You are welcome.
http://www.daily-report.com
ARRGHH! "synchronize key traffic lights" "fix all our ills"----they have had the money for this and should have synchronized the traffic lights years ago. Why should fed money be used to fix pre- Katrina problems that BR had the money to fix but instead spent it on other things?
FEMA preparing temporary housing; Fed money could fix lingering problems in B.R.
Federal officials are negotiating with undisclosed private owners in the region for land to build trailer parks for displaced hurricane victims. At a city-parish update this morning, Chief Administrative Officer Walter Monsour said a more detailed plan to relocate evacuees from shelters to mobile homes could be available later this week. Monsour said FEMA is in talks to buy or lease property from landowners in East Baton Rouge, West Baton Rouge and Ascension parishes. Federal officials will move evacuees from the homes to permanent housing as it becomes available. FEMA and the city-parish are looking at existing places that could be occupied by refugees. Those locations include the shuttered Bellmont Hotel in North Baton Rouge.
Mayor Kip Holden and Monsour said the city-parish is addressing the increased traffic in town. The city-parish now estimates the parish population has grown by 225,000 to 240,000 residents. The federal government has provided $1 million to synchronize key traffic lights and the city-parish has met with the state Department of Transportation to fast-track road construction projects. Parish officials will ask the federal government for money to quickly improve the roads, and use the funding to work around-the-clock on projects. Monsour said the request also will be for all the other infrastructure needs of the parish. "This is an opportunity for Baton Rouge to fix all of its ills."
Budget office: Katrina to whack hundreds of thousands of jobs
Hurricane Katrina could eliminate up to 400,000 U.S. jobs, estimates the Congressional Budget Office in a report released this morning. The CBO said the storm could reduce U.S. economic growth by 1% in the second half of 2005. CBO said its estimates are rough, but the "evidence to date suggests that overall economic effects will be significant but not overwhelming." The budget office said employment in September will be decline by 150,000 to 500,000 jobs. "Employment will increase in subsequent months, as workers return home and businesses reopen and as reconstruction activity gathers steam," the CBO said.