Free Republic

Attempts to locate a statement or press release from Senator John McCain concerning Climategate have, so far, met with negative results. Senator McCain’s website indicates that his most recent press release (Oct 19) was a joint statement issued with Senator Russ Feingold (D.WI) that begins: "A day after a U.S. District Court Judge ruled that the Army Corps of Engineers displayed 'gross negligence' that contributed to the breaching of the levees in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, U.S. Senators Russ Feingold (D-WI) and John McCain (R-AZ), who have led efforts to reform the Army Corps of Engineers, released the following...

Note: The following text is a quote: Jury Convicts Defense Department Official of Unlawful Communication of Classified Information and Making False Statements James Wilbur Fondren Jr., was convicted by a federal jury today on charges involving providing classified information to a man working with the People’s Republic of China (PRC) and lying to the FBI about it. Fondren was convicted of one count of unlawfully communicating classified information to an agent of a foreign government and two counts of making false statements to the FBI. He was acquitted of two unlawful communication of classified information, one count of conspiracy to...

Almost nine months into 2009, at least 219 New Orleanians have attempted to take their own lives; 47 of them have succeeded. The number and rate of suicides is higher than in previous years and approaches twice the national rate.

ACORN, a social justice organization with roots in [New Orleans], battles a string of scandals. The announcement stuck to a wall outside the entrance to ACORN's local office in the 2600 block of Canal Street quietly signals the trouble afoot. In English and Spanish, the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now tells walk-up clients that ACORN's housing office has shut itself down for two weeks to immerse itself "in an intensive training program." The sign is a symptom of a tumultuous week in the history of a controversial poor people's social justice movement -- one founded by a New...

A Florida contractor hired by the Housing Authority of New Orleans to oversee its finances embezzled more than $900,000 during the past three years, according to charges filed Monday by the U.S. attorney's office. Separate public records show that during the same time period the fiscal manager, Elias Castellanos, 43, bought a $1.6 million mansion in Davie, Fla., just north of Miami, and five late-model cars -- including a Lamborghini Gallardo worth more than $200,000, a Ferrari F430, a Porsche 911 and two Mercedes-Benzes. Federal prosecutors charged Castellanos with one count of embezzlement Monday through a bill of information, indicating...

President Barack Obama said his administration remains focused on rebuilding New Orleans and the Gulf Coast, that anything less "would be a betrayal of who we are as a country, " and that he plans to visit New Orleans by the end of the year. "Well, keep in mind I've been in New Orleans multiple times, and I intend to be back in New Orleans before the year is out because I want to see first-hand where progress is being made, and where it is not, " Obama said.

Brad Pitt hasn’t thrown his hat in the ring to be mayor of his adopted hometown, New Orleans. Others have done that for him, launching a grassroots campaign complete with nifty T-shirts touting "Brad Pitt for Mayor" But he's more than willing to serve, the actor told TODAY's Ann Curry with a self-deprecating laugh. "If chosen, would you run?" Curry asked in the prerecorded interview that ran Thursday. "Yeah," Pitt said. "Would you serve?" "Yeah. I'm running on the gay marriage, no religion, legalization and taxation of marijuana platform," he joked.

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...

The Vatican for the first time in the city's history today appointed a New Orleans native to head the Catholic church here, naming Bishop Gregory Aymond of Austin, Texas the 14th archbishop of New Orleans. He will replace Archbishop Alfred Hughes, who retires after seven of the most tumultuous years in the 216-year history of the New Orleans church. Aymond, 59, grew up in Gentilly and spent his entire career in New Orleans until his departure for Texas nine years ago. The Archdiocese of New Orleans said Aymond would take office after an installation Mass Aug. 20. The church was...

Oh and get this one: When I was at ORD (Chicago O’hara) waiting for D----- to clear Immigration we were overrun by a very pushy, b******y demanding lady who had on a t-shirt which said she was with a REFUGEE NGO – who would even approach me and tell me that I was standing in the wrong place – (she was irritating the kind Customs Police and making them crazy) In any event all of the IRAQ REFUGEES which she was HERDING AROUND ( I use this term do to their total lack of English Skills and the large numbers...

