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As he returns to New Orleans today after a six-day junket in Cuba, Mayor Ray Nagin almost certainly will face questions about the latest addition to his collection of controversial comments. Nagin told The Associated Press on Tuesday that he thinks Cuba's repressive regime does "a much better job" than U.S. officials of identifying citizen needs and deploying resources in the face of hurricanes, which routinely batter the Caribbean nation. Though Hurricanes Gustav, Ike and Paloma all struck the island last year, only seven Cubans were killed, in part because authorities use soldiers to close highways and enforce evacuations. Harking...

New Orleans, Louisiana, Mayor Ray Nagin arrived in Cuba late Friday on a mission to learn about how to deal with storms, a spokeswoman said. "We understand we may have a lot to learn from the Cubans in terms of disaster preparedness and how they have dealt with hurricanes," spokeswoman Ceeon Quiett said. Cuba is internationally applauded for exceptional disaster management, according to a news release from Nagin's office. In the Cuban capital, Havana, Nagin plans to meet with several officials, including some from the Latin American Medical Centers for Disaster. He will also learn about preparations the Cuba Defense...

NEW ORLEANS ― Ray Nagin will become the first mayor in 50 years to make an official visit to Cuba when the leader of New Orleans travels there with a delegation of officials for a disaster preparedness exchange. New Orleans is serving as a living laboratory for techniques on emergency preparedness and response, including implementing plans that include assistance for residents who are unable to leave the city. During Gustav in 2008, the city helped more than 18,000 residents evacuate as the hurricane approached. The tour is scheduled to meet with the Latin American Medical Centers for Disasters and will...

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama, who accused former President George W. Bush of leading a government "that sits on its hands while a major American city drowns," is hearing directly from New Orleans residents who have struggled to rebuild their city since the 2005 hurricane season. Obama arrives in New Orleans Thursday on his first presidential trip to the hurricane-ravaged Gulf Coast. About 1,600 people were killed in Louisiana and Mississippi by Hurricane Katrina, which caused $40 billion in damages and displaced 1 million people from their homes.

On a three-day junket to Washington, D.C., to lobby for recovery money, New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin was spotted Wednesday evening at the posh downtown bistro, The Caucus Room, along with a flock of Republican notables, including Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and Fred Thompson, the 2008 GOP presidential also-ran and former headliner of TV's Law and Order. Also keeping reservations last night at the white-tablecloth eatery were former Labor Secretary Elaine Chao, who served eight years in President Bush's cabinet before becoming a fellow at the conservative Heritage Foundation, and singer, songwriter and producer John Rich.

New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin is calling on former residents displaced by Hurricane Katrina in 2005 to claim their old city addresses in next year's census, drawing criticism for trying to circumvent rules for winning federal funds. The mayor -- encouraged that New Orleans has thrown off its post-Katrina malaise to become the U.S.'s fastest-growing big city by percentage -- wants the U.S. Census Bureau to grant an exception for its former residents, currently living elsewhere, who want to rebuild homes in New Orleans. There's one problem: The mayor's plan is illegal, according to the Census Bureau. Federal law requires...

Aiming to maximize federal grant money and offer proof of his city's recovery, Mayor Ray Nagin is urging Hurricane Katrina victims still living elsewhere -- and longing to return -- to record New Orleans as their home when the U.S. Census Bureau conducts its decennial head count next spring. Problem is, that strategy doesn't mesh with census rules, federal officials say. In an e-mail response to questions about the much-anticipated count, Nagin spokesman James Ross said this week: "An area of major concern relates to New Orleanians working to return here. Many are repairing their homes, and others are trying...

FBI agents have been in New Orleans City Hall since Friday collecting data from computer-network servers and backup tapes, according to a city official familiar with the investigation. Five federal agents have tied up the work of management information systems employees as they comb through the data stored on the servers. The agents are expected to be in City Hall all week, said the source, who wished to remain anonymous because the investigation has not been made public. The agents came bearing federal subpoenas seeking information and met with Chief Administrative Officer Brenda Hatfield, the source said. City spokeswoman Ceeon...

NEW ORLEANS -- Mayor Ray Nagin described his experience being quarantined in China amid fears of swine flu exposure as "very surreal" in an interview with WDSU on Wednesday night.

