosenberg said is rare.
"It's done when the FBI believes evidence may be destroyed if officers or other individuals become aware of a criminal investigation and are likely to dispose of electronic data or paper evidence that might assist the FBI in it's investigation," Rosenberg said.
"Beyond the Danziger Bridge, sources familiar with the investigation said the FBI is looking into the police-involved shooting of Adolph Grimes on New Year's Eve and the death of Henry Glover, whose body was found in a burned out car in the days after Hurricane Katrina."
more.....
Tuesday, August 4, 2009
Mississippi River-Gulf Outlet lawsuit can go on, judge says - NOLA.com
Mississippi River-Gulf Outlet lawsuit can go on, judge says - NOLA.com
The lawsuit stems from the U.S. Constitution's Fifth Amendment, which provides "private property (shall not) be taken for public purpose, without just compensation."
Braden said evidence of severe flooding in 2005 and other flooding since then showed the plaintiffs are entitled to ask the court for compensation.
But she also delayed bringing the case to trial until U.S. District Judge Stanwood Duval issues a ruling -- expected in early September -- on a separate lawsuit charging that construction of the MR-GO was partly responsible for flood damage caused in both areas during Katrina.
Braden hinted the delay may be to determine whether that ruling will compensate the plaintiffs in her case for the damages caused by the MR-GO. Possible damages may also be reduced by federal grants given to Katrina victims, she said.
Braden threw cold water on the federal attorneys' argument that parish leaders, residents and businessmen knew or should have known the MR-GO had heightened flooding potential long before the six-year statute of limitations for filing such suits.
She said the landowners couldn't predict the flooding effects because those effects continued to change as wetlands eroded.
"In this case, the record evidences that the north bank of the MR-GO was not 'stabilized' in 1998, " the time limit federal attorneys argued for, the decision said.
The government's own evidence showed "that between 1968 and 2006, the surface width of the MR-GO increased up to 15 feet each year."
And it wasn't until the November 2004 Louisiana Coastal Area Ecosystem Restoration Study, which asked Congress for a major federal grant to rebuild wetlands along the channel, that the corps "acknowledged the urgency of the situation, " she said.
Braden said the corps also failed in 1957 to comply with a federal law requiring approval of the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service before building the project, or to respond when objections were raised repeatedly by other critics, including the St. Bernard Parish government, who had for years demanded the MR-GO be clo......
more...
The lawsuit stems from the U.S. Constitution's Fifth Amendment, which provides "private property (shall not) be taken for public purpose, without just compensation."
Braden said evidence of severe flooding in 2005 and other flooding since then showed the plaintiffs are entitled to ask the court for compensation.
But she also delayed bringing the case to trial until U.S. District Judge Stanwood Duval issues a ruling -- expected in early September -- on a separate lawsuit charging that construction of the MR-GO was partly responsible for flood damage caused in both areas during Katrina.
Braden hinted the delay may be to determine whether that ruling will compensate the plaintiffs in her case for the damages caused by the MR-GO. Possible damages may also be reduced by federal grants given to Katrina victims, she said.
Braden threw cold water on the federal attorneys' argument that parish leaders, residents and businessmen knew or should have known the MR-GO had heightened flooding potential long before the six-year statute of limitations for filing such suits.
She said the landowners couldn't predict the flooding effects because those effects continued to change as wetlands eroded.
"In this case, the record evidences that the north bank of the MR-GO was not 'stabilized' in 1998, " the time limit federal attorneys argued for, the decision said.
The government's own evidence showed "that between 1968 and 2006, the surface width of the MR-GO increased up to 15 feet each year."
And it wasn't until the November 2004 Louisiana Coastal Area Ecosystem Restoration Study, which asked Congress for a major federal grant to rebuild wetlands along the channel, that the corps "acknowledged the urgency of the situation, " she said.
Braden said the corps also failed in 1957 to comply with a federal law requiring approval of the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service before building the project, or to respond when objections were raised repeatedly by other critics, including the St. Bernard Parish government, who had for years demanded the MR-GO be clo......
more...
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