The French have an odd notion of boycotts. My good friend Scott Johnson at Power Line discovers this video of a “boycott” action in France organized, apparently, by Europalestine.com, or at least publicized by them. Take a look at the uniformed thuggery that takes place in a French grocery store: [video at link] Boycotts are perfectly legitimate free-market forms of protest — but this isn’t a boycott at all. A boycott is an organized effort to stop buying products or services from some offending source. This is an organized theft ring and nothing more. Unless they’re paying for those groceries,...

A Metairie resident is recovering after a stranger bit a chunk of flesh out of his arm and swallowed it Saturday afternoon. Joseph Lancellotti, 67, told authorities he did not know the suspect, later identified as Mario Vargas, 48, or why he was attacked in his front yard. Lancellotti was gardening at his home in the 4400 block of Kawanee Avenue about 2 p.m. when he noticed a man walking toward his house, shouting angrily, the report said. Lancellotti said he couldn't understand the man because he was yelling in Spanish. But when the man got within two feet, he...

BATON ROUGE -- One out of every 55 Louisiana residents is behind bars, a higher incarceration rate than any other state, according to research released today by a Washington, D.C., nonprofit group. One in 26 Louisiana adults is under correctional control, if probation and parole are included, the group found. The Pew Center for the States study of 2007 U.S. Census data found that Louisiana's incarceration rate spiked by 272 percent since 1982. That rate of increase is far from the nation's highest of 357 percent in North Dakota, and not far from Mississippi's 256 percent increase. Neighbor states Texas...

A man reported to have been kidnapped in Jefferson Parish last night and was being held in a house nearby on Majestic Place in Algiers. He struggled with one of his two kidnappers and shot the man, who ran and later died at the house on Pacifiic.

NEW ORLEANS – A Mardi Gras parade erupted into chaos on Fat Tuesday when a series of gunshots struck seven people, including a toddler. The child was not seriously injured and two suspects were in custody, police said. The shootings happened near the Garden District about 1:40 p.m. after the last major parade of the celebration, Rex, had ended. A stream of truck floats that follow the parade were passing by when gunfire broke out. "It sounded like a string of fireworks, so I knew it was more than one shooter," said Toni Labat, 29, a limousine company manager. She...

NEW ORLEANS – A Mardi Gras parade erupted into chaos on Fat Tuesday when a series of gunshots struck six people, including an infant. The infant was not seriously injured and two suspects were in custody, police said. The shootings happened near the Garden District about 1:40 p.m. after the last major parade of the celebration, Rex, had ended. Hundreds of truck floats that follow the parade were passing when gunfire broke out.

Toddler among seven people gunned down as New New Orleans Mardi Gras parade descends into violence Seven people were gunned down in a hail of bullets as a New Orleans Mardi Gras parade descended into violence. Witnesses described scenes of chaos in the Garden District as people ran for cover. One of the victims was seen dragging himself along the ground, screaming for help. Police said the people who were shot were a 20-month-old toddler, three men aged 50, 33 and 20, two women 20 and 17 and a 15-year-old boy. Wounded: People help one of the victims who was...

NEW ORLEANS — They are the men still rebuilding New Orleans more than three years after Hurricane Katrina, the head-down laborers from Honduras, Mexico and Guatemala who work on the blazing hot roofs and inside the fetid homes for a wad of cash at the end of the day. But on the street, these laborers are known as “walking A.T.M.’s.” Their pockets stuffed with bills, the laborers are vulnerable because of language problems and their status as illegal immigrants. And as Hispanics have become the prey of choice in crumbling neighborhoods here in one of America’s most crime-ridden cities, racial...

(HOUSTON) - Linda L. Johnson, 27, of New Orleans, La., has pleaded guilty to making false statements to obtain FEMA disaster assistance benefits following Hurricane Katrina, acting United States Attorney Tim Johnson announced today. Johnson pleaded guilty at a hearing on Feb. 10, 2009 , before United States District Judge Nancy Atlas. Sentencing has been set for April 27, 2009. Johnson altered an Entergy utility bill as proof she resided at a residence on Metropolitan Street in New Orleans, the address she listed as her primary residence in her claim for Hurricane Katrina disaster assistance, when in fact she did...

