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New Orleans (AP) -- The Army Corps of Engineers can be held liable for flood damage caused by a "hurricane highway," a navigation channel that is believed to have funneled Hurricane Katrina's storm surge into the city, a federal judge ruled Friday. The Corps of Engineers had argued that it was immune from liability because the channel is part of New Orleans' flood control system. The law says the federal government cannot be sued if something goes wrong with a flood control project such as a levee, reservoir or dam. Judge Stanwood Duval dismissed that argument, saying the Mississippi River-Gulf...

Debris team helps return treasured flag to widow By Alice Welch, public affairs specialist, Louisiana Recovery Field Office Mrs. Marilyn Pazisley, a widow in her sixties, had to leave her home in Buras, Plaquemines Parish, La., when hurricane Katrina arrived. Like most of the residents of this peninsular community, she had no idea of the total devastation that Katrina would bring to her parish. After the waters receded and the roads cleared, Mrs. Pazisley returned to her neighborhood in September and viewed the remains of her home. The roof was caved and the house had shifted off its foundation. She...

ProjectTotals...Asof June 23, 2,942 Iraq Relief and Reconstruction Fund projects have been completed out of the 3,393 planned. Under the Commander’s Emergency Response Program (CERP), there have been 6,363 projects completed out of the 7,534 planned. CERP is designed to enable local commanders in Iraq and Afghanistan to respond to urgent humanitarian relief and reconstruction requirements within their areas of responsibilityby carrying out programs that will immediately assist the local population.

Yesterday the New York Times editorial board wrote a fire-breathing editorial that for almost 24 hours ranked as the "most-discussed story" on Technorati and the "most e-mailed article" on nytimes.com. The board wrote that "George W. Bush gave one of the worst speeches of his life yesterday." Instead of "consolation and wisdom," the President offered "a long laundry list of pounds of ice, generators and blankets delivered to the stricken Gulf Coast." The board went on to offer a long laundry list of angry accusations. The editorial board doubted that Bush "understood the depth of the current crisis" — unlike...

South Dakota Sen. Tom Daschle said last week he had convinced the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to dig into its budget for as much as $9.5 million to help keep boat ramps open this summer on drought-plagued Lake Oahe. And Daschle said about $8.7 million of that could come from the operating budget of Oahe Dam. That came as puzzling news to some Corps officials contacted Wednesday, the day after Daschle announced the agreement. They confirmed that the total operating budget for Oahe was about $12 million to $13 million and wondered how the project could function with a...