New Orleans, LA (AHN) - Reports are stemming from local New Orleans media that Mayor C. Ray Nagin is being quarantined in Shanghai after possibly being exposed to the H1N1 virus on his business trip in China. Nagin administration spokeswoman Ceeon D. Quiett said Nagin is being treated with the "utmost courtesy by Chinese officials." According to the Mayor's website, the purpose of the trip was to "meet with four prospects interested in the possibility of locating their businesses in New Orleans."The website also notes that Nagin is expected to travel to Sydney, Australia, "where he will be the keynote...

NEW ORLEANS -- New Orleans Mayor C. Ray Nagin, who traveled on Friday to Shanghai, China, on an economic development trip, was informed early Sunday that a passenger on the airplane in which he was traveling was confirmed to have signs and symptoms of an influenza-like illness, suspected to be of the H1N1 -- or swine flu -- subtype. As a precaution, Nagin, his wife and one member of the mayor's executive protection unit have been placed in a designated quarantine location in Shanghai. The mayor's agenda is on indefinite hold, though he and the others are symptom-free. "Right now,...

Mayor Ray Nagin, who traveled to China on an economic development trip, flew on a plane that carried a passenger being treated for symptoms suspected to be from the virus, commonly known as the swine flu virus, the mayor's office said in a statement. Nagin, his wife and a member of his security detail have been quarantined in Shanghai, China, though all three are symptom free, the statement said. "The mayor is being treated with utmost courtesy by Chinese officials," the statement said. Ceeon Quiett, the mayor's director of communications, told CNN that Nagin had been sitting beside a passenger...

NEW ORLEANS (AP) - New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin and his wife have been placed in quarantine after a passenger on their flight to China exhibited flu-like symptoms. Nagin's press office said a passenger had "signs and symptoms of an influence-like illness suspected to be of the H1N1 subtype." This comes amid continued global concerns about swine flu. The office said Sunday the couple and a security guard were placed under quarantine in Shanghai as a precaution and were exhibiting no symptoms.

New Orleans is once again the nation's murder capital after briefly losing the title. Fresh FBI statistics show that with 64 killings per 100,000 people in 2008, New Orleans had the highest per capita murder rate in the nation, well ahead of second-place St. Louis, which had 47 murders per 100,000 people.

As Mayor C. Ray Nagin approaches his final year in office, he faces scandal, an acrimonious stalemate with the City Council and the worst popularity ratings ever recorded for a mayor here. Term limits will keep him from running again, so Mr. Nagin’s eight tumultuous years of leading what he called a “chocolate city” will come to an end next May. He has not been popular among middle-class white voters since the chaotic days after Hurricane Katrina in 2005, but now, with the city still in a halting recovery more than three and a half years later, residents citywide seem...

Did a search and didn't find this. Chocolate City Mayor Ray Nagin's home in Frisco,Texas is being auctioned to satisfy a $1500 HOA lien. This is an upscale townhome development in Frisco, a Northern Dallas suburb. Remember the Nagin's moved there after Katrina because New Orleans was too messy for them? The documents are .pdf and I don't know how to copy them to FR. The first one is a list of several notices, scroll down to page 6 to see Nagin's. The second one is the lien. Not a legal scholar so correct me if I've misinterpreted the documents....

Throughout the week, police detectives and on-edge residents were looking for a man impersonating a police officer who burglarized and threatened residents in three home invasions, forcing some of them to strip. On Friday morning, New Orleans police announced they had found their man, and it turns out he wasn't an impostor. Rather, he is a rogue rookie cop who used his badge while off-duty to victimize Hispanic men and women in the Mid-City area, authorities said.Darrius Clipps, 36, a patrolman of almost one year, appeared for work as scheduled Thursday evening, showing up at roll call for his night...

President Obama’s honeymoon is beginning to fade. Members of Congress and old political hands say he needs to show substantial progress reviving the economy soon. Some Democrats have started to worry that voters don’t and won’t understand the link between economic revival and Obama’s huge agenda, which includes saving the banking industry, ending home foreclosures, reforming healthcare and developing a national energy policy, among much else. While lawmakers debate controversial proposals contained in the new president’s debut budget — cutting farm subsidies, raising taxes on charitable contributions, etc. — there is a growing sense that time is running out faster...

In discussing Hurricane Katrina, people never tire of maintaining there was “enough blame to go around.” Every sensitive American knows to cite “the failure of local, state, and federal governments to respond more effectively.” Which means, in real terms, that New Orleans’ mayor, Ray Nagin, should have gotten citizens out of the city and kept police in; Louisiana’s governor, Kathleen Blanco should have immediately asked for National Guard troops; and President Bush should have . . . not been photographed looking out of an airplane window? There’s a story today highlighting that the federal government not only saved the day...