Francisco Galicia had to laugh when he noticed that his city tax bill this year included a new line item: $200 for enhanced police protection. In the past 13 months, Galicia has been burglarized five times, each crime dealing a fresh blow to the longtime New Orleans resident's ambition to restore his flooded rental property on South Gayoso Street in Mid-City. He has invested more than half of an $85,000 loan in the property, hoping to turn a profit and pay off Hurricane Katrina-related repairs to his primary residence on Banks Street. But 20 months in, his South Gayoso home...

Kirsten Brydum pedaled away from the Howlin' Wolf club into the darkness of another American city that she didn't know very well. It was 1:30 a.m. She rode a black cruiser bicycle with a basket on the back, borrowed from friends of friends. In nearly every city she had visited on her 2-month-road trip, it seemed someone was willing to lend her an old bike. The Rebirth Brass Band was on the bill that night. Brydum, 25, had danced for a while outside the club in her flip-flops. She thought that the bouncer would eventually let her in for free,...

About half of last year's 179 murders in New Orleans occurred in daylight, with spikes at the lunch and dinner hours, a fact that officials and experts say underscores the brazen nature of the slayings -- and may indicate that many are executions. Ninety people were murdered between 6 a.m. and 8 p.m., with 19 of them killed between noon and 1 p.m. -- more than any other hour of the day -- and 16 killed between 5 and 6 p.m.District Attorney Leon Cannizzaro said the daylight killings speak to a pervasive lack of respect for the justice system. "They...

http://www.maroonspoon.com/wx/gustav.html Live coverage...levee is failing 350 feet of wall falling apart as we speak...

An Open Letter to God, from Michael Moore Dear God, The other night, James Dobson's ministry asked all believers to pray for a storm on Thursday night so that the Obama acceptance speech outdoors in Denver would have to be canceled. I see that You have answered Dr. Dobson's prayers -- except the storm You have sent to earth is not over Denver, but on its way to New Orleans! In fact, You have scheduled it to hit Louisiana at exactly the moment that George W. Bush is to deliver his speech at the Republican National Convention. Now, heavenly Father,...

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...

On a plane from Denver to Charlotte following the Democrats' convention, I found myself seated behind former National Chairman of the Democratic National Committee Don Fowler and Congressman John Spratt of South Carolina. Their conversation was interesting to say the least. For example, they made fun of Sarah Palin for several minutes, Fowler calling her "Dan Quayle" on steroids and Spratt creatively describing her as "just terrible." They both agreed that, "Other than the simple fact that she's a female," she has nothing to offer. Then there was this gem of a moment from Fowler: VIDEO So you see, it's...

NEW ORLEANS -- Louisiana officials and residents cast a wary eye on the Caribbean Sea as Tropical Storm Gustav strengthened into a Category 1 hurricane. Track The Hurricane At 11 a.m., the center of Gustav was located near latitude 17.9 north, longitude 72.4 west, or about 50 miles south of Port au Prince, Haiti. Gustav is moving toward the northwest at 9 mph. A gradual turn to the west-northwest and a decrease in forward speed is expected later on Tuesday, forecasters at the National Hurricane Center in Miami said. Maximum sustained winds have increased to near 90 mph, with higher...

Here is video of police seizing guns from citizens of New Orleans after Katrina. While looters ran wild, cops were seizing guns from law abiding citizens. This video is unbelievable and really must be seen.

Hurdles of language, mistrust addressed: A burgeoning Hispanic population has helped rebuild New Orleans during the past two and a half years. Now officials are coming to grips with the challenge of moving and finding safe refuge for that population should another hurricane threaten. Since Hurricane Katrina, as many as 14,000 Hispanic immigrants have arrived in New Orleans to provide muscle and skills for the recovery effort. Now civic groups as well as government officials say overcoming cultural and language barriers between emergency officials and Spanish speakers -- especially the undocumented -- has taken on new urgency.

Despite more than $22 million in repairs, a levee that broke with catastrophic effect during Hurricane Katrina is leaking again because of the mushy ground on which New Orleans was built, raising serious questions about the reliability of the city's flood defenses. Outside engineering experts who have studied the project told The Associated Press that the type of seepage spotted at the 17th Street Canal in the Lakeview neighborhood afflicts other New Orleans levees, too, and could cause some of them to collapse during a storm. The Army Corps of Engineers has spent about $4 billion so far of the...