WASHINGTON (AP) — FEMA is investigating allegations of cronyism and other misconduct at its hurricane recovery office in New Orleans.

The decision by Mayor Ray Nagin's administration to delete virtually every e-mail sent and received by Nagin last year was not only an apparent violation of the state public-records law, it also flies in the face of a detailed policy recommendation prepared less than a year ago by the mayor's own technology office.

Baton Rouge, LA (AHN) - Rising Republican star and Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal said he may not be interested in all of the estimated $4 billion allotted to his state in Obama's recently signed economic stimulus package. Speaking to WWLTV, the staunchly conservative Jindal, said, "We'll have to review each program, each new dollar to make sure that we understand what are the conditions, what are the strings and see whether it's beneficial for Louisiana to use those dollars." Although Louisiana faces a possible $2 billion budget shortfall next year and has been allocated $538,575,876 for infrastructure spending in the...

Classy.

One can’t reflect upon the recent changing of the guard in Washington, without recalling the previous one. And in this instance, one can’t judge the previous guard without bringing up Hurricane Katrina.

The political tug-of-war over New Orleans' 2009 budget continued Monday as Mayor Ray Nagin announced he will make cuts in the level of sanitation services in the French Quarter next week despite steps taken by the City Council to preserve the "Disneylike" cleaning that has won raves from locals and visitors since it debuted two years ago. To head off what he said would be a $7.5 million budget shortfall, Nagin said he has ordered SDT Waste & Debris Services to stop providing mechanical street and sidewalk sweeping and flushing in the city's premier tourist district beginning Feb. 1. At...

Republican leaders are crying foul over a New Orleans official's e-mail to city workers that encourages them to participate in a Democratic campaign event. A City Hall representative said all of that is true and the city is doing nothing wrong. Outside New Orleans City Hall, the signs are up to inform people about where to go for early voting. Anticipating a high voter turnout, state Democratic Party leaders are holding a statewide bus tour trying to rally support for Democratic presidential nominee Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill. "Sen. Obama will bring the change we need to Louisiana," an e-mail sent...

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — The National Rifle Association and the city of New Orleans have agreed to settle a lawsuit over the seizure of firearms by police officers in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. A court filing Tuesday says the NRA and Second Amendment Foundation will drop the case if the city follows a plan for returning guns to owners who had them confiscated by police after the 2005 hurricane.

Excerpt - Even as residents who fled the city ahead of Hurricane Gustav continued to return, Mayor Ray Nagin said Saturday that it appeared the city would need to start worrying about Hurricane Ike. Hurricane Ike grew to Category 4 strength Saturday and could head into the Gulf of Mexico by early next week, putting residents along the Gulf Coast on alert less than a week after Gustav made landfall in south Louisiana. Nagin told reporters he's worried about fast-moving Ike and about the wherewithal of residents who one week ago began leaving ahead of Gustav. Reactions of residents who've...

Nagin said Sunday that New Orleans will impose a "dusk-to-dawn" curfew and will cease efforts to help people leave the city Sunday afternoon. The city-wide curfew will continue until the threat of the storm passes, Nagin said, warning that looters would be dealt with harshly. "Anybody who's caught looting in the city of New Orleans will go directly to Angola [Louisiana State Penitentiary]. You will not have a temporary stay in the city. You go directly to the big house, in general population," he said.

NEW ORLEANS -- Residents who try to ride out Hurricane Gustav will be making the biggest mistake of their lives, New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin warned on Saturday. Nagin Warns Of 'Storm Of Century'! Video "You need to be scared. You need to be concerned. You need to get your butts out of New Orleans. This is the storm of the century," Nagin said. Mandatory evacuations have been ordered for Westbank starting at 8 a.m. Sunday, and mandatory evacuations of the Eastbank will begin at noon. "Riding it out would be the biggest mistake you could make in your life,"...

NEW ORLEANS -- Spooked by predictions that Hurricane Gustav could grow into a Category 5 monster, an estimated 1 million people fled the Gulf Coast Saturday _ even before the official order came for New Orleans residents to get out of the way of a storm taking dead aim at Louisiana. Mayor Ray Nagin gave the mandatory order late Saturday, but all day residents took to buses, trains, planes and cars _ clogging roadways leading away from New Orleans, still reeling three years after Hurricane Katrina flooded 80 percent of the city and killed about 1,600 across the region. The...

NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana (CNN) -- New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin ordered a mandatory evacuation of the city beginning 8 a.m. Sunday morning but urged residents to consider escaping "the mother of all storms" before then. New Orleans residents leave Friday via Interstate 10 westbound ahead of Hurricane Gustav. 1 of 3 more photos » "You need to be scared," Nagin said. "You need to be concerned and you need to get your butts moving out of New Orleans right now. This is the storm of the century."

BOARDMAN, Ohio — Barack Obama expressed hope Saturday that the lessons learned from Hurricane Katrina three years ago would help to protect the Gulf Coast from Hurricane Gustav this time. His running mate, Joe Biden, urged people to pray that the levees in New Orleans hold. Obama and Biden visited a diner in this Youngstown suburb, an area that Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton carried during her failed presidential bid. Trying to connect with those who are economically struggling, the Democratic candidates and their wives chatted with diners and told reporters that a properly orchestrated evacuation would be key to protecting...

U. of C. shunning poor patients? HOSPITAL DISPUTE | Obama's wife, 3 aides tied to plan to free up space BY TIM NOVAK AND CHRIS FUSCO Staff Reporters August 23, 2008http://www.suntimes.com/news/politics/obama/1122691,CST-NWS-hosp23.article Sen. Barack Obama's wife and three close advisers have been involved with a program at the University of Chicago Medical Center that steers patients who don't have private insurance -- primarily poor, black people -- to other health care facilities... Obama's top political strategist, David Axelrod, co-owns the firm, ASK Public Strategies, that was hired by the hospital last year to sell the program -- called the Urban Health...

Nagin Returns To New Orleans Due To GustavWritten by: BayouBuzz Staff NEW ORLEANS, LA (August 27, 2008) - New Orleans Mayor C. Ray Nagin, who was a key speaker this morning for the Oregon, Washington and Minnesota delegations at the Democratic National Convention, has decided to return to New Orleans immediately to closely monitor Hurricane Gustav. Gustav, which has hit the southwest coast of Haiti and is threatening Cuba, appears to be on a likely course toward the U.S. Gulf region. The area, which will mark its third anniversary of the devastation of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita on August 29,...

New Orleans has a far greater proportion of vacant homes than any other city in the country, due in large part to a lagging recovery in about a third of the neighborhoods that were badly damaged by Hurricane Katrina, new analyses show. The nonprofit Greater New Orleans Community Data Center released two reports Thursday, one of which used U.S. Postal Service data compiled in March to compare New Orleans with seven other American cities that have large inventories of blighted or vacant housing. When it comes to abandoned homes, New Orleans is in a class by itself, the report indicated,...

Federal investigators this morning began examining documents in the Poydras Street offices of the shuttered New Orleans Affordable Homeownership Corporation, a nonprofit supervised and financed by Mayor Ray Nagin's administration that ran a home remediation program in 2006 and 2007. Officials arriving just before 10 a.m. at NOAH offices near City Hall, on the 10th floor of an office building at 1340 Poydras Street, declined to speak in detail to a reporter, as one of them said simply that "we're guests" at the offices. But they appeared to be carrying out a subpoena issued last week as part of a...

Mayor Ray Nagin told the City Council this morning that the city has found 90 properties where storm remediation work that was supposed to be conducted by taxpayer-financed contractors was not done. Nagin said his staff visited all 870 properties enrolled in a now-defunct home remediation program run by the nonprofit New Orleans Affordable Homeownership Corp. Of the 90 properties where "discrepancies" were found, contractors involved with the program billed the city for work on 46. The city has notified those contractors of the problems and asked for reimbursement or documentation of work, Nagin said. While Nagin acknowledged that his...

After an investigation by Eyewitness News on New Orleans Affordable Homeownership program -- NOAH -- Mayor Nagin held a press conference in response, calling the story “biased and inaccurate” and saying that the story is hurting the recovery effort. On Tuesday, one by one, the Nagin administration discounted a 4 Investigates report from the previous night that highlighted properties NOAH had claimed to remediate more than a year after Hurricane Katrina. The investigation which aired Monday evening used three separate sets of documents obtained in records requests from NOAH that showed properties that didn't appear to qualify for the program....

Mayor Ray Nagin's top aides have charged more than $150,000 to a taxpayer-financed city credit card account over six months, from September to February, most of it on travel, hotels and meals in some of the city's finest eateries. Among the more eye-popping tabs were $3,897 at Morton's Steakhouse in January and $2,800 at the Ray's Over the River nightclub, the most recent city records available show. Both charges were at events intended to foster better relations among the Orleans Parish legislative delegation, the City Council and the Nagin administration, said city communications director Ceeon Quiett, who signed for both...