NEW ORLEANS (AP) - This hurricane-ravaged city and neighboring St. Bernard Parish top a U.S. Census Bureau list of fast-growing counties released Thursday, but some local officials aren't happy that the agency estimated New Orleans' population to be less than 240,000. The number, an estimate for July 2007, falls more than 30,000 short of at least one other estimate, and efforts based on more recent data had New Orleans topping 300,000 people. The city's population was nearly 454,000 in July 2005, the month before Hurricane Katrina hit and scattered hundreds of thousands of people along the hurricane-ravaged Gulf Coast. City...

"Former U.S. President Bill Clinton and actor Brad Pitt laugh with community members during a groundbreaking ceremony for Pitt's "Make it Right" house construction project in the Lower Ninth Ward of New Orleans."

Driving down to Austin lately has become a real trip. I-35 is usually packed for most of the 185 miles, and what used to take three or four hours now can take five or six. Flying down can take almost as long, when you figure in airline security delays, more flight delays, and the time it takes getting into and out of crowded airports. But what if it took 45 minutes to travel from the Metroplex to Austin by train or an hour to make a trip to Houston? Advocates of high-speed rail lines are floating these ideas once again...

New Mississippi delta would limit hurricane damage 13:20 18 February 2008 NewScientist.com news service Phil McKenna The proposed diversion would create up to 1000 square kilometres of new delta by 2100 (Image: Science) Diverting parts of the Mississippi would create up to 1000 square kilometres of new wetlands between New Orleans, Louisiana and the Gulf of Mexico, forming a vital storm surge buffer against hurricanes, researchers say. The formation of new delta lands could also help stem ongoing coastal erosion without disrupting important shipping traffic. "The scientific and engineering barriers are easily overcome," says Gary Parker, a geologist and engineer...

A Florida teen-ager and two 24-year-old women -- one from New Orleans and the other from Galveston, Texas -- were hit by gunfire about 1 a.m. this morning in the French Quarter, police said.

I can't find the video of Patricia Konie being slammed to the floor and dragged out of her home after Katrina. Does anyone have a link?

Did Mayor Take Aim At Chief? POSTED: 10:28 am CST February 14, 2008 UPDATED: 1:53 pm CST February 14, 2008 NEW ORLEANS -- A firestorm of controversy ensued after Mayor Ray Nagin, sporting a broad smile, seemed to aim an assault rifle at Police Superintendent Warren Riley in a Times-Picayune newspaper photo. Watch The Story | Poll: Did He Do It On Purpose? The photograph has pervaded talk radio and cyberspace, creating blog chatter and a forum for public opinion. Many pundits, bloggers and forum-posters took aim at the mayor. The shot was taken at a public unveiling of new...

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.

Aerial photo of the disappearing wetlands of south Louisiana. Credit: Roy Dokka, Louisiana State University A study by NASA and Louisiana State University scientists finds that sediments deposited into the Mississippi River Delta thousands of years ago when North America's glaciers retreated are contributing to the ongoing sinking of Louisiana's coastline. The weight of these sediments is causing a large section of Earth's crust to sag at a rate of 0.1 to 0.8 centimeters (0.04 to 0.3 inches) a year. The sediments pose a particular challenge for New Orleans, causing it to sink irreversibly at a rate of about...

NEW ORLEANS — Thousands of people are looking for a place to live in this city. Many thousands of houses are vacant or for sale, and acres of land sit empty. But turning potential housing into inhabited homes is proving to be a major challenge, even for a city that survived the fury of Hurricane Katrina and the failure of the levees. For those who need shelter the most, these houses are out of reach. More than 8,800 houses are for sale in the New Orleans metropolitan area — almost as many as were sold in the last 12 months,...