NEW ORLEANS — Josue Vega was one of thousands of immigrant workers who flocked to New Orleans in 2005 in hopes of finding a rebuilding job in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. He worked seven days a week and earned more than twice his normal earnings. But with work now down to three days a week, the 20-year-old is planning to go home to Honduras. "My goal is to be here until November, and then never come back," he said. "I've had enough." The stops and starts of the post-Katrina rebuilding effort, often due to bureaucratic delays in funding, still...

WASHINGTON - New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin endorsed Barack Obama for president today, giving the Illinois Democrat another superdelegate in his battle for the Democratic nomination. "Since the immediate days following the storm, I have been traveling to our nation's capitol to advocate for policies that aid our rebuilding effort," Nagin said in a statement released by the Obama campaign. "I know first hand, we desperately need the leadership of someone committed to changing the system in Washington that can hold us back from moving forward." Obama said he shares Nagin's commitment to "renewing the great city of New Orleans."...

In a statement released early this morning, presumptive Democratic Party nominee Senator Barack Obama, (D-Ill) speculated Mayor Ray Nagin of New Orleans would be a "Spectacular" choice for FEMA director. Said a spokesperson, "In light of the hurricane disasters caused by global warming and the Bush administrations inability to cope with the devastating effects, we feel in a Democratic Party regime Mayor Ray Nagin would be a spectacular choice to head the federal emergency team. His prolific actions during the evacuation of New Orleans during the Katrina catastrophe saved thousands of lives and serves as a model for the rest...

Nagin Picked As Superdelegate Hasn't said if he will support Obama or Clinton Saturday, May 3, 2008 New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin has been elected a superdelegate to the Democratic Party's presidential nominating convention. The state party's central committee picked Nagin over four other candidates, including Lieutenant Governor Mitch Landrieu, who unsuccessfully challenged Nagin for mayor in 2006. Nagin won 83 votes in voting Saturday, Jerry McKernan of Baton Rouge had 50 and Landrieu had 28. Nagin is one of 11 Louisiana superdelegates who will go to the convention and do not need to pledge their support to a candidate...

Ray Nagin welcomes "V-Day" Founder, Eve Ensler to cityNew Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin says he is "a vagina-friendly Mayor." Nagin made the remark while welcoming the author of the Vagina Monlogues, Eve Ensler to the city to promote the "V-Day" celebration in New Orleans next month. Scheduled to appear during 2 days of educational, cultural and entertainment events at the New Orleans Arena and Louisiana Superdome, are Oprah Winfrey, Jane Fonda, Glenn Close, Salma Hayek, Sally Field, Christina Lahti and Faith Hill. Ensler says they will celebrate V-Day's 10 years of ending violence in the world. Mayor Nagin began his...

Ray Nagin welcomes "V-Day" Founder, Eve Ensler to city Friday, March 7, 2008 New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin says he is "a vagina-friendly Mayor." Nagin made the remark while welcoming the author of the Vagina Monlogues, Eve Ensler to the city to promote the "V-Day" celebration in New Orleans next month.Scheduled to appear during 2 days of educational, cultural and entertainment events at the New Orleans Arena and Louisiana Superdome, are Oprah Winfrey, Jane Fonda, Glenn Close, Salma Hayek, Sally Field, Christina Lahti and Faith Hill. Ensler says they will celebrate V-Day's 10 years of ending violence in the world....

Nagin is upset, again

Remember when the residents of New Orleans had their guns unlawfully taken from them following Hurricane Katrina? Here’s a picture of the Mayor of New Orleans, the Willie Wonka of Louisiana himself, Ray Nagin. Get creative and caption the photo.

New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin and Police Superintendent Warren Riley on Tuesday used the floor of the Superdome to display more than $1 million in new armament and other equipment, largely for use by the SWAT squad in emergency and riot situations, including a fully equipped mobile command post, two armored cars and modern assault rifles.

New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin recently pronounced himself "disgusted" with apathy among city residents, saying it was "unacceptable" that only about a quarter of registered voters bothered to cast a ballot in the Oct. 20 primary. Turns out the mayor himself has skipped a few elections, according to state records. Nagin did not vote in the October primary, or in two citywide elections in March and May, according to Secretary of State Jay Dardenne's office. Turnout in the Oct. 20 primary -- when Nagin could have had a say in electing key officials he would work with, including the governor,...