<p>NEW ORLEANS -- The bloodiest city in the country in 2006, reeling from crime in its struggle to recover from Hurricane Katrina, got even worse in 2007.</p> <p>New Orleans registered 209 homicides last year, a nearly 30 percent increase from the 161 recorded in 2006.</p>

NEW ORLEANS - Fed up with crime and political corruption, New Orleans' business leaders in 1952 organized to flush out the twin poisons they believed were harming economic development. It was a time when illegal gambling and the Carlos Marcello crime family operated openly in a city that was a bustling business hub. Fast forward 55 years. Gambling is legal and the mob has faded into obscurity. The city's economy is a shadow of its former self, thanks to the 1980s oil bust, an exodus of big businesses and the shattering blow of Hurricane Katrina, which ran off at least...

NEW ORLEANS — The National Rifle Association has hired private investigators to find hundreds of people whose firearms were seized by city police in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, according to court papers filed this week. The NRA is trying to locate gun owners for a federal lawsuit that the lobbying group filed against Mayor Ray Nagin and Police Superintendent Warren Riley over the city's seizure of firearms after the Aug. 29, 2005, hurricane. In the lawsuit, the NRA and the Second Amendment Foundation claim the city violated gun owners' constitutional right to bear arms and left them "at the...

NEW ORLEANS (AP) - The National Rifle Association has hired private investigators to find hundreds of people whose firearms were seized by city police in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, according to court papers filed this week. The NRA is trying to locate gun owners for a federal lawsuit that the lobbying group filed against Mayor Ray Nagin and Police Superintendent Warren Riley over the city's seizure of firearms after the Aug. 29, 2005, hurricane. In the lawsuit, the NRA and the Second Amendment Foundation claim the city violated gun owners' constitutional right to bear arms and left them "at...

LAKE CHARLES, La. — With resignation, anger or stoicism, thousands of former New Orleanians forced out by Hurricane Katrina are settling in across the Gulf Coast, breaking their ties with the damaged city for which they still yearn. snip Now, they are adjusting to places where the pace is slower, restaurants are fewer, existence is centered on the home, and streets are lonely and deserted after 5 p.m., as in this city in southwest Louisiana. These exiles, still in semi-limbo and barely established in a routine, describe their new lives less in terms of what it now consists of than...

NEW ORLEANS - Dozens of Hurricane Katrina victims still living in Federal Emergency Management Agency trailer parks will have to find new housing by today, as the agency works to shutter the temporary facilities it set up after the 2005 storm.

On a cool, clear mid-October weekend six people were murdered in New Orleans. The killings brought the tally of the slain in the Crescent City this year to 163, above the total of 162 for the entirety of 2006. The following weekend three more people were murdered in New Orleans - on Saturday alone. With nearly two full months left in the year, it is looking like the homicide rate in New Orleans will substantially outpace 2006's near-record numbers, which themselves far eclipsed even gang-plagued, hopelessly violent cities like Compton, California. Indeed, with a murder rate of nearly 70 per...

Did you see any looters on television last week? Neither did I. When New Orleans was flooded two years ago, there were looters all over my TV screen. Men with assault rifles waded through the streets menacingly. At first, I thought I was looking at footage from Somalia, but I looked at the crawl underneath the images - it wasn’t Somalia; it was Louisiana. What about the rapists? There were rapists at the refugee camp formerly known as the Superdome, but did you see any reports about rapists at Qualcomm Stadium last week? I didn’t. Did the mayor of San...

NEW ORLEANS (AP) - Mayor Ray Nagin says the state could take over the New Orleans district attorney's office as early as Monday as the agency faces a multimillion-dollar civil judgment. A federal judge ruled this past week that district attorney office assets could be seized to pay off a $3.65 million judgment pending from a 2005 case in which dozens of white office workers successfully sued District Attorney Eddie Jordan for replacing them with black workers. Jordan is not personally responsible for the payment. And in an opinion released Friday, City Attorney Penya Moses-Fields concluded after reviewing state and...

Exerted.... "SAN DIEGO — Like Hurricane Katrina evacuees two years earlier in New Orleans, thousands of people rousted by natural disaster fled to the NFL stadium here, waiting out the calamity and worrying about their homes. The similarities ended there, as an almost festive atmosphere reigned at Qualcomm Stadium." "Bands belted out rock 'n' roll, lavish buffets served gourmet entrees, and massage therapists helped relieve the stress for those forced to flee their homes because of wildfires." "At Qualcomm, thousands of tents, many set up by relief organizations, provided temporary roofs, while hundreds of people slept on open-air cots. Some...